Another spring day

Today it's the second spring day - in a row.
19°C (66°F), subjective: 35°C (95°F)
Humidity 52%, subjective: 150%

Think I'm getting hot flushes. No joke.

Spring feeling - again

Today it's blue sky time - again. Some cirrus clouds. First time since Thursday. Yepeeh !!

Well, to be honest just now it's getting cloudy again. But some blue color behind the white potage is still visible.

With good will.

The necessity for artificial gravity

During current space missions there is no gravity within the space vehicles. This results in a serious muscle degradation of astronauts. The only countermeasure for this problem seems to be sports. Alas this cannot stop the muscle degradation completely.

The other serious problem about long term space travel is the high-level radiation from the sun which can not be shielded properly. But I don't wonna talk about this second major problem.

It's a bit strange to see all these committed people at NASA (and possibly other space institutions) work so hard on training astronauts to bear and fight this muscle degradation in regard to the planned Mission to Mars.

It seems that nobody in national space industries is willing to accept the fact that a human being is simply not made for weightlessness.

Accepting this would make things so much easier: Because it would allow us to set all forces free for the development of artificial gravity.

The loyalty to maintain old ways of thinking is widespread. If you look at all those people involved into the preparation of the human element, it's understandable: Having artificial gravity would make many scientists and engineers loose their sophisticated current projects.

However there are always other projects available and I bet even more interesting ones. But the habit of wanting to understand the process of weightlessness makes scientists and engineers kinda blind for the major uselessness of their actions: Of course it would be nice to understand more about the human body and weightlessness but the current importance of weightlessness is irrational in my point of view.

As long as the concept of artificial gravity is not yet tested, noone can really say how the human body would react. This might also deter people from using it.

The absurdity of training men and women to fight the non-presence of gravity: The absurdity of traing people to fight the non-presence of gravity can be made more obvious by simply imagining what would happen if the same scientists would want to explore the other hardly explored realm beside space: The realm of the earth oceans.

No scientist would want to train humans to fight the forces of the deep sea: Here it's generally accepted by people that technical help is needed to explore the depths of the oceans. Why not so in space ?? Of course one day it might be possible to get humans accustomed to the deep sea by implanting gills. But we're talking about present day science here.

It's rediculous to spend so much energy, time and money in space to do something that does not provide a good return on investment. And I claim that only artificial gravity would make life and work and the production of goods economically viable.

To show the absurdity of current efforts let's see another example: A top athlete is trained to swim against the continuous stream of a river. The athlete can fight the power of a steady stream for let's say a year and thereby keep his position. But the thing is: He can never win during his lifetime.

Conclusion: If the human race is going to let people stay in space for more than a rediculously unefficient short time period, there is a need for artificial gravity.

The usual argument against this concept is: The additional costs are tremendous. But I heavily doubt that: Has anyone checked the truth of this argument lately (in regard to technical realizability and costs) ?

Besides the trick is to make the impossible affordable !!

How can we produce artificial gravity ? - Currently there seems to be only one way to produce artificial gravity and that is by using a spinning wheel: However, variations are imaginable of course to minimize costs:

Nobody says that the spining wheel concept must be implemented by a homogeneous wheel. What we need here is simply some little amount of fantasy to alter the concept:

Let's assume for example that the ISS (International space station) - even though it is unsuitably constructed for weightlessness (i.e. drawers in the ceilings and the floors and such stuff) - is meant to be transferred into a space station with artificial gravity:

1) Well, all joints would have to be reinforced to make load changes bearable in cases of sudden acceleration changes of the spinning process.

2) All ISS-modules would have to be ordered in a vertical fashion (with their larger dimensions) in regard to the surface of the earth: The reason for this is that the spinning axis should be vertical to the surface of the earth. Many vertical configurations are imaginable and that includes modules being ordered in parallel (but of course still vertical) to the earth surface.

Since the ISS is just about 350 km above the surface of the earth it is within reach of earth gravity. If you would then spin the wheel with its axis parallel to the surface of the earth, you would have the problem to accelerate people inside the wheel half of the 360°turn with the acceleration of the wheel plus the acceleration of the earth (earth gravity) while you're going downwards (towards the earth surface) and while you're turning the wheel upwards away from the surface of the earth you would still have the wheel acceleration but thistime minus earth acceleration (earth gravity).

This would make astronauts feel pretty much like in a roller coaster and of course it would not be wishful to upset a stomach without need.

The problem can be avoided by letting the wheel circle around an axis vertical to the surface of the earth. Putting it thisway, earth gravity does not contribute to the acceleration of the spinning wheel.

3) A few high load non-metallic wires would be nice of maybe 100 m length or less.

4) A counter weight would be obligatory: It could be made of waste modules and filled with no more needed fluids or solid materials.

5) Connect the wires with the ISS and the counter weight(s) and let the ATV (the European Autonomous transfer vehicle), the Russian progress space freighter or the American Space Shuttle start the rotation of the total construct.

By the way, if we put a metal fabric onto the non-metallic wires at the wires towards the counter weight, we can even produce electricity because we are moving throught the magnetic field of the earth and electric power is induced into the metallic part of the wire.

Final statemmet: Nobody can tell me that these changes cannot be made for an affordable prize by private companies. Of course, if NASA was the sole provider of these changes, I bet that billions would be spent. But that does not mean that billions are really necessary to get the job done ! Of course well established private companies will probably take what they can get if NASA asks them to make an offer... so this might rather be a call for all start ups to get the job done.

This article was heavily revised on the 9th August 2008.

Mission to Mars

They say a flight to the Mars will cost at least 20 billion dollars.
That's $20,000,000,000.

Last time that a major amount of money was spent mankind was going to the Moon.

Don't get me wrong: That was real great ! I'm a big fan of that undertaking. But I don't wonna do it just once.

The fact that it must have been a tremendous sum turned out in 1972 when the public learned that there would be no more flights to the moon. Wars on earth seemed to be more important so that no more public money was available for the peaceful progress of mankind.

Some people take the view that private industry nowadays can do it better anyway and cheaper, too. I'd support that opinion.

I think we should have learned from the big regress concerning manned space travel after the sudden death of the manned moon travel program.

Shall we leave it up to our children to see the other planets of our solar system ? Shall we just leave it up to a few astronauts/cosmonauts/taikonauts to go there ?

I must confess: I'm more selfish.
I wonna have it myself - and I wonna have it now.

Roses

What's so special about roses ?


After all, roses are just flowers.
But flowers color our lives.
They enlighten it.
And they give us landmarks so that we know where we are.

Finally, flowers emerge from plain soil -
and give their unconditional beauty to us.

How poverty appeared on stage

First signs of poverty appeared in Münster about two years ago.

One of these so-called quality shops in the main pedestrian shopping street closed and no equal quality shop moved in.

Instead one of those 1,00 EUR shops (where all articles just cost 1,00 EUR) appeared on stage. Actually, it was said to just fill in the space until the next quality shop would follow. But no other quality shop turned up as months passed by.

Another shop closed, I think it was a clothes shop, and a discount bakery opened up.

Today, there are numerous discount bakeries spread all over town.

Spring on March 10th 2005

Weather today was excellent [x-cell-ant].
No more snow on the streets or in the urban nature.
Blue blue sky. Terrific contrast between houses and sky.
Lush deep blue.

Birds started singing today at sunbreak sharp as I heard from hearsay.
Kind of spring feeling. Well... apart from the temperatures:

About 7°C. Maybe -7°C.

Can't tell for sure 'cause the Watch-Temperature-Alternating-Combi-Display-Panel at the local Deutsche Bank branch is broken: Minus letter doesn't work.

By the way... you know the Deutsche Bank ?
You also know the Sparkasse ? - No ?
It's a local bank. Pretty independent. Each town in Germany has 'em.
Most people here in Münster have an account with the Sparkasse.
More branches. More ATM.

The new shopping arcade is being build and owned by the Sparkasse.

New Shopping Arcade

Münster's new shopping arcade is to be opened in May 2005. You probably say that's nothing special. Well, as you know, Münster is a pretty small town, so this is probably the biggest building project around.

Genocide in Sudan

Do you remember the genocide in Ruanda and former Zaire, now called Democratic Republic of Kongo in 1994 ? Are you aware of the ongoing killing in that region ?

It is affirmed that at least 1 million people were killed during that genocide. The world decided to do better in the Sudan conflict. Does it?

Population of Sudan (before the killing): About 35 million.
The Sudanese government still (2005) sends so-called Janjaweed (Dschandschawid)-Militia to fight the civilian population in the West Sudanese region of Darfur. Altogether the Sudanese government seems to support a few dozens of Militia groups in Sudan.

Interposed question: Why does a government support or use Militia ? Because Militia are no official Armed Forces. In regard to Public Relation that comes in handy.

It is unclear (to me) how many Militia troops are supressing and killing and displacing the civilian population of Western Sudan.

Sources on TV used to talk about 1 million displaced persons and about 10,000 having been killed already but that numbers just sound like helpless estimations to me that can not be affirmed by any reliable source so far. Sources also estimate that 300,000 people or more are about to die due to direct killing or due to indirect starving from hunger (provoked by the expulsion).

Interposed question: How many people have to be killed before a genocide is affirmed ?

I think you could call it genocide (if numbers were affirmed) but genocide is a dangerous word as the UN would have to intervene militaryly.

That brings us to the question: What was there at first, the chicken or the egg ?Meaning:Does the Sudanese government kill 'rebel' people in Western Sudan or do the Rebel Groups exist because the Government (Militia and official Air Force) is fighting civilian people in Western Sudan ?

Well, basically one would say that governmental executives normally don't tend to kill its civilian population if they in fact want to kill some rebels. But that's what actually seems to happen in Western Sudan as all international help organizations tell. And in common terms one would call that genocide.

Interposed question: Is the UN really willing to intervene thistime ?

Actually nobody seems to be interested in looking too closely into numbers.

After all... which advantages for the western world could Sudan bring ? It's that much underdeveloped that it's just not attractive for any kind of intervention. (That's meant to be cynical !!)

But I'd like to add: If you kill a human being directly or if you let him starve from hunger by displacing him from his soil makes no difference: It's both murder !

And at least in our western culture it is a crime to let children starve from hunger if you know about it, isn't it?

There seem to be some resistence of some black African rebel groups but they seem to be highly inefficient in protecting the Western Sudanese civilian population. Besides any Militia or official troops in unstable African countries (proof me wrong !) tend to serve just certain factions or local warlords. So it obviously makes no sense supporting any faction by delivering weapons.

People who really want to end a war, build up their country and help the civilian population to gain education and prosperity do not exist or are being killed.

So, shouldnt't anyone do something more forcefully about it ? And can it be done without marching into Sudan ? Can the displaced people be protected from being displaced ? Can food be brought to the starving people of Western Sudan in time ?

From a geographical point of view one might say:

1. It's the job of the African Union (AU) because Sudan belongs to Africa.
2. It's the job of the European Union (EU) because they are located next closest.
3. It's the job of the United States (USA) because they are a super power.
4. It's the job of some other powers.

I) Africa is unfortunately unable to help itself:

II) Europe simply lacks the self confidence and especially joined European Armed Forces.
III) The NATO (USA and Europe), which could be seen as a kind of European Armed Forces, was not constructed to intervene in Africa.
IV) The US normally arguments that Europe doesn't need European Armed Forces as there is the NATO.

Convincing isn't it ? Do you get the logic ?

V) The USA is simply not able nor interested in intervening militarily due to other military comitments (such as Afghanistan, Iraq... Iran, Syria etc.).

A simple final question: How long can one make it without water and food ? When will we get rid of all those annoying sounds of suffering ?

Population of Sudan (after killing or displacement): Not less than 34.2 million. (Since population of Western Sudan is just about 833,000. Lucky us... we'll miss the million...)

Damage to people in Northern Dafur province (680,000) and Southern Dafur province (760,000) is not taken into account though.

The haircutter

Today I decided it was a good idea to visit a haircutter.

Getting my hair cut is always a question of believe for me as I have to remove my glasses when the cutting part starts.

I'm shortsighted so I don't really see what's going on. My eyes may be looking critical from the haircutters' perspective but in fact I don't really see what the doc is about to operate.

Well, maybe it's better this way !

So, no difference in the routine today.

She asked me how to cut it and I gave her my basic ideas. Afterall... you can't do much wrong about a man's haircut, can you ??

When I think about it: Haircutters only take things away from you: Your hair and your money.

But I digress: Snippety snip... I hear the scissors work... and down falls the poets mane.

Thanks Miss... could I please get back my glasses ?

Cat or slice of marmelade bread ?

There is a saying that a slice of marmelade bread always falls onto its marmelade side if falling to the ground.

Furthermore in regard to cats it is known that cats always fall onto their paws if falling from a tree or whenceever.

Last year I had a discussion about which urge is stronger: The urge of the cat to land on its paws or the urge of the slice of marmelade bread to land on its marmelade side.

A scientific experiment certainly would help shed some light on this question.

So quickly an experimental setup was conceived: The slice of marmelade bread should be fastened to the back of a voluntary cat with its marmelade side pointing upwards.

The experimental setup (cat and fastened slice of marmelade bread) should then be lifted to an unperilous altitude of approximately 2m.

To give both test objects same starting conditions the cat should be turned 90° around its length axis so that the cat's paws and the slice of marmelade bread both had an angle of 90° in regard to the ground.

However, due to objections of some local animal welfare institutions the experiment had to be cancelled. In a way this is unfortunate as scientific progress was impeded. Well, maybe another setup can help solving this interesting problem.

Global Flyer

The obvious story:

Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer achieved the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world without stopping or refuelling the aircraft.
Place of take off and landing: Salina Airport, Kansas, USA
Starting time: 18:47 CST (00:47 UTC), Monday, February 28th 2005
Landing time: 13:50 CST (19:50 UTC), Thursday, March 3rd 2005
The resulting flight time was about 67 hours and 2 minutes.


Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer (isn't she a beauty or what ?!!)

Steve Fossett (piloting the Global Flyer) founded two financial companies before his career as an adventurer: He made his fortune in the American financial markets with his brokerage companies Lakota Trading, Inc. and Marathon Securities, Inc.

He is a friend of British billionaire Richard Branson who owns companies such as Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways and basically all companies with the word Virgin in it.

Some technical data of the Global Flyer:
Cockpit: Pressurised and large enough for one pilot
Length: 11.7m, Height: 3.6m, Wingspan: 35m
Global Flyer empty weight: 1.5t
Fuel capacity: about 8.5t
Speed: about 460km/h (290mph or 250 knots)
Ceiling height: about 15,000m
Engine: Williams FJ44-3 ATW
Thrust: about 10,200 Newtons
So if you'd level that engine vertically upwards, it would take you about 1t (=1000kg) of weight to hold it back hovering in the air.

Williams International of Walled Lake, Michigan, delivered the FJ44-3 ATW engine. Information about the engine on Virgin Atlantics' homepage (Richard Branson) can be found here: Williams.

Chelton Flight Systems delivered the instrumentation.

Advanced Composites Group Inc. (ACG) delivered the LTM45 series composite prepreg materials.

The flight route was carefully chosen to meet the criteria of the Federation Aeronautique International (FAI). Among other requirements this includes a route length of about 37,000 km.

From left to right: Richard Branson, Burt Rutan, Steve Fossett

The real story:
Dick Rutan (older brother of Burt Rutan, above) and Jeana Yeager (his former wife) in fact achieved the first non-stop circumnavigation of the world without stopping or refuelling in 1986 with a similar looking plane called Voyager.

Place of take off and landing: Edwards Airforce Base, California, USA
Starting time: December 14th 1986
Landing time: December 23rd 1986
The resulting flight time was about 9 days (!) and 3 minutes.


Voyager Aircraft of 1986 (now exhibited in the Smithonian)

Technical data of the Voyager:
Cockpit: Non-pressurised and large enough for two pilots
Length: 9.90m, Height: 3.1m, Wingspan: 33.80m
Voyager empty weight: about 426 kg (939 lbs)
Fuel Capacity: about 4.4t
Speed: average 185km/h (115mph)
Ceiling height: about 6000m
Engine types: Two Continental Motors IO-240 engines
Air cooled front engine: 130 horse powers
Liquid cooled rear engine: 110 horse powers

So what's the point?
Burt Rutan constructed both planes (Voyager and Global Flyer) with his company Scaled Composites.

Burt Rutan also constructed SpaceShipOne, the first privately built spaceship. It went into space on September 29th 2004 and October 4th 2004 on suborbital flight curves, reaching altitudes of more than 100km (62 miles). By doing this twice within a fortnight SpaceShipOne won the Anzari X-Prize (worth $10 Mio.).

So, my point about these aircrafts is: The man who constructed them. That's the real story.

Wintriness of March 4th

It's around 0°C (32°F) in Münster.
Relative Humidity 62%.
Streets clear. Snow on leafless trees, bushes and grasslands.

Good to bear, no problems due to the pretty low humidity. Without high humidity, the human body heat is not sucked off from the body as it happened often in the past few weeks.

You don't realize that wintriness can be that good to bear until humidity drops like today.

-30°C (-22°F) could come.... piece of cake.

The Pink Panther Strikes Again

Allright, this is gonna be a fairy tale. Any similarities with reality are merely accidental and by no means intentional.

Once there was a major German company... - let's assume out of the telecommunications branch - calling itself The Pink Panther. It was market leader and by far the biggest competitor in the market.

As the internet became more and more important, there was a huge internet bubble building up. Nobody knew exactly that it was a bubble at that time, however... it was.

So, one fine day the managers of The Pink Panther sat all together, warming themselves at the big open fireplace in their huge conference hall and the idea came up: "Why not go public with our internet activities... let's collect some money. "

"Oh yeah... great idea boy !! Let's collect some big big mo mo moneeeey !!!" the fellow managers joined in.

All eyes were glowing, gleaming and beaming happily.

Having said is having done. Short time later, let's say in the magical year 2000, Little Panther was released into life. Stocks of Little Panther were sold for, well... let's say 27 EUR.

Ok... you guys out there certainly wonna hear something motivating, something emotionally positive here now, don't you ?? Something like: "Little Panther was developing great", or such ?

However, the continuation of this story is a sad one: Stocks developed pretty bad in the time that followed. Little Panther was the market leader but stocks dropped to - let's say - about 9 EUR. Everyone at The Pink Panther was pretty sad about this development. Some people at headquarters even feared that they could be held responsible for this unsuccessful business development of Little Panther.

At least, some years later (without gains), suddenly there was light at the end of the tunnel: Gains were showing up. All little stockholders didn't know and also didn't realize this too well as it was not communicated loudly in the news. Maybe Little Panther was afraid of his own shadow ?

At least it was communicated in a way that nobody seemed to trust Little Panther well enough for to invest his money into his stocks.

And then - on a cold and sunny day - a bright young manager of The Pink Panther had a great idea. Shyly he uttered to his older collegues:

"What... if we just buy back the stocks of Little Panther now. Would be a great deal, wouldn't it ?? Shares are still very low now and gains are showing up too, finally. Wouldn't it be a nice thing to kick out all small stock suckers and get the full monty... cheap stocks, present gains and future gains ? I mean: After all, we know that Little Panther will do good now.... ?!"

His collegues looked at him arcanely and their faces lit up: "Boy... you've earned your wings today. Gosh... that's it !! YOU MAYBE SAVED OUR ASSES BOY !!" And one slightly unfriendly looking guy added: "Fooling those dumb stock suckers of Little Panther gives me a real kick, our stock holders will be pretty happy about that deal."

All cheered at their young collegue benevolently and faces were beaming happily.

After thought: It seems that nobody - especially not the little stockholders - found anything strange about the sudden trust of The Pink Panther into Little Panther.

In other words: I think this fairy tale is a total crap as it is just unbelievable. Am I right or what?

Some of my favourite movies

The Cutting Edge, 1992
Director: Paul Michael Glaser
with D.B. Sweeney, Moira Kelly









Eat drink man woman
(Yin shi nan nu), 1994
Director: Ang Lee
with Yu-Wen Wang, Chien-lien Wu,
Kuei-Mei Yang







The Parole Officer, 2001
Director: John Duigan
with Steve Coogan, Lena Headey





See the IMDB (International movie database) for details.

Beginning of spring

Since yesterday night it's pretty cold in good old Germany.

Streets were free this morning. It was just cold as usual.

But later this afternoon it started snowing. Actually It didn't finish until Mother Holle had dispersed a snow layer of about 10-15 cm.

Pretty nice.

Apart from the fact that the snow on the ground damps down loud noises, it's enjoyable to see the flakes falling.

Well, hope all you guys and gals out there have a warm room to spend those cold days.

Life is indefinite

R1) Life is expanding indefinitely.
R2) Life in universe is not an exception, it's the rule.
R3) The distance between inanimate spots is finite.

My little Nephew

Mainz, the city Dubya [3] visited lately, is situated at the river Rhine. The river Rhine has a length of about 820 miles and runs roughly from the South to the North. It emanates in Swizerland, a southern situated neighbouring country.

To be able to understand the following little anecdote, you gotta know that the pronunciation of the word Mainz and the word meins (in German) = 'mine' (in English) is in fact identical.

Allright... so that's what happened last year: My little nephew was having a train ride with my mother along the river Rhine heading North to where my parents live.


River Rhein, map 1 and 2

As the train was arriving at Mainz, located on the western side of the river Rhein (Wiesbaden is located opposite, on the estern side - see the maps), my mother said to my little nephew:
'Oh... you see that's Mainz' !

Kind of a trivial statement. Well... normally.

My nephew doubtfully and unbelievingly looked at his grandmother... trying to understand, checking out her face expression if she was serious about it, thinking again about what she had said and finally asked: 'Yours?? How can that be?? That's not possible !! How can you own all that??'

As I heard it was pretty hard work to put things right.

Run over by red doggie

Today I almost got run over by a red dog.

Did I say red dog?? - Oops, my mistake, beg your pardon, 'course I was talking about one of these rat-dogs. You know, one of those little rats with these enourmous bark organs (in relation to their body size), secured with a rat leash... oops - sorry again - red leash.

A woman had just dropt out of a bus, carrying her rat... aehem... her little barking doggie in a red (!!) plastic shopping basket.

As the basket touched ground the rat sprang out, totally discomposed as usual for these little nuisances, not being aware what the hell was going on, disoriented as ever but brave as hell.

Of course, this little fur blot knew exactly that his basket carrier, in human terms called dog owner, was at the other end of that red self-confidence cable, sometimes also referred to as leash.

You get the picture... so this barker was now stampeding right into my direction.

However, I can report here that his attack bluff didn't work on me: As I showed no tendency of fleeing the doggie suddenly turned into another direction, pretending to always having had other intentions.

Well... can't fool me you little shit !!

Grim Reaper

Well, I was walking home this afternoon, meaning I was the third and weakest chain link of our town's population, a pedestrian.

Have I mentioned that some bikers nearly ran me over the other day on the sidewalk at midday even though there was a clearly marked bike path (made of red paving) next to the sidewalk??

Well, I was just feeling too sure. Damn bikers ! But I looked up in time so I was lucky.

Today I encountered another biker (I thought), the front lamp of the approaching bike was already shining as it was getting dark.

Well, as the biker was getting real big and real close I perceived a big arched chin sticking out of a dark opening of a dark hood. I couldn't see a face though.

That made me think. Scythe blade shaped chin, no face. Who might this be? Well, of course my first impression was that Grim Reaper was on his way to work.

I naturally wondered if he'd continue aiming into my direction or if he'd pass by. Ok, I think I'm telling no secret here that the mysterious biker passed me by (in the last moment possible), turning his handle bar unwillingly a little to the left.

However, getting brave again since Grim Reaper seemed to have other intentions today I had a closer look at him and realized:

• Grim Reaper had forgotten his invaluable attribut of power: his scythe.
• He was in his late 60s or early 70s.
• What made me actually ponder was: He wore a dark blue cloak.

So, finally I start to think that this biker was possibly just a relative of Grim Reaper. Maybe a human relative if there is such.

Phew... he looked that real from a distance! Well, not that I was really keen on meeting him.