Book Review: The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

A good friend of mine visited me a few months ago and she brought along a book as a gift. The Diamond Age, Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer was that book. I have read some of Neal Stephenson's other works; in particular, Snow Crash and Anathem. I enjoyed those two books and have been meaning to read more from him. This was an excellent opportunity to read the book some consider a stepping stone into the steampunk genre, despite the fact that at a glance it doesn't look like a steampunk novel at all.

Click through to read the review. As always, I try to avoid spoilers.

Chile: 3 Years after the 27F Earthquake

Mayor earthquakes in Chile since February 27th 2010. (Credit: José Infestas & EMOL)

Three years ago, before I moved to Chile, there was a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake in the central region. This occurred on the 27th of February 2010 and the event is commonly refer to in the news as 27/F (or variants like 27-F). A few days ago, there was an interesting report on earthquake statistics in Chile, which I would like to summarize (and translate, as it's in Spanish) for you.
Given my current travels this is a scheduled post and I didn't have time to double check all the facts in the report. I'm hoping they are mostly accurate, though that newspaper has had it's share of mistakes in the past. Nevertheless, the important trends still should hold. Now, on to my summary...

Astronomy: Observing at La Silla

La Silla Observatory

Astronomers, particularly those that deal with observations (like me), tend to go to remote places to observe the stars. These tend to be high up on mountain tops in isolated areas far from cities. This past week was the first time I visited La Silla Observatory. This post summarizes my experience from the last few days.

Book Review: A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

This is it. The 14th and final book of the Wheel of Time. I purchased this book a few days after it had been released while visiting the US. It's one of the two books I got in my visit (the other is Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay). We have all been waiting for the concluding volume of this epic series. This is Tarmon Gaidon, the Final Battle.

I try to avoid direct spoilers, but it's nearly impossible in the final book of a series like this.
The full review is below the jump.

Fund Me Maybe

Short post today to point out Emily Rice's excellent work compiling a parody video of Call Me, Maybe.  This was a hackAAS project at the most recent American Astronomical Society meeting.
You have to see this; it's excellent. And as a bonus, I appear briefly near the end!

Book Review: The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi

Back in the 1500s, Thomas More helped popularize the idea of utopia. This was the concept of a perfect society with no scarcity and ultimate peace. And it was frightening when we saw how much the utopians had to sacrifice in terms of personal liberties and choices. Paolo Bacigalupi in his works, The Windup Girl, Ship Breaker, and now, The Drowned Cities, shows us the opposite: a dystopia. He takes the present-day Earth and extrapolates what things might become: a bleak world of war, struggle, and scarcity.

We see in The Drowned Cities a familiar society focused in rooting out traitors and protecting the liberties for which it stands. This is home. And it is terrifying.

Astronomy: Nine Years On Mars

Nine years ago, on January 25, 2004 Universal Time (the 24th on Pacific Standard Time), the Opportunity rover landed on Mars.
To celebrate the occasion, Space.com has created this very cool infographic:

This is showing how much we (including our robots) have travelled on distant worlds, in particular Mars and the Moon. Now, we've sent landers to other worlds, such as Venus and Titan (largest moon of Saturn), but these others couldn't move around.

Opportunity, in the past nine years, has travelled over 22 miles. And the coolest thing: it's still working! Nine years in Mars and still going strong when it was made to last just over 90 days.
Curiosity, our newest Mars rover, is nuclear powered and expected to last 2 (Earth) years. Its power supply, however, could let it work for many more years if nothing goes wrong.
Let's hope Opportunity and Curiosity last for many more years and keep doing great science on Mars!

Astronomy: The 221th American Astronomical Meeting

My trip to the 221th American Astronomical (AAS) Meeting was long, but quite productive. Now that I've returned to Chile I'm ready to talk about what went on there. There is always far too much going on at AAS for me to keep track off, though, so this is more of a snapshot of my experiences at the AAS conference.