Strange Habits

One habit that I notice many people have is licking their fingers when they turn a page of a book or newspaper. It's just a quick touch of the lips as the person grabs for the next page to turn. People from all cultures seem to have this habit. I've never started this. In fact, it is a little irritating to me. Does it really help that much in turning pages? Is it really necessary?

My Battle Experience

After jogging yesterday, I had drinks with some friends at Starbucks. During the conversation, the subject of battlefield experiences came up. Several had been in the military and mentioned the adrenaline rush one gets when firing a weapon. I mentioned that I totally understood. I have felt the stress, the adrenaline, the sweat, the fear. Although it wasn't exactly in the military... It was at laser tag. I've played about 3 times during team building exercises at work. Actually, I've never did that well at laser tag even with a lot of strategy formulating. I don't think I can take the stress. Good thing I'm too old for the draft....

The Bush Doctrine

Frontline on PBS had a great documentary on the evolution of the Bush Doctrine. Whatever your opinion is about Bush, the Bush Doctrine will likely go down in history as a turning point in American and World history. The Doctrine may well be compared to the Truman Doctrine that defined America during the Cold War. Here's the link to the PBS site Bush Doctrine

posted by Ken on 3:25 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, February 16, 2003

 

My Theories

Colds and Allergies

I have a theory about how colds spread. I've seen research saying that a prime method of cold virus transmission is when people touch their nose or eyes. If this is true, then allergy seasons should also be a time with lots of colds. I would think people who are dealing with allergies by blowing their noses and rubbing their eyes would be putting themselves at great risk of contracting cold or flu viruses.

Pi

A few months ago, a mathematician got some publicity about using a new computational method of finding the Xth billionth decimal place of Pi (3.14159....). He didn't find where it ends, he just was able to go farther than previous mathematicians in finding it to a smaller and smaller decimal place.

It was mentioned that the decimal numbers that make up Pi have a lot of interesting properties. The numbers are not random, yet there is no known pattern or sequence.

My conjecture is that perhaps this is a clue to something... Pi is just the ratio of a sphere's circumference with its diameter. Yet this simple and universal ratio creates a number with seemingly endless complexity. Wouldn't this be an incredibly elegant way for God to encode the blueprints of the universe? It would be the ultimate DNA.

Don't have a clue about how to decode it though.... In the message boards about this Pi article, people were complaining about the uselessness of this research. Perhaps using some imagination like this can make this research seem more appealing. This research may not lead to something practical any time soon, but is it any less "useful" than researching new long distance golf ball designs? Or new ways to make it easier to open up juice cartoons? Or new beer cans with bigger mouths to allow more efficient drinking??

Some humorous quotes from Seinfeld that I've come across in the last few weeks

This is a quote from George when Jerry was telling George about how he and Elaine started a "friendly arrangement":

See, that's why I don't have cable in my house, because of that naked station, if I had that in my house, I would never turn it off, I wouldn't sleep, I wouldn't eat. Eventually, fireman would have to break through the door. They would find me sitting there in my pajamas with drool coming down my face.

This is from the episode in which Jerry and George first made the "Pact" in which they would become "men" and get serious about women. George then goes on to propose to Susan. But before Jerry could act, Kramer gives some advice to Jerry:

What are you thinking about Jerry? Marriage? Family? They're prisons! Man-made prisons. You're doing time! You get up in the morning; she's there. You go to sleep at night; she's there. It's like you got to ask permission to use the bathroom.

And one of my favorite minor characters, Jackie Childs gives Kramer his opinion on the movie theater's policy of prohibiting outside drinks from being brought in:

Outrageous, egregious, proposterous

Don't usually watch "King of the Hill", but I happened to see one rerun in which Hank came up with a line that I found humorous since it kind of describes my driving. Hank was driving his boss, and his boss praised his careful driving. Hank said his secret is to "treat the gas pedal as if it were an egg".

posted by Ken on 3:15 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, February 02, 2003

 

The Space Shuttle Program

We just experienced another shuttle tragedy. Seventeen years ago, I remembered the first. I was in Florida and saw the smoke in the sky from the explosion. I remember the shuttle program way back in the 70's when they started the first tests of the shuttle. Then my family moved to Florida about 50 miles west-northwest of the Kennedy Space Center. Each launch was quite amazing. I saw one launch from about 10 miles and witnessed many night launches. Another interesting experience was when they landed the shuttle in Florida. Although we couldn't see the shuttle landing, we could hear it's double sonic boom (one caused by its nose and the other caused by it's tail). When I moved to Texas 10 years ago, I thought my physical observations of the shuttle would come to an end. Then about 3 years ago, the shuttle was landing in Florida around 10 p.m. It was scheduled to fly just north of my Texas home. I went outside and expected something like a small jet contrail. Instead the shuttle raced across the sky with a bright intensity at least 20 times brighter than any plane and traveling at least 20 times faster. The ionization caused by re-entry into the atmosphere was much more amazing than what I had expected. The shuttle program has always been a part of my life.

Although the shuttle program has always been part of my life, I have never been that much of a space fan. The shuttle flights are interesting, but they quickly become routine. The experiments they perform are important but never seem much more exciting than experiments performed everyday in businesses across the world. The routine launches of the shuttle usually only get a few news blurbs with only occasional indepth stories. But when a tragedy happens, that changes. The program is put through a microscope. Also, the astronauts who tragically died become heros with their biographies reported and celebrated internationally. During their routine flights, the astronauts seem to be little more than regular scientists or engineers, important contributors but not heros. But after a tragedy, their lives take on a new status. If anything good can come from such a tragedy, it is this focus on the astronauts, their lives, and their quest to explore and take risks in pursuit of science.

When Will Man Return to the Moon?

And when will Man make it to Mars? My prediction is that Man won't return to the Moon this century. I predict it will be 2169 (the 200th anniversary) that Man returns to the Moon. For the first Man trip to Mars, I predict it will be a few decades after our return to the Moon.

Why will it take so long? Looking at last 33 years, the pace of space exploration has slowed greatly. Although some may say space exploration has just changed, in my opinion, it has slowed. 33 years before 1969, it was 1936. Back then there were no jet airplanes. Just flying across the Atlantic was a huge event. 33 years after walking on the Moon, Man is just orbiting the Earth. Albeit, lots of "exploration" is being done with Hubble and the space station. Science is being done. But it is only small increments of progress, no "giant leap" that was done in 1969.

Still asking why is it taking so long? It's not due to the cost or the tragedies. It's mainly from being practical. A lot of science can be done with automated space probes. For Man flights, there isn't a strong case to send Man beyond low-Earth orbit. Low-Earth orbits is all that is needed to build space stations, maintain telescopes like the Hubble, and perform space experiments in micro-gravity environments.

Also, there's a lot of technical challenges sending Man millions of miles away from Earth on Mars-like explorations. Man has to achieve a better energy source than our current chemical fuels. It's proving to be a huge challenge in finding a better fuel. It's been 50 years since research has started on utilizing fusion for energy. Still this seems decades away. If some type of new energy source can be developed that's orders of magnitude more efficient than chemical, the cost-benefit equation for Man space flights would change.

Space Exploration?

Should we even worry about Man space exploration? Other solar systems are so far away, it would take 1000's of years of space travel for Man to visit them. The planets can be explored with automated probes as they have been doing for decades. So why invest the trillions of dollars for traveling to Mars or other planets?

In a very long term perspective, space travel is just an extension to an important principle of life preservation. The survival of any species is greatly improved when that species spreads out. The more spread out the species, the better chance for their long term survival. Modern Man has been "spreading out" for the last 50,000 years or so. Evidence is strong that about 50,000 years ago, Man started populating the Earth from Africa. From DNA evidence, all cultures can trace their ancestors back to Africa. From Aborigines in Australia, to Native Americans, to Europeans, all can be traced back to Africa around 50,000 years ago. (great refereces at PBS.org on Evolution and Journey of Man)

A case can't be made to travel to Mars in the next hundred years just to ensure our species survival. However, it makes sense to continue experiments to travel and live in space. It's not about building a space colony in the next hundred years, it's about a space colony in the next million years. A million years seems like an incredible amount of time, but in the history of the Earth, it's only a tiny fraction of time. Slow and steady progress can get us into space in large numbers. However, we do need milestones that invigorate and motivate us. Each generation needs a "man-on-the-moon" experience to motivate the future scientists and politicians.

Of course this assumes nuclear war or other human or natural disaster does not end our existence first. In the very, very long term, Man's survival has to be away from Earth. Even if we can prevent asteroid disasters, the Sun will only last for 5 more billion years. At that time, it will become a red giant and the Earth will be no more.

One Small Step for a Human, One Giant Leap for People

On a lighter note, you may have noticed my reference to "Man" space exploration. I guess I should really say "human" so I include women. I remember my college English class. My instructor was kind of a feminist and implied there always have been subtle discrimination against women throughtout literature. Uses of words like "man" instead of "people" or "humans" continue this subtle discrimination. My response was "would Neil Armstrong's famous line been as dramatic if he had been PC?" My suggestion is that "man" be used to represent both males and females. Adding "Wo" to "man" gives the English term for an adult female. Why not add "pe" to "man' to give the English term for an adult male? Well... I have a feeling this probably won't win much support....

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