July 1, 2009

NEW NEWS SERVICE COVERING CALIFORNIA ASTRONOMY AND SPACE EVENTS

I am launching California Sky, a Twitter news feed service which will cover local astronomy news, events, night sky and space flight information related to California.

Each news item consists of a maximum of 140 characters so they can be received as text messages on PDAs and cellphones. News items do not contain images, but may contain links leading to sites or images on the web.

There is no cost and no advertising, and your privacy is protected.

You can see the newsfeed and follow it by going to the site:

http://twitter.com/CaliforniaSky

If you have a Twitter account, you can simply sign in and click "Follow".

June 25, 2009

RAPID DIGITAL MEDIA RESPONSE TO MICHAEL JACKSON DEATH

It was interesting to see the rapid Internet response, and the social media news spread pattern following the death of Michael Jackson this afternoon.

Working at my office, I while listening to a radio report about Farrah Fawcett (will I ever learn to spell her name right?), who today died at St. Johns Medical Center just down the street. This also was a major story here. Within seconds of Jackson's hospital admission being announced on the radio, I checked Facebook and saw that posts were already filling the screen. Reports on Twitter were already going out as well. I learned about the actual death from Tweets, which had been reposted on Facebook. The L.A. Times was extremely quick also and had updates on their site every few minutes.

Jackson's wikipedia page was overloaded within minutes. The L.A. Times home page seemed to exerpience some overload issue as well. I then checked Spiegel.de (Der Spiegel is a very reputable German weekly) and found that they were already on the story as well. Amazing!

As I am writing this, UCLA Medical Center (just up the street from here) has not even made the "official" death announcement yet. We are all waiting for the press conference.

There's not even a point for me to grab a camera and go up to UCLA. All I could achieve is some ground pix of the crowd gathering there. (There are of course helicopters doing aerial shots -- I can hear them from here). But the time I arrive, there will already be thousands of images and footage in the newsstream.

Looks like Twitter and Facebook (both of which allow posts from mobile phones and wirless devices) are now effectively breaking news stories. In this case at least, they have beaten all traditional media in terms of speed.

June 20, 2009

KIDNAPPED REPORTERS ESCAPE TALIBAN

After being held for 7 months in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, reporters David Rohde and Tahir Ludin escaped their Taliban captors after climbing over a wall. Their driver, Asadullah Mangal, did not manage to make the escape as well.

The two escaped men found a Pakistani amry scout, who took them to a Pakistani base. They are being flown to the U.S. Bagram base in Afghanistan.

Rohde, who had worked for the New York Times, was in Afghanistan to work on a book. The New York Times said in a statement that they kept quiet about the abduction to avoid bringing more danger to the men. The statement asserts that the abductors' demands were not met.

I'm happy for Rohde and Ludin. Now they've got something to write about.

June 18, 2009

RAGE IN IRAN

I usually do not comment on current political events here, but I am staring with amazement and awe at the images from Iran flashing across my screen.

As a journalist, I regret not being in Tehran right now. Instead, I am sitting in my much too comfortable, airconditioned office in Los Angeles, playing with pencils.

One of my Iranian friends managed to sum it all up in one simple, fitting word, posted on his Facebook profile: "RAGE!"

This has been going on since last week. So far, the protests are not running out of steam as I had expected. They seem to be spreading.

From the outside, it is difficult to assess the true magnitude for now. Foreign journalists and independent observers have been kicked out, and the Iranian government has managed to shut down many web sites and telecom traffic in and out of the country. Interestingly, they overlooked the power of Twitter.com. This service has proven unexpected resiliency, because it is possible to post to it from multiple source (such as cellphones, e-mail and the worldwide web).

By the way, you can now also follow me on Twitter.

June 17, 2009

HEALTH INSURNANCE MADNESS

I am looking at my last (private) health insurnace bill. I had no medical expenses or doctor's visits, so this is just a routine invoice. Still, it consists of no less than seven pages, plus a return envelope in which I am supposed to send the payment.

The invoice itself is three pages long. The instructions on how to read the invoice take up an additional two pages. Also included is a two-page notice (in 13 languages) informing me that I am entitled to make use of a free interpreter if I do not speak sufficient English. (Are my language skills really that bad?)

Efficient? You be the judge.

Insurance premium costs have been rising dramatically. In the last few years, my personal health insurance premiums have been rising by an average of 20% annually, even though I had no health expenses or claims, and I have been in exceptionally good health. In addition to raising my monthly premium, the insurance carrier also reduced and eliminated covered services. (Some services were expanded: I think I can get a sex change operation now, and fertility drugs to go with that).

No wonder that more and more Americans are no longer able to afford this madness. We already have 47 millions Americans without any health insurance. In Los Angeles, the number of uninsured people is said to approach 40% of the total population. By federal law, hospital emergency rooms must treat everyone, regardless of whether someone has insurnace, and regardless of whether someone has the legal right to be in the U.S. or not. Of course, if hospitals cannot collect from an emergency room patient, they just defray the costs and bill the insurnace companies. This way, the costs are passed on those of us who (still) have insurance policies.

It is complete madness.

There really isn't a lack of money, for we are spending a higher percentage of our GDP on health care than all other industrialized nations. And yet, our life expectancy and other parameters indicating our combined overall health are nothing to be proud of by comparison to other developed nations.

June 13, 2009

AN ERA ENDS AS ANALOG TELEVISION STOPS IN U.S.

The end for analog TV in the U.S. came this week, when the conversion to all-digital TV broadcasting was completed. On Friday, all high powered analog TV transmitters fell silent. Only very low-powered “neighborhood” broadcasters are still allowed to send analog signals.

The switchover went reasonably well. The conversion costs for consumers were defrayed by up to two $40 vouchers for each household, which can be used to buy converter boxes equipping older TV sets to work with the new, digital signal. Still, many households are not yet outfitted for digital TV. After the switchover, which had to be delayed for several months, 700,000 phone calls for help were received at the Federal Communications Commission alone. Local broadcasting stations were flooded with calls as well.

Overall, the federal government still nets a huge amount of money, because the now vacated analog frequencies have been sold to the telecommunications industry for other uses.

Personally, I was annoyed with the whole idea from the beginning. Analog TV was just fine for my purposes, and I certainly wasn’t willing to spend a dime for the (put your favorite expletive here) reality shows, infotainment, advertising and dumb soaps that make up most of over-the-air network TV these days. Nor am I a proponent of celebrity anchors “performing the news” or of “sports” such as the “ultimate fighting championship”. (Our signals actually extend far into outer space. I am often wondering how extraterrestrials would assess our human civilization if they would catch, say, an episode of the world wrestling federation). But I’m digressing.

Although digital broadcasting (which is also gaining momentum in radio) offers theoretically better image and sound quality, the reality is that one must receive a clear and strong signal. In digital broadcasting, there is no such thing as “poor reception”. Either one gets a picture (or sound) – or one doesn’t. Ghosts (from reflected signals) or static (from interference) weaken the quality of analog pictures and sound, but it is still possible to see or hear the broadcast even if the signal is somewhat degraded. By contrast, insufficiently received digital signals result in total dropouts even with the best receiver technology. This problem also exists with cellphones. Plus, I hate it if a technology is forced upon me.

Of course, my personal DTV conversion project ended up being labor intensive, because I have a tendency to complicate things. First, I spent hours researching and comparing test results of all available converter boxes. Of course, the receiver I set my mind on (an excellent one, according to tests) was sold out everywhere. I called all over the U.S. and was about to call the head of LG in Korea to complain while the deadline was looming closer and closer. All in vain. In the end, I had to settle for my second choice. At least, this model was available at a local store.

Then, it took me about an hour of crawling behind my elaborate TV setup to undo and reroute all kinds of cables and connectors. Then, my old VCR wasn’t working and I had to figure out why.

I’m still grumbling, but I have to admit: now that I’ve got it all sorted out, I like what I see. My digital picture looks exceptionally good. And I get four or five times as many channels as before. (The result is that I’ve now become addicted to watching old Star Trek and Twilight Zone reruns, which I could not get before).

Sill, I still have a few things to grumble about: channel hopping is very hard now. The digital receiver takes a few seconds to switch to another channels. (What? Does this mean I now have to watch those commercials?) And I’ve now got yet another remote control (now six!) to misplace.

I wonder what effect DTV will have on the broadcasting industry -- especially on public broadcasting. One thing I take issue with is the long term sell-off of frequencies orchestrated by the FCC. Instead, I would have wanted annual lease agreements for the right to broadcast on any particular frequency. These fees could have been waived for public broadcasters, emergency, government and military communications. A fixed portion of the annual leasing fees paid by commercial broadcasters and telecom providers could be granted to public broadcasters and program producers to become a part of their guaranteed, annual budget. Unfortunately, the route taken missed a chance improve programming quality.

Stay tuned.

June 3 , 2009

MY ARTICLE NOW IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The Chicago Tribune has re-published my story from the Los Angeles Times of May 13, 2009. (See the blog entry from that day). The online version of the article is here.

May 22, 2009

PAYING LAST RESPECTS

Photo: Reinhard Kargl

Addendum (May 18, 2009):
The following article appeard in the The Sun, a local newspaper for San Barnardino and the Inland Empire. It corrects some of the information I cited above.

May 13, 2009

AEBLESKIVER STORY IN LOS ANGELES TIMES

My last posting was a gloomy, gory and depressing one. So here's something sweet.

I normally write about science and technology. Don’t get me wrong: I love what I do! But I have many other interests, and it’s always nice to do something a little different. Like today’s story in the Los Angeles Times Food Section. It is often funny how these articles get started.

I’ve always had a fascination with food and culinary arts. My kitchen holds a nice set of gadgets that would satisfy even a professional chef. For instance, I like traditional cast iron pans. In particular, I'm a fan of an old American company called Lodge Manufacturing Co.

A few months ago I was browsing their catalog while having Sunday breakfast. And I came across a strange looking cast iron pan with half-spherical molds. “Don’t ask,” the catalog said. “It’s a Danish thing”. Don’t ask? Never tell that to a journalist!

More puzzling was the fact that even my breakfast guest (who happens to be a professional pastry chef) had never seen a pan like that. And thus began a mild obsession with this “Danish thing” called “aebleskivers”. The research took the two of us to Solvang, where we learned everything there is to know about this Danish dish and its 300 years of tradition.

You can read the result of our efforts in today's Los Angeles Times. Since this is the web, I’m including a link here, but please do me a favor:

Buy the newspaper!

Better yet, subscribe to it. Believe me, a printed newspaper is one of the best deals that can be had today. Reading the paper online will not give you the same experience. Plus, the revenue newspapers generate from their web sites amounts to less than 10% of their total income. In other words, without subscriptions and newsstand sales, most of the journalistic content published by newspapers would disappear!

All About Aebleskivers (Los Angeles Times Food Section, May 13, 2009)

Photo: Reinhard Kargl

May 12, 2009

A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH DEATH

Late last evening, on my way home from the office, death made another appearance in my life. It wasn’t my first close-up encounter with the end. Only this time it was nobody I knew personally.

Traveling on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Los Angeles, I was on my way home from work in the late evening. There is always dense traffic here, even at half past 9 in the evening. I noticed an obstruction immediately ahead.

A pedestrian had been hit while trying to cross the street. I did not see the impact. Only the mangled body on the ground, laying on its back, almost in the middle of the road.

Cars coming to a halt. A crowd gathering. Puzzled silence. Passing drivers. Confusion. Hesitant people afraid to approach -- just gawking from a safe distance.

Standing next to the body, a frazzled young man. The driver of the car that had hit the man, talking on his cellphone with the emergency dispatcher, describing the scene and requesting an ambulance. As the seconds are ticking by, the full impact of the situation is beginning to sink in.

Blood gushing from a wound at the back of the man’s head. The right leg twisted in some grotesque angle. A bloody mass where the lower jaw had been, a now toothless oral cavity turned into an eerily open, gaping round hole. A puddle of blood forming around the back of his head and very slowly spreading out on the asphalt.

The victim, and old man, looks unkempt. Although it is difficult to tell, he seems to be one of the transients who frequent the area. Unfortunately, it is a common occurrence that one of them, intoxicated with drugs or alcohol, suddenly ventures out into the street.

We need that ambulance. Now.

A few of us kneeling next to the victim, trying to figure out how to help. Turning him might kill him if there is a neck injury. Not turning him may expose him to suffocation from blood running down his throat and clogging his airways.

We discuss. The emergency operator is advising against moving the man. But there is little breathing. He is moving slightly, but he can’t speak.

We need an oxygen mask. We need a neck brace. We need latex gloves. Where is that ambulance?

We are feeling helpless. A girl is trying to assure the man that everything is okay; that he will be fine. (Why do people say things like that?)

The man’s pupils are showing no reaction to the beam of my flashlight. I don’t know if he is hearing anything. A few of us are crowding around him, kneeling on the warm asphalt. We disagree on whether there is a pulse or not. Some bystanders are shielding us from traffic.

Someone claiming to be a doctor appears. Even he realizes that there is not much to be done without equipment. There is a silent agreement that forced rescue breathing without a mask, into the bloody mess, is not on option. But after a moment of contemplation, the doctor decides to begin forceful chest compressions. I am glad that I am not the one who is called upon to decide whether performing chest compressions might reverse a cardiac arrest, or kill someone with a spinal cord injury.

Although only seven minutes have passed since the first emergency call, it seems like an eternity has gone by before we finally hear the sound of sirens. A few blocks away at first, but reassuringly getting stronger and louder.
As the firefighters take over the scene, all of us who tried to give first aid retreat to make room.

The accident driver is now leaning against his black Audi, comforted by his girlfriend who has her arms tightly wrapped around him. She is white like a ghost, but composed. Half of his car’s windshield is smashed. Blood and hair are stuck to the shards of glass. He gasps as the firefighters drape a white sheet over the victim’s body. It is over. There is no help.

The police arrive, begin to interview people and take down notes. Everyone is calm and collected and goes about their business as if it was just another evening in L.A. Now that the professionals have taken over, there is nothing else to be done but go home.

This morning, I passed by the accident site on my way back to work. I recognized a stain of dried blood in the middle of the road, marking the square foot of ground where the victim’s head had been – the exact place of death. Every few seconds, car tires rolled right through it.

In the evening, I passed the spot again. By that time, it was almost gone, dispersed by traffic, leaving no trace of the human being who had taken his last breath on this very spot the evening before. It was just another evening in L.A. Millions of people trying to go somewhere. Just that sometimes, they never arrive.

May 8, 2009

SWINE FLU: MEXICO'S APPROACH APPEARS TO BE WORKING

It seems to me that American and European politicians, terrified of imploding an already instable world economy, would rather choke than admit that the drastic Mexican response to the swine flu epidemic seems to be working.

For five days, Mexico was pretty much under a lockdown. All restaurants, schools, public buildings and much of Mexico’s public transportation system were shut down. Public events were canceled, and all Mexicans were asked not to leave home or travel anywhere unless absolutely necessary.

It is true that such efforts cannot contain the virus. But they clearly bought time for more research by remarkably slowing down the speed of virus propagation.

A couple of remarkable facts: unlike the “regular” flu strains, this H1N1 strain seems to infect more young and healthy people. Secondly: the chances of survival are higher than initially thought. It seems certainly much less deadly than SARS, which killed 50% of its victims. Third: the virus’ “reproductive number” (a numerical measure for how contagious it is) seems to be lower than originally assumed.

So can we breathe a sigh of relief?

We should not. First, the crisis has demonstrated how quickly even a moderately contagious virus can spread around the world. Within days, it was found in all corners of the world – a fact that will not escape the attention of those intent on developing biological weapons, which includes terrorists. Imagine what would happen with a far more contagious virus!

Secondly, the virus is still out and about. In the U.S. alone, we currently have 1,630 cases spread over 43 states, according to today’s CDC data.

The next question is now how the virus will adapt and change. Are we seeing parallels to the beginnings of terrible flu epidemic of 1918? After a first attack, the virus seemed to be in retreat. But then, it came back a few months later, and it was way more lethal than before.

What is alarming is that there has been at least one (yet unconfirmed) report that some pigs have now been infected by humans. By jumping from host species to host species, a virus may acquire DNA from strains typical for each host. Such gene-swapping is a reason for the virus’ constant changes, which can not only make it more dangerous, but also harder to defend against with vaccines or medications.

April 30, 2009

WHAT SHOULD WE CALL IT?

I’m not sure who first adopted the term “Swine Flu”. The name arose because the virus is believed to have jumped from pigs to humans. But the term is not scientifically accurate, because there are many different flu viruses specific to pigs – and most do not infect humans.

Unfortunately, the term misled many people into thinking they would not be in danger unless they ate pork or came in contact with pigs. (Unfortunately, that’s false).

In short order, the pig industry was up in arms. Pork producers sure didn’t want to be associated with the disease and they didn’t like the attention. (I have no sympathy for them, because industrial farming practices are at the root of the problem).

And in Israel, where pigs are viewed as unkosher, the word “swine” is a word to be avoided. Not wanting to offend anyone with “dirty words”, Israeli media used the term “Mexican Flu”. Of course, this offended Mexicans, who launched diplomatic protests. So some Israeli media now switched to “South American Flu”.

Bowing to pressure, members of the U.S. government have increasingly started to refer to the virus as “H1N1”. Again, that’s not biologically accurate. “H1N1” also is a group of flu viruses. Some are very nasty: it is believed that a strain of H1N1 virus caused the terrible flu pandemic in 1918 and killed 50 – 100 million people. Most other viruses from the H1N1 group are more benign: it is estimated that half of all flu cases in recent years were caused by H1N1 strains.

So here comes the latest suggestion: “Influenza A, H1N1”. Just doesn’t roll off the tongue very easily, does it?

April 30, 2009

SWINE FLU REACHES CALIFORNIA

The most talked about subject in California is no longer the lousy economy. Now we have something new and even scarier: swine flu.

Today, Mexico City was practically shut down. Public venues, restaurants, museums and schools were closed. Because of California’s immense traffic to and from Mexico (where the virus originated) we are bound the first and most affected place in North America.

If things get really bad, we will be the test bed for what will soon thereafter happen in the rest of the world.

Right now, there are many perplexing questions.

Why is it that the virus seems to be deadlier in Mexico than it has been here? (Mexico so far has had 250 “official” deaths. But since it takes several days and complex genetic testing to achieve a confirmation, this figure can be presumed to be a gross understatement).

Here in the U.S., we had one confirmed fatality so far. This was a child who was brought in from Mexico. Could it be that the virus is more fatal for the Latino population? How could that be?

Secondly: preliminary investigations have shown that the virus contains components from no less than four strains. Two of them normally infect only pigs, one infects only birds and one infects only humans. Can nature create a virus by combining traits from all four? And if so, what circumstances led to this combination?

April 27, 2009

FRANKIE MANNING PASSES AWAY IN NEW YORK

I can't even begin to explain. The ways in which Frankie Manning has influenced my personal life and my professional activities as a producer are too complex and varied to do justice here.

For years, we have all known that this day would eventually come. And we have wondered what it would be like.

Well, here it is. The last dance.

Note:
The famous dance scene in "Hellzapoppin'" (1941) was originally choreographed to Count Basie's Jumpin' at the Woodside. When the movie was released, the music was changed. For the production of this clip, the original music was used.

More on Frankie Manning:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Manning

http://www.frankiemanning.com/

Saberi's attorney, Abdul-Samad Khorramshahi, says he was barely able to see her before the trial, which concluded last week. He has not been given a chance to review all evidence against his client or ensure a fair trial for her.

Last week, the Iranian court sentenced Saberi to 8 years in prison. Although Mr. Khorramshahi is planning to appeal, it has become clear that his client will remain imprisoned for a long time.

I am appalled by the way this trial was conducted, and by the fact that Saberi was jailed in the first place. (In the U.S., she would have been free on bail and able to work on her defense).

It is quite obvious that the Iranian government is using Saberi as a political pawn, a bargaining chip in its strained and difficult relationship with the United States.

This case illustrates the terrible flaws in our own policies from the Bush era.

How can we now go point our fingers at governments that do not guarantee a defendant's right to a free, impartial trial in plain view of the public and the press, the right to legal representation, full access of lawyers to their clients, and the right of the accused to see all evidence against them?

Although the Iranian justice system cannot be compared to that of the U.S., the rest of the world will be quick to point out that in similar cases of importance to "national security", not even the United States, with its grand Constitution and legal tradition, guarantees these rights to defendants accused of endangering its own "national security".

Henry Newman's column for The Guardian sums things up perfectly.

The following web site was set up by volunteers.

http://freeroxana.net/

April 7, 2009

WHY BEING A JOURNALIST IS FUN

Sure, we have dull days. But we usually don't go long without some amusement. When reporters dialed into a conference call with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and national security adviser Jim Jones, they were treated to the following message:

“Do you have any hidden desires? If you feel like getting nasty, then you came to the right place.”

As it turned out, a staffer had mistyped and accidentally given a phone sex number to reporters. The gaffe was reported by Newsweek in the April 13, 2009 issue.

April 1 , 2009

GENETIC MUTATION PREVENTS KITTENS FROM GROWING UP

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have reportedly identified a gene which regulates the growing-up process in cats. When the gene is knocked out, kittens simply do not grow into adult cats but remain in a perpetually juvenile state. They visually look like kittens and keep behaving like kittens during their entire life. Because of a lack of data at this point, their total life expectancy is unknown.

University of Wisconsin / Getty Images

The university has applied for a patent. A commercial company, which has not been identified yet, will bring the genetically engineered kittens to market. Pricing will begin at $10,000.

Dr. Tensing Funkhauser, who lead the research team, says: “Once born, the kitten grows normally up to a designated point picked out by the buyer from a range of two weeks to three months old. If an eight week old kitten is ideal for you, you can do that. If you want a 3 week old kitten that you have to feed from a bottle its entire life, you can do that too.”

Dr. Funkhauser commented: “It is the dawn of a new age. With our fairly successful trials thus far, we believe this will only be the beginning of what lies ahead in terms of purposefully arresting external physical development.”

This story was first reported by Charles W. Bryant for the web site, howstuffworks.com.

I hope you are enjoying this very special day.

March 28, 2009

LIGHTS OUT TONIGHT

I will be going dark tonight.

At 8:30 pm in any time zone around the world, individuals, organizations, businesses and even some cities are turning off or reducing indoor and outdoor lighting for 60 minutes.

"Earth Hour" started as a grassroots idea a few years ago (presumably in California and Australia). It now seems to be spreading quickly around the globe. This year, even China will be officially participating.

The purpose? To raise awareness of our global energy consumption -- much of which is just useless waste. Personally, I doubt that this will have much impact on total energy use. But I love the idea for another reason.

In all industrialized countries, gleaming lights from urban sprawls have robbed more then 90% of our populations of the night sky's beauty. What should be a deep, velvety black is just a dirty, yellowish haze.

Many people have never seen the entire sky filled with stars, with the Milky Way's faint band spreading from horizon to horizon. (I assure you that once you have beheld this sight, you will never think of your life and your own importance in quite the same way).

Earthhour.org has live images and reports from cities around the world.

National Geographic Magazine had a great article on light pollution last year. The online version is here.

The International Dark-Sky Association is dedicated to spreading awareness of light pollution.

March 26, 2009

THE RIGHT PLACE AND TIME

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be “in the right place at the right time”. Somehow I always seem to think that I’m neither.

I am thoroughly transfixed by many of the technologies we have today. I believe (and hope) that the Internet will completely transform mankind for the better, even more so than the printing press. I am grateful for the advances in medicine, astronomy and many other areas. These are most exciting times to experience. On the other hand, life has become much more complicated, hectic, expensive and distracting from what is really important: personal values and human relationships.

I often wished I had a time machine allowing me to experience the past and the future. Alas, we can’t pick "our" time, and often our choice of place is limited as well. It mainly comes down to a matter of luck – of lack thereof.

Take Tsutomu Yamaguchi, for example. On August 6, 1945 he was in Hiroshima on a business trip when the first atomic bomb exploded. He suffered serious burns but escaped the smoldering, radioactive ruins. Mr. Yamaguchi made it back to his hometown Nagasaki – just in time for the second nuclear explosion on August 9, 1945.

Miraculously, Mr. Yamaguchi also survived the Nagasaki explosion. He is still alive today and 93 years old.

March 19, 2009

I have not had an opportunity to update this blog lately, because all my time was taken up with a book translation project. I missed some interesting topics:

Stephen Hawking’s lecture here at Caltech.

California's "octo-mom". With the addition of her recent octuplets, the woman now has 14 kids. She has drawn welfare payments, has no job, and plans to raise the herd without a dad. All 14 children were conceived by in-vitro fertilization. At some point we need to ask ourselves when science is going too far in providing this method of conception. Does everyone have the right to employ artificial conception without any restriction? Does society have a right to put limits on procreation? At what point do we need to, if we want to survive as a species?

Then there was the most regrettable (and troublesome) launch failure of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which took place on February 24 at Vandenburg Air Force Base here in California. And some good news, such as the picture-perfect launch (March 6) of the Kepler space telescope from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The loss of OCO is a major bummer. It was designed to collect extremely important data for a better understanding of the global warming phenomenon. OCO would have delivered highly accurate measurements of the distribution of carbon dioxide, its originators and sinks. There are Japanese and European spacecraft which might provide some of the same data. But their measurements will not be as accurate, and many pieces of the puzzle will be missing.

I am excited about Kepler. It is the first instrument we have available for the possible imaging of earth-like planets orbiting other stars. Personally, I think that the odds of their existence is very high. My feeling is that one day we might find that the universe is full of other worlds not unlike our Earth. We may come to the realization that we were myoptic fools to believe for so long that the human species was anything particularly unique or even special. Kepler is the first step, but it may be years before we see the first results.

January 20, 2008

CHANGE

Much has been said and written about the special significance of today’s presidential inauguration in Washington D.C., and of the magnitude of expectations coming with it.

The general mood in America is hard to describe in a few words. But I think the following figures are telling: The 2005 inauguration (George W. Bush’s second term) was attended by 400,000 spectators. Today’s inauguration of Barack Obama was attended by almost 1,9 million who crowded the Mall and nearby side streets. All this depite freezing temperatures.

The BBC's site has the full video and text of President Obama's inauguration address.

January 18, 2008

SNARGE

I have a new favorite word: “snarge”.

Bird strikes are a serious problem in aviation. The term is actually a misnomer, because birds don’t strike airplanes. Rather, it is the other way around. Either way, such collisions are not just deadly for the birds. Especially dangerous during takeoffs and landings, they have caused many civilian and military aircraft to crash. Birds may even bring down large, commercial aircraft – as we have seen with US Airways Flight Flight 1549 last Monday.

In aviation, one cannot afford to leave such things to chance. So whenever a plane and a bird made hard contact, the incident and its circumstances must be reported and catalogued. And this is where snarge comes in.

Snarge is what is left of the bird after the unlucky encounter. In other words, it is bird goo. Scraped off the aircraft (or, in some cases, off the aircraft debris), the material is sent to Carla Dove and her team at the feather-identification lab at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Each year, the lab receives about 4,000 samples for identification.

Feathers are apparently very hardy stuff. But in cases where not even one tiny feather can be found, at least the DNA extracted from the snarge sample can be tested.

The most unusual snarge sample received by the lab resulted from a collision at an altitude 1,500 feet. At least, that's what the pilot said in his report. But DNA analysis showed that the snarge came from a deer. A what??

I know what you are thinking. No, the pilot wasn't exaggerating his altitude. And no, he didn't hit Santa Claus.

Upon closer investigation, the lab concluded that the aircraft had not run into an airborne reindeer after all. Rather, it had collided with a vulture. The scavenger has previously feasted on a deer carcass. Whew! Santa’s flying reindeer were not involved.

Snarge. I just love saying it. Snarge.

January 16, 2008

MARS IS FARTING

Yesterday was quite a “news day” in America! Ongoing confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate, President Bush bidding the nation good-bye in his last presidential speech, Israel’s forces are accused of attacking U.N. and humanitarian aid installations in the Gaza strip, the gas conflict between the Russia, the Ukraine and Europe is now a comedy of fools. Oh, and our Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is seriously pissed off about the failure of the State Assembly to adopt a budget, so he suggests that lawmakers should go without pay until they finally agree on a budget. What gall! (Schwarzenegger himself does not accept payment for his services).

Then, Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger, a former USAF fighter pilot, steals the day by managing to ditch U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in a miraculous (and very lucky) splash landing in the Hudson River. (Yeah, Navy jocks! Can you trump that?). All 150 passengers were safe, and the plane will probably be repaired.

Because of all this, perhaps the most exciting news of the day was sort of swept under the rug. Huge, wafting clouds of methane have now been confirmed on Mars. The gas is not stable under the conditions there, so it must be the result of recent outgasings. In other words, Mars has been farting!

So why is this important?

There are two possible sources of methane. One, it could be the result of volcanic activity below the crust. But if this was the case, other volcanic gases should also be present, but so far, they have not been detected. Secondly, the methane is a product of biological activity in past or the present. This would almost certainly mean microbes deep below the surface of Mars, where temperatures could be high enough to keep water liquid, and life going. On Earth, subterranean microbes have been found several kilometers below the surface, and 90 % of our methane here was produced by living organisms.

Very, very interesting, to say the least. I’m extremely busy with a book project at the moment, which is why I am kicking myself for not being able to make it to the presentation at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory last night. Luckily, some colleagues went. I will have to grill them later.

Here is NASA's release on the topic:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/15jan_marsmethane.htm?list1128066

January 10, 2008

READY FOR 2009

The annual Japanese tradition of pre-dawn kangeiko (literally: "cold training") during the first week of every new year is a way to cleanse the spirit, mark a new beginning, and prepare mind and body for the challenges of what is to come.

Here is a picture of the "survivors" who completed training before sunrise every day of the week. (My sensei ("master", "teacher"), a man to whom I am greatly indebted, is the 4th from the left. I am all the way on the right).

Photo by Babak Saberi