It's about time

Across the pond English scientists are trying to decide whether the world needs to change to a new time standard to compensate for the wobble in Earth's rotation. As it stands, every few years the International Earth Rotation Service adds a "leap second" so that the time kept by atomic clocks and the time measured by Earth's rotation stay within a second of each other.

England's Royal Society is proposing a change to Coordinated Universal Time which would do away with the leap second but not everyone is convinced that this is the best idea. As it stands, this leap second can play havoc with computers, smart phones and GPS devices.

If the leap second is abolished, over the course of a few decades the difference between atomic time and earth's rotational time will be about a minute; and, over the course of a few centuries the two times will diverge by an hour. Of course none of us will be around when that happens so I don't know that I'm too concerned about the whole debate.

But, this exercise does point out that what we call time is not a universal constant - it's a man-made construct. And, what's more, the earth's slight wobble is yet another reminder that we aren't in control of our environment - no matter how much we try to convince ourselves that we are.

Now, while we are debating how to measure time, how about we get rid of standard time and stay on daylight savings time year round? We can change the name of DST to standard time and go merrily about our way.

I am not looking forward to it being pitch dark at 5pm. That's depressing. I'd rather it be light later in the evening. It doesn't matter to me if it's still dark at 7am. I get up before dawn and run so I'm used to being up when it's still dark. If I wanted it to be dark at supper time, I'd move way up north. But, since I like it warm and sunny, I'm more than happy to live on the Gulf Coast.

There's nothing magical about standard time or daylight savings time. DST was introduced during World War II in an attempt to reduce the amount of electricity being used to light houses. By reducing the electric load in the evening, more power and resource could be devoted to the war effort. Just a few years ago DST was extended by a couple of weeks and the sun still rose in the east and set in the west.

So, how about it? Will you join my quest? Abolish standard time and enjoy an extra hour of light in the evening.

What goes up, must come down

You just can't mess with those laws of physics.

Sometime tonight or in the early morning hours of tomorrow a satellite is going to fall to earth. Scientists believe it will fall somewhere between 57 degrees N and 57 degrees S of the equator -- encompassing most of the populated areas of earth. The debris path is likely to be about 500 miles long.



According to Aerospace Corp., the satellite will  crash to earth somewhere along either the blue or yellow lines. So, here's hoping it doesn't hit you.

This graph is a depiction of the amount of junk orbiting the earth. The exponential growth in space junk over the past 10 years is astounding. Not only have we turned the earth into a giant landfill - we are rapidly turning the space around earth into a giant junkyard.

Now go and enjoy a little Blood Sweat &Tears:

Making learning fun

Yesterday I found myself taking my oldest to a birthday party for one of her classmates. I know, I know, a birthday party for a seven year-old - how exciting. How on earth did you get stuck with that gig.

Not yesterday. It was a mad scientist party and the guest attraction was Jon Bartell of Science Quest in Houston. Through some really crazy experiments and a host of critters, Mr. Bartell showed a roomful of kids just how much fun science can be. From cannons made with breath freshener to crushing cans to sending the kids up and back on a hovercraft, Mr. Bartell made science come alive for both the kids and the parents.

We have dumbed down and taken the fun out of so much at school -- all in the name of getting kids ready for standardized tests. What ever happened to teaching children to think and make their own discoveries? What ever happened to hands-on experiments? What ever happened to having kids who wanted to be at school?

Thank you, Mr. Bartell, for reminding us that learning can be fun.