Friday

Fun Facts -- Fun Facts About Space (Celebrating Astronomy Day!)

 


If you are an astronaut, you shouldn’t cry over spilt milk

In space, spilt milk will bead, forcing you to suck up each tiny sphere if you still want to ingest it.  If you cry about it, it only makes it worse with all those beaded tears mixing in with the milk. So, don’t cry over the spilt milk. Just act like an adult and suck it up. Okay?

There’s a first time for everything

Back in 1973, NASA launched the Mariner 10 spacecraft. It was the first spacecraft to use the “gravity assist” technique, which was necessary to conserve fuel. The spacecraft used the gravity of Venus to catapult itself to Mercury, where it did several fly-bys, and snapped photos of 45% of the planet. 

Two metals stuck in space

Let’s say a paper clip and a curling iron are floating in space and they rudely bump into each other. They will instantly fuse together. I thought, at first reading of this fact that the two metals were desperate for company and thus, clung to each other like two feeding ticks. Turns out, it’s just science and the phenomenon is called “cold welding.” This cold welding becomes a problem when using metal tools in space, so engineers coat the metal tools before giving them to the astronauts so they can work on the space station without mishap.

Diamonds are a girl’s best planet

There are huge planets in the universe that are made entirely of diamond. When I find the location of the biggest one, I’m keeping it a secret and I’m not tellin’.

De Beers, look out!

Thursday

Short Fiction -- Soldier Fights the Harshness of Mars to Reach His Lady Love (We Celebrate Astronomy Day!)



By Denise Miller Holmes, Author


I was dating this good, kind and gorgeous Earth girl for about six months when the military called me to duty. It was during that time when the government was building prisons on Mars because Earth citizens, who embraced the “not in my back yard” movement, had won over the prison system’s need for real estate.

Mars was as far away from Earth as you could get with the technology we had at the time. For the Earthers, it was good. For me, it was a quantum, soul-sucking mess.

I figured out immediately upon arriving that my colonel, the operating officer of the installation, had it out for me. At first, I rationalized that his hatred for me was because he was a Martian human—born and raised in the old Martian colony. It is as true now as it was in the old days, that because of the puny gravity of the planet, human males who are raised on Mars are at least twelve-feet tall by adulthood. Earth males, in contrast, rise to a mere six feet on average.

My muscles were robust compared to the colonel’s reed-thin frame, yet Col. Malfrom made me, a 26-year-old soldier, want to weep and wet myself when he stood over me and glowered. No matter how strong I was, I was always hyperaware that I would never be able to deliver a respectable punch in his face without first asking him to bend down so I could tell him a secret.

The only alternative would be to punch him in the groin, and I would never do that because I had a personal ethos against hitting below the belt.

The real reason that Malfrom hated me, I found out, was his love for the woman I’d left on Earth. We’d dated for about five months and she told me about all the terrible things her ex had done to her. Now I’d put five and five together, and wish I’d known her ex’s name before I’d said yes to this assignment.

They say that knowledge is power but knowledge of his motivations to torment me didn’t make a difference in this circumstance—he still had it out for me and I was still his subordinate.

I’d been there about six months when the colonel approached me and said, “Sean, come with me into my office.” Okay, perhaps my multiple requests for a phone call to Earth had been heard and approved.

I followed him into his office, then sat down obediently when he pointed at a hard, metal, office chair. He grabbed another chair, sat across from me and eyed me like a snake that was planning to strike.

Because I was nervous, my throat went dry and I kept trying to clear it. He offered not one drop of water. I tried to say something, but he spoke instead.

“I’ve green-lighted your phone call,” he said in a flat tone, never taking his eyes off me. “I haven’t been ignoring you. It took a long time because the communications array was nearly destroyed in that sand storm and it took a whole month to fix it.”

I’m sure I looked relieved. Then he smiled as if he’d trapped his prey. “You want to call Genevra, don’t you?”

“Word gets around.” I adjusted my collar. It felt tight.

“You want to propose to her, yeah? I mean, you’ve been gone so long, I bet you’re worried someone else will ask her. She’s getting on in age and maybe feeling tired of waiting for you to come home. Besides, I hear the eligible Earth bachelors are pounding down her door. Rumor is, she wants a family.”

“She’s going to be 29 in 2091. I don’t think her world is ending.”

I didn’t tell him I’d suffered a series of night sweats recently over that very thing—her clock, her impatience. But I stopped worrying when I remembered how much she loved me.

“Are you going to let me call her now, or not?” I asked, letting all the air out of my lungs. I waited to breathe.

“Okay, but there are some rules,” he said, wagging a finger at me.

Of course there are.

“We’re at perigee, which means we’ve settled into the closest distance to Earth. That makes it possible to say something and have Genevra hear it in about five minutes.”

My heart stopped for a couple seconds. “Okay, what else?”

“That means that she’ll answer, but you won’t hear it for five minutes. You’ll say a short spiel, then she’ll wait five minutes to hear that. When she responds, you’ll either hear a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ or, most likely, a detailed description of what she had for dinner last night. If it isn’t ‘yes,’ I click the off switch, ‘Got it?”

My angry stomach churned. “Can’t wait to hear.” My words gushed sarcasm.

“You are wondering why I won’t give you a second chance to convince her, or even to clarify her words, aren’t you?” he said, reading my mind.

When I said nothing, the colonel continued. “Because you are an arrogant Earther who flexes his fat Neanderthal muscles around me whenever he can, and because, for some stupid reason, she prefers you over me, I’m going to only give you one chance to get her to say yes to your proposal.”

“Is that all?” I asked in my best casual tone. “There is no other reason?”

He stood up, drawing himself to his full height, as if getting in touch with that extra ego pack he kept inside his heart for special emergencies. Then, he leaned down, close enough to spit in my eye. “I just want to see your face when she says, ‘No.’”

I waited a tick, then said, “Ok, it works for me.”

You probably think I’m crazy taking the deal but I knew my girl loved me. She would have said ‘yes’ a few months ago when I’d left. On the other hand, it had been six months without a phone call. Girls hate that. What would she say? I had to try.

He led me into the communications room, a room walled off completely by glass, with a steel table that held equipment and a huge microphone. Lights flashed as I sat down in front of the mic, and Malfrom worked the dials and levers as if using this technology were an art. When I heard her voice come over the speaker, I thought I’d die. But all she said was, “Malfrom, why are you calling me?”

Eventually, the colonel let me speak. “Genevra,” the words struggled to get out. “I love you. I might be here a while, so I have to ask it now, Will you marry me?

That was it. What would she say? Could I convince Malfrom to have mercy and let her answer again if her words were garbled?

After a long five minutes, the speaker crackled. She was coming back on the array! I braced myself. Please God, let her say ‘yes’.

The crackle continued for a bit, then her sweet voice filled the room. “Sean? Is that you? What did you say?”

A sharp snap filled my ears as Col. Malfrom flipped the disconnect switch. He stood up, triumphant, his full height lording over me.

Rage poured into my lungs, and desperation filled my heart. The need to do something propelled my thoughts forward, and I quickly settled on what action to take. I truly had no choice.

“Colonel,” I said, putting on my most innocent face. “Come here.” I motioned him to bend toward me. “I have a secret to tell you.”

Science and Society--Human-Neanderthal Hybrid: Storms, Ethics, and a Surprise

By Denise Miller Holmes



George Church, one of the major drivers of the Human Genome Project, has also been busy studying the DNA of Neanderthals, those ancient peoples who are genetically close to modern humans but still have enough differences as to be called Homo neanderthalensis instead of Homo sapiens.

An ethical storm brewed when articles surfaced in early 2013 quoting Church as wanting an "extremely adventurous female woman" to be a surrogate mother for a Neanderthal clone baby. The Neanderthal fetus would be created from the DNA derived from a Neanderthal jaw bone with any missing DNA filled in with synthetic genetic information. The YouTube video below shows a basic explanation of synthetic DNA.

The quote about needing an "adventurous female" is from Church's book Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves, and you can imagine the ethical concerns that just the title evokes in whomever has any socially-responsible leanings.

The quotes from the magazine Der Spiegel show Church as having no personal thoughts of ethics. He delegates that responsibility elsewhere. "[T]he prerequisite, of course, would be that human cloning is acceptable to society."

So, as long as society turns a blind eye, anything is acceptable?

Eeek!

And the lack of empathy or compassion for this Neanderthal experiment alarms me. What kind of conditions would the hybrid child be raised in? Would he/she go to school? Would he/she be raised by the corporation in a lab? If the child goes to a normal school, how abusive will the other children be? How cruel is it to treat a child as if he/she is an experiment? And, what about the mother, will she ever see her child?

Of course, the child may not be born functional. Would they kill it and keep experimenting until they had a functioning Neanderthal child?

Good thing Church has retracted his call (like, within a week) for that adventurous female. In fact, he says that he never had any real plans. Taped interviews seem to contraindicate that, as does The Der Spiegel article, which took the idea from Church's book.  My belief is that he retracted his idea because there was backlash. Could it be that enough people balked that it caused him to pause? I hope so, because I want to live in a world where people are up in arms about something like this.

It worries me when scientists treat people like things. That is what ethics is about--treating people respectfully because we all have value. Doing anything less than treating people with respect is objectifying them, and people are not objects. We are WHOs, not ITs.

Not long after Church's book release with it's subsequent interviews, there was a surprise! Paleontologists found an ancient human-neanderthal hybrid bone. It appears, then, that this has been done before. Not done in a lab of course, but with a female Neanderthal and a male Homo sapiens--the natural way.

So where are the descendants of those ancient natural hybrids? They are us! Anyone of European or Asian decent has one to four percent Neanderthal DNA. The 50/50 hybrids are long gone, a failed experiment. God decided long ago that Neanderthals would die out as a species and we, modern humans, would remain.

I am not saying there isn't some good to come from synthetic DNA. But, let's hope Church's idea about recreating Neanderthals in a lab never sees reality. This kind of science (unethical) can only exist in a world filled with hardened hearts and no perspective of mankind's greater good.



See George Church's Wiki Page and his book on Amazon.

Real Life Mysteries--Who Were the Ebu Gogo: Were They Possibly Hobbits?

"Their physical features were short, hefty, with long hair on the head and chest. And females' breasts were big and long. If they wanted to walk, they usually threw their long breasts over their shoulders." ~ The Nage, describing the Ebu Gogo

The Nage people of the island of Flores (Indonesia) tell tales of three-feet tall people who were both human and ape-like and shared the island with them. These little people were annoying and even violent, so, by sometime in the 1600s (some reports say earlier, some later), the Nage decided to save the island from this menace and they eradicated the Ebu Gogo.

You may say the stories about the Ebu Gogo are "crazy" or "just myth," but in 2003 archeologists, continuing their consistent digging in a cave on Flores, found artifacts, evidence of cooking, hunting tools, remains of miniature elephants and other fauna from the ancient island, and an almost-complete skeleton of a 3-foot tall female that has the perfect blend of chimp and human features. Hmmmm....

The first recorded storytelling about the Ebu Gogo was by Dutch sailors who visited the island, and then later when Captain Cook, on his first voyage in 1770, sat around the campfire to hear the Nage tell the Ebu Gogo stories again.


The Ebu Gogo lived in caves and wore clothes. Their features were a perfect blend of human and ape, the Nage say.

They spoke a language the Nage did not understand, but the little people walked around (upright) mumbling the language to themselves. When an islander spoke a word to them, they would parrot it well.

They cooked their food, but they also ate it raw, and they definitely ate a lot because Ebu Gogo means "grandmother who eats everything." And by everything, the Nage mean EVERYTHING.

In the end, the little people were damaging the Nage's property, stealing food, and eventually this led to stealing the islanders' children.

But the Nage still tried to make things harmonious by asking selected Ebu Gogo to dinner (if someone steals your coat, give him your other one too). Unfortunately, the guests could not behave and began acting like monkeys. Those rude little Ebu Gogos grabbed any food they could find and ate as fast as they could (think Helen Keller in her early days). They also grabbed a human baby and tried to eat it.

This was the last straw. And soon thereafter, the villagers gave the Ebu Gogo a "gift" of oil-soaked clothing. The little people put on the clothes in the caves where they were living. As soon as they were dressed, the Nage set the caves on fire.

Pretty gruesome, huh?

And you could comfort yourself by saying "It's only a myth," except for the fact that they've now found Ebu-Gogo-like remains in a cave on Flores. And these ancient remains are definitely fitting the description of the Nage' little people, although researchers are calling the near-complete skeleton a "Hobbit" (Homo floresiensis) instead of Ebu Gogo. (There are also some other Hobbit skeletal body parts in the cave.)


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Normal human skeleton on the right, "Hobbit" skull found 
on the Isle of Flores, on the left. Photo from www.bbc.co.uk

Some researchers have said that the Hobbit people were a group of islanders with an iodine deficiency. A severe iodine deficiency does stunt growth and a whole group of people living together with this malady would produce the tiny, mumbling, cretins that we find in the Nage stories.

However, an iodine deficiency does not give you chimp-like wrist bones like the Hobbit remains, and the most recent research convinced researchers William Jungers and Karen Baab to declare Homo floresiensis a separate species from Homo sapiens, but still human.

Another problem for paleoanthropologists is assuming the Hobbits were the mythological Ebu Gogo. They say the Hobbits lived on the island, at the latest, around 12,000 years ago. The Nage stories have the Ebu Gogo thriving on the island into modern times. Some stories have them living into the 20th Century because two escaped the cave fires and created new families in the mountain forests.

As a Christian, I am not trying to make an evolutionary point here,  (if you are an evolutionist there are plenty of theories with which to toy). All I am saying is, "huh." There is a mystery here.

Although I don't believe everything this video of a Nova episode says, it gives good info on the Hobbit people and the Ebu Gogo:


The Ebu Gogo have a Wiki Page, and so do the Hobbits (Homo floresiensis);  You'll enjoy this video, too, where the Nage tell stories of the little people to a researcher, Ebu Gogo.





Sunday

SciFi Culture--Star Trek Seat Belts

"Prepare for impact." ~ Various Star Trek Captains and Acting Captains



It is a rare person who has not noticed that the Star Trek crew bounces around like Superballs in a tin can whenever they are attacked by the enemy. But someone recently posed a theory about this that makes sense. The Cheezburger Network postulated that the Star Trek crew can't keep to their seats because in the future, seat belts are a "lost technology."

We know this happens. Archaeologists find an ancient culture that knew how to use a certain technology. As they dig through the layers of time, they find that there is no trace of that knowledge centuries later. Mankind forgets earlier technologies all the time.

So I am relieved that someone figured out this Star-Trek-bouncy thing. Thank you, cultural experts at Cheezburger. :D



Source Site: Set Phasers to LOL


Saturday

Moving Assembly Line Inventor--Henry Ford

By D. M. Holmes

"
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young
." ~ Henry Ford

Every school child is taught that Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, invented the assembly line back in 1913, but you shouldn't believe everything you hear. 


It was actually Ransom E. Olds, of Oldsmobile fame, who invented and used the assembly line in 1901 to produce his cars. What Ford actually invented was the conveyor belt assembly line, which sped up production of his Model T and was the gateway for MASS production.

Until the assembly line came along, products were made by hand and usually by one person. But the concept of standardized parts that fit together had been around for a long time in Ford's and Olds
' day, and using an assembly line became a no brainer.

Ford was 40 years old when he founded the Ford Motor company in 1903, and the Model T is considered the first mass-produced car, which fulfilled Ford's own prophecy "I will build a car for the great multitude."


Of course, assembly lines are even faster and more automated now. While some companies still combine human labor with machine, in many cases an entire factory is filled with machinery that assembles the product with no human involvement. 


Take a look at this video for a fascinating look at Ford's assembly line and Model T production. I wish cars looked like that now. (NOT)

 
See the Assembly Line Wikipedia Article. Ford's Wiki Page and Books about and by him. His biography is free on Kindle. See Ransom E. Olds Wiki Page and his biography. 

This article is similar to an article posted on www.denisemillerholmes.blogspot.com  called Inventor--Henry Ford--Invented the Moving Assembly Line .