Moab is my washpot

Hi

I promised myself I would write a post on this book, after I finished reading it. But what with one thing or another I finished reading it about a month ago! So anyway a bit late but here is a review on Stephen Fry's autobiography. Moab is my washpot.

Of course Stephen is well known to most people in England. Famous for his part in Blackadder, Double act with Hugh Laurie and Qi tv series. However I don't think many people knew much about his youth untill this book came out.

So for the benifit of anyone who hasn't read it I will give a brief overview. That hopefully dosen't leave no reason to read the book. The book tells the story of the first 20 years of Stephen's life. As he goes through several schools,drifts the country and eventually gets arrested for credit card fraud (or whatever the crime is called). There are several things (for want of a better word) that Stephen struggled with through his youth and, that very nearly destroyed him. One was the stealing, something that Stephen talks about very very honestly. But does show deep deep remorse for. The other is love (again I'm sure most people know Stephen is gay). Although when you read his story and the feelings he struggled with, the love is so very similar to any other love story straight or gay the names are interchangeable with whoever you like. In this instance however the love is for a boy named Mathew, who Stephen falls immediately for. While aged 14ish at his High school.

I personaly do identify with the story quite strongly, as I'm sure most who have read it will. I am being carefull not to say anymore as it may reduce the need to read the book, which would be a crime!

Another fantastic quality of this book is Stephen's glorious use of language. With his unique linguistic gift, Stephen shows his feelings with an amzing clarity. Which makes the book a pleasure to read.

I can't say how much I recommend this book other than to say I would give the book 9 out of 10! I won't give it 10 as I promise myself I will never give anything 10 out of 10.

But do read it!

Next post will be on Astronomy.

Kyle

Harriot Who?

Hi

This is a part historical part astronomical blog post. This is going to be about Thomas Harriot, someone who is not very well known. Don't feel bad, to be honest I never heard of him until a couple of months ago. Anyway Thomas Harriot is a very or rather should be a very famous name in Astronomy. Just to name drop slightly, I was also very privileged a few months ago to hear a lecture on this man by Alan Chapman. Alan is also not widely known but to anyone interested in Astronomy he is a common name and, rightly so as he is one of the best public speakers I have ever heard! Drifting slightly now so back to Harriot.
Now as I have mentioned Thomas Harriot is not well known, so I am sorry if some details are a bit vague but I will do my best. So He was born around 1560 and died on the 2nd of July 1621. He was a Astronomer, Mathematician,ethnographer and Translator.
Thomas's early life is a bit sketchy, but what Historians do know is he was educated at Oxford university. And was the son of a pretty well of family. He left University in his early twenties and, was almost immediately hired by Sir Walter Raleigh. As a mathematics tutor. Of course Sir Walter is famous as a explorer and favourite of Queen Elizabeth. After this Sir Walter took Harriot into his Entourage, which with him being a favourite of the Queen meant Harriot rapidly built his social standing and wealth.
In 1585 to 1586 Harriot set of on a voyage with Sir Walter to the Americas. This was really like a gap year and considered very fashionable for any young nobleman. Harriot's role on the voyage was to be a navigator and Science advisor. Harriot landed in Roanoke Island of the cost of North Carolina and, quickly encountered some Native American tribes. Who he communicated with and quickly learnt there language Algonquian and, subsequently acted as an interpretor between the two parties. Harriot returned in 1586 and established himself with another wealthy aristocrat.
Sorry if you are getting bored but the Astronomy is coming. I promise. Anyway the Aristocrat Harriot became friends with was the Earl of Northumberland. Another favourite of the Queen and drowning in money. Because the Earl was a favourite of the Queen and very rich, He was like most wealthy people prone to new and expensive technology. And this is how we believe Harriot was introduced to the Telescope, a new invention form Renaissance Europe originally designed to view distant ships.
The interesting thing and the reason Harriot should be world famous, is because of what he did with this Telescope. On July 26th 1609 Harriot took his primitive 2 or 3 inch telescope and, looked at the moon with it. This was the first ever Astronomical observation with a Telescope made crucially six months before Galileo. Over the next few months and years Harriot looked at a myriad of Astronomical objects and, advanced the optics of Telescopes. While recording all this in his journals.
Now the thing many of you may be asking is why nobody every heard of Harriot, yet heard of Galileo. Well the answer is quite simple, Harriot had no reason to shout about his discoveries. He was a wealthy respected lord with high social connections he had nothing to gain. Whereas Galileo was out for fame,wealth and money to provide for his illegitimate children. Plus to assure his future.
Harriot died in 1621 a fabulously wealthy man, with a sea of amazing yet unrecognised scientific discoveries. These discoveries were finally brought to light in the early 20th Century. Along with Harriot's Journals which dates testified Harriot was the first ever Human to make observations with a Telescope. Thus assuring his place in History.
Thanks for reading.

Kyle

Kepler

Hi

As I'm sure you are aware Kepler NASA's planet finding space observatory as recently been launched. And as now opened it's mirror shield to get it's first look at what it will be observing. As seen above.
Kepler as I have said is a NASA mission, that is designed to search for extrasolar planets. And maybe just maybe find something the size of the earth. To do this Kepler will sit and stare at patch of roughly 100,000 stars , in the constellation of Cygnus. Kepler will watch these stars light output and wait for the tell tale light dip that tells us a planet is transiting the star. Hopefully at the end of it's estimated 2 year mission, there won't be 300 planets known to us like now but nearer a 1000!
The discovery of planets outside are solar system (hence the name extrasolar) is a reasonably recent discovery. The first extrasolar planet was discovered in 1995, orbiting around the star 51pegasis. It is a large planet roughly 3 times the size of Jupiter (largest in solar system). And is also oddly very close to it's parent star and, therefore very hot it is classed as a hot Jupiter. 51Peg was discovered using the wobble method. The wobble method is a method of finding planets without being able to see the planet directly. What happens is as the planet orbits the star it's gravity tugs at the star causing it to wobble. It is only a very slight wobble, which tells you why we have mainly discovered large planets, the bigger the planet the bigger the wobble. From this indirect means planet hunters can infer the size of the planet and how close it orbits.
Kepler however is using a different method the transit method. With the transit method as well as being able to detect the planet, find it's size and orbital distance. You are able to see what chemicals constitute the planetary atmosphere, by checking the spectra of the light given of by the star. If you already know what is in the stars atmosphere you can infer that what shouldn't be there is from the planet.
This method however does have a draw back for Kepler. Because Kepler is observing these stars face on (from are point of view). Any planets that orbit over the pole will be invisible to it's instruments. However with a 100,000 star field this seems to be compensated for.
The holy grail of planet hunting is not finding hot jupiters, but finding a earth like planet. As yet we have not achieved this goal, we have come close Glise 5981 as a trio of planets 1 five times the size of Earth. Although with Kepler it might be possible to find planets slightly bigger than Earth. The true achievement of finding a planet the same size as Earth with an atmosphere breathable, water oceans and life will have to wait. But when it does I don't think I will be exaggerating when I say it will be one of the greatest discoveries in Astronomy. It will show us are planet is not unique but part of a bigger picture and, if this planet as life on it will show us we are not alone in the Universe!

Thanks for reading

Kyle

Roving Mars

Hi

The subject of this post really doesn't need an introduction, it is of course the world famous Mars exploration rovers. Spirit and Opportunity.
I'm sure you are all familiar with the rovers, but for the benefit of those who don't I will give a quick overview. Spirit and Opportunity were the follow ons from the successful Mars pathfinder mission. They were launched in 2003 and arrived at Mars in 2004. There mission was to search for interesting Geological features that indicate past water on Mars, they had an expected 90 days to do this (a little out)!
The Twin spacecraft are roughly the size of a small golf cart and cost roughly 820 million US dollars to build and launch! To complete their surface mission the rovers were given all the equipment a Human geologist would want. They therefore have a microscope, a tool for cutting rocks, a instrument that analyses the chemicals of soil,panoramic cameras and many more with very long anagrams. In short seeing as we are unable to put a human geologist on Mars, these rovers provide the next best thing.
After there 18 month journey the rovers were ready to land. This is a dangerous process and as been rightly called the seven minutes of Terror. The rovers entered the atmosphere separately landing on different sides of the planet. As they entered the heat shield protected the craft from breaking up. Then a few miles above the surface the parachutes opened slowing the craft further. Finally a few hundred feet above the surface the air bags inflated and the rover was dropped! I find this hard to believe a incredibly expensive rover just dropped, all it had to cushion the blow was a layer of air bags. Both rovers sustained about 10 bounces on the surface before finally coming to rest. They had landed the surface mission could begin.
Hopefully you should be able to see a map showing where the rovers landed. The colours indicate height. After setting of spirit and opportunity were intended to drive roughly 1 km in there 90 days. Now as I am sure you know they exceeded that and are currently entering there 5 year!
The rest of my post is going to be on the lifetime of these remarkable rovers. At writing 17.4.09 the rovers are currently working well, there have been one or two failures due to wear and tear ( Wheel jams) but overall they are both still working. Opportunity is currently heading for a massive crater a couple of miles away from it's current location and, Spirit is just reawakening from a survived Martian winter.
At the moment there is no indication that they will fail any time soon so Long live spirit and opportunity. I wish I could provide more info on the surface mission but the blog doesn't have enough space. If you want more information check out this website.

http://http//marsrover.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Kyle

Technological progress for war

Hi there


As I am holiday (HOORAH). I have for once had no work to finish or writing to complete for some looming deadline. And that is why you have got a few more blog posts than usual,also due to this lack of work my mind as been thinking about lot's of knotty problems and ideas.
One of these ideas is does mankind need a war to advance itself? It is an interesting question though isn't it when you think about it. I am of course NOT arguing wars are good or in any way right! For two very good reasons one I'm a pacifist and, think killing someone is never right. Two I don't like the idea of inflicting or receiving pain. Very briefly I must sidetrack to a story from years ago. Now when I was about nine or ten I used to play rugby, which surprises me now because I deplore sport and physical exertion. But anyway I used to play rugby and, after one match or during I can't quite recall. There was a fight, I didn't start it was to do with somebody else. Yet as usual I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and, a rather large beefy boy decided he didn't like me, for whatever reason so promptly broke my nose. Obviously it was incredibly painful but I didn't retaliate. I could have done but I had no desire to inflict the same kind of pain that I was currently experiencing. Which shows how incapable I am of being violent even in self defence!
So back to the question, now sadly history does show us that in times of war humans do advance technology at a staggering speed. For instance during WW2 the power of the atom was unlocked creating the ultimate weapon and, ironically prevented a WW3. Because with every country armed to the teeth with nukes (said in an American accent). No sane person would launch them as it would end in total obliteration. Also in the next big conflict the cold war man entered space. As I'm sure you are aware this resulted with America going to the moon, however that wasn't the original purpose of space rockets. The original purpose was rather more brutal, the intention was to be able to send a nuclear warhead on top a rocket, over the Atlantic via space to strike Moscow or Washington. Thankfully we managed to prevent the cold war from going Nuclear.
In those instances you can see that without a war technological milestones like landing on the moon might not have happened that early. Which does beg the question would these things have happened at all? With Nuclear power the answer is certainly yes. With the space programme, due to it's astronomical cost I am forced to say probably not.
This is a rather sad thing in my opinion to realise about ones species. That we only make improvements of technology if they will help us kill one and other more quickly. Of course this isn't true in all cases but the fact that it happens at all is quite upsetting. However I am hopeful that eventually the Human race will transcend there petty disputes and, enter in to a period peace and exploration of the Universe.
Thanks for reading. My next post will probably be on something more astronomically based.

Kyle

Moon Hoax (Not what you think)

Hi

I suspect that when you read that title you assumed I had finally gone completely insane and, now believed as some do that man never went to the moon. Let me first assure you that I DO BELIEVE MAN WENT TO THE MOON. The product of this post is going to be on why some people still believe it was all a hoax.
Now as I'm sure you are aware it as been roughly 40 years since man last went to the moon. And at writing 13th April 2009, we have yet to return or get anywhere close to getting back there. We are currently sat in Low earth orbit , with the international space station.
I am going a little of track so back to the moon, Apollo 11 was the first mission to land on the moon. With a crew of Neil Armstrong, Edwin Buzz Aldrin and the one everyone forgets Michael Collins. Buzz and Neil landed in the sea of tranquillity spending, a few hours looking round taking pictures and famously planting the American flag.
The planting of the American flag was the first thing the skeptics jumped on, why was it blowing? The moon doesn't have a breeze they yelled loudly to anyone listening. The thing they neglected to realise was that to stop the flag flopping limply, spoiling the patriotic moment. NASA had attached a Aluminium pole along the top of the flag, to keep it up. However when whichever one (hard to tell in spacesuit) forced the shaft of the flag into the hard Luna rock, He twisted the shaft thus moving the supporting pole around causing the flag to move. And of course with no atmosphere and therefore no drag the flag moved for ages, as if being blown by a breeze. The skeptics also failed to note that when the astronauts moved past the flag, after the vibrations had dissipated there was no movement. As you would expect with the wind on earth.
Much to your relief I am not going to go through every single thing that “ Proves” we never went to the moon. If I did you would be reading this for years! What I am going to write about is why people want to believe they never went. Of course I'm sure the hoaxists will say “We only want you to see the truth.” But why can't they accept we went. The evidence is overwhelming! I do however sort of understand why they think it. If you look back through History you will see next to every great historical achievement, a line of hecklers shouting about how there lying. It surely happened when people crossed the Atlantic to America and, it will doubtless happen when we eventually go to Mars. Every great event as a cause for disbelief.
The one thing I genuinely can't get however is why these people would not want to believe it. Surely it is amazing to everyone to know that humankind as gone to a different world!, in the sixties of all years. A time when computing power was pretty much zero. It must make you proud to be a human, to know that when we put are minds to it we can accomplish incredible things. For instance at the start of the space race 1957, nobody could have possibly imagined we would have men walking on the moon in 12 years.
I think that is a nice way to end this post, following this I am no longer going to attempt to convince these people. As Gene Cernan says “The truth needs no defence”. However I for one can't wait to later this year when the Lunar reconnaissance orbiter goes up. With this probe with it's high res camera, it should be capable of seeing the lunar rovers, accent stages and maybe even the footprints. Which of course will be exciting!

How low will the Sun go?

Hi

The Sun is of course the central star in are solar system, the life force without it's light there would be no life on earth. And the Sun is currently in Solar minimum.

Now the Sun is a massive subject and I am incapable of summing up it's entirety in a single post, so this post is going to be on the solar cycle and, the current and unusual solar minimum it is in.

The Sun goes in solar cycles over a period of 11 years. In a solar cycle there is a minimum and a maximum, we are currently in a minimum. The solar cycle is basically a measure of sunspots and solar activity. At solar minimum there is very few sunspots and at maximum there is loads. For earth at least solar maximum is a serious worry, because when at maximum the Sun is more likely to produce a CME (Coronal mass ejection). A CME occurs when the Sun releases a chunk of solar material and high energy particles, this material then speeds away from the sun and can on occasion come to the earth. When it comes to the earth it is worrying for many, the astronauts for instance on the space station don't want to be around when this comes. Without the protective atmosphere of earth, the radiation isn't dispersed and " Scrambles your DNA" giving you cancer or other nasty diseases. The high energy radiation will also nock satellites out which is problamatic for GPS.

After a solar maximum the new solar cycle starts. Astronomers on earth know when this as happened because the first sunspot of the new solar cycle as a different polarity to that of the cycle before. Which means if the previous cycle polarity was north the next cycles would be south. The polarities switch because every 11 years with the solar cycle the magnetic field of the entire Sun switches, meaning the north becomes the south and vice versa. Sorry if that wasn't well exsplained but it's hard to find the words. This effect also happens with the Earth over a much longer time scale, so at some point the magnetic field of the Earth will also switch!
Solar cycles come and go. The new solar cycle started at the start of 2009 late 2008. And are usually pretty uniform at maximum there is a lot of flares and sunspots. And at minimum there is very few yet still some sunspots. Now that is what makes the current solar cycle interesting. As you can see in the image above there is not one sunspot to be seen. Why this as happened is not fully understood but it does have effects on earth. The Aurora which is caused by the magnetic field of the Sun is one effect. Because with no sunspots which are affected by the magnetic field. It is unlikely there will be large amounts of Aurora activity. there is no reason to be worried however as it is highly improbable that the Sun's energy output will decrease. It does however mean that Solar observers will have little to look at in the immediate future!

Kyle