Star Talk Weblog

Sky and Telescope - Moon and Planets Parade at Dusk

Link: Sky and Telescope - Moon and Planets Parade at Dusk.

As if to celebrate the change of the seasons, four of our solar system's bright planets are putting on a parade at dusk during the last week of June 2006. One of them — giant Jupiter — gleams brilliantly low in the south as it gets dark. You can't miss it; it's the brightest point of light in the sky these evenings. You might easily overlook the other three worlds — Mercury, Mars, and Saturn — which are much fainter and setting in the west-northwest during twilight. Thankfully the waxing crescent Moon comes to the rescue, pointing the way to the planetary trio. And your eyes are all you need to enjoy the spectacle — no telescope required!

Comment -- It looks like there will be nice clear skies tonight, so be sure to get outside and take a look to the west.

Speaking of looking around outside, you may all have noticed that the fireflies are going nuts out in the grass and trees.

Actually, they are all male fireflies who are flashing patterns of light to attract females. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says:

"The females signal in response from perches in or near the ground. When the male sees the female's flash he continues to signal and moves closer. Eventually, through a series of flashes, they find each other and mate. Each species of firefly sends different mating signals. In fact, a beetle specialist or a keen observer can recognize most species by the number, duration, and time lapses between flashes.

The light given off by fireflies during their abdominal flashes is called bioluminescence. It happens when oxygen and the organic compound luciferin react together in the presence of the enzyme, lucifereace. This creates light. Although other insects can produce light, fireflies are the only insects that can flash their light on and off in distinct signals. Even the eggs and larvae of some firefly species glow. That's where the name "glow worm" comes from."

There are 136 different species of fireflies.

Blogging will be light for the next week, thanks to the Fourth of July holiday.

Not what you might expect to be happening in China

Link: As China Ages, a Shortage of Cheap Labor Looms - New York Times.

Experts say the rapidly graying city is leading one of the greatest demographic changes in history, one with profound implications for the entire country.

The world's most populous nation, which has built its economic strength on seemingly endless supplies of cheap labor, China may soon face manpower shortages. An aging population also poses difficult political issues for the Communist government, which first encouraged a population explosion in the 1950's and then reversed course and introduced the so-called one-child policy a few years after the death of Mao in 1976.

That measure has spared the country an estimated 390 million births but may ultimately prove to be another monumental demographic mistake. With China's breathtaking rise toward affluence, most people live longer and have fewer children, mirroring trends seen around the world.

Comment -- Japan is in even worse shape and Europe isn't far behind. The only thing saving the U.S. from demographic disaster is immigration -- something to consider as we observe Congress debating immigration restrictions.

When I was growing up, I constantly read that the greatest problem facing the planet was overpopulation. How ironic is it that, as Jennifer and I creep closer and closer to becoming senior citizens, everyone is worrying that we have too few people, not too many.

Drugs are expensive! Well, not all drugs

Link: gladwell.com.

The New York Times led its business section today with the headline:   “Drug Prices Up Sharply.” The subject of the piece was a study by AARP showing that prices of prescription drugs rose 3.9 percent in the first three months of this year, four times the rate of inflation.   Outrageous!

But wait:   it isn’t until you read a little closer that you realize that the price increase just refers to brand-name pharmaceutical prices.   And what the article never mentions at all is that the AARP released a second study yesterday, showing that generic drug costs in the

United States were unchanged in the first quarter and fell 0.1 percent over the past year.

Here is the key paragraph from the AARP report, which—unbelievably—never made it into the Times piece:

"The rate of increase in average annual change in manufacturer’s list price for generic prescription drugs most widely used by older Americans was about one quarter the rate of general inflation for 2005.”

Now why would the Times ignore lower generic drug prices and highlight higher brand name drug prices? I have no idea.

Comment -- So, if you use generic drugs, which many people do, then prescription drugs costs have not been zooming up.

A follow-up question might be: then why is health insurance still so expensive? Especially when the high cost of prescriptions is often blamed for the high cost of health coverage.

The excerpt above is from the website of Malcolm Gladwell. I don't alway agree with him, but he sure can write.
 

We saw Smart cars all over Paris

Link: DaimlerChrysler to Sell Smart Car in US - New York Times.

DaimlerChrysler AG will team with former auto racer and businessman Roger Penske to sell a funky and fuel-efficient two-seat car in the U.S. starting early in 2008, the automaker's CEO said Wednesday.

The decision -- announced by DaimlerChrysler Chairman Dieter Zetsche during an appearance in Detroit -- is a watershed moment for the company's Smart car unit, which has not posted a profit since it was formed in 1998.

Penske's United Auto Group Inc. will be responsible for picking potential dealers and developing and maintaining a Smart vehicle dealership network throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. It will focus mainly on highly populated areas and have 30 to 50 dealerships, Penske said.

 

Smart will sell the next generation of its ''fortwo'' model, which has been popular in Europe. It gets an average of 40 miles per gallon in combined city-highway driving and will sell for less than $15,000. The company says it can get up to 69 mpg on the highway.

Zetsche said the time is right to introduce Smart to urban Americans who have to deal with congested roadways, $3 per gallon gasoline and a perpetual search for parking.

''We may never see cheap gas again,'' he said.

But he said the appeal of the car goes beyond gas mileage to attract people who question the status quo and seek individuality.

Comment -- Imagine a golf cart with a fancier, hard-shell plastic body and you get a pretty good image of the Smart car. I might drive one downtown to work, but I think it would be seriously risky to drive one on an Interstate. A truck could run over you and think you were just a speed bump.

1.23 cents for your thoughts?

Link: Something’s of Interest!: The cost of making money.

With all of the rising metal costs in this country, in now costs more to make pennies and nickels, than they are worth. See Story

-For the first time in U.S. history, the cost of manufacturing both a penny and a nickel is more than the 1-cent and 5-cent values of the coins themselves. Skyrocketing metals prices are behind the increase, the U.S. Mint said in a letter to members of Congress last week.-

The Mint estimates it will cost 1.23 cents per penny and 5.73 cents per nickel this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The cost of producing a penny has risen 27% in the last year, while nickel manufacturing costs have risen 19%.

Last year, the Mint's coin-making profit was $730 million. Mint officials estimate the added penny and nickel expenses will reduce the Mint's profit this year by $45 million.

Comment -- This item says the Mint netted nearly a billion dollars last year. Why exactly is the Mint making a profit on manufacturing the money that we use?

A sound that's a blast from the past

Link: Amazon.com: Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas / Daniel Barenboim: Music: Ludwig van Beethoven,Daniel Barenboim.

Comment -- You classical music lovers out there might be interested in what I heard on Beethoven's Piano Sonata no32 when I was listening to it this afternoon. About a third of the way into the sonata, the music takes on a syncopated, boogie-woogie kind of rythym that would not sound out of place in a ragtime piano piece.

I'm sure someone much more musically educated than I has noticed this before. Am I being goofy or did Beethoven really influence popular music more than a century after this piece was composed?

Positive review for Strangers With Candy movie

Link: Strangers With Candy - Review - Movies - New York Times.

In addition to Ms. Sedaris's utter immunity to embarrassment and ability to toss off jokes that explode a few beats after you think they will, like damp blasting caps, the movie offers a grab bag of geeky, juvenile humor. As a setting, the modern American high school is shopworn and inexhaustible, with an ever-replenishing supply of jocks, nerds, mean girls and, in this case, a student (Carlo Alban) who shares the name of a well-known head of state. ("I'm Megawati Sukarnoputri," he says, by way of introduction. "Not that Megawati Sukarnoputri.")

Comment -- I suspect this movie will be utterly baffling to anyone who has not seen the TV series.

A silver lining to every cloud

Link: Savage Storms Wreak Havoc Across the Washington Region - New York Times.

...closed the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, forcing at least 3,000 employees to stay home.

Comment -- A storm can't be all bad when it gets the bureaucrats off our backs for a day.

Believe very little of what you read in newspapers: here's why

Link: gladwell.com.

The New York Times led its business section today with the headline:   “Drug Prices Up Sharply.” The subject of the piece was a study by AARP showing that prices of prescription drugs rose 3.9 percent in the first three months of this year, four times the rate of inflation.   Outrageous!

But wait:   it isn’t until you read a little closer that you realize that the price increase just refers to brand-name pharmaceutical prices.   And what the article never mentions at all is that the AARP released a second study yesterday, showing that generic drug costs in the

United States were unchanged in the first quarter and fell 0.1 percent over the past year.

Here is the key paragraph from the AARP report, which—unbelievably—never made it into the Times piece:

"The rate of increase in average annual change in manufacturer’s list price for generic prescription drugs most widely used by older Americans was about one quarter the rate of general inflation for 2005.”

Now why would the Times ignore lower generic drug prices and highlight higher brand name drug prices? I have no idea.

Comment -- This is from the blog of Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point.
 

Warming or not warming?

Link: The US National Academy of Sciences Issues a Distorted Report.

"Because of the large and still uncertain level of natural variability inherent in the climate record and the uncertainties in the time histories of the various forcing agents (and particularly aerosols), a causal linkage between the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the observed climate changes during the 20th century cannot be unequivocally established. The fact that the magnitude of the observed warming is large in comparison to natural variability as simulated in climate models is suggestive of such a linkage, but it does not constitute proof of one because the model simulations could be deficient in natural variability on the decadal to century time scale."

Comment -- The paragraph above is said to come from the recent National Academy of Sciences report on global warming. It certainly is a lot less alarming that the headlines that blared "Earth is warming and humans are to blame!"

I'll resolve to be open-minded on this issue and watch for further scientific research.