Really, really out in the middle of no where

Gallery - Where's the remotest place on Earth? - Image 2 - New Scientist: "It's official, the world's most remote place is on the Tibetan plateau (34.7�N, 85.7�E).

From here, says Andy Nelson, a former researcher at the European Commission, it is a three-week trip to the cities of Lhasa or Korla - one day by car and the remaining 20 on foot.

Rough terrain and an altitude of 5200 metres also lend it a perfect air of 'Do Not Disturb'."

Comment -- This article says that today there are very few places left in the world where you cannot travel to a city of at least 50,000 people within two days (by land or water, not airplane.) The article says that the Amazon seems remote, but its extensive river system lets you travel by boat to a city pretty quick. Likewise, the Sahara is crisscrossed with a good road network.

I guess Tibet is the last place (excluding Antarctica) where you can really get away from it all.

Some fall color pictures I shot this weekend in southwest Michigan

Colorful construction in downtown Lansing

This is the outside of the new Troppo restaurant under construction next to my office building. It's a terrific restaurant. The new location will give them more room and meeting space.

We use them for catering once in a while and the chow is yum yum yummy!

Planets all over the place

What does it mean if Earths are everywhere? - SmartPlanet: "European scientists, working at a facility in Chile, have announced the discovery of 32 new planets outside the Solar System, including several within the size range of Earth.

Reporters hailed the discovery of “super-Earths” especially the estimate that as many as 40% of all stars may have low-mass planets orbiting around them.

Scientists have now found about 400 “exo-planets” using telescopes, most in the size range of Jupiter.

It’s awfully exciting, but what does it mean?"

Comment -- Well, one thing it means is that back when I was a kid, just getting started in astronomy, I never would have imagined that I'd someday read that scientists have discovered 400 planets. Pretty astounding...

These new planet discoveries again raise the question: where is everybody? If planets are common, you would think that in the billions of years the Universe has been here that there would be a few other intelligent species arising. Yet, there appears to be "The Great Silence." Maybe something is going on that we haven't puzzled out yet. Perhaps Earth is quarantined, kind of like a remote Amazonian tribe?

My favorite explanation is that all civilizations, once they reach the technological singularity, upload themselves into virtual space and vanish from reality.

Planets all over the place

What does it mean if Earths are everywhere? - SmartPlanet: "European scientists, working at a facility in Chile, have announced the discovery of 32 new planets outside the Solar System, including several within the size range of Earth.

Reporters hailed the discovery of “super-Earths” especially the estimate that as many as 40% of all stars may have low-mass planets orbiting around them.

Scientists have now found about 400 “exo-planets” using telescopes, most in the size range of Jupiter.

It’s awfully exciting, but what does it mean?"

Comment -- Well, one thing it means is that back when I was a kid, just getting started in astronomy, I never would have imagined that I'd someday read that scientists have discovered 400 planets. Pretty astounding...

These new planet discoveries again raise the question: where is everybody? If planets are common, you would think that in the billions of years the Universe has been here that there would be a few other intelligent species arising. Yet, there appears to be "The Great Silence." Maybe something is going on that we haven't puzzled out yet. Perhaps Earth is quarantined, kind of like a remote Amazonian tribe?

My favorite explanation is that all civilizations, once they reach the technological singularity, upload themselves into virtual space and vanish from reality.

Sunrise and wedding

This is a picture outside my office window this morning. Yes, I was at work at the crack of dawn!

The other photo is Jennifer, Brandon, Jenny and me at Saturday's wedding. Kudos to Steven Dawdy for the fine photo.

Grape news about Traverse City wine country

Traverse City among Top 10 wine destinations Detroit Free Press Freep.com: "Add another salute to northern Michigan’s growing reputation among the country’s top wine country destinations.

Editors at TripAdvisor, an international travel Web site based near Boston, recently ranked Traverse City eighth among the top 10 wine destinations in North America. The rating was reported by Thomson Reuters news service.

The list is topped by the renowned wine-making regions of Napa Valley and Sonoma, Calif. Traverse City is the only Midwest city that made a ranking that includes wine-producing areas in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, New York and Virginia."

Comment -- What can I say other than...I'll drink to that!

We've been in Napa Valley and Sonoma. It will be a long time before Traverse City can compete with the hundreds and hundreds of fancy California wineries out in those regions. On the other hand, the Michigan wineries are close by and their wine is a lot more affordable.

Shrubbery being installed along the Grand River

Guess they are in a hurry before it starts to snow!

Interesting new dinosaur news

Pterodactyl fossil fills gaps in evolutionary tale - CNN.com: "The researchers say more study is needed to substantiate the idea of that evolution could occur relatively quickly, and that whole parts of a plant or animal's body could change at once."

"The combination of features indicates that the primitive pterodactyls evolved relatively quickly, and that certain groups of features changed at the same time. Traditional evolutionary theory suggests that one feature -- a tail for instance -- would slowly evolve over time. "

Comment -- This article emphasizes the validity of something I read (somewhere) along the lines of "Evolution is a fact; Darwin had a theory about how it worked (natural selection)."

It's cool that after so many years, scientists are still coming up with new questions about how evolution works.

Improvements in downtown Lansing's riverfront

At left, you can see the riverfront along the west bank of the Grand River where the new Accident Fund of America HQ is being built. There's a nice concrete riverfront walkway being built. A couple years ago this was a literal junkyard.

The other photo is the new Lansing City Market. It's on the east side of the river across from the Accident Fund. Budget constraints mean that the Market is only about half the size as originally proposed. But, it's a big improvement over the decrepit old City Market, which reportedly needed a million dollars worth of repairs.

From space telescopes to tennis balls -- I did it all this weekend!

At left, I'm at a reception Friday night in East Lansing for Frank Ceppolina, the engineer in charge of figuring out how to fix the Hubble Space Telescope. He spoke on campus that afternoon but I could not attend his presentation. Jennifer and I did go to this reception, which was a lot of fun.

I got to talk to Frank for about 10 minutes. I think the most interesting thing he said was in regards to the James Webb Space Telescope, the device that will replace Hubble in 2014. I noted that the Webb is designed to be inaccessible to repair crews. But Frank said "don't be too sure!" I think he has a lot of faith in his engineers to figure something out if they have to.

This next photo (cell phone camera so a little blurry) is Brandon and me at the Franklin Tennis Club on Saturday night. We lost our match 3-6, 1-6. However, it was still great fun (although it would have been even more fun if I could have helped Brandon on to victory.) We play again in a few weeks and I'm hopeful that we can start a winning streak.

Moon smackdown was a dud?

SkyandTelescope.com - News Blog - LCROSS Impact: It's a Hit — But Was Anything Seen?: "At a press conference 2� hours after the impacts Monday morning, NASA's LCROSS team members were upbeat. They reported that the spacecraft and its instruments all performed 'beautifully,' but warned 'It takes a while to comb through the data.' Anthony Colaprete, the LCROSS principal investigator, said 'we saw the crater' from the Centaur rocket-body impact and recorded other high-quality data, but he declined to say anything about water yet. (LCROSS was designed to detect an amount of frost in the soil as small as 1 part in 200.)"

Comment -- The idea was that this SUV-size rocket would smash into the Moon and throw up a plume of dust possibly visible from Earth. The plume, it was hoped, would show evidence of water (or at least frost.)

Alas, the rocket crashed and nothing apparently happened. No spray of dust at all. But, as noted above, there's lots of data that still needs to be analyzed. It's possible that something really interesting will still be discovered.

New solar system discovery

NASA telescope discovers giant ring around Saturn - washingtonpost.com: "The Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered the biggest but never-before-seen ring around the planet Saturn, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced late Tuesday.

The thin array of ice and dust particles lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system and its orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane, the laboratory said.

JPL spokeswoman Whitney Clavin said the ring is very diffuse and doesn't reflect much visible light but the infrared Spitzer telescope was able to detect it."

Comment -- Well, this was certainly unexpected.

No, I will not be able to see it through my telescope.

I'm going to be live on Detroit Public Radio at noon Wednesday

WDET 101.9FM

I'm part of a panel discussion on the current status and future prospects for small business in Detroit. I'll be on from noon - 1 p.m. Have to travel down to their Wayne State studios.

If you need a good laugh, try reading through these real children's science exam answers....

(Hat tip to my wife for passing these along.)

Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists..

Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.

Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?(Brilliant, love this!)
A: Keep it in the cow.

Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature hates a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.

Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.

Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental

Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery. (The kid gets an A+ for this answer!)

Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A: Premature death.

Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? (e.g., abdomen)
A: The body is consisted into three parts -- the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain; the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels A, E, I, O, and U.

Q: What is the fibula?
A: A small lie.

Q: What does 'varicose' mean? (I do love this one...)
A: Nearby.

Q: Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarian Section.'
A: The Caesarian Section is a district in Rome.

Q: What does the word 'benign' mean?'
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

What are the odds?

Coincidences Can Be Expected - WSJ.com: "History isn't supposed to repeat itself in the lottery. But earlier this month, a 1-in-5.2 million shot came through in Bulgaria, as the same six winning numbers turned up in two consecutive drawings. And 18 Bulgarians profited by betting on recent history: They chose the winning combination of numbers from the drawing four days earlier -- which hadn't been selected by anyone the first time around -- and split the pot."

Comment -- This article notes that with lotteries held all over the world every day, it's not unbelievably impossible that the same six number would turn up two drawings in a row.

In 1986, a New Jersey woman won the lottery for the second time in two months. But Purdue statisticians found that the probability that somewhere in the U.S. in 1986 someone would win the lottery for the second time was about 1 in 10.

It just goes to show that with enough time and enough drawings, anything can and will happen.

Amazing clear skies this morning

I was up at 6 a.m. and went outside for a little while with my binoculars. It was cold (28) with frost all over the grass. The skies were very dry and transparent, which meant little water vapor to scatter lights around the atmosphere.

So, I got spectacular views of the "winter" constellations and objects, like the Orion Nebula and the Seven Sisters star cluster.

Maybe I'll get up early every morning! Yeah, right.