Photo of a Shell Galaxy

Credit: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/Coelum

Astronomers don’t know exactly what a Shell Galaxy is, or what causes it, but they do know where to find them and how to photograph them.

This photo shows the structure of galaxy NGC 474.  The “Shell Galaxy” description is due to stars creating the well-defined structures through some as-yet-not-understood process.  Some speculate that the structure is a result of galaxies colliding with one another over hundreds of millions of years in interactions called tidal stripping, as galaxies rip each other apart.

The full-size image can be seen here:  [Link].

 

The Peak of Mankind’s Existence

In July 1969 – 44 years ago – mankind reached the pinnacle of its existence.  Since that time, we have been treading water )best case) or backsliding (more likely).

Rather than lament our collective loss of initiative, today a choose to celebrate what we accomplished.  Even more, I am thankful that I was fortunate enough to be alive when a human stepped on another celestial body for the first time.

I am thinking of Apollo 11 because Space.com shows the launch as today’s historical space photo of the day (see that photo here).  I went to the NASA web site (here), did a little digging, and found a real gem – 16 mm film taken from the Apollo 11 spacecraft, including footage taken out the window of the LEM on the Moon.

See the 90-minute film here: [Link] or after the jump.

Android on the Way Out at Google?

Almost two years ago – when Google bought Motorola – I posted that Android was a weight rather than a value to Google  (See that original post here).  On Sunday, AppleInsider weighed in with a long think-piece that reaches a similar conclusion – that Android provides no long-term benefits to Google and will either be spun off or shut down.

Very telling is how Android development has slowed in the past two years since my original post.  From the AppleInsider article:

Perhaps due to fragmentation concerns, Google has also dramatically slowed the pace of new Android development. Google chowed though four … releases in its first year, followed by two years of two major releases, but has spent the entire last year stuck on Jelly Bean.

Stunning Comet Photo

The sun-approaching Comet ISON floats against a seemingly infinite backdrop of numerous galaxies and a handful of foreground stars in this Hubble Space Telescope composite image, taken in April 2013.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team

NASA has released a composite view created from five Hubble Space Telescope photographs of the Comet ISON, which is heading towards the Sun.

The image — which researchers stitched together from five photos of ISON taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on April 30 — shows the icy wanderer blazing against a backdrop of galaxies and bright stars.

See the post and links to the full-size image at Space.com:  [Link]

Sell Where the Customers are Buying

I am constantly seeing young startup companies that try to sell in a particular way just because that is the way that the CEO or the VP of Sales did it in their former job.  Then, they are surprised when the old technique does not work in the new environment.  Only after they have experienced such a sales failure are they ready to hear some “Sales 101” advice.

There are really only two rules in selling.

1. You have to sell something that delivers more value to the customer than the price you are charging.
2. You have to sell where the customers are buying.

Leaders vs Managers

Over the weekend, I had a long conversation with a close friend who is being recruited to become a CEO of a public company.  If he takes the job, it would be his first time in that role – when he worked at a public company earlier in his career, it was in a managerial, not executive position.  Since I have been an executive in a public company, we talked about the differences in leading a public company as opposed to leading a private company.  That, of course, led to a discussion of what this specific company needs right now.

Are You Building a Business or a Project?

Yesterday, I read a very nice book by an old friend.  Frank Vargas and I were young lawyers working for the same partner at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto in the late 1980s.  We went two different paths, but stayed in touch with one another through the years.  Now, we are colleagues again – both as Adjunct Professors at the Santa Clara University Law School.  The concept of Frank’s book is to share with the up and coming generation the “secrets” of life that he has learned through the years.  It is available on Amazon here:  [Link].

Wave at Saturn Today

This simulated view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows the expected positions of Saturn and Earth on July 19, 2013, around the time Cassini will take Earth’s picture. Cassini will be about 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away from Earth at the time. That distance is nearly 10 times the distance from the sun to Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is near Saturn, and its cameras today will be taking photos of the ringed planet from just the right perspective that Earth will be in the background of the shot.

Between 5:27 pm (EDT) and 5:42 pm (EDT)  – thats between 2:27 pm and 2:42 pm for those of us on the West Coast – on July 19, Earth will be a small dot near the rings of Saturn in the Cassini photographs.

So, if you ever wanted to be in a photo from Saturn, look up this afternoon and wave.  Don’t forget to smile!

An article about the event is on Space.com – [link].

Spacewalking Photographer

Source: NASA

Astronaut Chris Cassidy took this photo during a spacewalk at the International Space Station on July 16.  You can download various sizes here:

Full-size version

1920 x 1080

1600 x 1200

800 x 600

The spacewalk was cut short when another astronaut reported water floating in his spacesuit’s helmet – adding another view to the old saying “In space, no one can hear you scream.”

A Crack in the PRISM

There is big news today in the ongoing story of how the US government has been vaccumming up as much internet information as it can stuff into its hard drives.  The secret FISA court has ruled in favor of Yahoo’s motion to lift the veil of secrecy on its fight to avoid becoming a tool of the NSA in its PRISM initiative – which was a fight by Yahoo against turning over information about and belonging to its users.