IAU -Rio de Janeiro

I had the opportunity to attend the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro last week. Rio is a great city although a bit too polluted for my comfort. My hotel room overlooked Copacabana and I really enjoyed waking to the sunrise over the beach. I went to the dinner at Pâo de Açucar which was a wonderful view at night. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera, so no pictures. I danced the Salsa and had Caipirinhas until late. I visited the Botanical Garden. Below is a picture of the fountain at the entrance and an orchid from the orchid house.





I went to the Christ the Redeemer statue at Corcovado and met a great guide who took us several places along the Corcovado mountain. Here is a picture of me holding the Christ!



We hired him to take us to the Tijuca Rain Forest, which I highly recommend. It was much better than the city, and we hiked up to Tijuca Peak which is a pretty steep climb. Here is a picture of me at the top. I highly recommend this guide. If you want his information, send me an email and I will give it to you. He speaks English, Spanish, and French (and of course Portuguese).


I am currently in the middle of completing my thesis, so I doubt I will have much time to post in the near future. I have a post-doc at UCLA with Ned Wright to work on the WISE mission. No more trips until after I start the new position. Tchau!

Is God a Mathematician?

Mario Livio gave a talk at CUA about his new book Is God a Mathematician? He is a really great speaker and the book is a page turner. Dr. Livio is an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (home of Hubble Space Telescope operations) and has published hundreds of papers. I just wanted to post some images that I took from the talk. They did not come out that well.





In this picture, he is discussing the notion of mathematics being an invention or discovered. He uses the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio as examples.

Long Beach

I went to the AAS in Long Beach, CA to give a dissertation presentation. Wow, that was stressful, but I got a lot of great feedback and questions. I presented my results for taking nearby galaxies and making them look as if they are much further away. This helps astronomers find out if distant galaxies have the same properties as nearby galaxies.

One plus side of my visit to Long Beach was the extra days I spent as a tourist. So I present here a few pictures....

You can actually see the Aquarium in the background of this beautiful ship in the sunset.

This fish (Bird Wrasse) at the Aquarium was showing off for me. I called him Dancer, because he was so showy and seemed to be dancing for me.

My mom and I went on a whale watching tour and saw some dolphins. I like the way this picture came out with the dolphin shimmering under the water. No whales though....

The Onion

This is the best Onion article. Ever.

Holiday Dinner '08

Well, this blog has come full circle. I started with a post of our holiday dinner last year and now I present this year's holiday dinner. Same restaurant, more people.... We took two tables. I don't have pictures of the remaining part of the night. We went dancing at the Black Cat, which had a DJ doing an 80's mix. He was great and we all had a good time. At least, those that went. And, yes, Chris (top picture) is showing his special finger. Happy Holidays to anyone who reads this blog!

Martinique

We had a meeting in Martinique: When the Universe Formed Stars. I met a lot of great people, had some fun on the beach and at the Clement rum distillery. The picture here is of a rainbow adjacent to Mt. Pelee (active volcanic mountain). This is the view from our room. I guess I am continuing the rainbow theme. I hope to add more pictures later.

Rainbow Over Kitt Peak

Well, with the rain sometimes a beautiful sight can be seen. We may not be able to observe, but at least I got to see the above. It has been rainy for the past two nights. Maybe some luck will be with us tomorrow.