And all those Twillight Zone etc. shows just keep popping into my brain.
7:53 PM PST, November 29, 2005 latimes.com : Science Possible Miniature Solar System Discovered By Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- Astronomers have discovered what they believe is the birth of the smallest known solar system. Peering through ground- and space-based telescopes, scientists observed a brown dwarf -- or failed star -- less than one hundredth the mass of the sun surrounded by what appears to be a disk of dust and gas.The brown dwarf -- located 500 light years away in the constellation Chamaeleon -- appears to be undergoing a planet-forming process that could one day yield a solar system, said Kevin Luhman of Pennsylvania State University, who led the discovery.
It's long been believed that our own solar system came into existence when a huge cloud of gas and dust collapsed to form the sun and planets about 4.5 billion years ago.
The new finding is the smallest brown dwarf to be discovered with planet-forming properties. If the disk forms planets, the resulting solar system will be about 100 times smaller than our own, scientists said.
Brown dwarfs, which are bigger than a planet but much smaller than a star, are thought to be balls of gas that failed to collect enough mass to start shining.
The discovery was made using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope as well as ground observatories. Results will be published in the Dec. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters. <
Apparently monkeys, or at least Japanese Yakushima macaque have regional accents. Some scientit think that their accents may give us clues into the origins of human language.
via fark
Monkeys have accents too, experts say From: Agence France-Presse From correspondents in TokyoNovember 30, 2005
TO the untrained ear monkeys of a certain species may all sound the same, but Japanese researchers have found that, like human beings, they actually have an accent depending on where they live.
The finding, the first of its kind, will appear in the December edition of a German scientific journal Ethology to be published on December 5, the primate researchers said."Differences between chattering by monkeys are like dialects of human beings," said Nobuo Masataka, professor of ethology at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute.
The research team analyzed voice tones of two groups of the same species of primates, the Japanese Yakushima macaque also known as Macaca fuscata yakui, between 1990 and 2000.
One group was formed by 23 monkeys living on the southern Japanese island of Yakushima, and the other group comprised 30 descendants from the same tribe moved from the island to Mount Ohira, central Japan, in 1956.
The result showed that the island group had a tone about 110 hertz higher on average than the one taken to central Japan.
Monkeys on Yakushima Island have an accent with a higher tone because tall trees on the island tend to block their voice, Masataka said.
"On the other hand, monkeys on Mount Ohira do not have to gibber with a high tone as trees there are low," he said. "Each group adopted their own accent depending upon their environment."
This suggests differences in voice tones are not caused by genes, Masataka said, adding the results "may lead to a clue to the origin of human language."
via Tulip Girl
Two more women die to satisfy their families "honor".
In Europe, police now are realizing that major crimes in some immigrant communities, and particularly those against girls and young women, are often family conspiracies that have long gone unpunished.Violence in the name of honor, covered up as a private matter among unknown numbers of Pakistani, Kurdish and Arab families, has become a troubling reality for law enforcement working the streets in Britain, Germany, Sweden and elsewhere in Europe.
Such retribution appears to occur in the most insular of communities, and police have sought help from immigrants in the mainstream--the vast majority of emigre families--to understand the crime.
These crimes are taking place worldwide.
Punishing the killers isn't going to help; these people are proud of what they have done. What is there that we can do?
Nope; it isn't me. At least according to Fox Science, it isn't me. the world is getting hotter; and who is to blame.
Us: homo sapiens.
Kind of puts into question that last part of our name doesn't it?
Isn't it time to stop debating the issue and start fixing the problem?
Study: Carbon Dioxide at Highest Level for 650,000 YearsMonday, November 28, 2005
WASHINGTON — Scientists are looking back to a time when "greenhouse gases" were not the problem they are today, and it is giving them a clearer picture of how people are making it worse.
A team of European researchers analyzed tiny air bubbles preserved in Antarctic ice for millennia and determined there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than at any point during the last 650,000 years.
The study by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica, published Friday in the journal Science, promises to spur "dramatically improved understanding" of climate change, said geosciences specialist Edward Brook of Oregon State University.
Today, scientists directly measure levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which accumulate in the atmosphere as a result of fuel-burning and other processes. Those gases help trap solar heat, like the greenhouses for which they are named, resulting in a gradual warming of the planet.
Those measurements are disturbing: Levels of carbon dioxide have climbed from 280 parts per million two centuries ago to 380 ppm today.
Earth's average temperature, meanwhile, increased about 1 degree Fahrenheit in recent decades, a relatively rapid rise. Many climate specialists warn that continued warming could have severe impacts, such as rising sea levels and changing rainfall patterns.
Skeptics sometimes dismiss the rise in greenhouse gases as part of a naturally fluctuating cycle. The new study provides ever-more definitive evidence countering that view, however.
Deep Antarctic ice encases tiny air bubbles formed when snowflakes fell over hundreds of thousands of years. Extracting the air allows a direct measurement of the atmosphere at past points in time, to determine the naturally fluctuating range.
A previous ice-core sample had traced greenhouse gases back about 440,000 years. This new sample, from East Antarctica, goes 210,000 years further back in time.
Today's still rising level of carbon dioxide already is 27 percent higher than its peak during all those millennia, said lead researcher Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern, Switzerland.
"We are out of that natural range today," he said.
Moreover, that rise is occurring at a speed that "is over a factor of a hundred faster than anything we are seeing in the natural cycles," Stocker added. "It puts the present changes in context."
The team, which included scientists from France and Germany, found similar results for methane, another greenhouse gas.
Researchers also compared the gas levels to the Antarctic temperature over that time period, covering eight cycles of alternating glacial or ice ages and warm periods. They found a stable pattern: Lower levels of gases during cold periods and higher levels during warm periods.
The bottom line: "There's no natural condition that we know about in a really long time where the greenhouse gas levels were anywhere near what they are now. And these studies tell us that there's a strong relationship between temperature and greenhouse gases," said Oregon State's Brook. "Which logically leads you to the conclusion that maybe we should worry about temperature change in the future."
A lengthening history of greenhouse gas concentrations should help climate specialists build better models about what the future might bring, Stocker said. It also may help answer additional questions such as how long ago humans started influencing greenhouse gas accumulations, and what impact other factors such as ocean currents play in the complexities of climate change.
Just a decade ago, scientists weren't sure it was possible to trace greenhouse gas concentrations back so far in ice. Now, Brook is part of another international research team preparing to hunt an ice-core sample dating back a million years or more, hoping to reach eras when Earth's temperature was significantly warmer.
do you use and why? I've switched to Thunderbird because I was very disappointed with my old program. And I got curious as to what everyone else was using and why?
I know, pathetic blogging lately. I don't want to deal with the hard stuff right now. Too much in real life, why take on the world?
To Nick Kiddle. She had her baby, Andrea Elspeth last Wednesday. A hearty Mazel Tov to her.
To Robin of CCJellybeans.
who had a rough couple of weeks healthwise. Go wish her good healt.
Venice Beach on BostonPete while I take care of all the laundry that has piled up.
How we can have so much clean AND dirty clothes AND nothing that fits is beyond me.
If you ask me this is really something for the scientist to study.
Fund me; I'll do the research. I can conduct most of it from home.
Alternately known as "we prefer the Jews". Or maybe "leftist go home!"
Hevron Arabs Ask Jews For Help in Banishing Leftist Activists
16:19 Nov 23, '05 / 21 Cheshvan 5766
By Ezra HaLevi
Arab leaders in Hevron have contacted the city’s Jewish leaders for help in getting rid of self-proclaimed anarchist volunteers who, they complain, are destroying their traditional way of life.The anarchists, many of whom are members of the International Solidarity Movement, flock to flashpoints throughout Judea and Samaria, ostensibly to help PA Arabs contend with IDF closures and protect them from harassment. In actuality, many of the volunteers seek confrontations with IDF soldiers and local Jewish residents, taking advantage of their Western passports to cause havoc – knowing that, at worst, they will be deported, not jailed.
The local Arabs in the Hevron region whom the activists claim to be helping are now complaining that the American and European students behave in a provocative and offensive manner in Hevron’s public areas. The Arabs say the activists disrespect the moral norms and standards of the local population.
Several local Arab residents told the Kol Ha’Ir newspaper that the activists have been exposing the local youths to drug use and sexual promiscuity.
One interviewee told Kol Ha’Ir that the volunteers show a disregard for the religious norms of the local villages and teach the local youth to reject and disrespect the traditions of their forefathers. "These anarchists come here and undermine the education we give our children. At first we took them in with hospitality - after all, they claimed they wanted to help us, so why kick them out? But very quickly they infuriated me with their lewd behavior."
In a bid to rid the region of the anarchists, local Arab leaders approached representatives of the Jewish community in Hevron – a rare, but not unheard of occurrence – in order to find a solution. The two sides agreed to have Arabic-speaking Jewish observers along Hevron’s main thoroughfares to replace the anarchists in ensuring calm between the city’s Jewish and Arab populations. The left-wings activists would then be informed by the local Arab population that they appreciate their offer to help, but that they are no longer needed.
Hevron spokesman Noam Arnon confirmed the arrangement to Arutz-7, saying that the new replacement observers will be acceptable to local Arabs. He added that the international anarchists came to Hevron come from Western cultures steeped in sexual lewdness and depravity, permissiveness, and drug use. "Their presence in Hebron serves to inflame violence because they are seeking to create provocations and encourage violence," Arnon said.
He added that the observers end up causing more trouble for the local Arab population, by antagonizing soldiers and brazenly leading local Arabs in between Jewish homes.
Arnon recalled a specific incident in which an Arab woman tried to stab an IDF soldier with a knife. The soldiers grabbed her, but were attacked by a group of anarchist volunteers who tried to free the woman and take the knife out of her hand and hide it.
In recent months, Jewish organizations have also come to Hevron to stand up to the anarchist activists. The Jewish activists investigate the anarchists regarding their entry to Israel and strengthen the morale of the soldiers in withstanding attacks by leftist extremists.
Click here for our free Daily News Report from Israel
Published: 15:30 November 23, 2005
Last Update: 16:19 November 23, 2005
So I wonder if the International Solidarity Movement puts out that information in their lovely self-promoting talks? Want to know the truth about them? click here
To all my USA friends, wherever they may be.
May all your prayers be answered, your celebratios happy, and the food finger-licking good.
This is the best site I've seen so far which documents how the news from this region is so carefully corruted. It is about how what you see is not necessarily the truth, certainly not the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
The site is new, and therefore there are some "empty" pages. But it is well worth the read.
Do watch the movie. Do view the site.
Hat tip: The Wit
Beth, my friend whose son suffered the burns, has writtten about the incident on her site. Please go leave prayers and wishes over there. The information is in the top two posts.
Without science we are doomed to regress. And if you read my last post, and the article it linked to, you can see how it can be both fun and constructive.
Does anyone know about how science is shaping up in other parts of the world?
I couldn't decide what to title this post after I finished reading this article in Popular Science.
It is a long article, and it is a fun read. And it shows how joy and science can go hand in hand.
This really is a big deal and it starts with the pursuit to happiness.
But his wife, his wife deserves a lot of praise. I hope he names the paint line after her.
It is the Agents turn to have his ceremony for completing boot camp. He doesn't know where he wants to go yet; I hope he gets his first choice, Nahal Haredi. But he won't know for a few days yet.
For us to come see him it is a three hour bus ride. Yuck! And it is rainging. Fun fun fun. I persuaded the Monkey she would enjoy home and friends and pizza or falafel better...but it took some doing.
The Wit is home till Sunday. YEAH!!!! He is going with us natch to his brothers ceremony.
have a great day
A Palestinian teenager was killed Saturday when he was caught in the crossfire between two rival gangs and the PA police. It is billed by the AP as the first violet clash since Israel turned over the land to the PAs. Two months to start killing each other.
But where is the picture documenting the tragedy? The flag covered coffin etc. etc.?
Not there. Instead notice the picture. Notice what is written under the picture.
In case something happens to the picture between my posting this and you reading it here's the picture via myway.
What, the AP biased? How absurd!
Just because I don't feel like being funny, serious, sentimental or anything, I'll just view and review. (Light and fluffly; and in alphabetical order yet!)
Flying Space Monkey Chronicles complains that nobody links to him anymore. How could I resist?
Putting Perfection on a Curve has a great blog game going. Happy hunting!
Rambling Rhodes gives us A Minnesota Weather Report. Now that report I'd perk up and listen to. Luckily we are in Israel and I don't need my bucket of lava yet.
Random Pensees tells us about a perfect day of parenting in his post HAPPY HOMEMAKER AM I.
It is the small incidents, the everyday day events, which can bestow upon us the most beautiful and lasting memories. Some of my happiest moments involve nothing more than listening to the laughter and conversation of my children from the next room.
The Painted Cave asks a question most dog owners want to know. How do they do that?
The Rafah crossing connects Egypt and the Gaza strip. It is as Condelezza Rice is so happy to announce, the first international border of the nascent Palestinian State under the Palestinians control, which all sounds so nice and wonderful until one remembers how the Palestinians received many ofl their lovely weapons in the first place. Egypt. The weapons can then be used against Israel as they gain entrance via other crossings Rice wants us to open.
And now, under the control of the PA, and supervised by the ever faithful guardian of freedom and protector and friend of Israel, the EU, Israel may stand and watch as terrorist enter and say "Excuse me, can you hold that one?"
Right. I'm feeling safer and safer.
The little boy who suffered the burns is home. His parents found a different treatment option that is less invasive; a combination of creams and anti-biotics. At least five people who saw them in the hospital stopped them and recommened this woman from personal expierence.
Whoo hoo!!
I am so glad.
Surgery on a little one is soemthing one wants to avoid if one can.
Baruch Hashem he continues to do better and better, becoming more like his old self. His burns are healing, though it looks like he will be in for some surgery on Monday to help the burns heal faster. G-d willing he'll be home sometime next week.
He's a bit bored but enjoying making his parents take him for rides in the elevator.
I passed on well wishes to the mom.
Thank you to all who are keeping him in mind.
I was making an early dinner because today I was due to go to the library for help-night. It is about 3:45, 4:00. Pasta and cheese, I know, thrilling, but there it was. Dinner ready I call the girls.
The Artist flies down the stairs; I set out her plate.
"Where's the Monkey?"
She didn't know. I call up the stairs, I go looking in the attic, I yell outside.
No Monkey.
I had yelled at her a few minutes before hand for once again picking up an unwilling cat. Maybe she was hiding and sulking somewhere.
A through job of looking everywhere; no Monkey.
I'm starting to get scared now.
I tell the Artist to look in the attic, and then a friend of hers call and they both look about the house and then together go to see if she went to the store/library ahead of us, or the park or somewhere.
No Monkey.
Not under a bed, in a closet, in a box, behind the cabinets. Not in the park, at the library or in the store.
I call the husband.
I'm really scared.
I call friends.
She isn't to be found.
FINALLY, as the Artist and the Artists friend heads home, the Monkey answers my cry... a good half hour or so later.
WHERE WERE YOU????????????????????????
She met a friend. And went off to a sort of day-camp.
(sigh)
As the Artists friend is here, she volunteers to help her out with math rather than have the Artist come with me. She is quite a bright child and knows both English and Hebrew. We shall call her Philosopher. (the kids really bright.)
I get home and the Philosopher is still here, but saying her goodbyes.
I make soup, serve it and ask the Artist if she was able to finish her homework.
Just take a guess what she forgot to do.
(sigh)
Dear G-d I just hope You are enjoying this because I am not having a good day.
You know, those brave souls whose lives have been turned upside down so that the Palestinians can have their own country and maybe, if they end up liking us a little bit more will kill us less?
The government is just hoping these people fall away, neve to be heard of again.
They lost their lands, their homes, their livelihood, so Sharon can get pats on the back and have Rice only put "gentle" pressure on him to make more concessions to our killers.
Well, call me strange, but maybe I just should stop responding over at Alas and put my thoughts down here.
I am going to leave aside the original conditions in the post I linked to here, and instead pose this question:
Which do you think is a better way to operate in the world? I see two basic ways people are expounding (I may be missing the point somewhere along the line):
1) Attempt to alter the world to a more perfect condition. Risks exist everywhere; accept them.
2)Alter one's behaviour in accordance with one's situation. Attempt to alter the world to a more perfect condition.
The first seems to think that risk-management shifts the blame to the victim of an event and it interferes with the enjoyment of life. I can see their point a bit; to many people think foolish behaviour deserves a "punishment" so to speak. So that if you leave your keys in the ignition "well what did you expect to happen" if you got the car stolen, can contain within it "that's what you deserve".
On the other hand if everyone normally left their keys in the ignition without fear, then if the car was stolen the blame would rest squarely and compeltely on the shouldrs of the thief.
However, I have a limited control on the behaviour of others. I can best control myself. Moreover, the idea that risk management has limited success seems rather defeatist to me, and rather limiting in and of itself. I think one can alter one's behaviour to make any given situation less risky without interfering with the pleasure. It just takes some constructive thinking.
Maybe I'm getting it all wrong.
What do you all think?
Eye on the Post exposes some of the media bias behind many recent news stories.
It makes a very good read.
Friday afternoon and I'm in my usual place; the kitchen. Shabbat cooking. Suddenly I hear a crash from the house next door and a blood curdling scream.
I have never heard such a scream before. My neighbor kept going "Oh NO OH NO!!!! Or something like that.
I threw on my scarf, raced out down the steps, up the steps to my neighbors house, banged on the door and the opened it and yelled in.
If my neighbor hadn't stepped to the top of the stairs I would have gone up.
But she did, and it seemed everything was under control, though things were not okay. Their son was screaming, but my friend's husband is a doctor and he was home. I left, came back when I heard the little one screaming outside.
He had gotten burned, all down his chest, on his face, down his arm. Burns of types.
They had been cooking beans in a pressure cooker, and they had just turned it off, one of them had removed it from the stove, the other objected to the place and so the first parent put it back on the stove.
Somehow it fell, right on top of their 2.5 year old, spilling all the hot water and beans down upon him.
He went to the hospital that night and he is still there for at least a couple of days.
Poor baby.
They just need to watch at this point and G-d willing the wounds will heal on their own.
But you never know, you never know.
They have two other children besides; a three or four year old and a baby.
It is going to be a difficult week on everyone.
Last night, when I let the dog out after his nightly incontinence accident, the cat followed. It was not at all possible for me to give chase; I was dressed for bed, my children were sleeping, there was no one home and I've a sleepwalker.
Well, there it is, I thought, she'll come back pregnant for certain.
But I expected her to come back in an hour or so, or when dh came home or in the morning.
Nope. Nor in the morning.
And mom was worried (yes I call myself the cat's mom).
But dh assured me and the Artist assured me she'd come back.
And the Monkey very prettily explained "I talked to G-d and G-d said we would find her but later."
Guess who was right!? I've got some more questions for the Monkey later...but:
to get to the title of my post.
My dh found said cat with her "boyfriend." This is the same cat that hangs about our house all the time. He is a pretty cat, gold and white, with long hair and (shush, Tzvi don't read this part) I kind of hope he is gonna be a daddy because the two of them should produce some pretty kittens. (I know honey, we can't afford this, and then we have to find homes for them. I still haven't grown up, sorry.)
But to me the odd thing is it is THIS cat that has formed a relationship with my cat. They were together this morning and I'm pretty certain I heard kitten making noises going on outside last night. I'd be willing to lay a bet that she had been with him all night.
And when we took her from him, he began yowling after her!
When we got her home, she yowled for him.
Can cats form partnerships like this? I thought with cats it was pretty much "bye, and thanks for the dip." but this cat seems to be staying around.
He comes to our window, he comes to our door.
I am seriously (yes, I'm insane) thinkning of having the vet give Joe a shot and adopting Joe as well. Then we definitely need to find a way to make it so Chamie has just this one litter, assuming she is pregnant. I feel as if I'm breaking up a love relationship!
Do cats mate for an extended period of time? Could they really "love" each other?
Okay,
I have a confession to make. I probably should not have posted that last post. I was extremely upset by Nick's post and my mom worries kicked in.
I should have done what I finally did and I should have written to her directly without making a post on the subject of my own.. (she did answer).
Everyone engages to some degree in risky behaviour; we'd all be living in plastic-meteor proof bubbles if we wanted to avoid risk entrirely.
I still feel the way I felt before about her behavior but I should have told her privately instead here and on the blog and I apologize to her for that. It was rude of me.
Or at least I think I have. Nick, from Alas, a blog writes about her rape story. Actually it was an almost rape story but that is neither here nor there. Please go read the story and then come back here.
Okay, what universe am I on? I agree that Nick would have been raped if the man continued his actions against her will. I still think she behaved stupidly.
In a perfect world a lot of things could be; but this isn't quite a perfect world now, is it? And so people must interject a bit of sense into their everyday lives. This isn't a moral issue, though naturally I have a great deal to say, but I won't, on that aspect of the situation. But really now, I mean... come on people!!!! Is acting like an idiot really the in thing to do?
You have to read the post and the responses to know what I'm talking about.
Any question any at all. I'll answer as truthfullly as I dare.
Yes I have a post in mind. A POST WHICH MAY MAKE ME MONEY (if I dream hard enough maybe) But till then:
Ask away please.
We don't eat cat!!!!
The feline in question, one eight month old tabby named Chamomile, knocked over the VCR and broke it (last night) and today, climbed up on the partial wall between the salon and kitchen knocking down a wine glass and a little knickknack, breaking both.
She doens't know how close she came to becoming a fur muff.
Yeah, we're keeping her. I guess we are animal people.
Googles new "personal search history". Is this a cool tool or a scary "big brother's arrived" situation?
My history is boring for those that are curious. And there is a privacy issue, so google assures us. So how good is there word?
The Monkey comes home from school and tells me she needs to read a special card to me. Said card has no writing on it that I can see, but the Monkey explains that it is like those 3d pictures, you need to hold it to your nose and move it out till you can see it. She will translate it into English for me.
So she holds up the picture she colored and says (this is about as verbatim as I can get):
Dear Ima,Tehila was crying all the way home from school today. Do you know why she was crying? (she glances at me over her shoulder, folding the card to keep it hidden from me) Because N took her teek (knapsack) home with her. Tehila didn't want N to take her teek, but she took it and she was afraid her Ima would notice that the teek wasn't there and get mad. N took the teek because she tied it to her and couldn't get it untied and so had to take it home to her mother so she could untie it. She tied it to her because she wanted to pull it* without holding it with her hands.
Now, I'm just trying to think how to translate that into Hebrew so her teacher will understand she has a valid excuse for not having done her homework last night.
*the Monkey has a rolling cart for her knapsack