The second thing that captured my imagination this week was the report that Voyager 1 has entered the next stage of its departure from our solar system by crossing the "termination shock" that marks the beginning of the "heliopause."It's wonderful the way we find these new structures wherever we look, and the edge of the solar system is no exception. You might have thought that waving bye-bye to Neptune and Pluto would mark the probe's entry into empty intersteller space, but it turns out the... Read Full Story
During the course of my own brief lifetime, a mere half century or so, the universe has aged quite a bit. Of course, that is only in our perception of it, which has also undergone quite a bit of revision in recent years.When I was a kid, the age of the earth had been pegged pretty accurately at around four billion years--quite a difference from the Biblical estimates of four thousand (only a small fraction of human history). The rest of the universe was thought to be somewhat older, but per... Read Full Story
War of the Worlds, Peace, Power and Disaster Only about a dozen years ago news commentators were speculating about the arrival of a Pax Americana--a period of global peace and prosperity that would follow the Cold War as the United States of America, at last the only super-power, presided over a "new world order." Such a hopeful phrase ... in the words of performance artist Laurie Anderson, it may not have been very specific, "but at least it promised to be something new, and worldwide, and ... Read Full Story
As blasé Miamians, when we heard that a mere "tropical storm" that might just barely turn into a category one hurricane was approaching, and which furthermore would be passing some 50 miles to the north of us, we figured we were in for no more than a couple of rainy evenings watching it all on TV.Bzzt! Wrong. At the last minute Katrina intensified further and made a sharp southerly turn, bringing the eye right through the city of Hialeah, only about 15 miles from our South Miami abode. Instea... Read Full Story
The death of Robert Moog was announced today, causing manyof us to reflect on the size of the contributions he made toelectronic music.It's easy to forget now how primitive the equipment was andhow difficult to work with prior to Moog's development of thefirst "synthesizer." Composition in those days (prior to 1967or so) was a labor for lab technicians using ocilloscopes to studywave forms produced by oscillators, and modifying them withamplifiers and filter circuits. Much was also done byman... Read Full Story
What a way to begin this journal--back to the barricades inprotest over the war. Talk about 60's flashbacks ...Our local Friends Meeting (Quakers) has been maintaining aweekly peace vigil in front of the meeting house since beforethe invasion of Iraq began, back when we still hoped it could beaverted. A small contingent, sometimes only two or three, havestood by the road with their signs and waved patiently athomeward bound motorists during the evening rush hour.Having been present myself i... Read Full Story
