Spring Break AK '08

In March 2008, Harry and the Potters went to the LAST FRONTIER.

NASA USRP Internship

Last week I was offered an undergraduate student internship with NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.  I will be moving down there in January to work with Paul E. Racette on modeling and data analysis of nonlinear and non-stationary processes.  The research I will be doing will have immediate applications in the calibration of radiometers.  NASA uses radiometers for a few different things, one of which is measurement of salinity in the ocean.  That is one way earth scientists model climate change.   There may also be applications in astro-biology.

To commemorate this momentous occasion in my scientific career I have posted above a telescope photo of the Pücman Nebula.  

SAVE DARFUR! HELP BURMA! STANDfast and the Genocide Intervention Network

As some of you may know, some of my greatest friends and heros are leading members of the Harry Potter Alliance.  The HPA is an organization that uses the Harry Potter stories as motivators to get people involved in social activism, channelling all the positive energy of fandom into a world-changing-real-life Dumbledore's Army.  It's sort of like how my band uses the harry potter books to subversively expose kids to the world of DIY punk rock ethics.  They've had great success in the past from participation in antigenocide programs to mass voter registration.   

Anyway the HPA has been talking a lot about STANDfast which takes place today.  STAND is working with the Genocide Intervention Network to aid civilians in Darfur and Burma among other genocide stricken regions.  

A $3 donation allows a woman in Darfur protection from rape so that she may collect firewood for her family.

A $5 donation grants radio access to a Burmese family so that they may be warned of oncoming danger.  

This is an easy and effective way to help the lives of people.  The Genocide Intervention Network is currently the only civilian protection organization in Darfur.  

You can donate at any time any day

at the HPA website

or the STAND website

or at the Genocide Intervention Network website

MERRY CHRISTMAS and PEACE ON EARTH

LOVE

Joe