Author: Senia

Eight Planets! (Not 9, Not 12)

Posted on by Senia

NEWER NEWS: There are 8 planets, and Pluto isn’t one of them.

    In a stunning reversal, astronomers who were ready to expand the solar system by three planets just last week voted to shrink it yesterday instead, stripping Pluto of its status as the solar system’s most distant and quirkiest planet. (From Baltimore Sun).

    The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club…. Much-maligned Pluto doesn’t make the grade under the new rules for a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a … nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.” … Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s. Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets.” (From Detroit Press).

    “It could be argued that we are creating an umbrella called ‘planet’ under which the dwarf planets exist,” [Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a specialist in neutron stars from Northern Ireland who oversaw the proceedings] said, drawing laughter by waving a stuffed Pluto of Walt Disney fame beneath a real umbrella. (From Detroit Press).

OLDER NEWS: You’ve probably heard the news. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) got together last week and proposed a new definition of “planet” that would mean that we have 12 planets instead of 9. Here is an excerpt from the article on space.com:

    The definition, which basically says round objects orbiting stars will be called planets, is simple at first glance:

    “A planet is a celestial body that (a) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet.”

    “Our goal was to find a scientific basis for a new definition of planet and we chose gravity as the determining factor,” said Richard Binzel, an MIT planetary scientist who was part of a seven-member IAU committee that hashed out the proposal. “Nature decides whether or not an object is a planet.”

Here is a very enjoyable NYTimes essay by Dennis Overbye about the twelve planets. The essay notes that several potential mnemonics are coming out for kids to memorize the order of the “planets”: “My Very Excellent Mother Could Just Serve Us Nuts, Pizza, Carrots ’n’ Xylophones!” (by David Sturm). The essay also discusses the controvesial “No Ice Ball Left Behind” policy. :)

Note: I’m actually glad about the reasoning for the new definition. I’ve been reading a bit of Feynman recently, and he says to keep questioning things. The Binzel quote above outlines gravity as the scientific basis of the definition. That makes a lot of sense to me. What do you think?

Change One Habit at a Time

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A lot of the best lessons that I’ve learned about life, I’ve learned from rockclimbing. When I first got into indoor rock climbing, it was through six classes, meeting every Tuesday, at Planet Granite, and our instructor was Kris, in case she’s still teaching there. She is an incredible instructor. She’s a young rock climber, and she climbs wonderfully. Our class was six women, and the best part about it is that we worked on one new technique every week.

That’s it. One new technique. This means that we learned six new techniques. All those are still the basics of what I use to climb today. It is my favorite way to learn anything: one habit at a time.

You could try to learn two at a time, but then one of the things your mind becomes engaged in is monitoring the transitions, “Am I climbing close enough to the wall? Oh, I forgot – am I using quiet hands? Oh, close enough to the wall? … Quiet hands?” Just the mental switching from thought to thought can make you less effective in addressing either new habit.

Like I was telling a friend recently in an email, the best thing I can do for myself when I’m going for a run is to think only about the running (the running, my breathing, the road, but really only about the run itself). Once my mind starts to wander and think about work or friends, I physically find myself slowing down and sometimes stopping! One thing at a time.

Daniel Gilbert in his Stumbling on Happiness says a similar thing – the mind can either imagine something visually or it can observe something visually – it does not do both at the same time because the brain uses the same wiring to IMAGINE seeing as something as it uses in actually SEEING something. So, if you’re running, and start to picture an issue at work that you’re working on resolving, then your mind starts to IMAGINE the work issue in all its details, and STOPS SEEING IN YOUR MIND the road, seeing your lungs getting healthier, seeing your fast-paced stride.

The mind is a powerful motivator of the body. This is one of the benefits many people that meditate regularly give about their meditation – that just learning to focus on one thing is initially difficult and incredibly rewarding as a feeling.

Finally, Ben Franklin in his life worked on changing fifteen of his habits, including temperance (moderation in food and drink), laziness, organization, etc. Franklin addressed one habit per week. His goal was to be impeccable in that habit in that week, and to ignore the other habits during that week. he succeeded in going through all fifteen habits in fifteen weeks, and then he started them right up again for the following fifteen weeks. But again, one at a time. Focus.

One thing at a time. Simplicity. Making it easy. Making winning easy. If I were Mr. Miyagi, I would end this post with “wax on, wax off.”

Feynman’s Rainbow

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Feynman's Rainbow This is a great book about Richard Feynman. It’s writted by Leonard Mlodinow, who was a young faculty member at Caltech while Feynman was a Nobel-prize-winning professor there. Mlodinow audio recorded several conversations with Feynman about life and about how and why Feynman did science. Mlodinow describes how years later he pulled the Radio Shack audio cassettes out of his basement and realized that he wanted to uncover Feynman’s thoughts and write them up.

Feynman’s Rainbow is written as a series of stories of Mlodinow himself figuring out how and why physics works and academia works interspersed with pages of direct quotes from Feynman.

Best parts of the book: Feynman talking about why he does science, Feynman describing his first love Arlene, Feynman scolding Mlodinow about Mlodinow’s reasons for choosing one research area over any other. It’s an active book. You hear the two characters Mlodinow and Feynman talking. It’s nice.

Surprising parts of the book: The string theory explanantion was surprisingly interesting. Also, just how much of a kid Feynman was – was surprisingly interesting. Just that he had to take everything apart and put it back together himself before believing it.

One of the best messages: Do what you love, man. Because otherwise, there could come a time when you’re looking at the ceiling and you have no reason for doing what you do. Avoid that, love it in the first place.
(Messages are personal, what a person gets out of a book is usually quite personal, so this is just one of the best messages).

Reading this book also made me go back to the library and immediately check out the two great books of stories that Feynman wrote about his own life: Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman and What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character.

“Birds in the Sand”

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Birds are usually found in the sky, which is where they like to be. But sometimes, birds can be seen in the sand, burrowing holes in the sand, moving their small wings here and there, shaking up a small sand storm.

There was a bird named Melody. She was called Melody because she sang a lovely clear ringing melody. Melody was once flying and playing between the trees with her friends Flutter and Highnote. Flutter sang always in a fluttery, wavy voice and Highnote sang with such a high voice that all the animals in the forest would hear her. Melody, Flutter and Highnote were playing tag between the trees. Melody was “it”, and Highnote kept singing in her high voice, “Melody can’t catch me, btzrrrrr, btzrrrr, Mel can’t catch me.” And it was so hot that day, even in the covered forest, under the trees, it was all Melody could do to fly to tag Flutter and Highnote – flying kept Melody cooler because she could spread her wings. But when she was just sitting on a branch in this heat, Melody would get so hot that she would wonder if her head wouldn’t pop from the sheer heat. Luckily flying made her feel better.

Eventually Melody caught Highnote, and then Highnote became “it” and flew after Melody and Flutter, singing in her high voice, “I willllllll get you!” The three birds finally tired from flying so much and playing so much tag, but the problem was that if they stopped playing and went to rest on a branch, then they would all get so hot and then become worried that their heads would pop.

But, alas, there was no choice, eventually but to slow down and rest on the branches. “Brraaiii-brraaii-brraaii, oh, what shall we do about this heat?” flittered Flutter. “Ptsi-ptsi-ptsi,” sang Melody in return, “we have to get out of the heat,” and with that she flew from the branch onto the ground which was muddy and sandy.

Melody chose a sandy spot on the ground and started to beat her wings all around her and move around in circles, making a small sand storm. Highnote and Flutter watched her from above, wondering what she was doing. Finally when the sand cleared, Highnote and Flutter could see that Melody was burrowed deep in the sand, and was calm and no longer fidgety from the heat. “Why did you do all that?” sang Highnote. “Because,” breathed out Melody, with a sigh of relief, “because it’s cool down here.…”

Flutter and Highnote immediately flew down and went through the same ritual as had Melody moments before, throwing up a small sand storm, beating their wings about, circling in the ground, until they too were comfortably seated in the sand. It turns out that sand lower than the earth’s surface stays cool longer, much longer. Melody, Highnote, and Flutter spent the rest of the afternoon singing to each other from their small cool islands in the sand.

So, you see, it is only sometimes, but sometimes we can find birds not in the sky, but in the sand.

Thinking about Two Things at Once

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:) From a friend of mine who emailed this:

    And here’s a quick lesson regarding attention. Yesterday I read an article on my laptop as I tied my shoes. Little did I know I’d tied the pull-string to my window blinds into my shoelaces. When I walked away I pulled the blinds up almost yanking them off. So, remember, if you tie your shoes without paying attention, the whole window treatment could come down.

If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?

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Today’s question is suggested by Chris Harrison! This is such a fun question, and it fits with this note about interior design. I first started asking this question in college when I spoke with the parents of my friends – well, a version of the question: I used to ask, “Why do you live there?” It’s so interesting to me why people choose to live in certain places.

Also, a great thing about this question is that it’s about, “what do you want?” and “where would you live?” I often think that it’s with friends that you can dream about things, about the future, about the “if”s. Where would you live?

Q: If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?
Since it’s a guest question, my answers are in the comments too. :) COOL! I love guest questions. Chris runs a blog on which he talks about work, family, his home. Check it out!

—
On Fridays, I ask questions (today, it’s rather late in the day!)… would love it if you’re in the mood to answer!

Happiness is Brighter Walls?

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Here is a NY Times article, looking at whether coloring your rooms and your home in brighter colors can make you happier.

It describes how there is a larger interested in positive psychology, as seen in Harvard’s most popular course being on positive psychology. And it describes the forthcoming book “The Architecture of Happiness,” which talks about how buildings and environment affect our moods. The article also describes the strong new counter-point to the past view of elegance, which used to be white or beige walls.

Reading the article, it sounds like the interior decorators in this article are called in to make everything appear in their style of bright colors. It seems that the interior decorators don’t look particularly at each person, and what bright colors may work for that person, but that they look at their style, and apply it to the house. For example, that bright candystriped bedroom in the photo looks like it could belong in anyone’s home, and is not necessarily personal to that family. Caveat: I could be way wrong, and it could be that each such room is very, very personal to the people that live there.

What would seem wrong to me is having one-size-fits-all approach to bright colors. Maybe I’m reading into the article too much.

Colors are so personal. For example, I know a woman who has a yellow kitchen, and her place is WONDERFUL in yellow! It is just right for her and her family. It feels like her when you stand there: it feels energetic, young, and alive. I know a woman whose kitchen cupboards are eggplant purple – it’s wonderful (and dark as opposed to the bright colors advocated in this article), but it’s wonderful for her and her family! It feels deep and warm and homey. And that’s what make both these homes great: the personal touch, the personal liking of individual color choices and their fit to the homes.

I agree that what you look at every day matters. I agree that your environment has a big influence on you. I don’t believe that 1) other people can tell you that they know what’s best for you (yes, they can suggest, but not top-down tell you), and that 2) what is best for one person’s environment is best for another person’s environment (as long as there is significant variety in recommendations for different people).

One of the biggest points about happiness is that people have more happiness when they feel personal control. So if a decorator were to come in, and tell you that you should like bright colors (and this particular combination of bright colors) better, then that’s the opposite of personal control. Most decorators do personalize everything – just the way I read the article, I got the impression that bright colors were more important to these decorators than making the place fit the personality of the people hiring them. And that couldn’t be so; it wouldn’t make sense; they wouldn’t be in business. Since if not q then not p, then I must have been wrong that the decorators aren’t personalizing their bright color recommendations.

On Friendship

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I recently needed help with something just about in the middle of the night, and I called a friend. This made me think of these quotes. It is beautiful.

“I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with the roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frost-work, but the solidest thing we know.”
“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.”
“A Friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The best mirror is an old friend.”
~ George Herbert

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.”
~ William Arthur Ward

“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
~ Mark Twain

“It is more shameful to distrust one’s friends than to be deceived by them.”
~ Duc de la Rochefoucauld

“Never injure a friend, even in jest.”
~ Cicero

” ‘Stay’ is a charming word in a friend’s vocabulary.”
~ Louisa Mary Alcott

“What is a friend? A single soul in two bodies.”
~ Aristotle

How to Diminish Effects of Stress on the Brain

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Given this article Stress Can Shrink Your Brain that we talked about here, if stress may damage the brain, then how can people diminish the effects of stress on their brains?

EXERCISE! is mentioned frequently in the article as an important way to diminsh the effects of stress. Additionally, the Forbes article says, ‘ “Everything we already know about fighting off chronic disease, like getting sufficient sleep, staying active throughout life, and having a healthy diet” may stave off premature aging of the immune system….’

Also, please see this marvelous article by Marian Diamond that includes thoughts on exercise being great for the brain. Here are a few parts of the article:

    “Very important about exercise is that it is essential for bringing oxygen to all parts of the body, and, as I will explore now, especially to the brain. One particular brain structure is most vulnerable to a lack of oxygen, and that is the hippocampus. Early anatomists thought that the hippocampus resembled a seahorse.

    The hippocampus deals with the processing of recent memory and visual spatial processing. As we age and our blood vessels become less efficient, it is very important to get the oxygen through the vascular system up to the hippocampus, as well as to the rest of the brain and body.”

So, to relieve stress, consider getting more oxygen to the brain.

Also, check out the Change or Die article that I mentioned a couple of days ago about the importance of lifestyle. This article takes the view that people should stop blaming genetics or thier environment, and in fact, should start diligently exercising and eating well.