Lunar Eclipse

Ah, this was cool. I stepped onto my front porch to go see the eclipse last night. When I came out, there was a sliver of moon left shining. Satisfied, I returned to the warmth of the house.

That's the kind of celestial event that I like. Too often, in order to see something cool up there, you have to stay up really late (or wake up really early in the morning), and sit/stand around and wait, freezing in the cold. That's probably why I'm not as enthusiastic about stargazing. It's too cold.

Ylerecnis,
N

Groundbreaking Photos

I just found this on the National Geographic site. It's of all kinds of firsts in photography- the first photo, the first color photo, the first underwater photo, the horse in motion, the first night-time photo, and more. This is awesome, especially because I love photography. I really like the last one in the gallery, especially.

Read on, and witness the history of an art in "Milestones in Photography."

Also check out the related galleries, National Geographic Milestones, Milestones in Wildlife Photography, Milestones in Space Photography, and Milestones in Underwater Photography.

Ylerecnis,

Natasha

At the TOP of the Charts- A Song You Can't Hear!

What if I told you that somewhere out there, people have put a song that they can't hear at the top of the charts? Well... it's true. In New Zealand, a song called A Very Silent Night was recorded at a frequency inaudible to human beings, but audible to dogs. This song topped the charts around Christmastime.

I'm not sure why that's on the top of the list. My guess is that it's either the novelty or the hilarity. I mean, even though I know I won't be able to hear it, I'd be interested in being exposed to it. It's totally different! But the reason that I'd really like to hear it, though, is to see how my dogs reacted. Apparently, there's a wide spectrum of canine reactions to the song, ranging from lying down to attacking the radio. Personally, I'd like to see some ear-perking and head-tilting, followed by some crazed barking, and exploding into running around the house in a frenzy. I love my dogs, but I have to be honest- it's hilarious to watch them go berserk (especially the smaller one, who is more hyper). I wouldn't be surprized if this was the reason for the song's popularity.

Who knows what they're hearing? Perhaps it's like a high-pitched whine. That would be my best guess. In any case, chances are good that my dogs will get a chance to listen, because the song is likely to spread to other countries, including the U.S. After all, why should a seemingly-silent, dog-maddening song be restricted to New Zealand?

Another question- why do you suppose that no one is mentioning the cats, who can also hear high-frequency sounds? Personally, I think it's because they're rolling their eyes at all this nonsense. They know what the good music is.

Ylerecnis,
N

Crying Children, Parenting, Airplanes, and Sanity

It's all very, very simple.

Young children, especially mobile ones, have a tendency to become impatient on airplanes. Impatience leads to dissatisfaction, manifested in crying or temper tantrums.

A good parent will handle this situation with as much patience as possible, using proactive reasoning, soothing, and suitable punishment, if necessary.
A less-than-great parent will lose patience, act irritated, and tell the child how bad he is and how angry she is.

There are, of course, other people on the airplane as this is going on.

Either way, if the child doesn't stop, the inescapable noise coupled with the confinement will drive people to insanity. I have devised an equation modeling the situation.
s = lost sanity,
d= decibels of child's noisemaking,
D = decibels of adult's responding noisemaking,
r = length of the exchange,
p = proximity of the passenger (in number of seats),
k = leg room in square feet (or lack thereof),
and z = how loud the person next to you is snoring (decibels).

s = (pr[10d + 5D] + 7z)/k

This is for a reasonable parent. In the equation for a irritating parent, replace the addtion signs with multiplication signs. This changes the equation more than you'd think.

Then, of course, there is the sanity threshold. This has nothing to do with how clinically sane someone is, or how eccentric they are. Sanity in this case reflects how easily someone takes irritating things in stride, and how easily they lose their temper. Here is the approximate scale:

100- cabbage
90
80- friendly dogs
70
60
50
40- most cats
30
20- victims of repeated telemarketing
10- victims of repeated political telemarketing
0- crazy nun at a Catholic school

Let it be noted that even cabbage can only take so much of a child/parent pair throwing a tantrum in an airplane. Especially if you're sitting right behind them on a small airplane- like I was, earlier today.


Ylerecnis,
N

Lamia

Here's just a poem that I found. It's called "Lamia," by John Keats. It's pretty long, I admit. I read it because this part is commonly quoted:

"Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,

Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,

Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine-

Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made

The tender-person'd Lamia melt into a shade."

This is nonsense, I believe. Perhaps this is because I personally enjoy knowing things, while others think that it is unpoetic to believe that rainbows are a product of light passing through airborne water particles, rather than fairies. It's pretty either way, isn't it?

Anyway, the poem itself is a bit of a challenging read. It requires some knowledge of Greek mythology to understand. Also, Keats is definately a classicist, so, be warned. There's high vocabulary in there.

Ylerecnis,

N

Vegetarianism

I don't have a problem with vegetarians- in fact, a well-balanced vegetarian diet is a healthy choice to make. Also, it doesn't matter to me what people eat, from Twinkies to soy beans to sushi. But I've noticed that it's difficult to really carry the vegetarian message throughout one's life while living in this culture. This is because, when it comes to killing living creatures to meet our needs, there is no difference between a hamburger and a leather jacket. 

Synthetic material is making it easier to live up to non-killing standards every day. However, we have multiple leather products, shell jewelry, and animal products in beauty items. It's still a challenge to avoid. It's impossible to live without destroying something, that's just the way it is! The famous Backster experiment has not conclusively shown that plants feel fear, but who knows? Fear for a plant, if it exists, would probably be difficult to measure, since it would feel emotions in a very different way from an animal. Also, plants have no sensory organs, but that's not the point I'm trying to make...

So, kudos to all vegetarians out there. And good luck. It's a challenging thing to do, when it comes to being truly anti-killing (aka no leather, no animal byproducts, but plants are okay).

As for me, I've sometimes wondered if being a vegetarian would be the right thing to do. Perhaps I will, eventually. Not now, though. I think it'd be a difficult thing to explain to my parents, especially since meat is a major staple in our diet.

I've also wondered this... since vegetarians are often the kind of people who have pets, it's a good question... Should one's pets live off a vegetarian diet, too?

Ylerecnis,

N