A More Perfect Union

The Fourth of July is coming up soon. And despite the differences we have, on that day we come together and celebrate our independence. Over 230 years ago, several brave men, sent the King of England one of the best breakup letters ever written. 

Shrews

The shrew (true shrews that is) is a small, mouse-like animal. Though they are not rodents and are more closely related to moles. We do not have a huge number of shrew species here in California (only 13). And several of these are pretty limited in range. However around the world shrews are a common small mammal. Though not seen very often. Like their relatives the moles, they have small eyes and poor vision. They make up for this by having good hearing and sense of smell. 

Natural History

 This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

There are many different ways that science can be done. But basically the idea is that you compare theories of how the world works to observations of the world itself. When the observations do not match the theory, and the observations are confirmed to be true, you have to change the theory.

Diary of a WIMPy Particle

This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

The Universe is filled with stuff we cannot see. And humans have been coming to grips with these things and forces since, well, basically since we've been human. 

We see the effects of the wind, but we cannot see the wind itself. So we come up with hypotheses about how winds come about. By using our lungs and mouths we can generate small scale effects that are like wind. We do it when we blow up balloons, or blow out candles. So we can hypothesize that there exist large creatures that cause the winds. Some kind of wind spirit, perhaps.

Wabi-Sabi

 This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper.  

 

In art there is often an attempt to make permanent an instant of beauty. I've taken pictures of wildflowers and sunsets. Painters and sculptors do the same. But not all beauty can be made permanent. Photos of sunsets seldom really capture the beauty of the sunset, because part of the beauty of the sunset is that it is transient. It changes. 

Finding Another Earth

 This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

Astronomers have made a great deal of progress in finding extrasolar planets. These are planets that orbit stars other than our Sun. The first (starting back in the 90s) were odd planets, most “hot Jupiters”. Very large planets orbiting close to their star. These included huge planets with years (the time it takes to make an orbit around the star) of mere days.

Lost in a Labyrinth

This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

On the same trip where I saw the Blythe Intaglios, we visited another California geoglyph. (Recall that this is a form of rock art where an image has been scrathed into the surface rock revealing lighter material beneath.) This geoglyph is the so-called Topock Maze. This is located over near Needles and is just off of the freeway.