Krungle's Korner

2. Actually cultures ebb and flow. While Europe was suffering through it’s Dark Ages the Ottoman Empire was in the middle of its Golden Age. If it wasn’t for this Muslim Empire we would not know of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle or Homer. Now many parts of this Empire that breathed it’s last breath a century ago are now in their own Dark Ages. Do not mistake ‘Culture’ for ‘Civilization level.’

3. Gender is not the same thing as sex. And one’s sex is not the same thing as sex as in the act. If one can accept this definition then one can actually argue that Transgender Females are not the same as a born-female and therefor participation in female sports is neither fair to the born-females nor is ‘sporting’ to the born-males.

4. Even within the Ottoman Empire this is true, Islam is not peaceful. Even their own Book attests to this fact. But then Christianity, the Religion of Love, wasn’t very loving for most of its history. But even at their worse there have always been those that live their lives in a Godly way and refuse to fall for the hate of the ‘other’ that the tribalism of sect (or state) demands.

Science is a shared endeavor. We learn more when we work together. Today, July 18, we’re using three different space telescopes to observe the same star/planet system!

As our Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) enters its third year of observations, it’s taking a new look at a familiar system this month. And today it won’t be alone. Astronomers are looking at AU Microscopii, a young fiery nearby star – about 22 million years old – with the TESS, NICER and Swift observatories.

TESS will be looking for more transits – the passage of a planet across a star – of a recently-discovered exoplanet lurking in the dust of AU Microscopii (called AU Mic for short). Astronomers think there may be other worlds in this active system, as well!

Our Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope on the International Space Station will also focus on AU Mic today. While NICER is designed to study neutron stars, the collapsed remains of massive stars that exploded as supernovae, it can study other X-ray sources, too. Scientists hope to observe stellar flares by looking at the star with its high-precision X-ray instrument.

Scientists aren’t sure where the X-rays are coming from on AU Mic — it could be from a stellar corona or magnetic hot spots. If it’s from hot spots, NICER might not see the planet transit, unless it happens to pass over one of those spots, then it could see a big dip!

A different team of astronomers will use our Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to peer at AU Mic in X-ray and UV to monitor for high-energy flares while TESS simultaneously observes the transiting planet in the visible spectrum. Stellar flares like those of AU Mic can bathe planets in radiation.

Studying high-energy flares from AU Mic with Swift will help us understand the flare-rate over time, which will help with models of the planet’s atmosphere and the system’s space weather. There’s even a (very) small chance for Swift to see a hint of the planet’s transit!

The flares that a star produces can have a direct impact on orbiting planets’ atmospheres. The high-energy photons and particles associated with flares can alter the chemical makeup of a planet’s atmosphere and erode it away over time.

Another time TESS teamed up with a different spacecraft, it discovered a hidden exoplanet, a planet beyond our solar system called AU Mic b, with the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope. That notable discovery inspired our latest poster! It’s free to download in English and Spanish.

Spitzer’s infrared instrument was ideal for peering at dusty systems! Astronomers are still using data from Spitzer to make discoveries. In fact, the James Webb Space Telescope will carry on similar study and observe AU Mic after it launches next year.

-Make note of when and where you see the bears.  bears are very much creatures of habit and tend to be at the same places at the same times.  My local sow would never come out before 10PM when the restaurants closed- after that, the humans had left and the dumpsters were full.

-Avoid making your home smell like a bear buffet.  Keep your garbage cans inside the garage, only putting them out right before the trash pickup arrives. If you have a communal dumpster like at an apartment complex, only take your trash out in the middle of the day when you are unlikely to encounter them. Suspend any composting you’re doing until November.  

-Bears can be discouraged from breaking into houses with motion-activated lights and sprinklers that come on at different times at night over the week.

-If you need to be outside regularly (we are still in Quarentine, but I understand we have dogs and cabin fever) make lots of noise- bear bells, singing, talking loudly on your phone with someone. This will alert bears of your approach and avoid surprising them, which is when most dangerous encounters occur.

-Also Carry Bear Spray. I ended up using it on my neigborhood roaming feral dogs rather than the bears, but it also works on coyotes, rabid skunks, frat boys and other nighttime menaces.

-In the event that you do end up close (AKA, Less Than 300ft) to a bear, stand up straight, and walk backwards exactly the way you came.  Black bears, even urbanized ones, aren’t terribly aggressive and the majority are willing to stay put or back off if they see you respecting thier space.  

-In the event it does come closer, scream, throw anything you can at it as hard as possible and hold up your jacket to make yourself look bigger.  if the bear is within 20ft of you, use bear spray as instructed on the can.  in the extremely unlikely event that all of this does not discourage the bear, your best odds to survive are to fight back- bludgeon, stab, kick or otherwise hit the black bear as hard as possible, in the face if possible.  (it’s gizzlies you curl into a ball and protect your face/head from)

Bear attacks are extremely rare, and black bears are the least dangerous of the north american bears, but getting between a sow and her cub is the most likely circumstance.  Stay alert, carry and know how to use bear mace and be ready to beat her like Cain taking a rock to Abel if push really comes to shove.

Also. Don’t climb trees to get away. I promise the bears are better at climbing trees than you are.