A university astrologer writes about "moon water"- explains VIPER

This article was published in the University of Southern Maine's astrology newsletter, by the astrologer Edward Gleason. He is responding to a reader who wrote about wanting to escape from earth:

THE DAILY ASTRONOMER

Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Moon Water?
Last week we tried to discourage one of the subscribers to this e-newsletter from escaping to a nearby nebula* in order to escape relatives and creditors. This week, another subscriber who aspires to one day live on the moon, asked a question about the lunar water resources. He believed that the moon couldn't possibly retain any water resources because of its searing heat and low gravity.

Moon Water reflection clip art

"Hello! I read your article about going to the Helix Nebula. I was thinking I could get away from everyone simply by moving to the moon. As I was reading about the moon, I saw where there are water reserves on it. How is that even possible? Isn't the day time temperature above 200 degrees and isn't its gravity weak? The water should have vaporized long ago and escaped into outer space. Besides, how could it even get water in the first place?" -Displaced Marvin

The notion of moon water has always encouraged aspiring lunar colonists who have realized that living on the moon necessitates the conveyance of EVERYTHING humans need to sustain life: food, water, oxygen, et cetera. The cost of transporting such necessities for even a quaint lunar village would prove prohibitive. How much more convenient and cost effective would it be if water were already present. Not only could it be used as water, but it could also be used to extract oxygen: two vital necessities from a single resource.

While the existence of lunar water (as opposed to moon water, a delectable treat for the discerning Pagan) has been discussed for years, recent explorations, notably by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, have discovered evidence consistent with the presence of water in the south polar region. That's the rub. Some parts of a southern polar crater could be perpetually steeped in shadow. In such a dark area, temperatures would remain well below zero and any water would be trapped as ice. (Any ice on the moon's lit region would rapidly vaporize and the water's constituent molecules would escape.)

Water could be delivered to the moon (and other places in the solar system) by comets, generally believed to be composed of water. These impacts have likely happened repeatedly during the moon's long lifetime. Most of the water these impacts delivered has long since dissipated as they occurred in lunar regions exposed to sunlight. Only water derived from comets that struck the shadowed lunar regions could still remain on the moon's surface.

An important issue pertaining to moon water relates to the form it assumes. Could it be gathered in large chunks, like glaciers, or would it be distributed over wide regions, like a thin coating of frost? Lunar colonists would prefer the first option, as the water would be localized and therefore readily accessible.

In 2022, NASA aims to deploy VIPER , the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, to the moon to map its water reserves. Apart from its array of on-board scientific instruments, VIPER will also drill into the lunar surface in search of water reserves.

When you flee to the moon, you might discover great reserves of water, albeit frozen solid at temperatures averaging -200 degrees F. Still, that puts you in a better position than the person who might still be contemplating self-exile in the Helix Nebula

*nebula- cloud of gas and dust in outer space, visible in the night sky either as an indistinct bright patch or as a dark silhouette against other luminous matter.
The "Daily Astronomer"
http://lists.maine.edu/cgi/wa?A0=DAILY-ASTRONOMER

"They" as sinular pronoun - word of the decade

For linguists, it was the decade of the pronoun
Reported in the online newsletter The Conversation

On Jan. 3, the American Dialect Society held its 30th annual “Word of the Year” vote, which this year also included a vote for “Word of the Decade.”
It was the year – and the decade – of the pronoun.

In a nod to shifting attitudes about gender identities that are nonbinary – meaning they don’t neatly fit in the category of man or woman – over 200 voters, including me, selected “(my) pronouns” as the word of the year and “they” as word of the decade.

Pronouns, along with conjunctions and prepositions, are generally considered a “closed class” – a group of words whose number rarely grows and whose meanings rarely change.

So when pronouns take center stage, especially a new use of “they” that expands the closed class, linguists can’t help but get excited.
Pronominal importance

Word of the year votes are lighthearted ways to highlight the natural evolution of language. Candidates must be demonstrably new or newly popular during the year in question. Previous American Dialect Society winners have included “dumpster fire” in 2016, “fake news” in 2017 and “tender-age shelter” in 2018.

Because so many words enter our collective vocabulary each year, the American Dialect Society also votes on subcategories, from “Euphemism of the Year” to “Political Word of the Year.” “People of means” (? Hello?)* – used by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in February 2019 to refer to billionaires – won the former, and “quid pro quo” won the latter.

While the American Dialect Society’s annual vote is the longest-running vote, other language publications, from Merriam-Webster to Oxford English Dictionary, also announce words of the year. In December, Merriam-Webster announced that its word of the year was “they.”

It’s rare for words as simple as pronouns – “I,” “he,” “they” – to get so much media and cultural attention. But that’s exactly what’s been happening over the past few years, which made them a tempting choice for voters.

This year’s American Dialect Society Word of the Year, “(my) pronouns,” highlights the trend of people presenting their preferred pronouns in email signatures and on social media accounts – for example “pronouns: she, her, hers, herself.” People started doing this to help destigmatize a nonbinary person’s declaration of their pronouns.

The Word of the Decade, “they,” honors the way the pronoun has become a singular pronoun for many people who identify as nonbinary.

“They” has actually been used as a singular pronoun in English for centuries if the gender of someone being spoken about isn’t known, or if that person’s gender is unimportant to the conversation. For example, if I started telling you something funny my kid said, you might ask, “What’s their name?” or “How old are they?”

Only in recent years has “they” become widely accepted as a pronoun for nonbinary individuals for whom the pronouns “he” and “she” would be both inaccurate and inappropriate. It’s not the only option – some nonbinary people prefer “xe” or “ze.”

A shift that didn’t happen naturally

Though it can drive some pedants mad, language changes as culture changes. In English, these changes usually involve new or repurposed nouns and adjectives, like what happened with “app.” Originally shorthand for a downloaded computer or smartphone application, it became a word in and of itself.

But in this case, the social push to respect nonbinary gender identity has extended so far into English that it’s altering pronouns – again, a class of words that rarely changes – with a new, third-person singular gendered pronoun to accompany the longstanding pair of “he” and “she.”

It helps to fill in a linguistic gender gap, just like how, in some dialects, “y'all” or “yinz” fill in the lack of a distinct, plural “you.” But whereas “y'all” appeared slowly after years of unconsciously contracting “you all,” the nonbinary “they” arose quickly after a conscious social movement.

This might explain why some people have adapted to the nonbinary “they” more easily than others. You probably know someone – or are someone – who has struggled with referring to an individual of nonbinary gender as “they.” But what makes it so difficult? Is it discomfort with what can sound like bad grammar? Or does it have to do with our gender biases?

In a recent study, linguist Evan Bradley asked people to judge the grammar of sentences with a singular “they” as “correct English” or not. They found that singular “they” – in its centuries-old use for a person of unknown gender – was easier for people to accept. But the acceptability of nonbinary “they” depended on a person’s attitudes toward gender roles.

This suggests that the difficulty with nonbinary “they” has more to do with our culture’s perspective on gender than on the language itself.

* People of means? Oh paaaleeeze!

My favorite historic first chapter - The Guns of August- ..."greatest assemblage of royalty...gathered in one place"

In the library of non-fiction Pulitizer Prize books, The Guns of August deserves top recognition.  In addition to being a fascinating historical account about a time in history that led the 20th century into a World War, the opening narrative by Tuchman is a captivating description about how a funeral became a metaphor for the decline of the old world order. 

Why You Should Read the Opening Paragraph of Barbara Tuchman’s "The Guns of August"

100 Best Nonfiction Books

This narrative is published with permission authorized in the Good Reads website:

A Funeral - Opening of The Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I; Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series

https://thewayofimprovement.com/2013/04/18/why-you-should-read-the-opening-paragraph-of-barbara-tuchmans-the-guns-of-august/

So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910, when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII, of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration. In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereigns rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun. After them came five heirs apparent, forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens—four dowager and three regnant—and a scattering of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries. 

Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history’s clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again. 

In the center of the front row rode the new king, George V, flanked on his left by the Duke of Connaught, the late king’s only surviving brother, and on his right by a personage to whom, acknowledged The Times, “belongs the first place among all the foreign mourners,” who “even when relations are most strained has never lost his popularity amongst us”—William II, the German Emperor. Mounted on a gray horse, wearing the scarlet uniform of a British Field Marshal, carrying the baton of that rank, the Kaiser had composed his features behind the famous upturned mustache in an expression “grave even to severity.” 

Of the several emotions churning his susceptible breast, some hints exist in his letters. “I am proud to call this place my home and to be a member of this royal family,” he wrote home after spending the night in Windsor Castle in the former apartments of his mother. Sentiment and nostalgia induced by these melancholy occasions with his English relatives jostled with pride in his supremacy among the assembled potentates and with a fierce relish in the disappearance of his uncle from the European scene. He had come to bury Edward, his bane; Edward the arch plotter, as William conceived it, of Germany’s encirclement; Edward his mother’s brother whom he could neither bully nor impress, whose fat figure cast a shadow between Germany and the sun. “He is Satan. You cannot imagine what a Satan he is!”

This verdict, announced by the Kaiser before a dinner of three hundred guests in Berlin in 1907, was occasioned by one of Edward’s continental tours undertaken with clearly diabolical designs at encirclement. He had spent a provocative week in Paris, visited for no good reason the King of Spain (who had just married his niece), and finished with a visit to the King of Italy with obvious intent to seduce him from his Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria. The Kaiser, possessor of the least inhibited tongue in Europe, had worked himself into a frenzy ending in another of those comments that had periodically over the past twenty years of his reign shattered the nerves of diplomats.

Happily the Encircler was now dead and replaced by George who, the Kaiser told Theodore Roosevelt a few days before the funeral, was “a very nice boy” (of forty-five, six years younger than the Kaiser). “He is a thorough Englishman and hates all foreigners but I do not mind that as long as he does not hate Germans more than other foreigners.” Alongside George, William now rode confidently, saluting as he passed the regimental colors of the 1st Royal Dragoons of which he was honorary colonel. Once he had distributed photographs of himself wearing their uniform with the Delphic inscription written above his signature, “I bide my time.” Today his time had come; he was supreme in Europe.

Behind him rode the widowed Queen Alexandra’s two brothers, King Frederick of Denmark and King George of the Hellenes; her nephew, King Haakon of Norway; and three kings who were to lose their thrones: Alfonso of Spain, Manuel of Portugal and, wearing a silk turban, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria who annoyed his fellow sovereigns by calling himself Czar and kept in a chest a Byzantine Emperor’s full regalia, acquired from a theatrical costumer, against the day when he should reassemble the Byzantine dominions beneath his scepter.

Dazzled by these “splendidly mounted princes,” as The Times called them, few observers had eyes for the ninth king, the only one among them who was to achieve greatness as a man. Despite his great height and perfect horsemanship, Albert, King of the Belgians, who disliked the pomp of royal ceremony, contrived in that company to look both embarrassed and absentminded. He was then thirty-five and had been on the throne barely a year. In later years when his face became known to the world as a symbol of heroism and tragedy, it still always wore that abstracted look, as if his mind were on something else.

The future source of tragedy, tall, corpulent, and corseted, with green plumes waving from his helmet, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir of the old Emperor Franz Josef, rode on Albert’s right, and on his left another scion who would never reach his throne, Prince Yussuf, heir of the Sultan of Turkey. After the kings came the royal highnesses: Prince Fushimi, brother of the Emperor of Japan; Grand Duke Michael, brother of the Czar of Russia; the Duke of Aosta in bright blue with green plumes, brother of the King of Italy; Prince Carl, brother of the King of Sweden; Prince Henry, consort of the Queen of Holland; and the Crown Princes of Serbia, Rumania, and Montenegro. The last named, Prince Danilo, “an amiable, extremely handsome young man of delightful manners,” resembled the Merry Widow’s lover in more than name, for, to the consternation of British functionaries, he had arrived the night before accompanied by a “charming young lady of great personal attractions” whom he introduced as his wife’s lady in waiting with the explanation that she had come to London to do some shopping.

A regiment of minor German royalty followed: rulers of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Waldeck-Pyrmont, Saxe-Coburg Gotha, of Saxony, Hesse, Württemberg, Baden, and Bavaria, of whom the last, Crown Prince Rupprecht, was soon to lead a German army in battle. There were a Prince of Siam, a Prince of Persia, five princes of the former French royal house of Orléans, a brother of the Khedive of Egypt wearing a gold-tasseled fez, Prince Tsia-tao of China in an embroidered light-blue gown whose ancient dynasty had two more years to run, and the Kaiser’s brother, Prince Henry of Prussia, representing the German Navy, of which he was Commander in Chief. Amid all this magnificence were three civilian-coated gentlemen, M. Gaston-Carlin of Switzerland, M. Pichon, Foreign Minister of France, and former President Theodore Roosevelt, special envoy of the United States.

Edward, the object of this unprecedented gathering of nations, was often called the “Uncle of Europe,” a title which, insofar as Europe’s ruling houses were meant, could be taken literally. He was the uncle not only of Kaiser Wilhelm but also, through his wife’s sister, the Dowager Empress Marie of Russia, of Czar Nicolas II. His own niece Alix was the Czarina; his daughter Maud was Queen of Norway; another niece, Ena, was Queen of Spain; a third niece, Marie, was soon to be Queen of Rumania. The Danish family of his wife, besides occupying the throne of Denmark, had mothered the Czar of Russia and supplied kings to Greece and Norway. Other relatives, the progeny at various removes of Queen Victoria’s nine sons and daughters, were scattered in abundance throughout the courts of Europe.

Yet not family feeling alone nor even the suddenness and shock of Edward’s death—for to public knowledge he had been ill one day and dead the next—accounted for the unexpected flood of condolences at his passing. It was in fact a tribute to Edward’s great gifts as a sociable king which had proved invaluable to his country. In the nine short years of his reign England’s splendid isolation had given way, under pressure, to a series of “understandings” or attachments, but not quite alliances—for England dislikes the definitive—with two old enemies, France and Russia, and one promising new power, Japan. The resulting shift in balance registered itself around the world and affected every state’s relations with every other. Though Edward neither initiated nor influenced his country’s policy, his personal diplomacy helped to make the change possible.

Taken as a child to visit France, he had said to Napoleon III: “You have a nice country. I would like to be your son.” This preference for things French, in contrast to or perhaps in protest against his mother’s for the Germanic, lasted, and after her death was put to use. When England, growing edgy over the challenge implicit in Germany’s Naval Program of 1900, decided to patch up old quarrels with France, Edward’s talents as Roi Charmeur smoothed the way. In 1903 he went to Paris, disregarding advice that an official state visit would find a cold welcome. On his arrival the crowds were sullen and silent except for a few taunting cries of “Vivent les Boers!” and “Vive Fashoda!” which the King ignored. To a worried aide who muttered, “The French don’t like us,” he replied, “Why should they?” and continued bowing and smiling from his carriage.

Scholarship for a hard working immigrant high school student

Our Rotary Club of Portland Maine, provides scholarships for outstanding high school students who attend each of the city's high schools. In fact, every year, the Rotary's Youth Services Committee sends requests to each of the Portland high schools to recommend one student to receive a scholarship. Selected students receive a $1,000 gift to apply towards college applications plus another $100 is donated to the selected student's designated charity. 

On January 10, 2020, a student who attends Portland High School received a Youth Services Scholarship, based largely on the recommedation of the guidance counselor. This recommendation is noted in "Let's Write", because of the enthusiam expressed about the recipient:

Rotary Youth Services Committee Chair Jan Chapman with Portland High School student Loyde Vumpa, the recipient of the Portland Rotary's Youth Services Award.

From:  Marisa Emerson - Guidance Department at Portland Maine High School

Reference: Rotary Youth Service Award to Portland High School student Lovde Vompa presented on January 10, 2020. 

The purpose of this award is to recongize a student for community service activities and accomplishments.

Loyde Vumpa came to Portland High School as a sophomore, after attending school in South America when her family first left their native country of Angola.


Loyde Vumpa became acclimated to American high school life without missing a beat. She immediately joined clubs, sports and other activities, quickly rising to leadership positions while excelling in her school work.  This year she also increased the academic rigor of her courses while adding a daily afer schoo job with a law firm to her packed schedule/

Loyde is a member of the Afro-American Dance Team, the Black Student Union, the Internatioanl Club and the Portugese Club.

As a first year Model UN delegae, she tood on a leadership role and became the group's "to-to" person for International problem solving. She is a peer leader, has been on the student executive board since joining Portland High School and she is a trusted Portugese interpreter who readily helps out when needed at school functions. Loyde is an active volunteer and usese her time to support local refugees and asylum seekers through failty based and community organizations.

Loyde is goal oriented and determined. She is palnning on becoming a surgeon or emergemcy doctor and has tested these aspirations by volunteering each week over the summer at Maine Medical Center, learning Cardio Pulmonary Resuscictation (CPR), shadowing medical professonals, and voluneering at a nursing home. She told me that her most positive academic experience at Portland High School was her Environmental Issues course and she was awarded the Portland High School Academic Excellence in Envirornmental Education, last June (2019).  As part of a sustainability project in class, Loyde and another student made a recommendation to the Portland School Committee for the removal of plastic utensils from the school cafeteria. At the start of the year, Loyde too responsibility for monitoring the cafeteria recycling stations where she provided gentle and kind reminders as to "what goes where". 

Moreover, the City of Portland held two Climate Action marches. Loyde rallied her peers to participate. She made posters and spread the word on social media. With dogged determination, and dedication, she takes charge for causes she believes in, and she does so with humility and humor.

Additionally, Loyde has other accomplishments to support this recommendation for the Youth Services Award from the Portland Rotary.  

Loyde is a young woman who is destined to make an impact wherever she lands. In fact, this past summer, she was among a small roup of Portland students who traveled together to visit serval HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). Their enthusiasm from this trip resulted in our school superinendent reaching out to university administrators for a reciprocal visit to speak with Portland Hih School students and staff. A first ever, student initiated, HBCU college fair is being planned in Portland, for next year - for the most white state in the United States. Indeed, this is anticipated to be a huge and exciting event.

Loyde's enthusiasm, energy and drive are inspiring. 

Therefore, Portland High School is excited for Lyode's future and happy to recommend her for the Rotary Club of Portland's Youth Services Award.

Middle Ages plagiarism: Who wrote the English language Bible?

This interesting "Let's Write" echo opinion was published in the Providence Journal, a Rhode Island newspaper, by Daniel F. Harrington.

William Tyndale (1494-1536)- Language Martyr

Tyndale realized he had an advantage. A master of languages (he spoke eight), he quickly learned that the ancient Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible translated far more naturally into English than Latin. 

The English lnaguage Bible: It’s been called the most uncelebrated achievement in Western civilization. 

Words of love changed the world

To the Christian, it was a miracle; to the scholar, a treasure chest.

(MaineWriter- But, in modern intellectual ownership tenets, the end result could be considered plagiarism.)

In 1525, William Tyndale, of Gloucestershire, England, translated the New Testament, and later, the Pentateuch, into English for the first time, and in so doing, unleashed the English language upon the world.

The time was the early Reformation. Europe was encased in the Latin of the ancient Vulgate and the Catholic Church had declared that translating — or even reading — Scripture was illegal.

Emboldened by Martin Luther’s German translation of the New Testament, the Oxford-educated Tyndale made it his life’s work to “cause a boy that drives the plough to know more of the Scripture than a Bishop.”

The scope of the challenge was immense. Consider: Of the 6,000 volumes in Oxford’s library in Tyndale’s day, only 30 were in English; the rest were in Latin. To the ears of the European elite, English was nothing more than the vulgar chirpings of the common man.

But Tyndale realized he had an advantage. A master of languages (he spoke eight), he quickly learned that the ancient Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible translated far more naturally into English than Latin. The reason was simple. Latin tended to yield wordy (polysyllabic) translations while English favored simple (monosyllabic) words.

Thus Tyndale’s translation of “Let there be light” from the book of Genesis, for example, is striking in its simplicity yet wonderful in its rhythmic beauty. Similarly, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find,” from the New Testament, sparkles in its poetic cadence and elegance. It rolls off the tongue as each word clicks in its place, making it delightful to recite.

Tyndale established an almost musical pattern of language that would inspire English writers of every stripe and help define English literature as we know it. Be it Dickens (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”), Shakespeare (“All that glitters is not gold”), Lincoln (“With malice toward none, with charity for all”), or President Kennedy (“Ask not what your country can do for you”), Tyndale echoes through them all.

Some even claim Tyndale’s stylistic brevity is responsible for that ubiquitous cultural icon known today as the newspaper headline. Perhaps.

Less appreciated are Tyndale’s clever marketing skills. Printing his Bibles while in exile in Germany, he ensured the texts were clear and easy to read, and that the books could fit in a person’s pocket. In fact, Tyndale’s Bibles were six inches long by three inches wide — intriguingly, the same size, give or take, as the latest Apple iPhone!

To say his work is controversial was an understatement. In particular, his changing of the Vulgate’s word for “church” to “congregation” and “priest” to “elder” helped redefine Christianity. His greatest offense? Replacing the word “charity” with “love,” instantly lifting the power and influence of the ancient texts.

By 1534, church and state officials had had enough of the brilliant priest and he was arrested for the crime of heresy.

Tyndale lingered in a Brussels dungeon for a year and a half. Only one letter from his time in captivity survives. In it, he begs his captors for the return of his night cap and woven shirt to battle the cold. He also pleads for his Hebrew manuscripts so he can begin translating the glorious Book of Psalms into English.

Countless scholars have longed to hear the Psalms as filtered through Tyndale’s marvelous brain, but it was not to be.

Tyndale was executed on a cold morning in October 1536. In what was considered an act of mercy, his executioner strangled him before burning his lifeless body at the stake. A large crowd gathered in silence to watch the tragic end of a man who, quite literally, gave the world love.

History has largely forgotten William Tyndale because shortly after his death a monarch attached his own name to a collective work that was largely based on Tyndale’s: The King James Bible.
Daniel F. Harrington (danielfharrington@yahoo.com), a monthly contributor, is president of Chartwell Wealth Management in Rumford.