Science & Nature

Summertime Anecdote

The first six months of 2010 have been the hottest on record – around the globe! And believe you me, in our little town I have felt the steam. It is nice to be able to venture out without a coat or a brolly and the summer is over all too quickly, so why not enjoy.

It is a little disconcerting though because there’s the looming concern of global warming and the effect it is having on our weather. So as much as I adore being able to hang outside and bask in the Sun’s warmth, it concerns me…

I remember a summer back in the UK in 1976. It was so hot cars were sinking into the tarmac on the roads and schools closed with no air-conditioning back then. The temperature topped 90°F (32.2°C). To add to the misery of a heatwave, we were also in the middle of a drought and with the water shortage, it was complete madness!

Luckily we all survived, so no doubt we’ll survive this one as well. Trouble is I’m not so certain that our Earth will be as resilient the next time round.

Venus in the Sky with Diamonds – A Planet’s Anecdote

Having a partner who is a meteor gazer afficianado has its good points. I have learnt so many facts about the structure and makeup of the heavens above us.

The planet Venus has become my favourite heavenly body to gaze at when we go for our evening walks. It sits in the western sky and blazes like a radiant star, as if to disguise its true identity, that of a planet.

Venus is known as Earth’s sister planet because it is similar in size. It get its name from the Roman Goddess of Love Venus. Its easy to see why this planet was named after the Goddess of Love because it is truly a thing of beauty.

Spring Anecdote

Spring is here and the living is easy. Today feels like the first day of Spring in Mystic and I am falling in love with my little town all over again.

I have always liked the differing seasons and would find it hard to adjust to life in a place where it was always hot or always cold. That said it is true that in mid Winter my body aches for the Sun’s warmth and the longer daylight hours.

As nice as the weather is today, Spring usually has an intemperate climate because of the warm air pushing it’s way up from the southern regions whilst cold air is still coming in from the North.

Still it ushers in a period of new growth and births. It is a time of renewal and fresh starts. Spring is the very definition of the word anecdote. It is the precursor to Mother Nature’s real main event, Summer, of course!

Shooting Star

Last Sunday night into early Monday morning marked the peak of the Geminids meteor shower. As many of the readers on etablog Anecdote already know, my other half is a meteor watcher and a bit of a specialist when it comes to the subject.

At around 11:45pm on Sunday night the outlook was bleak. The sky was cloudy making it practically impossible to see anything, let alone meteors. However at about midnight there was a clearing, right where the shower was supposed to originate which gradually got clearer and clearer. So off we went on our bikes, riding into the night. Even before we reached our prime location for meteor gazing, we saw a bright meteor streaking across the black velvety sky backdrop. It was awe-inspiring.

We now felt confident that we would see a decent shower event. In the span of about forty-five minutes we saw approximately forty meteors. Almost one a minute! This shower was the most active one we had experienced all year long. It was superb.

Towards the end of our trip, we saw one meteor that shot its way across the sky in a blaze of glorious light. It looked like the epitome of a shooting star. Indeed we came to appreciate why meteors were given that description many eons ago. It would have been easy to mistake these magnificent events for stars falling from the heavens.

What an experience! One I shall remember for many years to come.

It’s Raining Meteors

The morning of November 17th 2009 was the peak of a meteor shower called “The Leonids”. My other half and I are avid meteor watchers and he is a bit of a specialist.
Meteorblog.com is one of our sites and has a lot of information about meteor showers.

One interesting fact I have learnt is that the word “meteor” doesn’t actually refer to the object, but rather the event. In the same way that scoring a goal in football (soccer) or hitting a homerun in American baseball, where the words “goal” and “homerun” refer to sequence of actions required to score the goal or hit the homerun.

So the word meteor would entail the entire path of the meteoroid entering our atmosphere from outer space. The word meteoroid refers to the particle itself.

The best time to see meteors is in the pre-dawn hours before the peak. So this week’s anecdote starts on a rather chilly Tuesday morning. We trundled off on our bikes looking for somewhere dark enough to get a good view of the show. We found a little spot and waited with baited breath. After a few minutes we saw the first of several that would grace our presence that morning. They tumbled out of the sky like falling stars, hurtling to certain death. It was magnificent.

The next show to be put on by our space friends will be this December and I can’t wait for the curtain to go up.

The Human Experience

There are a couple of shows that I watch quite regularly. I have found that some of them are quite repetitive and even monotonous in certain contexts.

However it’s a strange phenomenon that human’s can find some comfort in the monotony of certain events. Knowing the script and even how the show will end can give one a sense of confidence and a certain degree of ego.

I recently watched a fascinating anecdote documentary called “The Last Beekeeper”. It’s all about three commercial beekeepers and the struggle to maintain their livelihood. Firstly, what struck me about the show was how much the number of bees in North America has declined over the last thirty years. It was quite astonishing. Secondly, I was surprised to learn that scientists haven’t a clue why the bees are dying. It seems that a combination of factors are contributing to the demise of these creatures, but no one has been able to narrow it down enough to form a practical diagnosis.

So what on earth does this have to do with the human experience? Well I watched the show and sort of knew where we were going to end up. However you couldn’t deny the heart of these very normal people trying desperately to survive and provide for their families.

In spite of the trials of the bees, the demise of the key characters in the show was the real story – “the human experience”. It makes sense to use anecdotal visages to garner interest in an environmental plight. In this show it was used to maximum effect. It got me thinking and doing a bit of research about this little known “industry”. It also made me realize that we are all part of this human experience, no matter where or what kind of business we are engaged in.

Scientists will invariably find out why the bees are dying and hopefully create a cure or prevention. It’s how we humans maneuver through these difficulties that is the real story, however monotonous and boring that may seem.