This Blog's History: Life on the Color Line

In case you missed it last time, for This Friday in This Blog's history, I point you back to the post I wrote after reading Life on the Color Line by Gregory Howard Williams. A great book that details the life of the author growing up mixed race in Muncie, Indiana in the 1950s and 1960s. A book that everyone should read!

Life on the Color Line - Book Review

Hunt a Killer Game

I've labeled this under "Board Games" but it isn't really a true board game. I'm just too lazy to create a new label for this post. LOL! For Christmas this past year we decided on something a bit different for our 12 year old. I had seen Facebook ads (yes, I know, I succumbed to advertising!) for a subscription based episode game called 'Hunt a Killer'. To play you subscribe to a season. Each season is its own murder-mystery that you must try to solve. Each month, for 6 months, you receive a new package of clues and materials. These range from police reports, maps, timelines, notes, etc. Your job is to analyze the clues to try to remove at least one suspect. Below is our dining room table as we played the first episode.

 

 

Our dining room table covered with Hunt a Killer clues!

It took several hours of close inspection, but we eventually eliminated one of the suspects. We were close on a second suspect, but couldn't quite eliminate them. My 12 year old had a ton of fun and my 9 year old was pretty active too in helping out and asking questions to help us eliminate a suspect.

The game isn't cheap, but if you are looking for something different from typical board games and something that really uses those critical thinking skills, Hunt a Killer is a great option. You can learn more on their website:

Hunt a Killer

What started out as a Facebook ad advertisement has resulted in hours of fun! Episode 2 is sitting in our house waiting for us to have a few hours free on a weekend!

Tiny Clumps of Dark Matter

Dark matter is a mystery in science. When astronomers look at the speed at which stars rotate around a galaxy, they are led to believe there must be missing mass we cannot see. The speeds remain constant the farther they are from the galactic center, but based on the mass we can see, the speed should drop. This tells us there is additional gravity driving the rotation around the galaxy. This missing, unseen mass is called dark matter.

Dark matter is a great area of interest in physics and astronomy today because we truly don't know what it is!!! We can see its effects in the Universe but can't see what it actually is! The leading theory is dark matter is composed of weakly interacting particles that have mass. We can't see them because they rarely, if ever, interact and give off light of any kind. Astronomers are trying to find a dark matter particle through state of the art particle colliders, like the Large Hadron Collider, but so far have been unsuccessful.

This lack of success, however, has not stopped astronomers from studying dark matter, and a new study finds tiny clumps of dark matter in galaxies.

Hubble Finds Teeny Tiny Clumps of Dark Matter

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers found tiny clumps of dark matter be examining light from distant quasars through a method called gravitational lensing. Super cool! Pun intended since space is cold. Get it? Get it?!?!? LOL!

Astronomers may not have the answers on dark matter, but they are looking hard and I'm convinced it will be less than a decade and we'll have an answer. Check back with me in 2030!

The Nine Billion Names of God

I recently read the very short science fiction story titled The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke. This story is found in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1.

This is an interesting story in which a group of people are working to discover the nine billion names of God. Once they do, God ends the Universe. Yep. That's the story line. :-) Not the greatest science fiction story I've read by any means, but I love reading science fiction from the early to mid 20th century to get a feel for how science fiction story telling has changed. It's not that the change is good or bad, but science fiction stories written today are written in a very different style from 100 years ago.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters just as we were leaving for Chicago and traveling to see family over Christmas break. As a result we did not get to see it on opening weekend. We had to wait until after Christmas, but we saw it with my sister's family where she lives. I couldn't wait anymore so waiting to get back home was not an option. LOL!

 

I LOVED IT! I loved every minute of it! This movie was a fantastic movie to end this trilogy and I hope Disney has more Star Wars movies planned. I want more and I don't want to wait 20 years. I want more now!!! 

I know there are the haters out there and those that take every little thing and turn it into a major reason for disliking the movie. Whatever. My advice, ignore the haters and purists and enjoy this movie for what it is, a great movie filled with action, inner struggles, and a young Jedi trying to find her place in the world.

In case I haven't made it clear, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was so, so, so, so, so, good! I had chills at the end. :-) This wasn't my favorite trilogy. That belongs to the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the early 2000s, but this Star Wars trilogy (episodes #7, #8, and #9) are a very, very close second!And my kids loved it too!!!

This Blog's History: Super Puff Planets

In case you missed it when originally posted, for This Friday in This Blog's History I point you to the post I wrote last month on super puff planets. Yes, there are super puff planets!

Super Puff Planets

The Silent Blade - Book Review

I'm a big science fiction and fantasy book fan. I've read books in this genre that are 1000 page mammoths and others that are quick reads. There's a time and place for both. When I'm looking for a quicker read, one of the fantasy series I look to is the Forgotten Realm series starring Drizzt Do'Urden, the dark elf who escaped from the evil underground city of Menzoberranzan, which I had to look up to spell correctly!

My latest read in this series was The Silent Blade by R.A. Salvatore. The barbarian, Wulfgar, is back with the group but struggling to find his place. Drizzt has empathy for Wulfgar and lets him go off to re-discover himself. In the meantime Artemis Entreri is back and trying to prove himself in battle against Drizzt. Add in Regis, Bruenor, and Catti-Brie, and you have a story filled with adventure! :-)

I enjoy the books starring Drizzt because they provide an escape to another world, but also don't take weeks to read.

Field Museum

While in Chicago over Christmas break for a couple of days, we took a day and visited the Field Museum. The Field Museum is a very large natural history museum filled with a ton of excellent exhibits that will leave you filled with new knowledge.

The Chicago Bears football stadium is right next door and it was game day. Fortunately the game was in the evening and we were out before the football crowds picked up, making it easy to Uber in and out. This was my second visit to the Field Museum, with the first visit about 20 years ago. This was the first visit for our kids.

One interesting thing about the Field Museum at Christmas is that it is much, much, much less busy than the Science and Industry Museum. The Science and Industry Museum has the large Christmas trees that are a big draw. We arrived in the morning and it was an immediate walk in to get tickets and walk through to the first exhibits. There is so much to see and do that if this is your first visit, I recommend you stick with the basic admission. You can pay extra for the special exhibit, but to be honest, there is plenty to see with just the basic admission. On a second or third visit I can see the advantage of the special exhibits. Oh, and the basic admission does get you to the dinosaur exhibit and Sue!

My kids loved Sue (T-Rex above)! My youngest kept asking when we were going to to the dinosaur exhibit. LOL!

The Field Museum was a lot of fun and a great way to spend a day in Chicago over the Christmas break.

Logic Puzzles

I'll never forget the day I first discovered logic puzzles. Okay, I don't remember the exact day, but I remember discovering these in elementary school and the joy they brought me. If you are not familiar with logic puzzles, they are a set of clues you receive and you have to solve who received what, of what type, of what type 2, etc. Here's a picture.

This is a logic puzzle I picked up after Christmas after seeing both of my kids receive logic puzzle books for gifts from family. I was jealous and had to get my own! Logic puzzles are a fantastic way to find some screen free time that also uses those critical thinking skills. Find a book that has puzzles of varying difficulty. You'd be amazed at how difficult these puzzles can be and the brain "stretching" they require!

This particular book, in the picture above, provides an average completion time for each puzzle, completion rate, and record time based on stats recorded from the puzzles on the online site. I've only worked on three puzzles so far, but I've solved them all for 100% completion rate. :-)

What is #33: Europa?

If you pay any attention at all to the field of astronomy, and especially solar system astronomy, you've quite likely heard of Europa. But what is Europa? Europa is the name of a large moon in the solar system that orbits Jupiter. It is one of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter. These are the four large moons discovered by Galileo when he viewed Jupiter with a telescope. Of the four Galilean moons, Europa is the smallest, but still a very large moon. There are only five moons in the solar system larger than Europa: Ganymede (Jupiter), Callisto (Jupiter), Io (Jupiter), Titan (Saturn), and our own moon.

NASA / Jet Propulsion Lab-Caltech / SETI Institute - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19048 Also described here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-406

Europa is an extremely interesting moon in our solar system because it very likely contains liquid water below an icy surface, and where there is liquid water, there is the possibility of life of some type. It also opens to the door to future human space exploration as water is a needed resource. Having it available in the outer solar system is a huge plus in potential life/living stations in our solar system. Okay, I admit, this is very sci-fi right now, but a few centuries into the future? Probably not so sci-fi anymore.

The image above shows a whitish surface with lines cutting across. These lines are cracks in the surface as large plates of ice move and create friction. Although large in size, Europa should be geologically dead, meaning it would be too cold for liquid water to exist below the surface. Tidal heating from Jupiter creates an internal heat source, allowing water to exist as a liquid, as opposed to ice.

Despite what the movie Europa Report (watch it!) suggests, there are no signs of life, let alone advanced life, at this time. There is, however, much interest in learning more about Europa. An upcoming mission, Europa Clipper, will orbit Jupiter and further study the surface of Europa to learn more. The Europa Clipper is currently set to launch in 2025, so still several years out.

Most exciting moon in the solar system? Maybe. There are some other very interesting moons out there, but Europa has a strong case for this title.

This Blog's History: What is the Oort Cloud?

In case you missed it the first time, for This Friday in This Blog's History, I point you to the post I recently wrote on the Oort Cloud. The Oort Cloud is a very distant place in our solar system filled with the icy remains of the early solar system. These icy objects can be knocked inward, producing long period comets. For more, check out the original post below.

What is the Oort Cloud?

Life on the Color Line - Book Review

I finished 2018 having read 40 books in the year and upped that in 2019, reading 46 books. My reading goal for 2020 is 45 books, with real hopes of reading a few more than that. I finished my first book of 2020 on the first of the year. This was a book I started in 2019 and finished on the first when I had time to sit down and read. My first book read in 2020 was "Life on the Color Line" by Gregory Howard Williams.

At the start of 2019 I promised myself I would read more books written by non-white authors. This included non-fiction books as well as science fiction and fantasy books written by others rather than white males. There's nothing wrong with books written by white males, but they were dominating my book shelf. Females and those of color provide a different perspective in their writings and it is important to me to spend more time reading their words and experience differences.

Around that time I went to a local used book store and found this book, although it took me until the end of 2019 and first day of 2020 to read and finish it. At first glance I was a bit leery as the author, Gregory Howard Williams, looks white. Was I reading a book by a white author discussing life as a black individual growing up in the 1950s and 1960s? The answer was no and I am so glad I read this book.

Williams was born to a white mother and a mixed race father who passed off as white living in Virginia. The father, with his two sons (including Williams) moved to Muncie, Indiana and grew up in Muncie's black neighborhood, but looking white to those who didn't know. The author describes his life from elementary school to college, detailing the struggles he went through looking white but having black ancestry on his father's side. In addition, they grew up very poor, to a father who was often drunk and non-existent in the life of his children. His mother abandoned them at a young age, and they were raised by a non-family member that became their true family.

It's a harrowing, but realistic look at how those in the minority were treated in Indiana in the 1950s and 1960s and beyond. Too often those in the majority will argue that the world is different now and we shouldn't focus too much on the past. Wrong. For starters, there is still great discrimination based on race in America today. On top of that, it's extremely important that we all work to understand the discrimination of the past. By understanding this discrimination, even if we are in the majority, is crucial in leading lives with humanistic values. If we don't focus on the past, we will never make the future a better place for all.

Reading this book was an astonishing eye opener that showed how different my life growing up in the majority compared to those growing up in the minority. Many of the stories shared in this book will make you cringe, cry, stomp your feet in anger, etc. It will test your emotions and open your eyes to how society treats others it doesn't like. Read this book. Make it your 2020 goal on your book list.

My 2020 Daily Science Calendar

Call me a geek, but I enjoy the little things in life, and one of the little things is setting up or hanging the calendar of a new year. Each year I get a 12 month wall calendar for my office and a 365 daily calendar for my desk. This year's daily calendar is a "science fact of the day" calendar. Yep, told you I'm a geek! :-)

How can you not be excited by that? Each day a new science fact appears! January 1, 2020, filled me in on scientists using the quantum mechanical force. Don't ask me what that means as I still have no idea, but it's pretty darn cool! Hopefully I will not find a mistake, typo, or something that is clearly wrong in any of these science facts. I've found wrong things in these calendars before. Not common, but still annoying when something is mistakenly printed or is missing the necessary detail to put the fact into perspective.

Science is cool and you should immerse yourself in it in 2020. Make that your New Year's resolution goal! More science = happier life! :-)

Cadillac Palace Theatre - Phantom of the Opera

Prior to the 2018 Christmas season, we started a tradition (if you can call just 2 years a tradition) of taking a mini-vacation prior to visiting family over Christmas. Last year we stayed in downtown Chicago and saw Hamilton, went to the Science and Industry Museum, and skated in Millennium Park. Well, my wife and kids skated. I'm not a skater so I hung out in the warm coffee shop across the street. :-) This past Christmas we went back to downtown Chicago and saw Phantom of the Opera at the Cadillac Palace Theatre.

The Cadillac Palace Theatre is a beautiful theatre! We sat in the balcony and the seats were great! The show itself was fantastic. My wife and I had seen Phantom of the Opera many years ago, but this was a first for our kids. My oldest loved it. My youngest enjoyed it too but thought it was a bit scary. I can see that, given the music is loud and can get suspenseful at times.

I'm not sure what we are doing next year, but we've really enjoyed this plan of hitting a theatre show and spending some time to ourselves before hanging out with extended family for several days. Chicago is a great place to go at Christmas and there's so much to see and do! On this trip we also visited Millennium Park again and also toured the Field Museum, which I'll cover in future posts.

Oh, one last thing. Theatre tickets can be pricey, but also very reasonable if you sit in the balcony, where the seats are still very good. Unless you are going to Hamilton...if it is Hamilton you'd better save up for awhile, LOL!

The Traitor - Book Review

The last book I read in 2019 (Well, most likely the last...I'm writing this post with a few days left in 2019. I'm currently reading Life on the Color Line. I may finish it in 2019, but I sort of doubt it. Looks like this will most likely be my first read book in 2020.) was The Traitor by Stephen Coonts. This is the second book in the Tommy Carmellini series. I enjoyed the first book and decided to keep reading the series.

Like the first book, this second book was an enjoyable read. Tommy Carmellini, the major character, is in France working to stop a potential terrorist plot against several world leaders about to meet at one location. Your typical spy thriller with a terrorist plot to cause great harm. I don't enjoy this series as much as the Mitch Rapp series, but the intriguing thing about Carmellini is the way Coonts has written in several character flaws. Carmellini continues to struggle with romantic relationships and struggles to say no to future CIA operations. It helps the reader feel as if the story is a bit more believable. Just a bit, mind you. :-)

This Blog's History: Three Supermassive Black Holes

For This Friday in This Blog's History I point you back to a post I wrote on the discovery of a galaxy with three black holes. Yes, that's right, THREE black holes!!! Astronomy never ceases to amaze. To learn more about this weird galaxy I encourage you to read the original post linked below.

How Many Supermassive Black Holes???!!!???

Super-Puff Planets

How's that for the name of a type of planet? Super-puff planets! As the name suggests, super-puff planets are planets that are, well, super puffy! In our own Solar System we have the large gas giants of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Of these four gas giants, Saturn has the lowest density at about 70% that of water. This means that Saturn could float in water if there was a bath big enough to fit Saturn. Super-puff planets have an even lower density.

 

 

This illustration depicts Kepler-51 and its three giant planets. Image credit: NASA / ESA / L. Hustak, J. Olmsted, D. Player & F. Summers, STScI.

Super-puff planets have a mass less than that of our Solar System's gas giants. Their masses are typically no more than a few times that of Earth, but they have radius (physical size) larger than Uranus and Neptune. A smaller mass with a larger size gives a much lower density at less than 10% that of water. That is seven times less dense than Saturn!

There are not many of these super-puff planets known to exist, with numbers less than 20, but as we look for and discover more planets, we are bound to find more super-puff planets. For more information on these very cool exoplanets, I encourage you to read the following article.

Kepler-51 is Home to Three Super-Puff Exoplanets

Until I read this article, I had never heard the term super-puff applied to new planets. That is the exciting thing about science. Keep your eyes and ears open to science and you learn something new every day!

Kate Marvel (@DrKateMarvel) on Twitter

I follow quite a few scientists and science communicators on Twitter and have my own list created to keep track of their tweets. So much great science is discussed by these individuals. I've shared several on this blog and today have another to share, Dr. Kate Marvel.

 

Dr. Marvel is a climate scientist. What more noble field of science is there these days than climate science, with its constant attacks by a single major political party in the world? For more on Kate's science accomplishments, check our her website: MarvelClimate You can follow her on Twitter @DrKateMarvel

She may not have a fancy blue checkmark next to her name in Twitter, but don't let that stop you from following her for some great science!

Black Mirror

After recently finishing the Merlin TV Series, I needed to find something new to watch (when I'm not catching up on current running TV shows). After much debate, I decided the next TV series to watch is Black Mirror. Thus far I've watched the first 6 episodes in the series and I am hooked!

 

How to describe Black Mirror? It's a show in which each episode is a stand alone story. You don't need to watch them in order as they do not connect to each other and they have different actors and actresses. Each episode is a fictional story about how technology can lead to negative effects on society. And yes, some of it is hard to believe. It is fictional after all, but much of this you can see as having a slim possibility of occurring at some point in the future. Think about how we are connected and dependent on technology today. Our phones, our laptops, our touch screens, our many, many connected devices. What if those were used to control the masses, beyond ways in which they already are? That's the plot of each Black Mirror episode. A thrilling, exciting, and yes, a bit scary TV series. There are only 22 episodes to date, so I will catch up soon and need to find something new to watch until the next season of Black Mirror is out. 

Heads up parents, this show is rated MA and not suitable for young children.

What is #32: The Oort Cloud?

I recently took a look at the Kuiper belt in this 'What Is' series, making mention of the Oort Cloud. The Kuiper Belt is a region of icy objects, including many comets that exists near the orbit of Neptune between 30-50 AU from the Sun. But what is the Oort cloud?

The Oort cloud is another region of icy objects in the Solar System, but extending to much greater distances. The Oort cloud starts at a few thousand AU from the Sun and extends to distances greater than 100,000 AU. There are potentially billions of icy objects in this vast region of space.

Long period comets, with orbits taking several tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands years, come from this region in space. We can't see anything that exists out in this region given they reflect so little sunlight back to us. Models of solar system formation shows icy bodies were likely thrown outward to the outer solar system by the formation of large planets in the inner solar system. We see objects from this region when they fall inward as comets and flare up as they come close to the Sun. A mapping of the orbit tells us these comets came from the Oort cloud.

Consider the Oort cloud a graveyard of icy objects that are floating around in the outer solar system waiting their turn to make a trek toward the Sun. A bit lonely, but it's astronomy, so still very exciting!

This Blog's History: Closest Planet to Earth

For This Friday in This Blog's History I point you back to a post I wrote on taking a closer look at the closest planet to Earth. Mars? Venus? Turns out it is Mercury if you define closest planet as the planet that spends the greatest amount of time as the closest to Earth. It's not intuitive, but it's the truth! See the details by clicking the link to the original post below.

Closet Planet to Earth

Catch Up - All the Science in 2019 You Missed

Before you get too carried away with 2020, take some time to catch up on any cool science you may have missed from 2019. There are all sorts of publications that have the Top XX Stories of 2019, including science publications. I'm a big fan of Discover Magazine and you can check out their top 100 science stories of 2019 here:

100 Science Stories of 2019

The number one story of the year, according to Discover Magazine editors, is new information gained from black holes. Hard to deny the cool science of black holes! There are several climate change connected stories in the top 100 and a ton of science spread across multiple fields. I love looking through these end of year lists to see what I missed and refresh myself of the cool things that happened at the beginning of the year.

There are plenty of other "Best of 2019" science articles out there, not to mention several articles on the top science stories of the decade since 2019 is the end of a decade. Here's one site with just a few cool science items in the decade of 2010-2019.

The most mind-boggling scientific discoveries of 2019

An amazing year and decade of science! What will 2020 and 2020-2029 bring? Stay tuned!

2020 Reading List?

Welcome to 2020!!! Let's talk about books! Starting 2019 I set a goal of reading 40 books before the end of the year. I finished the year having read 47 books, so topped that goal and some. What should my goal for 2020 be? I think I'll set it at 45 books. That'll put me on the same pace as last year and it's a reasonable goal to meet.

I encourage you and your kids, if you have kids, to set reading goals and stick to them. Keep a reading journal to write down the books you've read and a short review of the book. If you're not sure which book to start with or what type of books to read this year, you can check out the Goodreads Best Books of 2019 for some excellent options!

Goodreads Best Books of 2019

There are a ton of great options here rated by other readers. You can narrow it down to specific genre or two of books. I just added a whole bunch of books on my "Want to Read List" by going through the books in the fantasy, science fiction, and horror categories! So many great looking books I want to read and don't have enough time!!!

Start the year off reading! Reading is a great way to relax and a great way to escape the stresses of the day! It is a very rare night that I don't do at least a small bit of reading before bed.