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N. Korea joins the space club
by Wiggins Patrick 13 Dec '12

13 Dec '12

According to the latest issue of Jonathan's Space Report (http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html) North Korea has finally managed to put a satellite in orbit. Probably coincidentally this happened the day after the USAF put their X-37B mini-spy-shuttle back in orbit. patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] N. Korea joins the space club
by Michael Wells 13 Dec '12

13 Dec '12

No they don't. Like I said, they get ego maniacs in charge who keep piling lie on top of lie. -------- Original message -------- From: Larry Holmes <larry(a)kijoda.com> Date: To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] N. Korea joins the space club Michael, who is going to make it a rule? Anyway, these countries do not have a very good history of responding to rules, especially those that are imposed by some entity outside of their sphere of influence. 73 On 12/13/2012 11:41 AM, Michael Wells wrote: > Yeah, it's a shame. I see Communist countries fail, but they always have > ego-maniacs in charge who won't admit when everything isn't 100%. As a > result, coverups start small, and then there are coverups of the coverups, > then coverups of the coverups of the coverups. Eventually, you have a > country letting people starve and driving around with 'Death Squad' vans > like China, and daring to question any of this leads to prison or a death > sentence, because questions cause the whole house of cards to fall down. > > Who knows, someone may get Communism to work someday, but so far all > they've had is brutal dictators in charge of the ones we've seen. It's sad > to think of how many people overall die so that "state secrets" won't get > out. It should be a rule that all Communist countries have to have the Worm > Ouroboros* *somewhere in their State Symbol. because nothing sums uup the > history of Communism quite so well. > > > On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 11:27 AM, Kim <kimharch(a)cut.net> wrote: > >> It's no small feat to successfully launch a rocket and put a man-made >> object >> into orbit. But to do so while starving and murdering their own people is >> what disturbs me more than potential military threats. >> >> Kim >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Utah-Astronomy mailing list >> http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy >> >> Send messages to the list to >> Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com >> >> The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. >> >> To unsubscribe go to: >> http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy >> Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on >> "Unsubscribe or edit options". >> > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > > Send messages to the list to > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > > The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. > > To unsubscribe go to: > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options". _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".

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Patrick scores again!
by Joe Bauman 13 Dec '12

13 Dec '12

Hi Gang, Patrick Wiggins has the EPOD (Earth Science Picture of the Day)! The only thing wrong with it is the rest of us, that is regular Americans, don't know what he's talking about with all that stuff about 1,000 m and 225 m ..... Joe http://epod.usra.edu/

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 118, Issue 19 RE: Americanized System
by John R. Peterson 13 Dec '12

13 Dec '12

Thanks you, Michael, for the concise summary. I'd like to add to that by saying, the process of conversion is already well in in place here in the World's biggest economy (the real recent that it's taking so long). The last time I looked, almost EVERY item in the grocery store has its label showing its weight or volume in both English (lbs or oz, pts. or fl. oz., for example) and metric (grams, although g and kg are each actually mass and not weight) and mL or cc. By the way, most people can get a handle on grams and kilograms being mass and newtons being weight, but we tend to use only pounds, a unit of weight in the English system. The English unit of mass is the slug, which someone did mention without explanation a few messages back. John R. Peterson > >Message: 2 >Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2012 00:33:57 -0700 >From: Michael Wells <eyeonyouproductions(a)gmail.com> >To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> >Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] OT, metrics -- was Re: Patrick scores > again! >Message-ID: > <CADxGsn7N6hUYSZOrY676wfJ5ygSZXCAfUROE8khigCxCM6VV+g(a)mail.gmail.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > >Yes I can, because there was a plan in place to do it gradually, not like >there was a switch that they were going to throw overnight. People were >just being stubborn. I heard as a child adults all over the place talking >exactly like you are now. They weren't going to change not because it was >hard, or that we already had a system in place, but because they were not >going to let anyone "tell" them what to do. This wasn't a foreign >government or the UN forcing us, this was our government trying to drag us >closer to the 21st century, and we held our threatened to hold our breath >until we turned blue. > >The SAE system is obsolete, exactly like the 8-Track, the cassette tape, >the wax cylinder, the Victrola, the floppy disk and the VHS tape(Won't say >video tape because it is still a valid storage format). > >As for an example of how it is beneficial, I will once again go back to >cooking as an example, because it's an easy one. It shows up all of the >time, and everyone encounters it. Recipes constantly call for 1/2 cup of >one ingredient, 2 ounces of another, a pint of something else, maybe a >gallon of another. You end up all over the place, trying to figure out what >is what. Also, when a recipe calls for 2 cups of something, 90% of the >people don't know that that is a pint, 2 pints in a quart, and 4 quarts in >a gallon. If they've only got measuring cups, that gallon gets pretty >tedious and requires a trip to the internet, and a bunch of math. Put it in >the metric system, and you have a liter as your standard for liquid >measure. 1 deciliter is a tenth of that, a centiliter one hundredth of it. >10 liters is a decaliter, and 1000 liters is a kiloliter. > >Here's the wonderful SAE system for length: >The base unit is the inch >12 inches in a foot(Anything smaller has to be fractions of an inch) >3 feet in a yard >5,280 feet in a mile >How many inches in a mile, without using a calculator, writing it down, or >doing the math in your head? > >Now the metric system, a nice beautiful base-10 system with all of the same >prefixes whether you are measuring volume, distance or weight. >The base unit is the meter. >1/100th of that is a centimeter >1,000 meters in a kilometer >So, same rules, how many centimeters in a kilometer? >100,000, it's that easy. > >SAE for volume: >Base unit is an ounce(Anything smaller is fractions of an ounce) >4 ounces is a cup >4 cups in a pint >2 pints in a quart >4 quarts in a gallon >Same rules, how many ounces in a gallon? > >Metric: >Base unit is the liter >1/100th of that is the centiliter >1000 liters is a kiloliter >How many centiliters in a kiloliter? >100,000 > >To sum this up, there is no rhyme nor reason to the SAE system. The metric >system is base 10, uses the same prefix, no matter the medium being >measured, and can go infinitesimally small or extremely large, and all >anyone has to know is where the particular latin prefix falls on the scale. > >Yes, it's people being stubborn, and it should have happend years ago. It's >ludicrous to still use the SAE system when it actually makes no sense >whatsoever. Teaching would be streamlined, and work would be improved. >Hell, even when I worked graphic design, we had to print up conversion >charts between fractions and decimal equivalents, because 1/64th gets >pretty hard to figure out in your head. Doing t all decimally would >eliminate that. > > >On Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 11:37 PM, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > >> Michael, you can't say people not wanting to change miles to kilometers, >> feet to meters, inches to centimeters, etc., is equivalent to your stepsons >> refusing to do something just to be contrary. And are you saying we should >> get in trouble when we stick to our native measurements? Peer pressure from >> people who don't know what they're takig about -- I don't understand that >> comment. Please give me a specific example. So here's a challenge: show how >> the life of an ordinary person -- not a doctor working in nuclear medicine >> -- would improve if he were forced to switch to a metric system. Would the >> difficulty be worth any advantage to him? I can easily see the trouble of >> trying to learn new units, but I certainly don't see any advantage for an >> ordinary person forced to change. Who's being contrary -- the people who >> prefer the system they grew up with, or the people who are trying to force >> difficult, non-beneficial changes on them? Thanks, Joe >> >> >> >>

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Another "near" miss
by Wiggins Patrick 12 Dec '12

12 Dec '12

I received word last evening that Earth was about to be visited by a tiny minor planet called 2012 XE54. I followed it for a while but it was moving so fast (max was just over 700"/min) I couldn't do much more than look and alert the Minor Planet Mailing List that it was coming. Shortly after it disappeared from my sky an MPMLer was able to pick it up with a bigger scope and managed to image it as it passed through an open cluster: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66276483@N06/8264503609/ Looks like we dodged another bullet. :) But then maybe this was just a preview of what's to come on the 21st. patrick p.s. Totally off topic but since I have folks' attention I've got a couple of fluorescent light fixtures I removed from my unheated hanger (apparently some fluorescents don't do well in the cold). I've got no use for them so they're free to anyone who has a use for them. Just be sure to use them in a heated area.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Comics
by Joe Bauman 12 Dec '12

12 Dec '12

No but there's an ointment that might protect against asteroids. (Stole the idea from Animal House Vacation I'm afraid.) ------------------------------ On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 3:30 PM MST D P Pierce wrote: >Kim, > Will the flu shot I got a few weeks ago protect me from the Germinids? >Deloy >_______________________________________________ >Utah-Astronomy mailing list >http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > >Send messages to the list to >Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > >The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. > >To unsubscribe go to: >http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy >Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".

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end of the world
by Kim 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

Bryce Canyon NP is hosting a "Not the End of the World" star party on the 21st, 7:00 PM. Just so you know. Kim

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New comic
by D P Pierce 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

In today's DN there is a funny comic (Bizarro). Since I can't pull it up on the internet I will describe it. A very weird looking Martian (4 legs, 2 arms and a head with 1 big eye and 2 antennas) is throwing a ball for Curiosity to fetch. Deloy

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Comics
by D P Pierce 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

Kim, Will the flu shot I got a few weeks ago protect me from the Germinids? Deloy

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Brian May remembers Patrick Moore.
by Daniel Holmes 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

Brian May is the guitarist for Queen. He graduated with a BA in astrophysics before Queen started up, and was working on his PhD when Queen hit it big. He never left astrophysics though, he wrote a few papers in the '80s, and worked with Patrick Moore on a couple of books. He finally finished his PhD in 2006. And I say he looks like Isaac Newton. Anyway, here's his eulogy for Patrick Moore: http://m.guardiannews.com/science/2012/dec/10/patrick-moore-astronomer-mast… Dan -- Daniel Holmes, danielh(a)holmesonics.com "Laugh while you can, monkey boy!" -- Lord John Whorfin

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