March 12, 2024 - Neighbors, Candles, Naps, Elephants
I spent my birthday weekend avoiding vengeful elephants whilst napping at Starbucks with my closest neighbors.
Nuggets of Information: My Closest Neighbor Is Very Mercurial
Many folks assume Mars is the closest planet to Earth, but they are wrong. Venus is closest to Earth. Except when it isn’t. Then Mercury is the closest. Mercury is also the closest planet to Saturn, and even Neptune. Wait – what? Are these planets orbiting the Sun or pool balls bouncing around?
It is all in how you measure it. The average distance between the Sun and the Earth is one Astronomical Unit (AU), or approximately 93 million miles. The distances from the Sun for all the planets:
Mercury: 0.39 AU
Venus: 0.72 AU
Earth: 1 AU (by definition)
Mars: 1.52 AU
Jupiter: 5.2 AU
Saturn: 9.54 AU
Uranus: 19.2 AU
Neptune: 30.06 AU
This list is great for average distance from the Sun. But for measuring distance between planets, using this measurement only works when two planets are closest to each other – meaning their relative positions within their orbits are aligned perfectly at that moment. Most of the time, they are not in alignment. The easiest way to explain it is to imagine Venus is on the opposite side of the Sun – and Mercury is on the same side as Earth. Mercury takes 88 days to go around the Sun, so most of the time, it is closer to Earth and to Venus, than Earth and Venus are to each other. If you don’t believe me, go outside and look for yourself.
This system of measurement is called the point-circle method, which averages the distance between a bunch of points on each planet's orbit, taking time into consideration. When we apply this method, Mercury is closer to Earth more of the time than Venus is to Earth. Check out this video for a clearer explanation, with helpful animations. The folks behind this video checked their findings by mapping out where the planets were in their orbits every 24 hours for 10,000 years. Mercury is closest, on average, to every other planet – even Neptune.
If your brain needs to decompress a little from this discussion, check out this charming and amusing post about Zoozve, Venus’s moon. Wait – Venus has a moon? Well, it is not NOT a moon. It is a quasi-moon. A great read – please check it out.
Enrichment: Birthday Recap
In last week’s Boo’s N.E.W.S., I mentioned that my birthday was happening again this year. Crazy how it keeps happening. Thanks to everyone who sent well-wishes, with a special thanks to those of you who let me know we’d be going to a Braves game!
On Friday, I got the best birthday present – Samantha came home for Spring Break! It is great having our home back at full occupancy. She is doing great, and it sure is nice having her around. On Friday night, newsletter regulars Julie & Tom had a little potluck get-together for three of us who celebrated birthdays over the last week: me, Mark Urbano and Heather Mansfield. Great meal, great friends, great times.
Saturday I went bowling with David, and I finally bowled well. I’ve been struggling this season. My entering average of 141 had dropped, but on Saturday I rolled a 159, 145 and 173, for an average of 159. That works! This was a pre-bowl for an upcoming night I will be out of town, so I hope this helps my team “Bowl Movement” win the night.
Later that day, Lisa and I joined lots of other couples from our community at Alex’s High School’s “Blue & Gold” fundraiser, which featured heavy appetizers, silent and live auction, and casino “fun” games. It was a blast. Even better were the pre- and post-event partying at our friends Anne and Jim’s house. As Lisa and I moseyed around the silent auction, we came across one that I really wanted to win for Lisa: “Throw out the first pitch at a varsity baseball game.” She balked at that idea (as pitchers will sometimes do), but then we came across an item that she threatened to get for me: “Gift Certificate for Brazilian Wax.” Sadly, we did not win those bids.
Sunday, the family took me out for a birthday lunch. We went to Dixie Q in Brookhaven, GA. I had heard good things about it, but was not overly impressed. I ordered the combo plate, with brisket and sausage, and Brussels sprouts. Everything was good, but not great. The brisket, while perfectly smokey, was a bit too dry and tough for my liking. Alex liked her pulled pork sandwich, but the cornbread was dry, and the mac n’ cheese wasn’t to her standards. Samantha thought her burger was the perfect size, and she and Lisa enjoyed their fries. Lisa got a salmon crisp thing – big piles of smoked salmon on potato chips, to which she added avocado. She liked it, but couldn’t finish it. Our server Zach was friendly and helpful. The best part was the time with family.
Overall, a very nice, relaxing birthday weekend. I think I’ll do it again next year!
Workshop: Nappucino
When it comes to mid-afternoon sleepiness, are you Team Nap or Team Caffeine? For many, there is a third option – Team Caffeine Nap. While it may seem counter-intuitive, ingesting caffeine right before a nap is more effective than taking a nap or consuming caffeine separately.
During the day, as we use our brains, adenosine is produced, a chemical that makes us feel tired. When we sleep, our levels of adenosine drop. When we consume caffeine, it blocks the adenosine receptors in our brains. But when we consume caffeine right before we nap, a double whammy occurs. It takes about 20 minutes for caffeine to get to the adenosine receptors in the brain. During those first 20 minutes, your restful state is already starting to reduce adenosine, and when the caffeine kicks in, the receptors are blocked, when you wake up, you feel much more refreshed and rejuvenated than if you had only slept.
One important consideration: if you have trouble sleeping at night, you may want to skip napping altogether, so that when it comes time for bed, you are sufficiently sleepy. In this YouTube video, sleep expert Matt Walker explains that sleepiness in the afternoons may be more of a hard-wired physiological function than a post-lunch reaction and that 20 minutes is the ideal length for a nap.
Selected Content: What Did Grandma Do to Deserve This?
Boo’s N.E.W.S. Natural Sciences Reporter Samantha Booher shares with us a fascinating and disturbing story out of the Raipai village, located in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, India. 68-year-old Maya Murmu was collecting water when a herd of elephants descended on her location. She tried to flee, but sadly was trampled to death. That evening, as villagers attended a funeral ceremony for Murmu, a herd of elephants emerged from the forest, causing the villagers to scatter. Not only did one of the elephants attack Murmu’s body, flinging it into the air, but the herd also destroyed her home, and damaged the homes of her neighbors.
Now I don’t live in an area with many elephants, so I’m no expert on human-pachyderm relations, but I tend to think those elephants had a major beef with this woman. Was she a poacher? An Auburn Tigers fan who taunted Alabama’s mascot? Owner of a traveling circus that featured a flying baby elephant? There must be more to this story!
If this leads you to want to add “herd of vengeful elephants” to the top of your worry list, you may want to write that in pencil. Researchers from Colossal Biosciences are attempting to genetically engineer a woolly mammoth, using genes from an Asian elephant together with genetic information from samples of mammoths. Their goal is to adapt the Asian elephant genetic code to include some of the mammoth’s features that allowed them to thrive in Arctic areas – a woolly coat, small ears and additional insulating fat. The team believes that by reintroducing mammoths to the Arctic, they can help prevent thawing of the permafrost by compacting grass and snow.
While I am rightly justified in my concern over these efforts, I am looking forward to a potential Jurassic Park – Ice Age movie. There is nothing more terrifying than being hunted by an angry Ray Romano.