Vacuum energy

I typically lack energy to vacuum.

Hey it’s a new year, I should be recharged. Oh, but we are not simple rechargeable batteries. (Although I have learn some people are on Lithium)

Vacuum energy is an underlying background energy that exists in space throughout the entire Universe (reference link). Well that’s what physics tells the people that listen to physicists. I enjoy learning about the marvelous discoveries of physics. But if this vacuum energy is underlying, then might it be underlying my carpet? Why should there be a need to vacuum my bedroom?

The "Casimir Effect" demonstrates the effects of vacuum energy and it's named after Hendrik Casimir. Hendrik was a Dutch physicist but I don't know if he vacuumed his room much.

 

I would much rather read about vacuum energy than vacuum a room. I believe vacuum talk must include dust talk. Here’s a picture from space from June 2020. We might not be as dusty as Mars where I think every storm is a dust storm but take a look at the mess heading out to the Atlantic from North Africa.

Look at the mess Sahara is making

Oh I also read about cosmic dust. It’s a real thing and probably related to dust bunnies. Interplanetary dust causes the zodiacal light, so dust is not all that bad. Thousands of tons of cosmic dust are estimated to reach the Earth's surface every year. So we need to figure how to use the vacuum energy to clean it up.

Astronomers study dust. I can only imagine young graduate students explaining to their parents that they are studying dust. I suspect the parents would question why they didn’t start years ago in their own bedrooms.

(apparently if I were a Brit this post would not work since I don’t believe there is any Hoover energy in physics.)

Watching

All I can say is that my life is pretty plain
I like watchin' the puddles gather rain

This pandemic still has many still working at home. I’m not working at home but retired at home instead.

I did some watching. Watching the heavens (I’m not convinced about this religious heaven concept but calling the dark sky the heavens still sounds good to me) fuels my wonder.

Why bother to watch the heavens? Jupiter and Saturn are mostly huge balls of gas. Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids, in fact it's cold as hell.

I believe knowledge of the night sky objects creates more wonder as you watch these objects move through the heavens.

Back to the original thought for this post, this past month (sorry this is not a site for what’s in the sky tonight) the northern hemisphere had the opportunity to view a comet zipping by. It was given the name comet NEOWISE. The strange name was assigned for a reason. The NEO part stands for Near Earth Orbit and WISE stands for Wide-field Infrared Space Explorer. The NEOWISE project is the asteroid-hunting project that discovered this comet, hence the name.

I saw the comet with binoculars on two different evenings. Sadly the suburban area around Chicago is not the best for a good dark sky. I managed to see this fuzzy stretched out dirty ice ball but I’m sure it would have look better in a darker sky. I recall seeing the comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. That one was easier to see.

 
On nice afternoons I’ll find myself enjoying a beer and watching clouds pass overhead. Clouds have pros and cons. Clouds on the ground (fog) are bad unless you’re a psycho murderer stalking their next victim (how did I go off on that tangent?). Clouds blocking the sun are good on a hot day but bad at night when I’m trying to see a comet. Of the many things I really don’t know, clouds are probably low on the list.

 

Please enjoy a few thoughts that popped up in my brain long enough to be written down: 

 

• “Stand By Your Man” - While I’m not an expert, I don’t think it applies well to grizzly bear families.
• It occurred to me that receiving long sentences doesn’t help you write long sentences. However, it does give you time to work on it.
• I’ve noticed that Tik Tok is a popular app for the younger generation. If anyone is developing an app for the older generation they should call in Ticky Tacky.
• I heard this good advice the other day: “But I’m going to take a step back and make sure that we learn the facts before we start talking about it.” - Dr. Fauci 
  

 

Even if you don’t watch the weather it will change your day. Don’t most people enjoy a good storm if they are in a safe place? No matter, the weather will find you.

If you read my last post, you should be expecting these two musical videos.

Holy Grail

I’ve never looked for it but there’s a corner in our basement that would be a great place to start your search.

I’m certain you could find a few common grails in our collection of stuff. My propensity for wondering about word usage has me wondering why English speaking people don’t use “grail” without “holy”.

Social media - time consuming and confusing

People like to count stuff. As society progresses we have new things to count and new ways to track our counts. It’s helpful that the blogger system counts my blog posts for me.

I hoped for something to count on, but jumped the gun, deciding to cross the bridge only to cool my heels.

Odd bits:

• The European Space Agency reports that human urine could one day become a useful ingredient in making concrete to build on the Moon.
• Did you know you can write sexdaily from dyslexia?
• Stay-at-home running exercises: running late, running from responsibility, running out of things to say, running your mouth, running down the list, running up the bill, running through the pantry for snacks, (please leave your suggestions in the comment section)
• Stay-at-home orders have created a new interesting event, drive-by birthday parades. We were in our first one last week.
• Murder Hornets are nothing compared to Killer Rabbits. Enjoy 14+ minutes of Monty Python’s Holy Grail below.

Nocturnal notes

The opposite is diurnal notes but those daytime notes are nothing special.

Now I'm not saying that I blog at night. I have done most of my post writing as a daylight activity.

Having a thought and then explaining that thought in a post is two distinct activities. Many of the thoughts found on my blog originate at night. What I seem to fail to do too often is writing a note of my nocturnal thought

They are listening

I just asked our Google Home Mini gadget if it would take a note. It told me there was an issue with the permission setting. After some fiddling with my smartphone and the gadget I was able to have the gadget save a short reminder for me. Not quite note taking but possibly useful for remembering a thought.

Most of my book reading is nocturnal. Typically before I fall asleep. I just finished a book titled, The Trouble with Gravity, (blog followers probably recall I read mostly non-fiction). It's a good overview of humanity’s understanding of gravity's pervasive effect on our existence.

I read a few online reviews of the book. I agree with the opinion that book doesn’t provide an in-depth explanation of the various theories of gravity. But those explanations are difficult to present without some serious math and science understanding. So the book offers a good overview history to a broader audience.

A few notes I found interesting:

• Nobody really knows what gravity is. They can measure and predict its influences but still don’t know exactly its composition.
• Throughout the spread of many different cultures/religions the distinction of things up there and down here being very different was incorporated in their views/teachings.
• I learned of Roger Babson who considered gravity to be our enemy number one. He started the Gravity Research Foundation to develop gravitational shielding.
• The LIGO gravitational-wave observatories have unbelievable sensitivity. 

Please listen to a song that leaves me thinking about gravity’s effect on moving the planets around, click the youtube clip below. I didn’t realize until I just read a comment on its youtube page that songwriter, Patrick Monahan, was inspired by his late mother, who had died after a struggle with cancer, and that the opening lines "came to [him] in a dream." A great example of a nocturnal thought.

The lyrics certainly play on ideas of gravity and space.

But tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated?
Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star– One without a permanent scar?
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?

Over the moon

No one was mooned in the making of this post.

Retirement offers more time to read. My completion rate on books is not that high but improving. Recently I finished “The Book of the Moon” by self-named lunatic, Maggie Aderin-Pocock. I completed the whole book but compared to most books it's a smaller one. An easy read that still provides plenty of information about our moon. It’s not overly technical.

One thing I learned was that the moon is receding from us and that the Earth’s spin is slowed by the moon. Go back a billion year and you would experience about a 23 hour day. You also would starve since multicellular life was just beginning. The moon stabilizes Earth’s spin.

While not explicitly covered in this book, I credit the moon with advancing human knowledge. It gives us a noticeable object to track, measure time, and wonder about. Solar and lunar eclipses are nature’s experiments for us to observe and study. The night sky would be duller without those waxing and waning phases.

Without the moon we would have never heard the song “Moon River”. I found a few Moon River covers on youtube. I’ll start with a favorite since I’m fan of Eric Clapton. (Oh I also learned that Georgia’s politicians honored Johnny Mercer by renaming the Back River, the Moon River.)







I was a bit surprised to find a parody called "Joan Rivers".  (the parody starts about half minute into the clip)

center line of totality

Throughout blog history readers have marveled at the vast richness of A Few Clowns Short postings. Hey, this is my blog history, my alternate facts.

Sheryl Crow sang:

Such a muddy line between
The things you want
And the things you have to do

And Johnny Cash had a hit song because he could walk the line.

So many lines. Lines in the sand, lines on my face - don’t even go there.

But what of this line of totality I speak? Sounds very important and definitive.

This August I hope to be on the line of totality. Starting in Oregon and ending in South Carolina a line will sweep darkness through 14 states. The sun and moon will be drawing the line. I’m talking about the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017. Remember? those are the ones that has the moon in between earth and the sun.

For more info and maps of all the state crossings go to www.eclipse2017.org

Maybe I’ll see you in the shadows.

To see this total eclipse you will need to leave Las Vegas just like Sheryl Crow sang about. However you don't need to stand in the middle of the desert waiting for your ship to come in.




(Leaving Las Vegas by Sheryl Crow?? Well I didn't feel like searching for some druid chanting song and Sheryl Crow is a favorite)

dream a little fragment on a friday

Fragments from the far side flow freely onto the blog today.

Enjoy more fragment postings over at Mrs. 4444's blog.  Her blog comes to us from the far side of the north woods.

Big space science event from the far side this week. The European Space Agency’s 10 year project flew a washing machine four billion miles through our solar system to land on a rubber duck. After landing it was reported that a large amount of bouncing occurred. Balancing the load in your top loading washer is an important step to avoid a bouncing machine.

Well ok, it was a space probe landing on a comet. The far side of a comet is definitely far out there. The space probe/lander has been compared to a washing machine and the comet is shaped like a rubber duck. How interesting that there are rubber duck shaped comets.

The science and engineering involved in a 10 year comet chase is amazing. Who knows, it might pay off in the future if we need to deflect one headed for earth.

Sure looks like a comet to me

Are there talents you wish you had? A dream of mine is playing an instrument (the musical type, not like a caliper instrument). When I tried really hard and practiced I was able to get most of twinkle twinkle little star out of our old piano. After a month of not playing it, I completely forgot the key sequence. Oh those multiple keys for songs with cords - forget it. How do the brains of those people can play a tune after just listening to it work?

Sock it to me, sock it to me. Wow that’s an old phrase. I enjoyed that crazy TV show. What’s not to like about a show with “laugh” in its title? I thought heaven was missing an angel when I watched Goldie Hawn dance and goof around on that show.

there was good show about beavers on PBS this week

(another billion fragment) When Warren Buffett (you know that ultra-rich guy) goes out to buy some batteries, he really buys big. He bought the whole store/company. His company will trade $4.7 billion in stock for all that comes under that Duracell copper top. I wonder what the energizer bunny thinks of this.

Sweet dreams til sunbeams find you.
Sweet dreams that leave all worries far behind you.
But in your dreams whatever they be
write a little comment for me.

From the far side of my thoughts, I made a connection between the Philae probe lingering on a comet and a hit song by The Mamas & The Papas.  Stars fading but am I still lingering on?   Enjoy:

friday fragment breakthrough

Break through what? A digital ceiling? My creaky floor? My aching back?

I suppose a fragment implies breaking something. Often we just need to put the brakes on and slow down. Ease on over to Mrs. 4444’s blog for more Friday Fragment posts.

bad breakdown

The blog, Cup on the Bus, written by a sock aficionado recently posted a socking story. In the post she mentions her sister's theory of a universe of missing objects. I should investigate this missing object theory. I always wanted to publish a theory. There could be grant money from the government.

White House fence jumping (very different than crazy pogo backflips shown above) - hey this craziness should not become another extreme sport for thrill seeking disturbed people. Let’s hope it stops before someone is killed.

On the subject of dangerous, we were reminded this week that rocket stuff is still very dangerous. Things tend to break with a bang.  Remember the two space shuttle disasters? Did you see the news of the rocket explosion this week? No injuries since it was an unmanned resupply mission to the space station. Orbital Sciences Corp’s Antares rocket failed seconds after liftoff. The video clip reminds me why it’s prudent to watch a safe distance away from the launchpad.

It was reported the next day that the company used refurbished old Russian rocket engines.  Low priced stuff is not always a bargain!
 





For all you non-morning people - you might have missed daybreak but don’t be bothered, take a break, or make a break for it. (Why don’t we use the word nightbreak as often as daybreak?)

Does a breakdown lead to a breakthrough or vice versa? It was not planned ahead of time, but somehow a theme of breakdown, breakups and breaks formed in this post. Enjoy a listen to Jack Johnson’s Breakdown song:

My favorite part:

And I got no time
That I got to get to
Where I don't need to be

Oh and be sure to check out the other FF posts over at Mrs. 4444's blog.

a long, longer time ago

A long, long time ago
I can still remember 
How this blog used to make me smile. 
And I knew if I had my chance ---

Stop it. Everything is fine. I never drove my Chevy to the levee.  Besides the levee was dry.

This is somewhat of a repeated post but with new and improved wording.  Ok that doesn't make much sense (I'm not sure if I even believe it).  Being mostly retired I don't make many cents.

The original post was about listening to my Itunes as I wrote the post.  Well I'm doing that again.  The reason I landed on that post was because I was thinking of space.  Not the space between my thoughts.  No, the space our little planet travels through.

A long, long time ago, I joined this interesting forum called Quora.  The site is full of interesting science questions and answers.  They let anyone ask and answer questions.  There have been a few that I felt I could contribute a good answer.

It's not as much fun as blogging but now when some cosmic question comes to mind in the shower I have a place to ask it.  (what you don't get cosmic questions coming up during the shower?  hmm, maybe I should switch shampoos.)  I was just reading some space/physics questions.

In that previous post the song, "I Will Survive" came up on my Itunes.  Outer space is used in the lyrics but the song has nothing to do with space.  It is more related to "in your face" type of space.

And so you’re back,  from outer space. 
I just walked in 
to find you here 
with that sad look upon your face.

Oh, if you care to compare this post with the previous one from about a year ago here's the link.

 

previously on Mars

When I founded the Lisleman Institute for Better Posting I toyed around with the idea of starting a space rumor group. (BTW when you toy with ideas you get to keep them unlike the shared toys in the playground.)

This space picture from Mars when combined with previous odd martian pictures would support a great rumor. There could be a martian up there that is littering Mars. Looks someone tossed a chewed leg from a their last BBQ on the ground over there. Such a low life.

Months ago it was a tossed jelly donut. (my first report on this)

All this litter will bring out the martian rats.

The rumor mill never stops turning.

Circular Notice (best kind of notice don’t you think?): This is to advise you that, unless otherwise expressly indicated, personal advice contained in this post is not intended to be used.

stars deserve more attention

What?

As we were told in “Stairway To Heaven”, ‘cause you know sometimes words have two meanings, you might be thinking of the wrong type of star.

The stars needing more attention are those all around us. Most noticeable on a clear night. However our most important star, our sun, is out for us in the day (hopefully our sun being a star is not a news flash for anyone here).

NEWS FLASH - Earth’s orbit around the sun - misunderstood (or unknown) by too many!

For all of recorded time the earth has been taking a yearly trip around the sun. Yes, the orbit is not very noticeable on a daily basis. Even the top thinkers back in Greece got details of this celestial movement wrong.  But that was well over a thousand years ago.  Hundreds of years ago, Galileo pointed his telescope up at the sky and started to straighten out this solar system operation.

According to a recent survey (2012), about 25% (that’s 1 in 4 ) of Americans got the question about the earth-sun orbit wrong. The survey included more than 2,200 people in the United States and was conducted by the National Science Foundation. The question was: Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?
(you can find the whole NSF report here)

There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. Leonardo da Vinci. BrainyQuote.com

Today we can add a fourth class, those who don't look up from their smartphones long to see the world around them.

Today with international space programs, a space telescope providing amazing photos, internet accessible space news and findings, regular monitoring of our star (the sun), I would think only a  small percentage of Americans would have any problem with that question. Are we really staring down at smartphones too much?

Ooh, it makes me wonder, 
Ooh, it really makes me wonder.

Sure I know my wonder of physics and universe is not shared by even the majority (I guess?) but doesn’t a little of this knowledge intrigue people? Physics can get complex quickly. Going out in the sun for too long can get you a quick sunburn too. Is a good tan, all that some want to know about our star?

Yes, there are two paths you can go by, 
but in the long run 
There's still time to change the road you're on.

I suggest to those of the 25%, put down your smartphone, find a dark area on a clear night and look up. Hopefully, those stars will trigger a little curiosity. Check out some educational videos on youtube. Check out a book. Here’s a great youtube clip, I found packed with good info.

jelly donuts, gators and bunnies

The crack ninja news team at Lisleman’s Institute for Better Postings have been busy searching the web for spiders good news stories. (now if you are doubting my crack ninja news team, then, well first off I respect skeptical minds but what do I need to do to convince the doubting Thomas out there? Take a picture of Lisleman in his ninja suit? Oh you would be sorry then.  And we do have spider webs in the office.)

notice the jelly donut?

Our smaller neighbor planet has been getting photographed often over the past few years. Thanks to the camera on a mars rover (Opportunity I think) we have this odd quote coming from a NASA astronomer:

"It looks like a jelly donut, … And it appeared, it just plain appeared, at that spot and we haven't driven over that spot."

Ok, he didn't say it was a jelly donut and he probably was up late and didn’t have breakfast yet. But did you catch the part about this thing just appearing? Sure here on earth small objects appear all the time but we have lots of people who litter. Could someone be littering on Mars? Maybe the Chinese are much further along in their space exploration that we realize. Maybe someone is throwing rocks at our rover. Maybe I should move on to the next story.

Another picture needing close examination. Look deep into the ear. Now I’ve certainly have pulled my share of waxy buildup from my ears but never a bunny. I’ve heard certain mushrooms can bring you visions of bunnies dancing, but ear bunnies?

The sculptors of the Mandela statue said they had added the rabbit to the statue after the department refused to allow them to engrave their signatures on the trousers of the statue, South Africa's Beeld newspaper reported.  Where on the trousers I wonder, the inseam, back pocket?

Do the sculptors know the now famous sign language signer at the Mandela memorial? That sign language signer should have made balloon bunnies during the memorial. The whole thing makes sense now.

This next story is an update on a story that was first reported back in Nov. 2013. A traveler spotted a 2-foot-long alligator under an escalator at O’Hare International Airport. (for the geographically challenged - Chicago’s O’Hare airport is NOT in the tropics or even close)

I doubt the Chicago police have a gator investigation team but they did track down a women who it appears (charged not convicted yet) placed the alligator in the airport. She told police that she lost the gator at the airport. Also, they were told that she “was so (high) on crack cocaine and heroin and had taken some pills” during her airport visit.  I suspect the drugs could have something to do with bringing a gator to a busy airport. She apparently didn’t fly out of the airport (well not physically, mentally I can’t imagine where she went) and possibly just wanted to take the gator outside for fresh air.

surveillance on the "L" subway

On the subject of ninja suits, what do you think of this:

This certainly calls for an investigation by the crack ninja news team at Lisleman’s Institute for Better Postings. Don't you agree?

(proofreading provided by C. F. Eyecare) 

For those of you who want to read more on these news stories:
Mars Jelly donut
Mandela ear bunny
O'Hara airport gator 

who knew

I just found out.

Believe it or not, there are very educational things on blogs, youtube and even twitter.  For example I learned while looking at space pictures awhile ago that the Vatican has an observatory.  They are headquartered near Vatican City in Italy but have a telescope or two on a mountain in Arizona.

Don't know if you know about the Galileo incident about 400 some years ago, but he would be rolling in his grave if he found out.
 

Here's a cool image of a polar ring galaxy that they studied.

 

Heavenly

 

A long, long time ago

I can still remember 
How this blog used to make me smile. 
And I knew ---

Stop it. Everything is fine. Well most everything, we can always find something wrong. Besides I don’t think you care if I had a Chevy and the levee was dry. (a dry levee would be better than a wet one but he is probably making a strange drinking reference. I recall drinking in the woods a number of times.)

Oh, and there we were all in one place, 
A generation lost in space -- Hey we landed men on the moon back then. Space was much cooler back then.

Do you use the shuffle function on your music playlist?

And so you’re back, 
from outer space. 
I just walked in 
to find you here 
with that sad look upon your face. 
I should have of …

I should have of thought of a better post.

Do you play background music while you create your posts? Over here the music still plays. It didn’t die. 

its another tequila friday fragment

He was just a hired hand, working on the dreams he planned to try. The days go by.

After the days go by for a bit, you get to Friday. Friday time means Friday Fragments around this blog.

Take another shot of courage. Wonder why the right words never come.  You just get numb.

But don’t get numb, write some fragments (with or without tequila) and head over to Unknown Mami's and link up, read other FF posts, comment, just have a good time.

 

Ever notice the moon on a bright sunny day? I did today. Just a sliver of crescent moon high in the sky. How special to see this mostly night object during the day.

My experience tells me that women have better night vision than men. Their intuition guides them on a good night. Guys just wait around clueless most of the time. But the Indigo Girls (hey I switched music groups here just to confuse you) tell us that Galileo was the King of night vision, King of insight.

Next on the playlist is “Tequila Sunrise” by the Eagles. We recently went to a free outdoor concert of an Eagles tribute band. They were good.

I like the song. I could better relate if it was a tequila sunset. A tequila sunset would be a hell of alot more fun. Tequila and a rising sun just doesn’t make sense. Of course my night vision would be totally shot after a tequila sunset.

I think about lyrics too much. 

friday fragment frosting

I knew you might show up but I didn’t bake a cake. I never have. This past week I posted the reason I don’t bake.

Cake or no cake it’s time for a round of FF posting. If I’m lucky I’ll find a posting with frosting. Mrs. 4444 has the FF collection on her blog.

Not many songs about cake. I found this funky one by an Average White Band called “Cut the Cake.”



Do you think blogging is a piece of cake or a cake walk? It’s a little tougher. I don’t know where I’ll be when the music stops. I remember that game took the cake.

A good baker can really frost you.

No surprise, there is a reality show about cake, Cake Boss. I hate the non-real reality shows. I have limited knowledge of cable shows. Has there been a reality show about bloggers yet?

I read a few good quotes recently.

“In the beginning there was nothing. God said, ‘Let there be light!’ And there was light. There was still nothing but you could see it a whole lot better.” Ellen DeGeneres

“It doesn’t make a difference what temperature a room is, it’s always room temperature.” Steven Wright

“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” Douglas Adams

“He asked me if I knew what time it was. I said, ‘Yes but not RIGHT now.’” Steven Wright

 
Those of you reading this on Friday, May 31, 2013, I want to alert you to the large asteroid, QE2, passing cosmically (not comically) close to earth this afternoon. NASA's money spent on tracking objects potentially on a collision course with us is well spent.

I like NASA and even got to do a little work with the  NASA Langley group once.  NASA posted a nice picture of Martian rocks recently and someone noticed a squirrel or whatever name is used for a Mars rodent in the picture. The original picture can be found here. Here’s the blow-up of the rodent (you can find it by zooming in on the left side of the picture  (more on Mars rodent here).  

Those of you my age or older might remember when NASA first formed they discovered the man-in-the-moon.

  

I can’t help it ‘bout the shape I’m in. I can’t sing, I ain’t pretty and my legs are thin. But don’t ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer you want me to.

Lisleman’s ideas are not this weird

Reactions to ideas can be very subjective.  Almost  400 years ago (1633), 10 cardinals in Rome decided that Galileo was a heretic for favoring the idea of the Earth traveling around the Sun.

My reaction to billionaire Dennis Tito’s idea is not as severe as those cardinals but I do think it’s dumb. He is seeking a married couple to fly to Mars on his dime. It would a year and a half of ultimate closeness in a 14x12 foot spacecraft. No landing, just a few spins around Mars and back.

The main reason I consider it dumb is my experience with spouses driving each other nuts. Somedays you need to leave the house and take a long walk by yourself.

What will happen if one spouse starts snoring after they leave the Earth’s gravity?

“Stop rearranging the spacecraft!” I could imagine myself shouting. 
Or 
“No, I’m not contacting mission control. I know where we are going.”

melting pinkish sand dunes with dark streaks of sand on Mars

So hey readers what do you think? You and your spouse up to something like this?

Mars would be wonderful to see up close, provided the windows are still clean by the time you got there.

Luna fragments

Would you be shocked if I told you that the Friday Fragments post is my favorite post to write? Would you be shocked if I stuck live electrodes in your ears? I’ve known people who are never shocked.

I don’t know what shocks Mrs. 4444 (probably her students) but she is still accepting FF posts over on her blog. Check them out, just don’t stick your finger in the socket.

Blue Moon - Friday will be a once in a blue moon day since it’s the second full moon this month. I hope the evening sky is clear to enjoy it. I believe Blue Moon beer should be free on blue moon days.

My brother called this week. As he often does, he started off with an out-of-the-blue statement.

“Now we’ll never know for sure.” 

What? 

“Neil Armstrong died so we won’t know if it was fake.” 

He did this to irk me. It relates back to the day when a relative (will remain nameless for now) stated that she was not sure if the moon landing actually happened. I thought she was joking but then I learned she had doubts after listening to some conspiracy people. Believing the Apollo 11 landing was faked is dumber than believing in unicorns.

We did it. So far the withdrawal symptoms have been nothing much. I did need to remind myself a few times not to try to flip on CNBC for the current stock market news. Oh what is it? We dropped all the TV channels from our cable service. Only my internet connection remains coming over the cable. I’ll probably be watching more youtube so take that as a warning.

Would I improve my blog appeal if I hyped up the common effects discovered by readers of a A Few Clowns Short? What are those you ask (hey play along here will you) Now let’s try that again - What are those you ask. Readers are discovering their inner goddess and occasionally a piece of trivia stuck under an old memory.

Just read this - 

Sugar Found In Space: A Sign of Life? 

I don’t know about life but I bet if they search carefully they will find a trail of ants.

Did you have enough smiles today? Can we ever have too many? Watch this youtube clip of two twin babies highchair dancing. I predict more dancing in their future.

space fragments

Seems like 20 years ago but today my mind is slow. I don’t really know. 

I had a job that occasionally put me inside the large aircraft factories of Boeing and Airbus. Being up close to large aircraft in various stages of completion for me was like what some get from going to an art fair. Amazing how these complex machines come together. 

A younger me next to an older specialized Airbus plane:

Hopefully you heard of the recent good news coming from NASA’s Mars Curiosity mission. I was able to stay up and watch mission control on the internet. The landing was complex but went as planned.  They parked a small car sized rover near a mountain on Mars.

Thinking of space and the past, I went back and read an old post about a very curious shop in California. I’ve never been there but would love to look around the place some day.

There’s nothing like a good gimbal. Check out this mini thruster.

Picture copied from Norton Sales CA

a spot on the sun

I did a trial run of my venus transit setup. Trial runs and testing has been ingrained in my engineer thinking. Monday afternoon was nice and clear for the trial run. Luckily the day of the Venus Transit, Tuesday, was also clear and mild. 

The first thing I discovered during my trial run was that at about 5PM this time of year our property is almost completely in the shade. No sun watching with trees and houses in the way.

I found a sunny spot out near our mailbox and set-up my binocular projection configuration (last Friday’s post had a link that described this configuration). My daughter and I could see 3 Sunspots. Later I checked online and found the Sun’s picture of the day. The online space telescope image had more than 3 spots but the 3 largest ones were in the same arrangement we observed. 

If I had used a real tripod I would have eliminated the problem of parts jiggling which caused the image to blur. I don’t own a tripod but I found a clamp to fix the binocular to a step stool. Taking a picture of the Sun’s image wasn’t very easy because the light breeze seem to move the cardboard just as I was about to click the picture button. Occasional focus problems were minor.  Overall the transit event was very enjoyable and easy to watch.

The very beginning of Venus crossing on the Sun's image - below.  Notice the small black spot on the bottom edge of the Sun.

The transit had just start when I called a neighbor to take a look. He had been wondering what I was doing. Before my daughter returned from a late afternoon appointment, I had shown Venus on the Sun’s image to about 5 neighborhood kids and a few adults too. 

Apparently the two girls across the street were impressed enough that they talked their grandfather into driving over to see it.  It's great to see kids excited about space.

Note the shape of the sun appears egg shaped in some pictures because of the angle of the camera and the cardboard.

Since the sun was getting close to going behind a tree on our street. My daughter and I decided to move to a nearby small park. We shared our Venus/Sun image with even more people at the park.

I'm a regular visitor of Unknown Mami's SIMC photo collection.  You should check her photo links (click the box).