The Flight Deck for September 2003, Issue 124
From the Bridge:
Many apologies from your genuflecting Captain....between an away mission to DragonCon (which was a *blast*) over Labor Day Weekend, computer problems (viruses, worms, and a failed networking attempt), and a sudden upsurge in my work hours, this newsletter is running a bit behind the power curve. I don't suppose anyone is planning an armed coup....
At any rate, the pool party was an unabashed success, as usual. Much
thanks to ADMs Paul and Sandy for hosting us and our propensity for
water violence.
The next big event on our calendar is the Away Mission to the Ohio
Ren Fair on Sunday, September 14th. It's "Highland Fling" weekend,
so wear kilts if ya got them! Tickets for the event are $15 for
adults, $8 for kids (5-12), and kids under are free. Parking is
free. If you've never been, the experience is well worth the drive
and the cost. The doors to the village open at 10:30 am and close at
6 pm rain or shine. There have been questions regarding caravaning--
unfortunately, that is a very difficult thing to organize from my
present location. Is there a hardy Indianapolis soul willing to take
on this responsiblilty? LTCDR Amanda and I will be driving straight
to the fair from here, since it's relatively close to us. I
encourage any and all who are interested to come in costume--you'll
blend right in, believe me. If we want to be there when the doors
open, I suggest leaving around 8-8:30 am. If persons want a later
start...the listserve is a good place to broach a discussion. Please
use it. Directions to the fair can be found below or at
http://www.renfestival.com/directions.html
Worse comes to worse, contact me. Since this is an Away Mission,
there won't be a raffle, but I'd still like to have a short meeting
sometime during the day.
Hope to see everyone there!
FCAPT Cathy Dailey
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Upcoming Events:
September 14th--Away Mission to Ohio Ren Fair
October 18th--Bonfire & Weenie Roast, 5pm
November 15th--November meeting
December 13th--X-Mas Party & Gift Exchange
*********************
Beamdown Coordinates:
Ohio Renaissance Festival
Harveysburg, OH
Directions:
1. Take I-70 east to Dayton.
OR
1. Take I-74 east to Cincinnati.
Hope to see everyone there!
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
September 8th--Honorary CAPT Anne Lockhart
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From the "'Music of the Spheres' Not Just a Cliche Anymore" Desk:
Black Hole Strikes Deepest Musical Note Ever Heard
By Robert Roy Britt
Astronomers have detected the deepest note ever generated in the
cosmos, a B-flat flying through space like a ripple on an invisible
pond. No human will actually hear the note, because it is 57 octaves
below the keys in the middle of a piano.
The detection was made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and
announced at a press conference today.
The note strikes an important chord with astronomers, who say it may
help them understand how the universe's largest structures, called
galaxy clusters, evolve.
The sound waves appear to be heating gas in the Perseus galaxy
cluster, some 250 million light-years away, potentially solving a
longstanding mystery about why the gas surrounding this cluster and
others does not chill out as existing theory predicts.
The gas is apparently dancing excitedly to the eons-long drone of a
deep B-flat.
Astronomers were not surprised to find the supermassive black hole
making a strong sub-bass sound. Though these greatest known matter
sinks are by nature dark and invisible, they create bright and
chaotic environments in which many forms of radiation -- from radio
waves to visible light to X-rays -- have been recorded. These
electromagnetic waves all travel at the speed of light.
Sound waves are similar, but they travel far more slowly and are more
physical in nature. Sound you hear, for example, can be produced by
the visible compression and expansion of a stereo speaker. The waves
physically compress the stuff through which they move, be it air,
water, or hot interstellar gas.
Other studies have shown that the riotous activity around black
holes -- where gas is accelerated to nearly light-speed -- produces
many notes that are, all together, much like music. Collectively, the
cosmos produce, scientists believe, a cacophonic symphony of
inaudible tunes.
Musical production appears to be ubiquitous in Nature. Scientists
often call it flicker noise, and it has also been detected in the X-
ray outputs of magnetic fields within our solar system. Even Earth
hums its own tune. Musical analogies are found in everything from
seascapes to brainwaves.
The 53 hours of Chandra observations revealed a note that is more
than a million billion times deeper than what you can hear.
"We have observed the prodigious amounts of light and heat created by
black holes," said Andrew Fabian of the Institute of Astronomy in
Cambridge, England, and leader of the study. "Now we have detected
the sound."
"The Perseus sound waves are much more than just an interesting form
of black hole acoustics," said Fabian's colleague Steve Allen. "These
sound waves may be the key in figuring out how galaxy clusters …
grow."
Scientists had previously observed large amounts of hot gas infusing
clusters. Given what's known, the gas should cool over time, however.
Cooler gas would create areas of lower pressure near the center of a
cluster, causing fringe gas to fall inward. In the process, trillions
of stars would form.
This isn't what astronomers see when they look at clusters, though.
The Perseus cluster is the brightest known in X-rays, making it a
good target for study. It has two large, bubble-shaped cavities that
extend away from a central black hole. The cavities are formed by
jets of material ejected from the black hole's surroundings, and the
jets have been suspected of heating the outlying gas. But scientists
couldn't see how.
A special image-processing technique was used to bring out subtle
changes in brightness that revealed the presence of ripples -- the
sound waves.
Fabian and Allen figure the sound waves, observed spreading out from
the cavities, heat the gas. The amount of energy involved is
staggering, equal to what would be produced if 100 million stars
exploded.
A single, long-sounding note is produced by a sound wave in which the
waves are the same size and shape continuously. The newfound note has
been sounding, the researchers say, for about 2.5 billion years.
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From the "Who's a Hoosier?" Desk:
To those of you displaced Hoosiers, you may get homesick, or you may
be relieved. Here are guidelines to assist others in understanding
what it takes to be a Hoosier.
1. Know the state casserole. The state casserole consists of canned
green beans, Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and dried fried
onions. You can safely take this casserole to any social event and
know that you will be accepted.
2. Get used to food festivals. The Indiana General Assembly, in an
effort to grow bigger athletes, passed legislation years ago required
every incorporated community to have at least one festival per year
dedicated to a high-fat food. It is your duty as a Hoosier to attend
these festivals and at least buy one elephant ear.
3. Know the geography, of Florida, I mean. I've run into Hoosiers who
couldn't tell you where Evansville is, but they know the exact
distance from Fort Myers to Bonita Springs. That's because all
Hoosiers go to Florida in the winter, or plan to when they retire, or
are related to retired Hoosiers who have a place in Sarasota. We
consider Florida to be the Lower Peninsula of Indiana.
4. If you can't afford to spend the winter in Florida, use the state
excuse, which is that you stay here because you enjoy the change of
season. You'll be lying, but that's OK. We've all done it.
5. Speaking of Indiana weather, wear layers or die. The thing to
remember about Indiana seasons is that they can occur at anytime. We
have spring like days in January and wintry weekends in October.
April is capable of providing a sampling of all four seasons in a
single 24-hour period. For these reasons, Indiana is the Layering
Capital of the World. Even layering, however, can pose danger.
Golfers have been known to dress for hypothermia and end up dead of
heat stroke, because they couldn't strip off their layers of plaid
fast enough on a changeable spring morning.
6. Don't take Indiana place names literally. If a town has same name
as a foreign city..... Valparaiso and Versailles for examples......
you must not pronounce them the way the foreigners do, lest you come
under suspicion as a spy. Also, East Enterprise has no counterpart on
the west side of the state. South Bend is in the north, North Putnam
is in the south, and French Lick isn't what you think either.
7. Become mulch literate. Hoosiers love mulch and appreciate its
subtle differences. Learn the difference between hardwood, cypress
and pine bark at a minimum. Researchers think the state affinity
mulch derives from its relatively flat terrain. People have a
subconscious need for topography, and when it can't be supplied
naturally, they are more likely to make little mulch hillocks in
their front yards.
8. In order to talk sports with obsessive fans in Indiana, you have
to be knowledgeable on the three levels -- professional,college and
high school. The truly expert Indiana sports fan knows not only the
name of the hotshot center at "Abercrombie and Fitch High School",
but also what colleges he's interested in, how much he bench-presses,
who he took to the prom, and what he got on his biology quiz last
week. (This also applies in Alabama.)
9. Remember that Hoosiers are never the first to embrace trends. When
we do embrace them, we do so with a Midwestern pragmatism. For
example, if you see a Hoosier with a nose ring, there's a good chance
he's had it undercoated to guard against rust.
10. The best way to sell something in Indiana is to attach the
term "Amish" to it. The product need not be genuinely Amish. That
would explain the existence of Amish moo shu pork.
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end transmission
Go to this page to view older issues of the Halsey Newsletter.
2. Take I-75 south to Exit 38 (Springboro/Franklin).
3. Go15 miles east on St. Rt. 73 to the Festival entrance;
2. Then I-75 north to Exit 38 (Springboro/Franklin).
3. Then 15 miles east on St. Rt. 73 to the Festival entrance.
September 9th--MDSHP Michael Bischoff
September 10th--RADM Darren Merritt
September 27th--COMM Valerie Rose
September 28th--Honorary CAPT Herb Jefferson, Jr.
