7 Color Lagoon

Admit it. You, as have I, have waited years and decades to know that we are not alone in the vast reaches of astronomical space. Today the ESA (European Space Agency) reminded me of the changes that have taken place in the past years since the great race to the Moon.

The ESA launched COROT, a new space-based, orbiting telescope recently. Primarily it is programmed to investigate the interior of stars and to look for planetary bodies around other star systems. They are there and we are adding to their number all the time. But the launch of this 30 cm telescope not only reminds us that they are being found — not just by Hubble — but that other countries have other space programs and, like the proliferation of nuclear facilities, the heaven are being examined and explored. This effort by the European Space Agency shows off that fact while reminding us that NASA is not Captain Kirk’s Space Command nor Princess Leah’s father’s bid to rule the united galaxies. There is competition here among friends let aloneKlingons nor Chinese satellite killers.

The launch, itself, was atop a Soyuz workhorse rocket of the once Evil Empire and lifted off from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 27 December 2006. This week the space observatory opened its eye on the area near Orion we see in our picture-book heaven as “the constellation of The Unicorn”.

On the 18th of January the craft had finished powering up and calibrating itself and was oriented with its lens pointed toward the Unicorn. This week the cover came off for the first time. The first photos were shot. There is celebration this week by the partner-nations: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany and Spain.

After a few months of working that section of the universe the craft , a Proteus mini satellite system of the French CES, will turn 180 degrees to avoid direct sunlight and will begin a period studying space from the opposite face. Scientists are undoubtedly rushing madly (mad scientists that they are) to gather all the knowledge that computer-sensing light collectors can accumulate in one direction so that they can make careers from one part of the sky or another.

Way back in ought-two there was an interview by Michel Meyor with Didier Queloz, planet-finder extraordinaire:
“Didier Queloz and his colleagues at the Observatoire de Genève, Switzerland, have found many of these new planets, and their discoveries include the most tantalising one yet: a planet that closely resembles Jupiter in our own Solar System. These findings bring astronomers another step closer to detecting an Earth-like world.”

The good doctor Planet-Finder is in ESA’s Scientific Advisory Group for its Darwin planet-search mission. He was quoted as answering the question about finding a Jupiter-like extra-solar planet. “We have found 12 new planets. Among them, a new multiple system and most excitingly, a planet very similar to Jupiter (the biggest planet in our Solar System) in the sense that it is about the mass of Jupiter and has a similar orbit. Such planets are called Jupiter analogues by planet hunters and have long been a goal of such searches.”

The U.S. has also found another Jupiter-like planet. Queloz answers his interviewer with an agreement that planet-hunting has entered a new era when full planetary systems will be detected. The ESA is continuing with an Earth-based observatory in Chile that will work with the space-based projects. It will be ESO, the European Space Observatory in La Silla, Chile. A device he called HARPS will be put on the 3.6 meter telescope at La Silla.

But the amazing part this search for information knocked out this aging mind when the JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab) site, “Planet Quest” showed a mind-boggling counter that there are now 197 planets discovered in 97 planetary systems! Holy science fiction, Batman. Can this be true? No Roswell Park, this one. The die is cast. We are not alone and it isn’t just the Europeans, Russians and Chinese who are clogging thespace-ways . If you think the Muslims are bad, just envision aliens who are not city-eating, 1950-B-movie bad, but really bad. Past inter-galactic by-pass bad. Or maybe little, green dinosaurs who are really nice but think we are the evening meal provided as a diversion before the diplomacy begins. Who knows what the future will bring, or, in the case of Hubble and COROT, what the past has yet to show us.

We come to the crux of this space news break. It is not the successful opening salvo of images from COROT nor even Hubble’s phenomenal production of knowledge. The planets are mainly big and gassy because they, like Jupiter, have been studied as embryo-stars that failed ignition. They are big and big things show better some trillions of miles and years away. But where there are big, gassy ones there will be smaller ones with oceans of and winds, atmospheres and…

The Europeans got an “A” this time. America needs a good space race instead of a suicide mission and a lot of Planet-Hunters rather than investment bankers. We have to settle the evil Muslim problem and get back to the astronomy in which they once led. We need to look at the stars before all we can see are the bogey men and the land-mines.

Space

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Photo ©Howard Dratch. Restaurant at the Cenote Azul, Bacalar, Mexico

The amazing part of this story is that I had not really paid much attention to the “food blog” as a journalistic art form even though I have written a few articles on food for Blogcritics Magazine in the past.

It is an interesting format and grabbed my interest. I will plan some pictures of food for the future — or more pictures and discussion. Maybe one of my blogs that has become disorganized will become a food blog. It might be fun.

Some changes will be coming.

Food
Blogging

Way back on Wednesday our very own President, George W. spoke. Ted Koppel listened hard and commented on National Public Radio his speech, particularly buried in a later portion where he “hints at (the) possiblity of war with Iran.” Koppel reports that he said “… that success in Iraq requires taking steps against Iran and Syria.”

“These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. Add we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.”

It isn’t George Bush declaring war on Iran as if he had merely mixed up a “q” and an “n”. On the other hand he has already ordered another aircraft carrier, Patriot missiles for defense and a strike group to man the flotilla. These are not great means for fighting terrorists on the ground, revolutionaries or shi’ite zealots.

But, if we were considering another war, this time with the country that ends in “n”; then he is setting up the right situation. If noon comes to the OK Corral; we might be ready — or not. The CIA World Fact Book mentions almost 69 million people most of whom are young. We could be in for another difficult and drawn out affair if it, too, is botched from the beginning and lacks sufficient long-term strategic planning.

War
Iran
International Politics

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Book Review: Canone Inverso by Paolo Maurensic, Jenny McPhee, Translator

An itinerant violinist tells the tale of two musical geniuses and the nature of time and music. Translated from Italian.

This is a book on paper. It has no embedded mp3 player, no YouTube video feed, just words.

Listen as the story takes slowly into flight for the sound of a violin played by a strange master in a little tavern in Prague. Musicians in old world taverns are not strange. A maestro is. Our narrator who may not later remain the narrator is a collector who has bought a rare and beautiful violin for a large amount of money. He is an aficionado of music and a lover of beautiful instruments.

The blurb describes Paolo Maurensig as having been “… a journalist, photographer and most recently a restorer of antique musical instruments…” who lives in Udine, Italy. With writing novels I would consider these to be a fine constellation of talents – restoring wonderful things like violins. Especially the ones that don’t need a power cord.

Will this novel be about music and musical instruments? It appears so but, like much in the novel, appearances can deceive. There is always the sound of music wound into the words. Chords are served in the spaces between descriptions. The beauty of the violin is described and we need no further convincing. Just order up some Bach violin concertos from Amazon.

Many years ago in the Hudson Valley a friend older than ourselves was the sweetest of women, a violinist in the Symphony and Suzuki music teacher to streams of children. Her eyes were clear, sky-blue even the last time I saw her when her age was increased by the years I had known her. Her Stradivari was timeless and sang with a tongue of ancient clarity, the sound of perfectly aged wine turned from color, smell and taste to the vibrations of the final chord that slowly drifts into the night.

Once, at a party on a Hudson Valley estate where the owner affected the un-gentlemanly farmer as his persona, she lent it to a suddenly fiddle-less country music-maker and the tongue of that priceless piece of art strung square dances in the twilight. But precious they are, these masterpieces of musical tongues are blown or plucked or bow-lashed and their universal languages pulled, pushed, forced or allowed to reach for the stars and reach they do.

Photo of vendor in Ciudad Valles, MX with his hand-carved folk-fiddle playing for us amigos. ©Beringer-Dratch, 2001.

Now the music lovers in the book section will say, “Aha, a book about music.” Perhaps is the best I can do. It is a book about a musician, two musicians, a history of a time gone by in Europe and of the search for longevity or about age, about insanity and about friendship. Maybe it is about the schizoid nature of the European century, that first half of the twentieth that brought it to a close and then, much later, brought it back to the front lines of world power. (more…)

I try to remember to credit and link to this great site, Pictures from Old Books each time I use one of their pictures of old books. They are a wonderful resource and great fun. Given how sophisticated the site has become, they are also working hard at it. Credit where credit is due — such as the martyr on the wheel I use on my blog Travel Dangers, Advice and Advisories .

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Books