Data Figures

A friend was talking last night about a coworker blogging at work, and it reminded me that I haven't posted in a while. I'm been mostly spending my time writing papers, so here's a figure I just made yesterday.The squiggly lines underneath the image are EDS spectra showing the rough composition of the bright material. Contributions from the background support film and the surrounding fluffy silica aerogel (containing silicon, oxygen, and carbon) have been subtracted, which is why there are inverted peaks in some spectra. I'm not necessarily convinced that this is the best way to process the data, since I think it tends to show that the bright areas are depleted in carbon. Actually there is a lot of carbon in the bright areas, but only surrounding the mineral grains, while carbon is homogeneous in the aerogel.

Best of 2008

It's finally here. I've previewed the mix on CD and it sounds pretty good to me. 2008 was a bit of a strange year for music. It started out very strong with the Vampire Weekend debut album in January, but the latter half of the year seemed full of mediocre indie releases. But I've found a number of good songs in all the audio chaff. Still, I have the feeling when I redo this playlist in 10 years (or even if I redid it next year), it would be very different.


Best of 2008

101 Amanda Palmer - Astronaut
102 Anathello - All the First Pages
103 Marco Benevento - Bus Ride
104 Glasvegas - Flowers and Football Tops
105 Vancougar - (I Hope Your) Money (Keeps You Warm)
106 Shearwater - The Snow Leopard
107 The Silent Years - Open Up Our Eyes
108 Jack Johnson - Go On
109 Dido - Quiet Times
110 Peter Broderick - Below It
111 Crooked Still - Undone in Sorrow
112 Leona Naess - Leave Your Boyfriends Behind
113 Plants and Animals - Bye Bye Bye
114 Catfish Haven - Ready to Die
115 Tilly and the Wall - Tall Tall Grass
116 Weezer - Heart Songs
117 Slow Club - Christmas TV

201 Air France - No Excuses
202 The Submarines - You Me and the Bourgeoisie
203 Pendulum - Propane Nightmares
204 We Are Scientists - Ghouls
205 Mux Mool - Night Court
206 The Very Best - Hide and Seek
207 Santigold - L.E.S. Artistes
208 M83 - Skin of the Night
209 Coldplay - Lost!
210 Shiny Toy Guns - Season of Love
211 The Notwist - Good Lies
212 Cloud Cult - Everybody Here is a Cloud
213 Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
214 Alias - Well Water Black
215 Lullatone - The Bathtime Beat
216 Ratatat - Mirando
217 Portishead - The Rip
218 Son Lux - Stand

Ratatat

Last night Kirsten and I went to see Ratatat play at the 930 Club. They were pretty darn good, to say the least. It was fun to watch all the youths get excited from the balcony. I would definitely go see them again sometime, and I heard they have a new album coming out soon!