Monthly Archives: October 2016

Book Review, Non-fiction

Book Review: “Best State Ever” by Dave Barry

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Best State Ever by Dave Barry

Speaking of whacky stuff down Florida way, Dave Barry’s latest book is a collection of articles about very, very Floridian stuff.

Barry “stands his ground” for his state, reporting on pre-Disney roadside parks , a retirement park, Key West, and other wacky places that represent the real, historical Florida – for better or worse.

Barry gives a full-throated defense of Florida, which gets a tough time from people like me. The trouble with Florida is all the people from elsewhere, he argues. (I’m sure the Seminoles and other first peoples agree.) And those other places aren’t so great, either. He lavishes some cheap shots at Illinois (heck, we haven’t convicted an ex-Governor in years, I tell you. Years.) and other places.

Point taken. But c’mon. Florida is weird in ways that are unique.

These pieces follow Barry’s typical journalistic style, requiring a personal visit with his own wide eyed, innocent observation. As ever, he is sympathetic to the little guy, not worried if people believe and act weirdly if it is harmless, and neither offended nor taken in by salesmanship and BS.

I learned things.

The Razor Girl is based on a real incident, as I suspected. While Key West is not yet a UNESCO World Heritage Site (we can only hope), the Weeki Wachee mermaid show is a state park. I didn’t know about The Villages, which is said to be the fastest growing town in America. I had never heard of Cassadaga, a town founded by Spiritualists, and mainly inhabited by twenty first century descendants in the same spirit.

Wow!  We’re not in Kansas anymore!

I still have no intention to set foot in Florida, but I will always eagerly read Dave Barry.

  1. Save Barry, Best State Ever: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland, New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sones, 2016.

 

Sunday Book Reviews

Astronomy, Planetary Science, Science, Space Exploration

Evidence of Water Volcanoes on Europa

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While waiting for pictures from Rosetta’s last dive, and also waiting for Juno’s next pass at Jupiter, we see more indications of how cool Jupiter’s moon Europa is.

William Sparks and colleagues (including Melissa McGrath of The SETI Institute, no relation so far as I know) published a study using the Hubble Space Telescope to detect evidence of water plumes shooting out from Europa [1].

Such plumes of water have been observed at Saturn’s moon Enceladus, and there is strong reason to think that Europa has a liquid water ocean under the frozen surface. So this would not be unbelievable.

The new study stretches the limits of the Hubble, identifying smudges that could be water plumes. Other spectroscopic studies have detected Hydrogen and Oxygen in these regions, supporting the notion that there might be water there. Suggestive, but hardly conclusive or very detailed evidence.

The possibility of water plumes high above the surface is particularly interesting because Europa’s ocean is one of the places in our solar system that might support life. A mission to that ocean will be really, really difficult, but maybe we can orbit or land on the surface to sample from these plumes. This could tell us quite a bit about what is down below, even if we can’t visit yet.

Both NASA an ESA are planning possible missions to fly by Europa in the next decade. Clearly, investigating water jets, if they can be found, will be a high priority.

Cool!

  1. W. B. Sparks, K. P. Hand, M. A. McGrath, E. Bergeron, M. Cracraft, and S. E. Deustua, Probing for Evidence of Plumes on Europa with HST/STIS. The Astrophysical Journal, 829 (2):121, 2016. http://stacks.iop.org/0004-637X/829/i=2/a=121

 

Space Saturday