In love with the moon.

find all the endings!

Paul sent me a pretty hilarious note last night:

So I read your article on Gamma Ray Bursts and it made me laugh cause over 10 years ago I was at some geeky science camp where we actually looked at old satellite data of gamma ray bursts. If you want a quick laugh I actually had to make a website about it. Unfortunately they won’t take it down and spare me the humiliation of my high school self being on the internet.

http://espg.sr.unh.edu/tof/Smart/Students/P_Novello/mainpage.html

Paul

Well done Paul. We at MikeDiDonato.com take joy in spreading your awkward high school pictures to the masses.

80’s hair-metal rockers Twisted Sister announce that they ‘are now going to take it.’

Check out the inside scoop here.

Whenever I’m wheeling a cart around the grocery store or the shop floor at work I am hard pressed not to kick off, jump on, and ride that cart for a few meters.

I hope I never grow out of this desire.

This past weekend was absurdly classful. Thursday night 6-9pm, Friday night 5:30-9:30, Saturday 8-5. Following those 16 hours of class I spent my Sunday breathing a bit.

Vibrations is that sneaky class that the University of New Haven surprisingly forced upon me. I attended on Thursday (having missed the first two classes) and quickly learned that we have a quiz next week. This will add to the mayhem of this first week of October.

I did get a little fun time this weekend. Saturday night I hung out with Darcy and Schuyler which is always fun. Darcy and I played scrabble. She won. Then we ate delicious foods.

Sunday, I hit up the climbing gym with Irene and also watched the first two episodes of Dexter - a showtime series about a serial killer who kills serial killers. It’s a pretty well put together television show. I approve.

Looking ahead, this week will be a bit more stressful than usual with the looming quiz on Thursday and a moderate sized presentation on Friday.

I’m going to have to get a big cup of coffee at work this morning.

Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) are celestial events that are overwhelmingly intense. As a star dies a couple things could happen. Two scenarios are Supernovas and GRBs. During these dying processes, the inner core of the star collapses into a black hole and the outer core of the star explodes. Occasionally the forces work in such a way that two beams of terrifying power fire out of the ex-sun. These are Gamma Ray Bursts.

What is ‘terrifying power’?

Well, for one, GRB’s are visible across the universe. That in itself is pretty intense, but the power of a GRB is absurd. If one hit us squarely, and we were close enough to it, it would tear our atmosphere to bits, boil all our oceans, and impose one million times the lethal dose of x-rays and gamma rays upon us.

Thankfully for us, there are two characteristics of Gamma Ray Bursts that make them dramatically less dangerous.

Firstly, the beams are narrow. Very Narrow. only .4 degrees. As soon as you escape the hallway of fire, you’re safe.

Secondly, they have to be close to hurt us: no further than 1000 light years away.

Well, on March 18th, 2008 we witnessed one. We were staring right down the throat of a GRB. Thankfully, it was 8000 light years away so we didn’t fry. But it’s scary that we were hit at all. The likelihood of that is just so slim. So what happened on the 18th of March? Some of our big satellites quickly noticed the event and told all the other satellites to check it out. That they did and we got all sorts of information about Gamma Ray Bursts. It was visible to the naked eye and stands as the single most luminous event ever witnessed by humankind.

To be wittnessed so far away GRB’s must released a lot of energy. According to Bad Astronomy* a GRB releases “as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun will over its entire 10 billion year lifetime.”

Dang.

So do we have anything to worry about? Not really… Although there is one star, WR 104, that is within the 1000 light-year radius. It appears to be of the right age to go supernova, but even if it did… not ever star that explodes emits a Gamma Ray Burst. Also, we’d have to be aligned with the star in order for their to be a problem. Unfortunately… we are aligned with the star - within 16 degrees (wikipedia). Now, 16 degrees is a wide range for a mere 0.4 degree beam of untold death - still though, a little too close for comfort.

Don’t lose sleep on it though, we’re not in any immediate risk. Though if you wake up tomorrow and the oceans are boiling, you can probably suspect that WR 104 is the culprit.

(with the exception of one WR 104… which, if you suddenly notice that the oceans are boiling… WR 104 is probably the culprit)

*that astronomy link is where I got most of the data for this post.

They’re awesome.

Video.

Last night I whipped up a little Kung Fu comic.

Check it out here.

I thought of this concept in the middle of my kung fu class on Wednesday. Sure enough, we have a door along the side wall of our workout space that is labeled just like that one. When the thought hit me, it really took some effort to keep myself from breaking out into crazy laughter in the middle of class.

(It should be noted, in real life the room is full of first aid supplies, extra uniforms, wood to break, and various folded chairs and tables to pull out if we need them.)

A couple weeks ago, Ben did a great job of explaining Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to us.

This episode of This American Life does a great job of explaining the greater “credit crisis” in excellent detail.

AWESOME.

Enjoy.

(video)

Here’s a video of Mandy, on the water. She was carving like crazy.

Mandy is doing Habitat for Humanity. If you’d like to help her out with a donation, click here.

I should name my firstborn son “Norman”

Meet Toby.

Toby is Tony and Paulette’s new puppy. He’s half lab and half collie (we think) and he’s pretty adorable.

Here he is having a snack:

And here he is just after he fell asleep on Tony’s boots.

Paulette got him for Tony for their one year wedding anniversary. Toby is six weeks old and seems to be pretty mild mannered. Tony and Paulette are now going through all the tasks to get the dog his shots and enough toys to keep him busy during the day but not so much to spoil him. I’m certain that they will raise a good little pup.

Congrats to Tony and Paulette on their new family member!

This weekend was peppered with multimedia. Firstly, you’ll note a new Kung Fu Party Trick in the feature section. It was definitely a fun one, and amazingly, we hit it on our first try. There will also be some wakeboarding photos and videos that may pop up this week as well as some adorable pictures of Tony and Paulette’s new puppy.

This week I’ll very likely start going back to school at the University of New Haven for those last pesky credits. This frustrating class will limit fun - most specifically my rock climbing. I signed back up at the rock gym last week with the expectation that I’d be able to devote two nights a week to the walls. Sadly, it looks like I’ll be pushed back to only one night a week. Weak.

I’m reading House of Leaves. It’s amazing in its individuality. Go find a library and pick it up. I want to talk to people about the book.

And his talk on our Queer universe on Ted.

Enjoy!

The time was right at Darcy’s party for a new Kung Fu Party Trick. This particular one has been in the planning for awhile: kick a marshmallow into a friend’s mouth.

Kung Fu Party Tricks: Volume 4. from mikedidonato on Vimeo.

Amazingly, we completed it on the first try. I’m stunned by this. Special thanks to Irene for throwing, Chris for catching, and Laura for camera-ing.

Also, props to Alicia for the sick Kung Fu fighting musical beats.

Try a 100 lb. (45 kg)  burger.

Just one item on the list of the World’s Top 10 Largest Things 2008, and where to find them.

It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Check out the fun here.

Been a while since you’ve sailed the seas pillaging for booty?  Check out these fantastic guidelines for how to talk like a pirate!

As this afternoon’s events transpired, I went from confused to miserable. I actually felt nauseous for a little bit. Not to the point of vomiting, but the anxious butterflies were definitely there and they were definitely breeding at exponential rates.

On August first I announced gleefully on this very website the completion of my mechanical engineering requirements. Nothing has changed. I still have all those requirements completed. Let’s drill down to make sure.

Requirements for a Mechanical Engineering Degree at the University of New Haven.
6 mandatory courses - Status: COMPLETE
Theory of Elasticity
Advanced Fluids
Advanced Thermodynamics
Advanced Dynamics
Numerical Methods
Mechanical Eng. Analysis

2 mechanical engineering course of our choice - Status: COMPLETE
Combustion
Heat Transfer

and 3 of anything - Status: COMPLETE
Independent Project: FEA analysis of Rock Climbing Carabiners
RPI TRANSFER: Statistics
RPI TRANSFER: Accounting

This adds up to a total of 33 credits. 27 in house, and 6 that I was able to transfer from RPI.

So I sent in my petition to graduate and was promptly informed that I did not meet the “residency” requirement of 30 credits and I need to take another class.

Wait.

What?

I did not meet the “residency” requirement of 30 credits and I need to take another class.

.

.

.

This is me shocked.
This is me facing 42 more hours of class time, 14 weeks of homework, 14 days without carpool, countless lost lunches, hours of cramming, two tests, a project, and another 2 months without a degree on my wall.
This is me depressed.

Heck yes.

from Darcy.

This is a color IQ test. It takes a little while, but the results are pretty interesting. Sadly, I got a bit fed up with the whole process and rushed at the end. I’d say it takes about 5-10 minutes.

You can view my results here.

After you’ve taken the test, please feel free to share your results.

Huge African American Male at ShopRite with sunglasses: Dude. Your hair is awesome.
Me: Thanks!
H.A.A.M.@SR.w/SG: Seriously. You’ve got it goin’ on.