Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 4, 2016

THE WORLD AROUND US

10

Mountain Views-News Saturday, June 4, 2016 


PLANET 1,200 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY IS GOOD PROSPECT FOR A HABITABLE WORLD

A distant planet known as Kepler-62f could be 
habitable, a team of astronomers reports.

 The planet, which is about 1,200 light-years from 
Earth in the direction of the constellation Lyra, 
is approximately 40 percent larger than Earth. At 
that size, Kepler-62f is within the range of planets 
that are likely to be rocky and possibly could 
have oceans, said Aomawa Shields, the study’s 
lead author and a National Science Foundation 
astronomy and astrophysics postdoctoral fellow in 
UCLA’s department of physics and astronomy.

 NASA’s Kepler mission discovered the planetary 
system that includes Kepler-62f in 2013, and it 
identified Kepler-62f as the outermost of five 
planets orbiting a star that is smaller and cooler 
than the sun. But the mission didn’t produce 
information about Kepler-62f’s composition or 
atmosphere or the shape of its orbit.

 Shields collaborated on the study with 
astronomers Rory Barnes, Eric Agol, Benjamin 
Charnay, Cecilia Bitz and Victoria Meadows, all 
of the University of Washington, where Shields 
earned her doctorate. To determine whether the 
planet could sustain life, the team came up with 
possible scenarios about what its atmosphere might 
be like and what the shape of its orbit might be.

 “We found there are multiple atmospheric 
compositions that allow it to be warm enough 
to have surface liquid water,” said Shields. “This 
makes it a strong candidate for a habitable planet.”

 On Earth, carbon dioxide makes up 0.04 percent 
of the atmosphere. Because Kepler-62f is much 
farther away from its star than Earth is from the 
Sun, it would need to have dramatically more 
carbon dioxide to be warm enough to maintain 
liquid water on its surface.

 The team ran computer simulations based on 
Kepler-62f having:

 An atmosphere that ranges in thickness from the 
same as Earth’s all the way up to 12 times thicker.

Various concentrations of carbon dioxide in its 
atmosphere, ranging from the same amount as is 
in the Earth’s atmosphere up to 2,500 times that 
level.

 Several different possible orbital paths.

 Shields said that for the planet to be habitable 
throughout its entire year, it would require an 
atmosphere that is three to five times thicker 
than Earth’s and composed entirely of carbon 
dioxide. (This would be analogous to replacing 
every molecule in Earth’s atmosphere with carbon 
dioxide, which means that the planet would have 
2,500 times more carbon dioxide than we have.)

 “But if it doesn’t have a mechanism to generate 
lots of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere to keep 
temperatures warm, and all it had was an Earth-
like amount of carbon dioxide, certain orbital 
configurations could allow Kepler-62f’s surface 
temperatures to temporarily get above freezing 
during a portion of its year,” she said. “And this 
might help melt ice sheets formed at other times in 
the planet’s orbit.”

 The research is published online in the journal 
Astrobiology.

 Shields earned a master’s degree in acting from 
UCLA and worked as an actor. In January 2015, 
she founded Rising Stargirls, a program that 
teaches middle school-aged girls of color about 
astronomy and astrobiology using theater, writing 
and visual art. Teachers can request a free copy of 
the Rising Stargirls discussion guide and activity 
book through the program’s website [http://www.
risingstargirls.org].

 “No star is ever lost we once have seen,

We always may be what we might have been.”

— Adelaide Anne Procter (1825-1864)

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


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

CHRISTOPHER Nyerges

FOOD FROM THE URBAN LANDSCAPE

-- Hidden in Plain View

READY, SET, NOW GO FOR IT

[Nyerges is an 
ethnobotanist, teacher, 
and author of “Guide 
to Wild food and Useful Plants,” “Foraging 
California,” and several other books on wild 
foods and survival. He can be reached at www.
SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com, or Box 41834, 
Eagle Rock, CA 90041.]

I received a phone call one day from a man 
wanting to attend one of the wild food 
outings. “I want to save money on my food 
bill,” he told me, “and I’d like to know how 
many of your classes I’ll need to take before 
I can reduce my family’s food bill down to 
zero.”

 It took me a minute or so to realize that he 
was serious, and his primary goal seemed to 
be saving money. I explained to him that if 
he learned just one edible plant, then he could 
safely use that particular plant immediately. I 
also told him that it took me years of studying 
botany before I could go out into the forest 
for a week and find all my food. 

 I asked him, “Have you ever eaten any wild 
foods?” 

 ”No,” he replied.

 “So that could be another problem,” I 
informed him. If you’ve eaten “normal” farm-
grown and factory processed food your whole 
life, you may find that your body may not like 
a complete diet of wild foods. Then I tried to 
explain the work involved in order to have a 
year-round supply of wild food, such as the 
need to constantly collect, dry, pickle, can, or 
otherwise store an ongoing supply of food.

 “Yes, but I’d still like to know how many 
classes of yours I’d need to take before I 
can reduce my food bill down to zero,” he 
persisted. 

 I told him he was asking the wrong 
questions. If reducing his food bill was of 
prime importance, then I suggested that he 
do as many of the following as possible:

 Buy food at the 99 cent store, or at stores 
that discount older or discontinued items.

 Begin buying food when it is on sale, and 
always use coupons.

 Join a neighborhood co-op to get the lowest 
possible prices.

 Try to buy food in bulk at reduced prices.

 Begin to garden, growing only those crops 
that you eat already, and that do well in your 
area.

Join a neighborhood garden.

 Learn to trade surplus backyard food with 
your neighbors.

 And, if one needs food now, learning 
botany may not be the best and quickest way 
to put food on the table. Remember that you 
can eat just about any bird, mammal, fish, 
crustacean, snake, lizard, etc. The man said 
he wasn’t a vegetarian, so I knew that the 
animals that people ate for millennia could 
serve him well. In an urban, economic or 
political collapse, I suggested that he might 
do well to learn how to trap rats and pigeons, 
and cook them well.

None of this seemed to interest the man, and 
he never did attend any of my classes. Sad! 

 Yes, there is plenty of food in the urban 
areas, and most of it just goes to waste, 
season after season. Besides whatever weeds 
grow wild in the cities, there is surplus 
from backyard gardens, and there are the 
occasional edible fruits from bushes and 
trees that were otherwise planted only as 
“ornamentals.” While most urban areas do 
not have enough land to provide for the long-
term food needs of all the city’s residents, 
there are nevertheless many food crops 
growing all over. To increase your survival 
quotient, learn all you can about the wild and 
feral foods in your city.

 If you ever had to live off the land in 
the aftermath of an urban disaster, could 
you do it? At least, you should be able to 
supplement your food supply with foods that 
are everywhere in the cities, right now. 

 To learn more, watch this column, get 
books on the subject, and take classes on the 
subject.

As far as I’m concerned, summer is the best time 
of the year. I look forward to it while withstanding 
the chilly shivers of wintertime and the erratic 
damp weather of spring. Summer is my time of 
year!

 I guess the reason it takes so long for summer 
to get here is that it takes an awful long time to 
get ready for this wonderful thing called summer 
time.

 Why is it we work so hard during the wintertime 
and then when summer comes the plague of 
laziness seems to spread abroad? Actually, I think 
I have earned that lazy spell so associated with 
summer.

 This is where the Gracious Mistress of the 
Parsonage and I cross swords.

 For some reason she believes summer is the 
time to catch up on all the work around the house. 
There is yard work to be done. The garage needs 
to be cleaned out and reorganized. That is only 
the start. Thinking about all that stuff makes me 
tired.

 I will not say she is a “workaholic,” at least out 
loud. Her saying is, “Early to bed and early to rise 
gives you plenty of time to work.”

 And boy, does she work. I am exhausted and 
wore out just thinking about all the work she 
does. If anybody gets things done, she does. In 
fact, she gets some things done that don’t have to 
be done. At least from my calculation.

 My philosophy along this line is, “The harder 
you work the quicker old age catches up with 
you.” If that is true, and I am hoping it is, old age 
will never catch me.

 The difference between my wife and I is simple, 
I believe summer is the time to catch up on all 
the loafing missed during the wintertime. It is 
important, at least from my perspective, that we 
do not get behind on our loafing. You can never 
engage in too much loafing, from my experience.

 Yard work will always be there. A dirty garage 
will always be dirty no matter how many times 
you clean it. Loafing is a very different thing. It 
is a very religious aspect of life. By that I mean, 
loafing is a way to respect your body. I have a lot 
of respect for my body.

 As we begin the first stage of summer, I want to 
get ready to exercise as much loafing as I possibly 
can.

 Loafing has several stages to it.

 The first stage is just doing nothing. I have 
graduated with high honors at this stage. It 
took me a lot of hard work to get to this point of 
mastering the art of doing nothing. And I must 
say I have mastered it quite well.

 My wife will ask me on a lazy summer 
afternoon, “What in the world are you doing?”

 My reply is simple, “I’m doing nothing.”

 Then she says rather sarcastically, “You’re doing 
a wonderful job.”

 I thank her and go on doing nothing.

 Another stage of loafing is doing things you 
enjoy doing.

 My wife wants to convince me that doing yard 
work is something we can enjoy doing together. 
I certainly do not enjoy working hard, sweating 
and getting tired. Those three things do not go 
very well with my idea of enjoying myself.

She enjoys working, slaving away and sweating. 
She gets up early, works so hard, and needs a 
shower before breakfast while I am just getting 
my peepers to unpeep. As long as she has a smile 
and is enjoying herself, I will never interfere.

 What I do object to is her assuming that what 
she enjoys doing is what I enjoy doing.

 “Come on and help me in the yard,” she says 
so cheerfully, “you will enjoy it. It’s a beautiful 
afternoon.”

 Obviously, we have been married for so long 
and she still doesn’t know what I enjoy. One of the 
things I do not enjoy is working out in the yard, 
sweating and approaching the cliffs of exhaustion.

 My idea of loafing has nothing at all to do with 
“enjoying work.”

 Of course, if you include in this category the 
idea of enjoying loafing for sheer loafing sake, 
then you got my attention. If I enjoy loafing, I 
should be allowed to enjoy it as often and as long 
as I can. That is what summer is all about.

 Another stage in this area of loafing is practicing 
the art of horizontal extension. Here is an area 
where I excel. Nothing is more enjoyable than 
sitting on the back porch with my feet stretched 
out as far as possible, my head and shoulders 
reclined back and a glass of iced tea in my right 
hand. That is what loafing is all about.

 Between my wife’s working and my loafing this 
summer is going to be a wonderful time. Both of 
us are doing what we enjoy doing and hopefully, 
not getting in each other’s way. I make it a rule not 
to interfere with her working and I am working 
on getting her to make a rule not to interfere with 
my loafing. We are halfway there.

 I think David understood my position exactly. 
“And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for 
then would I fly away, and be at rest” (Psalm 55:6).

 I am poised, and ready to face the summer with 
all the loafing I can experience.

 The Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family 
of God Fellowship, in Silver Springs Shores. Call 
him at 352-687-4240 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.
net. The church web site is www.whatafellowship.
com.


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