Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 18, 2012

17

THE WORLD AROUND US

 Mountain Views News Saturday, February 18, 2012 


COULD VENUS BE SHIFTING GEAR?

 The European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft has discovered 
that our cloud-covered neighbor spins a little slower than 
previously measured. Peering through Venus’ dense atmosphere in 
the infrared, the orbiter found that surface features were not quite 
where they should have been.

 Using the VIRTIS instrument at infrared wavelengths to penetrate 
the thick cloud cover, scientists studied surface features and 
discovered that some were displaced by up to 20 km from where 
they should be given the accepted rotation rate as measured by NASA’s 
Magellan orbiter in the early 1990s.

 These detailed measurements from orbit are helping scientists 
determine whether Venus has a solid or liquid core, which will help 
our understanding of the planet’s creation and how it evolved.

 If Venus has a solid core, its mass must be more concentrated 
towards the center. In this case, the planet’s rotation would react 
less to external forces.

 The most important of those forces is due to the dense atmosphere—
more than 90 times the pressure of Earth’s—and high-
speed weather systems, which are believed to change the planet’s 
rotation rate through friction with the surface.

 Earth experiences a similar effect, where it is largely caused by 
wind and tides. The length of an Earth day can change by roughly a 
millisecond and varies seasonally with wind patterns and temperatures 
over the course of a year.

 In the 1980s and 1990s, the Venera and Magellan orbiters made 
radar maps of the surface of Venus, long shrouded in mystery as well 
as in a dense, crushing and poisonous atmosphere. These maps gave 
us our first detailed global view of this unique and hostile world.

 Over its four-year mission, Magellan was able to watch features 
rotate under the spacecraft, allowing scientists to determine the 
length of the day on Venus as being equal to 243.0185 Earth days.

 However, surface features seen by Venus Express some 16 years 
later could only be lined up with those observed by Magellan if the 
length of the Venus day is on average 6.5 minutes longer than Magellan 
measured.

 This also agrees with the most recent 
long-duration radar measurements 
from Earth.

 “When the two maps did not align, 
I first thought there was a mistake in 
my calculations as Magellan measured 
the value very accurately, but we have 
checked every possible error we could 
think of,” said Nils Müller, a planetary 
scientist at the DLR German Aerospace 
Center, lead author of a research paper 
investigating the rotation.

 Scientists, including Özgur Karatekin 
of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, 
looked at the possibility of short-term 
random variations in the length of a 
Venus day, but concluded these should 
average themselves out over longer 
timescales.

 On the other hand, other recent atmospheric 
models have shown that 
the planet could have weather cycles 
stretching over decades, which could 
lead to equally long-term changes in 
the rotation period. Other effects could 
also be at work, including exchanges 
of angular momentum between Venus 
and the Earth when the two planets are 
relatively close to each other.

 “An accurate value for Venus’ rotation 
rate will help in planning future 
missions, because precise information 
will be needed to select potential 
landing sites,” noted Håkan Svedhem, ESA’s Venus Express project 
scientist.

 While further study is needed, it’s clear that Venus Express is 
penetrating far deeper into the mysteries of this enigmatic planet 
than anyone dreamed.


Venus Express in orbit since 2006 around our nearest planetary neighbour. 

Credits: ESA

LOOKING FOR A JOB? 

GET LINKEDIN!

LinkedIn™ has been described as the social networking site 
for adults. Launched in May 2003 just nine months before 
Facebook went live, LinkedIn has evolved into the most 
widely-used, social networking services used as a pre-
employment screening tool by human resources professionals 
like Vickie Campbell. She has added this tool to a repertoire 
of more than 20 years experience as a recruiter, which has 
included positions with two of the Top 10 international law 
firms in the Los Angeles area.

She was assigned to coordinate the recruitment of attorneys 
and interns from the top 50 law schools in the U.S., including 
Harvard, Yale, Stanford, USC, UCLA, Loyola Marymount and 
others. Her employers high standards entailed identifying and 
screening students who were ranked in the top 5% to 10% of 
their graduating classes. This task 
required a high level of scrutiny 
and a meticulous attentiveness to 
each phase of the process, up to, 
and including employment. 

Vickie is known as an early 
adopter of social media since 
she was quick to understood the 
importance of, and invested time to 
master systems like 
LinkedIn. When 
peers realized that 
she was one of the few among them who 
was actually using this technology, she was 
approached to teach and mentor colleagues 
and job seekers. For the past year, she has 
conducted LinkedIn trainings and other 
social media workshops at Women At Work’s 
Career Resource Center in Pasadena. She as 
developed a LinkedIn course curriculum with 
a focus on strategic networking to identify and 
generate employment opportunities.

She believes that the pros of using social media 
far outweigh the cons, stating, “LinkedIn 
provides job seekers with immediate access 
to an online community that readily shares 
job leads and expertise. It’s also more cost 
effective, since all it requires is access to a 
computer with internet access.”

If you’re looking for a job or simply have an interest in 
expanding your network of professional contacts, register 
for one of her upcoming workshops: “Intro to Social Media” 
(2/22 from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm, $20) and “Introduction to 
LinkedIn” (4/14 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm, $25). Details 
available at www.womenatwork.org


GUEST COLUMNIST:

LAQUETTA ON LINKEDIN


DARN THAT DOGGIE 
DIABETES DISEASE!

Tips On Detecting & Managing 

Canine DM 


KATIE Tse..........This and That

Happy Tails

by Chris Leclerc.

Canyon Canine Dog 

Walking & Pet Sitting Services

Dear Diary...

 KPCC aired an interesting 
story last week. 
Here it is in a nutshell: a 
woman met a man who 
she wasn't sure about, 
although he pursued her 
with gusto from the start. 
One day she noticed his journal left conspicuously 
on a table. Her curiosity got 
the better of her, and she opened the book. 
After reading lurid details of his current 
exploits with other women, she broke up 
with him immediately. Her sister relayed 
a similar account of finding her boyfriend's 
journal lying out in the open. 
Discovering that he intended to break 
up with her, she used the opportunity 
to beat him to the punch.

 The lesson in these stories is that 
satisfying the urge to know what someone 
really thinks of you will likely leave 
you wounded in the end. But with all 
this talk of journals, all I could think of 
was --how many men really keep journals? 
We all know "journal" is just a 
masculine name for "diary." And "diaries" 
conjure up images of hard bound, 
floral print books fastened with dainty 
clasps. I also wondered, how did these 
women know the books were diaries? 
(Assuming they didn't have ruffles or 
rhinestones?) Perhaps men's journals 
have some sort of clasping devise, a 
rugged leather cord fastened through 
a buckle. Sorry, I don't care if it's raw 
hide with metal studs, diaries are still girly. 

 Stereotypically speaking, men are also 
less verbal than women, so the thought of 
them chronicling their daily lives seems 
unusual. And why were these men leaving 
their diaries, containing their most 
intimate thoughts, exposed to possible 
prying eyes? It's as if they were screaming 
"Read me! Read me!" They seemed to 
be using the journals as a passive form of 
exhibitionism. Which brings us to question 
the actual purpose of journaling. 
Often people talk about journaling as a 
cathartic means of getting through rough 
times in life. Such as: "My counselor told 
me to journal my feelings as my divorce 
was being finalized." Few people are disciplined 
enough to make daily entries if 
life is hunky dory. So, keeping a diary implies 
some specific needs on the part of the 
writer. Either you're afraid you'll forget all 
the interesting things that happen to you, or 
you need some sort of record if you're ever 
called to testify as to what you were doing 
on February 18, 2009. Or, as with passive 
exhibitionism, you might be mildly egocentric 
and believe that your daily experiences 
are more interesting and relevant than those 
of everyone else. (These are the people who 
Tweet about the cute way their cat crawls in 
a circle before going to sleep.)

 I recently started a very informal diary of 
my own. Informal, in that it's a Word document; 
putting pen to paper is just too much 
effort. And since I plan to read it at some 
later date, I've decided to record only majorly 
happy or extremely funny events. And 
because these don't happen regularly, I'm 
not obligated to make daily entries. One of 
my latest entries was about a blond Labrador 
crossing Baldwin as I was driving north. 
Its owner got to the middle of the road, and 
then his dog hunkered down right in the 
middle of the street. No amount of cajoling, 
yelling, or jerking of its leash made a bit of 
difference. At last, the owner had no choice 
but to drag him across, in an upright seated 
position. That dog must have a calloused 
bottom or have been just really stubborn. 

 See? This is the sort of thing I'll laugh 
about in my twilight years, even if I don't 
recall the actual incident.

 I received a call from one of my Canyon Canine 
clients, Colleen, a couple of weeks ago. Let me 
just say, this is a girl who loves her dogs more than 
most pet owners. She takes them out for a vigorous 
walk every day, keeps them on a balanced diet, 
and calls me to keep up the routine periodically, 
when she has to travel for her job. Naturally I was 
very pleased to hear her voice, but unfortunately, 
she was calling to give me some not-so-happy news 
about one of her two dogs, a sweet shepherd mix 
named “Hannah”, who was recently diagnosed with 
canine Diabetes Mellitus (DM). I was so surprised 
to hear that such a healthy, active dog as Hannah 
could have contracted a disease that I’ve always assumed 
to be associated with obesity and/or a lack 
of exercise. Hannah has a normal energy & activity 
level for her age, and has been trained to maintain 
healthy exercise & eating habits all her life, so to me 
she seemed like an unlikely candidate for diabetes.

 When I asked Colleen about the symptoms 
that prompted her to pay a visit to the veterinarian, 
she said that Hannah had been camping out at 
the water bowl, drinking like a fiend. She first noticed 
Hannah’s water asphyxiation a few weeks ago, 
but with unusually warm weather at the time, and 
more trekking and hiking the trails in the canyon 
than usual, it seemed natural that Hannah would 
be so thirsty. Eventually, when the temperature 
dropped and Hannah was still spending inordinate 
amounts of time at the water bowl, her mom realized 
it was time to visit the vet. Hannah showed no 
other symptoms or signs of sickness, but her obvious 
need to drink was enough to cause my client’s 
concern. Fortunately, the vet knew which tests to 
perform, and was able to diagnose the problem and 
prescribe the proper treatment in a timely manner. 
I couldn’t help myself from feeling frustrated on 
her behalf and thinking, “Darn that doggie diabetes 
disease!”. It just seems un-fair for a responsible, 
loving & caring pet owner who does all the right 
things to ensure the best health of her dog, to have 
to deal with such a drastic disease, but that is apparently 
how it goes with canine DM.

 After hearing the news about Hannah’s demise, I 
looked further into the facts about this serious, yet 
manageable doggie disease, and I learned that canine 
DM is nowhere near as selective as I thought 
it was in choosing its victims. Much like it does 
for humans, Diabetes Mellitus causes major concerns 
and complications for the canine, and is not 
at all limited to overweight or sedentary dogs. It is 
known to attack canines of various activity levels, 
ages, sizes and breeds and it can even show up in 
dogs which are kept on excellent exercise regiments 
and healthy diets, such as Hannah.

 According to the information I found during 
my research on this subject, canine DM is caused 
by a variety of factors. While it is indiscriminant in 
terms of which dogs it chooses to attack, there are 
certain breeds that are known to have a naturally 
stronger pre-disposition for developing the condition, 
rendering them at a higher risk. A 2007 study 
published in “Journal of Heredity” ranked several 
popular canine breeds from high to low risk, in 
developing diabetes. The top 2 breeds on the ‘risk 
list’ were reported to be the Cairn terrier and the 
Samoyed. The same study showed that German 
Shepherds and Golden Retrievers are less susceptible 
than previously assumed. These findings came 
as a surprise to many in the canine care community, 
since traditional preconceptions (including 
my own) indicate that larger breeds are more at 
risk due to an overly healthy appetite, while medium 
to small breeds tend to respond to the dinner 
bell with a picky pallet. A canine’s tendency to 
succumb to the detriments of diabetes can be associated 
with previous health complications, such 
as pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas), or 
hyperadrenorcorticism (aka: Cushing’s disease). A 
dog whose health has been marginalized by a condition 
resulting in problems with insulin production 
or processing is inherently more vulnerable 
to contracting DM. The jury is still out for some 
veterinarians as to the accuracy of the 2007 study 
findings, but the general consensus is that diabetes 
can indeed occur in any breed of dog.

 The happy side of this otherwise sad saga, is that 
canine DM is manageable if detected in a timely 
manner, and treated properly. Because Hannah’s 
loving owner was observant enough to notice her 
increased water intake, she was able to be diagnosed 
and treated before her condition deteriorated 
to a point of no return. Hannah is now receiving 
daily injections of carefully measured insulin, per 
doctor’s orders. Daily insulin therapy allows her 
system to process glucose that would otherwise 
overpopulate her blood stream, thereby creating a 
virtual garden for the growth of infection, and possibly 
cause major damage to her kidneys. Another 
course of action taken to get Hannah’s system back 
on course was to put her on a high fiber diet, for 
more expedient excretion of potentially sugar producing 
food particles in her digestive system. 

 Thankfully, Hannah is doing great! She takes daily 
walks and loves to play ball in her back yard with 
her doggie brother “Murphy“. As pet owners, we 
can learn from Hannah and Colleen’s experience, 
by paying closer attention to our dog’s drinking 
habits, and consulting the vet if we detect anything 
other than normal thirstiness. All the best of health 
& happiness to you and your beloved pets!