Look up on a clear night and you might see the moon, stars, an airplane, a Pentagon observation balloon, police drone, one of Elon Musk's Starlink communication satellites, or a Loon balloon from Google's Alphabet fleet that can provide wireless internet access to rural and remote areas.
Shortly after a Starlink rocket launch, a satellite is almost as bright as the North Star, a magnitude 2. When it reaches its orbiting height 342 miles above Earth, unless sunlight hits just the right angle, the satellite dims to magnitude 5 to 7. Beginning three to four hours after sunset in a summer, satellites can be visible to the naked eye all night.
With U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, Musk's SpaceX program is in the process of launching 12,000 satellites in a Starlink network designed to facilitate high-speed, global broadband internet access. Sometime in June, 2020, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to launch the eighth batch of satellites, about 60 more, for the broadband network. His artificial satellite constellation raises concerns about space safety and the impact on ground-based telescopes exploring deep space.
At different heights above Earth, the orbits of satellites pose different problems. At about 300 miles or less, atmospheric drag downs and vaporizes satellites. Starlink system satellites designed to orbit 700 miles above Earth are too high for a quick and disintegrating re-entry. If satellites carry fuel, working ones can be maneuvered back to higher levels, and high-level ones that no longer work can be lowered and subjected to disintegration. Of course, the presence of fuel in a satellite increases the chance of an explosion.
Whether working or out-of-service, at any level above Earth satellites can collide and break apart into "space junk." Fragments of debris go into their own separate orbits ready to cause additional collisions and, therefore, even more space junk. That is what happened when the Chinese sent a missile to hit a satellite no longer in use. Resulting shrapnel fanned out into numerous orbits of space junk. Potentially, damaged debris could necessitate avoiding whole regions of space.
Besides the danger of collisions, bright satellites that compete with the stars are a problem for astronomers who have been exploring deep space for centuries. Since photographing objects light years away can require exposing an image for hours, satellites orbiting the Earth already spoil the view. Those who use radio telescopes to study the universe expect interference from satellite transmissions that use frequencies close to the radio waves from distant objects.
Loon's internet balloons fly at 10 to 15 miles above Earth. With five to 10 balloons, Loon is especially useful in providing temporary service to an area in need of communication after a disaster. Service is now provided in Puerto Rico, Peru's rainforest, and Kenya.
Problems associated with space, including satellites, balloons, spacecrafts, and military applications, are expected to worsen. In addition to the approximately 5000 satellites already orbiting Earth and 12,000 launched by SpaceX, the OneWeb company plans to add 650 and Amazon's broadband project would deploy 3200. Along with the satellites powering the U.S. GPS, other navigation systems: Russia's GLONASS, China's BeiDou, the EU's Galileo and OneWeb, now owned by the UK and India's Bharti Global, also have launched satellites. Unless atmospheric drag is allowed to remove space junk and satellites no longer in use, the likelihood of collisions and interference with deep space research will increase unchecked.
At present, no international agreements govern the safe use of space, observes Dr. Lisa Ruth Rand, a research associate at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and post doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin.
To date, the use of space seems to rely on the ambitions of Elon Musk, individual countries and companies, and aliens exploring new frontiers. Urgent international negotiations are needed, at least by Earthlings.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Monday, February 10, 2020
What North Korea Can Learn from the Oscars
Censorship destroys creativity.
At the Academy Awards ceremony in the United States on February 9, 2020, South Korea's film, Parasite, won Best Picture of 2019. Filmed in black and white with sub-titles U.S. movie audiences had to read as they watched the movie. Yet Parasite bested eight English-speaking films in color. The film also won Best Original Screenplay. Bong Joon Ho, who was one of the screenplay's writers, also won Best Director. Although the wife of North Korea's Kim Jong Un is a singer, she was never considered as one of the possible voices chosen to sing, in her native tongue, the nominated song from Frozen at the Academy Awards.
Nor can China brag about any international film accolades. In 2016 China's wealthy Danan Wanda Group constructed an $8 billion complex to attract international movie-makers to the coastal city of Qingdao. Despite offering generous financial incentives, the project is not a success. Censorship by China's State Administration of Press Publications, Radio, Film and Television proved to be incompatible with the creative process.
South Korea offers North Korea a way to escape the Chinese film censorship trap. Missiles and nuclear weapons attract international attention, but so does a blockbuster film. North Korea is lucky to have a prize-winning movie-making community of educators available next door. Those trouble-making North Koreans locked away in the country's concentration camps may be just the creative talent that could net Kim Jong Un and his wife tickets to an Academy Awards celebration and positive international attention for North Korea.
At the Academy Awards ceremony in the United States on February 9, 2020, South Korea's film, Parasite, won Best Picture of 2019. Filmed in black and white with sub-titles U.S. movie audiences had to read as they watched the movie. Yet Parasite bested eight English-speaking films in color. The film also won Best Original Screenplay. Bong Joon Ho, who was one of the screenplay's writers, also won Best Director. Although the wife of North Korea's Kim Jong Un is a singer, she was never considered as one of the possible voices chosen to sing, in her native tongue, the nominated song from Frozen at the Academy Awards.
Nor can China brag about any international film accolades. In 2016 China's wealthy Danan Wanda Group constructed an $8 billion complex to attract international movie-makers to the coastal city of Qingdao. Despite offering generous financial incentives, the project is not a success. Censorship by China's State Administration of Press Publications, Radio, Film and Television proved to be incompatible with the creative process.
South Korea offers North Korea a way to escape the Chinese film censorship trap. Missiles and nuclear weapons attract international attention, but so does a blockbuster film. North Korea is lucky to have a prize-winning movie-making community of educators available next door. Those trouble-making North Koreans locked away in the country's concentration camps may be just the creative talent that could net Kim Jong Un and his wife tickets to an Academy Awards celebration and positive international attention for North Korea.
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Ode to a Normal Boy's Life
Males are being asked to adjust to a new worldview. Working wives and mothers expect them to help with cooking and childcare, not just take out the garbage. Athletes still have to hide their sexual preferences in locker rooms and frat houses. And, as Marvel comic hero, Luke Cage, observed, young black men have guns and no fathers.
After Keanon Lowe, the football and track coach at Portland's Parkrose High School, wrestled a legally-purchased shotgun out of a male student's hand and hugged him, TIME magazine (Dec. 23-30, 2019) recognized Mr. Lowe as one of 2019's heroes. Lowe told the 19-year-old who he hugged that he cared about him. "You do?" he responded. Prosecutors learned the shotgun had only one round. It had failed to fire, when the young man attempted to commit suicide outside a bathroom. Mental health treatment was part of his three-year sentence to probation.
A boy's surprise that someone cared for him and the term, "toxic masculinity," suggest a need to nurture males differently. Between the ages of four and six, research finds boys begin to match their behavior to the expectations of others who tell them not to cry, show fear, or make mistakes. When they develop a strong bond with someone, that relationship has a major influence on how they see themselves. Boys are close observers of the way teachers relate to them, for example. Instead of positive encouragement, if boys have trouble with a subject, negative reactions undercut their confidence. To avoid the vulnerability of looking stupid and to maintain the sense of male superiority someone close to him expects, boys probably act out and get suspended.
Maybe female students are more willing to try to resolve conflicts with women teachers, but it seems boys are naturally inclined not to try. Faced with a problem involving a teacher, parent, police officer, or other authority figure, boys have a natural tendency to quit and run away. Adults need to listen to boys, understand their problems, and brain storm ways to cope. My mother loved teenagers. When she taught remedial math to high school students in Chicago, she used to come home and tell us how she had found out about the strange, incorrect ways her students had decided to add a column of numbers. She also allowed no laughing at others in her classes.
Boys looking for good relationships and listeners are susceptible to the approaches of predatory priests, coaches, boy scout leaders, and girl friends. When these relationships betray them, even making them victims of sexual abuse, the results are as devastating to boys who opened themselves to those they trusted as is the effect of a total lack of relationships on other boys . Such boys conclude no one cares about them. They might as well use a gun to show they don't care about anyone, including themselves.
Equally troubling is the tendency the educational system has of assuming poverty, broken homes, and other traumas justify grouping all boys with such backgrounds in remedial classes rather than making an effort to separate out those who are gifted, nurtured in stable homes, or blessed with the genes and spiritual fortitude to overcome a less than perfect upbringing.
What it comes down to is: boys want a relationship with someone who wants them to be themselves.
After Keanon Lowe, the football and track coach at Portland's Parkrose High School, wrestled a legally-purchased shotgun out of a male student's hand and hugged him, TIME magazine (Dec. 23-30, 2019) recognized Mr. Lowe as one of 2019's heroes. Lowe told the 19-year-old who he hugged that he cared about him. "You do?" he responded. Prosecutors learned the shotgun had only one round. It had failed to fire, when the young man attempted to commit suicide outside a bathroom. Mental health treatment was part of his three-year sentence to probation.
A boy's surprise that someone cared for him and the term, "toxic masculinity," suggest a need to nurture males differently. Between the ages of four and six, research finds boys begin to match their behavior to the expectations of others who tell them not to cry, show fear, or make mistakes. When they develop a strong bond with someone, that relationship has a major influence on how they see themselves. Boys are close observers of the way teachers relate to them, for example. Instead of positive encouragement, if boys have trouble with a subject, negative reactions undercut their confidence. To avoid the vulnerability of looking stupid and to maintain the sense of male superiority someone close to him expects, boys probably act out and get suspended.
Maybe female students are more willing to try to resolve conflicts with women teachers, but it seems boys are naturally inclined not to try. Faced with a problem involving a teacher, parent, police officer, or other authority figure, boys have a natural tendency to quit and run away. Adults need to listen to boys, understand their problems, and brain storm ways to cope. My mother loved teenagers. When she taught remedial math to high school students in Chicago, she used to come home and tell us how she had found out about the strange, incorrect ways her students had decided to add a column of numbers. She also allowed no laughing at others in her classes.
Boys looking for good relationships and listeners are susceptible to the approaches of predatory priests, coaches, boy scout leaders, and girl friends. When these relationships betray them, even making them victims of sexual abuse, the results are as devastating to boys who opened themselves to those they trusted as is the effect of a total lack of relationships on other boys . Such boys conclude no one cares about them. They might as well use a gun to show they don't care about anyone, including themselves.
Equally troubling is the tendency the educational system has of assuming poverty, broken homes, and other traumas justify grouping all boys with such backgrounds in remedial classes rather than making an effort to separate out those who are gifted, nurtured in stable homes, or blessed with the genes and spiritual fortitude to overcome a less than perfect upbringing.
What it comes down to is: boys want a relationship with someone who wants them to be themselves.
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