My Deception Detector

Everyone seems to have some special talent.  Some people know instinctively who to trust.  Others can tell compass directions even down in the subways.  Some can choose the perfect gift every time.  Others can field a hard-hit ball, or dodge a speedy object (I saw a guy who could catch arrows aimed at him once), have great balance, etc.

I have a false-statement flag in my brain.  Most people don't (or else there wouldn't be deceptive advertisements).  I call it my "bull-shit meter".  I don't mean that I'm a skeptic who simply suspects every statement.  That's just a negative way of viewing the world. 

But I can hear statements that immediately don't ring true to reality.  Its not even concious, as if I heard the statement, thought about it carefully, and disagreed with it.  It's an immediate "WHAT?"  I don't even have to be paying attention for the "flag" to register.  I just "hear" false statements better than most.

Sometimes I'm doing housework with the TV on and the *DING* happens.  I even have to work to figure out what caused it.  Its usually a commercial and I see the ending of it enough to watch for it the next time, to find out what the *DING* was about. 

The latest one is some drug that specifies that (paraphrased) isnt for weight loss but can help in weight loss.  After paying attention a couple times, I realized that a side effect was diarrhea.  Well of COURSE that causes weight loss, DUH!  But it took several intent listenings to catch the deception.

Well, I heard one a week ago that really bothered me and I couldn't figure out what was getting my BS detector activated.  It was for some astronomy online or DVD class.  I should mention that (so far as I can tell) I am (mostly) immune to advertising.  Well my BS Detector helps, but I also buy products after research, and that helps too.

I finally caught the part of the ad that got my subconcious detector buzzing...

One part said "find out why Venus disappears at Midnight".  That didn't make sense and it really bothered me.  I'm a science-type guy.  And that "at midnight" part bothered me.  Why "at midnight?"  That's a pretty specific time...

I did some back-of-the-envelope" sketches and couldn't find anything special about "midnight.  Well, actually, one part was obvious.  At midnight, we are looking at the outer solar system, and Venus is in the inner solar system. 

Now I know the basic general distances of planets from the Sun.  Each one is "sort of" 50% further from the sun that the previous one.  Its nowhere near exact, but its a general estimation.  So with Venus having a smaller orbit nearer the sun, as the Earth turns, your spot on it turns away from the Sun.  And since Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, your spot on Earth turns away from Venus, too.  It just takes longer because Venus is further from the Sun.

In fact, Venus is "about" 45 degrees from the Sun from our maximum POV.  Sometimes zero, but never more more than about 45 degrees.



So that ad for the astronomy "class" just burned me up and NOW I know why.  "At Midnight" is a deceptive come-on, it sounds "special" to midnight.  We only see Venus a few HOURS after sunset or a few HOURS before sunrise, not just "can't see it at midnight". And THAT is what set my subconcious BS-Detector off, even though I had to spend some time figuring out exactly why.

August Meteor Showers!

And I can't see them AGAIN this year.  Its all overcast.  I'm a bit conflicted by that.  First, the clouds are there because we got a decent rainfall this evening, and we sure needed THAT!  1 1/4" of rain in the past 2 days, and that's about the best since April.  Second, the temperature dropped to 70 (briefly) during the daylight, and I haven't felt THAT outside for months.

But I love astronomy.  When I moved here 26 years ago, I could occasionally see the milky way, and seeing the constellations was routine.  Over the years, light pollution and general haze has eliminated the milky way from home "seeing" (astronomese for "good viewing) , and it is a rare night when the constellations are clear.  About 2 months ago, I was taking the recycling bins to the street when I realized that the stars were quite visible.  I don't know "why", just one of those things.

I stayed out for an hour just "seeing".  I even noticed one star that shouldn't have been there in a constellation.  I went to the computer to see if there was a new nova star, and discovered it was Jupiter.  So I went back out and looked around a bit.  Sure enough, I found Mars and another planet (Saturn I suppose, because Venus would have been closer to the sun).

It made me think back to a camping trip to Canada in 1980 (or thereabouts).  The first night, the stars shone madly and the milky way was vivid.  The other nights were overcast.  Well, at least I saw that one night.

Can you imagine what the night sky must have looked like "only" a few centuries ago?  Absolutely ablaze with stars!  No wonder our ancestors saw images among them, there were SO MANY more stars visible.  I envy that so much.

But to get back to the beginning (meteor showers, remember?), tonight was the night to see the Perseid meteor shower.  And it is predicted to be one of the better years for it (about 100 meteors per hour).  I won't see it, and it is probably near it peak about know.  I am covered with clouds...

There are only a few major meteor showers each year, and even those have really good years only every few/many years. 

Sorry, that's a bit confusing.  We see meteor showers at the same times every year because the Earth passes through the same point as some cometary debris orbit at the same time every year.  Meaning that the cometary debris that we call meteors intersects Earth orbit the same time every year, but the debris is not spread out along the orbit uniformly.  So some years, we hit denser patches of debris than in other years.  Those times can be spectacular.  But you can't see them if there are clouds; and this year, for me, there are clouds.

You know what frustrates me most?  MOST years, the sky is overcast here on the best meteor nights.  I feel cursed sometimes.  Its all random, of course, but I still fell unlucky about meteor showers.  I'll have to go look at OTHER people's images of the meteors tomorrow on websites.  Well, at least there is that.  But it's not the same as real seeing.  And I miss real seeing...