Now where did I put that stripe?

Jupiter loses a stripe - space - 11 May 2010 - New Scientist: "Jupiter has lost one of its prominent stripes, leaving its southern half looking unusually blank. Scientists are not sure what triggered the disappearance of the band."
The bands may normally appear dark simply because pale, high-altitude clouds prevalent in other regions of the planet are missing there, revealing darker clouds below, says Glenn Orton of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "You're looking into different layers of the cloud structures of the planet," he told New Scientist.
The disappearance of the belt comes at a time of widespread – but mysterious – change on Jupiter, which has seen changes to the colour of other bands and spots in its atmosphere. "There has been a lot going on," Orton says.

Comment -- I haven't seen Jupiter through my scope for quite a while. I'll look soon to see if I notice the lack of a stripe.

For thousands of years, humans thought the heavens were perfect and unchangeable. The invention of the telescope changed that notion.

By the way, did you know that Jupiter is 1,331 times bigger than the Earth?

A heck of a grand river

This scene is me looking south, about a half mile from my office. Obviously, I shot it on a nice sunny day, not during today's Michigan monsoon

Lansing has a very nice riverwalk in the downtown area. You can stroll many miles if you have the time and ambition.

Until I read this historical information sign, I did not realize that the Grand River is Michigan's longest river and it was formed 12,000 years ago after the last Ice Age.

How to survive a tornado

NOVA | Hunt for the Supertwister | Shelter From the Storm | PBS: "NOVA: What if you're not in your house? Where should you go?

Marshall: Well, a couple of things have cropped up in the last few years that have alarmed me. One is that a ditch or an open depression is a good place to be. It's not, because that's a debris accumulation zone. We see more ditches filled with cars and boards and everything else. Another is that somehow underpasses are shelters. Drivers stop at a highway overpass, climb up underneath a girder, and think that's a safe place. Ninety-five percent of the time it's not."

Comment -- Interesting interview with engineer and tornado expert Tim Marshall. He says if you are in your car, drive away from the tornado -- you will likely outrun it.

If you are in your house, get to an inside bathroom -- the plumbing will keep the room from flying away. He does not mention basements, maybe because few houses outside the Midwest have basements.

Also, it's not usually the wind that kills people, it's the debris that's flying around in the wind.

A nicer photo from the Michigan Celebrates Small Business event last week

This was shot by one of the people at our table. It's much nicer quality than my camera phone photo.

Keep on truckin' at LCC

Spotted this truck parked on the Lansing Community College campus today.

Preschoolers and TV watching: correlation is not causation...again!

The Research Report: A Look at Studies on MS, Mosquitoes and Sugar's Effect on Cholesterol - WSJ.com: Each additional hour of weekly preschool TV corresponded to a 10% increase in 'victimization'—how often the child was teased, insulted and physically harassed by other students. And preschool television was also linked to poorer health in fourth grade: Children who watched the most also ate the fewest fruits and vegetables and the most soft drinks, and were more likely to be overweight."

Comment -- It seems to me that it's more logical to conclude that children who are teased, insulted and harassed by other students are likely to react by watching more TV -- rather than the other way around.

(photo by MelvinSchlubman http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauldineen/)

Country of Chile will host world's largest telescope

SkyandTelescope.com - News Blog - Peak Picked for World's Largest Scope: "With a billion-euro price tag and a construction timetable projecting 'first light' by 2018, the world's largest optical telescope will be a monster. Its primary's mosaic of 1,000 hexagonal mirrors will create an aperture 138 feet (42 meters) across. That's a huge engineering leap: four times the diameter of the largest single-aperture optical telescopes today. To put the optics in perspective, the E-ELT's secondary mirror will be bigger than the venerable Hale Telescope's 200-inch primary."

Comment -- I have a 5-inch telescope. The ELT will be a 1,656-inch scope. They should rename it the Big Old Honkin' Scope (BOSH).

You would think that space-based telescopes would be the wave of the future, but available technology doesn't exist to put a 138-feet-in-diameter scope in orbit.