The Flight Deck for December 2002, Issue 115
From the Bridge:
It's December, and I'm suffering from holiday shopping burnout. But the good news is the shopping's done....I hope?
It's time for our annual Christmas party-meeting-exchange blowout, & this year it'll also be a housewarming party, as the Bischoffs have moved into a new house. That means let's be careful everyone....(g) Food & meeting will start around 6pm. The hosts will supply the meat, & are requesting side dishes.
For the gift exchange (I'm temped to call it a "smackdown" but I will digress (g) ), you can bring a wrapped gift ($20 or less, although I'll take a new car....) to participate. It's been a lot of fun in the past, and I'm sure it will be this year as well.
We've got a lot scheduled the next couple of weeks, so read through the newsletter carefully and soak it all in.
IMPORTANT! I need someone to find somewhere to have the Adopt-A-Family party. I can't coordinate that from down here. The suggestion was made at the November meeting to have the party at a resturant and see if the resturant would give our family a free dinner. I very much like that idea and I need someone to pursue it for me. If you'd like to help, please get a hold of me as soon as possible. Remember, I can't do this, so I need a sucker, er, a volunteer.
FCAPT Cathy Dailey (who is now all set for her finals week)
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IMAX Showing for Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
On Saturday, Dec. 14, we'll be heading for the White River IMAX for this special movie show. Prices are as follows: $10.50 Adults, $9 Seniors 60 and over, $8 Children 12 and under. The times change, but we're going to try to hit the show closest to 6 pm. The actual time will be announced next week. Stay tuned.
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Upcoming Events:
December 13th--"Star Trek: Nemesis" release
December 14th--"Attack of the Clones" at IMAX, White River Park, 6pm
December 15th--"Nemesis" away mission, 12pm, Showplace 16
December 18th--"The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers" release
December 21st--Halsey December Meeting, Christmas Party, and Gift Exchange at the Domicile Bischoff
December 22nd--Adopt-A-Family party, 1pm
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Beamdown Coordinates:
The Family Bischoff 6643 Earlswood Drive, Indianapolis
Directions:
1. Take 465 to 37 south.
2. Proceed south on 37 to Southport Road (the 4th stoplight).
3. Turn right onto Southport Road.
4. Follow Southport around a curve. On the right is the entrance to C.P. Morgan's Bayberry Village.
5. Turn right onto Earlswood.
6. Follow it past the play ground and it will curve around to your left. 6643 is a gray two-story on the right.
Hope to see you there!
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
December 3--Honorary CAPT Jack Stauffer
December 16--MDSHM Alexander Bischoff
December 28--Honorary CAPT Nichelle Nichols
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From the "Interplanetary Weight Watchers" Desk:
Scientists 'weigh' distant world By Dr David Whitehouse
For the first time, astronomers have obtained an accurate measurement of the mass of a planet circling another star.
The planet is one of a pair that orbit Gliese 876, one of the closest stars to our Sun, and the closest star around which a planet has been found.
By accurately measuring the motion of the parent star across the sky, the astronomers have been able to pinpoint the planet's orbit and hence its mass.
The planet, called simply Gliese 876b, has been found to be about twice as heavy as Jupiter and orbits its star at a distance of about one-fifth of the Earth's distance from our Sun.
Close companion
Although 15 light-years away, Gliese 876 is still one of the closest stars to us. Its planet Gliese 876b was discovered using the Doppler technique that looks for planet-induced motions in the parent star.
The Doppler method cannot determine the exact mass of the planet. It only sets a lower limit on it, and leaves open the possibility that the companion object is something larger than a planet, such as a failed star called a brown dwarf.
The new series of observations were planned and executed by Dr George Benedict of the University of Texas at Austin, US.
By charting the movement of the parent star on the sky, Dr Benedict was able to determine the exact shape of the orbit and precisely calculate the planet's mass.
Gliese 876b is now known to weigh between 1.89 and 2.4 times as much as Jupiter. Previous estimates had put its mass between 1.9 and 100 times that of Jupiter.
Possible moons
"Knowing the mass of extrasolar planets accurately is going to help theorists answer lots of questions about how planets form," Dr Benedict says.
"When we get hundreds of these mass determinations for planets around all types of stars, we're going to see what types of stars form certain types of planets.
"Do big stars form big planets and small stars form small planets?"
The planet circling Gliese 876 is presumably gaseous like Jupiter.
Calculations suggest that it has a surface temperature of minus 75 degrees Celsius. Rocky moons orbiting it are a possibility.
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From the "Your Captain is a Political Scientist, So She Finds This Howlingly Funny" Desk:
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double leters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.
By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru! And zen ve vil tak over ze world.
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end transmission
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