The Flight Deck for January 2002, Issue 104
From the Bridge:
Welcome to the year 2002! How the time flies! I think
1997 was the last year that really registered with me.
For everyone who has been on deep space patrol the last few months,
our able captain of 11 years, RADM Mary Bishoff, has stepped down
as commanding officer. She will remain on board as the ship's
executive officer while leaving some awfully big shoes behind.
I am now CO of the Halsey, effective January 1st, 2002. Escape
pods are located on Deck 8. Come early to beat the line.
For those brave souls still on board, our next meeting will be
Saturday, January 19th, at the home of our first officer, FCAPT Alice
Doty. The meeting will begin (with any luck) at 6pm. Bring munchies
and raffle items. I encourage as many people as possible come to the
meeting; I would like to take a new crew photo for the Halsey website.
I will hopefully have a working car, so I will be attending my first
meeting as captain. An auspicious beginning if I do say so myself!
I realize there will be some difficulties relating to my distance
from the rest of the ship. I will be relying on everybody to make
suggestions and keep eyes and ears open for ship activity ideas.
And let's make 2002 one for the books!
(particular books to be determined later)
CAPT Cathy Dailey
********************
Calendar of Events (Updates upcoming as determined)
January 19th--January meeting at FCAPT Alice Doty's
February 9th-10th--Slanted Fedora "Testosterone Trek" in Champaign, IL
March 30th--Starbase 6 away mission to Federation Science
exhibit at Louisville Science Center, Louisville, KY
********************
Beamdown Coordinates:
FCAPT Alice Doty's
4543 Abbey Drive, Carmel, IN
Directions:
1. Merge onto I-465.
2. Follow I-465 all the way around to the IN-431/Keystone Ave, exit #33
3. Keep LEFT at the fork in the ramp.
4. Turn LEFT onto N Keystone Ave.
5. Turn RIGHT onto E Main St.
6. Turn RIGHT onto Brookshire Parkway.
7. Turn LEFT onto Abbey Dr.
Hope everyone can make it!
********************
From the "It's Green, It's Green!" Desk:
Scientists Say Green Dominates Stars
By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - When Mother Nature decorated the universe,
she chose a color slightly greener than a pale, pale turquoise.
And like an ordinary human homeowner, she'll redecorate
eventually, shifting to a more reddish hue.
Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University said that averaging all the
colors from the light of 200,000 galaxies shows that the current
color of the universe is a sprightly green. They predict the color
will shift toward red, however, in a few billion years.
The current color "is quite close to the standard shade of pale
turquoise, although it's a few percent greener," said Karl
Glazebrook, who worked out the color scheme with another Hopkins
researcher, Ivan Baldry. They presented their findings Thursday at
the national meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
By visual perception, the average color found by the astronomers is
between the standard colors of medium aquamarine and pale turquoise.
"We haven't been to a paint shop yet to see if there is a fancy name
for it," said Baldry. He calls the color "cosmic spectrum green."
To find this average color, the astronomers gathered light from galaxies
out to several billion light years. They ran the light through instruments
that broke it into various colors, sort of like a prism can turn sunlight
into a rainbow. They then averaged the color values for all the light and
converted it to the primary color scale seen by the human eye.
The astronomers also converted the color to the red-green-blue values
used by computer buffs to describe colors. The computer RGB scale
numbers for cosmic spectrum green are 0.269, 0.388 and 0.342.
Baldry said that cosmic spectrum green could be seen in the
heavens by the human eye only if all the light was viewed at
once and the stars were not moving -- a clear impossibility.
To determine the average color, Baldry said the researchers adjusted
for what is called the red shift. All stars in the universe are
separating from each other and this motion skews the colors toward
red. The cosmic spectrum green is adjusted for this motion.
Baldry said converting the color spectrum detected by their instruments to
the color detected by the human eye was a "whimsical intellectual exercise"
and he joked about making T-shirts and coffee mugs using the cosmic green.
But the work did have a serious purpose.
The astronomers were analyzing the colors from the 200,000
galaxies to determine the relative ages of the stars within
those galaxies. Young stars are hot and blue; middle aged stars
are more green, and stars nearing their end tend to be redder.
Earlier in the 14 or 15 billion-year life of the universe, said
Baldry, the average color of the universe was more blue because it
had a higher proportion of young stars. The formation of new stars has
decreased for billions of years and the ratio of young-to-old stars
has changed, giving the universe the current average hue of green.
Eventually, billions of years in the future, said Baldry, the
average color will trend toward red as the star population ages
further and even fewer young stars are formed.
********************
From the "Computer Chuckles" desk:
(by unknown author)
Recently one of my friends, a computer wizard, paid me a visit. As we were
talking I mentioned that I had recently installed Windows XP on my PC.
I told him how happy I was with this operating system and
showed him the Windows XP CD. To my surprise he threw it
into my microwave oven and turned it on.
Instantly I got very upset, because the CD had become
precious to me, but he said: "Do not worry, it is unharmed.'
After a few minutes he took the CD out, gave it to me and said:
"Take a close look at it." To my surprise the CD was quite cold
to hold and it seemed to be heavier than before.
At first I could not see anything, but on the inner edge of
the central hole I saw an inscription, an inscription finer
than anything I had ever seen before. The inscription shone
piercingly bright, and yet remote, as if out of a great depth:
12413AEB2ED4FA5E6F7D78E78BEDE820945092OF923A40EElOE5AOCC98D444AA08EA32
"I cannot understand the fiery letters," I said in a timid voice.
"There are few who can," he said. "The letters are Hex, of an
ancient mode, but the language is that of Microsoft, which I shall
not utter here. But in common English this is what it says:
'One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them, One
OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them'
It is only two lines from a verse long known in System-lore:
'Three OS's from corporate-kings in their towers of glass,
Seven from valley-lords where orchards used to grow,
Nine from dotcoms doomed to die,
One from the Dark Lord Gates on his dark throne
In the Land of Redmond where the Shadows lie.
'One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Redmond where the Shadows lie.'"
********************
end transmission
Go to this page to view older issues of the Halsey Newsletter.
