================================================== . Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand . Email Newsletter Number 116, 22 July 2010 ================================================== Affiliated Societies are welcome to reproduce any item in this email newsletter or on the RASNZ website http://www.rasnz.org.nz/ in their own newsletters provided an acknowledgement of the source is also included. Contents -------- 1. Progress in Light Control 2. The Solar System in August 3. Martin Rees Gives BBC Reith Lectures 4. AAS Astrophotography Competition 5. NZ in Space? 6. Roy Kerr in "Cracking the Einstein Code" 7. Australian All-Sky Astrophysics Funded 8. Rosetta passes Lutetia 9. Bug Nebula Contains "Hottest Star" 10. Italian Crisis 11. RASNZ in Wikipedia 12. Gifford-Eiby Lecture Fund 13. Kingdon-Tomlinson Fund 14. How to Join the RASNZ 15. Why...? =============================================================== 1. Progress in Light Control ---------------------------- Some recent chatter on NZAstronomers regarding lack of progress on light pollution highlights the long term nature of any improvements in the real world. The problem has developed over 130 years so it follows that it will take time to reverse the problem. But that said there are changes occuring. Congratulations must go to the Christchurch City Council for the development of variable level street lighting near AMI Park. This is an important development in New Zealand and shows that strategic thinking can be applied to lighting situations. Stadium lighting Our largest city council has listed some strong DarkSkies guidelines on their website. Have a look at: http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/documents/lightingguide/darksky.asp Central government have also given a lead on the RightLight website at: http://www.rightlight.govt.nz/smart-tips under "Outdoor Lighting Tips" A very significant document released recently is from the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution: Artificial light in the Environment, available at: http://www.rcep.org.uk/reports/index.htm It will take time to change attitudes amongst designers and decision makers, and even longer to change the hardware along our streets, but the right messages are getting out there. -- Steve Butler, RASNZ DarkSkies Group =============================================================== 2. The Solar System in August ----------------------------- The usual notes on the visibility of the Planets for August 2010 have been placed on the RASNZ web site: http://www.rasnz.org.nz/SolarSys/Aug_10.htm . Notes for September 2010 will be available in a few days. THE PLANETS IN AUGUST Mercury remains well placed for evening viewing for the first half of the month. Venus, Mars and Saturn form a cluster of three planets in Virgo, their relative positions changing from night to night. Jupiter will move into the later evening sky, by the end of the month becoming prominent in the east after the three planets have set mid evening. THE EVENING SKY MERCURY will remain an easy early evening target for the first three weeks of August, during which time it will set more than 2 hours after the sun. It will get a little less bright, its magnitude dropping from 0.2 to 1.2. Mercury will remain to the lower left of Venus, the two separated by about 20 degrees. The comet 2P/Encke will pass Mercury on the 19th and 20th of August. On the former date the comet should be about 1.5 degrees to the lower left of Mercury and on the latter just over 1 degree to it upper left. The comet is expected to have a magnitude about 7. During the last ten days of the month, Mercury will get steadily lower in the evening sky, set earlier, fade and so become lost in twilight. It does not reach conjunction with the sun until early September. VENUS crosses from Leo to Virgo on August 1, joining Mars and Saturn in the constellation. It will then be just over 7 degrees to the lower left of the other two planets. By August 8, Venus will be passing Saturn, the two being less than 3 degrees apart on both the 8th and 9th. The following evening Venus, Saturn and the minor planet Vesta will form an almost straight line, with Vesta on the opposite side of Saturn and almost the same distance from Saturn as is Venus. By August 19, Venus will have moved up to Mars, the two then being about 2 degrees apart. A few evening earlier, on August 13, the crescent moon will join the grouping of three planets. Venus will be in a triangle formed by the moon, Mars and Saturn, with the moon just under 4 degrees to the left of Venus, Mars less than 3 degrees to its upper right and Saturn some 5 degrees below Venus. On the 31st, Venus will be just over a degree from Spica, with Mars 4 degrees below them. Venus will then be setting about 10 pm, rather later in the south of New Zealand than in the north. MARS sets a little before 10 pm in most of New Zealand throughout August, a little after 10 pm in the south. It remains at magnitude 1.5 all month. On the 1st of August it will be close to Saturn, the two less than 2 degrees apart. The conjunction, when they are closest, is on July 31. Mars will move away from Saturn for the rest of the month, being overtaken by Venus on the 19th and 20th when they will be less than 2 degrees apart. On August 31 it will be 4 degrees below Venus and Spica. SATURN will also remain in Virgo throughout August. After Venus passes it on the 8th and 9th, Saturn will be the first of the three planets to set, having been the last until late July. At the end of August it will set soon after 8 pm, so the planet will only be readily visible early evening. JUPITER will rise near 10 pm at the beginning of August and near 8 pm by the month“s end. Thus by the time the last of the three planets in Virgo disappear from view in the west, Jupiter will be readily visible to the northeast. Jupiter will remain visible through the rest of the night, moving round to be between northwest and west by the time of early morning twilight. The 93% lit waning moon will make a fairly distant pass of Jupiter on August 28, the two being some 7.5 degrees apart. The retrograde motion of the planet will take Jupiter back towards Uranus during the month, with the two less than 2 degrees apart by August 31. OUTER PLANETS URANUS, like Jupiter is in Pisces and also visible from late evening. Jupiter will close in on it during the month. NEPTUNE is ahead of Uranus and observable most of the night. The planet is at opposition on August 20. Neptune will be close to the border of Aquarius and Capricornus, crossing from the former to the latter mid month. BRIGHTER ASTEROIDS: (1) Ceres remains in Ophiuchus throughout August, being stationary on the 9th. At the beginning of August it is at magnitude 8.2, losing half a magnitude during the month. (4) Vesta remains at magnitude 8.0 during August. As already noted it is in Virgo quite close to Venus, Mars and Saturn. Vesta will set shortly after Saturn. (6) Hebe, best seen in the morning, continues to brighten during August, from magnitude 8.8 on the 1st to 8.0 on the 31st. Thus by the latter date it will equal Vesta in brightness. The asteroid is in Cetus throughout the month, 7 degrees from Jupiter on August 1, a distance doubling during the rest of the month as Hebe moves south. (8) Flora is a morning object in Aquarius throughout August. It brightens from magnitude 9.2 to 8.4 during the month. It is a morning object in Aquarius about 13 degrees from Jupiter. More details and charts for these minor planets can be found on the RASNZ web site. Follow the link to asteroids 2010 COMET C/2009 R1 (McNaught) emerges from the Sun to set about 7 pm. Its magnitude is expected to fade rapidly from 8.5 to 11.1 during August. The comet is in Hydra, on the 9th it will be about 3 degrees from alpha Hya. COMET 10P/Tempel remains in Cetus with an expected magnitude ranging from 8.2 to 8.8 during August. Its distance from Jupiter increases from 14 degrees to 27 degrees during the month. COMET P/Encke 2P emerges from the Sun into the evening sky, passing Mercury on the 19th and 20th to be just under 9 degrees from Venus and Mars on the 31st. By then its magnitude is expected to about 9.5. More details and charts are on the RASNZ web site. Follow the link to Comets 2010. -- Brian Loader =============================================================== 3. Martin Rees Gives BBC Reith Lectures --------------------------------------- William Tobin writes: England's Astronomer Royal, Professor Lord Martin Rees, has given this year's BBC Reith Lectures under the title "Scientific Horizons". The four individual lectures are entitled "The Scientific Citizen", "Surviving the Century", "What We'll Never Know" and "The Runaway World". They can be listened to on-line or downloaded as podcasts or transcripts from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00729d9 The lectures are being broadcast on Radio New Zealand's National programme on Sunday afternoons and Tuesday evenings. =============================================================== 4. AAS Astrophotography Competition ----------------------------------- The Auckland Astronomical Society 2010 Harry William's Astrophotography Competition is open to all New Zealand Astronomical Societies, clubs and groups. Competition entries are due by Friday 19th September 2010. Winners will be announced at the Burbidge Dinner in Auckland on Saturday October 9th, 2010. Send entries by email (max 2MB per email) or copied onto CDROM/USB memory stick and posted with accompanying Entry Forms to; 2010 Harry William's Astrophotography Competition Postal Delivery Address: 2/24 Rapallo Place, Farm Cove, Pakuranga, Auckland 2012 Email: farmcoveobs@xtra.co.nz. Subject Header: 2010 HW Astrophotography Competition -- Jennie McCormick =============================================================== 5. NZ in Space? --------------- Joel Schiff advises he is forming a consortium of 40 people/organisations from New Zealand who are planning on obtaining a small satellite that will be put in low-earth orbit for a month or more. The University of Sydney and the University of California at Irvine are already participants for the first launch. For details see http://www.interorbital.com/TubeSat_1.htm Joel writes: Entry fee is US$200 per person/group to cover the US$8000 cost of launch and satellite. Those who join us will decide/construct the electronics package of 250 grams that will make up the remaining part of the satellite. Launch will be in early 2011. I will get the precise details about the money/security to you before expecting payment. We already have some backers and only 40 slots will be allocated for this first venture. Joel's email address is jschiff@xtra.co.nz =============================================================== 6. Roy Kerr in "Cracking the Einstein Code" ------------------------------------------- "Cracking the Einstein Code: Relativity and the Birth of Black Hole Physics" by Fulvio Melia, 2009 University of Chicago Press, £17.50/$25.00 hard back 150pp. Reviewed by M. Coleman Miller, an astronomer at the University of Maryland. Black holes always make for an interesting read. This is true for both professional researchers and for members of the public, whose fascination with these curious objects has filled so many shelves in bookshops' science sections. Yet before the appearance of Fulvio Melia's Cracking the Einstein Code, little had been written about the man who did so much to explain them: the New Zealand mathematician Roy Kerr, who gave us the full solution for astrophysical black holes in 1963 but has largely shunned the limelight ever since. Melia's book is a lively journey through the golden age of black-hole mathematics, concentrating on Kerr as one of the era's lesser-known heroes. It was Kerr who solved Einstein's field equations of general relativity for rotating objects, and hence successfully described how space warps around such bodies. This was a key advance, as the existing Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstrom solutions -- discovered almost 50 years earlier -- had only described bodies that were spherically symmetric, and hence had zero angular momentum. Such assumptions cannot be true for any object in the universe, so before Kerr's breakthrough many physicists were sceptical about general relativity's applicability to "real" astrophysical objects. It was Kerr's important generalization that paved the way for scientists to accept the possibility of black holes, once observational evidence for their existence began to emerge in the 1960s and 1970s. The book gets off to a bit of a rocky start, when for some reason Melia asserts that Zeno's arrow paradox which amounts to "how can an arrow move when snapshots show it standing still?" requires special-relativistic principles to resolve. Although some philosophers continue to push this as a mystery, to me Aristotle's answer is perfectly reasonable: during a very short time an arrow moves a very short distance, but it is not stationary, and if you add up the short distances over short times you get motion. Melia's arguments to the contrary make an odd diversion, but fortunately this does not affect the rest of the book. After this initial hiccup, Melia takes us on a quick and well-written tour of general relativity, including a good discussion of the often-overlooked contributions of Emmy Noether. This is a well-paced section, and my only suggestion would have been to include a little bit about Wallace Campbell's eclipse expedition to Australia in 1922. Melia properly discusses Arthur Eddington's better-known 1919 expedition, which made Einstein a star, but it was Campbell's later observations that truly clinched the case for the light-deflection predictions. Overall, however, this is an excellent overview chapter, spanning the time between Einstein's first attempts at a theory of gravity and the expected detection of gravitational waves within a few years from now. The heart of the book begins in the fifth chapter, "An unbreakable code", in which Melia gives the reader a feel for the state of general relativity in the early 1960s. At that time, it was widely viewed as an extremely complicated theory; and with only a handful of experimental confirmations, it did not attract many people to work on its intricacies. Its intrinsic mathematical beauty, however, proved sufficient to persuade a select few to seek solutions to Einstein's nonlinear field equations. One of those was Kerr, then newly arrived at the University of Texas at Austin. It was at this point in the text that I became most interested in what Melia had to say -- particularly because Kerr (now retired and living in his native New Zealand, where he spent most of his career) has lent his support to this book in the form of an afterword. I work professionally on astrophysical applications of general relativity, and am therefore familiar with Kerr's solution, but I knew virtually nothing about the man himself. Melia's portrait reveals a gifted but modest man who is deeply interested in the solutions to problems but (to his occasional detriment) not particularly concerned about getting credit for the solutions or even publishing them. Melia also offers a number of warm anecdotes about Kerr's early career; for example, in 1951 Kerr scored a disappointing 298/600 in the mathematics portion of a scholarship exam for the University of New Zealand (now the University of Canterbury). It turns out, however, that this happened because he received a nearly perfect score on the first of the two required mathematics papers, but a zero on the second because he mistakenly turned up in the afternoon for a morning exam! The pursuit of the Kerr solution itself is described with verve, and should be accessible and informative to specialists and non-specialists alike. I was unaware, for example, that Kerr was initially dissuaded from attempting to formulate a solution because others told him that they were hot on the trail. The ranks of "others" included Ted Newman of the University of Pittsburgh, who later modified Kerr's solutions to account for electrically charged bodies. At one point in the pursuit, Newman thought he had proved that solutions of the desired type did not exist. When Kerr discovered a mistake in Newman's proof, he worked full-bore to find them, using numerous elegant techniques that were not described in his eventual one-and-a-half page paper. The fact that general relativity was something of a backwater at the time meant that few physicists and astronomers realized the magnitude of Kerr's accomplishment. One who did was the great Indian astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics and who wrote that the revelation of the Kerr solution was "the most shattering experience" of his entire scientific life. Gradually, other astronomers came to appreciate the full extent of Kerr's legacy: simply put, the Kerr solution describes all astrophysical black holes, the only properties of which are mass and angular momentum. These are thus the simplest macroscopic objects in the universe, and the only creatures in the astrophysical zoo that can be described with mathematical exactness. During their brief history, black holes have gone from being a dream in the 1960s to being broadly accepted by most in the 1980s. More recently, researchers have come to understand that supermassive black holes exist in most galaxies, and may play a crucial role galactic development and in the evolution of vast galaxy clusters. Melia, himself an astrophysicist at the University of Arizona, describes this progression well. He also adds a human touch by discussing Kerr's life post-discovery, and offers a tantalizing sketch of the vistas that still await us in the study of black holes. At 150 pages, Cracking the Einstein Code is a quick and invigorating read. It presents a lively and personal account of a subject that is a perennial favourite, and of a man who deserves more recognition. I recommend it for both scientists and anyone interested in the frustration and triumph that mark the course of scientific progress. -- from Physics World http://physicsworld.com/ July 1, 2010. Thanks to David Wiltshire for alerting us to this review. Fulvio Melia was guest speaker at the RASNZ Conference in Wellington last year. =============================================================== 7. Australian All-Sky Astrophysics Funded ----------------------------------------- On July 16, the Australian Research Council (ARC) announced the Centre of Excellence outcomes for funding starting in 2011. The Centres of Excellence form the largest and most prestigious grant scheme funded by the ARC. Typical funding level is around $20M over seven years, plus substantial funding by the collaborating universities. Thirteen Centres were approved for funding and the ASA is very pleased to note that CAASTRO - the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics - will commence funding in 2011 with a budget of $20.6M. CAASTRO has Prof. Bryan Gaensler as Director and is administered through the University of Sydney, however it is a broad collaboration of Australian and international institutions including the University of Western Australia, The University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology, the Australian National University, Curtin University of Technology, CSIRO, Australian Astronomical Observatory, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, Durham University, University of Arizona, University of Toronto, and the Laboratoire de Physique Nucleaire et de Hautes Energies. From the project summary CAASTRO's activities will substantially expand Australia's research capabilities and will make a major contribution to the National Research and Innovation Priorities. CAASTRO will boost Australia's outstanding track record as a world leader in astronomy, and will solve fundamental processing problems that can potentially be applied to communications, medical imaging and remote sensing. All CAASTRO activities will have a strong focus on training the next generation of scientists, providing a legacy extending well beyond the Centre's lifetime. The students we mentor will lead the scientific discoveries made on future wide-field facilities, culminating in the ultimate all-sky telescope, the Square Kilometre Array. A summary of the proposal outcomes can be found at http://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/ce/selection_report11.htm . -- from a press release by John O“Byrne, Secretary, Astronomical Society of Australia Inc. =============================================================== 8. Rosetta passes Lutetia ------------------------- On 10 July the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft returned the first close-up images of the asteroid Lutetia showing it is most probably a primitive survivor from the violent birth of the Solar System. The flyby was a spectacular success with Rosetta performing faultlessly. Closest approach was 3162 km. As Rosetta drew close, a giant bowl-shaped depression stretching across much of the asteroid rotated into view. The images confirm that Lutetia is an elongated body, with its longest side around 130km. The pictures come from Rosetta“s OSIRIS instrument, which combines a wide angle and a narrow angle camera. At closest approach, details down to a scale of 60 m can be seen over the entire surface of Lutetia. Rosetta raced past the asteroid at 15 km/s completing the flyby in just a minute. But the cameras and other instruments had been working for hours and in some cases days beforehand and continued afterwards. Lutetia has been a mystery for many years. Ground-based telescopes have shown that it presents confusing characteristics. In some respects it resembles a `C-type“ asteroid, a primitive body left over from the formation of the Solar System. In others, it looks like an `M-type“. These have been associated with iron meteorites, are usually reddish and thought to be fragments of the cores of much larger objects. The new images and the data from Rosetta“s other instruments will help to decide. Rosetta operated a full suite of sensors at the encounter, including remote sensing and in-situ measurements. Some of the payload of its Philae lander was also switched on. Together they looked for evidence of a highly tenuous atmosphere, magnetic effects, and studied the surface composition as well as the asteroid“s density. The flyby marks the attainment of one of Rosetta“s main scientific objectives. The spacecraft will now continue to a 2014 rendezvous with its primary target, comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will then accompany the comet for months, from near the orbit of Jupiter down to its closest approach to the Sun. In November 2014, Rosetta will release Philae to land on the comet nucleus. For a sample of Rosetta's images of Lutetia see http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM44DZOFBG_index_0.html Other information and pictures can be found on http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1007/10lutetia/ =============================================================== 9. Bug Nebula Contains "Hottest Star" ------------------------------------- A paper published in the Astrophysical Journal late last year announced the discovery of an unusually hot star at the heart of the Bug Nebula in Scorpius, with a surface temperature estimated at 200 000°K (see arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0909/0909.5143v2.pdf for the full text). The story was quickly picked up by the science media, typically under headings such as "Newly discovered star one of hottest in Galaxy". Here is once such story, adapted from the original at eww.physorg.com/news178987042.html. Astronomers at The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics have discovered one of the hottest stars in the Galaxy. With a surface temperature of around 200 000 degrees, it is 35 times hotter than the Sun. Despite numerous attempts by astronomers across the world, the mysterious dying star at the heart of the Bug Nebula - one of the brightest and most beautiful of the planetary nebulae - has never been seen before. "This star was so hard to find because it is hidden behind a cloud of dust and ice in the middle of the nebula", explained Professor Albert Zijlstra of the University of Manchester. "Planetary nebulae like the Bug form when a dying star ejects much of its gas back into space and are among the most beautiful objects in the night sky. The Bug Nebula is about 3500 light years away in the constellation Scorpius, and is one of the most spectacular planetary nebulae." Using the HST, a team of astronomers led by Professor Zijlstra have shed new light on the nebula with a set of spectacular images. These were taken to show off the new improved HST after it began work again in September 2009, and have now been published in the Astrophysical Journal. The Manchester astronomers were amazed to find that the images unexpectedly revealed the missing central star. Cezary Szyszka, lead author on the paper and a research student at the University of Manchester currently working at the ESO, said: "We are extremely lucky that we had the opportunity to catch this star near its hottest point. From now on it will gradually cool as it dies. This is truly an exceptional object." Professor Zijlstra added: "It's extremely important to understand planetary nebulae such as the Bug Nebula, as they are crucial to understanding our own existence on Earth". That is because the elements necessary for life, especially carbon, are created inside stars, and ejected into space as part of these planetary nebulae. Planets such as the Earth form from small dust particles, which also form within planetary nebulae. The cloud of dust and ice in the Bug Nebula contains the seeds of a future generation of planets." Finding the star was made possible by the Space Shuttle's final servicing mission of the HST, earlier in 2009. During the mission, astronauts installed the new Wide Field Camera 3 which was used to take these images. "How a star ejects a nebula like this is still a mystery", added Dr Tim O'Brien of the University of Manchester. "It seems most stars, including the Sun, will eject as much as 80 per cent of their mass when they finally run out of nuclear fuel at the end of their lives. Material that then goes on to help form the next generation of stars and planets. These observations have shown that the star at the heart of the Bug Nebula is only about 2/3 as heavy as the Sun, but was several times heavier before it threw off its outer layers to form the nebula which had previously hidden it from our view. Images like these are remarkable not only for their beauty but also for what they tell us about our own origins." For an image of the Bug Nebula with zoomed in section showing the newly discovered central star see: Bug Nebula -- copied from the Canterbury Astronomical Society's July Newsletter =============================================================== 10. Italian Crisis ------------------ Recently a group of concerned Italian astronomers made an emotional appeal for support in a paper published at arXiv: "The decline and fall in the future of Italian Astronomy?" Background: As the majority of Italian astronomers had to learn from press reports (!), an Italian government decision decrees to close the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and incorporate the remains into the National Research Council. INAF had been identified as one of several instituti ons that were deemed "useless". The authors of the paper are concerned about the future of current researchers and the general future of Astronomy in Italy, but also about the apparent contradiction to the government's declared intention of reversing the Italian "brain drain". See arXiv:1007.1455v1 [astro-ph.IM] 8 Jul 2010 -- forwarded by Roland Idaczyk. =============================================================== 11. RASNZ in Wikipedia ---------------------- Peter Jaquiery writes that he has started an RASNZ entry on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Astronomical_Society_of_New_Zealand Peter invites anyone who can fill in some of the details (especially the history) to do so. ================================================================ 12. Gifford-Eiby Lecture Fund ----------------------------- The RASNZ administers the Gifford-Eiby Memorial Lectureship Fund to assist Affiliated Societies with travel costs of getting a lecturer or instructor to their meetings. Details are in RASNZ By-Laws Section H. For an application form contact the Executive Secretary secretary@rasnz.org.nz, P.O. Box 2214, Christchurch 8140. ========================================================= 13. Kingdon-Tomlinson Fund -------------------------- The RASNZ is responsible for recommending to the trustees of the Kingdon Tomlinson Fund that grants be made for astronomical projects. The grants may be to any person or persons, or organisations, requiring funding for any projects or ventures that promote the progress of astronomy in New Zealand. Full details are set down in the RASNZ By-Laws, Section J. For an application form contact the RASNZ Executive Secretary, secretary@rasnz.org.nz, P.O. Box 2214, Christchurch 8140. =============================================================== 14. How to Join the RASNZ ------------------------- A membership application form and details can be found on the RASNZ website http://www.rasnz.org.nz/InfoForm/membform.htm. Please note that the weblink to membership forms is case sensitive. Alternatively please send an email to the membership secretary member@rasnz.org.nz for further information. The annual subscription rate is $75. For overseas rates please check with the membership secretary, member@rasnz.org.nz. =============================================================== 15 Why...? ---------- Why do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke. Why do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters. Why do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in our driveways and put our useless junk in the garage. Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin? Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word? Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'? Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavouring, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons? Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker? Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour? Why isn't there mouse-flavoured cat food? Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes? Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections? You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?! Why don't sheep shrink when it rains? Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together? If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal? -- forwarded by Norman Izett ============================================================= Alan Gilmore Phone: 03 680 6000 P.O. Box 57 alan.gilmore@canterbury.ac.nz Lake Tekapo 7945 New Zealand ==========================
Return to RASNZ home page.