Apples in Fall

Right now, I just can't wait to eat an apple. I don't know why, but I'm not the only person to have this craving right now, and we always get it in Fall. Why? What makes apples seem so delicious compared to anything else in Autumn? My personal theory is that apples are a lot like Fall itself. They are moist, yet crispy and refreshing, and cool you down. Any thoughts?

Why Fall Colors?

The change in the color of the leaves at the top of the trees along highway was more pronounced today. In particular, the maples are beginning to start their rainbow of change along the very tops of the trees. Seeing this annual alteration of of the foliage of my favorite plants made me remember back to the Botany class that I took about six years ago as to why the leaves change color.

When the leaves are created, not only chloroplasts filled with chlorophyll genersting mechanisms are formed, but chromoplasts are also formed. The chromoplasts range in color from gold to red with the extent of how much of each color exists being dependent on the species of plant. Chromoplasts exist at the same time that the chloroplasts keep begin producing chlorophyll, a bluish green substance. The two sets of "plasts" create the final leaf color seen during the summer. As chlorophyll needs to be produced by the leaves and is not automatically present, the early, new spring leaves are more of a yellow-green due to the chloroplasts being more prominent.

As winter approaches and the trees begin to become dormant, the leaves stop producing chlorophyll. The chlorophyll that is already in the leaf gets used up by photosynthesis. The green disappears and what is left are the chromoplasts giving the tree its brilliant autumnal colors.

Too Old? ROFL

The other day when my son and I saw a very funny ad on TV I said "OhEmGe. That was SO funny." I looked at my son and saw a shocked and troubled expression on his face.

"What's wrong?"
"You're too....old to say OMG," he said.

Too old? ROFL. I was five when I collected money for UNICEF. I was eight when I visited the UN building and did a report on LASERs. At sixteen, I took the SAT for the first time. As I got older I found out about the FBI, CIA and the KGB. At 22 I went to work at IBM. AT 28 I said TGIF once a week and had to have work reports finished ASAP so that we CYA'd. People invited me places and I had to RSVP. I have been JPEG files for years! LOL. Never too old.

AIUI, BTDTGTTSAWIO. YOYO. TTYL.

Dark

So what is it about the word Dark that makes it bad, evil or nefarious? Star Wars was on TV the other day and Obi Wan says "that was before the Dark times". Referring to being under the Dark Lord Darth Vader. In Harry Potter they refer to the days of Voldemort as very Dark Times. Voldemort is of course a Dark Wizard and master of the Dark arts. In Lord of the Rings a Fellowship embark on a quest to destroy the Ring, and thus ensure the destruction of the Dark Lord Sauron.

We even talk about being in a dark place when depressed.

So what is it bewtween light and dark with good and bad?

Switching of the Magnetic Poles

Scientists have known for awhile that the magnetic poles move and that they periodically actually switch. The magnetic pole actually moves from being in the North to the South. Lately, there has been mounting evidence that the poles may be in the process of switching right now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_declination
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_magnetic_field
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal

Since childhood when I read about this phenomena in an issue of National Geographic, there have been many questions in my mind..

Will the reversal be slow or fast? Will the Earth's magnetic field disappear during the process?

How will the reversal affect life on earth such as bird migrations that rely on the poles for navigating? Most of our bodies are composed of water which is polar and responds mildly to a magnetic field. Without our current levels of technology would we still be able to detect the reversal when it occurs?

Could the past reversals be responsible for some of the mass extinctions? Could it be responsible for global warming and global freezes?

Autumnal Poems

A canopy of gold and orange,
Held by thick dark trunks.
These ancient trees admired by many,
Still presenting the show so tall.
These trees stand grand,
Majestic still, through hundreds of years of fall.
Children running, playing, jumping,
Colonial times till now.
These beauties have seen it all you see,
What secrets they may hold.
The myriad of colors together ,
A canvas to behold.
God has created this for us all to see,
Thankful our hearts should be.
My eyes just melt,as does my heart,
When seeing red, orange, and gold.
I wait all year for this great show,
Hoping to be able still , to see it when I'm old!!!!!

serenity patience
--------------------------------
Fresh air, crispness, colors flow
Calming silences. Hints of Cool breezes
Fires burn warming the soul

gravity well

Blood Diamond

Movie:
Some Background:
The title refers to blood diamonds, which are diamonds mined in war zones and sold to finance the conflicts.

Set in the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999, the film shows a country torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces.The film portrays many of the atrocities including rebels cutting off people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections.

Powerful movie. Disturbing but eye opening. It even crept into my dreams during the night. I think many people should watch this (not kids) and then think twice before buying diamonds.

I cannot believe that this type of activity is solely for diamonds. Gold, oil, anything rare or finite in existence must have a similar story behind it.

A blood diamond (also called a conflict diamond, dirty diamond or a war diamond) is a diamond mined in a war zone and sold, usually clandestinely, in order to finance an insurgency, invading army's war efforts, or supporting a warlord's activity.

For more information visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_diamonds

Greenland Melting

Earlier today on the Today show, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20904180/, there was an article on the fact that Greenland is melting. This will make a huge difference to the entire world as the ice is fresh water that is melting into the salty oceans.

The show gave no reason ofr the melting. How much do you think humans are contributing to this global warming event?

EPGY OHS Clubs

Last night all of us sat around the TV while OHS had a general assembly focused on attendance policies, the student government, and the clubs they will be having this year.

The OHS clubs this year have enormous variety. They range from literary avenues such as the newsletter, yearbook and Literary Guild to various math and science clubs to philosophy club to music club where the students will play together using special software to a culinary club where recipes are shared and tried. The students and teachers sponsoring the clubs spoke. H in London spoke about the music club, culinary club, and several of the literary clubs. E in Taiwan spoke about the engineering club. M in Canada spoke about the student government and some of the literary clubs. H must have been up at midnight and E was talking to the group at 7 in the morning! Truly wonderful experience for all of us.

They also talked about inviting famous people to talk to the clubs such as philosophers and scientists. This will be possible as the clubs are online.

Esh is thinking of joining the engineering club, philosophy club, Google Earth club, and the astrophysics club. Esh is also going to try to start an RPG club and a language club. Should be fun with kids from around the world.

Democracy Question

So tonight, a question was posed by my DFRL (Democracy, Freedom and Rule of Law) teacher. First I'd like to give a bit of background on this class, the main point being that it is one of my EPGY Online High School classes. In this class, we essentially discuss important philosophical points tied to government. This particular discussion stemmed from some quotes the teacher provided to us.
Now, what you've been waiting for: the question. Essentially, it's, "Is it better for a person, as part of exercising their right and duty to vote, to vote in favor of their own personal interests or for what they believe to be the good of the people?" Just some food for thought (and debate).

Vote On Fonts

Blogger has sevral fonts available. Please vote on your favorite -- including GW and Esh.

1. There is this font - Arial.

2. There is this font - Courier.

3.There is this font - Georgia.

4. There is this font - Lucinda Grande

5. There is this font - Times

6. There is this font - Trebuchet

7. There is this font - Verdana

8. There is this font - Webdings

So please cast your vote in the comments section! Thanks for your help.

UVA Cafeteria

UVA has a cafeteria that I find interesting as it is very different from the one I had at college. In addition to the typical cafeteria hot selections, there are concessions like Pizza Hut and Chik Fillet. My favorite area has salads, yogurts, sandwiches and fresh fruits. I had a great yogurt drink today for the first time. It was very refreshing. There is also a literally huge area for drinks of all kinds -- chilled Starbucks drinks, soft drinks, bottled water, fruit drinks, and smoothies. Teachers and students both eat in the cafeteria; and there is seating both inside and outside.

We have made it through four of the Harry Potter books on tape already; and Ian's car that we got new in March already has 9200 miles on it! The trip along 64 and 288 is a truly beautiful one. The trees are just beginning to show signs of autumnal color. Esh and I talked about what it must have been like when the first Europeans landed on the shores of Virginia. Once they got inland and away from the mosquitoes, Virginia's verdancy must have seemes overwhelmingly beautiful. I love the Indians solution to mosquitoes -- bear fat all over their bodies!

Favorite Numbers

During this past summer's vacation, we had a discussion about favorite numbers. Mine is pi. I like it's shape -- sort of Stonehenge-ish. When I think of pi I think of roundness and harmony. I like thinking about curved surfaces. Two parallel lines can intersect on a curve. Triangles placed on a curve have more than 180 degrees when their angles are added together! Pi is great.

Gravity Well's favorite number is square root of two. It fascinates him that we can travel simply 1 unit (rational number) to the right, 1 unit up (rational number) but to go straight back to our starting point (Pythagorean theorem) we have to travel an irrational number of units 1.41421...

Which can be represented as,

....
Which is wonderfully similar to another favorite of Gravity Well's, PHI=1.618... (golden ratio)

Which can be represented as,

Also, approaches 2 if you keep going... And shows up a lot in Trigonometry.

....

Esh's favorite number is e. It describes many things in the mathematical world, from Euler's identity to continually compounded interest. And in calculus, the derivative of e^x is e^x, and the derivative of ln(x) is 1/x. So simple, but so elegant.

UVA Trips

UVA was a good idea. Esh has a classmate in his Linear Algebra class from the CTY Princeton session this summer; and he sees people he knows almost every day. today, we talked with a friend who graduated from Maggie Walker Governor's school last year.

The weather in Charlottesville was gorgeous today so I read outside. Ants...I think I still have a bunch on me. But I read some of my math class material and enjoyed the sun.

I just MapQuested our daily trip and it is 71+ miles one way. Wow. Already time for an oil change!

This is the first post on what will probably grow to be many. We are a chatty, creative family