Mountain Views News          Saturday, March 31, 2012

9

THE WORLD AROUND US

 Mountain Views News Saturday, March 31, 2012 


EARTH’S OTHER MOONS

 
Earth usually has more than one natural moon, according to a 
team of astronomers from the University of Helsinki, the Paris 
Observatory and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

 Our 2,000-mile-diameter Moon, so beloved by poets, artists and 
romantics, has been orbiting Earth for over 4 billion years. Its much 
smaller cousins, dubbed “minimoons,” are thought to be only a few 
feet across and to usually orbit our planet for less than a year before 
resuming their previous lives as asteroids orbiting the Sun.

 Mikael Granvik (formerly at UH Manoa and now at Helsinki), 
Jeremie Vaubaillon (Paris Observatory) and Robert Jedicke (UH 
Manoa) calculated the probability that at any given time Earth 
has more than one moon. They used a supercomputer to simulate 
the passage of 10 million asteroids past Earth. They then tracked 
the trajectories of the 18,000 objects that were captured by Earth’s 
gravity.

 They concluded that at any given time there should be at least 
one asteroid with a diameter of at least one meter orbiting Earth. Of 
course, there may also be many smaller objects orbiting Earth, too.

 According to the simulation, most asteroids that are captured 
by Earth’s gravity would not orbit Earth in neat circles. Instead, 
they would follow complicated, twisting paths. This is because a 
minimoon would not be tightly held by Earth’s gravity, so it would 
be tugged into a crazy path by the combined gravity of Earth, the 
Moon and the Sun. A minimoon would remain captured by Earth 
until one of those tugs breaks the pull of Earth’s gravity, and the Sun 
once again takes control of the object’s trajectory. While the typical 
minimoon would orbit Earth for about nine months, some of them 
could orbit our planet for decades.

 “This was one of the largest and longest computations I’ve ever 
done,” said Vaubaillon. “If you were to try to do this on your 
home computer, it would take about six years.”

 In 2006, the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey 
discovered a minimoon about the size of a car. Known by 
the unimaginative designation 2006 RH120, it orbited Earth 
for less than a year after its discovery, then resumed its orbit 
around the Sun.

 “Minimoons are scientifically extremely interesting,” said 
Jedicke. “A minimoon could someday be brought back to 
Earth, giving us a low-cost way to examine a sample of material 
that has not changed much since the beginning of our solar 
system over 4.6 billion years ago.”

 The team’s paper, “The population of natural Earth satellites,” 
appears in the March issue of the journal Icarus.

 The team used the Jade supercomputer at the National 
Computer Center for Higher Education (Centre Informatique 
National de l’Enseignement Supérieur, or CINES) at 
Montpelier, France.

 Founded in 1967, the Institute for Astronomy at the 
University of Hawaii at Manoa conducts research into galaxies, 
cosmology, stars, planets, and the Sun. Its faculty and staff are 
also involved in astronomy education, deep space missions, 
and in the development and management of the observatories 
on Haleakala and Mauna Kea.

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.
com.


Earth captures a minimoon. The path of a simulated minimoon that is temporarily captured by 
Earth. The object approaches Earth from the right along the yellow line and continues on its 
trajectory along the orange path and finally escapes capture along the red path to the upper 
right. The size of Earth and the Moon are not to scale but the size of the minimoon’s path is to 
scale in the Earth-Moon system. 

 Inset: Radar image of near-Earth asteroid 1999 JM8 made with NASA’s Goldstone Solar 
System Radar in California and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico by a team of astronomers 
led by Dr. Lance Benner of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. 
Minimoons are captured from the much larger population of near-Earth asteroids that pass 
close to Earth. This two-mile-diameter asteroid is more than a thousand times larger than the 
biggest minimoons, but it shows the irregular shape and pockmarked surface expected on the 
much smaller minimoons.

 
When you’re 
browsing the 
internet, no one can 
tell if you’re a boy 
or a girl, if you’re 
wearing pajamas or 
your old high school 
letter jacket, but 
every site you visit 
knows where you 
live. While most folk don’t really care about this state of affairs, there may be occasions 
when you’d rather keep your personal details to yourself. With a few tweaks there’s a lot 
you can do to browse the web without revealing too many personal details. 


 Every site you visit knows your IP address – the internet address of your computer. 
The sites need this information to know where to send the pages you’ve requested. These 
sites use “cookies” to remember who you are and what you wanted the last time you 
visited their website. Cookies can be used to store login credentials and other session 
information to customize your browsing experience. 

 In addition to the sites you’ve visited using cookies to remember you, Ad networks 
simply love cookies and use them to tailor the advertisements that appear in the ad areas 
of the site you’re viewing at the time. Have you ever had the feeling that an ad for a 
product you’ve viewed seems to follow you from page to page? Guess what – that’s not 
just a feeling; it’s real. Wiping out all stored cookies and preventing sites from storing new 
cookies would, of course, eliminate any possible privacy loss through cookies. That’s a bit 
extreme, though. Some sites can’t even function with cookies disabled. But do consider 
going into your browser’s settings and disabling “third-party cookies.” This prevents ad 
networks from using cookies to track you. 


 In order to become truly anonymous on the Internet you’ll have to do a little more than 
just clear the cookies from your computer. Google the words “free secure anonymizing 
proxy” (no quotes) and experiment with the sites that turn up. A secure anonymizing 
proxy sits between your browser and the sites you visit. The site sees only the proxy. 


 For a more thorough solution, download and use The Onion Router (TOR). This 
Open Source tool originated in a U.S. Navy project, but now it’s used by all kinds of 
people worldwide, including the hactivist group Anonymous. Anonymous-backed 
Twitter account @YourAnonNews recently posted “Rules #1, #2, #3 and #4 of being 
#Anonymous - Always, always, always, ALWAYS use Tor.” 

 When you surf through TOR, your browser’s data requests take a circuitous route 
through randomly selected TOR servers. All traffic is encrypted except the final 
connection from a TOR server to the actual website. Anyone intercepting a packet along 
the way won’t learn anything about you or the destination website. 

ANONYMOUS 
INTERNET BROWSING 101

 
When I first 
started this 
column over a 
year ago, my 
intention was 
to focus on 
happy, uplifting true-life stories that folks in my community 
could relate to and find interesting or, at least entertaining. 
As a dog owner, and pet walker/ sitter in Sierra Madre, 
I spend lots of time walking and playing with animals, as 
well as observing and photographing local wildlife when 
the opportunity presents itself. I’d be lost without animals 
in my life. They give so much, and ask for so little in return. 
Fortunately, most of my articles have indeed been happy 
tales, mainly because my four-legged furry friends inspire 
me to write joyful accounts of our fun times together, but 
there are times when I must forego the fun and fanfare, 
to speak out about controversial issues that need to be 
addressed. That’s when I end up writing tales that are not 
so happy, but are nonetheless equally true and must be told. 
Please bear with me through this week’s article, as I feel a 
strong need to express my thoughts on this subject, in hopes 
of helping educate my readers, inspire them to investigate 
and incite them to take action.

 All too often, I am forced to analyze my personal 
perspective as to what is going on in today‘s society, regarding 
the human’s exploitation of animals, and all too often I 
am forced to face the fact that people are capable of some 
pretty horrendous acts toward other beings, for their own 
financial or personal gain. At times I think, “Am I the crazy 
one? Am I the only one so saddened by what I just heard on 
the news?” There are even times when I get so overwhelmed 
that I am rendered too paralyzed to say or do anything about 
it. That’s when I retreat into my cerebral cave, where I cry 
it out until I am exhausted. Then, when I’m finally able to 
stop the tears and restore my composure, the sadness turns 
to anger, and I am driven to find ways to make a change for 
the better. Still, even after the storm of emotions has passed 
and compassionate rage has set in, I’m left with a dark cloud 
of disdain and disgust over my fellow man’s absence of 
conscience in being capable of such dreadful behavior. So 
hideous and presumptuous are their actions, and so painful 
are the results. I know in my heart that this is not what God, 
our Creator had in mind when He gave mankind dominion 
over the other living beings He created.

 This week I received a few e-mails from various animal 
rights activists and groups, including links to some very 
graphic videos & written reports about the senseless 
slaughtering of harp seals currently underway in Canada. I 
know this has been going on for decades, but I was caught 
off guard because I assumed that by now, with so much 
new legislation against animal cruelty and exploitation, this 
barbaric practice would be a thing of the past. Well, I was 
wrong. In spite of numerous efforts that have been made, 
and political victories won, thanks to those who‘ve fought for 
the cause, and in spite of the fact that humans no LONGER 
HAVE A NEED for seal products, the bashing & blood 
baths continue to occur, unabated. Canada has been so good 
about changing their laws to protect domestic pets in recent 
years, but they can’t seem to get it together with regard to 
protecting defenseless, helpless seals, either for humane or 
ecological reasons. Apparently it‘s money over matter to 
them when it comes to seal slaughtering.

 According to Mike Hammill, a scientist at Canada’s Dept. 
of Fish & Oceans (DFO), the harp seal population in Canada 
is declining rapidly, due to increasingly sparse ice floes, and 
increasingly high mortality rates at a very young age. When 
there is an intensely demanding market for 2-week old pup 
pelts, and plenty of killers (oops, I meant to say sealers) 
who are willing to bludgeon pup seals to death, how can 
you expect the species to thrive and survive? The game is 
not at all fair, and there is no natural balance there. If the 
killing continues as it is now, the harp seal will end up on the 
endangered species list within a few short years.

 Marketable seal products include hide skins, oil and meat. 
Historically, the most demanding markets for seal products 
were Russia, Norway, a few Asian countries, and the United 
States. The good news is that Russia has decided to ban seal 
products as of this year, and for that I am grateful. The bad 
news is that China is now on the band wagon as a major 
seal product consumer, and who doesn’t know what that 
can mean in today’s global market? Then there is Norway, 
the good ole USA, So. Korea & Japan, all of which continue 
to create a demand strong enough to keep the death toll of 
slaughtered seals at an all-time high. Norway buys most 
of the hide, the Asian countries purchase most of the 
meat, and shockingly enough, the United States purchases 
approximately 75% of the oil. I have never bought seal oil 
myself, so I had no idea what it was even used for. Apparently 
it is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, used in the form 
of a nutritional supplement. More importantly, there are 
several other alternative sources for omega-3 fatty acids that 
are way richer, per calorie than seal oil. The best source of 
omega-3 fatty acids is flax seed oil. The second is walnuts, 
and the third best source is salmon. Imagine that! Three 
extremely rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids, immediately 
available at just about any grocery store in America, and 
yet folks still continue to support the horrific practice of 
bludgeoning baby seals in cold blood in the most inhumane 
way imaginable.

 I realize we Americans don’t have control over what 
other countries choose to sustain in the global trade market, 
but we do have the power to decide what we as individual 
consumers will buy and thereby promote. Seals have 
families, just like you and me, the only difference is they 
don’t they “get” the concept of divorce, and they don’t abort. 
They just do what God created them to do; pro-create and 
survive. The bottom line is, if you purchase and use seal 
products, you are promoting the cold-blooded killing of 
countless innocent helpless seals (mostly infants) every year. 
Some people don’t care about whether other beings besides 
humans suffer or die, but I have faith in my local readers, 
and I believe that they understand that we humans need to 
tend to the creatures God put in our care. It was difficult 
to get through this article, but I really needed to share my 
thoughts about seal slaughtering. Thanks for your patience 
and understanding, and for making the right choice. May 
peace abide in your home…love and let live!

RED SNOW REMORSE & RAGE

Will Canada’s Senseless Seal Slaughtering 
Ever End?


Happy Tails

by Chris Leclerc

THE 
MISSION

 This week, “This & That” 
will abandon its customary 
light-hearted banter to 
deliberate upon national 
politics and global affairs. 
Ha ha! April Fools! But in 
all seriousness, this article 
will undoubtedly strike a 
chord in every Southern 
Californian elementary school students’ heart. I 
speak of the fourth grade rite of passage --the 
“Mission Project,” the crowning jewel of Open 
House!

 Yes, it’s that time of year again. Time when 
schools across country are feeling the mounting 
pressure of Open House Night. If it weren’t for 
my friends and relatives in education, Open 
House Night would have long ago joined my 
other dust bunny memories along with math 
tutoring and shopping for school uniforms.

 As a student, all I cared about Open House 
was its (hopeful) brevity and the possibility 
of refreshments. I had little idea of the strain 
my teachers went through to pull it off. My 
sources tell me that Open House is comparable 
to Back-to-School-Night, except the stress is 
different. At Back-to-School-Night, the teacher 
nervously tries to stretch out a monologue about 
the curriculum and classroom procedures over 
an hour allotted to “teacher presentations.” 
During this 60 minutes of sweaty gabbling, the 
teacher might notice that a third of the parents 
are either juvenile or geriatric, another third are 
preoccupied with their mobile devices, and the 
rest are former students.

 So, if Back-to-School-Night is a trial of the 
unknown, Open House is an obstacle course 
against the confirmed crazies. By crazies I 
mean the parents who the teachers have by now 
identified as overprotective, paranoid, or just 
plain deranged. Since no formal presentation 
is necessary at Open House, the teachers’ best 
strategy for avoiding interaction with the crazies 
is immersing themselves in discussions about 
students’ work, namely the “Mission Project.”

 Ah, the “Mission Project;” staple of fourth 
grade classes across the state. Public and private 
school students alike must create “The Mission.” 
Maybe it’s because many cities, such as San 
Gabriel and San Diego, bear the historic mark of 
Father Junipero Serra, or maybe it’s just tradition. 
“The Mi-ssion! The Mission!” (sung to Fiddler 
on the Roof’s “Tradition”). When I was a fourth 
grader, I recall being assigned to visit a mission 
(San Gabriel of course, unless your family was 
planning a vacation). Having arrived, you needed 
to retrieve something peculiar to that mission 
(e.g., a map of the grounds) to prove you’d actually 
been there. 
What do kids in Porterville and Delano do? Visit 
Santa Bakersfield? Maybe their teachers make an 
exception.

 In the end, no matter what logistical obstacles 
lie ahead, a student’s grade can be saved by a good 
mission model. By this I mean the constructing 
of a mission (somewhat to scale and historically 
accurate). There has never been a fourth grade 
student who actually completed this project by 
him or herself. It is always the work of the family, 
whether the student wants it or not. Unless you’re 
an orphan, your dad, uncle, or older brother took 
charge of building your mission model. In the 
good old days, kids (or families) had to come up 
with creative ideas. Back then you’d see structures 
built of pink colored sugar cubes with neatly 
trimmed Astroturf walkways. It was in that era 
that my dad, an artisan gifted in sculpture and 
replica design, pounced upon the project like a 
starved panther. Almost instantaneously, he had 
little blueprints, and was cutting out poster board 
walls with an exacto knife. He allowed me to 
work on a stone well near the tannery (consisting 
of little rolled brown clay balls stuck together in a 
circle). I felt privileged. 

 When the night of Open House arrived, the 
missions were unveiled. I felt a slight twinge as my 
classmates vehemently hissed “Your dad did that 
for you, didn’t he?” I felt like answering, “Yeah, 
and your dad did that (sloppy, disproportionate) 
thing for you, didn’t he?” I shamelessly admit that 
my dad did the whole project for me. But I’m still 
proud that he beat out all the other dads - I mean 
students, in the mission project. No sugar cubes 
for me, baby!