Meteor Shower Was a Dud, But Showing Up Was Half the Fun – Sky & Telescope

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

The Alpha Monocerotids happened as predicted, even if not quite as we expected.

Michael Boyle Sr. caught an Alpha Monocerotid speeding through Orion last night. I saw 20 meteors in an hour (not 400) from a dark sky site. But they were faint," writes Boyle. Michael Boyle Sr.

Astronomy is just so weird. Sometimes you have to take it in stride. After the hype of the Alpha Monocerotids of which I'm partly to blame the shower proved to be very weak. Michael Boyle Sr., an amateur astronomer in Florida, an ideal spot from which to view the event, reported about 20 meteors per hour at peak. Others saw a few. I stood in a bitter cold wind for an hour and 15 minutes and saw exactly one.

I can't tell you exactly why the shower was a dud, but it's safe to say our understanding of the Alpha Monocerotids is imperfect despite the fact that the researchers nailed the predicted peak within 10 minutes of the original estimate (5:00 UT vs. 4:50 UT). While the 400 meteors per hour rate was for ideal conditions over a short period of time, the radiant was low for many observers in the U.S., so fewer meteors were expected. Still, I was surprised that I saw almost none. My skies were excellent despite occasional clouds, with the winter Milky Way easily visible. The radiant stood a couple of fists above the horizon. (Nov. 23 update: The count was off by a factor of 5 possibly due to Earth grazing the comet's trail instead of passing directly through it.)

While waiting and watching for meteors, other sights made the outing a special one including seeing Sirius reflecting on Lake Superior. Bob King

While astronomers can predict the positions of planets and stars like clockwork, some phenomena remain elusive. The aurorae are a prime example infamous for either not showing up on time, not happening when they're "supposed to," or appearing unexpectedly.

Native American mythology makes room for nature's unpredictable side by including a character called the trickster, which usually takes the form of an animal. Locally, he's a coyote. The trickster is a supernatural being who likes to mess with humans and break the rules. If you're a skywatcher, it eventually becomes second-nature to allow for a potentially spectacular event to not happen at all. Yes, there is disappointment, but there is often joy in the occasion for the simple reason that you showed up.

Showing up means you invested a part of yourself and time to pay attention to something in that big world out there. In doing so, you've also opened yourself up to experiencing something unexpected. At the very minimum, those who did go out last night got to see Orion and Sirius in all their twinkling glory. I saw that . . . and a little more.

The sky over my house was solidly overcast an hour before the start of shower, but for some reason was clear over the neighboring Lake Superior. I wished for a boat. In lieu of that, I got in the car and drove the two miles down to the lake. Incredibly, a chunk of clear sky hung open in the southeastern sky in the direction of Orion and the shower. Elsewhere clouds hung thickly.

Spectacular shower, right? Nope. What you're seeing is actually a train of F-16 jets flying in a formation over Lake Superior. The bright star is Sirius. Bob King

I set up a camera, stood in the 20 mph, 20 wind, and watched. I saw a couple of sporadic or unrelated meteors but no shower members until around 10:37 p.m. That's when I noticed what looked like sparks flashing from the radiant (from where the meteors appear to stream), southwest of Procyon, a star near the constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn.

The sparking continued for several minutes and looked almost exactly like distant fireworks pop! pop pop! pop! I started yelling crazy "wows" into the wind, thinking this was it, the event we had all hoped for until I looked around and noticed there weren't any sister meteors plowing across the rest of the sky. That wasn't normal. A couple minutes later the flashes had shifted further west and eventually it became apparent: I was looking at a bunch of airplanes!

We have a national guard air base in Duluth, Minnesota, and the pilots will routinely practice flying at night over Lake Superior and the neighboring state of Wisconsin. I'd never seen so many bunched up so close at a distance. Their flashing lights mimicked head-on meteor flares and created the perfect fake meteor shower with a "radiant" or direction of travel from the southeast of Monoceros.

By 11 o'clock the Big Dipper began to climb the northeastern sky once again.Bob King

The sole Alpha Monocerotid I saw streaked slowly upward from the Unicorn and sliced across Orion, maxing out around first magnitude. For me, though, the Milky Way was enough, the Big Dipper standing on his handle above wispy clouds, and the roar of waves slapping the rocks below the road where I parked my car.

Now nearly frozen, I collapsed the tripod and got back into the car at 11:30 p.m., strangely content after not seeing what might have been the best meteor shower of my life.

This post originally appeared in AstroBob: Celestial happenings you can see from your own backyard.

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Meteor Shower Was a Dud, But Showing Up Was Half the Fun - Sky & Telescope

Stargazers turn out in droves for last ‘star party’ of 2019 – Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

Venus and Jupiter were the opening act.

At twilight, the two planets, visible to the naked eye, appeared to nearly bump into each other before setting in the western sky.

That 'conjunction' kicked off the last star party of 2019 for the Tulare Astronomical Association. Between 50 and 70 people turned out toArthur Pursell Observatory to gaze up at the heavens and see Saturn's rings, the Andromeda Galaxy, double stars, different types of star clusters and various planetary nebulas.

The International Space Station even made a quick appearance, shooting across the sky at 5 miles per second.

Tulare Astronomical Association member Butch Demmers gives a presentation during the star party at the Arthur Pursell Observatory on Saturday, Nov. 23.(Photo: Kyra Haas)

Before most of the viewing got underway, TAA member and former club president Butch Demmers presentedinside the club's meeting roomto give attendees a better sense of what they would see.

"That way, they would have a little bit more knowledge of when they're looking at something, what that something is instead of just a patch of light up in the sky," Demmers said.

Outside the dome, which holds the club's 12.5 inchCave Astrola Telescope, club members set up other telescopes on pads to show gazers different parts of the night sky.

Club members Don and Sally Belflowerof Bakersfieldnot only showed viewers the stars, but also how to operate the telescope, twisting knobs to center the star in a projected bullseye, then adjusting the focus to view the object clearly.

Sally said Don became interested in astronomy when their daughter was 8 or 9, thinking it was a way to "expand her horizons." Ten years later, Don and Sally are active members of both Tulare's and Bakersfield's astronomy clubs. Their daughter occasionally participates, but not as much.

"She's 18," Sally said with a laugh. "She does OK, but it's not her thing."

Star party attendees line up to look in the telescope at the Arthur Pursell Observatory on Saturday, Nov. 23.(Photo: Kyra Haas)

MichaelTeller, 12, was at the star party with his mother, Marianna, and three of his four siblings. They came to surprise his father, Joseph, an English professor and TAA member with a passion for astronomy.

"Our youngest is 4 now, and it's to the point where we can actually all make it," Marianna said.

Michael said his fascination with astronomy started around age 9 when his father started taking him to TAA events. He said the coolest thing he's ever seen is a meteor.

"It was right over there, and there were orange flames shooting behind it for like three seconds," he said.

Saturday was the last star party of the calendar year becausecloudy, rainy and cold weather in December and January aren'tideal for viewing,Demmers said.

Many of the telescopes, he said, have corrector plates thatare subject to getting "dewed up" when the air has high humidity,which also makes winter observation a challenge.

"Once it gets fogged up, you can't un-fog it," he said.

Demmers said they'll start hosting star parties again around February.

TAA started in 1967 and has about 30 active members. The group's next discussion is at 7:30 p.m. onDec. 4, at the observatory.

The Tulare Astronomical Association sign hangs adjacent to the observing dome at Arthur Pursell Observatory.(Photo: Kyra Haas)

Stars light up the night sky during a star party outside Arthur Pursell Observatory on Saturday, Nov. 23.(Photo: Kyra Haas)

Reach reporter Kyra Haasby emailat khaas@visaliatimesdelta.com or find her onTwitter@kc_haas.

Get alerts and keep up on all things Tulare County for as little as $1 a month.Subscribe today.

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Stargazers turn out in droves for last 'star party' of 2019 - Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register

Astronomy Club plans events to engage with the community – The Ithacan

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

Gazing up at Ithacas clear night skies, one may wonder what exactly is up there just beyond the stratosphere. For anyone curious to learn about the workings of the universe, the stars and the planet, Ithaca Colleges new astronomy club is here to educate members.

Senior Mia Manzer, Astronomy Club president and co-founder, said the clubs leaders want to share their passion and engage students at the college with astronomy.

Manzer said the club will be holding biweekly meetings and will host different events, like movie nights, theme nights and star parties, which are outdoor observation nights. During the star parties, students will have the opportunity to use portable telescopes, look at constellations and learn about the universe beyond their lenses.

The club was created in Fall 2019 and is currently awaiting official recognition by the college, Manzer said.

Freshman Antara Sen, Astronomy Club secretary, said she is hoping to utilize the colleges Clinton B. Ford Observatory, a building on campus that is not currently in use, to hold open events for students and the greater Ithaca community. Sen said the club is going to host fundraisers to raise money to repair the observatory, but it does not have a set fundraising goal yet.

We have a really good observatory that does not get as much usage as it could, said Matthew Price, Astronomy Club adviser and associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Price said the club will be reaching out to students, alumni and faculty for donations to go toward repairing the observatory.

The club itself supports the Ford telescope, he said. It supports outreach. It helps the students to help to do these things. Its about taking the next step and getting everyone active.

Junior club member George Cozma said the club is looking to involve students in the refurbishing process for the observatory. He said the club may open up the observatory during repairs and have students come in to paint the panels of the observatory dome.

We want to generate interest in the beginning, Sen said. We also want to keep that interest alive for the rest of the year.

Cozma said that he is most excited to get the club fully recognized and to begin having regular meetings and hosting events and that planning club activities has been difficult. He said one of the greatest issues the club has is planning around unpredictable weather. The telescopes cannot be used in the rain or snow, so the outdoor star party events are subject to cancellation.

The clubs first star party was scheduled for Oct. 1 on the quad in front of Roy H. Park Hall but was canceled due to impending rain, Manzer said. The club is still working on rescheduling the first event, she said.

The telescopes, which are provided by the college, function better in colder temperatures, so the club will continue hosting outdoor events throughout the academic year and during the winter months as long as the weather permits, Sen said.

Manzer said her goal for the club is to promote engagement in astronomy from students outside of the colleges Department of Physics and Astronomy. Club meetings will be open to all students, and Manzer encourages anyone to attend regardless of their major or experience with astronomy.

We want people to feel involved and be interested in learning about space and our universe and just have fun with it, she said.

Sen said she believes all students could benefit from learning about astronomy. She said the club officials will help to teach and answer any questions inexperienced members may have.

Thats why were building the Astronomy Club, Sen said. In our club meetings, we want to educate our members about the night sky and about the constellations and planets that we will be able to see.

Price said the club is looking to engage the campus and act as an outlet for students who are interested in the topic and looking for help understanding the basics.

The club can be campuswide, he said. It can recruit across the campus and help people be involved. The telescope can be used by any human who has an interest. They just need a little training.

Sen said she believes the club offers useful information about astronomy and space exploration that students may not learn in their classes. She said that the club will make the topic more easily understood and will initiate discussions about current issues in the world.

We have so many crises on earth right now, like the energy crisis, she said. There are so many things wrong right now, and I think that space exploration gives at least a new avenue for research, a new avenue for looking into something that not a lot of people have ventured into.

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Astronomy Club plans events to engage with the community - The Ithacan

Two Co-Moving Brown Dwarfs Spotted 79 Light-Years Away | Astronomy – Sci-News.com

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

Professional and amateur astronomers from the NASA-funded Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project have spotted a co-moving pair of low-mass brown dwarfs in the solar neighborhood.

An artists rendering of two brown dwarfs. Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa & Sergio Dieterich, Carnegie Institution for Science.

To shine bright, stars need the energy derived from the fusion of hydrogen atoms deep in their interiors. If too small, hydrogen fusion cant occur, so the object cools, darkens, and turns into something called a brown dwarf.

On the high mass end, brown dwarfs overlap in observable properties with the coolest stars like TRAPPIST-1 which hosts seven terrestrial worlds, said Dr. Jacqueline Faherty, an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History, and colleagues.

On the low mass end, they overlap with the observable properties of directly imaged exoplanets like 51 Eri b and Beta Pictoris b.

One of the most important and outstanding questions in substellar mass science is how these objects form and evolve, they said.

Co-moving companions are a key sub-population for investigating questions of formation.

The newfound pair of brown dwarfs is older than 500 million years and younger than 10 billion years.

Designated WISE 2150-7520AB (W2150AB for short), it lies approximately 79 light-years away.

The system consists of two brown dwarfs of spectral types L1 and T8.

The primary member of the system, W2150A, has an estimated mass of 72 times that of Jupiter. The secondary member, W2150B, is 34 times heavier than Jupiter.

The distance between the two objects is around 341 AU (1 AU is the distance from the Sun to Earth).

This image shows the brown dwarf binary system WISE 2150-7520AB. Image credit: Faherty et al, arXiv: 1911.04600.

W2150AB was first spotted in data from NASAs Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) via the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project.

The BackyardWorlds: Planet 9 project has been operational since February 2017, Dr. Faherty and co-authors explained.

The scientific goal of the project is to complete the census of the solar neighborhood (including the Solar System, e.g. Planet 9) with objects that are detectable primarily at mid infrared wavelengths and that were missed by previous searches.

Three citizen science users (Sam Goodman, Dan Caselden, and Guillaume Colin) brought to our attention a WISE W2 only detected source with significant motion, the astronomers said.

They used the Google form and emphasized the objects importance by emailing the Backyard Worlds distribution list as well as key researchers on our team. In addition, these users easily noted a bright source that appeared to be co-moving.

The scientists then confirmed the discovery using the 6.5-m Baade Magellan telescope and the Folded-port InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) spectrograph.

W2150AB resembles 2MASS J11011926-7732383AB (2M1101AB), the first brown dwarf binary discovered with a separation of over 20 AU, they said.

2M1101AB, discovered in the Chamaeleon star-forming region, was heralded as a source of definitive insight into the formation of brown dwarfs. But W2150AB leaves us with an intriguing question about whether it is an evolved version of 2M1101AB or perhaps a system that formed in a low density cluster that survived unperturbed by interactions with nearby stellar or giant molecular cloud.

Given that it is easily resolved with ground or space based observatories, W2150AB is an excellent benchmark system for understanding how brown dwarfs form and evolve together, the researchers concluded.

Their paper will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

_____

Jacqueline K. Faherty et al. 2019. WISE2150-7520AB: A very low mass, wide co-moving brown dwarf system discovered through the citizen science project Backyard Worlds: Planet 9. ApJ, in press; arXiv: 1911.04600

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Two Co-Moving Brown Dwarfs Spotted 79 Light-Years Away | Astronomy - Sci-News.com

Black hole horror: Earth to be consumed by monster black hole – astronomer warning – Express.co.uk

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

At the centre of the Andromeda Galaxy the Milky Ways much larger next door neighbour lies a black hole with more than 4.1 million times the mass of the Sun. The supermassive black hole is truly a galactic powerhouse, destroying everything in its wake. While the black hole is 25,000 lightyears across space from Earth at the moment, scientists have warned Andromeda and the Milky Way will one day collide, which could spell the end for our planet.

Andromeda, which at 220,000 lightyears across is twice the size of the Milky Way, is approaching the our galaxy at around five million kilometres a year.

When the galaxies do meet, Earth could be flung into the centre of Andromeda, where its supermassive black hole would consume the planet.

Fabio Pacucci, an astrophysicist at Harvard University & Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, said during a Ted Talk: Unlike their stellar cousins, supermassive black holes arent wandering through space.

Instead, they lie at the centre of galaxies, including our own. Our solar system is in a stable orbit around a supermassive black hole that resides at the centre of the Milky Way, at a safe distance of 25,000 lightyears.

But that could change. If our galaxy collides with another, the Earth could be thrown towards the galactic centre, close enough to the supermassive black hole to be eventually swallowed up.

In fact, a collision with the Andromeda Galaxy is predicted to happen 4 billion years from now, which may not be great news for our home planet.

However, Mr Pacucci added that black holes get a bad rep, and said they are actually vital for the existence of life in the cosmos.

The Harvard astrophysicist continued: But before we judge them too harshly, black holes arent simply agents of destruction.

READ MORE:Black hole measuring just 1mm would destroy Earth

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Black hole horror: Earth to be consumed by monster black hole - astronomer warning - Express.co.uk

Astronomers use the upgraded GMRT to measure the gas mass of galaxies in the distant Universe – Economic Times

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

PUNE: Scientists at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR, Pune) and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali (IISER- Mohali) have used the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) to carry out the most distant measurement of the atomic hydrogen content of galaxies in the early Universe, informed NCRA.

The GMRT is built and operated by NCRA-TIFR and is among the largest radio telescopes in the world. Galaxies like the Milky-way are made up of stars and gas. The life cycle of a galaxy is essentially the conversion of gas to stars through gravitational collapse of gas clouds.

Understanding how galaxies form and evolve thus requires measurements of how both their stars and gas evolve with time. Over the last two decades, astronomers have accurately measured the stellar masses and star formation rates of populations of galaxies at different epochs in the Universe. However, little is known about the evolution of the atomic gas content of galaxies, the fuel for star formation.

Scientists at the NCRA-TIFR and IISER-Mohali have used the upgraded GMRT to measure gas contents in most distant galaxies. Apurba Bera, a Ph.D. student at NCRA-TIFR and the lead author of the paper, said, Most of the atomic gas in galaxies is in the form of hydrogen, which emits a characteristic spectral line at the radio wavelength of 21.11 cm. Unfortunately, this hydrogen emission is weak, and even powerful radio telescopes like GMRT do not have sufficient sensitivity to detect the emission from very distant galaxies. However, the wide frequency coverage of the upgraded GMRT allowed to add the hydrogen emission signals from a large number of galaxies in the field of view of the telescope, so as to measure their average gas content..

The study resulted in a measurement of the average atomic gas content of star-forming galaxies located 4 billion light years away, when the Universe was about two-thirds of its current age. Remarkably, the authors found that both the star-formation efficiency of galaxies and the cosmological gas mass density in galaxies appear to have not changed significantly over the last 4 billion years.

Jayaram Chengalur, a professor at NCRA-TIFR and a co-author of the paper, said The measurement critically requires simultaneous observations of a large number of galaxies. This was possible due to the recent upgrade of the GMRT, as its large bandwidth and superb digital systems allowed us to cover more than 400 galaxies simultaneously. Jasjeet Singh Bagla, a professor at IISER-Mohali and also a co-author, mentioned that his interest in such studies was initiated by simulations of structure formation in the Universe, and that it was wonderful to see that direct measurements of gas masses of distant galaxies are possible today."

The results have been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), and have been highlighted by AAS Nova as one of the most interesting recent results to appear in journals published by them.

See Mercury at its best meet Mars in the dawn sky – Astronomy Now Online

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

Innermost planet Mercury puts on its best morning display of the year for Northern Hemisphere observers from late November to early December. Skywatchers in the British Isles should find a location offering an unobstructed view of the southeast horizon about 45minutes before sunrise to get the best views. This looping animation shows the changing configuration of Mercury, Mars and Virgos brightest star, Spica, from 18November through 3December at dawn. Note the span of a fist at arms length (about 10) for scale, but the Moons apparent size on 24 and 25November has been enlarged for clarity. AN animation by Ade Ashford.Mercurys transit of the Sun on 11November is still fresh in the memory, but it doesnt take long for the innermost planets orbital motion to carry it far enough west of the Sun to be visible low above the southeastern horizon in dawn twilight. Mercury attains its greatest westerly elongation of 20degrees on the UK morning of 28November. In fact, for Northern Hemisphere observers, the remainder of the month into early December offers Mercurys best morning viewing prospects for the entire year.

Any opportunity to get a glimpse of this elusive and fast-moving planet is well worth getting up a little earlier for, particularly when as now you get a chance to see Mars nearby at the same time. As with any observation made in the eastern sky during dawn twilight, timing is everything: you need to view late enough that Mercury gets a chance to rise high enough above the horizon murk, but not so late that impending sunrise makes the sky too bright to see it. (Never look anywhere near the Sun with an unfiltered optical instrument after it has risen.)

Observers in the British Isles need to find a location that offers an unobscured view of the southeast horizon about three-quarters of an hour before sunrise between now and the first week of December. Our interactive online Almanac gives you the time of sunrise for your nearest town or city, so just subtract 45minutes from that.The slim crescent of the 27-day-old waning Moon lies slightly less than 4degrees above magnitude +1.7 Mars at UK dawn on Sunday, 24November 2019, hence the pair will fit in the same field of view of 10 and lower magnification binoculars. On this morning, the Red Planet sits midway between magnitude -0.2 Mercury and first-magnitude star Spica in Virgo. Note that the Moons apparent size has been enlarged for clarity in this illustration. AN graphic by Ade Ashford.Mercury is located in the constellation of Libra for the period illustrated in the animation at the top of the page. The planet lies about 9degrees (almost the span of a fist held at arms length) above the southeast horizon at the optimal viewing time between 23November and the beginning of December. The Red Planet sits midway between Mercury and the first-magnitude star Spica, the brightest in the constellation of Virgo, at UK dawn on 24November.

Magnitude +1.7 Mars remains in Virgo until the morning of 1December when it crosses the constellation border to join Mercury in Libra. Mercury brightens more than fourfold from magnitude +1 to -0.6 during the 18November to 3December observing window. If clear, dont miss the binocular highlights of 24 and 25November at dawn when the old waning crescent Moon lies 4 above Mars and 3 to the lower left of Mercury, respectively.

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See Mercury at its best meet Mars in the dawn sky - Astronomy Now Online

Awesome photos of Venus and Jupiter after sunset | Astronomy Essentials – EarthSky

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

Read more: Venus/Jupiter conjunction on November 24. In all of the photos below and in the sky Venus is brighter than Jupiter.

EarthSky 2020 lunar calendars are available! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Andrea Deegan in Western Australia caught Venus and Jupiter after sunset on November 23, 2019. She wrote: I noticed Venus and Jupiter were shining brightly low on the horizon while at the beach with friends doing some light playing. Thank you, Andrea!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Dr Ski in Valencia, Philippines, wrote on November 22, 2019: Been waiting for a long time to capture this shot of Venus and Jupiter alongside my Traveller Palm at sunset!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | David Rojas in Villa Caneles, Guatemala, caught the planets on November 21 and wrote: The capture was made on the slopes of a volcano called Pacaya. The distance between the planets and their brightness was very similar. The colors after the sun went down behind the horizon bathe the sky that could already be seen with countless stars, a little away from the citys pollution. Thank you, David!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Kathy Wollman in Valley Center, California,caught this image of Venus and Jupiter on November 21, 2019. She wrote: Venus, Jupiter, virga. Thank you, Kathy!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe, captured this image on November 18, 2019. He wrote: A break in the weather after the onset of the rains provided a good Southern Hemisphere view of Jupiter (above) and bright Venus (below) getting closer together in the twilight sky. Antares is also faintly visible (lower left). Thank you, Peter! The planets after sunset now are most easily viewed from Earths Southern Hemisphere, where the ecliptic or path of the sun, moon and planets makes a steep angle with the sunset horizon.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Carl Keene also caught the planets on November 18, from San Jose, California. You can see that, from this Northern Hemisphere location, the planets are exceedingly low in the west after sunset. Theres a 3rd planet in this photo, too, Saturn, in the upper left. Thank you, Carl!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Low in the sky or high in the sky these 2 planets are bright! Kannan A caught Venus and Jupiter over one of the most brightly lit cities in the world Singapore on November 14. Thanks, Kannan A!

View larger. | For reference here are Venus and Jupiter on October 30, 2019, when the young moon was sweeping past them. They were much farther apart in late October than they will be in late November. By early December, Jupiter will be visible only with difficulty in the western twilight. Itll disappear in the suns glare before the year ends. Venus will go on to be the evening star visible from all of Earth for the first part of 2020. Photo by Steve Pauken of Winslow, Arizona. Thank you, Steve!

Bottom line: Photos from the EarthSky Community of the very bright planets Jupiter and Venus, now in the west after sunset. Watch for them!

Tulare Astronomical Association invites you to see Venus and Jupiter ‘collide’ in celestial light show – Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare…

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

For Choices Published 2:47 p.m. PT Nov. 20, 2019 | Updated 2:47 p.m. PT Nov. 20, 2019

A specialStar Partywill take placeat theArthur Pursell Observatory sevenmilessouthwest of Tulare.

Jupiter and Venus "colliding" is just one of the many exciting celestial phenomena you can observe duringthe Tulare Astronomical Associations public viewing eventonSaturday, Nov. 23.(Photo: Ron Holman/Times Delta)

Shortly after sunset onNov. 23, Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, put on a thrilling show by appearing like they are headed for a collision (although Jupiter is actually four times farther away).

This dramatic twilight pairing called "aconjunction"places them merely 1.5 degrees apart just a fingers width at arms length.

This is just one of the many exciting celestial phenomena you can observe duringthe Tulare Astronomical Associations public viewing eventonSaturday, Nov. 23.

This specialStar Partywill take placeat theArthur Pursell Observatory sevenmilessouthwest of Tulare.

(Photo: News-Press)

BecauseVenusandJupiterwill sink below the horizon shortly after 6 p.m., this unique eventwill beginpromptly at5:30 p.m.(please be on time) and officiallyend at 9 p.m.Thecost is $5 for those 12 and older.

BeforeJupiterslides below the horizon, we will probably be able to observe three of itsGalilean moons(Io, Europa, & Callisto) through a telescope as well as therings and possibly some moons of Saturn.During this 5:30 -6 p.m. period of viewing, the Venus-Jupiter conjunction,feel free to eat any picnic dinner or snacks that you brought; a table and trash cans will be provided, but please bring your own chair.

As the sky darkens and stars appear, we will congregate for a short tour of theconstellationsandbright starsvisible in the night sky. Visitors will then be able to look through theTAAs 12.5 Cave Astrola (Newtonian) Telescopein theobserving domeas well as through about 6 TAAmembers' personal telescopes.

Each telescope will feature a different celestial object. Featured telescopic objects will includeUranuswith itsblue-greenish hue,as well as blue-grayNeptune,the farthest planet from the Sun;incredibly,we may see a total of 6 of the 8 planets(if you include the Earth).

Displays, pictures and telescopes are all around the lecture room at the Arthur Pursell Observatory, home of the Tulare Astronomical Association.(Photo: Ron Holman)

Viewing conditions are forecasted to be excellent, dark, moonless, and clear, perfect for stargazing; ideal for viewing more challenging targets likePlanetary Nebulasincluding theBlue Snowball Nebula(NGC 7662),theDumbbell Nebula(M 27,NGC 6853), theLittle Dumbbell Nebula(M76, NGC 650, NGC 651), theRing Nebula(M57), TheCat's Eye Nebula(NGC 6543), and theBlinking Planetary Nebula(NGC 6826), as well as several spiral galaxies likeNGC 891, theSculptor Galaxy(NGC 253),and theGreat Andromeda Galaxy(M31).

M31 is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way; being2.5 million light-years from Earth,it is the farthest object that can be seen with your naked eye! This spiral galaxycontains an estimatedone trillion stars, about twice the number found in our Milky Way.

Telescopes will also be used to separate severalDouble StarsincludingPolaris(theNorth Star),Sigma Cassiopeiae,Eta Cassiopeiae,as well as the colorfulAlberio, known asthe most beautiful double star.

If you havebinoculars, bring them; they provide excellent viewing ofopen clusterslike thePleiades (M45)known as the Seven Sisters, theOwl Cluster(NGC 457)- which contains 2 bright star that look like owl eyes,Messier 52 (NGC 7654), the famousDouble Cluster(NGC 869, NGC 884), theGlobular ClusterMessier 15 (NGC 7078),and possibly evenUranusand our ownMilky Way Galaxy.

TheArthur Pursell Observatory (APO)is located at9242 Ave 184 Tulare, about halfway between Tulare and Tipton.Travel on Highwat 99 and turn west on Ave 184; drive west about3.4 miles on Ave 184until you reach the signed APO entranced driveway (about 0.5 miles beyond the Road 96 intersection). Drive north on this entrance road a short distance to the APO parking area.

If the sky is too cloudy, foggy or raining, the event may be canceled. Cancellations are usually decided by 4:00 pm the day of the event (Check TAAs Facebook page). If you arrive on time and the gate is closed the event has been canceled.

Tips

Information: Reece Williford (559) 592-4379 orrtwill2@verizon.net

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People are starting to notice – The Bowdoin Orient

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

When I see the word mental illness, my mind goes straight to the word illness. Then a host of other words start to flow through my mind: disease, disability, impaired, bad, inferior, unworthy. The list continues, but the negative connotation of the words remain the same.

In our society, mental illness has a history of stigmatization. For example, in World War I and World War II, soldiers would come back from war and never speak about the debilitating stress they experienced. They pushed the stress to the side and gave it a name, shell shock. It was just how they got by. As my Great Uncle Bob said, None of them spoke about what happened overseas. No one.

All of these soldiers were suffering. These men had to come back to America and provide for their families. Who was going to listen to their stories? If they were lucky, maybe they could talk to their wives, or a childhood friend, but in actuality, there was a slim chance of this happening.

It is a different story today.

Just take a look at the new Joker movie and Joaquin Phoenixs stunning performance. Director Todd Phillips has taken a risk by exploring what it means to be human and to have empathy for a character you are supposed to despise.

As I watched the movie, I had a desire to rage against the nihilism of Arthur Fleck while simultaneously realizing that these emotions exist inside me. Obviously these emotions dont push me to the point of psychopathic action, but that is not the point, even though many critics draw the conclusion that by watching the movie one can become a nihilist or, in the extreme sense, a psychopath or school shooter (how silly).

In opposition to these claims, Joker is a piece of art that provokes and operates as a way of suggestion, as the American poet Franz Wright said about his poetry. The provocative nature of the film allows viewers to see how a mental illness develops in childhood through physical and emotional abuse, untold lies and a lack of humility from parents to ask how you are feeling.

All of this couldnt be done without Phoenix, who uses his acting talent to convey something of value to the viewers. Whether it be Phoenixs melodic dance in the bathroom or his unorthodox laughter (a medical condition), he portrays in the fullest sense of what it means to be destroyed in a world where you were never accepted in the first place.

Phoenix, through his acting, demonstrates that Arthur Fleck is a human with a history. He provokes viewers to writhe in their seat, leave with an uncomfortable empathy and ask themselves, am I supposed to feel this way?

In a way, Joker lends itself to what Carl Jung, a famous analytical psychologist, calls the social significance of art: Therein lies the social significance of art: it is constantly at work educating the spirit of the age, conjuring up the forms in which the age is most lacking.

Joker says what has not been said, making it a great piece of art that will hopefully win Phoenix and Phillips Oscars and provoke viewers to think about their own mental health and that of others.

I would admit that Joker made me think about what mental illness meant to me after having been through countless psychologists, psychiatrists, a 10-day trip to the psychiatric hospital and a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

In my own view, I see mental illness through a scene from Good Will Hunting. The scene takes place at a pond, where Sean McGuire (Robin Williams) and Will Hunting (Matt Damon) are sitting on a bench. Sean goes on to tell Will that he doesnt know anything about life, love, art or war, but then ends the scene with a very important message to Will: I cant learn anything from you I cant read in some fucking book, unless you want to talk about you, who you are.

Dylan Welch is a member of the Class of 2022.

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People are starting to notice - The Bowdoin Orient

The 13 Bleakest Rock And Metal Albums Ever – Kerrang!

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

The days are shorter. The sun grows wan in the sky. Everyday existence becomes a trudge from darkness to further darkness, with only biting cold and the misery of the working day wedged in-between. As December looms, most folk might be looking towards the electric light and popping parties of the festive season, but true miserabilists and misanthropes know that the dark end of the year belongs to them. In celebration, weve compiled our rundown of the 13 bleakest and most outright nihilistic releases in the history of rock andmetal.

Prepare to feel themisery

13. Godflesh Streetcleaner

Thirty years old on November 13 just passed, the monolithic masterpiece from Birmingham industrial metallers Godflesh still delivers that stomach lurching sense of hollow dread as severely today as it did the first time. Streetcleaner might face stiff competition in the bleakness stakes even within Godfleshs own discography hello, Pure and A World Lit Only By Fire but its sheer apocalyptic atmosphere and scene-changing impact is unsurpassed. Picking up on the work of American noise rockers Swans and their Brummie brethren in Napalm Death, songs with the suffocating power of Like Rats, Dream Long Dead and Devastator helped define the still emergent industrial subgenre and set a bar that has arguably yet to bereached.

12. Black Flag My War

Itd be impossible to put together a list like this without at least one mention of legendary Californian punks Black Flag. Representing the dark underbelly of The Golden State, the hardcore progenitors grappled with social isolation, paranoia, poverty and neurosis throughout their career (indeed, 1981 debut Damaged couldve easily made this list but for its sheer up-punching pugilistic spirit), but 1984s My War was the height of their sheer nihilism. Put together in poor conditions over four tense years where the band were unable to release material for legal reasons and during which legendary frontman Henry Rollins was becoming ever more of a powder-keg during live performances tracks like Beat My Head Against The Wall and The Swinging Man have oceans of misery beneath their high energyexteriors.

11. Gallows Grey Britain

When Watford punks Gallows signed a major-label deal with Warner Bros. records and hit the studio with renowned producer Garth Richardson, even longtime fans couldnt help but wonder whether their heroes had sold their souls for a pot of gold. Spectacularly, Frank Carter and his not-so-merry men did quite the opposite, emerging from the studio with one of the most unapologetically nihilistic records imaginable. Grey Britain is burning down, rang out the opening lyric on The Riverbed. Well be buried alive before we drown. These fair isles mightve actually slipped further towards oblivion in the decade since, but the soundtrack remains thesame

10. Manic Street Preachers The Holy Bible

The third LP from Welsh alt.rockers Manic Street Preachers remains a miserabilist landmark both within rock and the more mainstream indie genre the band would go on to inhabit in the 25 years since. Recorded while legendary rhythm guitarist/lyricist Richey Edwards was in the grip of depression, alcoholism, self-harm and anorexia, it unfolds as a tortured journal of his experience. The songs within darkly reflect his mental state, referencing subject matter as troubling as prostitution, serial killers, self-starvation, capital punishment, fascism and suicide and present an overwhelming sense of anger and resignation. Richey would infamously disappear just over five months after the records release on February 1 1995. The album remains a harrowing monument to his torturedgenius.

9. Type O Negative World Coming Down

Written in the wake of a series of deaths in frontman Peter Steeles family, World Coming Down plumbs a remarkable well of darkness even for the prodigiously depressive Brooklyn goth-metallers. Provisionally titled Prophets Of Doom And Aggroculture, album five saw a departure from the lyrical themes of love, sex and heartache with which theyd made their name in favour of far more desolate subject matter like cocaine addiction (White Slavery), bereavement (Everyone I Love Is Dead) and existential angst (Everything Dies). Incorporating cold, industrial instrumentation and reversed vocal backmasking alongside the sound of Gregorian chanting and organ music, it delivers lurching dread with realdynamism.

8. Killing Joke Killing Joke (1980)

When the debut LP Killing Joke was reviewed in K! predecessor Sounds, the reviewer awarded the album a perfect 5/5 score, but opted to addend a 1/5 rating for morality and warned that the music contained within might prove corrosive to the soul. They had a point. From cover artwork depicting the use of CS gas by British troops against peaceful protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland to the weird, industrial-inflected post-punk of Wardance, Requiem and Bloodsport, this was Jaz Coleman let off the leash. Its darkness has leached right through mainstream rock, too, with Dave Grohl naming the album amongst his all-time favourites, while Metallica covered The Wait on 1987s Garage Days RevisitedEP.

7. Nirvana In Utero

Nirvanas final release before Kurt Cobains death unfolds with a predictably caustic worldview. Teenage angst has paid off well, he sings on Serve The Servants, betraying an ominously shrouded worldview, now Im bored and old Kurt even originally wanted to name the album I Hate Myself And I Want To Die. Striving for an abrasive, naturalistic sound throughout recording, the album audibly matches up. Its as we dig into the darker themes underlying that things get really bleak, though. Scentless Apprentice retells the dark surrealism of Patrick Sskinds Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer. Milk It envisages lovers as conjoined parasites feeding off each others bodily waste. Heart Shaped Box reimagines the umbilical cord as a noose. Rape Me more or less speaks for itself Not a happyalbum.

6. Shining V: Halmstad

When a band self-define as suicidal-depressive black metal you know their output isnt ever going to be the cheeriest. Their infamous fifth LP, however featuring a monochrome picture of a young woman with a gun in her mouth on its cover remains their deepest, darkest moment. Beginning with a haunting excerpt from William Hughes Mearns 1889 poem Antigonish As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasnt there. He wasnt there again today. I wish, I wish hed go away - on Ytterligare Ett Steg Nrmare Total Jvla Utfrysning (Yet Another Step Towards Complete Fucking Isolation), it simply does not letup.

5. Nailbomb Point Blank

The first and only release from industrial metal supergroup Nailbomb was a darkly uncompromising exercise. Bringing together Sepultura/Soulfly frontman Max Cavalera and Fudge Tunnel founder/producer extraordinaire Alex Newport (whose vocals are credited simply as Mouthful Of Hate) along with a handful of co-conspirators, Point Blank is an unrelenting slab of sonic cruelty. If that cover image of a U.S. soldiers gun pressed to the head of a female Vietcong fighter didnt give you an idea of the sheer nihilism contained within, song titles like Blind And Lost, Sum Of Your Achievements and Cockroaches certainlywill

4. My Dying Bride Turn Loose The Swans

Legendary West Yorkshire doomsters My Dying Bride are another of those outfits where any individual release could have made this list. The fact that 1993s sophomore LP Turn Loose The Swans outstrips 2015s bluntly-titled Feel The Misery in terms of sheer bleakness should signpost just how much of a plunge into suffocating darkness this album delivers. Far slower and more considered than their debut As The Flower Withers, this one saw the band delve into the trademark mournfulness and complexity that would become their trademark across tracks like The Songless Bird and The Snow In My Hand. Album closer Black God even takes its lyrics from 18th century Scottish poem Ah! The Shepherds Mournful Fate and it doesnt get much more forlorn thanthat.

3. Alice In Chains Dirt

Layne Staleys performance on the second Alice In Chains LP might just be the most painfully poignant in all of music. Specifically referencing heroin usage and its ravaging effects across tracks like Sickman, Junkhead and God Smack, the record was a window into Laynes spiralling personal experience. The concept loosely follows the anguish and uncertainty of usage through to the ultimate realisation that addiction itself is not an escape from suffering, but the prison that keeps the user tied in. Both Layne and bassist Mike Starr would ultimately pass away from overdoses, underlining the dark reality at the heart of thesesongs.

2. Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral

After 1989 debut Pretty Hate Machine had established Nine Inch Nails new brand of darkly seductive industrial to dancefloor dominating effect, few expected the lurch into much colder darkness that would follow. Moving into Los Angeles 10050 Cielo Drive the scene of the Manson familys infamous murders and christening his studio Le Pig, mainman Trent Reznor wove together a concept album without any radio ready singles charting the descent of one man from the beginning of his Downward Spiral right through to his eventual suicide. Courting controversy from conservative social commentators, copping blame for the Columbine massacre and going on to shift well over four million units worldwide, it remains arguably the most controversial mainstream rock release inhistory.

1. Warning Watching From A Distance

There is no notorious public backstory to Watching From A Distance, no lurid context in which it should be viewed. Its imagery unfolds with a sense of heart-rending romance, not expounding every tortured detail but largely in the abstract. The depths of anguish conjured by Essex-based frontman Patrick Walker (now of 40 Watt Sun), however, are still utterly, utterly unmatched. His music does the talking, he has previously explained, so why would he say more himself? And how it talks. Drawing from a palette of hopeless greys and washed out sepia tones, the five tracks of this 2006 masterpiece unfold at a funereal pace, all earthen riffage and hauntingly plaintive vocals, conjuring a potent, timeless atmosphere of melancholia. At recent reunion shows, the album was played in full, and grown men were seen openly weeping. To fully understand why, youll need to listen foryourself

Posted on November 18th 2019, 5:52pm

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The 13 Bleakest Rock And Metal Albums Ever - Kerrang!

Albert Camus: The Philosopher of the Proletariat – Free Press Journal

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

AThe only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Albert Camus, The Rebel, 1951

TThis year's Nobel laureate in Literature Peter Handke of Austria recently said that today's world needs rebellious thoughts, and who can be more rebellious than Albert Camus (1913-1960)? Increasing religiosity across the globe, violence, social and racial discrimination, a pervert notion of nationalism (esp. in the context of Indian society), sectarianism, dissent and all the malicious practices that have plagued the mankind can find their solutions in Camus' works, be it The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, The Rebel, A happy death, The Guest or his scores of essays like The Reflections on the Guillotine.

Camus was an existentialist who never believed in god and man-made faith/s. In a letter to Jean Paul Sartre, the 30-year-old Camus envisaged like a prophet in 1943 that after half a century, the world's biggest headaches would be god/s and religions. Here's the translation of that French letter into English by Conrad Walsh: Mankind is fast degenerating into a cesspool of religions and their gods. What we're creating, will soon swallow the whole world. A human can be completely free when he's beyond all faiths and gods. LET FAITH NOT BECOME THE FATE OF MANKIND (he wrote the whole line in upper case). Today, unfortunately faith has become mankind's fate and it'll worsen further. We're killing each other in the name of a god or gods who we created in a state of ignorance aeons ago but despite a semblance of some sense with the passage of time, we still stick to them. Truly prophetic words of a prophetic writer, who could visualise fifty years ago that we'd be in the quagmire of religions and gods in the new millennium. And we're in!

In his book The First Man (published posthumously in 1971), Camus urged the New Man of the Millennium to become so FREE as not to be encumbered by any social or state decree. He wrote: The times to come will expect a Man who would have no ideological moorings, no country, no state, not even a home (because a home is a sign of complacency) to call the whole world as his home.

It was Camus who declared in L'envers et L'endroit (Betwixt and Between, 1937) that Spirituality is but a euphemism for religiosity. Completely against gurudom (babadom in Indian context), Camus thundered, Man needs no guru, master or leader. He's guru of his own self. He believed that mankind's collective belief in all esoteric things and phenomena is inimical to a natural progress, evolution and (human) development.

Camus was dead against the false morality and called it (morality) the 'deadwood of humanity' (The Adulterous woman).

Having studied Buddhism's Shoonyavaad and Nihilism, Camus was the greatest exponent of the validity of the moment one's in. The Upanishadic 'Kashnvaad' found an expression through Camus' profound works. It must be mentioned that the Urdu poet Sahir Ludhianavi was very fond of the great French existentialist. Camus' momentarism (kshanvaad; the sole validity of a given moment) inspired Sahir to pen, Ik pal ki palak par hai thahari hui ye duniya/Ik pal ke jhapakne tak har khel suhana hai (The world is precariously placed on the eyelid of a moment/everything appears so beautiful till it blinks).

In his 47 years on earth, Camus waged a crusade against five things: God, religion, nation, faux morality and capital punishment.

His 'Reflections on the Guillotine' (1959) is an essay that must be taught at all schools, colleges and varsities in the world. Throughout his life, he argued against the significance of death rap and fought tooth and nail to abolish it from all countries. "The State is supposed to project its subjects. How can it (State) eliminate its subject/s?' Camus wondered in " Reflections on the Guillotine." Humanity's deep-seated sadism and voyeurism come to the fore through our macabre desire to execute a human.

Today's god and religion-oriented world can literally take a leaf out of Camus' books. To be a good human being, one needs no religion and belief in a concocted entity, called god. His own ethical life is a clinching proof that to be a nice human, belief in god, religion and any kind of spirituality is absolutely unnecessary.

What Sartre and Camus believed about nationalism as a modern form of tribalism or troglodytism is all the more relevant in today's India where nationalism has become a badge of showmanship and false pride.

Camus' relevance will keep increasing in these ghettoised times because man will sooner or later realise his folly and understand that beyond individualistic existence, all other things are redundant and superfluous. Mull over his famous line in 'Between Hell & Reason' : ' I love humans because they've the potential to be humane.' Camus' audacious faith in humanity and love for the mankind make him a benign philosopher who didn't believe in living in an ivory tower. Sartre read the obituary on the death of his friend and fellow existentialist Camus: He (Camus) never sat on the highest pedestal, rather preferred to alight from there to mix up with all. This allness paved the way for the oneness and demolished the walls of otherness. Camus was the philosopher of the proletariat. So very true. In these turbulent times, more than ever do we need to study and follow Camus' edifying philosophy and his humanitarian approach to man and his numerous existential conundrums. To study Camus is to study life and all its facets. Humankind's estranged humanity can be retrieved through Camus' philosophy.

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Albert Camus: The Philosopher of the Proletariat - Free Press Journal

FROZEN 2 Is A Mythic Portrait Of Feminine Strength And Vulnerability (Review) – Nerdist

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

Frozen 2 is about a lot of things. Colonialism and the silencing of indigenous cultures. Sisterhood and its powerful, unknowable reach. The quest for personal identity at whatever cosmetic cost. The nihilism that comes with growing older and more cosmically aware of lifes virtues and terrors.

Does it marry these threads together elegantly? Not always. But its hard to deny the power of the storytellingboth visual and literalin this entertaining Disney sequel. The film strikes many of the same chords as the first Frozen, but does so more gallantly this time around. Its an epic story with an interior core and a mythic sensibility that sends a powerful message to young girls: that sometimes the home you thought you desired isnt the final answer, and personal evolution is lifes real answer.

Frozen 2 finds our heroine, Elsa (Idina Menzel), at a bit of a crossroads. After the events of the first film, shes re-established herself as the queen of Arendelle, but shes not totally content in the role. She watches her sister Anna (Kristen Bell) enjoy her new life in the kingdom, as she banters about with her doofy but lovable boyfriend Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his reindeer Sven, and the sentient snowman Olaf (Josh Gad)but Elsa cant find that same complacency. Shes left with the nagging feeling that theres more out there for her, she just isnt sure where or how to get it. Until one day a voice starts calling to hera voice that only she can hear, which seems to exist in the margins of the wind.

Disney

Soon, cataclysm comes to Arendelle, and its up to Elsa, Anna, and the others to find the source of whats preying on their homeland. The mystery that ensues has ties to Elsa and Annas parents, but more than that, to the foundation of every establishment they once trusted. The plot involves a series of revelations that disrupt the sisters worldview. Maybe this harmonious land theyve fought to protect doesnt deserve such esteem. And maybe their personal histories deserve some cross-examining as well.

The film is all about identityits presentation, its dissolution, and the acceptance of its amorphousnesswhich makes Frozen 2 more challenging than its easier-going predecessor. While the first Frozen told Elsas story from a place of confusion and fear, Frozen 2 tells it from a place of reconciliation. Shes accepted who she isa woman with an incredible magical ability to freeze the atmosphere around herbut what does it actually mean to have that power, and how does it inform your future whereabouts?

Frozen 2 begs that question through its soundtrack, which is more robust this time around, though not exactly more memorable. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, who wrote the music and also directed the film, are doubling down on Menzels incredible range with a few ballads that exceed the power of Let It Go but dont necessarily rival its catchiness. All of the songs in Frozen 2 are great, but have a hard time living up to the more digestible tunes from the first film, which are so ingrained in our zeitgeist that it feels a little unfair that this one should have to measure up to that high bar.

And yet there are songs like Into the Unknown that will challenge young audiences to not only look inward, but into themselves on a meta-textual level. (Anna also gets a lovely song called The Next Right Thing near the climax that serves a similar purpose.) Tunes that get into the fiber of peculiar womanhood and examine it microscopically. Im not sure any Disney musical has ever been so powerfully, indelibly mythic as Frozen 2which erupts into moments of visual richness to match the music, with visions of underwater horses and women figures in the wind; markers that acknowledge the storys roots in Danish writer Hans Christian Andersens The Snow Queen, making it feel of an old-time culturethough it remains, ultimately, of its time.

This deep feminine mystique coupled with concepts like Olafs growing sense of innate awareness and Kristoffs masculine ineptitude, make Frozen 2 a strange Disney movie. Its arguably too big and too muchand those moments of grandiosity might float right over its target audiences headsbut its hard to resist a kids movie thats this audacious. Theres a messiness to Frozen 2; it gets lost in its own self-importance occasionally, and loses the plot as it indulges in moments like Kristoffs 80s-esque power ballad (finally, they let Groff sing!) and the confusing mythology of Elsa and Annas parents.

But all of this adds up to a movie that feels recognizably itself. Strange and big, but unparalleled in its ability to communicate certain ideologies to its viewers. Ideas about interiority and self-satisfaction, of forging a future that looks so different from the template you once imagined. Those may sound like understandable concepts to adults, but theyre monumental to childrenanything that tells us we can change ourselves, better ourselves, and always do the next right thing is important. Frozen 2 may get lost in its own mirage every now and then, but when it finds its way, it forges some of the most powerful storytelling ever seen in Disney animation.

Featured Image: Disney

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FROZEN 2 Is A Mythic Portrait Of Feminine Strength And Vulnerability (Review) - Nerdist

Podcast: Is it really the end of California as we know it? – Black Voice News

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

By Matt Levin | CalMatters

Please subscribe to the Gimme Shelter podcast onApple Podcasts,Stitcher,Soundcloud, Google Play, Spotify or Overcast

Youd forgive Californians for rolling their eyes. When a vaguely apocalyptic combination of wildfires and power blackouts left vast swaths of the state without electricity and breathable air last month, a bevy of stories in national media outlets fromThe AtlantictoThe New York Timesdeclared the state officially unlivable.

A very un-Californian nihilism has been creeping into my thinking, wrote California-based New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo. Im starting to suspect were over. Its the end of California as we know it.

The hyperbole from most of the national pieces was as predictably familiar to longtime Californians as Thanksgiving, when visits from out-of-state relatives result in a game of passive aggressive California bingo: Dont you miss seasons? B!. Wow, so much traffic on a holidayI! Good lord the sales tax here BINGO!

The California is over national media trope has been its own cottage industry for decades. We were over after the Manson murders, the Rodney King riots, the record budget deficits of the late 2000s, the collapse of the whole boutique-cupcake phenomenon.

But to many Californians, deep down in places we dont like to talk about, this time does feel different. The twin threats of climate change and the states housing affordability crisis both slow-moving disasters we feel increasingly helpless to address have changed the mental calculus for an entire generation of residents.

Why pay twice as much for a home here as elsewhere in the country to breathe bad air, endure hours-long commutes and then have our power turned off so we dont catch on fire? Polling and migration data show younger and lower-income Californians are increasingly deciding its just not worth it.

On this episode of Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, CalMatters Matt Levin and the Los Angeles Times Liam Dillon interview Manjoo about whether California has reached a true tipping point, and why the state cant fix some of its fundamental flaws.

CalMatters.orgis a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

The author wrote this for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias Capitol works and why it matters.

Podcast: Is it really the end of California as we know it? - Black Voice News

Crikey Comments: Don’t expect anything to change in broken banking – Crikey

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

Crikey readers respond to recent revelations of transgressions by Westpac, and question whether we'll ever see the effects of the banking royal commission (or even an adequate response from the government).

Stephen Wigney writes: Revelations of Westpacs venal behaviour with respect to money laundering, together with the litany of continued abuses post-royal commission should make a few things clear: first, that regulators as currently constituted and funded do not have the resources to police an obviously corrupt sector; secondly, the invisible hand of the market has (surprisingly) failed in ensuring optimal outcomes for ordinary Australians; and thirdly, and in my view most importantly, it is now time for the prudential presence of a government run banking entity to be re-established. A commonwealth bank (no relation), offering retail banking with a remit to break even or return a mandated small profit back to government, overseen by a parliamentary committee, should be established to use market forces to complement a seriously funded and empowered financial regulator. There appears to be no other way given the total untrustworthiness of the current oligopoly.

Joanne Knight writes: Free markets are encouraging such fundamental levels of corruption that society is breaking down, rise of authoritarianism, child abuse, increasing poverty and inequality. Capitalism has reached a point where it defeats humanitys basic instinct for self preservation.

Marcus Hicks writes: Meanwhile we have a government obsessed with criminalising unions and further removing red tape for their big business donors.

Anne Lampe writes: Most likely the major cause of Westpac indifference to where money flowed abroad was that monitoring this area, or allocating resources to it, was regarded as a waste of money. It wasnt a profit centre that could deliver bonuses up the chain, so no point in resourcing it. Never mind that transactions might be funding terrorists, or child exploiters. If the transactions provide a profit, why put resources into stopping them

Gregory Bailey writes: Of course, it is time some senior bank executives received appropriate justice, but I cannot see this happening when the quiet Australian is indifferent to this situation and has been for the past thirty years or more. Nihilism and neoliberalism go together beautifully as the worlds best trickle-up theory.

Send your comments, corrections, clarifications and cock-ups to[emailprotected]. We reserve the right to edit comments for length and clarity. Please include your full name if you would like to be considered for publication.

What is Putin up to? Secret Russian sub exercise beneath icy waters north of Scotland – Express.co.uk

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Danzig

But there is "absolutely no sign" any of the candidates in next month's general election are taking national defence seriously, a UK-based expert has said. Russian President Mr Putin is determined to make the North Atlantic a place where NATO will "fear to venture", said Iain Ballantyne, whose book, The Deadly Trade, published earlier this year, looks at various aspects of modern warfare. Mr Ballantyne sounded his chilling warning after Northern Fleet submarines Nizhny Novgorod and Pskov staged sparring and tracking war games between Scotland, Greenland and Iceland recently, according to Russian Government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

The big message from Putins navy here is that it is getting ready again for state versus state war under the sea

Iain Ballantyne

He toldExpress.co.uk: "The big message from Putins navy here is that it is getting ready again for state versus state war under the sea with a peer enemy.

"Russia is muscle-flexing, aiming to deter by showing battle fitness.

"Long gone are the days when Russian submarines rarely went to sea or trained for combat."

The Pskov and Nizhny Novgorod, which are both titanium-hulled deep diving attack submarines, with a high level of stealth, were "rather long in the tooth", having been commissioned almost 30 years ago, when compared with the US Navys Virginia and Sea Wolf classes of attack boats, and the Astutes of the Royal Navy, Mr Ballantyne said.

However, he added: "Both of these Sierra Class submarines, of the Artic-based Northern Fleet, were recently refitted and received upgrades."

Mr Ballantyne stressed that it was a "stretch" to describe the waters where the subs had been operating as Scottish.

He explained: "They were training in the traditional gateway from the High North seas the Russians consider their backyard into broader North Atlantic, namely the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) Gap of Cold War legend.

"Its a long way from the Scottish mainland. Traditionally, the deadly game under the sea in the Cold War for NATO was to catch the Soviets trying to break through the GIUK Gap and then shadow them, while in time of war they would have tried to stop the Russians breaking out at all.

READ MORE:Russia develops hypersonic weapons no one else owns in WW3 threat

"Therefore, Putin is not trying to establish dominion of the North Sea nuclear submarines generally try to avoid the North Sea as it is shallow and lacks the room for manoeuvre such fast and comparatively large vessels need to fight.

"Conventional diesel-electric submarines of which Russia has quite a few very modern ones do operate in the North Sea."

Nevertheless, in terms of the wider picture, Mr Ballantyne added: "The big league is the North Atlantic and for sure Putin wants his navy to make the High North the Greenland Sea, the seas under the Polar icecap and the Barents Sea mare nostrum for Russia a place NATO will fear to venture."

Neither was it a coincidence that Putin's sabre-rattling was happening against a background of unprecedented strains within NATO, with US President Donald Trump voicing doubts about the future of the alliance, and French President Emmanuel Macron's talk of a European army, he acknowledged.

Mr Ballantyne added: "Since 2014 Russia has been upping the ante in its challenge to the post-Cold War order.

DON'T MISSDonald Trump gets tough on Putin with new wave of sanctions[WORLD]World War 3: How INFTreatyprevented US from being obliterated[VIDEO]Russia vs US: Russia tests medium-range land-based missile - USA loses[ANALYSIS]

"Putin regards the end of the Soviet empire as a tragedy and despite the poor state of the Russian economy, the declining birth rate etc, uses his submarines in particular to punch above his countrys weight especially those vessels capable of firing nuclear strategic weapons.

"His submarines are a means to cow the West and ensure Russia is considered a super power still.

"Putin has, with limited military resources, established considerable influence in the Middle East, aims to do so in North Africa and sees the Arctic waters of the High North as Russias own.

"Submarines are the key element of Russian global power projection and, even with conventional weapons, they could devastate the cities of NATO nations without ever leaving their bastions in the Arctic.

"That is how Putin gains influence and deters foes, coercing potential enemies into staying away from Russias zones of key strategic interest."

On the subject of Russia's constant probing, Mr Ballantyne said the UK was in a vulnerable position.

He added: "The Russians have on several occasions in recent times tested UK anti-submarine Warfare forces, which were badly weakened by David Camerons foolish defence cuts in 2010 and will take a few more years to recover their potency, including via the arrival of the new P-8 Poseidon sub-hunting aircraft.

"However, the UK has too few anti-submarine frigates and is not building nearly enough for its future fleet while also not having the required force levels in its own operational attack submarines - the best counter to a Russian intruder or ASW Merlin helicopters.

"No government in recent times has done enough to safeguard the UK against the rising submarine threat and certainly there are no signs of it being promised by any party in the election.

"Could there be a serious incident? That risk is always there if heavily armed nuclear submarines are in close proximity to each other.

"Things did from time-to-time get rather hairy during the last so-called Battle of the Atlantic, during the Cold War.

"The 21st Century struggle for control of the Atlantic may well see dangerous moments, likely to be kept secret by governments keen not to alarm the public. Hopefully cool heads will prevail."

And with the nationwide poll fast approaching on December 12, there were few indications that any of the major parties was alive to the risks.

Mr Ballantyne said: "There is absolutely no sign the parties are treating national defence seriously.

"As usual they cherry-pick a few topics to discuss to try and make them seem interested in it but its all way short of what is needed.

"Anyone who understands the massive challenges facing the UK, especially in naval defence terms, is far from reassured that the politicians comprehend the sheer scale of rising threats."

* The Deadly Trade by Iain Ballantyne (W&N, 12.99). Call Express Bookshop on 01872 562310, or send a cheque/postal order payable to Express Bookshop to: Deadly Trade Offer, PO Box 200, Falmouth, Cornwall, TR11 4WJ or visitexpressbookshop.co.ukUK delivery free.

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What is Putin up to? Secret Russian sub exercise beneath icy waters north of Scotland - Express.co.uk

Missing Link To Longevity Discovered In The Plant Kingdom – Texas A&M University

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Prof Baldwin

lead researcher Dorothy Shippen, Ph.D., (left), graduate student Jiarui Song, first author (center) and postdoctoral fellow Claudia Castillo-Gonzlez, second author (right).

Texas A&M AgriLife

A breakthrough discovery by Texas A&M University and Arizona State University professors could provide a key component in understanding the human aging process and even aid in the battle against cancer.

Dorothy Shippen, Ph.D., is a University Distinguished Professor and Regents Fellow in Texas A&MsDepartment of Biochemistry and Biophysicsand withTexas A&M AgriLife Research, College Station.

Shippen co-led a study with Julian Chen, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry, Arizona State Universitys School of Molecular Sciences. First author, Jiarui Song, is a graduate student with Shippen.

Their study, The conserved structure of plant telomerase RNA provides the missing link for an evolutionary pathway from ciliates to humans, is being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Our discovery of this key component of the telomerase enzyme in the plant kingdom provides an evolutionary bridge, and a novel path forward, for understanding how humans keep their DNA safe and enable cells to divide indefinitely, Shippen said.

Moreover, since plants often evolve interesting solutions to fundamental biological problems, some of the lessons we learn from plant telomerases may provide new ways for addressing stem cell disease and cancer.

We found a core component of the telomerase enzyme that had been missing all these years, Shippen said. And by finding this component in plants, we not only learn new lessons about how telomerase evolved, but we also open the door to learn new things about the human enzyme.

Back in 2001, Shippen published a paper outlining the discovery of the catalytic subunit of the telomerase enzyme from plants. The catalytic component is one of two absolutely critical parts of the enzyme, and it is now very well understood.

However, the second component, the RNA subunit, that provides the enzyme with information about what to do with chromosome ends, was missing.

Our new discovery is the RNA subunit of telomerase from the plant kingdom. In the plant telomerase RNA, we can now see the signatures for the human telomerase and telomerase from simple organisms like bakers yeast and the microbes in pond scum.

The missing piece always was this subunit. Now that we have found the correct one, its opened up a lot of interesting insights.

Plants have different, innovative solutions to so many biological challenges, and insight into these may provide important clues on how human telomerase is regulated, she said.

We can study the telomerase enzyme more deeply and see so much more now, and it can help us understand how the human enzyme is going to work. It really is this missing middle ground.

In the 1930s, Barbara McClintockwas studying the behavior of chromosomes in maize and was one of the first scientists to appreciate the importance of telomeres.The Shippen Labin the 1990s followed up on the pioneering work of McClintock in model plant systems and discovered the telomerase enzyme, which is required for maintaining these structures on the ends of chromosomes.

Shippens longtime studies on telomerase, which play an essential role in chromosome stability and cell proliferation capacity, has led her to be considered the worlds expert in plant telomere research.

The telomere is like a biological clock. There is a certain amount of telomeric DNA at the end of chromosomes. As cells divide, they lose part of this DNA.

She has likened telomeres to the plastic tip on the end of a shoelace they form a protective seal on the ends of chromosomes in plants and animals. Like the plastic tip that wears out, allowing the shoelace to fray and become hard to use, so does the telomere break down in most cells in the human body over time.

The telomerase enzyme is capable of replenishing the lost DNA at chromosome ends and it is available in cells that are immortal, Shippen said. Its active in the stem cells, but not active in other places of the body normally.

Theres a whole connection between immortality and telomerase that needs to be studied.

Why is telomerase only active in stem cells, turned off in other cells and why does it get reactivated in cancer cells? Shippen said. Weve learned a lot about the human telomerase from pond scum, but plants can provide still more clues because their growth and development is so plastic. If you cut a flower from a plant growing in the garden, it will grow another flower. But if you cut off the tip of your finger, you wont be growing a new one.

Its a big mystery.

But Shippen said the plant telomerase is still very similar to the human telomerase.

It is remarkable that even in plants, telomerase is active only in cells that need to divide many times.

She expects that what is learned in the plant system will ultimately be translatable and have significant impact in human medicine.

Continued here:

Missing Link To Longevity Discovered In The Plant Kingdom - Texas A&M University

The disruptive power of disruption – Daily Pioneer

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Prof Baldwin

Times require a very dispassionate analysis of the value of what the word means as a process

Till about 20 years ago, the word disruption evoked mixed responses at best and a deep sense of disapproval at worst. Gradually the environment began to change and disruption became a word of preferred choice for many. An increasingly large number were trying to use it, in context and out of context, hoping to cover themselves in a revolutionary aura. There were occasions when people would come around mouthing and flaunting disruption. It was tom-tommed by many that unless there was disruption it would be very difficult to improve things.

The point which was totally lost in this melee was that nothing can be debunked lock-stock and barrel. There were thinkers who saw this point and started talking of selective disruption. What was not quite clear was how this selection would take place. On what distinguishing trait would something be preserved or debunked? This was particularly the case with technology or more fundamentally, about methods of work.

In this vantage point of perception, one element was missing. The element could be termed concurrent multilinearity. Simultaneously, different eras can exist. Their concurrency does not take away the merit of one or the relevance of another. This is especially true for nations such as India, which has in one time-frame multiple eras co-existing. One can have a space launch centre and for carrying certain kinds of provision to that centre, bullock carts could be used. In a wider canvas one could think of a person getting to a jetty on a horse carriage and taking from that jetty a speedboat. Essentially there is nothing contradictory in this. People living in different technological or cultural eras can and do co-exist. This is what the mosaic of life is about. Different identities and paradigms can function together. Of this, India is merely one example. Examples of various levels of technological growth of communities have been cited above. This can be equally true for extended families. As longevity increases, the lifestyle of a 70-year-old need not really be programmed as a life of a 22-year-old. In between the life of somebody at the age of 46 would be quite a mixture of the two lifestyles.

The senior citizen would not be necessarily living out a smart phone and a youngster may find the mannerisms of a 70-year-old quite outmoded, if not strange.

These are everyday examples, for this no survey is needed. The proposition of the real worth of disruption however, is a different one altogether. Times require a dispassionate analysis of the value of disruption as a process. They also require considering how significant is a collective push for technological upgrade.

Given the ground conditions, it seems fairly obvious that many behavioural templates or universes of ethnography could be in operational co-existence. Above all, this would have to be done respectfully, if not with utmost understanding.

Under such circumstances to make a fetish of disruption as a process appears palpably illogical if not an expendable overkill.

If one enlarges the theatre of action and issues of sustainability become larger, it may even be arguable that in certain cases disruption of disruption may itself be a desirable goal.

Consider the energy intensive lifestyles of post-industrial communities: Space heating, space cooling, fuel guzzling vehicles and energy-intensive devices of cooking and more. Together this lifestyle has brought the advanced civilisation to a brink. The operational brink in several territories is being operationally averted, only through expropriation of energy resources from developing communities and countries.This kind of a world order cannot be sustainable, in the long run, let alone be desirable.

As things stand, there is an obvious adulation of the way tribal communities have preserved their environment and live life at a reasonable level of simplicity. They still appear contented, have better longevity and better community life.

If the forest cover of this planet is not as much a victim of predatory lifestyles, it is not the least because of the parts of the globe which the tribals inhabit and from where they havent been chased away by gun-toting brigades of the avaricious versions of the human race. The celebration should be of tribal stoicism and tenacity and how they have preserved their lifestyles, their culture and their livelihoods. Perhaps the world is ready to turn a full circle.

Whether or how this will take place only time will tell. But one thing which is clear if there is anything that is clear disruption is not necessarily a positive term. It has to be used selectively and with conscious thought to eliminate the banal elements to human progress and impediments to a larger framework of happiness. Riding disruption as a value is not only unnecessary but can be dangerous.

(The writer is a well-known management consultant)

Can the gut microbiome unlock the secrets of aging? – Medical News Today

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Prof Baldwin

A new study has shown how the gut microbiota of older mice can promote neural growth in young mice, leading to promising developments in future treatments.

The research group, based in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, transferred the gut microbiota of older mice into the gut of younger mice with less developed gut fauna.

This resulted in enhanced neurogenesis (neuron growth) in the brain and altered aging, suggesting that the symbiotic relationship between bacteria and their host can have significant benefits for health.

The past 20 years have seen a significant increase in the amount of research into the relationship between the host and the bacteria that live in or on it. The results of these studies have established an important role for this relationship in nutrition, metabolism, and behavior.

The medical community hopes that these latest results could lead to the development of food-based treatment to help slow down the aging process.

In this study, the research team attempted to uncover the functional characteristics of the gut microbiota of an aging host. The researchers transplanted gut microbiota from old or young mice into young, germ-free mouse recipients.

The findings appear in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The gut microbiome changes as the host ages, and to investigate how it evolves, the research team transplanted the gut microbiome from 24-month old mice into young 6-week old, germ-free mice.

Professor Sven Pettersson at the NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine led the team.

After 8 weeks, Prof. Pettersson and colleagues observed increased intestinal growth and increased neurogenesis in the mice's brain.

To control for the experiment, the team transferred the gut microbiome of young mice into germ-free mice of the same age. The researchers did not observe the same effects as they saw in the mice that received the gut microbiome from older mice.

The team also conducted molecular analysis on the rodents and found they had increased levels of butyrate. Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid that gut microbes produce.

Butyrate is beneficial for health and can protect against diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, obesity, and diabetes.

The enrichment of certain gut microbes and increased bacterial fermentation of dietary fibers in the colon led to these increased levels of butyrate. In turn, increased butyrate levels stimulated the production of pro-longevity hormone FGF21.

FGF21 is a fibroblast growth factor that plays an important role in regulating metabolism. Increased levels of FGF21 were also associated with increased AMPK and SIRT-1 activity and reduced mTOR signaling.

This is important because increased AMPK leads to increased uptake of short-chain fatty acids during cellular metabolism. SIRT-1 also regulates homeostasis and can protect against a variety of human disorders.

Reduced mTOR can protect against human cancers and various inflammatory diseases.

The researchers went on to explore the effect of gut microbiome transplants on the digestive tracts of the mice.

Normal aging of intestinal tissue reduces the viability of intestinal cells. This has associations with reduced mucus production, which can lead to increased cell damage and death.

The researchers found transplanting the microbiome of older mice to younger mice led to an increase in the length and width of the villi, which are small structures that make up the wall of the intestine.

The mice who had received the microbiome from the older mice also had a longer colon and a longer small intestine than the control group that had received the microbiome from other young mice.

The researchers also gave the young germ-free mice butyrate by itself and observed that it led to similar increases in neurogenesis and intestinal growth.

Scientists from around the world have reacted to these results. Dr. Dario Riccardo Valenzano, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Germany, says, "These results are exciting and raise several new open questions for both biology of aging and microbiome research."

Some of these questions, says Dr. Valenzano, include "whether there is an active acquisition of butyrate-producing microbes during mice life and whether extreme aging leads to a loss of this fundamental microbial community, which may be eventually responsible for dysbiosis and age-related dysfunctions."

In addition, Professor Brian Kennedy, Director of the Centre for Healthy Ageing at the National University of Singapore, says, "It is intriguing that the microbiome of an aged animal can promote youthful phenotypes in a young recipient."

"This suggests that the microbiota with aging have been modified to compensate for the accumulating deficits of the host and leads to the question of whether the microbiome from a young animal would have greater or less effects on a young host."

"The findings move forward our understanding of the relationship between the microbiome and its host during aging and set the stage for the development of microbiome-related interventions to promote healthy longevity."

Prof. Brian Kennedy

These results are highly promising for future progression in the treatment of diseases associated with aging, such as neurogenerative disorders.

They suggest that the composition of gut microbiota and dynamics is age sensitive and that the response to microbial cues in early life differs significantly from that in later life.

The results imply that the gut microbiota of older hosts with metabolic homeostasis may support host health. In contrast, in adults with type 2 diabetes, the gut microbiome may induce inflammatory pathways.

Limitations to this study include the fact that microbiomes may change over the course of the study, even under controlled experiments, such as the ones presented here.

It is also possible that other microbial metabolites and cellular pathways have a role to play, but researchers did not investigate these in this study.

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Can the gut microbiome unlock the secrets of aging? - Medical News Today

Have Researchers Finally Figured Out Whether Dogs Are Good For Us? – Forbes

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Prof Baldwin

God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he'll be there.~The Reverend Billy Graham

Its peculiar that the origin of the word dog is essentially unknown. It is true that theories abound such as that the term was derived from the Old Germanic Word docga stemming from the word dukkon meaning power and strength. But in the end, theyre just theories. Essentially a domesticated wolf, the dog is a member of the Canidae family, like the jackal and the fox. And about seven centuries ago, the Old English word hund became hound and represented all domestic caninesa word now used mainly to identify a type of dog used just for hunting.

A beautiful, young Weimaraner with his head cocked to the side isolated on a white background.

But it wouldnt be a stretch if the simplest response from Quora commenter Raenna Foeller makes the most sense"We dont know. We are unable to trace it back very far. All we have is unproven conjecture.or the most profound, that in fact God, spelled backward, is dog.

And that particular fact would make a recent study all the more acceptable.

The paperwhich reviewed 10 different studies, spanning decades and including thousands of participantsshowed a strong correlation between owning a dog and a lower risk of death over the long term.

Now its important to keep in mind that studies of this nature cant take into account all the variables, as theres countless factors that go into pet ownership and longevity, says the Methuselah Foundation, an incubator and sponsor of mission-relevant ventures, research, projects and prizes to accelerate breakthroughs in longevity. But despite the confounders, dog owners can rejoice knowing their furry friends are not only adding to their smiles, but also possibly to their lifespan.

Its also important to note that many, many studies have taken on the question of whether pets are good for us, and that the American Heart Association (AHA), in 2013, concluded while there is significant evidence that having a pet, particularly a dog, seems to be heart-healthy, one should not be purchased or rescued simply for that purpose.

The new study, Dog Ownership and Survival: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, was conducted by Caroline K. Kramer, MD, PhD; Sadia Mehmood; and Rene S. Suen, all of the Leadership Sinai Centre for Diabetes at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada.

The Mount Sinai researchers reviewed studies published between 1950 and 2019 to evaluate the association of dog ownership with all causes of death, with and without prior cardiovascular disease (CVD) as well as cardiovascular mortality.

Dog ownership has been associated with decreased cardiovascular risk, Kramer, the studys lead author, wrote about researchers reasons behind analyzing the data. Recent reports have suggested an association of dog companionship with lower blood pressure levels, improved lipid profile and diminished sympathetic responses to stress. However, it is unclear if dog ownership is associated with improved survival as previous studies have yielded inconsistent results.

In the review of data from some 3.8 million participants in 10 studies with a 10-year follow-up, researchers found that dog ownership was associated with a 24% risk reduction for all-cause mortality as compared to non-ownership. And 6 studies demonstrated a significant reduction in the risk of death. Kramer noted that in individuals with prior coronary events, living in a home with a dog was associated with an even more pronounced risk-reduction for all-cause mortality. Additionally, when researchers analyzed only studies evaluating death from heart disease, dog ownership conferred a 31% risk reduction for cardiovascular death.

The Mount Sinai researchers concluded owning a dog quite possibly does the heart good. Dog ownership is associated with lower risk of death over the long term, which is possibly driven by a reduction in cardiovascular mortality, they wrote.

So have scientists finally answered the question of whether dogs are good for us? The jury may still be out.

In a 2014 article in the Veterinary Nursing Journal, June McNicholas, PhD, wrote: Few people are better placed to appreciate the importance of pets to older owners and the bond that exists between them and their pet, than those working in veterinary practices. For example, how the owner depends on the pet for companionship and the opportunity to give love and feel loved; or how a pet may be part of an integral routine of pet care and self-care. Quite simply, how the pet is so central to the lives of many older people that it is something they cannot visualize being without.

A psychologist who specializes in the relationships between people and pet animals and the effects of those relationships on the physical and psychological well-being of pet owners, McNicholas has published papers in a number of academic journals on her research of the effects of pet loss, the role of pets in child development, animal assisted therapy, and the role of pets to people recovering from serious or life-threatening illness.

For example, her 2005 study examined evidence for a link between pet ownership and human health and the importance of understanding the role of pets in people's lives.

In that study, McNicholas cited research dating from the 1980s that popularized the view that pet ownership could have positive benefits on human health. Those benefits ranged from higher survival rates from heart attacks and reduced risk of heart disease to a significantly lower use of physician services and an overall better physical and psychological well-being in community-dwelling older people.

No studies have found significant social or economic differences between people who do or do not have pets that would adequately explain differences in health outcome, McNicholas wrote, leading to the belief that pet ownership itself is the primary cause of the reported benefits.

McNicholas went on to say research up to 2005 had failed to fully replicate the benefits of the 1980s studies, however. Still, she wrote, The main issue may not be whether pet ownership per se confers measurable physical benefits but the role that pets have in individual people's livesnamely, the contributions of the pet to quality of life or the costs to well-being through a pet's death. This issue embraces a broader definition of health that encompasses the dimensions of well-being (physical and mental) and a sense of social integration.

McNichols concluded that people do not own pets specifically to enhance their health, rather they value the relationship and the contribution their pet makes to their quality of life.

A 1992 study compared risk factors for heart disease in pet owners and nonowners in 5,741 participants at the Baker Medical Research Institute in Melbourne. That study found that pet owners had significantly lower systolic blood pressure and plasma triglycerides than nonowners. Researchers concluded that participants in their study had lower levels of risk factors for heart disease which were not explained by cigarette smoking, diet, body mass index or socioeconomic profile.

And a 2018 analysis of 11,233 community-dwelling adults aged 65 years or older in Ota City, Tokyo, Japan found that compared with respondents with no history of pet ownership, motor fitness and walking activity are greater for dog owners and social function is higher for dog and cat owners. Researchers postulated that caring for a dog or cat might be an effective health promotion strategy to increase physical activity and facilitate social participation among older adults.

In 2013, the American Heart Association (AHA) released a Scientific Statement to critically assess the data about the influence of pet ownership on the risk of heart disease. Authors published the statement on behalf of the American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology and Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing. The statement was endorsed by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, American Society of Hypertension, American Society for Preventive Cardiology, National Heart Foundation of Australia, Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association, and World Heart Federation

In its analysis, the AHA concluded that while pet ownership is probably associated with decreased risk of heart disease, and pet ownership, particularly dog ownership, may have a role in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, people should not adopt or rescue a dog for the primary purpose of reducing heart disease.

The AHA said they had problems with the methodological issues in many studies of pet ownership, though they admitted there are a number of methodologically sound studies, and a substantial body of data that suggests that pet ownership is associated with a reduction in CVD [cardiovascular disease] risk factors and increased survival in individuals with established CVD.

The data are most robust for a relationship between dog ownership and CVD risk reduction, particularly dog ownership and increased physical activity, the AHA wrote. Whether this is attributable to dogs being the pets most commonly owned and studied, dogs being the pet most likely to increase their owners physical activity, or additional other beneficial effects of dog ownership is uncertain, the AHA reported. Given that most studies are non-randomized, it cannot be determined with confidence whether the reduction of CVD risk factors with pet ownership is merely associative or causative, although there are plausible psychological, sociological, and physiological mechanisms for causation for many of the associations, particularly dog ownership and increased physical activity.

In the end, the AHA said that more research is needed including studies of risk factor modification, primary prevention and pet acquisition as part of a strategy to reduce the risk of heart disease.

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Have Researchers Finally Figured Out Whether Dogs Are Good For Us? - Forbes

Futurist Transhuman News Blog

Monthly Archives: November 2019

Meteor Shower Was a Dud, But Showing Up Was Half the Fun – Sky & Telescope

Stargazers turn out in droves for last ‘star party’ of 2019 – Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register

Astronomy Club plans events to engage with the community – The Ithacan

Two Co-Moving Brown Dwarfs Spotted 79 Light-Years Away | Astronomy – Sci-News.com

Black hole horror: Earth to be consumed by monster black hole – astronomer warning – Express.co.uk

Astronomers use the upgraded GMRT to measure the gas mass of galaxies in the distant Universe – Economic Times

See Mercury at its best meet Mars in the dawn sky – Astronomy Now Online

Awesome photos of Venus and Jupiter after sunset | Astronomy Essentials – EarthSky

Tulare Astronomical Association invites you to see Venus and Jupiter ‘collide’ in celestial light show – Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare…

People are starting to notice – The Bowdoin Orient

The 13 Bleakest Rock And Metal Albums Ever – Kerrang!

Albert Camus: The Philosopher of the Proletariat – Free Press Journal

FROZEN 2 Is A Mythic Portrait Of Feminine Strength And Vulnerability (Review) – Nerdist

Podcast: Is it really the end of California as we know it? – Black Voice News

Crikey Comments: Don’t expect anything to change in broken banking – Crikey

What is Putin up to? Secret Russian sub exercise beneath icy waters north of Scotland – Express.co.uk

Missing Link To Longevity Discovered In The Plant Kingdom – Texas A&M University

The disruptive power of disruption – Daily Pioneer

Can the gut microbiome unlock the secrets of aging? – Medical News Today

Have Researchers Finally Figured Out Whether Dogs Are Good For Us? – Forbes