Fun Stuff

Hi everybody.

So I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my flight back, and I'm reflecting on my past flying experiences. I am always amazed by seeing the horizon from an airplane. I think it's a really neat experience to be able to see the curvature of the earth. And I think this is an example of how science helps us to appreciate the beauty of nature, as suggested by James Thomson (the second poet from the poetry about Newton packet). Without knowing that the earth is curved, it would be hard to appreciate, or even to notice, how beautiful the horizon looks from the air.

Secondly, tomorrow, Monday, December 1, Venus will be directly below Jupiter. Venus will appear at its brightest. There will also be a tiny sliver of a moon in the general vicinity of Venus/Jupiter. I was able to see this phenomenon last night and it was pretty cool.

If you have trouble seeing Venus tomorrow because of light pollution, don't feel alone. November's National Geographic cover story is about how light pollution affects more that just astronomers. Apparently, light pollution is harmful for the entire ecosystem, just like other forms of pollution. It affects many animals mating and migration schedules. Worth a read.

One more thing. I was reading an article about Paul Volcker, Obama's appointee as head of a new economic recovery advisory board, on Politico the other day. It seems that Volcker embraces some of Newton's principles of philosophizing: "Associates say Volcker does not suffer complex economic solutions, figuring anything that’s too complicated to understand is probably wrong." Sounds a lot like astronomy--if it involves epicycles, it's probably wrong.