The Romani Holocaust and moden discrimination

This is something in the back of my mind that I have been wanting to make a post about for a long time. 

One very troubling aspect of living in Europe was seeing how Romani (Gypsy) people are viewed.  I have talked with Europeans that consider themselves objective, open minded and egalitarian only to be shocked at derogatory comments that they later make about Gypsies. 

There is also a strange idea that Gypsies are not "Europeans;" however, they have been in Europe for over 700 years.  They traveled from India through Central Asia to Europe.  Incidentally, speakers of the Indo-European language family that were ancestors of traditional Europeans, also traveled to Europe from Central Asia.  To add another connection, the traditional Romani language is also an Indo-European language. 

There are insidious self-fulfilling cycles that reenforce negative views of the Romani.  For example, I read an article a few years ago, in the US, about a physician in Europe that was Romani.  He could not tell anyone he was a Gypsy or they would not come to him as a doctor; however, these same people that were his patients would see gypsies as people that do not have socially prestigious careers like being a physician.  He could not serve as an example, or as a positive role model; or his practice would disappear and he would then no longer have that career. 

There is also an issue about Romani families not registering their children for the public school system, etc.  Before WWII there were about a million Gypsies in Europe.  The holocaust killed a quarter of them, ~250,000.  Part of how they were rounded up was because they had to register--at the same courthouses that stand today and insist they register again. 

...I will update when a have a bit more time...

[notes to add -- recognition of Gypsy Holocaust in Europe, Gypsies as an ethnic minority, EU citizenship note]

Kepler 7b "image"

The first crude image of cloud cover of an exoplant has been inferred!

A lighter color, more clouds(?), currently in the western portion of the planet from our perspective.  I'm trying to think of how to describe how amazing this is. Not to be misleading, this is still a long way from what we would normally think of as an image of a planet, but it is the very beginning to starting to resolve structure of what an exoplanet actually looks like--not an artist's imagination.  It is orbiting the star Kepler 7 which is--and this is an unimaginable understatement--a long way away from our solar system.  Imagine if in a few years we can start to get more image resolution and piece together weather systems, continents; what about patterns of possible light pollution! 

Update: Here is a link to the original article.   Also, I was able to find a reference to the distance: ~1,000 light years!  So it was a cloudy day, over the western portion of the planet, 1,000 years ago; we are looking back into the past because the light took a millennium to reach Earth. 

I've been very busy at work and it seems like I blink and weeks fly by.

Yesterday there was a private school fair at the Japanese cultural center here in Honolulu.  V took the kids by to pick up some info about high schools in the area.  However, also having F would be a handful so I took F on an outing yesterday.

Let me back up...I'm not sure what I have and have not posted yet with all that has happened this year.  When we were living in Kapolei we desperately needed a second vehicle (for a family of six) not least of which because our van kept breaking down and stranding us on the side of the highway--and because we are new here we did not know anyone we could call to help us out.  We wanted to ship our car from Georgia because it had low mileage and had been taken care of while we were in Germany.  (It seems strange but it is actually cheaper, in a wide range of circumstances, to ship a car here than to buy one.) 

Grandma was driving the car once in a while to keep it in working order and just before shipping it, and days before leaving on a flight here to visit, she was rear-ended behind a car turning left and pushed into the car in front of her.  She went to the hospital but thankfully was relatively okay, with bruises and nothing more serious, considering all that had happened.  Even though she was hurting, she was not going to miss seeing her grand-kids and hopped on a plane soon after to carry through with her planned visit.  However, our car was totaled.

So, she shipped her car instead...  Once it was on its way, the new housing opportunity came up in Honolulu (in "town" as they say here in Hawai'i) and within a month we had moved.  We didn't really need the car anymore but there was no turning back and it arrived a few weeks later.  We only had space for parking one vehicle at our new apartment, even though they promised two before we agreed to move in; so, this led to a situation where we have to park the car on the street and keep moving it every few days (and it occasionally gets towed by the city as I've mentioned in an earlier post).

Anyway, we now have a second vehicle and I might as well use it.  I've been trying to do more with the kids one-on-one on the weekends.  (I don't know if I mentioned but earlier in the year I took T on a hike and we saw a whale out in the ocean.  It came up out of the water and crashed on its side just like in a travel brochure advertisement.)  V dropped us off and I gassed it up, checked the oil and water levels and put some air in the tires.  As we drove away F waved toward V and said loudly, "bye, see you soon." 

So, instead of having F (who is two years old) run around and distacting V, I took her in the car up to the North Shore.  I like it up there.  It is quieter and less crowded and I haven't been up there in months.  We walked along the beach--just past Mokuleia beach park where a large number of people were kitesurfing--and collected sea shells.  She had three she wouldn't let go of but the others she let me put in my pocket to carry.

Partway down the beach I saw what I first thought was a large piece of driftwood covered in sand.  Then as we got a bit closer I saw that is was a large sea turtle up on the beach.  I have seen them occasionally out in the water but this was the first one I had seen up on the beach--and it looked huge!  We did not get very close.  It is illegal to harass sea turtles; they have their own set of very protective laws.  It was probably a green sea turtle, "honu" in Hawaiian.  There are endangered but are the most common in the waters around the island.  Here is an online image, also from here in Hawai'i (this is not my own picture but is available on wikimedia commons).

It seemed to be moving oddly to one side (I know that sounds strange, a sea turtle on land should be moving oddly, but something didn't seem right about it).  So I reported it to HWF along with the coordinates; they sometimes help turtles that are tangled in nets or in trouble. 

I picked F up and pointed the turtle out to her but each time she was looking toward it it did not move and she did not seem to recognize it.  I did not want to push this too much.  A few weeks earlier the Bishop Museum had a dinosaur exhibit.  V and I took all four of the kids.  The dinosaurs were animated and moving around.  A large one near the entrance would swing its neck over and look at you as you came in.  There was also a T. rex with huge teeth, some megafauna mammals, etc.  M was holding F's hand and tried to pull her closer to look at them, but F wanted nothing to do with them.  She wasn't completely out-of-control upset but she was very worried and it was clear her anxiety level had gone through the roof.  She hid her face toward me and wanted me to pick her up; when I did I noticed her hands were shaking.  She motioned for us to move away from them.  As I moved away we ended up near some stairs going up to a second floor.  She slid down and pulled me to follow her up the stairs.  She dashed up them and laid down on the floor, completely flattened out and out of sight of the dinosaurs.  I thought this showed good instincts; she basically climbed a "tree" and made herself invisible; getting above the dinosaurs by going up the stairs.  She lay there for a moment then slowly moved closer to the edge on her belly to look down and keep an eye on them.  We were stuck there for a while, V came by looking for us and we were able to eventually pick F up and carry her back down and outside without her getting too upset.  While we were waiting outside she realized T and M were still inside and pulled me back toward the door with her to get (rescue) them.  She even steeled herself to go back inside, just inside the entrance, but did not want to go past the dinosaurs in the front to look for T and M in the rooms behind.  Finally they came out and we regrouped while F climbed up some branches on a tree nearby and T got her back down.  --anyway, I did not want to worry her about a very large reptile on the beach so soon after the dinosaur run in. 

What she was interested in at the beach was the waves.  She did not want to go into the water but she kept pointing and talking about fish.  I picked her up and we scanned the water for a while. 

On the way back she put her three special shells in a pocket on her car seat.  Then she took them out one by one and I heard her counting them; "one, two, three sea shells." 

Flossie Update 3

Nothing very dramatic seems to have happened here in Honolulu.  It rained off and on all day on Monday.  There were not any strong winds that I noticed.  Monday night there was some lightning briefly.  We heard about lightning and power outages along with rain on Maui. 

Flossie Update 2

Flossie is predicted to keep dropping in wind-speed as it comes over the islands in the next 24 hours, down to 40 mph by tomorrow night.  We went by a gas station earlier to top off the tank for the week and there were more cars than normal for a Sunday night. 

Flossie Update

The latest reports are that the storms winds will die down to 50 mph and the storm is heading to pass south of us (Oahu).  We are still making some preparations and are predicted to possibly get quite a bit of rainfall. 

Tropical Storm Flossie

We have a named tropical storm, Flossie, headed our way!  Currently it has 70 mph winds, close to hurricane strength, although it is predicted to drop in strength before getting here and is still over a thousand miles away. 

Starting the Interstellar Space Race

It seems that we need something to compete with to rapidly progress at a national level in space exploration (e.g., the Apollo program).  There is something tempting about raising the bar, once we realize it is there and others are going for it.  What if we started a competition to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri? 

Our current fastest spacecraft is Voyager I, it is currently leaving the solar system and entering interstellar space at 38,000 mph.  At this speed it will take 17,500 years to travel a light year and 74,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri.  However, it is not traveling toward Proxima Centauri.

We could "easily" launch something toward Proxima Centauri to be the first human object to arrive at another star system in 74,000 years.  It would also be "easy" for someone else to launch a probe traveling faster to overtake the first probe and arrive in less than 70,000 years, etc.  You can see where this would go. 

So, where would this end up?  As the probes get faster and faster it gets more difficult, but this kind of competition might be exactly what we need to incrementally push the speed up and the time down.  Once a technology is focused on for development amazing things can happen in short periods of time.

In the 1960's Project Orion, Freeman Dyson calculated that a trip to Proxima Centauri would take 44 years at 4% the speed of light (at a project cost of 10% of the US GNP for one year). 

In the 1970's Project Daedalus was designed by the British Interplanetary Society.  According to the design it would take alomst four years to reach 12% the speed of light and the cruse for 46 years to reach Barnard's Star 5.9 light years away after a 50 year mission (or at this rate approximately 37 years to reach Proxima Centauri).  The ship design is massive, to carry all the fuel needed for this acceleration, and would have to be built in space; it would also require a substantial space based infrastructure to mine the fuel for and build the ship. Below is the relative size of the ship design next to the Empire State Building (but of course it would never be on the Earth's surface, much less Manhattan). 

However, Orion and Daedalus would only be flybys, without enough fuel to slow down once the star is reached.  In the 1980's the US Naval Academy designed, using existing technology, Project Longshot to attain 4.5% the speed of light and slow down to enter orbit around Alpha Centauri B after 100 years. 

So, we can already visualize ways to attain some amazing things at the upper limit of current technology and budgets. 

In the 1990's CubeSat was developed by Cal Poly and Stanford as a way to get small miniaturized satellites cheaply into low Earth orbits.  These nanosatellites (between 1 and 10 kg) were then followed by picosatellites (0.1 to 1 kg range) and credit card like femtosatellites (10 to 100 g).  Incidentally, the price for getting a picosat into low Earth orbit (LEO) is approaching $10,000, so this is becoming something people can design as their own projects.  There is also a "kicksat" campaign to put personally designed femtosats into LEO for ~$1,000.

Voyager's mass is 722 kg.  It should take a small fraction of the fuel/cost of Voyager to get a nano- to pico-sat headed at a faster rate to Proxima Centauri.  It would be cool to launch/drop several at "close" intervals in an (linear? or a better configuration, linear sets of rings for combining radio power at each interval?) array designed to communicate with each other in a network (in case any few fail) and to coordinate sending a stronger signal back toward Earth along the path. 

Another nearby Earth-like find

I've been busy lately with travel outside of the state, but I will try to get caught up again with this blog. 

First of all, I just saw the news that a nearby star (only 22 light years away) has three to five super Earths in its habital zone with several other planets (6 or 7) in the system.  Let's build a daedalus/orion/longshot/icarus interstellar project and go have a look!  (link)

Car towed ... again!

We didn't do anything wrong.  It was parked on the street, legally.  Then today there were construction signs put up and it has been towed.  V spent an hour and calls, one after the other, to something like 10 different people, trying to track it down.  We are finally zeroing in.  I can see the fees stacking up already.

We are living paycheck to paycheck.  We didn't do anything wrong and suddenly out of the blue we are supposed to pay fines we can't afford.  What are people supposed to do?

The apartment people here said we only had to pay $17 a month for a parking space.  Then when we went to get one they said there were none available.  We were misled, so we had to park on the street.  

This reminds me of when the bank repossessed our van last year.   Even though we were making payments and when we went to the bank they didn't have records of our payments (but we did from our bank)...  still we had to pay all the fees.  Thousands of dollars. 

M's Elem School Graduation

Sorry, I know I am behind but one big event is M graduating from elementary school.  I will update with pictures. 

Eclipse

We had a solar eclipse today...will update with pictures. 

A/B Student

Update:  T has all A's and B's in his report card!  With an A in math and an A in science! 

Kerbal Space Program

I was never into computer games growing up.  However, my children introduced me to minecraft and we have been playing that together.  I find that I really enjoy games where you can build new things and see how they work.  Recently, in a round about way, my children have introduced me to Kerbal Space Program, which you can try as a free download.  Basically, you try to build different types of rockets and see how they work under the physics simulation.  It is a lot of fun.  I've played around with it and I must say I've learned something about rocket design (staging, fuel weight, thrust, areodynamics, air breaking and reentry speeds, etc.) and orbital mechanics (apoapsis, periapsis, inclination, attaining and adjusting orbits, matching orbits, docking, orbital transfers, etc.).  I've built an orbital station with a huge fuel tank and engine on one end and a lander on the other.  In between is space for 8 shuttles to dock.  I assembled it in orbit and do supply runs to build up the fuel supply.  In the picture below I've just completed a Hohmann transfer orbit from the planet (in the background) where I assembled it to the first moon.  The transfer used more fuel than I planned so I need to ferry some more fuel out there to fill up the tanks. (Click image to enlarge.)

The kids and I have had a lot of fun seeing how each others designs work or don't work. 

While I'm on this game topic I want to mention one other game I came across recently.  It is A Slower Speed of Light.  It is not as addictive as KSP but is a free download and is designed to illustrate relativity.  The problem with relativistic effects like time and space dilation is that we are too slow.  These effects don't show up until speeds (near the speed of light limit) that are far beyond our daily experience.  So this game takes the opposite approach and slows down the speed of light in increments as you play, so you can see what the effects of relativity are like first hand. 

Updates and Easter Egg Hunt Pictures

We have finally finished moving I think and are able to catch up a bit.  A lot has gone on.  I don't think I have mentioned this but our van broke down a few more times.  A while back a spark blew out (literally) taking the ignition coil with it; so, we had it towed and a new fitting put in to replace the plug and coil.  I probably got it cross threaded when I changed them.  After that the coolant reservoir ruptured with a crack in the plastic along one edge so the van overheated and wouldn't hold water...  So we had to get towed again and replaced that.  Each time we have broken down on the side of the H1.  The tow truck driver recognized us from before. 

In moving we are down to our last penny because we had to effectively pay rent three times in one month.  We rationed out so many dollars per day for gas and groceries and were almost out when a check came in the mail.  We drove straight to the bank to deposit it and made it just minutes before closing, which was a big relief.  Then the van wouldn't start up and we were in the bank parking lot under the building which was going to be locked up soon.  I have had this happen before where the starter solenoid is rusted and seized up; once just hitting its casing with a hammer shook it loose so it could start up.  However, that time there was no turning over sound and this time I could hear it almost start to turn a split second before dying.  We replaced the battery not long ago and the lights worked fine...  I rummaged around in the van to see what I had to work with and came up with, among other things, a pack of ketchup, some diluted coke that had ice melted in it, some napkins, and a plastic straw.  I applied the ketchup (which has a lot of ions and is acidic, but is a paste so it won't run across the surface of the battery and accidentally short anything like coke might) with the straw (which is an insulator) to the terminals of the battery and let it sit for a minute.  Then I got back in and tried to start it up.  It was dramatic.  The first try it was the same thing as before.  The next try a minute later it sustained longer and made some more noise turning before dying.  Then on the third try it caught hold and started up!  The terminals had become corroded and weren't connecting the current from the battery, but the acid quickly removed the corroded surface and flooded the gap with conductive ions.  At least one disaster was avoided.

Then there are the issues with moving.  Long story short, our old landlord is trying to blame us for things wrong with the house from before we moved in (so she can keep our deposit).  She is letting the house fall apart and does not invest any money in repairs to the place (other than having a tree cut down in our yard for some random reason).  Our new apartment is run by a large company and we tried to get off on the right note.  We used a website to pay the rent (which they recommended to us).  We paid four days early and received confirmation that it was paid.  However, just one minute (to the second) before midnight (according to the online payment history) the payment was returned and 60 seconds later it was late because we had missed the payment due date.  I found out in the morning and immediately went to the bank, took out a cashier's check for the rent, went back to the apartment and gave it to the resident manager.  However, they want an additional $10 for a late fee (however we originally paid it on time) and $25 for a non-sufficient funds fee (we had the money, obviously, I gave them a cashier's check for it).  I absolutely refused to pay the late fee and I went by the bank to see why the payment did not go through.  I am still trying to sort this out but it is taking time away from my job. 

OK, I guess I am venting a bit, but these are the kinds of things we have to deal with day to day.  For something different, we had an easter egg hunt the last day of the month and our last day in the rental house.  Basically the older two kids hid eggs around the yard for F to find.  Here are some pictures.

In the last picture, F found an egg that had been there for a year.  The kids had missed it on the easter egg hunt last year. 

At our new apartment F even found some eggs hidden in a hedge next to the building.  I suspect a parent had put them there and their kids had missed them. 

Out of the rental house

The last weekend of the month (March) we went back one more time to tidy up, mow the grass, and check on things.  K was one of the last ones with us in the house; he is pushing himself up now and rolling towards things. 

Another Job Opportunity!

It is ironic that we just finished moving again (yesterday), at least this last move was to a different location on the same island, but a new job opportunity has come up...

We have moved all around the world but so far we have not lived south of the Equator.  An opportunity for both V and I to teach high school students has come up, including teaching them English, on an island of Chile (technically a colony of Chile).  Being native English speakers probably gave us a huge boost, and both V and I can speak some Spanish, but we will need to start brushing up; I haven't really used Spanish in years.  The town is Villa Las Estrellas (translation: Village of the Stars).  They are expanding the public schools there to include a high school (currently it is just 1st to 8th grade).  There is a nearby competing village, Esperanza, that is a colony of Argentina.  Both countries are trying to establish a presence in the region.  It will be educational for our children to live immersed again in a new culture, and they can learn to speak Spanish! 

The weather will also be a huge change.  Villa Las Estrellas is almost as far south as Fairbanks, Alaska is north!  The village is on King George Island, which is part of the South Shetland Islands.  Technically, in a geographic sense, the island chain is considered to be a part of the Antarctic Peninsula, so there might be cool icebergs, penguins, southern lights, etc. around from time to time.

 We will not be moving until December (which is summer in the S. hemisphere) so we have eight months to plan and prepare for the move. 

Feliz día de los Inocentes! 

Easter Egg Hunt

We went back out to the house one last time for the kids to say goodbye to the place and for an Easter egg hunt!  (more soon...) 

Last (Minute) Repairs

We have been working every available moment fixing up the rental house before we officially move out...

In addition to cleaning and moving out our stuff there are a few repairs we have been making.  One of the doors had a hole in it.  (One of the kids locked themselves in a room, couldn't get out, and was upset, ...  )  We temporarily had a poster up over the hole but this is our responsibility to fix.  So V bought a new door and I chiseled out spaces to recess the hinges, got that hooked up, then V painted it to match the old door color.

Another door had a crack in it that was smaller.  At first V tried to spackle it but it wouldn't hold.  So she sawed out a square, sprayed foam inside, put epoxy on top of that and spackle on top of the epoxy layer, sanded it down, and now it is ready to paint.

We also went around and patched and painted various small holes from hanging pictures and bolting furniture to the wall. 

Finally, the top was broken on one of the toilets.  (An arm of a shelf support mounted on the wall above the toilet collapsed and the shelf board speared through the top porcelain lid of the tank.)  It was a small kid sized toilet (in the master bathroom...?) and we couldn't find the same size replacement so we just replaced the whole thing with a normal sized toilet.

I have also been cutting the grass around the house whenever I get the chance.  The landlord has been showing up at random times and fussing about the grass (she said we "let it die" and ruined the back yard, but there is more grass there now than when we started--I have pictures and we talked to neighbors who agreed to write letters about the condition of the yard when we moved in, which our landlord commented on at the time).  I am worried about a showdown with her; once we told her we were moving her attitude completely flipped.  She did not show up at our meeting to walk through the house for a final check.  She marked out our names on mail in our mailbox and wrote "VACANT" next to the address (we are still paying rent for the house, still occupying it, and I am pretty sure it is illegal for her to mess with our mail).  And she has been showing up without warning (she is supposed to give 24 hours notice) walking around the house without announcing herself, and doing strange things like peering in the windows and turning the water on and off (which we are paying for) on the outside faucets. 

Another issue is the carpet in the living and dining rooms.  It was old and stained when we moved in and she offered to buy new carpet.  I asked her to wait until we moved out because we have young kids and this way we don't have to worry about them spilling anything or marking on the carpet.  Now she is saying the carpet was perfect when we moved in and that we have ruined it...  Again, I am going through my old pictures to see if I can find ones showing the condition of the carpet.

I could go on about other details with the window blinds, kitchen stove, refrigerator, erosion under the house, the front door, wiring... but I don't want to.  I am glad we are moving out. 

Moving ... again

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while.  Long story short, an opportunity came up for a cheaper apartment closer to where we work, but we had to take it right away.  I have spent almost every available moment outside of work shuttling back and forth in our van moving or stuff to a new apartment.  Will update again when I get a chance. 

Ceres - The next step

After we establish our Lagrangian space stations, supply depot and asteroid mining infrastructure, what is the next logical step?

 The asteroid belt rings the orbit of mars.  (Notice also the "Trojan" and "Greek" asteroids that have accumulated in the Jupiter-Sun L4 and L5 areas.) 

Ceres is the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt, 590 miles in diameter, between Mars and Jupiter.  It was discovered on the first day of the 19th century (Jan. 1, 1801) and initially considered to be a planet.  In fact it is now considered a dwarf planet and on its own constitutes 1/3 of the total mass of the asteroid belt and has a surface area larger than Argentina.  Below is a comparison of the size of Ceres to the Earth and Moon. 

A probe has not visited Ceres yet but remote measurements suggest (link) Ceres has a significant amount of water, perhaps more than the total volume of fresh water on Earth (to use as water and to produce oxygen and hydrogen fuel).  It also seems to have organic compounds, and is "relatively" warm with a surface temperature of -37 C/F in the daytime, possibly with a weak atmosphere and frost from water on the surface.  Solar radiation shielding may be the big issue; perhaps we will need to burrow into the surface to protect ourselves and/or set up powerful magnetic generators...?  Hopefully we will learn a lot more when the DAWN spacecraft arrives at Ceres in Feb. 2015. 

The really interesting thing about Ceres is its position, orbit and low gravity (link).  It is still close enough to the sun for solar panel electrical power production.  Gravity is only 3% that of Earth (100 lbs becomes 3 lbs).  Its orbit means there are more frequent opportunities for transit from Earth than from Earth to Mars.  The low gravity means it is cheaper (in terms of energy efficiency) to transfer materials from the Moon to Ceres or from Mars to Ceres then from Earth to the Moon!  (see link above) 

Below is an image of Ceres from Hubble:

Lagrangian Points - Gateway to the Solar System

What is next after a Earth orbiting space station and a moon base?  

There are five "stable" points in space around the Earth and Sun where the forces of gravity and centripetal force from orbits cancel out.  These are called Lagrangian points (L1-L5) and they are all well outside the moons orbit.  L1 is the easiest to think about.  It is the point between the sun and earth where the attraction of the two bodies from gravity (and factoring in outward orbital forces) cancel out.  (At this point a small nudge toward the sun will result in movement closer to the sun; a small nudge toward earth will result in movement toward earth.)  L2 and L3 are in (relative) stationary orbit around the combined Earth-Sun system (small nudges can move them increasingly toward or increasingly away from the combined system). 

Original found here. 

L4 and L5 are less intuitive.  They are also in orbit around the combined system; in fact, they are the points of an equilateral triangle with the Earth and Sun at two of the points.  They seem to be constantly falling toward or away from Earth in its orbit.  L4 and L5 also tend to collect asteroids and might be a target for space mining near Earth.

Original found here. 

L2 is of particular interest since it is partially shielded from solar radiation by the Earth.  It is 1,500,000 km away, almost four times the distance to the moon, and sits just outside full protection by the magnetic field. 

The interesting thing about these points is that getting from one to another takes very little energy.  A slight push in the right direction can put a payload with a large mass into a trajectory to end up at the next point.  This makes the L-points ideal for space stations to route supplies and missions.  Contrast this to the enormous cost of getting a pound of material up off the Earths surface to even low earth orbit.

In addition to moving toward or away from the system, in a complex way objects can "orbit" the Lagrangian points.  Their orbits are actually controlled by the interplay of Earth and Sun gravities, but the end result is that they appear to orbit a point of empty space.  The L-point orbits are complex because more than two objects are interacting and in motion at the same time.  There are "halo" and "lissajous" orbits that are not "flat" in a plane like orbits we are used to thinking about but move in three dimensions.   A neat example uses the moon to boost an object from Earth orbit out to orbit "around" L2. 

In fact, this idea can be extended to include Lagrangian points of other planets in the solar system.  If you can get to the Earth-Sun L2 you can get to any other plants Lagrangian points with very little energy, just with some nudges in the right direction.  (With more energy you can get there faster by taking shortcuts through places with gravity/orbital forces to overcome.)  A highly stylized conception from NASA of an interplanetary network is below.

Original found here.

It makes a lot of sense for NASA to be thinking about using these L-points for the next phases of manned missions and building up space based infrastructure to make future missions possible. 

Steering away from Local

Usually the biggest hurdle in thinking about and discussing something is realizing that it exists in the first place.  We can be completely blind to patterns all around us simply because we haven't identified them yet. 

There is a pattern in traveling and living among different cultures that I'm trying to put my finger on.  I'm not even sure what to call it.  For example, I really like Ethiopian food and loved going to an Ethiopian restaurant in DC when we lived in Maryland.  I have also traveled to Ethiopia a couple times in East Africa, but more than once when I am ordering food in Ethiopia they insist on bringing me something Italian like lasagna.  There are several layers to this; making me "comfortable" with assumptions about food I would like (I look European and Italian is European); pride in showing me that they can make good lasagna in the restaurant and seeing what I think about it; but also there is something I am calling "steering away from local" for lack of a better phrase at the moment.

Here in Hawai'i fishing in the sea is a central part of Hawaiian life.  For some reason, years ago, a freshwater lake was constructed near one of the ubiquitous military bases here on Oahu and stocked with bass, which I forgot about almost as soon as I heard about it.  I was talking to a Native Hawaiian guy about taking T fishing from a boat.  Of course I was thinking of going out in the ocean; I have never fished in the ocean from a boat before.  He started talking about the stocked bass pond and how to get to it which threw me at first but then I realized he assumed I would want something "more like home" for fishing from a boat. 

There are examples of this from when we lived in Germany too.  In fact, I don't think I've ever lived in or visited a place where more assumptions (true or false) were made and applied to us (as a short cut for asking us what we thought) than in Germany.  In Germany there is a weird view of what most Americans are like that comes from popular TV shows, biased news reports, and visiting NY city.  Germans seemed genuinely surprised that I would be interested in having a garden plot, going hunting or fishing, learning local dialects, being involved in the community, etc.  Instead I was directed toward the nearest city and/or fast food packed shopping mall with English language movie night or the English language section of the bookstore for what "we would be interested in." 

These events seemed odd, as many things in daily life do, and usually I forget about it and move on.  However, now that I have identified a common patterns I am keeping my eye out for more examples. 

Mars by 2018!?

In yet more space news recently, the internet is abuzz with Dennis Tito financing a possible 501 day trip to Mars in 2018-19!

I first heard about it late last night but didn't believe it; however, now the story seems to be taking hold.  Tito was the first space tourist in 2001 and the rumor is he is now planning to use existing technology, a SpaceX Falcon rocket heavy lifter, to make an end run (fly by, free return) around mars and back (no landing, no orbit) beginning in Jan. 2018 when Earth and Mars line up for closest approach. 

500 days outside Earths magnetic field is a long time; I wonder what the plan is for radiation shielding. At any rate, a manned Mars fly-by in five years would be an amazing feat to pull off!  Would this spark some competition from other organizations, NASA or China perhaps?

Actually, now that I am thinking about it some more some details about this makes quite a bit of sense.  The sunspot activity (my last blog post) is consistent with the sun approaching its 10-11 year peak of solar activity with the corresponding flares of intense radiation.  Earth and Mars line up near each other in their orbits with a minimum distance between them once about every two years.  Five years from now will place the line up at the bottom of the solar activity cycle--the perfect time to make the jump. 

Sunspot AR1678

A large sunspot is developing on the sun with a chance of X-flares (the most powerful kind) over the next 24 hours. Like the logarithmic Richter scale for earthquakes, X-class flares are 10x (or more) more powerful than M-class, which are 10x more powerful than C-class, ... 

Of course I went out and tried to grab an image with some welding goggles strapped over my camera with a 200mm telephoto lens.  I turned the exposure down to 1/4000s F5.6.

In the image above you can just see it near the edge at about 5 o'clock (it might help to adjust your display's brightness/contrast to see it).  Below the sun's image is rotated 180 degrees, the storm is the set of three dark spots close to the center of the image.

Of course there are much better images online.  Here is the report from space weather.

And below is a dramatic image from space.com.

A DeLorean

I finally found out how to transfer pictures from my phone to the computer and here is the last one on the card.  A couple weeks ago when I was driving the kids to school we were behind a time machine in traffic! 

That's a DMC-12 DeLorean.  If you look closely you can see that the plate is "MCFLY"! 

Ki Bloom

Our Ti plant (Ki in Hawaiian; Cordyline fruticosa) put out a bloom.  This is the first time I have seen one bloom. 

Asteroid Impact

Wow!

 
I was reading about the 160 foot diameter "2012 DA14" that is flying close by earth today at an altitude of 17,000 miles at the nearest point.  I thought about blogging about it but it was supposed to be a non-event.  It would not impact and would not be visible on flyby.  However, apparently 2012-DA14 was not alone and had some neighbors flying through space with it. 

I just found a Reuters report (link) that a series of meteors have fallen across central Russia, breaking glass and with 400 people reported injured.
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Update: This has hit the big news sites now.  There are lots of good pictures and more information being posted all over the internet. I just read that part of a factory has collapsed (link).

While you're at it; check out the B612 foundation. 
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Update: Another one!  A fireball over N. California.  (link)

Rail Construction

The long awaited rail line is beginning to appear.  I count 15 supports that have gone up in a field outside Kapolei.  Last weekend I stopped on the side of the road and took pictures. 

The last election was essentially a referendum on rail, which passed (again and again--this has been voted on before).  It makes so much sense rather than spending over an hour commuting at 10mph every morning on the H1. 

As far as we can tell the main rail opponents are retired people that don't want to pay any taxes and have enough time on their hands to fight it politically; they apparently don't care about pollution, the local economy, etc.  If they had to commute every morning (or had relatives here who did) they might quickly change their minds. 

Above the line is headed toward Perl City in the far distance.  Below is a crop showing Honolulu in the distance and the peak to the right is Diamond Head. 

Lion Dance in Maui

T is off to Maui for a few days!  We dropped him off at the airport this morning.  This is his first time traveling without a member of the family along. 

He is going to a lion dance performance in Maui.  (link, link)  It is part of the Chinese New Year celebrations there.  The principal at his school agreed to let him have time off from school for the event. 

Below is a recent video of a lion dance (yellow lion) he was involved in in a local mall a few days ago. 

Gangnam Style

Where did these kids come from? 

This was actually last semester.  T and M were talking about the "Gangnam Style" (Korean pop) way of dancing and that T did it at school and all the other kids thought it was funny... 

Then M won a "Dance Dance Revolution" contest with her classmates...  (where you have to step on colored squares in the right rhythm) 

Then F overheard T and M talking about gangnam style and she started twisting and bobbing like she was dancing to music.  F picked it up from somewhere? 

Below is a link to the video for the three people on Earth who have not seen it yet.  (You have to close a popup 10 seconds in.)

Christmas 2012

Grandma came to visit this year and took T and M traveling for a week to Kaua'i and Hawai'i Island.  (This was after a wreck that totaled the car she was driving and sent her to the hospital--she was determined to see the grandkids and didn't let it stop her!)  We got a large (fake) tree this year and decorated by nailing up lights around the top of the room.  Note also the stocking on the back wall.  On the table are some candles, one for each of us, and we are taking turns reading stories to each other. 

Rise of the Desktops

I have wanted to build computers for T and M for years now but kept falling short with money keeping up with bills, etc.  Since moving to Hawai'i I have been determined to finally do this.  Last year (Dec. 2011) before Christmas I had T and M pick out computer cases, but the rest of the hardware inside the case will be identical.  I couldn't get them before Christmas but ordered the cases with the first paycheck in Jan. 2012.  The empty cases sat in their rooms all year until now.  This Christmas I got them motherboards, a CPU, and ram for Christmas and we put them together while I explained to the kids what each part does.  (M is really into this and picking it up quickly; she was talking about the difference between RAM and hard drive memory on the drive to school a few days ago.)  Here are some picture of M assembling hers. 

This month we added a power supply and CD/DVD drive.  It was quite a moment to plug it in, push the power button, see the fans come on, then eject the drive tray!  (I know it may not seem like much but... ) 

T stands for Tall

This picture was actually taken back in early January, with T holding K.  T is now officially taller than one of his parents. 

F's Vocabulary

Just jotting down some words F uses that we recognize.

Dada
Mama
Buba - for T
Sehsi - for M
Kiki (or Sisi) - for K

Baba = Bottle
Fishi = Fish

Oh!
Mine!
Whoa!
Uh-oh!
Hi
Bye or Bye Bye (with waving)
Okay
A surprised intake of breath = to convey excitement and get us to notice things, like when the garbage truck is coming

Sometimes she will string Whoa!, Oh!, Okay, Uh-oh! in a dialog as she looks at something or as we drive along--it is funny to listen to.  She makes lots of other noises, many of which we can't recognize the words, and has funny and very expressive facial expressions.  Just from looking at her face you can tell if she thinks something is funny or interesting, and she has a way of opening her eyes wide and leaning her face intently toward something to get you to notice it as well.  She has also worked out some hand signs (we teach our children some sign language, which they can use before talking, like "more - food - please," but F has made up some of her own signs, like for opening containers, and an alternative for wanting food, that we have all learned now).

She also has this funny, loud sniffing sound to let you know something smells strongly.   For example, there was an empty vitamin bottle in the kitchen recycle bin and it has a strong "fruit acid" smell from the powder inside from the vitamins.  She "sniffed" at it to let me know it smelled. 

We all take turns reading to her during the day and she has imitated this by « reading » to K.  She is very interested in books, like T was, and likes going to the bookstore (the only one left in Honolulu I can find that has not closed down). 

She is still doing a lot of communication by making upset noises and reaching for things or pushing them away.  However, I think her vocabulary is on the edge of taking off--one of the reasons I am writing this.  The other day, F, M, and I were at the store and I was looking for new sandals for F; she is about to outgrow her current ones.  M and I were picking some out and trying them on F's feet when she started pushing our hands and the sandals away and fussing.   We didn't understand and she got frustrated then she concentrated for a moment and said three syllables that were hard to understand, then repeated "I do it" again more clearly and confidently.  So we let her down to pick out and try on sandals on her own. 

Welcome to the year 6254!

Yes, it's the 50's and we are in the 63rd century...⸮ 

This is the year 5773 in the Hebrew calendar, 5126 in the Mayan calendar (which was famous last month), 4710 in the Chinese calendar, 4346 in the Korean calendar, 2963 in the Berber calendar, 2557 in the Buddhist calendar, 2402 in the Zoroastrian calendar, 2013 in the Western Christian calendar, 2005 in the Ethiopian Christian calendar, 1729 in the Coptic calendar, 1434 in the Islamic calendar, 1013 in the Igbo calendar, and 169 in the Baha'i calendar... for example!

There is however a possible alternative calendar that starts before all of these.  It also has the benefits of not having any negative dates in history (no missing year-zero adjustments), and the benefit of not being tied to any current world religion.  (Objections have been made over the adoption of the Christian calendar for secular international activities.)  The brightest objects in the sky were used to construct our calendars.  Obviously this is the sun for days and years and the moon for months which was approximately divided into weeks.  For a year-keeping system we need something with a cycle much longer than years.  Also, the sun and the moon are the first and second brightest object, what about the third brightest⸮ 

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky.  It is the fifth closest star outside the solar system and is « only » 8.6 light years away.  It was used by the ancient Egyptians to coordinate their calendar and time plantings after the Nile floods.  In a 365 day year there is a small offset each year so that the beginning of the year creeps around the calendar relative to the first appearance of Sirius each year.  One full rotation, when Sirius again appears at the same point in the year is called a sothic cycle.  One sothic cycle is 533,265 days or 1,460 (365 day) years. 

Working back there is a sothic cycle that began in 4241 B.C. (on the W.C. calendar).  Using this as a starting point for our "year of history" calendar, this is 6254 Y.H.!  (The missing year zero cancels out with the year 1 on the two different calendars.)  Also, we are just over a quarter of the way into the 5th S.C. (sothic cycle), which began in 1599 A.D.  So alternatively we could say this year is 5 S.C., 414 Y.H.  Or the year 414 in the 5th cycle.  In another sense, we are back in the 400's!

Sothic cycles are not completely without cultural tie-ins, which makes this calendar scheme a bit more interesting.  In the West Sirius is referred to as the "dog star."  It is part of Canis Major, one of the dogs following Orion the hunter. 

Look for a bright star along the line back from Orions belt.  

As I mentioned before sothic cycles were used by the Ancient Egyptians.  About a century ago it was speculated in the West that this cycle point 6,254 years ago (4241 B.C.) was in fact the beginning of the Egyptian calendar.  While this has been debated and is not widely believed now, it was used in some books as the beginning of the Egyptian calendar and as the timing for the opening of the "Crypt of Civilization."  This air tight chamber was sealed in 1940 in Atlanta and is intended to be opened 6,177 years later.   

Incidentally the Egyptians personified Sirius as Sopdet.

Note the star above Sopdet's head.  In hieroglyphics Sirius is given as:

It is not surprising that the third brightest object in the sky would be recognized by cultures around the world (link).  Recognizing Sirius as a dog or wolf seems to be widespread.  Sirius was important in Polynesia and goes by several names in Hawaiian.  Like the Egyptians Sirius was also used to time agriculture plantings in parts of West Africa and was very important in traditional religions in the region like the Serer and Dogon (and is linked to quite a controversy regarding Dogon religion, "Nommo" that came to earth, and the Dogon's knowledge of a companion star of Sirius, link--to have a look for yourself type "Dogon Nommo sirius" into google's search field and page through some of the results).  Incidentally, since we are talking about calendars, the Dogon (and the Javanese) also have/had a five day week. In Scandinavia Sirius was also known as Loki's brand (~torch) and in Persia Sirius was a white horse, Tishtrya, that brought rains. 

 These inexact links to cultures around the world make a revised world year keeping system have components of human culture, but is not tied exclusively to any single human culture.  I think this makes it even more appropriate for adoption by an international system.