Life on Venus/Swearing

 

Life on Venus

Don’t expect exotic green men, Venus surface is poundingly hot and with a suffocating atmosphere. What is speculated upon is some kind of very primitive life such as bacteria  high in the Venusian atmosphere. High could mean 50 miles high. The evidence isn’t very strong but it is fascinating. Essentially evidence has been found for phosphine gas high in the atmosphere. The evidence isn’t unambiguous but the fascination is that there is no known mechanism which makes the gas other than life.

The scientists have identified the gas by two separate telescopes although the identification is rather limited in other ways. Alternatives for phosphine production have been considered and eliminated. This means that if the production is by some non living process then that process is unknown at the present.

In a sense we have been here before. Many years ago life was pronounced present on Mars based on microscopic examination of meteorites  thrown up by Mars and found on Earth. This examination thought that they saw fossils of ancient bacteria. Although widely publicised at the time this is now thought not to be fossils.

There is a fascination in the search for extra terrestrial intelligence ( SETI ). There are two main threads to this. One is focused on possibilities in the solar system and the other on a search for unusual signals ( by radio ) from the universe at large.

The search in the solar system is based around what sort of conditions might enable life to begin. The expectation that anything will be very elementary such as bacteria or very simple lichen type plants. The search is directed by looking for environments where earth like species may exist. One important consideration is the presence of liquid water. It is thought to be difficult for life to exist in frozen water. There is a speculation that life may have begun on Mars in the distant past when conditions were probably more favourable but has probably either died out or retreated to ecological niches. Almost certainly Mars had abundant liquid water millions of years ago as evidence of ancient seas have been found.

Alternative possibilities in the solar system are suggested in the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. At least one is thought to have an existing sea but one covered in ice. In general these moons are too cold although some may have internal heating judged by the evidence of volcano like activity.

The search for life elsewhere in the universe is being conducted by the aptly named SETI project. SETI is Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.  Essentially the driving force has been the speculation that there are so many suns which have so planets that statistically some must have generated intelligent life. The project has been analysing radio reception from radio telescopes. Any anomaly is eagerly pounced upon by the community but so far an alternative explanation has been found.

There are good physical reasons why this is highly likely to be a futile exercise. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light( according to known physics ). Radio waves travel at this speed but the universe is so large that radio signals take many years. The nearest stars are over 4 light years away so that even travelling at light speed radio waves take over 4 years to reach us. In general stars are much further away and other galaxies ( star clusters ) even further. A message from say 100 light years away will do nothing to establish communication but only let us know it exists. Just image a conversation that takes 200 years between comment and answer Looking at things another way all radio type signals from earth will have only travelled about a 100 light years from earth. Even if the other intelligence is listening out the bubble of earth signals will only be about 100 light years across.

Swearing

I’m in favour of swearing but not in front of others. An effective bout of swearing relieves the feeling of distress or disappointment. Although futile in its effect it succeeds in a temporary relief of ones psyche.

I recall our English teacher at secondary school lecturing us on swearing which he attributed to a lack of vocabulary. This is not a thesis with which I agree. He pointed out that many ( what would now be considered mild ) swear word s were connected with religion. To express an oath of “god’s blood” now reduced to bloody was deeply shocking even sacrilegious in an age where faith was nearly universal. A range of other swearing such as damnation has similar origin and effect.

More recently the so called 4 letter words have become distressingly common even in common discourse. By their very use the shock value is blunted. I hope we have reached a time when even a comedian uttering f..k  no longer arouses a laugh.

For myself I find I swear like my father. He would never use 4 letter words but b….r was relatively common . I find now that I’m rather inhibited in using 4 letter words but like my father I regard b….r as relatively mild. I note that as religious exclamations are now mild in this age where faith is not so significant that most modern swearing has sexual connotation.

It seems that maybe Americans are somewhat unusual in that refences to one’s mother are somehow deeply disturbing thus s-o-b and the litany of related swear words scarcely ever occurs in England while if literature is to be believed these are common in the USA

I remember being quite shocked early in my career when a ( lady ) technician I was working with remarked quite casually that I swore a lot. The task was a frustrating one but I regarded my swearing as quite mild and without obscenities. If I had imagined that the technician found it shocking I would ( I hope ) refrained. I think she was referring to my use of b….r which perhaps was unusual. The lady concerned was not protesting but voicing her observation.. I hope I was more careful in future.

Berlin

 Berlin

I visited Berlin as part of a rail tour firstly to Poland and then on a second occasion while visiting the great cities of Eastern Europe. I was excited to visit Berlin, a city which has figured large in recent history. On my first visit we stayed in an ultramodern hotel  on Alexanderplatz. We had a room high in this hotel with a view over a swath of former East Berlin including its imposing TV tower which dominates the Berlin skyline. I was taken aback that our bathroom had only strategically placed areas of opaque glass with most clear.

On our first day exploring the city we set out to walk past the former German Air Ministry from Nazi times. This was a grave disappointment being a gigantic ( even grandiose ) building with absolutely no exterior interest. It is now used for some bureaucratic purpose unconnected with flying. Walking on and nearby quite by chance we came upon the former Gestapo headquarters. It was almost totally demolished down to ground level but the basement level was still visible. It seemed almost unbelievable that these basement cells were where so many were tortured. A major museum to Gestapo activities is adjacent to the site and it was instructive, if horrifying, to visit.

We hurried on to our destination which was Check Point Charlie. As a tourist destination the Checkpoint is actually moved from its original site. It is now an attraction in its own right with actors dressed in US and Soviet uniforms posing outside for tourist photos. Some of the signage is still there as a tourist prop such as large signs “You are now leaving the American sector”.

Much more interesting was the nearby museum devoted to East Germans crossing the Berlin Wall. This wall erected in 1961 and demolished in 1989 was much more than just a tall concrete wall. On the East German side was the “death zone” of some 50m of cleared sandy area where the border guards were told to shoot. Sadly many from the East were killed trying to escape East Germany. One of the most haunting aspects of the museum was the advice to escapers to try and catch the guards eye and smile so that by exhibiting a common humanity the guard might not shoot to kill. The escapers showed incredible ingenuity. In the walls early days before so much was destroyed escapers could hope to jump or run from nearby  buildings.  A border guard escaped this way and a lucky photographer captured a famous photo.

Other bizarre ways included a hot air balloon, con tricks such as flashing a Playboy Club passport which resembled a diplomatic passport, secret tunnels, a tightrope walk or Zip wire, or using makeshift boats on rivers or canals which cross the wall. A wide variety of hiding places in vehicles were used. The most extreme was an East German soldier who stole a tank, tried to crash the wall only to become entangled in barbed wire. Although shot the soldier escaped.

Part of the experience was a coach tour with a guide. Although German the guide had a great command of English which he used to make wry jokes during the tour. A great deal of building work is underway and seemingly modern buildings are being demolished to make way for even newer ones. The guide introduced this by saying it was a prominent aspect of the city life. Then when we would pass yet another demolition site he would roll his eyes and say “ you know what our city hobby is…” The guide was excellent and we were very fortunate to encounter him again on our second visit. He claimed to remember me but he must see so many this seemed a bit unlikely. The truth of his jokes was shown in that our first hotel had been demolished despite being very modern.

A small section of wall remains and Berliners have taken advantage of the sandy exclusion zone by treating it as a beach. In fact touring Berlin shows artefacts from the communist era from 1945 to 1989 for east Berlin and from the Nazi era 1933-1945. Berlin was subjected to intense bombing during WW11. The Nazi’s built strong bomb shelters above ground which were surmounted by anti aircraft guns. These flak towers are so massively built that it isn’t always worthwhile to demolish them and we passed one in our tour.

We took a day trip to Sanssouci palace in Potsdam quite close to Berlin. Built by King Frederick of Prussia the name ( French for without cares ) it was used as a retreat from the cares of government in Berlin. On our journey we travelled along the Avus motorway, the first restricted access road in Europe. Its widely separated dual carriageways had a dual function as a motor racing circuit with hairpin bends joining the two carriageways. The road may be considered the precursor to Nazi era autobahn.

Back in Berlin no visit is complete without a visit to the Brandenburg Gate. Atop the classical 4 column gate is a mythical chariot drawn by four horses. Although the structure is central  at the end of the Unter der Linden, the premier street, it is rather a tourist trap with lots of “living statues” alongside. Nearby is the rather impressive Holocaust Memorial. This consists of an 19 thousand square metre area  of plain slabs of varying height on a sloping field.. The  2700 slabs are separated so one can easily walk between them. This description sounds very bland but walking through with slabs gradually rising above head height is strangely impressive