Just a few things to link to for your evening reading enjoyment and/or frustration.
1) The Orionid meteor shower peaks over the next few days! These meteors, remnants of comet Halley, appear to stream form the direction of the constellation Orion. Check out Tom’s Astronomy Blog and Science@NASA for more info.
2) Nancy Atkinson at Universe Today reports that a scientist working on both LRO and Chandrayaan-1 has been arrested for espionage. Wow.
3) Sylvia Browne just got a book deal with Harper Collins, which includes a series of books by other authors about the supernatural and spirituality, called The Sylvia Browne Collection. Barf. The cool thing is, the linked article mentions Randi, who has been tireless in holding Browne’s feet to the fire when it comes to her claims of the paranormal. Maybe a debate can be set up on The View…?
Nah. Silly question.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
So what happens if a large number of us write hand-sent (as in postal mail, which tends to count for more) letters to Harper Collins lamenting the fact that we will avoid buying books from their imprints as a result of their choice for publish Browne?
Make it clear that we are not protesting the freedom of free expression in print, but the fact that she does demonstrable harm and, as such, publishing her aids her in harming others?
Just wondering out loud…
October 20th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Chris Ambler:
I think the only good that could come from it would be pumping a little more money into the Postal Service! On HC’s end I don’t think it would make a bit of difference.; they’d realize that you are not their target audience and know there are plenty of other rubes who will fork over their cash.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I didn’t mean this book.
I meant any books. At all. For a long time. As in, “Dear Harper Collins – since you’ve decided to publish an author that demonstrably harms others, I will refrain from buying any books from any of your imprints and will patronize your competition, instead. It’s nothing personal, I assure you. We’re still on for drinks next Tuesday.”
That kind of thing.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Dear Harper Collins
Since you have decided to publish an author whose writings are an insult to intelligent people everywhere, I will boycott your business. The content of Sylvia Browne’s book is so demonstrably false, the book cannot even be called bad fiction.
October 20th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Whoa, I read the headline about the guy arrested for espionage but I didn’t read further until I saw this post and found out he was connected to space exploration.
Question for Phil (or anyone who knows really): I know background checks are mandatory for scientists in certain non-military-oriented arenas. I’ll be applying to a DOE program on nuclear chemistry soon, and one of the conditions was a background check. Which is fine obviously, but I was wondering if people who work on rockets for peaceful purposes are required to go further and obtain actual clearances.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Halley’s comet has spawned a couple of meteor showers hasn’t it?
Any prospect of an especially good shower or even a meteor storm this time round?
@6 The Chemist : I was wondering if people who work on rockets for peaceful purposes are required to go further and obtain actual clearances.
I would expect – & hope – so. Problem is that “peaceful purposes” can so easily be converted to missile technology. If you have a rocket that can launch a payload of a certain size and weight then you can make that payload either peaceful like a satellite or spacecraft or military like a nuclear warhead even multiple nuclear warheads as you choose.
America (mostly) chooses to opt for peaceful methods and means eg. going to the Moon in peace for all Humanity. However, other nations (yes, China, Iran, & North Korea I’m looking at you here) may not be so benevolently inclined. Seeing certain totalitarian, conquest minded nations develop more powerful and capable rockets should always be a worrrying sign whatever they claim to be seeking to use them for.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Additional note:
The Moon race, of course, was part of the Cold War & a demonstration of US capability. So its a little more complex than America purely “going in peace for all mankind” but, in essence, the USA’s program was peaceful and scientific.
While the USA is not without faults it is generally a good hearted, well-intentioned nation.
Sometimes, I think we err greatly in assuming other nations are also like that. Many are not.
I am very glad we beat Communist Russia to the Moon and rather worried about the potential issues that may arise if Communist (or now really just Dictatorship) China ever gets too far ahead in rocket and space technology. Controlling the high ground has always been a significant factor and I don’t want the West to surrender control of the “high ground” of Space or rocket technology to a totalitarian nation that seeks to rule people’s lives brutally and undemocratically.
When you look at what China does in Tibet and elsewhere, look at the 1989 Tianamin square massacre of its own people, its constant threats to Taiwan, etc .. it really makes me hope they never do get too powerful or develop any more than the slimmest space technology or “space race” lead over us. I would hate to see a situation where the Chinese – backed by superior firepower – could ever tell us or our children what to do.
I can’t see the rogue nations of Iran and North Korea ever posing quite the same threat, they may well collapse soon from within and are really only regional trouble-makers but I still think that preventing either of these dangerous and brutal totalitarian rogue nations from developing good rockets and space technology should be our goal. Preferably peacefully via sanctions and diplomacy if that’s possible. But we should not rule out using our military might if it becomes necessary because we will use it generally for good not evil and with regard to the loss of innocent life. The same cannot be said for them.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Unfortunately, China owns our asses, space “high ground” or not. Have a look at how much of the national debt is owned by China. Care to think about what happens to the US if they cash in all that debt? They don’t NEED space to be telling us and our children what to do.
October 20th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Phil, you see the Wired Magazine article about vaccinations? It’s a good read if you missed it.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:37 am
#8
“While the USA is not without faults it is generally a good hearted, well-intentioned nation. ”
So was that big dog that knocked my daughter over when it tried to lick her face. But the bruises still hurt. There are few things worse than well intentioned incompetence
October 21st, 2009 at 3:18 am
Why do meteor showers come from the same direction relative to the background stars? I don’t understand why it’s quite so predictable when this debris must be strung out in space, and affected by the gravity of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon.
October 21st, 2009 at 5:11 am
Phil, can you remove that link at no 4 quickly. It’s SPAM and possibly spyware.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:25 am
I second Sophia8’s request. It’s definitely NSFW material. (Not safe for home either.)
October 21st, 2009 at 6:32 am
@DaveS,
Actually, I’d look not at how much national debt is owned by China, but at the “manufactured in” labels. Seriously, go into a store and start looking at labels. I’ll guarantee that at least half of the items are made in China. Go to a toy store and it might be closer to 80%. The US has given up almost all of its manufacturing capability to China to save a few bucks. So not only does China own our debt, but they own the means to produce the things we want to buy. No matter what cool technology we come up with, chances are it’ll be sent to China to be made.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:11 am
TechyDad and DaveS, Yes China owns an enormous percentage of our debt. But if they cash it in they’d actually destroy their own economy at the same time. Why? because calling in the debt would devalue American dollars to the point where the debt would be worthless to them crashing their economy. They can hold the sword over our heads but, push come to shove, they don’t dare cut us with it.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:21 am
“No matter what cool technology we come up with, chances are it’ll be sent to China to be made.”
I know what you mean, but this isn’t quite right.
The US manufactures lots of things that are in fact bought by china and japan. semiconductor equipment is one large area. gas purification equipment is another. Cars (for some reasons buicks are in high demand, who knows why?)
I realize that what we manufacture may have become a smaller segment of total goods purchased and most of what the average joe finds in a store was made over there, but the more expensive , lower volume equipment is still build here and will probably remain that way for some time.
there is in fact a lot of stuff still made here that even requires mass manufacturing processes, batteries and components of batteries are even made in NY. Lots of beverage bottles.
Toyota and Honda even have plants here in the US.
I would like to see electronics make it back here. I personally just wish people would stop buying the dumb plastic items dominated by china (mostly toys).
I’m not naive, I realize lots of manufacturing has left the US for cheaper waters. particularly components of larger systems. I’m just pointing out that what joe schmoe sees in the store is not necessarily indicicative of the entire manufacturing story.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:44 am
Oops, not sure how that spam comment got through. Thanks for letting me know!
October 21st, 2009 at 8:09 am
I wrote what I consider a polite e-mail to HarperCollins:
I’ve always respected the quality of the books produced HarperCollins; your logo on a book is something I’ve long considered a mark of quality. Alas, no more.
I’ve never been a fan of the HarperOne lable, but its support of Ms. Sylvia Browne (see http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/behind_the_deal/harperone_gets_exclusive_with_sylvia_browne_140636.asp) is unconscionable. This is a woman who repeatedly gives erroneous and dangerous medical advice, despite her lack of qualifications. She is a woman who preys on the fear and hopes of people undergoing the most painful experiences, like a missing child. And she does these things despite a total lack of evidence for her supposed “abilities” – worse, she continues to do them despite evidence that she does not have any special skill.
I know that the buying activity of a single bibliophile is unlikely to make even a blip on your balance sheet, yet I will not be buying HarperCollins books any longer. Supporting charlatans as they prey on the frightened is just not something I can support.
—
I think that last paragraph hits the point exactly: refusing to support them may make no real difference, but I still feel like it’s the right thing to do.
October 21st, 2009 at 8:11 am
Off topic, but I’m hoping someone can help me out. I woke up this morning around 6:30 and took the dogs outside sometime around 6:35. I live just outside Atlanta and in the morning, the skies are actually kind of dark (not super dark, but dark for a city), and so I usually like to take a look up to see the stars in the morning, especially now that Orion is up high at that time (although now it’s getting obscured by the trees in the back yard.
This morning, I saw something quite odd. When I looked up, I saw a light, fairly bright and clearly whitish, that “blinked”. I did so three times, regular intervals and then was gone. I only saw it briefly, so I did not see which direction that it was traveling. In fact, I couldn’t even be sure is was moving at all, but, as I said, i only saw it for a few seconds at best, and half that time it was not visible.
It was near Canis Major, maybe a fist or two away from Sirius. I checked Heavens Above, of course, and the only thing that I can see around that time on there is the Okean O Rocket. It would have been in the area, and it does flash, but judging from the information, I should have passed at least 10 minutes earlier (I don’t think by clock is that fast), and the description for the satellite say it does flash, but it say 2-3 times per second, and I’m confident that I watched it for more then 3 seconds for those three flashes.
Anyone have any ideas?
October 21st, 2009 at 8:37 am
Nozette has worked for with Israeli contacts previously.
Why do we keep letting the Israelis spy on us? Nozette should have worked for Richard Perle or AIPAC or the ADL, then his espionage for Israel would have been ignored.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:12 am
@Spectroscope
What, pray tell, is a “rogue nation”? I hear it a lot, I just don’t think the phrase has any real meaning.
I do expect that people who work on rockets would have to get a security clearance, but it’s my fault for not making my question clear enough- Which people? What I meant to really ask was how far does it go? Does someone working on the payload part have to get clearance? Launch site engineers, fuel specialists, etc. I’m just curious about the breakdown.
October 21st, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I was walking for about 20 minutes this morning, looking mostly at Orion, as it’s one of only about 4 or 5 constellations I can pick out. I actually let out a little squeal of delight when I realized the sky was clear, it was dark, and I had a 20 min walk ahead of me.
Anyway, I was enjoying my walk and a rare (for me) chance to look at the stars. I saw three meteors in that time, all in/near Orion. One was so bright I actually said “Oooh”. I tried to remember when the Orionids are, but couldn’t.
So I started the day off by independently rediscovering a meteor shower. And somehow I managed not to break my leg or wander in front of a car. Much better than finding a forgotten 20 in your pocket!
October 21st, 2009 at 6:30 pm
@spectroscope
I view rogue nation as a rhetoric device by the US, one designed to rile up as much people in order to go to unecessary wars. Frankly, US itself is a bit of a rogue nation as well, what with its highly emotional reactions to events and breaking several international laws while at it.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Went out and say one orionid. A few minutes after that heard coyotes howling in the woods, so I took off. Kind of hazy out anyway.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:18 am
@ 8. DaveS Says:
Unfortunately, China owns our asses, space “high ground” or not. Have a look at how much of the national debt is owned by China. Care to think about what happens to the US if they cash in all that debt? They don’t NEED space to be telling us and our children what to do.
True enough and very regrettable in my view but I also have to agree with Gadfly’s comemnt in post 15:
TechyDad and DaveS, Yes China owns an enormous percentage of our debt. But if they cash it in they’d actually destroy their own economy at the same time. Why? because calling in the debt would devalue American dollars to the point where the debt would be worthless to them crashing their economy. They can hold the sword over our heads but, push come to shove, they don’t dare cut us with it.
Besides China holding an economic threat over our heads doesn’t make it acceptable for them to hold military or technological advantage over us too. No, indeedy it only makes it worse. If they do have economic leverage then that’s all the *more* reason for us to keep our “high ground” space lead to offset that form of power.
@ 14. TechyDad Says:
@DaveS, Actually, I’d look not at how much national debt is owned by China, but at the “manufactured in” labels. Seriously, go into a store and start looking at labels. I’ll guarantee that at least half of the items are made in China. Go to a toy store and it might be closer to 80%. The US has given up almost all of its manufacturing capability to China to save a few bucks.
You know why this is of course – China can produce things much cheaper
because its environmental, labour, health & safety standards are lower. Its exploiting its workers worse, destroying its environment more and holds human life very cheaply indeed. So much for the “level playing field” & so much for the Socialist workers utopia.
@ 10. Dave Brown Says:
#8 “While the USA is not without faults it is generally a good hearted, well-intentioned nation. ”
So was that big dog that knocked my daughter over when it tried to lick her face. But the bruises still hurt. There are few things worse than well intentioned incompetence.
Try sadistic malevolent savagery instead.
If we follow your analogy here then America might be a big dopey,friendly labrador that knocks a very small kid over by accident then tries to lick its wounds better.
China, OTOH, would be a vicious rabid pit bull that races at the same kid on purpose and grabs it by the throat quickly and happily mauling it to death.
That’s the difference – and I think there are many things far worse than incompetence.
@23. IBY Says:
@spectroscope I view rogue nation as a rhetoric device by the US, one designed to rile up as much people in order to go to unecessary wars. Frankly, US itself is a bit of a rogue nation as well, what with its highly emotional reactions to events and breaking several international laws while at it.
Well you are entitled to your opinion and, equally, I’m entitled to think you are quite wrong.
The USA is a superpower and a leader of the free Western world. It is also a democracy with many checks and balances – the hullabaloo with protests etc .. against the war in Iraq would never be permitted in China, Iran or North Korea where dissenters such as you would be taken out and imprisoned or executed.
Did we go to war unnecessarily? Easy to say in hindsight, but everyone at the time thought Iraq had WMDs and anyway that’s a whole other debate. Saddam Hussein was an evil tyrant who murdered thousands and ruled his people by brute force and terror – and supported terrorism against Israel. I don’t know about you but I didn’t shed any tears over his overthrow or death.
Rhetoric? Maybe to some extent but I think it does also mean something beyond the simply rhetorical.
@ 21. The Chemist Says:
@ Spectroscope What, pray tell, is a “rogue nation”? I hear it a lot, I just don’t think the phrase has any real meaning.
‘Rogue nations’ I would define as those seeking to threaten world peace and stability and act against an international concensus to cause trouble and present a menace to their neighbours.
Iran is a rogue nation because it is a crazy Islamofascist theocracy with delusions of grandeur that has repeated threatened to annhiliate the Jewish state -and whose leader has repeatedly denied the Holocaust – as well as the existence of gays in his nation. It is seeking to build nuclear weapons or power despite having huge stocks of oil and is belicose about developing a powerful military. Its the place where mobs are incited to chant “Death to America” & mean it – & it sponsers the terrorist groups Hamas and Hizbollah that sends homicide bombers to blow up buses and restaurants fullof innocent civilians.
Do you think this is all fine & dandy & not qualifying of rogue nation status?
North Korea is a starving, drug-speddling, nuclear bomb testing power ruled by the very bizarre and one can only say utter whackjob Communist Dictator Kim Jong Il. It helps ship arms & nuclear components to Iran, peddles drugs around the world and has repeatedly violated its treaties and agreements, it has kidnapped Japanese schoolgirls to use as agents, has starved brutalised and brain-washed its populace and, oh yeah, is technically still at war with South Korea which it constantly menaces.
Is that not your idea of a rogue nation? If not why?
As I said everyone’s entitled to their opinion, this is after all a free country. You are even allowed to have opinions that undermine & disrespect that freedom if you so choose although in the long run if we get enough people thinking your way then we lose that very freedom.
Personally, I like living in a free and democratic nation where I can speak my mind and not be punished for it and have a say in what my nation does. I think Western values are a good thing. I’d hate to live in China or Iran or North Korea – and if course if I lived there I couldn’t speak as freely as you do or I’m doing now.
Please try to think about that for a while before you post again. Not that I can make you or anything it’d just be nice.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:44 am
@Spectroscope – you make good points re the rogue nation question. Think of it from the other country’s side. Who would north korea consider a rogue nation ? And remember just because nobody agrees with you on something, does not mean that you are wrong. I agree with your definition etc:
‘Rogue nations’ I would define as …
threaten world peace (Iraq invasion on a bed of lies, anyone?)
… and stability (supplying arms to Afghanistan vs Russia and flattening half a country to kill one man who they’re still looking for)
… and act against an international concensus (that’s why the reports to get the world to agree to invading Iraq were fabricated, as nobody agreed until they were lied to) to cause trouble and present a menace to their neighbours.
So are you the pot or the kettle ? Both are black.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:18 am
For more on the Orionid meteors may I recommend?
the Meteor showers online site:
http://meteorshowersonline.com/orionids.html
Quotes from there:
“The Orionids generally begin on October 15 and end on October 29, with maximum generally occurring during the morning hours of October 20-22. The Orionids are barely detectable on the beginning and ending dates, but observers in the Northern Hemisphere will see around 20 meteors per hour at maximum, while observers in the Southern Hemisphere will see around 40 meteors per hour. The maximum can last two or three nights, although there is evidence of some fluctuation from year to year.
& also
“The discovery of the Orionid meteor shower should be credited to E. C. Herrick (Connecticut, USA). In 1839, he made the ambiguous statement that activity seemed to be present.”
So that’s the 180th anniversary of the Orionid showers discovery this year!
Happy 180th birthday Orionids – here’s hoping you have a storming celebration!
Finally, one more quote if I may please this time from:
http://www.examiner.com/x-8054-St-Louis-Astronomy-Examiner~y2009m10d16-Halleys-Comet-Returnssort-of
“The astronomer C. P. Olivier (Virginia, USA) noted in 1911 that the orbit of the Orionids was quite similar to the orbit of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. This was an intriguing idea because it had already been determined that the latter shower was produced by the famous Halley’s Comet. A debate followed because the orbit of Halley’s Comet did not come close enough to Earth in October to produce such a strong shower. The debate continued for over 7 decades. Finally, in 1983, B. A. McIntosh (Ottawa, Canada) and A. Hajduk (Bratislava, Czechoslovakia) noted, “the meteoroids simply exist in orbits where the comet was many revolutions ago.” Indeed, the orbit of the Orionids almost perfectly matched the orbit that Halley’s Comet moved in about 2300 years ago.
Hope y’all find that interesting & worthwhile. Feel free to forward on & edit this if anyone wishes to do so.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Sylvia Browne is coming to Phoenix soon. If I had more ambition I’d try to get people together to protest her talk or something. Pity I’m so darn lazy. I’ll just write a snarky blog article about her instead!