The Angular Power Spectrum of Galaxies from Early SDSS Data

We compute the angular power spectrum C_l from 1.5 million galaxies in early SDSS data on large angular scales, l<600. The data set covers about 160 square degrees, with a characteristic depth of order 1 Gpc/h in the faintest (21<r<22) of our four magnitude bins. Cosmological interpretations of these results are presented in a companion paper by Dodelson et al (2001). The data in all four magnitude bins are consistent with a simple flat ``concordance'' model with nonlinear evolution and linear bias factors of order unity. Nonlinear evolution is particularly evident for the brightest galaxies. A series of tests suggest that systematic errors related to seeing, reddening, etc., are negligible, which bodes well for the sixtyfold larger sample that the SDSS is currently collecting. Uncorrelated error bars and well-behaved window functions make our measurements a convenient starting point for cosmological model fitting.Comment: Replaced to match accepted ApJ version (14 pages). Data, window functions etc available at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/sdss.html or from [email protected]

Vocation, Business Leadership, and the Pursuit of Understanding

To have a vocation is to be called to a life of ongoing participation in the redemptive work of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Being faithful to the vocation we have received requires adopting a stance of continuing alertness, ready to notice, correctly interpret, and effectively respond to the various forms of communication by which God draws us into closer cooperation with the redemptive missions of the Son and the Spirit. In this paper I focus on a particular vehicle by which the divine call is transmitted to us—namely, the God-given desire to know, which we experience whenever we wonder about something, whenever we try to solve a problem, whenever we learn or explore or plan.</jats:p

The Demon of the Belfry

The Penny Press' sensational coverage of the 1895 Emmanuel Church Murders (committed by San Francisco Medical zstudent Theofore Durrant) highlighted their obsession with deviant sexuality and gruesome violence. Contemporary newspapers continually cited Durrant's lack of romantic success, highlighted his peculiar medical background, speculated about his intimate relationship with his mother, and emphasized the maidenhood of his two young female victims - all while engaging in what scholar Karen Haltunnen terms the 'Pornography of Violence'. Scholars have not sufficiently studied how newspapers and other media during this time romanticized traditional sexual relationships while simultaneously fetishizing violence - especially if that violence was sexual in nature. This paper will argue that rapidly changing conceptions of sexual normativity during the Gilded Age - and the conflict between representatives on both sides of that fierce debate - manifested themselves in the implicity, and often these explicity sexualized coverage of Durrant.</jats:p

27. Commission des Étoiles Variables

The Commission again subscribes to a number of the good resolutions it has made in the past, for example, to follow the almost universal practice of counting the observed times, either in decimals of a day or in hours and minutes, from Greenwich mean noon, even though one is convinced that the rest of the world should adopt U.T.; and to prepare a chart, identifying the variable and the comparison stars, to form a part of the discovery announcement of a variable which cannot be easily identified through a Durchmusterung number and which is bright enough to invite further observation.</jats:p

27. Commission des Étoiles Variables

It is well-nigh impossible to give, in a short report, an adequate idea of the enormous activity in Variable-Star Astronomy during the past three years. Without attempting to be complete I shall give a summary of the most important recent occurrences in this field of research.Statistical data for eclipsing binaries were given by Gaposchkin (Veröff. Berlin-Bab. 9, Heft 5), for long-period variable stars by Ludendorff (Sitz.-ber. Ak. d. Wiss. Berlin, 1932), Thomas (Veröff. Berlin-Bab. 9, Heft 4) and Sterne and L. Campbell (Harvard Annals).Some valuable catalogues have been issued: a Finding List for Observers of Eclipsing Variables by Dugan (Princeton Contr. No. 15), a Catalogue of Eclipsing Variables, together with a Program of Investigations, by Martinoff (Engelhardt Obs. Bull. No. 2), a Catalogue and Ephemeris of Short-period Cepheids by Zessewitsch (Len. Un. A. 0. Bull. No. 3).</jats:p

27. Commission des Étoiles Variables

Fourteen members of the committee have failed to respond to correspondence; nearly all of the others have expressed the definite opinion that non-responsive members should be dropped from committee membership when a new list is prepared a few correspondents indicating however, that the policy should be adopted for Commission 27 only if generally adopted for all commissions of the Union.</jats:p