Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[Tal]

You can see four planets in the night sky at the moment (Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) and I think Mercury joins them just before dawn.

Venus is there every morning (if you're wondering why there's a star in the daytime most of the year), but the others come and go during the year because of the orbits.

You won't see Saturn's rings with binoculars, but it'll look fuzzy, instead of round. You'd need a telescope for that.

You can get an app I'm sure that'll show you the night sky if you want to find what's up there. Most people can find Orion or Ursa Major and work from there)

Great fun.

Are there no limits to your range of specialist subjects, Mr Tal?

Stars & stuff are mostly shit, but that stuff was actually quite interesting.

Astronomy is an interest. I like astrophysics and theoretical physics, although I'm a real novice at both.

[EvilPie]

If you look at the moon tonight you will see that there is a star about 6ft away from it (Top left).

I've been watching it track across the sky for the last couple of hours or so and the star is staying in the same relative position. How does that work?

Well spotted!

The short answer is it's not a star: it's Jupiter. If you get a decent pair of binoculars, you should be able to see the four largest moons dancing around the planet. They'll change their configuration during the course of the night: sometimes three on the left and one on the right, then two and two, then four and none, etc.

It is currently 435 million miles away. Not a bad pair of binoculars, that

Wow! How exciting.

Thanks Tal.

Just how exciting is it?

Also how important is it that we know this stuff?

Every time I see that we've discovered a new galaxy a zillion light years away I wonder how much it cost to find?

Surely those brilliant minds could be put to better use elsewhere fixing real problems that are happening right here right now on this planet?

People moan about the money being spent on foreign aid which should be diverted to the UK but nobody seems to mind about the billions being spent sending a little robot to Mars to see if there used to be life there 20 million years ago.

It would be interesting to know without doubt but surely sending a billion quid's worth of rice to Ethiopia would be better use of that money?

Imagine the good these people could do if they were tasked with solving world poverty? Surely compared to getting a big lump of metal to fly to Mars it would be a piece of piss?

[tikay]

^^^^

I get that sending a man to the moon, or a spaceship thing to Venus or wherever is so clever we can barely imagine the complexity.

Why we do it, & why it interests so many I don't get, not at all.

When they landed a man on the moon, it was live on TV, but I cba to even watch it, & if they did something similar tomorrow, I'd not watch that, either.

And I'd most certainly consider that money better spent if it was used to alleviate hunger & suffering in some parts of the world.

I don't think it's widely realised, but if we, as a species of earthlings, put our mind to it, we COULD solve the problem of people dying of hunger, having no fresh water, & all these other basic things that those of us in the modern world take for granted. We flush more clean water away in the WC every day than whole families get to drink & wash in a month in some parts of the world.  

What is the best use - long-term - of a zillion pounds? Putting a man on the moon, or saving people from starving to death every day?

[Jon MW]

If you look at the moon tonight you will see that there is a star about 6ft away from it (Top left).

I've been watching it track across the sky for the last couple of hours or so and the star is staying in the same relative position. How does that work?

Well spotted!

The short answer is it's not a star: it's Jupiter. If you get a decent pair of binoculars, you should be able to see the four largest moons dancing around the planet. They'll change their configuration during the course of the night: sometimes three on the left and one on the right, then two and two, then four and none, etc.

It is currently 435 million miles away. Not a bad pair of binoculars, that

Wow! How exciting.

Thanks Tal.

Just how exciting is it?

Also how important is it that we know this stuff?

Every time I see that we've discovered a new galaxy a zillion light years away I wonder how much it cost to find?

Surely those brilliant minds could be put to better use elsewhere fixing real problems that are happening right here right now on this planet?

People moan about the money being spent on foreign aid which should be diverted to the UK but nobody seems to mind about the billions being spent sending a little robot to Mars to see if there used to be life there 20 million years ago.

It would be interesting to know without doubt but surely sending a billion quid's worth of rice to Ethiopia would be better use of that money?

Imagine the good these people could do if they were tasked with solving world poverty? Surely compared to getting a big lump of metal to fly to Mars it would be a piece of piss?

There are other considerations (primarily that the pursuit of knowledge for it's own sake is a sign of being a civilized country - it doesn't have to be for a material benefit) but a quick bit of context: NASA's budget is about $19bn, the US Social Security budget is about $850bn. It sounds like a lot is spent on these  scientific endeavours but on the national and international stage billions isn't actually that much money and you can't do 'that much' with it.

[Tal]

If you look at the moon tonight you will see that there is a star about 6ft away from it (Top left).

I've been watching it track across the sky for the last couple of hours or so and the star is staying in the same relative position. How does that work?

Well spotted!

The short answer is it's not a star: it's Jupiter. If you get a decent pair of binoculars, you should be able to see the four largest moons dancing around the planet. They'll change their configuration during the course of the night: sometimes three on the left and one on the right, then two and two, then four and none, etc.

It is currently 435 million miles away. Not a bad pair of binoculars, that

Wow! How exciting.

Thanks Tal.

Just how exciting is it?

Also how important is it that we know this stuff?

Every time I see that we've discovered a new galaxy a zillion light years away I wonder how much it cost to find?

Surely those brilliant minds could be put to better use elsewhere fixing real problems that are happening right here right now on this planet?

People moan about the money being spent on foreign aid which should be diverted to the UK but nobody seems to mind about the billions being spent sending a little robot to Mars to see if there used to be life there 20 million years ago.

It would be interesting to know without doubt but surely sending a billion quid's worth of rice to Ethiopia would be better use of that money?

Imagine the good these people could do if they were tasked with solving world poverty? Surely compared to getting a big lump of metal to fly to Mars it would be a piece of piss?

Why is it the responsibility of governments to solve world poverty?

Is there not enough money privately to solve world hunger? If the human race decided to do it tomorrow it could. We could not play football for a year as a world and that'd probably do it.

One day, although hopefully not in our lifetime, we will need to consider living somewhere else. We are using up all our natural resources faster than we can regenerate them and we seem intent on damaging ourselves and everything else around us.

We are learning about the possibilities of resources elsewhere, NASA does a huge amount of environmental research and science of making fuel use efficient. Some NASA work gets translated into things here on Earth. If it works out there in space, the technology should work here.

https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2008/tech_benefits.html

Our understanding of our universe has barely begun. We don't have a formula that explains the physics in it and we only have theories about what gives matter mass.

One day - again, not in our lifetime - a rocket will leave this little lump of rock, circle around what we think is the supermassive black hole in the centre of our Galaxy of a hundred million stars, accrue what we believe will be several years of relative time to how we age on our Earth and explore worlds light years away that could be suitable for us to live on because they're just far enough away from their sun to be inhabitable by us.

The science we undertake has huge relevance to any number of other, perceptively more important things on Earth. We should invest in our best scientists doing what they do best.

[Rod Paradise]

If you look at the moon tonight you will see that there is a star about 6ft away from it (Top left).

I've been watching it track across the sky for the last couple of hours or so and the star is staying in the same relative position. How does that work?

Well spotted!

The short answer is it's not a star: it's Jupiter. If you get a decent pair of binoculars, you should be able to see the four largest moons dancing around the planet. They'll change their configuration during the course of the night: sometimes three on the left and one on the right, then two and two, then four and none, etc.

It is currently 435 million miles away. Not a bad pair of binoculars, that

Wow! How exciting.

Thanks Tal.

Just how exciting is it?

Also how important is it that we know this stuff?

Every time I see that we've discovered a new galaxy a zillion light years away I wonder how much it cost to find?

Surely those brilliant minds could be put to better use elsewhere fixing real problems that are happening right here right now on this planet?

People moan about the money being spent on foreign aid which should be diverted to the UK but nobody seems to mind about the billions being spent sending a little robot to Mars to see if there used to be life there 20 million years ago.

It would be interesting to know without doubt but surely sending a billion quid's worth of rice to Ethiopia would be better use of that money?

Imagine the good these people could do if they were tasked with solving world poverty? Surely compared to getting a big lump of metal to fly to Mars it would be a piece of piss?

Some of the why is explained (at least as a theory) here:

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/08/how-and-why-spacex-will-colonize-mars.html

I've just recently found the Wait But Why? site & love his way of explaining things - very simplistic but thorough.

The article above is one of 5 about Elon Musk - who I am as impressed by as Tikay is by Warren Buffet. And even if his Mars colonisation bid fails his work on renewable energy, electric cars make him one amazing guy.

[MintTrav]

If you look at the moon tonight you will see that there is a star about 6ft away from it (Top left).

I've been watching it track across the sky for the last couple of hours or so and the star is staying in the same relative position. How does that work?

Well spotted!

The short answer is it's not a star: it's Jupiter. If you get a decent pair of binoculars, you should be able to see the four largest moons dancing around the planet. They'll change their configuration during the course of the night: sometimes three on the left and one on the right, then two and two, then four and none, etc.

It is currently 435 million miles away. Not a bad pair of binoculars, that

Wow! How exciting.

Thanks Tal.

Just how exciting is it?

Also how important is it that we know this stuff?

Every time I see that we've discovered a new galaxy a zillion light years away I wonder how much it cost to find?

Surely those brilliant minds could be put to better use elsewhere fixing real problems that are happening right here right now on this planet?

People moan about the money being spent on foreign aid which should be diverted to the UK but nobody seems to mind about the billions being spent sending a little robot to Mars to see if there used to be life there 20 million years ago.

It would be interesting to know without doubt but surely sending a billion quid's worth of rice to Ethiopia would be better use of that money?

Imagine the good these people could do if they were tasked with solving world poverty? Surely compared to getting a big lump of metal to fly to Mars it would be a piece of piss?

Why is it the responsibility of governments to solve world poverty?

Is there not enough money privately to solve world hunger? If the human race decided to do it tomorrow it could. We could not play football for a year as a world and that'd probably do it.

One day, although hopefully not in our lifetime, we will need to consider living somewhere else. We are using up all our natural resources faster than we can regenerate them and we seem intent on damaging ourselves and everything else around us.

We are learning about the possibilities of resources elsewhere, NASA does a huge amount of environmental research and science of making fuel use efficient. Some NASA work gets translated into things here on Earth. If it works out there in space, the technology should work here.

https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2008/tech_benefits.html

Our understanding of our universe has barely begun. We don't have a formula that explains the physics in it and we only have theories about what gives matter mass.

One day - again, not in our lifetime - a rocket will leave this little lump of rock, circle around what we think is the supermassive black hole in the centre of our Galaxy of a hundred million stars, accrue what we believe will be several years of relative time to how we age on our Earth and explore worlds light years away that could be suitable for us to live on because they're just far enough away from their sun to be inhabitable by us.

The science we undertake has huge relevance to any number of other, perceptively more important things on Earth. We should invest in our best scientists doing what they do best.

Some of that seems like science fiction or, at best, something that is a long long long time in the future. I don't see why it is our responsibility now to prepare for something hundreds of millions of years ahead, when whoever is around will be able to do it much better.

However, NASA does have a meaningful useful role to play, which benefits us right now. A substantial proportion of its budget is spent on activities other than space exploration, in particular on understanding things about the Earth and its environment which would be difficult to achieve otherwise. The space exploration part can take a hike imo, but NASA is very useful for the benefits it brings now.

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html

[RED-DOG]

Yesterday I attended a Holocaust memorial service at Derby Cathedral and then went on to a 'Lest we forget, survivor celebration' type event at the Quad.


I arrived intentionally early because I wanted to get something to eat before kick off.

I went to a Wetherspoons pub called The Standing Order and had a very reasonable steak dinner with a small glass of red. Virtually the only time I ever drink wine is with steak, cheese or chocolate, and even then only rarely, but at 'spoons it's included in the price (£10 all in) so it would be rude not to.

The building itself was quite magnificent, so as I ate I Googled it. It was, as you might expect, formerly a bank. and not just any old bank.

"It is a fine Grade II listed building, originally erected in the 1870s for Crompton and Evans Union Bank. Samuel Crompton founded the first bank in Derby, in 1685.

Curiosities: The banking hall, said to have been the finest in the Midlands, has been impressively opened out by the current owners. It contains a good deal of interesting historical detail sympathetically displayed.

Click to see full-size image.

I continued Googling and stumbled upon Weatherspoons Wiki page. As I read I realised that there are at least four features that have consciously or subconsciously attracted me. Have a look at the link below and see if you can spot them.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetherspoons

[tikay]

The 2 easy ones are low prices & no music.

Beautiful but unconventional properties & USP's such as bespoke carpets might be there.

PS - PM incoming.

[RED-DOG]

The 2 easy ones are low prices & no music.

Beautiful but unconventional properties & USP's such as bespoke carpets might be there.

PS - PM incoming.

You know me so well.

I also like the early / late opening. They do a great brekky with a proper mug of tea.

No music though, imagine that.

[tikay]

The 2 easy ones are low prices & no music.

Beautiful but unconventional properties & USP's such as bespoke carpets might be there.

PS - PM incoming.

You know me so well.

I also like the early / late opening. They do a great brekky with a proper mug of tea.

No music though, imagine that.

I have a post on my Diary from The Royal Astronomer Elect, Lord Tal, about noise pollution. I need to gather myself & remain calm before replying. 

[RED-DOG]

The 2 easy ones are low prices & no music.

Beautiful but unconventional properties & USP's such as bespoke carpets might be there.

PS - PM incoming.

You know me so well.

I also like the early / late opening. They do a great brekky with a proper mug of tea.

No music though, imagine that.

I have a post on my Diary from The Royal Astronomer Elect, Lord Tal, about noise pollution. I need to gather myself & remain calm before replying. 

 

[atdc21]

Hi Tom,
          Weatherspoons Have so called been going to buy the old town hall in my town, ( well its not strictly my town but i live there     )  for a few years now , but it all seems to keep getting stalled for one reason or another. The pub opposite has now closed , and i think it will be hard for anyone new to take it over, as they have the threat of the Weatherspoons opening.
Pubs are closing at an alarming rate.

[RED-DOG]

Hi Tom,
          Weatherspoons Have so called been going to buy the old town hall in my town, ( well its not strictly my town but i live there     )  for a few years now , but it all seems to keep getting stalled for one reason or another. The pub opposite has now closed , and i think it will be hard for anyone new to take it over, as they have the threat of the Weatherspoons opening.
Pubs are closing at an alarming rate.

Yes they are, but I can't bring myself to believe that it's a bad thing. Surely there are better things to do than spend countless hours sitting in a dingy bar pissing your life and your wages up the wall.

For instance, you could sit at a poker table, pissing your life and your wages up the wall....   

[RED-DOG]

Look at this from today's walk, brand new leaves in January.



 

Click to see full-size image.