franceslin90

[franceslin90]

I am so stressed out. Application process has never been fun. 

[franceslin90]

Spoke to Kate today! It turns out that the only person who doesn’t trust me is... my mom,... if you exclude myself. 

[franceslin90]

Happy National Library Week!

Illustration + words about the @sanfranciscopubliclibrary from Meanwhile in San Francisco by @wendymacnaughton

[franceslin90]

Women within economics have different opinions from men: in 2013 a survey of American economists found that men in the field were more sceptical of regulation and high minimum wages, and less likely to favour redistribution, than women were. If systemic gender bias skews the way the field looks at things, that has implications for the policymakers and others looking to academic economists for analysis, advice or indeed wisdom.

[franceslin90]

Merry Christmas in Mathematics

[franceslin90]

looking into infinity | itseriksen

[franceslin90]

Finish strong! I am a bit tense and nervous. 

[franceslin90]

If wealthy, highly visible women in news and entertainment are sexually harassed, assaulted and raped–what do we think is happening to women in retail, food service and domestic work? ~ @CharleneCac

[franceslin90]

The California Wildfires from Above

As massive wildfires continue to rage in southern California, our satellites, people in space and aircraft are keeping an eye on the blazes from above. 

This data and imagery not only gives us a better view of the activity, but also helps first responders plan their course of action. 

A prolonged spell of dry weather primed the area for major fires. The largest of the blazes – the fast-moving Thomas fire in Ventura County – charred more than 65,000 acres.

Powerful Santa Ana winds fanned the flames and forecasters with the LA office of the National Weather Service warned that the region is in the midst of its strongest and longest Santa Ana wind event of the year. 

These winds are hot, dry and ferocious. They can whip a small brush fire into a raging inferno in just hours.

Our Aqua satellite captured the above natural-color image on Dec. 5. Actively burning areas are outlined in red. Each hot spot is an area where the thermal detectors on the satellite recognized temperatures higher than the background.

On the same day, the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite captured the data for the above false-color image of the burn scar. This image uses observations of visible, shortwave infrared and near infrared light.

From the vantage point of space, our satellites and astronauts are able to see a more comprehensive view of the activity happening on the ground. 

The crew living and working 250 miles above Earth on the International Space Station passed over the fires on Dec. 6. The above view was taken by astronaut Randy Bresnik as the station passed over southern California.

During an engineering flight test of our Cloud-Aerosol Multi-Angle Lidar (CAMAL) instrument, a view from our ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft shows smoke plumes. From this vantage point at roughly 65,000 feet, the Thomas Fire was seen as it burned on Dec. 5.

Our satellites can even gather data and imagery of these wildfires at night. The above image on the right shows a nighttime view of the fires on Dec. 5. 

For comparison, the image on the left shows what this region looked like the day before. Both images were taken by the Suomi NPP satellite, which saw the fires by using a special “day-night band” to detect light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses light intensification to detect dim signals.

Having the capability to see natural disasters, like these wildfires in southern California, provides first responders with valuable information that helps guide their action in the field.

For more wildfire updates, visit: nasa.gov/fires.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.   

[franceslin90]

How has the number of people living in extreme poverty changed?

The treemap above (interactive version here) illustrates how the number and distribution of people living in extreme poverty has changed between 1990 and 2013. The reduction in the number of poor in East Asia and Pacific is dramatic, and despite the decline in the Sub-Saharan Africa’s extreme poverty rate to 41 percent in 2013, the region’s population growth means that 389 million people lived on less than $1.90/day in 2013 - 113 million more than in 1990

The World Bank is pleased to release the 2017 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals. With over 150 maps and data visualizations, the new publication charts the progress societies are making towards the 17 SDGs.

[franceslin90]

Always remember who helped you when you were at your lowest.

[franceslin90]

Finger ice Snapped from an aircraft during NASA’s monitoring activity known as Operation IceBridge (that mionitors the thickness of sea ice year round) a couple weeks ago we have here an unusual phenomenon as the sea ice begins to reform after its early autumnal annual minimum. The shapes resemble medieval strip fields that emerge as crop marks and are due to something called finger rafting in which two thin floes meet, bump and grind. The ice blocks slide up and down much like a zip or fingers, lubricated by extrusions of high salinity water (since freshwater is being extracted by freezing). The ice need to be less than 20cm thick to retain enough flexibility for the phenomenon to manifest. Any thicker and ridge and valley formations result instead. Large areas of it like the one in the photo are very rare, while smaller localised zones are more common. Patterns of organic energy, the world is full of them, known to the Chinese as Li. Loz Image credit: NASA/John Sonntag

[franceslin90]

The annual stipend for a PhD student in Carnegie Mellon’s school of computer science is about $32,400. The university covers the student’s $43,000 tuition, in exchange for the research she conducts and the courses she teaches. Under current law, the government taxes only a student’s stipend; the waived tuition is not taken into account. But under the GOP bill, her annual taxable income would rise from $32,400 to $76,234. Even factoring in new deductions also included in the proposal, the CMU document estimates her taxes would amount to $10,209 per year—nearly four times the amount under current law. That would slash her net annual stipend by 25 percent, from $29,566 to $22,191.

Grad Students Are Freaking Out About the GOP Tax Plan. They Should Be | WIRED (via infoneer-pulse)

[franceslin90]

Face expressions in 3D with a Support Vector Machine Model

[franceslin90]

I blame myself for not trying hard enough for the test this time.

[franceslin90]

I’m a very ordinary human being; I just happen to like reading books.

Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

(via bookmania)

[franceslin90]

Time to choose your costume - it’s Halloween time!

My first animation only done with Photoshop.