Important Moon Update! Also, sports

For those of you who like to keep up on moons of Saturn and theories of why they look like the Death Star, this one's for you. Iapetus (wiki) is actually one of my pet subjects, so I love this stuff (indulgence alert, sorry if I told this one already).

In the book 2001, the monolith was found in the exact center of Iapetus's white half, not orbiting Jupiter. The location was changed for the movie because Voyager had recently flown by and taken breathtaking pictures that were appropriately used as a spectacular backdrop by Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest directors of all time. He was unsatisfied with the computer generated images of Saturn and its rings produced at the time (1968).

The article claims to have the explanation for one of Iapetus' odd qualities: the "impossibly" high equatorial ridge (I quote it because even though our current understanding of geology says a moon that massive would have flattened the ridge, it persists -- therefore it's not "impossible", we just can't explain it).

I notice that it doesn't address the other oddball qualities of Iapetus, such as the half white/half black color scheme, and the bizarre orbit. In the 17th century, Cassini wondered why he could see it sometimes and not other times. He theorized that it was half white, half black. His theory was proved true, hundreds of years later, by the Voyager probe.

While that's a mystery in its own right, I find the weird orbit most interesting. Most moons/planets orbit in the same plane. This follows from accretion theory. Big swirls of dust and whatnot eventually formed into planets/moons.

All the other moons of Saturn lie in the same plane as the rings. Iapetus is much further out and orbits 45 degrees (or so) off. Weird. Add to that the Death Star "trench" and "gun", and the half white/half black paint job, and you've got yourself an enigma.

No wonder Aurthur C. Clarke located his alien siren call there. People will debate the origins of Iapetus for a long time. It's too bad nothing was really resolved by the article. I'm sure the conspiracies and speculation will continue unabated.

One final tidbit about my favorite moon (if you read this far, it's your own fault): Carl Sagan saw some of the first pictures of Iapetus coming back from Voyager, and he noticed one with a black splotch in the center of the white part. Ooh! Spooky! He sent a copy to Arthur C. Clarke with the inscription "Thinking of you...".

Neat, huh? What, dorky you say? You just wish you knew as much about moons and science fiction to impress the ladies as I do.




I don't suppose I'll ever mention Carl Sagan without linking this vid. Good stuff.




In other randomness, here's a shot of Paris Hilton screwing by the pool.




And in some light-hearted reading, here's an article about the doomsday weapon the Soviet Union actually built (like the one depicted in Dr. Strangelove). Get me started on Kubrick, and this is what happens.




In sports, Michigan may be having a shitty season, but nevertheless, this highlight reel from the Michigan/Notre Dame game warms the cockles of my azure heart.

38-0, tied for worst loss in Notre Dame history. The other loss? Also dealt by mah boys in blue, in 2003.

Yes, it's sad when your season is reduced to humiliating other unranked rivalries, but such is life. It's best to just move on.




This guy defends the Patriots by saying basically, "everyone else does it". I dunno, but either way it's hard to not see their Super Bowl as tainted. He does make a good point though, that not many teams are making a fuss about it (only those that hold grudges or have a vested interest in seeing the Super Bowl go to the other team). I'm not up on the NFL, so I leave it to the gods to decide this one.

Either way, Brady to Moss is nearly unstoppable. My favorite QB paired up with my favorite receiver. I'm gonna love it anyway, scandal or no.



Ohio State was in town to play Udub this weekend. They won, no surprise there. Also not surprising was that the fans left another town with a poor showing. I heard from multiple sources how rude and belligerent they were, and these are the bartenders, not the Udub fans. Being a Wolverine I'm naturally biased, but this is the same story everywhere they go. Michigan fans have a rep for being cocky, but from what I hear from disinterested third parties, OSU fans are that much worse.