For a number of years I have hated conservative talk radio. Not only do I disagree with much of the message, but I despise the tone that they take.
Conservative radio hosts are terrible to people. They have no respect. We all know it.
Recently, however, Air America has come to my city. And I have to admit that I have started to hate the liberal hosts for the same reason I hate the right-wing talkers.
Almost without exception, the political talk radio programs are discussing people who have devoted much of their life to public service. Yet, these people are discussed with more bile than the very worst of society.
Certainly people in public life do dispicable things from time to time, but rarely do they deserve the public flogging that is handed out every day over the airwaves.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
New Planets Found - Don't Pack Just Yet
Just recently, NASA announced that they have found planets orbiting a star that is light years away. These planets are most likely very large - probably something like the size of Jupiter.
These are not the first planets that have been found by astronomers by any means. I think it was about a decade ago that a couple of astrophysicists developed a way of detecting planets by looking at the gravitational 'wobble' of a star. Basically, planets orbit stars because of the star's powerful gravitational field, however, a star is also affected by the smaller planets in orbit around the star. So, they started watching the 'wobble' of the stars, and were able to determine the mass of the planets. So far, the technique can only find large planets.
While it is interesting that there are other planets in our galaxy that are 'relatively' close, it always makes me think about the impossibility of any type of extraterrestrial contact.
The biggest problem, of course, is space. It is really really big... and that may be the my understatement of the month. To give you an example of how far we are from our star, the Sun, it helps to think about it in terms of our moon. (which is an awful name for a moon, and should be named something better, but that is a topic for another day.) Our moon is just under a quarter of a million miles away from the earth. Although, the perigee (smallest orbit) and the apogees (largest orbit) do vary. The sun, on the other hand, is 93 million miles away. This means that a radio signal/beam of light will take about 1.5 seconds to go from the earth to the sun, but a radio signal/beam of light takes almost 8 and a half minutes to go from the earth to the sun. Even though propulsion technologies have gotten better since the 1970s, it would still take about three days to travel from the earth to the moon. Without a gravitational slingshot to help, a trip to the sun would take just over 1,100 days.
While a thousand days may be something we can accomplish, our closest star is Proxima Centauri which is about four light years away. To put this in perspective, we can travel at about 1 mile per second when traveling to the moon. With a gravitational slingshot or two, we've been successful in increasing that speed to about 3 miles per second. In other words, our best efforts to date have reached 0.000016 the speed of light. That means it would take us 250,000 years to reach our closest neighboring star. A quarter of a million years seems a bit daunting.
On the off chance that we developed a way to travel an astounding 1,000 times faster than we can travel right now, Proxima Centauri is 250 years away.
Besides the distances, interstellar space is not a good place to be. As it turns out, one of the reasons our planet is perfect is that it protects us from a lot of very nasty radiation. The magnetic field created by the earth's molten iron core protects our planet from solar wind. But outside of the earth's protection, a burst of solar wind would kill any biological being within minutes, or even second if severe enough.
So, not only is space too vast to travel between stars or solar systems, outside of our planet's magnetic protection, we cannot survive. And that is why we have never been visited by aliens from another planet. Sure, some people theorize that a space faring race could travel at the speed of light, or near the speed of light. The problem with this explanation is twofold. For one thing, as anything with mass nears the speed of light, is becomes infinitely massive. And two, as mass becomes infinite, it takes infinite energy to travel the speed of light. What does this mean? Basically, for a space shuttle sized ship, you'd need a source of energy that puts out as much energy as the sun.
The point of all this is that we have one planet, and we will never have the means to get another. We'd better treat this one with respect. And I say we name the moon "Bob", at least until we think of something better.
These are not the first planets that have been found by astronomers by any means. I think it was about a decade ago that a couple of astrophysicists developed a way of detecting planets by looking at the gravitational 'wobble' of a star. Basically, planets orbit stars because of the star's powerful gravitational field, however, a star is also affected by the smaller planets in orbit around the star. So, they started watching the 'wobble' of the stars, and were able to determine the mass of the planets. So far, the technique can only find large planets.
While it is interesting that there are other planets in our galaxy that are 'relatively' close, it always makes me think about the impossibility of any type of extraterrestrial contact.
The biggest problem, of course, is space. It is really really big... and that may be the my understatement of the month. To give you an example of how far we are from our star, the Sun, it helps to think about it in terms of our moon. (which is an awful name for a moon, and should be named something better, but that is a topic for another day.) Our moon is just under a quarter of a million miles away from the earth. Although, the perigee (smallest orbit) and the apogees (largest orbit) do vary. The sun, on the other hand, is 93 million miles away. This means that a radio signal/beam of light will take about 1.5 seconds to go from the earth to the sun, but a radio signal/beam of light takes almost 8 and a half minutes to go from the earth to the sun. Even though propulsion technologies have gotten better since the 1970s, it would still take about three days to travel from the earth to the moon. Without a gravitational slingshot to help, a trip to the sun would take just over 1,100 days.
While a thousand days may be something we can accomplish, our closest star is Proxima Centauri which is about four light years away. To put this in perspective, we can travel at about 1 mile per second when traveling to the moon. With a gravitational slingshot or two, we've been successful in increasing that speed to about 3 miles per second. In other words, our best efforts to date have reached 0.000016 the speed of light. That means it would take us 250,000 years to reach our closest neighboring star. A quarter of a million years seems a bit daunting.
On the off chance that we developed a way to travel an astounding 1,000 times faster than we can travel right now, Proxima Centauri is 250 years away.
Besides the distances, interstellar space is not a good place to be. As it turns out, one of the reasons our planet is perfect is that it protects us from a lot of very nasty radiation. The magnetic field created by the earth's molten iron core protects our planet from solar wind. But outside of the earth's protection, a burst of solar wind would kill any biological being within minutes, or even second if severe enough.
So, not only is space too vast to travel between stars or solar systems, outside of our planet's magnetic protection, we cannot survive. And that is why we have never been visited by aliens from another planet. Sure, some people theorize that a space faring race could travel at the speed of light, or near the speed of light. The problem with this explanation is twofold. For one thing, as anything with mass nears the speed of light, is becomes infinitely massive. And two, as mass becomes infinite, it takes infinite energy to travel the speed of light. What does this mean? Basically, for a space shuttle sized ship, you'd need a source of energy that puts out as much energy as the sun.
The point of all this is that we have one planet, and we will never have the means to get another. We'd better treat this one with respect. And I say we name the moon "Bob", at least until we think of something better.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
An Election Thanksgiving
In two days, the United States of America is going to hold a general election. In this election, seventeen gubernatorial races will be decided. One-third of the seats in the Senate will be decided. And, of course, every member of the House of Representatives will be up for (re-)election.
Yet, there is one race that has an overarching importance to every American, the race for the presidency. I have already voted, and I cast my vote for Barack Obama and so have quite a few people I know. Many other friends and colleagues will vote for Senator McCain.
This election process has been divisive and difficult for the country. I don't think there's any way to judge the impact that the campaigning has had on the psyche of the nation, but I think that it is fair to say that this election cycle has been negative enough that it will hamper whomever gets into the White House from ruling effectively – or at least as effectively as either of these Senators would have been otherwise.
For the theme of national politics, therefore, I am not thankful. But, there is much to be thankful for in this country when it comes to elections.
The Sitting President
Say what you will about President Bush, I know that it would never cross his mind to stay in office. To virtually any American, this is an obvious statement. Of course an American president is going to step down at the end of his (someday “her”) presidency. But this is not the 'norm' in many parts of the world. What has become the absolute outcome in America is not nearly certain in three-quarters of the countries in the United Nations.
So, to President Bush, and the forty-two presidents before him, I am thankful.
The American People
I believe that if a sitting president ever tried to stay in office after a four or eight year term, that president would simply be ignored. He would get a pat on the head, and bemused look, and all of us would ignore him. From the military, to the highest elected and non-elected offices, to the men and women on the street, a tyrant would never be allowed.
To the American People, I am thankful we would never allow this to happen.
County Elections Offices
Elections in the country are not carried out by the federal government, nor the state government. Each and every time we vote, that elections runs smoothly because of dedicated men and women in each and every county in this nation.
Sometimes we hear about something unjust or problematic about a county elections office. But, we don't hear a peep from the thousands of elections office that do everything right. We never hear about the offices that are politically neutral, efficient, and honest.
I am thankful for the men and women who make our elections fair.
The Candidates
I would never be willing to run for elected office. Frankly, I don't think my skin is thick enough to deal with the lies and half-truths that are continuously slung at the candidates. The truth I could handle, but time and again, we see that the truth is rarely used to castigate the candidates.
Sometimes I imaging myself in a politicians shoes (briefly), and I cannot image having the restraint that they always seem to have. I understand, in the abstract, that one must put the office above oneself, and that one must maintain a high level of decorum despite being lambasted by everyone. But, I know, that if I was in office, I don't think I would refrain from lashing out.
To the candidates, then, I am thankful for your ability to put the office above your personal feelings.
Voters
I always get excited when I think that tens of millions of Americans are doing the same thing – voting! After all, we are an incredibly diverse nation. Very often, besides being American, we have little in common. So, if you think about it, voting is brings us together unlike almost anything else as a country.
Each of us, with few exceptions, eats, sleeps, drinks, breathes, uses the toilet, and pays bills and taxes. Outside of that, there is very little that you might be able to predict about a random American. You can be American if you are from another country, or if your ancestors came over on the Mayflower. You can be an American if you speak only English or Spanish. You can be an American if you were born in Alaska, or if only one of your parents was an American and you were born in Morocco. And on the first Tuesday of November every four years, each and every one of us has the right to decide who shall govern this nation.
Two-thirds of us make the choice every four years to be a part of this process. In other words, we voters beat the non-voting community in a landslide!
I am thankful to all of the American who cast a ballot.
Our Ancestors
Today we have the oldest and one of the few stable democracies in the world. Though we may have struggled with Universal Suffrage, Jim Crow Laws, and the meaning of the phrase “All men are created equally...”, we are here. We are about to vote. In no small way, we owe this privilege, this right, to those who fought and sometimes died.
I am thankful to our ancestors for this Democracy!
Yet, there is one race that has an overarching importance to every American, the race for the presidency. I have already voted, and I cast my vote for Barack Obama and so have quite a few people I know. Many other friends and colleagues will vote for Senator McCain.
This election process has been divisive and difficult for the country. I don't think there's any way to judge the impact that the campaigning has had on the psyche of the nation, but I think that it is fair to say that this election cycle has been negative enough that it will hamper whomever gets into the White House from ruling effectively – or at least as effectively as either of these Senators would have been otherwise.
For the theme of national politics, therefore, I am not thankful. But, there is much to be thankful for in this country when it comes to elections.
The Sitting President
Say what you will about President Bush, I know that it would never cross his mind to stay in office. To virtually any American, this is an obvious statement. Of course an American president is going to step down at the end of his (someday “her”) presidency. But this is not the 'norm' in many parts of the world. What has become the absolute outcome in America is not nearly certain in three-quarters of the countries in the United Nations.
So, to President Bush, and the forty-two presidents before him, I am thankful.
The American People
I believe that if a sitting president ever tried to stay in office after a four or eight year term, that president would simply be ignored. He would get a pat on the head, and bemused look, and all of us would ignore him. From the military, to the highest elected and non-elected offices, to the men and women on the street, a tyrant would never be allowed.
To the American People, I am thankful we would never allow this to happen.
County Elections Offices
Elections in the country are not carried out by the federal government, nor the state government. Each and every time we vote, that elections runs smoothly because of dedicated men and women in each and every county in this nation.
Sometimes we hear about something unjust or problematic about a county elections office. But, we don't hear a peep from the thousands of elections office that do everything right. We never hear about the offices that are politically neutral, efficient, and honest.
I am thankful for the men and women who make our elections fair.
The Candidates
I would never be willing to run for elected office. Frankly, I don't think my skin is thick enough to deal with the lies and half-truths that are continuously slung at the candidates. The truth I could handle, but time and again, we see that the truth is rarely used to castigate the candidates.
Sometimes I imaging myself in a politicians shoes (briefly), and I cannot image having the restraint that they always seem to have. I understand, in the abstract, that one must put the office above oneself, and that one must maintain a high level of decorum despite being lambasted by everyone. But, I know, that if I was in office, I don't think I would refrain from lashing out.
To the candidates, then, I am thankful for your ability to put the office above your personal feelings.
Voters
I always get excited when I think that tens of millions of Americans are doing the same thing – voting! After all, we are an incredibly diverse nation. Very often, besides being American, we have little in common. So, if you think about it, voting is brings us together unlike almost anything else as a country.
Each of us, with few exceptions, eats, sleeps, drinks, breathes, uses the toilet, and pays bills and taxes. Outside of that, there is very little that you might be able to predict about a random American. You can be American if you are from another country, or if your ancestors came over on the Mayflower. You can be an American if you speak only English or Spanish. You can be an American if you were born in Alaska, or if only one of your parents was an American and you were born in Morocco. And on the first Tuesday of November every four years, each and every one of us has the right to decide who shall govern this nation.
Two-thirds of us make the choice every four years to be a part of this process. In other words, we voters beat the non-voting community in a landslide!
I am thankful to all of the American who cast a ballot.
Our Ancestors
Today we have the oldest and one of the few stable democracies in the world. Though we may have struggled with Universal Suffrage, Jim Crow Laws, and the meaning of the phrase “All men are created equally...”, we are here. We are about to vote. In no small way, we owe this privilege, this right, to those who fought and sometimes died.
I am thankful to our ancestors for this Democracy!
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