If the CME don't get you, the volcanoes will

Photo via The Reykjavik Grapevine

People in the far northern reaches of the earth, look out! Not only must you brace for a big solar storm, but now you have have plumes of hot volcanic ash to worry about. From the NY Times:

The ash is coming from an eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, located near a glacier of the same name (which, for those not fluent in Icelandic, is pronounced, AYA-feeyapla-yurkul) in southern Iceland, which began erupting last month for the first time in nearly 200 years.

The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites has some great satellite imagery of the cloud of ash drifting east and disrupting air travel in northern Europe:

Coronal Mass Ejection!

So yesterday the sun did this:
From SpaceWeather:

The eruption hurled a bright coronal mass ejection (CME, movie) into space. The expanding cloud could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field around April 15th. NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% chance of polar geomagnetic activity when the CME arrives.

Forecast: Rain

He's a little awkward at first, trying to be polite and uttering platitudes about the tournament ("terrific excitement") and missing easy shots; but once he starts talking a little smack, then he takes over and starts draining deep threes: "Thwap!"

He has an unorthodox technique to say the least, but his release is nice. I think that youtube commenter rotensnatchmuffdiver put it best:

obama gots a nice ass jump shot

Star Wars Uncut

Who would've thought that there was all kinds of stuff about Star Wars on the internet? There are even whole websites devoted entirely to Star Wars stuff!

Anyway, the Star Wars Uncut project is nearing completion. Here is a piece of the finished product: the scene in which Obi Wan is killed, Luke, Han, etc., escape from the Death Star, and then Luke and Han shoot some tie fighters! Awesome:

Star Wars Uncut "The Escape" from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

They say the entire movie will be shown at the CPH:PIX Festival April 19 in Copenhagen, and its true.

Will Admiral Ackbar lead the Rebels?

Since Colonel Reb was "discontinued from official participation in athletic events by the school" in 2003, Ole Miss has been mascot-less. An internet campaign sprouted in an attempt to draft Admiral Ackbar (highest ranking officer in the Rebel Alliance) as a candidate for the Colonel's replacement. Apparently, it was all a big joke, sorta:

However the students that began the campaign insist that Admiral Ackbar is not their ideal choice for the school's mascot. Instead they intend the character as "the face of a push to start a fresh mascot search at Ole Miss." However, the student-led committee that will start the process of choosing a new mascot has not yet formed.

I cant imagine why anyone would think that was a very funny joke. On a related note, I suspect that race may have played a factor in the Colonel's retirement: apparently, his character may have been based on a black man.

Infrastructure! In 1930s Tokyo!

From the Visualizing Cultures Department at MIT:

The VC mission is to use new technology and hitherto largely inaccessible visual materials to reconstruct the past as people of the time visualized the world (or imagined it to be).

Among other amazing imagery, the site has 100 woodblock prints by Koizumi Kishio depicting Tokyo's transition to modernity:

“100 Views of Great Tokyo in the Shōwa Era,” a series of woodblock prints produced between 1928 and 1940 by Koizumi Kishio, explore the rebirth of Tokyo in the years following the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923. Koizumi’s prints depict the transformation of an important Asian city as it embraced modernity, maintained traditions, and became the site of ultimately disastrous political policies. In addition, Koizumi was a member of a new, modern printmaking movement in Japan known as sōsaku-hanga or “creative printmaking.”