If you are planning a road trip in May 2013, you might want to consider rescheduling or at least, plan on taking a paper atlas with you rather than depend on your GPS. At some point in mid-2013, our sun will reach solar max, the period of the highest sun spot activity. It has a nine to 14 year cycle. So the last time when we were in solar max was around the year 2000. The solar activity can knock out satellites, cause us to lose them for a short time and quite possibly cause them to malfunction or disable them indefinitely. We now have a lot more technology dependent on these satellites than we had in 2000. The solar max expected in 2013 is not expected to be one of the biggest, not even as big as the one in 2000, but some of our worse solar storms have been during smaller solar maxes. Considering how strained our power grid is these days, this could be a time that we could be without power for awhile. On the flipside, it could be that we don't even notice it.
The biggest solar storm ever on record occurred in 1859. At the time, ships lost the use of magnetic compasses for a short time. Also, some telegraph towers or telegraph machines had power surges causing fires and explosions. During that storm, the aurora borealis (aka the Northern Light) were reportedly seen from the equator. People in New York City could read the newspapers during the mid of the night from this light without a problem. Other years we had sun storm problems were 1921 and 1960 when widespread radio outages were reported.
A few years ago, I was camping in Gaspé, Quebec. I was having the worst difficult time making a fire when I noticed the dancing lights in the sky. We lost interest in the fire and pulled up our chairs and watched the show. I cannot wait to see them again. I might not even have to travel this time.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Rex's Eulogy
Beth and I used to attend an annual event in Middlebury, Vermont called Woofstock. Woofstock sponsored by the Addison County Humane Society for dog owners with booths, demonstrations and games for kids with pets. It was a fun event. When my hound mix, Rex, was young, maybe about two years old, I entered him in their "best dog" contest. You'd march your dog, mostly with other mutts from the shelter, around in a circle while employees of the shelter would ask you why your dog is the "best dog." I could not even comprehend why I would have to prove he was the best dog ... of course, he was the best dog. He was my dog, just look at him.
Of course Rex did not win the best dog contest. It went to some lame dog who did tricks unlike Rex who just sat there and looked beautiful. It is still very obvious to me that he was indeed the "best" dog. We don't go to Woofstock anymore.
Beth and I grew up in similar circumstances. We had large families with no dogs. We lived in city/suburban type neighborhoods where it wasn't easy to have a dog. We had at least one parent that was dead set against it. Every Christmas I asked for a dog, every year I was disappointed with my gifts. When we grew up and moved out, we lived in dorms or rented apartments where dogs were not allowed. We got our fixes of dog love by dog sitting, walking friend's dogs and bothering strangers.
It wasn't until 2001, when Beth and I bought our first house that we finally got our dog. We had our eye on Rex early in 2001 at the Franklin County Humane Society in St. Albans, Vermont. He was a hound mix puppy, about five months old, mostly Rhodesian Ridgeback, we think. We knew we were closing on our house in a month so we ask if we could put a hold on him. They told us "NO" understandably, but we were disappointed. In a few days he was adopted by another family. We closed on our house a few weeks later in April and the very next day we drove back to the Humane Society to finally, after a few decades of wanting a dog, to get our first dog. We were very excited. When we got there we discovered Rex in one of their kennel cages. He had been returned by the family that had adopted him. So our conclusion was ... this is our dog. We had a fleeting belief in destiny. I still remember driving home in our '92 Corolla with Rex in the backseat, seeing him in the rear view mirror, thinking "that's my dog."
The idea of dog ownership is an odd one. For one, a dog is 99.8 % genetically identical to a wolf and we bring them into our houses and trust them, some of them more than other members of our families. After centuries of breeding we have bred out the .2% of wildness to have an amazing relationship, one unlike any other. But it is a relationship, not ownership. I didn't own Rex, I loved him. Perhaps for legal circumstances, we have to use the term "own" but it is not right. Any dog "owner" will tell you, ownership is something we use for objects, like cars and blankets, not for members of your family.
Rex had his problems: he had fear aggression, he barked a lot, he bit at least three people, he was relentless at begging for food and counter-surfing. For the past decade, the word "Rex" was probably the one word I have said loudly or in anger more often than any other word. Now that he has gone, I have done so twice already totally out of habit. But none of these things matter to what he brought us in the category of joy, companionship and laughter. He was cuddly and sweet. He was great on hike. We'd let him off-leash and run ahead and always stop and look back then wait for us. His tail was amazing; there exists no better barometer for joy than a hound's tail. He'd wag whenever you said his name. It was a great day when we discovered if you said the word "REd soX," slowly, he'd wag away. He protected the house. He loved the car. We'd always joke that everytime he got in the car, he thought he was going on a trip to Patten, Maine or Jekyl Island, Georgia. These are two places he particularly loved. He'd lick your feet while you were relaxing at the end of the day. He'd dance with me when I played G. Love's "Rodeo Clown." The thing I may miss the most is how he greeted me when I hadn't seen him in a long time. He jump up in excitement, wagging and barking. You've never see a happier creature than when I pick him up at a dog sitter's house. Surely, I was not worthy of this much love.
Tuesday evening we went to bed as usual. Rex sleeping between us, Max (our lab) sleeping at our feet and Cokie (our sheppard) sleeping on the floor beside the bed. When we awoke Rex was panting heavily and he wouldn't eat. By the end of the day he was gone. He had two tumors in the area around his heart. One of them had burst and filled him chest cavity with fluid. Because of where the tumors were, removing them could have killed him and there was no guarantee that they wouldn't grow back. I wanted to take him home, I wanted to snatch him away, I tried to rationalize taking him and letting him die in his sleep, but I was simply being selfish. My buddy was in pain. As stewards of his care, we had to make the awful decision to put him down. It is a macabre experience to put it lightly, but a necessary evil. He had 11+ years of great days and one very bad day. I have a lot of irrational guilt for what I had to do my friend. I know it was the correct and moral thing to do but this is no solace for the emotional me. We have a huge hole in our lives. Rex, my dog, my first dog, is gone forever. It will be awhile before I get over this.
Of course Rex did not win the best dog contest. It went to some lame dog who did tricks unlike Rex who just sat there and looked beautiful. It is still very obvious to me that he was indeed the "best" dog. We don't go to Woofstock anymore.
It wasn't until 2001, when Beth and I bought our first house that we finally got our dog. We had our eye on Rex early in 2001 at the Franklin County Humane Society in St. Albans, Vermont. He was a hound mix puppy, about five months old, mostly Rhodesian Ridgeback, we think. We knew we were closing on our house in a month so we ask if we could put a hold on him. They told us "NO" understandably, but we were disappointed. In a few days he was adopted by another family. We closed on our house a few weeks later in April and the very next day we drove back to the Humane Society to finally, after a few decades of wanting a dog, to get our first dog. We were very excited. When we got there we discovered Rex in one of their kennel cages. He had been returned by the family that had adopted him. So our conclusion was ... this is our dog. We had a fleeting belief in destiny. I still remember driving home in our '92 Corolla with Rex in the backseat, seeing him in the rear view mirror, thinking "that's my dog."
The idea of dog ownership is an odd one. For one, a dog is 99.8 % genetically identical to a wolf and we bring them into our houses and trust them, some of them more than other members of our families. After centuries of breeding we have bred out the .2% of wildness to have an amazing relationship, one unlike any other. But it is a relationship, not ownership. I didn't own Rex, I loved him. Perhaps for legal circumstances, we have to use the term "own" but it is not right. Any dog "owner" will tell you, ownership is something we use for objects, like cars and blankets, not for members of your family.
Rex had his problems: he had fear aggression, he barked a lot, he bit at least three people, he was relentless at begging for food and counter-surfing. For the past decade, the word "Rex" was probably the one word I have said loudly or in anger more often than any other word. Now that he has gone, I have done so twice already totally out of habit. But none of these things matter to what he brought us in the category of joy, companionship and laughter. He was cuddly and sweet. He was great on hike. We'd let him off-leash and run ahead and always stop and look back then wait for us. His tail was amazing; there exists no better barometer for joy than a hound's tail. He'd wag whenever you said his name. It was a great day when we discovered if you said the word "REd soX," slowly, he'd wag away. He protected the house. He loved the car. We'd always joke that everytime he got in the car, he thought he was going on a trip to Patten, Maine or Jekyl Island, Georgia. These are two places he particularly loved. He'd lick your feet while you were relaxing at the end of the day. He'd dance with me when I played G. Love's "Rodeo Clown." The thing I may miss the most is how he greeted me when I hadn't seen him in a long time. He jump up in excitement, wagging and barking. You've never see a happier creature than when I pick him up at a dog sitter's house. Surely, I was not worthy of this much love.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Alien Life Watching the Signing of the Magna Carta
If the Drake Equation is correct, then there are roughly 10,000 planets or other celestial bodies that have intelligent life on them at any given time in our galaxy, the Milky Way. So roughly, for every 1,000 light years, we should find one of these planets or moons containing intelligent life. The light (or images) from the closest of these celestial bodies would take 1,000 years (due to the speed of light) to get here even if we are viewing via telescope. So if we could observe spaceships leaving a planet's atmosphere, that would mean that this is what happened ... oh ... maybe 1,0000 years ago. The possibility also exists that we could be looking at a planet with intelligent life, that currently is in their space age, but we are looking into their bronze age because the image takes so long to get here. Mind-boggling once you start thinking about it.
It goes the other way as well. If an aliens species were watching us at this very minute, they could be watching the signing of the Magna Carta or the rise of the Pueblo civilization. They would not see our current highly advanced societies with our satellites circling the Earth not until the light we are transmitting reaches their telescopes some 1,000 or so years from now.
With this being said, one would think that the chances of a highly advanced technical people contacting each other, with two way communication, is not very likely. A very large window (time span) would have to be open when their respective civilizations overlapped. A world like that one portrayed in Star Trek, which is very pleasing and dreamy, is just not going to happen. We will never travel a short amount of time to meet alien cultures. I love that idea, it is a great plot device. But make no mistakes, Star Trek is good television, not good science.
It goes the other way as well. If an aliens species were watching us at this very minute, they could be watching the signing of the Magna Carta or the rise of the Pueblo civilization. They would not see our current highly advanced societies with our satellites circling the Earth not until the light we are transmitting reaches their telescopes some 1,000 or so years from now.
With this being said, one would think that the chances of a highly advanced technical people contacting each other, with two way communication, is not very likely. A very large window (time span) would have to be open when their respective civilizations overlapped. A world like that one portrayed in Star Trek, which is very pleasing and dreamy, is just not going to happen. We will never travel a short amount of time to meet alien cultures. I love that idea, it is a great plot device. But make no mistakes, Star Trek is good television, not good science.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Tacitus and the Ancient Germans
Much of what we know of as Europe, the nations that scatter that continent's map, was formed after ancient Rome fell and during its decline. Sometime around first or second century AD, the Roman army was over extended. Once they started retracting their units, the locals had to learn to protect themselves. There were some drawbacks to being under the protection of the Roman army, but one of the many benefits was that there was order and protection from foreign invasion and barbarian uprising. Once that protection was gone, the locals took charge, sometimes anarchy ensued, new tribes were formed and new boundaries were drawn.
It was right about this time that we start hearing about the German people. They were described as a fierce tribe of people who lived in a region with harsh weather. They were tall, had blue eyes, reddish blond hair and sternness in their gaze. When they went into battle, entire families would accompany them and would cheer from the side lines like we do now at sporting events. The most of what we know of these people come from the Roman scholar, senator and historian, Tacitus. In his book, Germania, (written around 98 AD), he describes them as an isolated nation of "noble savages" that had not mixed with the Roman empire, as the Nazis would later refer to as being "pure."
Copies of the book disappeared for centuries until the 15th century. It has been called one of the most dangerous books ever written. It was used to inspire the German invasion of Turkish land in the 15th century and more recently by Heimlich Himmler of the Nazi regime as a guidebook to resurrect Germany. Hitler found it so important he sponsored raids to seize copies of text. Many of the ideas promoted about the superiority of the German came right out of its text.
It is amazing to me how a text written by an ancient Roman senator in the first century AD indirectly affected millions of people in 20th century and possibly beyond.
It was right about this time that we start hearing about the German people. They were described as a fierce tribe of people who lived in a region with harsh weather. They were tall, had blue eyes, reddish blond hair and sternness in their gaze. When they went into battle, entire families would accompany them and would cheer from the side lines like we do now at sporting events. The most of what we know of these people come from the Roman scholar, senator and historian, Tacitus. In his book, Germania, (written around 98 AD), he describes them as an isolated nation of "noble savages" that had not mixed with the Roman empire, as the Nazis would later refer to as being "pure."
Copies of the book disappeared for centuries until the 15th century. It has been called one of the most dangerous books ever written. It was used to inspire the German invasion of Turkish land in the 15th century and more recently by Heimlich Himmler of the Nazi regime as a guidebook to resurrect Germany. Hitler found it so important he sponsored raids to seize copies of text. Many of the ideas promoted about the superiority of the German came right out of its text.
It is amazing to me how a text written by an ancient Roman senator in the first century AD indirectly affected millions of people in 20th century and possibly beyond.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Curie and the Prize
Marie Curie is the only person to receive a Nobel Prize in two distinct scientific disciplines. In 1903 she was awarded the Prize for physics (shared it with her colleague Antoine Henri Becquerel and her husband Pierre) and in 1911 for chemistry. She was not originally included on the prize in 1903 until her husband, Pierre, complained. He wrote: "If it is true that one is seriously thinking about me [for the Nobel Prize], I very much wish to be considered together with Madame Curie with respect to our research on radioactive bodies." The letter was written to mathematician
Gösta Mittag-Leffler who was an advocate for women in science. Neither of the Curies showed up in Stockholm for the ceremony citing illness.
In 1911, when Marie accepted the prize alone for her work in chemistry, she was a widow. Pierre died in a fluke accident involving a horse drawn carriage. In Paris, in a heavy rain, he was knocked over by the carriage and the wheel crushed his head. Some think that he may have survived the crash if not for his weakened state due to exposure to radiation.
Marie Curie coined the phrase, "radioactivity" in her theory of radioactivity. She developed techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes and discovered two elements, polonium and radium. At the time, it wasn't known how dangerous radiation exposure was to your health. Much of her work was done without proper protection. Considering this, it is amazing that she lived until 1934 and died at the age of 66. She often walked around with test tubes of radioactive isotopes in her pocket, stored then in her desk and sometime took the train with a suitcase full of radioactive material. She died of aplastic anemia, a result of a long term exposure to radiation, which is a condition where your bone marrow no longer produces new cells anymore.
In 1911, when Marie accepted the prize alone for her work in chemistry, she was a widow. Pierre died in a fluke accident involving a horse drawn carriage. In Paris, in a heavy rain, he was knocked over by the carriage and the wheel crushed his head. Some think that he may have survived the crash if not for his weakened state due to exposure to radiation.
Marie Curie coined the phrase, "radioactivity" in her theory of radioactivity. She developed techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes and discovered two elements, polonium and radium. At the time, it wasn't known how dangerous radiation exposure was to your health. Much of her work was done without proper protection. Considering this, it is amazing that she lived until 1934 and died at the age of 66. She often walked around with test tubes of radioactive isotopes in her pocket, stored then in her desk and sometime took the train with a suitcase full of radioactive material. She died of aplastic anemia, a result of a long term exposure to radiation, which is a condition where your bone marrow no longer produces new cells anymore.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Romanian Irony
Most of the time I am proud of my country. The creativity, innovation and spunk of the American populace is inspiring. But all too often I am embarrassed. While the much of the world is rioting for human rights and a lot of other things we take for granted, what do we riot over? We riot over a Penn State football coach being fired. I can't wrap my head around what is going on over at Penn State. I am a sport fan. I have been known be fanatical over the Red Sox. But if any member of the Red Sox (like Terry Francona, Jim Rice or even Ted Williams) had ever been fired for the covering up of pedophilia, I don't think I would be rioting. I can't speak for all Sox fans, but I am willing to bet there wouldn't be a riot but some depression and/or denial. I would probably even agree with the firing. I will just have to add the Penn State riots to the long list of things I don't understand and ... move on.
I don't remember the Romanian riots in 1989. I was a bit self-absorbed back then. I only vaguely remember the slew of other violent revolts in Warsaw Pact countries that year, but as I read about them they seem an awful lot like the revolutions (aka the Arab Spring) in the Middle East this past year. Since the revolutions in Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania lead to the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union a short time later, you really have to wonder what the long term affect of the Arab Spring will be. It is exciting when I think about it.
I don't know much about Romania out of side of what I have read in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Castles and underfunded orphanages come to mind. In 1965, the year I was born, Nicolae Ceauşescu became the Communist dictator of Romania. With the intention of molding the people into the model of the "New Socialist Man," he created sweeping reforms throughout the country. One of then was one of the strictest laws ever against abortion with the intent of strengthening the Romanian population. Not only that, but all forms of contraception were banned and women were taxed, "a celibacy tax," if there were not getting pregnant. These laws had the desired affect in that the birthrate doubled within a year. But the children of this generation's quality of life was much lower than just a few years earlier in every way. The grades were lower, crime rates were higher and when they got older the job market was stretched thin. In Romania, like anywhere else, when a child is born into a family that doesn't want him/her, the results are usually not good. The irony here is that in 1989, when Ceauşescu was overthrown and he and his wife were executed, he was done so by a mob that were made up mostly of young people. Mobs of people in their late teens and earlier 20's were erupting in Bucharest and all the other big cities in Romania. If not for his policies, much of these young people would never have been born.
I don't remember the Romanian riots in 1989. I was a bit self-absorbed back then. I only vaguely remember the slew of other violent revolts in Warsaw Pact countries that year, but as I read about them they seem an awful lot like the revolutions (aka the Arab Spring) in the Middle East this past year. Since the revolutions in Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania lead to the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union a short time later, you really have to wonder what the long term affect of the Arab Spring will be. It is exciting when I think about it.
I don't know much about Romania out of side of what I have read in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Castles and underfunded orphanages come to mind. In 1965, the year I was born, Nicolae Ceauşescu became the Communist dictator of Romania. With the intention of molding the people into the model of the "New Socialist Man," he created sweeping reforms throughout the country. One of then was one of the strictest laws ever against abortion with the intent of strengthening the Romanian population. Not only that, but all forms of contraception were banned and women were taxed, "a celibacy tax," if there were not getting pregnant. These laws had the desired affect in that the birthrate doubled within a year. But the children of this generation's quality of life was much lower than just a few years earlier in every way. The grades were lower, crime rates were higher and when they got older the job market was stretched thin. In Romania, like anywhere else, when a child is born into a family that doesn't want him/her, the results are usually not good. The irony here is that in 1989, when Ceauşescu was overthrown and he and his wife were executed, he was done so by a mob that were made up mostly of young people. Mobs of people in their late teens and earlier 20's were erupting in Bucharest and all the other big cities in Romania. If not for his policies, much of these young people would never have been born.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Superman Fighting the KKK
As a life-long Marvel Comics fan, I have always turned my nose up to DC Comics. DC comics always seemed too simplistic. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman may have seemed really creative when they were created in the 1940's but for my post-hippy angst, Marvel was much more appealing. Stan Lee created characters like Spiderman, the Hulk and X-men in the 1960's. They are much more complex. Their stories have an edge to them and have a lot more social commentary in them with themes of racism, otherness and individuality.
I just finished a chapter in Freakonomics (by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner) that gave me new appreciation for Superman, not the comic but the radio show. In the 1940's political activist Stetson Kennedy went undercover with the Ku Klux Klan with the intention of publishing a book about their inner workings. He learned a lot of their secrets like their recruiting techniques, passwords, handshakes and terminology. For example, when a Klansman went on the road, they could find other Klansmen by asking around for "Mr Ayak" which stood for "Are you a Klansman?". If a Klansman heard someone asking for Mr. Ayak at a bar, a church etc., they could identify themselves by replying "Yes, and I also know a Mr. Akai" which stood for "A Klansman Am I."
The Klan was growing strong. Kennedy thought that just another journalistic book would not affect the spread of bigotry enough, he had a better idea. He contacted the producers of the very popular Superman radio show. Superman was running out of villains. Why not take on the Klan? "The Clan of the Fiery Cross" was born in 1946. For 16 episodes Superman battled the Klan. In these episodes the Ayak/Akai passwords were revealed and the Klan mystique was demystified. If the following years the Klan attendance dropped and recruitment plummeted. What was once a secret code was now common and afloat in the pop culture airways.
Levitt and Dubner call Kennedy, the "biggest blow" to the KKK in their history. They may have over stated this, but the idea that tolerance is good business may have started here. Nonetheless my appreciation for Superman, real world or otherwise has greatly increased.
I just finished a chapter in Freakonomics (by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner) that gave me new appreciation for Superman, not the comic but the radio show. In the 1940's political activist Stetson Kennedy went undercover with the Ku Klux Klan with the intention of publishing a book about their inner workings. He learned a lot of their secrets like their recruiting techniques, passwords, handshakes and terminology. For example, when a Klansman went on the road, they could find other Klansmen by asking around for "Mr Ayak" which stood for "Are you a Klansman?". If a Klansman heard someone asking for Mr. Ayak at a bar, a church etc., they could identify themselves by replying "Yes, and I also know a Mr. Akai" which stood for "A Klansman Am I."
The Klan was growing strong. Kennedy thought that just another journalistic book would not affect the spread of bigotry enough, he had a better idea. He contacted the producers of the very popular Superman radio show. Superman was running out of villains. Why not take on the Klan? "The Clan of the Fiery Cross" was born in 1946. For 16 episodes Superman battled the Klan. In these episodes the Ayak/Akai passwords were revealed and the Klan mystique was demystified. If the following years the Klan attendance dropped and recruitment plummeted. What was once a secret code was now common and afloat in the pop culture airways.
Levitt and Dubner call Kennedy, the "biggest blow" to the KKK in their history. They may have over stated this, but the idea that tolerance is good business may have started here. Nonetheless my appreciation for Superman, real world or otherwise has greatly increased.
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