Sooooo many good things!

NASA brings us this image of a "bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106" - which they, season appropriately, call "Holiday Snow Angel".

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Additionally, NASA serves up a video of Comet Lovejoy plunging through the atmosphere of the sun. From the linked website: 

    Comet Lovejoy Plunges into the Sun and Survives

Dec. 16, 2011: This morning, an armada of spacecraft witnessed something that many experts thought impossible. Comet Lovejoy flew through the hot atmosphere of the sun and emerged intact.

"It's absolutely astounding," says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. "I did not think the comet's icy core was big enough to survive plunging through the several million degree solar corona for close to an hour, but Comet Lovejoy is still with us."

The comet's close encounter was recorded by at least five spacecraft....

....

Comet Lovejoy was discovered on Dec. 2, 2011, by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy of Australia.

From slashdot.org come three items:

US Watchdog Bans Photoshop Use In Cosmetics

AdsSoulskillon Friday December 16, @11:16AM from the or-as-some-people-call-it-lying dept.

MrSeb writes "In an interesting move that should finally bring the United States' fast-and-loose advertising rules and regulations into line with the UK and EU, the National Advertising Division (NAD) — the advertising industry's self-regulating watchdog — has moved to ban the misleading use of photoshopping and enhanced post-production in cosmetics adverts. The ban stems from a Procter & Gamble (P&G) CoverGirl ad that photoshopped a model's eyelashes to exaggerate the effects of a mascara. There was a footnote in the ad's spiel about the photo being manipulated, but according to the director of the NAD, that simply isn't enough: 'You can't use a photograph to demonstrate how a cosmetic will look after it is applied to a woman's face and then — in the mice type — have a disclosure that says "okay, not really."' The NAD ruled that the ad was unacceptable, and P&G has since discontinued it. The ruling goes one step further, though, and points out that 'professional styling, make-up, photography and the product's inherent covering and smoothing nature' should be enough, without adding Photoshop to the mix. The cosmetics industry is obviously a good starting point — but what if the ban leaks over to product photography (I'm looking at you, Burger King), video gameplay demos, or a photographer's own works?"

Congress's Techno-Ignorance No Longer Funny

Posted by Collaboration

Posted by SoulskillFriday December 16, @02:49PM
from the like-a-series-of-irritating-tubes dept.

pigrabbitbear writes "Since its introduction, the Stop Online Piracy Act (and its Senate twin PROTECT-IP) has been staunchly condemned by countless engineers, technologists and lawyers intimately familiar with the inner functioning of the internet. Completely beside the fact that these bills, as they currently stand, would stifle free speech and potentially cripple legitimate businesses by giving corporations extrajudicial censorial powers, there's an even more insidious threat: the method of DNS filtering proposed to block supposed infringing sites opens up enormous security holes that threaten the stability of the internet itself. The problem: key members of the House Judiciary Committee still don't understand how the internet works, and worse yet, it's not clear whether they even want to."

 

And this one, specifically of interest to fans of the TV program Person of Interest.

Coming Soon: Ubiquitous Long-Term Surveillance From Big Brother

Posted by Soulskillon Friday December 16, @12:41PM
from the tinfoil-sales-skyrocket dept.

alphadogg writes "As the price of digital storage drops and the technology to tap electronic communication improves, authoritarian governments will soon be able to perform retroactive surveillance on anyone within their borders, according to a Brookings Institute report. These regimes will store every phone call, instant message, email, social media interaction, text message, movements of people and vehicles and public surveillance video and mine it at their leisure, according to 'Recording Everything: Digital Storage as an Enabler of Authoritarian Government,' written by John Villaseno, a senior fellow at Brookings and a professor of electrical engineering at UCLA."

Finally, another NASA image - this time a season appropriate lighted wreath. Well...okay...it's a spiral galaxy!

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

Comments

[M.E.]

gorgeous! there's a museum in DC that has photos like these. it's over by the State Department, and I apologize for not knowing what it's called. i used to, but ha...

thanks for posting these!! m.e.

[Joy]

These images are really beautiful...thanks CC. That first one really does look like an angel. ~Joy

[bogie]

Those are awesom pictures - thanks for bringing our attention to them!

[Cop Car]

ME--Don't know which (of the many, many) museums in DC you are thinking of - American Astronomical Society? US Naval Observatory? It will come to you! *smiling*

Joy--Hunky Husband looked at it and said, "What is that supposed to be?" Even after I outlined the "angel" for him he was still scratching his head. I told him that my blog friends would have no trouble interpreting what they were seeing. (Cruel of me, eh?!)

Bogie--I assume that you get the notices from NASA and/or Hubble. I don't go see all of them - maybe 50% of them.

[bogie]

I don't get the notices - I depend on kind folks like you (and other bloggers) to keep me informed and up-to-date.

[Alan G]

Wow! Really enjoyed the photos you posted. Just boggles the mind as to what goes on out there doesn't it? Also enjoyed the video although it was a bit to brief to consider popping a bowl of popcorn! :)

[Cop Car]

Bogie--Oh, the pressure you apply! I get emails from the KS Bird List group (there are many more snowy owls being seen around the state than in a normal year - happens every 7 years or so) and NASA and I visit those websites with links over in the left-hand margin, often.

Alan G--Now, why didn't I think of popcorn? Glad you enjoyed the photos and brief video.

[Hattie]

Wow! Are those color enhanced?

[Darlene]

Outer Space is fascinating. Tell Hunky Husband I had no trouble seeing an angel or a lighted Christmas Wreath in the formations, but maybe it's guy thing. Or maybe a right brain/ left brain difference. Whatever, they are both beautiful and interesting photos. Thanks for posting them.

[Cop Car]

Hattie--I'm not sure what you mean by "color enhanced"; so, please forgive me if the following explanation is an insult to your intelligence. As I understand it, usually (I would say "always", but you know what that does!), astronomical photos are not "color" photos in the ordinary sense of the word. Multiple scans are made of the scene using various filters, each of which allows passage of a band of wavelengths - some/many outside the band of wavelengths to which the human eye is sensitive. Then, each scan is processed to convert it to a visible color, and the results are combined to produce photos in what is known as "false color". So...yes, the colors are enhanced.

Darlene--I think it is a right/left brain thing. You are welcome.

All--I was too lazy to do the research beyond looking to see if the NASA site gave an explanation of the photo processing on either of the above images. NASA sometimes does include such info, but did not for these two. If anyone cares to explain better/more nearly correctly what goes on in astronomical photography, please feel free to comment. I will thank you.