Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 23, 2012

11

THE WORLD AROUND US

 Mountain Views News Saturday June 23, 2012 


DATA FROM NASA’S VOYAGER 1 POINT TO INTERSTELLAR FUTURE


Data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate that the venerable deep-space explorer 
has encountered a region in space where the intensity of charged particles from beyond 
our solar system has markedly increased. Voyager scientists looking at this rapid rise 
draw closer to an inevitable but historic conclusion—that humanity’s first emissary to 
interstellar space is now at the edge of our solar system.

“The laws of physics say that someday Voyager will become the first human-made object 
to enter interstellar space, but we still do not know exactly when that someday will be,” 
said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at Caltech in Pasadena. “The latest data indicate 
that we are clearly in a new region where things are changing more quickly. It is very 
exciting. We are approaching the solar system’s frontier.”

The data making the 16-hour-38 minute, 11.1-billion-mile journey from Voyager 1 to 
antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network on Earth detail the number of charged particles 
measured by the two high-energy telescopes aboard the 34-year-old spacecraft. These 
energetic particles were generated when stars in our cosmic neighborhood went supernova.

“From January 2009 to January 2012, there had been a gradual increase of about 25 
percent in the amount of galactic cosmic rays Voyager was encountering,” said Stone. 
“More recently, we have seen very rapid escalation in that part of the energy spectrum.” 

This marked increase is one of a triad of data sets which need to make significant swings 
of the needle to indicate a new era in space exploration. The second important measure 
from the spacecraft’s two telescopes is the intensity of energetic particles generated inside 
the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles the Sun blows around itself. While there 
has been a slow decline in the measurements of these energetic particles, they have not 
dropped off precipitously, which could be expected when Voyager breaks through the 
solar boundary.

The final data set that Voyager scientists believe will reveal a major change is the 
measurement in the direction of the magnetic field lines surrounding the spacecraft. While Voyager is still within the heliosphere, these field lines run east-west. When it passes into interstellar space, the 
team expects Voyager will find that the magnetic field lines orient in a more north-south direction. Such analysis will take weeks, and the Voyager team is currently crunching the numbers of its latest data set.

“When the Voyagers launched in 1977, the space age was all of 20 years old,” said Stone. “Many of us on the team dreamed of reaching interstellar space, but we really had no way of knowing how long a journey 
it would be—or if these two vehicles that we invested so much time and energy in would operate long enough to reach it.”

 Voyagers 1 and 2 are still in good health. Voyager 2, launched after Voyager 1, is some 9 billion miles away from the Sun. Both are operating as part of the Voyager Interstellar Mission, an extended mission 
to explore the solar system beyond the neighborhood of the outer planets. NASA’s Voyagers are the two most distant active representatives of humanity.

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

NASA’s Voyager 1 probe has been hurtling toward the edge of the solar system for 35 years and is 
perched to enter the realm of interstellar space. Photo courtesy NASA

 
It’s dark. Your eyes are wide 
open despite your best effort 
to keep them shut. You can 
vaguely make out the headlights 
of passing cars through the 
curtain. The refrigerator’s 
humming is masked only by the incessant ticking 
of the clock in the other room. The sound of 
blood pumping in your ears is not as annoying 
as the realization that your heart is beating faster 
than it should. No, this isn’t the setting of a 
horror movie --it’s 3:00 a.m. 
on a Monday morning.

 Do you suffer from 
insomnia? Is there a growing 
stack of crossword puzzle 
books on your night stand, 
or worse, in your kitchen? 
Do you have ear plugs and 
CDs of ocean waves in your 
bedroom. If you answered 
yes to any of these questions, 
take heart! You’re not alone!

 Thank God I haven’t 
suffered with sleeplessness 
lately! (Knock on wood!) 
But I’m familiar enough with 
it to sympathize with my fellow insomniacs. To 
me, the most frustrating thing is that the pressure 
to fall asleep creates more anxiety, which makes 
sleep all the more elusive. Inevitably, your mind 
wanders onto tomorrow’s tasks, the phone calls 
and emails you’ll have to make, and the errands 
you’ll need to run. Before you know it, you’re 
trying to recall whether Ralphs or Albertsons is 
having a better sale on cereal. “Stop thinking!” 
you tell yourself. But concentrating on not 
thinking is almost as effortful as conjuring up the 
Ralphs ad in your mind.

 The fact that I need to get up for work in a few 
precious hours adds the heaviest layer or anxiety. 
So, I don’t understand why my retired parents 
complain about often being unable to sleep. 
“You’re retired!” I tell them. “You can sleep in 
‘till 10:00 if you want!” Apparently this doesn’t 
do anything to help them catch a few Z’s.

 I’ve heard that as people age, it becomes harder 
to get a good night’s sleep. Therefore, since the 
Baby Boomers are now approaching retirement 
age, there must be a lot of sleepless people out 
there! Why not take advantage of modern social 
networking and connect sleepless Boomers with 
each other? (Assuming 
they all are Internet savvy.) 
They could have a network 
called something like “The 
Boom Boom Room” or 
“50’s After Dark.” Maybe 
there could be code 
questions to enter the site 
like, “What was Diana 
Ross’s second album?” 
Just like Craigslist, there 
could be different forums 
for Boomers to participate 
in. I can’t comment on 
whatever Facebook already 
has in this area because 
(dare I say it?) I’m not on Facebook!

 Perhaps the Boom Boom Room could 
periodically broadcast retro commercials for 
bygone items like Pepsodent toothpaste and 
Lucky Strike cigarettes. Since the divorce rate 
is so high, I’m sure there’d be a thriving “Lonely 
Hearts Club” forum. Perhaps old flames could 
reconnect if they haven’t already done so through 
Classmates.com or Ancestry.com (just kidding!). 
Admittedly, I don’t really know how much this 
could help people sleep, but I bet it would make 
their nocturnal hours a little more enjoyable! 
And with that, I bid you all --Happy Sleeping! 

INSOMNIACS UNITE!

THE SYSTEM’S BIBLE:

A Book Review

 “The System’s Bible” is the third edition of 
a work entitled “Systemantics: How Systems 
Really Work and How They Fail”, by John Gall. 
This tongue-in-cheek text has enjoyed semi-
cult status since its release in 1978 and part 
of its tech-y charm lies in trying to guess the 
degree of seriousness and insight that lay just 
behind the concepts presented for the readers’ 
perusal. Although large, commercially-available 
computer systems and the pre-deployment 
planning efforts that are necessary for their 
implementation seem to be the main focus of the 
examples provided to illustrate and illuminate 
the authors’ findings, just about any person who 
has had prolonged exposure to a large-scale 
system of any kind would come to the quick 
consensus of the universal applications of these 
principles. 

 The primary grist for this work seems to be 
the applied science known as General Systems 
Theory. GST essentially posits that everything 
is a system and everything is part of a larger 
system. It uses these theses to examine how 
these interconnected components cooperate as 
a cohesive unit to achieve some result, either 
for pre-programmed ends or the ends of a larger 
over-system. The study of Systemantics takes 
these points even further and states that once a 
system is created, it invariably takes on a life of 
its own and in a fair number of cases establishes 
its own ends, often with surprising results. If 
this premise sounds a little batty to you, keep in 
mind that the title of this tome, “Systemantics”, 
is itself a play on the phrase “SYSTEMs display 
ANTICS” which is sometimes the only logical 
explanation that can be given by the experts as 
to why a particular system is or isn’t working.

 Systemantics first law (The Primal Scenario) 
states that Systems in general work poorly or not 
at all. Given the incredible amount of human 
energy expended toward the establishment of 
various types of systems to cover various types 
of scenarios, it does often seem that humans as a 
species prefer the predictable illusion of control 
provided by systems implementation to the 
unpredictable nature of free-range chaos. The 
devil we know…

 The text itself is filled with many such laws 
that have scholarly-sounding names. “The 
Operational Fallacy” states that the system 
itself does not actually do what it says its doing 
while the “Functionary’s Falsity” claims that 
people in systems do not actually do what the 
system says they are doing. Driving the point of 
manufactured reality home, “The Fundamental 
Law of Administrative Workings” (F.L.A.W.) 
states that things are what they are reported to be 
and that the system takes as a given that things 
are as reported, regardless of their true state of 
affairs.

 “Systemantics” (in any of its editions) can be 
found through most major book dealers although 
it will most likely have to be ordered. It can also 
be found at www.generalsystemantics.com.


COPING WITH CANINE 
AGGRESSION - IS YOUR DOG 
A PAIN, DUE TO PAIN?

Have you ever wondered why your dog “acts out” 
unexpectedly? You know the typical scenario; you’re in 
the house or your yard minding your own business, when 
you reach out to pet your dog playfully and s/he yelps and 
gives you a bit of a growl as if to warn you to stay away. I 
have personally had that experience with my bloodhound 
on several occasions, and I’ve always blamed it on her blue-
blood genetic make-up. In fact, one of my lesser endearing 
nick-names for Tater is “The In-bred Re-tread”, because 
I have always assumed that her unpredictable behavior is 
due to inbreeding throughout the history of her ancestry. 
However, after having read articles on the subject, and having 
consulted with my vet and a few dog trainers, I’ve learned 
that there are many other more potential reasons why a dog 
becomes aggressive. In one article posted on the “science 
daily.com” website, I read that a much more common yet less 
recognized reason for canine aggression is undiagnosed and 
therefore untreated physical pain.

In a 2010-2011 study, research scientists from the department 
of Animal and Food Science at the Autonomous University of 
Barcelona (UAB) in Spain, analyzed 12 dogs with aggressive 
behavior issues (Giant Schnauzer, Irish Setter, Pit-bull, 
Dalmatian, 

2 German shepherds, Neapolitan Mastiff, Shih-tzu, Bobtail, 
Catalan Sheepdog, Chow-chow and Doberman) and 
remarkably enough, all 12 were diagnosed with aggression 
due to physical pain. Equally remarkable was the fact that 
8 out of the 12 were found to have hip dysplasia, as was 
outlined by Tomas Camps, author of the study published 
in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior. The study focused 
on 4 main points; the most frequent circumstances, the 
most characteristic positions, the most frequent target of 
aggression, and whether the dogs showed signs prior to an 
attack or attacked suddenly and impulsively.

Several deductions were drawn during the UAB study, but 
one general observation made was that dogs known to be 
aggressive for whatever reason before the onset of pain, 
typically gave warning such as a raised lip or a growl before 
attacking and were most apt to attack when food was taken 
away, when they were moved from their rest area, or when 
they were made to do something. On the other hand, dogs 
with no history of aggression prior to the onset of pain 
typically reacted in such a way when an attempt was made 
to control them, in which case they gave no warning, rather 
they reacted on impulse. This information is valuable to 
an owner whose dog responds with aggression, because it 
helps determine the reason(s) behind the behavior, and it 
can prompt the owner to find out if the dog has a physical 
condition that needs treatment. In the case of my bloodhound 
I am quite sure some of her aggressive behavior is due to the 
pain she feels when her ears get infected. For this reason, I try 
very hard to keep her ears clean, and avoid rubbing them too 
hard when I know she is fighting 
an infection.

One of the most common causes 
of canine 

discomfort is hip dysplasia, as 
shown in the 2011-2012 UAB 
study as well as in numerous other 
research studies conducted over 
the years in various countries. 
Hip dysplasia is an hereditary 
degenerative bone disorder that 
occurs in the hip/femoral head 
joint and affects more than 40% 
of Golden Retrievers, Labradors 
and Rottweillers as well as some 
other large breed dogs. It is a very 
painful and debilitating disease, 
and dogs who suffer from it 
can, understandably become 
aggressive when handled or 
even touched. Knowing this 
can be very helpful to an owner 
who wants to be sensitive to their dog’s condition and avoid 
causing them more pain. The key to helping prevent the 
onset of unnecessary pain and potential aggression due to 
hip dysplasia is early diagnosis. If you suspect that your dog 
might be at risk for this painful disease, keep an eye on his 
gate while you are walking him on leash, and watch the way he 
moves about in the house and yard. The signs of hip dysplasia 
in a canine are pretty obvious; you’ll see less freedom of 
movement in the hips and stiffness and awkwardness when 
the dog sits or attempts to rise from a lying position.

There are several products on the market said to help prevent 
hip dysplasia, so it certainly can‘t hurt to add the recommended 
supplements to his daily diet. Also, consult your veterinarian 
if you do see such signs, in order to diagnose and treat the 
problem in it’s early stages. And finally, if your typically easy-
going dog is walking and moving about just fine, but has 
started to show signs of aggression unexpectedly, you might 
consider a general check-up with the vet, just to make sure 
everything is OK, even if it’s just for your own peace of mind. 
After all, our beloved canine companions give so much of 
themselves to us, the least we can do for them is to keep them 
healthy and happy, right?


Happy Tails

by Chris Leclerc