OCEANIC SUPER EARTH

GJ 1214b is the second exoplanet (after CoRoT-7b) discovered to have an established mass and radius less than those of the gas giants of our solar system. It is an oceanic plant (75% water with a 25% rock core), with a possible hydrogen and helium atmosphere. Life there would be a rather warm experience, with temperatures ranging from 120-282 dC, or 248-549 dF. The planet has a radius approximately 2.7 times that of earth, and orbits star GJ 1214 in the constellation Ophiuchus, approximately 40 light years from Earth. Above is an artist's rendition of the planet, and below is a size comparison chart -- Earth, GJ 1214b, and Neptune. As always, click on any image to enlarge.

GIVE IT A REST

How naive Americans can be. We adore and venerate the famous -- in sports, in entertainment, in politics -- until the famous make a slip, then we're all over them like flies on honey. Hypocrisy and greed drive the media scandal machines to sanctimonious sensationalism. Someone of lesser note who makes the same lapses in judgment, doesn't have to see his/her face and name plastered all over the tabloids and TV. We drive ourselves into rabid fits of self-righteousness over events which most Europeans only shake their heads at, knowing that humans are fallible and imperfect.

Tiger Woods, arguably the best professional golfer ever, and a pure athlete in the mold of Michael Jordan, is living in hell right now. Woods has admitted to marital infidelities, and has left his sport to pay full attention to his family, which appears to be coming apart at the seams. He is visibly, genuinely tortured. Those who live in glass houses might say, "and rightly so." Be careful what you wish for.

For a different, less rigidly judgmental view, i offer Dick Cavett's column in today's online NYTimes. Cavett is intelligent, witty in a quiet understated manner, and has been around long enough to have witnessed the rise and fall of countless careers and reputations. His observations don't so much focus on Tiger, as shed light on our own hysterical, irrational double standards.

ONE WILD RIDE

Imagine the Mediterranean Sea as a completely dry desert basin encircled by continents. This was the situation prior to 5.3 million years ago. The northward movement of the African continental plate had sealed off the flow of water from the Atlantic Ocean eastward through the Strait of Gibraltar, leaving only freshwater replenishment from the watersheds feeding the Mediterranean. The rate of evaporation exceeded that of replenishment, and the inland sea dried up.

According to an article in the 10 December issue of the journal "Nature", rising Atlantic waters eventually found their way past the sill which forms the strait. Erosion created a deeper channel, which hastened erosion, in a self-feeding cycle forming a flood of monumental proportions -- a current of 100 million cubic meters of water per second, traveling at 100 kilometers per hour. Due to the gradual slope of the substrate, the flood appeared more like a very fast (and wide) river, rather than like a waterfall. Imagine being in a kayak or raft, on such a rushing flood.

Here's what's remarkable -- the fact of a dry Mediterranean being refilled isn't news -- I recall reading about it in school, a quarter century ago. What has geologists and others stunned is the rate of replenishment -- less than two years. This is the blink of an eye in geologic time.

TEN YEARS AFTER

No, not the rock/blues band. In yesterday's mail I found a small packet containing my 10 year pin -- acknowledging my ten years' membership in the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). Of all the special interest groups to which I've belonged over the years (aviation, birding, environmental activism, natural history, et al.), AOPA by far gives the most bang for each membership buck. The organization publishes two high-quality monthly magazines, and offers member services which include (but are not limited to) political advocacy, air safety seminars, aircraft title and insurance services, medical services, product reviews (both aircraft and pilot equipment), an exhaustively researched and informative airport directory, online newsletters .... the list goes on and on.

AOPA came into being in 1939, and in the 70 years since, has grown to over 400,000 members, including professional pilots (airlines, freight, corporate, police, air ambulance, crop spraying, academic/scientific research, small business, or anyone else who flies for hire), recreational pilots, student pilots, and a scattering of wannabe pilots like me who read and dream and study and breathe aviation while saving for actual flying lessons. Wish me luck ....

IQ

In the past, tests to meaure intelligence have been notoriously plagued by ambiguity (what is intelligence?), by the difficulty in quantifying intelligence scientifically, by cultural and racial bias, and by our rapidly-evolving understanding of the complex interrelationships between what is innate vs. what is learned (nature vs. nurture).

Here is a link to a thoughtful discussion of several scales of measurement. I find the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) to be the most useful, because it derives from a wide range of verbal and performance subtests. It was developed and later modified by David Wechsler, a well-known American psychologist whose work influenced the thinking of my ex, herself a brilliant JD/PhD (attorney and psychologist). I also find the Wechsler scale appealing because it places my own IQ, roughly 135, within his "Superior" category, among the top 8.9 percent of the population -- a moderate ego boost, though not even close to genius potential. Perhaps in a future incarnation .....

BIRDING RESOURCES

I've been an avid birder (not "bird watcher") for 40 years, though I haven't been very active in the past 5 years. during that time my life list of confirmed species sightings reached a modest but yeomanly 350 species in 46 states and northern mexico.

The birding community is remarkably diverse and welcoming. Whether exploring solo, or as part of an organized field trip, fellow birders are friendly and willing to share local sightings and personal experience. To test the waters, all one need do is enroll in an adult evening class.

A tip on optics -- you get what you pay for. Buy the best quality binoculars and spotting scopes that you can afford. Apparent deals on lesser quality brands, or items on sale, will usually yield a very disappointing visual experience. Modern optics and lens coatings provide sensational viewing, so don't stint on quality.

Here is an important guideline when comparing binoculars in particular. The viewing capability is expressed in two numbers joined by the letter "x", e.g., 7x35, 8x40, 10x50. In each pair, the first number is the degree of magnification, and the second number is the diameter of the objective lens in millimeters. So for a pair of 7x35 binoculars (the most useful size for a beginner), an object will appear to be 7 times larger than when viewed by the naked eye, and the objective lense is 35mm.

Note that in each example, the first number divided into the second number yields 5. This ratio is something to look for, as it produces the best balance of field of view (the width of the scene through the lens) and light-gathering capability. A pair of 8x20 binoculars will have slightly better magnification, but poorer light-gathering ability. Hence 8x40s are preferable.

Note also that the greater the magnification, the larger and heavier the binoculars. Over long periods of viewing, it becomes harder to hold them steady. Also, greater magnification means a narrower field of view for spotting birds on the move. The best approach is to try several different sizes, at a retail outlet or through friends, and decide which is right for you. I used 7x35s for many years, currently have 10x50s, but believe that for me, 8x40s are probably the best combination.

As for spotting scopes (mounted on tripods), the standard seems to be 20 power (20x). I've never owned a spotting scope, but know from group trips that they can be most useful in locating a bird, then allowing multiple birders to see it.

Following are a few online resources on bird sightings and other discussions ....

http://www.burdr.com/

http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/index.aspx

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/

http://www.audubon.org/

The latter two in particular are personal favorites, which does not detract from the utility of other sites. We all have our biases.

There is also a plethora of sites which deal in bird houses, feeders and such. Google the product you're seeking, and have fun !!

DISAPPEARING ACT

Only it's not an act, it is all too real. Just as the namesake glaciers in Glacier National Park are fast disappearing in both number and size, the Arctic ice cap is shrinking at an alarming rate. You don't have to take my word for it -- simply compare the NASA photos taken in 1979 (above) and in 2007 (below). According to 350.org, an organization devoted to public education and action on global warming, the Arctic will be completely free of ice during the summer between 2011 and 2015, some eighty years earlier than scientists had previously predicted. 350.org and other efforts are the brainchildren of Bill McKibben, an American environmentalist and writer.

The disappearance of Arctic ice has global climate consequences, most directly in the removal of its regulatory effect on the circulatory currents of the world's oceans. Arctic ice forms both a temperature and salinity buffer, as well as a physical barrier defining current patterns (for example, the gyre formed by the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Drift, and the North Equatorial currents in the Atlantic Ocean). Altering ocean current paths, temperatures and salinity will have inevitable ripple effects on all life forms in or near the ocean. Including humans.

None of this is news to those of us who've studied the environment for any length of time. I received my bachelor's degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology over twenty years ago, and these events were already being discussed. We have already pushed the planet past numerous thresholds, and even with the best of intentions and overnight cooperation between all governments and all peoples, an inexorable momentum of change has been established, which it will take decades (if not centuries) to stabilize, then reverse. The question in my mind is this: how many ecosystems and species (including our own) have we doomed by our own myopia?

Special thanks to my friend and correspondent J, who turned me on to the 350.org website.

RELATIVE SPEEDS

(Note: click on any image to enlarge) I was thinking about plate tectonics, the well-proven theory describing the division of the earth's lithosphere (crust and upper mantle) into distinct solid plates, which float convectively upon the hotter, deeper, liquid asthenosphere (termed visco-elastic -- think lava), not unlike icebergs floating on the ocean's surface.

Tectonic plates are categorized as being continental or oceanic, depending upon whether their surface is higher or lower than sea level. Unlike the iceberg analogy, however, tectonic plates are jammed together and in constant motion, with new material being formed constantly by upwelling molten rock along mid-oceanic ridges, driving the plates apart. in the convergent boundaries where plates are forced together, they either collide directly, with one plate being forced beneath the other (a collision which forms mighty mountain ranges like the Rockies and the Himalayas), or they collide indirectly, traveling like passing cars, rubbing together to produce earthquakes and/or volcanos, e.g. the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Tectonic plate movement is relatively slow -- ranging from 10-40 mm per year (about as fast as fingernails grow), up to 160 mm per year (about as fast as hair grows).

So even when we're standing still, we are in motion. This set me thinking in the other direction, from down to up. Here we are, standing on the earth's surface, apparently motionless. But if the earth's atmosphere were completely stationary relative to the surface, we would immediately sense our rotational speed by the relative wind -- about 1000 miles per hour at the equator. So motion is compounded upon motion, and we're not even taking a step in any direction.

That's not all. The earth is revolving around the sun, covering its orbit in a year by traveling at a leisurely 1,600,920 miles per hour.

Further, the entire solar system is part of the rotating Milky Way galaxy -- our speed around the galactic center is very roughly 1,296,000 miles per hour.

All without moving a muscle.

CLIMATE CHANGE INFO CENTRAL

I receive regular e-announcements from NASA regarding weather, space and other issues. Here is a comprehensive online resource called Climate One Stop, organized by a group of US and international organizations, including NASA, USAID, the National Science Foundation, the Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology (IAGT), the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and CATHALAC in Panama. NASA spokesperson Dan Irwin describes the website as "a 'calm spot' where scientists, decision-makers, non-profit workers and officials can find all the latest research" amid the storm of information in climate and environmental research. The site presents a comprehensive and organized catalog of information, more easily searchable than by simply Googling a given topic.

In my mind, one doesn't need a government or organization affiliation to educate oneself -- climate change is a global issue, and as world citizens, it is incumbent upon us all to clearly understand what's going on, and be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

SPACESHIPTWO

No, I didn't forget my spacing in the title. SpaceShipTwo (image above) is a suborbital spaceplane for carrying space tourists. A recent AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, of which I am a member) article states:

"SpaceShipTwo is the sequel to Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne, which completed the world's first manned private space flights in 2004. The spacecraft was unveiled with its mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo (image below) .... (and) has been designed to carry many thousands of private astronauts into space."

The design team at Scaled Composites is headed by legendary aircraft visionary Burt Rutan, whose creations include the VariEze, the Long-EZ, and the globe-spanning Voyager. If SS2 becomes operational in my lifetime, I shall do whatever it takes to book passage, since traveling in space is on my short list of fantasy activites -- along with conducting an orchestra playing Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony, kayaking the Grand Canyon, and writing my next twenty novels!

TRAVEL BY CARGO SHIP

my good friend bill in chicago recently sent a link to an article on travel by cargo ship. according to wikipedia, freighter travel is a viable alternative to the security hassles and weather delays of air travel, or to the much more expensive commercial sea cruise lines. essentially, you are paying a cargo vessel to transport you along with whatever they are ferrying across the sea. passenger manifests are limited to 5-10, and you enjoy a small cabin with a sea view. your meals are taken with the crew, you have access to the crew lounge, and your time is your own. it is a no-frills experience -- no upscale restaurants or ballrooms or social events. you provide your own ways of passing the time at sea. aside from books, activities might include enjoying the sea, the weather, passing birds, and land when you are near port.

passsengers tend to include retired people, traveling students, relocating executives, airline pilots, and those who simply prefer a more leisurely journey than that afforded by air travel. see the above links for more information on what to expect, as well as links to travel agents and shipping companies. as someone who worked on a freezer ship along the southern coast of alaska in 1982, i recommend freighter travel as a unique and colorful way to journey around the world.

CHRISTMAS CORPSES

if the title seems a bit macabre to you, that's because the concept to which it refers is fairly gruesome to me. the custom of decorating trees at christmastime started in 16th century germany, and spread through european countries and their overseas colonies. initially, people were content to brighten up outdoor trees with color and lights -- but it wasn't long before christmas trees were cut down to be brought indoors for decoration. as a child, i was charmed, and didn't question the ethics of killing a living thing for a few weeks of visual pleasure, much less the environmental significance of removing millions of oxygen-producers from the world's forests every winter.






















as an adult, it breaks my heart. i've lived all over the u.s., including regions where commercial tree farms raise acres and acres of monocultured trees, to be "harvested" and sold in urban tree lots like so many chickens at the supermarket. whenever i see a truck loaded with trees on their way to sale in homes (or trees to be cut into lumber -- see center photo), i grieve for all those tree corpses.














there are alternatives. we could return to decorating living, outdoor trees. we could buy live trees in potting soil, and after the christmas season, plant the trees in our yards and parks. as a substitute for trees, we could decorate live plants of any species which fits into our homes -- from bamboo to cactus to native ornamental shrubs. it's not an either/or situation.

all i'm suggesting is that we reconsider destroying entire forests of young trees every year, when the planet is in such desperate need of these organisms which live on carbon dioxide, and produce oxygen. not all customs are defensible, just because they are traditional. i'm just sayin'. (top image, outside notre dame cathedral in paris. bottom image, in a private home.)

IMAGINE

Imagine there's no Heaven

It's easy if you try

No Hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope some day you'll join us

And the world will live as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

~~ "Imagine"

John Winston Lennon

09 October 1940 - 08 December 1980

(click here to hear John Lennon sing "Imagine")

TREKKING THE AMAZON

In the realm of personal adventure, few pursuits remain unaccomplished. A former British Army captain, Ed Stafford, is undertaking what no person had done before -- hiking the 4,400 mile length of the world's most imposing river, the Amazon, from its source in the Peruvian Andes to its mouth (200 miles wide) on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. He began over 600 days ago, and hopes to complete his journey by August 2010, with no sponsors or support team, no plush gear, literally living off the land. Why? As Sir Edmund Hillary explained when asked why he was the first to scale 29,000 foot Mt. Everest, "Because it's there."

Here is the article, sent to me by my amigo Bill in Chicago, which describes in fascinating detail Stafford's journey. (click on images to enlarge)

INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

~~ William Ernest Henley

PBS NEWS HOUR

For years, my most trusted sources for news have been NPR and PBS. On the latter, Washington Week on Friday evenings, and the News Hour each weeknight. Washington Week is moderated by Gwen Ifill (photo below). The News Hour is undergoing a format change. It will retain a single moderator, Jim Lehrer, and increase the presence of the program's senior correspondents. The intent is to broaden the program's coverage, both on television and online, while maintaining the journalistic integrity with which PBS has always approached the people and events which shape the news.

That integrity is succinctly summed up in the guidelines to responsible journalism which Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer (photo above) crafted 34 years ago. If all news organizations, particularly those which substitute sensationalism and political agenda for true news coverage, were to follow suit, we would be a better-informed public.

BLEEDING RELIGION

As a quiet but confirmed atheist for all my adult life, I have serious issues with the lack of tolerance, not to mention the lack of intellectual rigor, inherent in most organized religions. Particularly oppressive to me is living in a region where (for reasons of inherent insecurity in their own beliefs, I suspect) the residents feel it necessary to relentlessly advertise their particular brand of belief in a supernatural being. In few places does this occur more aggressively than in the American South. I've lived in Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and traveled throughout the region.

I was reminded of the ubiquity of such in-your-face religious proclamations when a correspondent mentioned living in a rural area where signs with biblical references are common. It seems so odd that in a nation which has as one of the stones of its foundation the concept of freedom of religion, that a fundamentalist sect of one religion (Christianity) proclaims that ours is a "Christian nation." Gee, I wonder if that makes our millions of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and non-believers into non-citizens? Hmm. Whatever happened to live and let live? If I had to accept a label for my spiritual leanings (labels are so limiting), Animist comes as close as any.

I had an English lit professor who once observed that inherent in any specified freedom is the choice to abstain from that freedom -- e.g., freedom of religion includes freedom from religion. What a concept.

Especially abhorrent to me are those who not only proscelytize where they live, but send out "missionaries" to spread their version of Truth among those of other traditions. How dare they? Who conferred upon them the Only True Vision? Since so many religions believe theirs is the true vision, how can all of them be right? And if one is wrong, might not they all be wrong?

I'll stick with the principle of parsimony -- analogous to Occam's Razor -- when in doubt, the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. One does not need a god to explain where life and the universe came from. In fact past religious explanations have been woefully off the mark. Nor does one require a religion to posit a purpose to life. Why does there have to be a purpose? I'm persuaded that there is no destination, there is only the journey. It is the Quality with which we lead our lives which defines us, individually and as a species.

TEMPERATURE CONVERSIONS

The U.S. has for decades refused to join the rest of the world in adopting the metric system. This has unfortunate consequences not only for those traveling to other countries which use metric units, but also for those who study any of the sciences in college -- where lab and field measurements are commonly made using metric units.

To my knowledge, Burma, Liberia and the U.S. are the only three countries on earth which still cling to the archaic English system of measurement (with a few local exceptions). Thankfully, many charts, graphs, and web sites exist for converting between metric and English units. Here is a site which allows conversions in temperature, weight, length, area and volume. And here is another devoted strictly to temperature conversion. Please note that the latter is one of a suite of NOAA sites covering weather and climate. NOTE: As I type this, it is 6 dF, or minus 14.4 dC outside.

And here, for your edification and possible amusement, is a map showing the metric world (green), and the non-metric world (grey).

THE BAY OF PIGS

I'm reading a novel by writer and movie director John Sayles, Los Gusanos. Sayles is one of my all-time favorite directors and screenwriters -- his talent for visual and written story-telling is nuanced and finely-crafted. He researches his subjects deeply, and creates genuine and credible characters. There is a common thread of social consciousness running through much of his work.

The novel focuses on the members of several generations of Cuban-Americans, living in or near Miami. They form a rich and colorful tapestry of humanity and culture.

One of the older characters, Serafin, participated in the CIA-planned Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. Through a combination of agency ineptitude and political intrigue, Cuban security knew of the impending invasion. Cuban military forces soundly defeated the anti-Castro invaders, aided by the mysterious withdrawal of promised U.S. military support for the mission.

The following passage is a flashback memory of Serafin, one of the invasion brigade's survivors. It is not for the squeamish.

"....Serafin had thought about bullets and dying in training camp but he wasn't ready for the way the men came apart. They were men like him and when the bullets or the shrapnel hit they tore apart. They were men like him and they tore, hunks of cloth and meat and blood and gristle ripping off into the air, spilling out onto the ground. Men were hit in the face and their heads exploded, nose and teeth driven back through their skulls. When the firing lifted Serafin could feel the ground still shaking, but it was his body trembling uncontrollably. One of the men with a rifle was spitting blood as he had bitten part of his tongue off without knowing it during the fighting and there was nothing moving out on the road.

"Here were heaps of soldier left lying on the ground. Smoke. Nothing moved. Then the shadow of something crossed over Serafin and he looked up to see vultures, dozens of vultures floating overhead, wheeling lazily around the open ground, cautious at first, then flapping in to roost on what was left of a body, one by one, till the road was glistening black with them."

TRACKING SANTA CLAUS

When I was a kid, thanks to the encouragement of our culture in general and my parents in particular, I was an ardent believer in the popular myth of Santa Claus. In fact, it wasn't until the relatively late age of 11 that a disdainful classmate disabused me of that belief. Only then did it become clear to me why my parents stayed up so late on Christmas eve - they were wrapping and placing under the tree all the gifts from "Santa" which they had previously bought or made.

Since then it has always puzzled me why we, as loving parents, set our children up for such intense feelings of disappointment and betrayal. While we are small and innocent, the experience is magical, and of course capitalism and the media are only too happy to play along. After the disillusioning rite of passage, perhaps Santa becomes a metaphor for our parents' love. That might explain why I perpetuated the myth with my own child. It's an enigma.

Here's an interesting twist, with its roots in the frenzy of Christmas consumerism. In 1955, a Colorado Springs-based Sears store ran an advertisement encouraging children to call Santa Claus on a special telephone hotline. Due to a printing error, the wrong phone number was published, and calls poured in to the Director of Operations at the Continental Air Defense Command. The Director, upon sorting out what had happened, instructed his staff to give Santa's position to any child who called.

Three years later, the goverments of the United States and Canada combined their respective national air defenses into the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), but the tradition continued. Now major media outlets as well as children call in to inquire on Santa's location. In 1997 the service was expanded to include a Santa-tracking web site.

The fictional background storyline has changed with the world political situation. During the Cold War when the tracking team provided updates only by radio announcements, only North America was mentioned and Santa's approach was described in tense terms with interceptor aircraft being scrambled to shoot down the "bogie". Only at the last minute would the pilot realize whom he was engaging. Now the Web shows that as Santa approaches Newfoundland in Canada, a flight of Canadian Air Force fighters rendezvous with him to provide an honor guard.

In 2007 NORAD started tracking Santa in 3-D using Google Earth. His "location" is updated every five minutes. For those of you who would like to access NORAD's Santa tracking service, here is the link, with a continuous countdown clock.