Rotating Shear Layers

[Orior]

Aren't rotating shear layers just the best thing ever?

The steady flow of viscous fluid confined inside a spherical shell, which results when the inner (radius r_i ) and outer (radius r_o) boundaries rotate at different angular velocities n_i and n_o respectively about a common axis, is referred to as spherical Couette flow. When the spheres almost corotate rapidly, the motion measured in a frame corotating with (say) the outer sphere is slow and satisfies linear equations. The determination of the resulting steady flow is a classical problem in the theory of rotating fluids. Proudman (1956) showed that the mainstream flow outside boundary layers is predominantly geostrophic, while its magnitude is determined by the Ekman suction into and out of the Ekman layers attached to the inner and outer spherical boundaries. The Ekman layer is singular on the equator of the inner sphere; this feature is linked to the existence of a free shear layer on the tangent cylinder to the inner sphere extending from its equator to the intersection with the outer sphere. The nature of the flow in this tangent-cylinder shear layer was resolved by Stewartson (1966), while the extension of this shear layer analysis to more general geometries was undertaken by Moore & Saffman (1969). The strong shear at the tangent cylinder was reproduced numerically by Hollerbach (1994) down to small Ekman number E = 5 _ 10−6. Decreasing E further to E = 10−8, Dormy, Cardin & Jault (1998) recovered the structure of the free shear layer found by Stewartson (1966). In the case of electrically conducting fluid, the magnetohydrodynamic flow that blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

For more of this exciting stuff, click on the link below

http://www.phys.ens.fr/~dormy/Publications/DJS02.pdf

[Hardy]

ManUtd.com is hosting an exclusive live webchat with Nemanja Vidic at Carrington on Wednesday 21 March. The webchat will start at 12:00 GMT on Wednesday and end at approximately 12:30. Although Vidic is still recovering from a season-ending knee injury sustained in Manchester United's Champions League encounter at Basel in early December, the Reds skipper has kindly agreed to field fans' questions in our exclusive webchat.Ask him how his recovery going, what he's made of United's title challenge, when he expects to return to action... or, if you like, quiz him on his favourite film, what he enjoys to cook in the kitchen or where he'll be spending his summer holiday.The fan whose question is considered to be the best by Nemanja will win blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

For more of this exciting stuff, click on the link below

http://www.manutd.com/en.aspx

[Lar Naparka]

I humbly submit this excerpt of a dissertation by Dr Rowan Williams, former bishop of Canterbury, as a masterly example of the art of turning the mundane into the sublime:

Dr Rowan Williams' 'Cat Sat On The Mat'
By Craig Brown
12:01AM GMT 16 Feb 2008
17 Comments
General introduction
As I hope to suggest, the issues that arise around this seemingly simple statement, if any, might suggest to the uninitiated that, in a very real sense, a cat - or, in this case, "the" cat sat on a mat, or, rather, not just any mat, but a particular mat - particular, that is, in both time and place.

For more of this exciting stuff, click on the link below:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/craigbrown/3555063/Dr-Rowan-Williams-Cat-Sat-On-The-Mat.html

[ziggysego]

ManUtd.com is hosting an exclusive live webchat with Nemanja Vidic at Carrington on Wednesday 21 March. The webchat will start at 12:00 GMT on Wednesday and end at approximately 12:30. Although Vidic is still recovering from a season-ending knee injury sustained in Manchester United's Champions League encounter at Basel in early December, the Reds skipper has kindly agreed to field fans' questions in our exclusive webchat.Ask him how his recovery going, what he's made of United's title challenge, when he expects to return to action... or, if you like, quiz him on his favourite film, what he enjoys to cook in the kitchen or where he'll be spending his summer holiday.The fan whose question is considered to be the best by Nemanja will win blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

For more of this exciting stuff, click on the link below

http://www.manutd.com/en.aspx

Na, soccer's boring.

[Billys Boots]

I refer you to 'Fun with Flags'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl12Sp1KiEk&feature=related