My Novels

Friday, January 11, 2002

I slept way too late this morning, but I suppose that is a privilege of NOT having to work at a 9-to-5 job! Some days I wake up early, other days I am lazy and just sleep late. Anyhow, I'd thought it was supposed to be raining, and since I have wood shutters on the inside of our bedroom, I didn't know the sun was out. When I finally got up, I decided to go on the bike ride, and it was quite pleasant. We did get a little rain, but not enough to amount to much. The park was nice though, rain-washed and pine-scented from all the many pines and cedars around the trail I ride.

My DH (dear husband) and I have decided to take up a new hobby. For some time now, we'd been searching for something we could do together when we go on our drives through the countryside. I had once tried photography, but lost interest in it. Now we've decided to try treasure hunting with a metal detector.

For those who think the internet/web is useless, I found it incredibly helpful/educational last night as I explored various aspects of metal detecting. I learned everything from the type of metal detector to buy for a novice/beginner to personal opinions (in newsgroups) and photos of others' finds. We will probably buy a detector soon, but in the meantime, DH was able to borrow an older one from a friend so we can try it out first.

There's lots of places here to search for interesting buried objects. One place I'd love to go is my grandparents' old home place. The house was destroyed by a bad tornado in 1974, and the property no longer belongs to our family; but I think we could get permission to search there. I'd love to find some old objects that might be buried since the tornado literally crumbled the house. Also, one of my great-grandfather's old homeplaces should be interesting; there were always rumors that he'd buried a bunch of money on the property! Plus, there's just lots of interesting history in this region, from Civil War battle areas to old homeplaces to river and creekbanks. I'll keep this journal updated with any experiences and/or finds we make. We'll probably try out the borrowed detector this weekend, if the weather permits.

Now to the news:

True color of the cosmos revealed, pale green

The color itself might seem surprising since there are no green stars, Glazebrook acknowledged. The hue, however, reflects the preponderance of the most common kinds of stars, old red ones and young blue ones. A combination of light from the two sources produces green.

The color composite was created during an analysis of different theories about star formation. Scientists think that the universe first went through a "blue phase," populated mostly by young stars; then shifted into its current "green phase," with its mixture of young and old; and will eventually experience a "red phase," when it possesses mostly aging red giants.


Yep, and in that red phase we're going to be toast, as well as most of the planetary life anywhere else in the cosmos.
~~~~~~

Here's a list of the most popular books read by skeptics, courtesy of Skeptic Website. If you've not read any of these, you might want to check them out -- if you consider yourself to have an open mind.


The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer

Flim Flam!: Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and Other Delusions by James Randi

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner

How to Think About Weird Things by Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn

The Faith Healers by James Randi

How We Believe by Michael Shermer

The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher by Martin Gardner

The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould

Voodoo Science: The Road From Foolishness to Fraud by Robert L. Park


Enough for today!


No comments: