Mid November 2020

Introduction

By cosmic coincidence, seven planets are visible in the night sky this week. Mercury and Venus are visible in the early morning; Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune in the evening sky. Uranus is also visible, but only with the aid of a telescope.

The unusual planetary alignment caused me to think about exploration and discovery. It is sobering to realize how much more we know about the planets than my parents’ generation did. We are in a new age of discovery and it started when I was in my early high school years. It was certainly an exciting time for a kid interested in science. And it is continuing. Did you know that right now there is a probe named after an Italian mathematician headed to Mercury? And three, each from a different space agency, to Mars? Or that a NASA satellite is in orbit around Jupiter? I didn’t think so.

So here are some tidbits about the planets and some of their visitors.

Mercury

Mercury is visible low on the eastern horizon just before sunrise. It is near the star Spica and Venus.

Early Missions

Being close to the sun, Mercury is a difficult target for space craft. There have been two missions to Mercury; a third is on the way. Mariner 10, launched on November 1, 1973, attained solar orbit by mid-1975. It flew by Venus on its way into orbit. Mariner 10 flew by Mercury three times and mapped 45% of its surface. It also detected, in a bit of a surprise, a magetic field much like that of Earth.

The MESSENGER space craft was launched in August of 2004. It made gravitational slingshot flybys of Earth (February 2005), Venus twice (October 2006 and October 2007) and Mercury three times (January and October 2008 and September 2009) before achieving orbit around Mercury in 2011. Out of propellant, it crashed onto Mercury’s surface on April 30, 2016.

The spacecraft’s name shows NASA’s love of acronyms – the full name of the probe was MErcury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry and Ranging. Whatever its name, the mission was successful and returned about 10 terabytes of formatted data. Among its notable discoveries – water ice at Mercury’s north pole.

BepiColombo

The European Space Agency in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency lauched the BepiColombo probe to Mercury on October 20, 2018. It will achieve orbiit around Mercury in December 2025 after gravitational slingshot flybys of Earth (once), Venus (twice) and Mercury (six times). It will then release two small satelittes, in different orbits, to study the planet.

By the way, the probe is named after Guissepe “Bepi” Colombo (1920 – 1984), a mathematician from the University of Padua. He proposed the slingshot flyby manuever as first successfully implemented by Mariner 10.

Venus

Like Mercury, Venus is visible low on the eastern horizon, just before dawn. It is a little higher than Mercury, and a bit to the right.

Early Missions

Venus has been the target for multiple space probes: 18 in the 1960s, 11 in the 1970s, seven in the 1980s, one in the 2000s and five in the 2010s. That is not to say all have been successful – during the 1960s, five missions were successful, and 13 failed for one reason or another – explosions on the launch pad, communications failures, etc.

The Russians had an early interest in Venus. The Venera 4 probe (launch June 1967) sampled Venus’s atmosphere; Venera 7 (August 1970 launch) was the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on another planet. The lander Venera 9 (June 1975) was the first to transmit images from the surface of another planet. Check here for a full list of missions and comments on their success/failure.

Surface Conditions

Venus, named for the Roman goddess of love, is anything but hospitable. The atmosphere (96.5 % carbon dioxide, 3.5 % nitrogen, traces of other gasses) is dense – surface pressure about 92 times that of earth, and hot – surface temperatures of 860 F. Venus is seismically active, with current volcanic activity. NASA and other enginners are beginning to design a Rover of some sort for a Venus landing. It is a daunting task – just keeping the thing cool enough for the electronics to function will be difficult.

Mars

Mars is visible in the evening sky. It will be near the waxing gibbous moon during the week of November 25.

Early Missions

There have been 46 missions to Mars – three more are on the way, all launched during the favorable July 2020 launch window. I’ll focus on those. Click here if you want to review the missions, with comments as to success and failure.

United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA)

The United Arab Emirates created UAESA in 2014 to foster expertise in the space industry. In 2015, it established partnerships with the French and UK space agencies. It has overseen the launch of commercial communications satellites from EADS, Boeing, and others. On September 25, 2019, an Emeriti astronaut was lauched to the International Space Station from the Baikonar cosmodrome.

The 2020 mission to Mars is the USAEA’s first effort at exploring another planet. The Hope orbiter, built by a unit of the University of Colorado with several subcontractors, was launched on July 20, 2020 and will attain orbit in February of 2021. It is designed to study seasonal and localized weather patterns, and will make measurements to try to understand why the Martian atmosphere is losing oxygen and hydrogen to deep space.

China National Space Administration (CNSA)

The CNSA used a Long March 5 heavy rocket to launch the ambitious Tianwen-1 to Mars from its Wenchang launch site, on July 23, 2020. The mission includes an orbiter, a lander, a rover, and a detachable camera. The orbiter should achieve orbit by mid-February 2021, the lander should reach the Martian surface by April, and the rover should begin its work shortly thereafter. It will study the Utopia Planita region, in an area near the 2003 Beagle mission (see the Mars map above). Click here for a well-done simulation of the mission.

NASA

The Mars 2020 Perserverance Rover launched from Cape Canaveral on July 30, 2020. It is now in its cruise phase. This is another in NASA’s on-going robotic explorations of Mars.

The Perservance rover is an impressive piece of technolgy. It is the size of a small car – it weighs about 2,260 Earth lbs, is about ten ft long, nine ft wide and seven ft high. This is quite an advance from the first Mars rover – the Sojourner (landed July 4, 1997) – which was about the size of a microwave oven. Click here for a NASA video showing the rover’s features.

Perserverance should land in the Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. The crater, about 30 miles wide, is near the Martian equator in the Isidis Basin. The crater was apparently a lake at one time as there are inlet and outlet structures and what appears to be an alluvial fan within the crater. Mission scientists think this is an excellent place to find evidence of early life on Mars – in fact, astrobiology is the dominant theme of the whole Mars 2020 mission.

Helicopter on Mars?

And the Perservance is carrying a small helicopter, named Ingenuity. The 4 lb drone is a technology demonstrator – it carries no instruments. The goal is to see if and how it works in the thin Martian atmosphere.

NASA has an excellent website with all sorts of information about the mission. And you can sign up for Mars Newsletters, delivered via email. I wish, with apologies to Ray Bradbury, NASA had named them The Martian Chronicles. Another PR opportunity missed.

Jupiter and Saturn

The two giant planets are near each other, to the south west, in the evening sky, They are now near the waxing crescent moon.

Missions to Jupiter

There have been eight missions to Jupiter – six flybys and two orbital insertions – all managed by NASA. Pioneers 10 and 11 flew by Jupiter in the early 1970s, as did Voyager 1 and 2 in 1979. The Galileo orbiter, launched from the Space Shuttle Atlantis, attained orbit on December 8, 1995. The probe lasted for eight years, burning up in the Jovian atmosphere in September, 2003.

The Ulysses (1992) passed Jupiter on its way to a heliocentric orbit; the Cassini-Huygens (2000) on its way to Saturn. In 2007, the New Horizons passed nearby on its way to deep space.

The Juno orbiter, launched on August 5, 2011, entered orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Juno was suppossed to stay in the original orbit – with a period of 53 days – and then, after a course correction burn, move into an orbit with a 14 day period. However, NASA engineers, prior to the second burn, discovered faults in two helium valves. Mission scientists then decided to maintain Juno in the 53 day orbit.

The higher orbit means that Juno is in a less severe radiation environment., thus allowing the mission to be extended. It is now planned to end it in 2021, with a fatal dive into the Jovian atmosphere.

You can follow the Juno mission by visiting NASA’s Juno website here.

Missions to Saturn

I wrote about this in an earlier post. If you missed that example of erudition and wit, shame on you. You can make amends by clicking here now.

Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

Uranus will rise this afternoon on the horizon to the north-north west and will be best visible about 10 30 PM, here is San Juan. Neptune is visible low in the northwest sky, early in the evening.

By the way, click here for an excellent, interactive website that gives directions and best time to view objects in the sky.

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit both Uranus and Neptune.

Both Voyager 1 and 2, now in interstellar space, are still active. Click here for their current status.

Conclusion

We are living in an unprecedented era of planetary exploration – something we’ve begun to take for granted. I think it is good to get excited about some of this stuff – just like I was back in high school.

If you are interested in a telescope, consider this: sales of telescopes increased by 400 – 500 % over last year. This is undoubtedly due to the covid pandemic. Here’s my plan: wait a year or two and, as things get back to normal, I suspect there will be slightly used telescopes of all sorts for sale. Keep checking Craigslist or other such venues – I’m sure you’ll find a good deal.

Notes and Sources

The Mercury image and many others can be found here.

The image of the BepiColombo probe is from this site.

The BepiColombo image of Venus is from here.

See the desctiption of the twin Venus images here.

Click here for information about the Venus surface image.

Follow this link for more information about the UAE mission to Mars.

You can find more information on the Tianwhen-1 mission here.

The NASA website on the Mars 2020 Perservance mission is excellent, as is their website for the Juno mission.

Mid November 2020

Introduction

The election results are in and it is fair to say the results demonstrate a diversity of political opinions here. As I mentioned in my previous post, most races attracted candidates from five parties, and sometimes an independent as well. So here are the results for a few of the races and an overview of some others.

Late Breaking News

The election commission here, on 11/11/2020, reported finding 184 ballot containers filled with uncounted ballots. Given the closeness of some of these races, one wonders how these ballots will reflect the results I present below. Stay tuned.

Governor

Pedro Pierluisi of the New Democratic Party (NDP) barely defeated former Isabela Mayor Carlos Delgado Altieri of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP). Here are the results by percentage of the total turnout of about 1,200,000,

• Perdro Pierluisi Urrutia (NDP) 32.93%
• Carlos Delgado Altieri (PDP) 31.56%
• Alexandre Lugaro Aponte (Citizen’s Victory Movement) 14.21%
• Juan Dalmau Rodriguez (Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP)) 13.72%
• Cesar Vazquez Muniz (Project Dignity) 6.9%
• Eliezer Molina Perez (Independent) 0.69%

So the pro-statehood NDP retains the governorship, but not by much. In a bit of a surprise, all five parties received enough votes to be registered. That means they have an assured place on the next ballot.

I ran into my friend Eduardo after the election. As usual, he provided me with interesting insights. I asked if there would be a runoff election given that no candidate won a majority. He said not under current law but that is being considered.

Resident Commissioner

The incumbent Jennifer Gonzalez was reelected with 40.85% of the vote. She, like the Governor, is a member of the pro-statehood NDP. In this election, the pro-Independence party candidate, Luis Roberto Pinero, received 6.37% of the vote, last among the five candidates.

Statehood

The non-binding referendum on statehood passed, with Yes votes coming in at 52.34%. Prior to the election, the NDP promised to promote statehood if the referendum passed. It will be interesting to see how this plays out – the invitation for statehood has to come from the U. S. Congress. Given that the House will be majority Democrat and the Senate will (most likely) be majority Republican, it would seem statehood will not be high on anyone’s agenda. And if statehood in general is up for discussion, one wonders how the issue of Puerto Rican statehood meshes with statehood for the District of Columbia.

Tennessee was the 16th state to join the union, and the first state to have been a territory prior to statehood. It seems that Puerto Rico is in a somewhat similar position, I wrote about the so-called Tennessee Gambit in an earler post.

I’m going to check and see how many other former territories had the option of independence or statehood. Texas and California come to mind. I’ll have to research that.

Again, my friend Eduardo has an interesting perspective. He is pro-independence and suggests there should be an island wide referendum with three choices: statehood, independence, and the status quo. The top two choices would then be on the final, binding referendum.

As a San Juan native, Eduardo is full if useful information. One time I asked why a particular stretch of beach, popular with surfers, was called Playa de Ocho, Beach Eight. He told me it was because it was the eighth stop on the street car line leaving San Juan.

I have heard San Juan natives say something is near stop (Parada) 15 even though stop 15 no longer exists. It is a code known only to San Juan natives.

Parada 18 was apparently an important interchange point, and there is a building there named Parada 18. The Parada 18 bar and restaurant is close by, on Avenida Ponce de Leon.

There is, at least the last time I was there, a Parada 18 restaurant in San Francisco, on Haight Street past Amoeba Music heading towards the east end of Golden Gate Park. Check it out the next time you’re in San Francisco. I’m sure they serve Puerto Rican specialties.

Senate and House

Every seat in the Commonwealth is up for election every four years and so every Senator and Representative faced reeelection.

In the Senate, the New Progressive Party lost their 2/3 majority, dropping to nine seats of the 27 in the senate. The Popular Democrats gained seats, to a total of 13. The senate is the most diverse in history with five parties represented: Citizens Victory Movement – two, one each for Project Dignity and the Puerto Rico Independence Party. In addition, there is one senator not affiliated with any party.

The situation is similar in the House, with all five parties represented. The Popular Democrats have 26 of the 51 seats, the New Progressives 21, with two to the Citizens Victory Movement and one each to Project Dignity and the Puerto Rican Independence Party.

And there is always the sceptre of corruption. One NPP representative, Nestor Alonso Vega, has resigned since the election. Vega was indicted by a federal grand jury and faces nine federal charges, including receiving illegal commissions (aka kickbacks), wire fraud, and theft of federal funds from the government of Puerto Rico. He was arrested by the FBI.

No one would be surprised if other arrests were to occur, with similar charges against other individuals.

Mayor of San Juan

Miguel Romero of the New Progressive Party is the Mayor-elect of the capitol city of San Juan. Romero was elected over four other candidates and recieved 36.22% of the votes cast. He is a political veteran, having held several offices. Romero once served as Chief of Staff to a governor, and twice represented Puerto Rico at the Democratic National Convention.

Conclusion

Puerto Rico faces a challenging time with a diverse, divided government. It will be interesting. But I am looking forward to the Inauguration, on New Years Day. In the past it has been a festive time, with music, a procession from the Capitol to the Governor’s Mansion, etc. It will be interesting to see how covid will affect the event.

Late March 2020

Introduction

I suppose everyone has felt, at one time or another, that they were being watched. I sometimes feel that way in my walks around San Juan. I’ve decided to share some of the wall art that may have caused that paranoid feeling.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve seen some of these before. But there are some new ones as well.

The images have been minimally edited. I’ve cropped them and adjusted levels. I’ll share a more completely edited image at the end.

Unadorned Eyes

I’ll start with an old favorite of mine – Woman witn Green Face. She is gone, having been painted over. But she is still evocative.

Here is a recent find. She iseems to be wearing the uniform of the Puerto Rico national team. Perhaps she is a well know local athlete.

Here’s a somewhat sterner face.

The woman below seems to be curious about something.

I don’t get the next one. If anyone can tell me the significance of a woman holding a rooster with a key dangling from his beak and a pineapple in her other hand I’d like to hear it. I very much like this. Perhaps some day I’ll devote some time to editing it – removing the wires, etc. I think it would be worth the effort.

I’m not quite sure what the next woman is holding. Is it a conch shell? A piece of fish? Some kind of fruit? Any ideas? Let me know.

A friend of mine calls the next one Proud Woman. I like that name for her. She does have much to be proud of.

I really like the next one, except for the window in the upper left. Reto y Resistencia means challenge and resist; the art probably dates from the anti-government demonstrations in August of 2019.

I have to admit I don’t recall where I first saw the Woman on Blue Background. I’ll have to go through my notes and see if I can find a reference to her.

Finally, to end this section, another stern woman, this time on a colorful background.

Bespectacled Eyes

Some eyes peer out through spectacles. Here are a few examples.

I found the Woman with Fashionable Glasses on Calle San Miguel. A resident there saw me taking pictures and graciously came out and moved his car out of the way,

This guy looks pious enough. I first thought he was a priest but I think the jewelry and tattoos signify another type of concentration. I’m not sure what – any ideas?

This old guy is probbly glad he has a fixed income pension, and that happy hour is approaching.

I found the next example on the door of a shop on Avenida Juan Ponce de Leon in Santurce.

Here is another recent find. He looks like he is getting ready to say something important

I’ll finish this section with an image suggesting everything is OK.

Non-Human Eyes

Here are a few examples of alien eyes I found.

I don’t quite get the space suit and the candle, or the three eyes. I suppose it could have something to do with the corona virus but the painting predates that.

I suspect people walking along a pedestrian mall in Rio Piedras get nervous when they see the next example.

The next example is also from Rio Piedras.

The last one in this section reminds me of something that you might see in an old Indiana Jones movie, guarding the entrance to some archaeological wonder.

Disembodied Eyes

Every once in a while I see wall art featuring eyes with little reference to a body. Here are a few examples.

The next eample is more of a disembodied head. This certainly does capture the agony Puerto Ricans felt during the political demonstratons of the summer of 2019.

I like the way the Puerto Rican flag is used in the eye below.

Flower Power

Every once in a while an artist uses flowers as eye cover. Here is one example.

Eyes Wide Shut

One final example. I found this character in a wall in Santurce. Maybe he is dreaming of a plantain.

Editing

As I said in the beginning, these images are minimally edited. I wanted to show one example of more extensive editing. I’ll show the origianal as obtained from my camera, and the final after I worked on it.

Conclusion

I had great fun putting this together. And I have plenty more. Stay tuned.

Notes and Sources

The images are mine. I use a Sony point and shot digital camera and Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop for post processing.

Mid-February 2020

Introduction

As I’ve written before, the street art in San Juan is fanciful, colorful, and ever-changing. I’ll be showing some new works. They may be newly created, or maybe they are just new to me. These images are minimally edited – I’ve cropped them and adjusted the levels. That’s all. I’ll show you an example or two of fully edited images at the end of the post.

The Puerto Rican Flag

Some of the works use the Puerto Rico flag, sometimes optimistically, sometimes not. Here are a few examples.

The second and third stories of a building on Calle Cerra, in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan.

Sports

A relatively few examples of street art show sports figures. Here are a few.

Animals

Street art frequently employs representations of animals, sometimes realistic, sometimes more fanciful. Here are a few examples.

Faces

Next I’ll show some examples of street art featuring faces – some beautiful, some ironic, all interesting.

Miscellaneous

There are always things that are difficult to categorize. Here are two examples.

Edits

I mentioned in the beginning that these were minimally edited. I’ve been working on converting some examples of wall art to black and white. I’ll show two before and after examples.

Final Thoughts

So there is some of the street art I’ve encountered in the past two months or so. There’s a whole lot more – stay tuned.

Notes and Sources

I took and edited all of these images. I use a small digital point and shoot camera and edit with Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop.

Comments always welcome.

Mid February 2020

Introduction

Puerto Rico has a professional winter baseball league. This past year, there were five teams from around the island – the Indios de Mayaguez, the Gigantes de Carolina, the Criollos de Caugus, and the Atenienses de Manati, and one from San Juan. The San Juan team is the Cangrejeros de Santurce. Their home field is the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Santurce. We can see the lights of the night games from our balcony. The Puerto Rican league ends its season with a playoff, and this year the Cangrejeros were league champions.

Other coutries around in the Caribbean area also have their winter leagues. As in Puerto Rico, each league ends its season with a playoff that determines the champion. In early February, the league champions from six winter leagues play in the Serie del Caribbe. This year, San Juan hosted the series. This meant there were baseball fans from five countries here during the first week of February, attending the games and otherwise having a good time.

The Teams

This year, there were teams from Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. Colombia replaced the Cuban team as it would have been difficult for the Cubans to obtain visas in time for the series.

The series is intense. The first five days is a round-robin with each team playing each other once. There are three games a day – one at 10:30 AM, one at 2:30 PM, and another at 8:00 PM. As host, the Puerto Rican team plays each of their games at night (exception: they played Sunday afternoon); since Santurce won the Puerto Rican league it had the further advantage of playing on its home field.

Two teams are eliminated after the five day round-robin. The remaining four play on the sixth day, and the two winners meet the next night in the final. So the whole tournament takes a week.

The Venue

All the games were played at Hiram Bithorn Stadium, in the Santurce section of San Juan. The stadium can hold about 19,000 fans. In fact, the stadium was sold out the night the team from the Dominican Republic played the Cangrejeros de Santurce. The home field did not help the Cangrejeros; they lost 5 to 4.

Some History

By the way, Hiram Bithorn was the first Puerto Rican to play in the major leagues. A right-handed pitcher, he played for the Chicago Whie Sox and Cubs during the early and mid 1940s. He was a big man -200 lbs, six feet one inch tall, and threw with a strange windup.

Bithorn had an overall record of 34 wins and 31 losses, with an earned run average (ERA) of 3.16 in 106 innings pitched. He went 18 and 12 in the 1943 season, with an ERA of 2.60. He finished 19 of his 30 starts and led the league with seven shutouts.

Like so many others, Bithorn went into the military and spent two years in the service. After the war, he was ineffective, perhaps because his weight had ballooned to 225 lbs. He died in Mexico in 1951, at age 35. Bithorn was pitching in the Mexican Pacific League, trying to make a comeback. He was shot by a Mexican policeman who was susequently convicted of murder.

Other Puerto Ricans have played major league baseball, including Roberto Clemente, Carlos Beltran, Ivan Rodriguez, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada, to name a few.

The Games

We went to three games. We saw the morning and afternoon games on the third day of the tournament, and the first semi-final on the sixth day. The games were close and well-played. I’d say the level of play was roughly equivalent to triple-A minor league baseball in the states.

In the 10 30 AM game, the seventh of the tournament, the team from Mexico beat the team from Panama 6 – 1. The Mexican team showed good pitching and defense, and timely hitting.

The 2 30 PM game, the eighth of the tournament, pitted the teams from the Dominican Republic and Colombia against each other. Colombia’s starter, a crafty left-hander, kept the opposing batters off stride. However, he was relieved in the sixth inning while the score was tied at zero. The Colombian reliever promptly gave up a double and then a home run, all the runs the Dominican Republic team needed. They won 4 -0, making the best of their five hits. They also pulled off a triple play inf the eighth, on a failed sacrifice bunt with two on and no outs.

The Semi-Finals

At the end of the five game round-robin, the teams from Mexico and Venezuela stood at 4 -1, the Dominican Republic team was 3 – 2, and the Cangrejeros were at 2 -3. These four advanced; the teams from Colombia and Panama were eliminated.

I’m not sure how the semi-finals pairings were decided. It seems to me Mexico should have been the top seed, as it had defeated Venezuela during the round-robin. Likewise, the Congrejeros should have been seeded last. But the baseball gods thought differently, and the first semi-final had the two 4 – 1 teams play each other.

It was a close game. Venezuela won 1 – 0, avenging its earlier loss to Mexico.

In the second semi-final game, the Dominican Republic team scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth and held on to beat the Cangrejeros 4 – 3.

The next day, in the finals, the Dominican Republic team won 9 – 3 and thus became the champions of the fiftieth Serie del Caribbe.

The Fans

Latin American fans love their baseball. They are knowledgeable, fun-loving, and noisy. And really noisy. Fans come with wooden noisemakers, various percussive instruments, and fog horns. And they use them throughout the game, but especially if something is happening on the field.

The Serie del Caribbe was great fun. I hope it comes back to San Juan soon.

Notes and Sources

See the Wikipedia articles on Hiram Bithorn and Roberto Clemente for more information on them.

All the images are mine except for the image of Bithorn in his windup. That is from the Wikipedia article about him.

Introduction

The fiftieth Festival de la Calle San Sebastion started this past Wednesday. It is a street festival in Old San Juan named after a street – Calle de San Sebastian. Apparently, 50 years ago now, the upper end of that street was home to a number of artists. They started a festival as a means to sell their art. It has morphed into a huge event with closed streets, multiple sound stages, all kinds of street vendors, and huge crowds.

It almost did not happen this year. In view of the recent earthquakes that caused damage in the southwest part of the island, Governor Wanda Vazquez asked the mayor of San Juan to postpone the festival. San Juan Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez joined with the governor in this request, stating that the dispute as to whether the festival should go on was causing divisions among the people.

San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz Soho, herself a gubernatorial pre-candidate for her party, disagreed. She noted the Destination Marketing Organization had published ads stating Puerto Rico was open for business in all but the southwest part of the island. She said

“The Tourism director is telling visitors that the quakes damages are concentrated in one part of the island. You cannot have one government office saying something different from what the government is saying. No one has told the cruise ships not to come. We are going to have over 902 artists and power in San Juan has been fully restored.”

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz Soho as quoted in the San Juan Star, January 14, 2020, page 2.

So the festival started as planned.

Preparations

It takes several days to prepare for the festival. Soundstages were constructed around the city, traffic had to be diverted, tents had to be erected, and beer had to be delivered. Here are some images of the preparations.

Parades

The festival features parades. Some are planned; other more impromptu. They always have music and often have people on huge stilts. Dancing on stilts on the rough brick streets certainly takes a lot of skill.

Aside: Saint Sebastian

Saint Sebastian was tied to a tree and shot with arrows by minions of the Roman emperor Diocletian. This was a part of Diocletian’s persecution of the early Christians during the third century AD. According to legend, Sebastian survived, having been nursed back to health by Saint Irene of Rome. Shortly after his recovery, Sebastian went to Diocletian to warn him of his sins. Diocletian had him clubbed to death for his troubles. Both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox branches of Chrstianity revere him as a saint.

Music

There was music everywhere, both on the sound stges and by impromptu groups along the streets

Food

There was street food everywhere – almost all of it fried. But is was good.

Random Thoughts

I’ve been to San Sebastian festivals several times in the past, though this was my first time in the last three years. The festival seemed a bit less crowded than I remember. There was more of a corporate presence in years past – bands sponsored by banks, hand out samples of medicines and other things, corporate banners in the parades. It also seemed a bit subdued. Perhaps that is because of the ongoing earthquakes in the southwestern part of the island.

I took all the photos in this post.

Mid January 2020

Introduction

The San Juan Star, the English language newspaper here in Puerto Rico, published a month by month review of events that occurred in 2019. I selected a few from each month to illustrate the range of things that happened.

January 2019

As you can imagine, much of the year’s activities involved the Puerto Rico debt crisis. The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), signed into law by President Obama in 2016, caused the creation of the Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB). The board is itself controversial here – seven members are appointed by the President of the United States, and one ex-officio member by the Governor of Puerto Rico. The FOMB reviews and approves annual financial plans and statements for bond issuers, including the University of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority, etc.

A sub committee of the FOMB raises an objection to more than $6 billion in Puerto Rico bond debt. In addition, FOMB recommends that the government – owned public broadcasting corporation be converted to a private non-profit entity.

February 2019

The US Appeals Court in Boston reviews the language regarding appointments in PROMESA. Judge Laura Taylor Swain grants the FOMB 90 days to remove language deemed unconstitutional. FOMB Chairman Jose Carrion informs the Governor that the Board could use its sole discretion to manage Puerto Rico’s funds during the 90 day period.

Federal authorities review the Department of Education to seek information concerning the activities of Secretary of Education Julia Keleher.

March 2019

Governor Ricardo Rossello Navares announces he will run for a second term. He then vetoes Senate Bill 950 which would have limited access to abortion. The House rejected Senate Bill 1000 which would have banned so called “conversion therapies” to change sexual orientation of minors. The governor then signs an executive order banning such therapies.

The governor signs an executive order mobilizing the Puerto Rico National Guard to help ship goods to the islands of Culebra and Vieques. The freight ferry of the Maritime Transportation Authority was ineffective.

April 2019

Julia Keleher resigns from her post as the Secretary of Education. The next day, she accepts a professional advisory contract, at the same salary, to the Financial Advisory and Tax Agency Authority. After public outcry, she resigns from that as well.

The FOMB files over 200 lawsuits to recover payments made by the government in conflict with Puerto Rican laws and the U. S. Bankruptcy Code.

Two of the four shipping companies that provide transportation between Puerto Rico and the mainland begin talks as to a possible merger, TOTE Maritime would merge with the Luis Ayala Colon company. The combined entity would control 70% of the mainland-Puerto Rico shipping business.

May 2019

The FOMB decides to include several municipalities under its jurisdiction. In addition, it files lawsuits to recover $1 trillion from bondholders who bought bonds issued above Puerto Rico constitutional limits. In addition, the FOMB files other lawsuits against the advisory firms that helped issue the bonds.

Rosa Emilio Rodriguez, federal attorney for the District of Puerto Rico for the last 13 years, retires. She indicates there are ongoing cases involving corruption and ‘ghost’ employees in the government work force.

June 2019

President Trump nominates W. Stephen Muldrow as head of the Puerto Rico Federal Prosecutor’s Office. The United States Senate subsequently confirmed the appointment.

Governor Rossello Nevares fires Raul Maldonado Gautier. He had been the Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of the Department of the Treasury. Maldonado had described an alleged ‘institutional mafia’, which included the governor, within the department. Maldonado’s son, Raul Jr, starts a social media campaign against the governor.

July 2019

On July 10, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office issues a 32 count indictment against former government officials. The FBI arrests Julia Keleher and five others.

The RickyLeaks scandal erupts. On July 8, 800 pages of messages between members of the administration are leaked to the press. Some of the messages were considered vulger, racist, and homophobic. One message called San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz  ”a total daughter of a bitch”. Others showed that the governor had shared confidential government data with people outside the government. Still others shared jokes about the deaths from Hurricane Maria.

Mass protests ensued. Puerto Ricans were especially incensed by how lightly Rosello Navares and others seemed to take the loss of life because of Maria. On July 12, over a million protested across the island. Old San Juan was shut down. Cruise ships had to be diverted to other ports. On July 21, the governor resigns as the head of his political part and states he would not run for reelection. On July 22, after 11 days of protests in front of the governor’s mansion, the governor announces he would resign effective August 2.

The governor called an extraordinary session of the legislature to attend to the appointment of Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia as Secretary of State.

August 2019

Justice Department Secretary Wanda Vazquez, who had previously announced she had no interest in becoming governor, decides she would not relinquish her position after all. This makes her, according the the Puerto Rican Constitution., in line to become governor.

The House confirms Pierluisi as Secretary of State, but the Senate does not. In spite of that, Pierluisi is sworn in as governor. The Senate President challenges the process. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico declares the process unconstitutional. Wanda Vazquez Garced becomes governor, the third in three days.

September 2019

Governor Vazquez Garced states she will not intervene in the merger of Tote Maritime and Luis Colon Ayala. Two days later, she changes her mind and says she will intervene.

November 2019

Renowned astrologer Walter Mercado dies.

The FBI arrests Senator Abel Nazario, along with seven others, on charges of theft or bribery in connection with programs that receive federal funds. He announces he will run for senator as an independent candidate and completes the requisite paperwork to do so.

December 2019

Residents in communities along the southwest coast, especially Yauco and Guayanilla, begin to feel small earthquakes.

To the surprise of no one, Governor Vazquez Garced announces she will run for reelection.

Summary

So here are some of the events in Puerto Rico in 2019. It was quite a year. 2020 is an election year here. All offices will be contested. There will be political rallies all summer, ending with election day in early November. The governor is sworn in on January 1 and then the governor and her/his family walk from the capitol to La Fortalezza, the governor’s mansion in Old San Juan. I’ve been in Old San Juan for the two previous inaugurations – they are truly festive events.

More on that later.

Notes and Sources

The images of Judge Swain and other individuals were taken from the web. The other pictures are mine.

Most of the information is from the December 23, 2019 issue of the San Juan Star. I found other information in Wikipedia; articles on RickyLeaks, Judge Swain, etc.

Early January 2020

Introduction

Saturn was visible, bright in the western evening sky, from our balcony for much of December. One night in particular, it was close enough to Mars to appear as one bright star. As I thought about the two planets, I realized just how much has been discovered about them in my lifetime.

Back in the fifties, I suppose I knew as much about Saturn as any other kid interested in science. I knew it was a planet, the sixth from the sun. I knew it was a so-called gas giant, second in size to Jupiter. Of course, I knew the ancients knew Saturn and I certainly knew about the rings. I had read of, but probably did not remember, that Christiaan Hugyens, an eminent Dutch natural philosopher, discovered Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, in 1655. And I was certainly ignorant of Giovanni Domenico Cassini’s discovery of four more Saturnian moons during the period 1673 to 1686. I did not know that Titan was named by John Herschel in 1847. Herschel chose names for the seven moons (his father, William Herschel, had discovered two more moons) from the Greek Titans, brothers and sisters of Cronus, the Greek Saturn.

Facts

So here is a summary of some basic information about Saturn.

• Saturn is named after the Roman god of harvest and time. Saturn is equivalent to the Greek god of time Cronus.
• Christiaan Huygens discovered Saturn’s rings in 1659. Galileo had made observations of Saturn as early as 1610 but the poor optics of his telescope could not resolve the rings. Instead, Galileo thought he was seeing a ‘triple planet’.
• The diameter of Saturn is about ten times greater than the diameter of earth.
• Saturn is an oblate spheroid. That is, the equatorial diameter is greater than the polar diameter. Saturn looks like a flattened ball.
• Saturn rotates quickly on its axis, completing one rotation in about 10.7 hours. It takes 29.5 years to orbit the sun. So there are about 1,006 days in a Saturn year.
• Saturn is tilted on its axis and to about the same extent as earth. Like the earth, Saturn experiences seasons.
• Saturn’s atmosphere consists of the gases hydrogen, helium, ice crystals, ammonia, and ammonia hydrosulfide. The last three appear as white, orange, and yellow, respectively, which combine to create Saturn’s brownish-yellow appearance.
• Storms, visible as White Spots, occur in Saturn’s upper atmosphere.

Early Probes to Saturn

Three space probes have flown by Saturn; another achieved orbit around the planet. In addition, the Hubble Space telescope has provided multiple images of the ringed planet.

Pioneer 11

The Pioneer 11 spacecraft, launched on April 6, 1973, flew by Jupiter of December 3, 1974, and by Saturn on September 1, 1979. It returned images and other data from twelve instruments on board. It was the first space craft to fly by Saturn. Here is one image from the mission.

Pioneer 11 and its sister Pioneer 10 are two of five space probes that have or will leave the solar system. In 4 million years or so, it will pass near the star Lambda Aquilla. Could, sometime in the distant future, the ghost probe be of interest to space traveling aliens? NASA prepared for that – each Pioneer has a gold-anodized aluminum plaque with information that, presumably, aliens can understand. Click here for information about the plaques.

The Voyagers

The nest two probes to visit Saturn were the twin Voyagers, 1 and 2. Voyager 2 was launched from Cape Canaveral on August 20, 1977; Voyager 1 on September 5, 1977.

The Voyagers captured images of Saturn and some of her moons. In addition, the instruments on board measured the wind speeds at the top of the planet’s atmosphere – 1,100 miles per hour at the equator, with speeds falling off towards the poles. Above 35 degrees north and south, the winds change from the easterly direction at the equator and blow both east and west.

Images of Saturn

If you want to see a video of Voyager 2’s approach to Saturn click here. Six hundred still images were used to make the video.

Voyager 2 had a slightly different camera system than her sister. The image below, in false colors, shows details of two of Saturn’s rings.

Enceladus

The two Voyagers paid attention to some of Saturn’s moons on their flybys. The image below is of Enceladus. You’ll hear more of her in a bit.

Voyagers – Still Working

Like Pioneer 10 and 11, the two Voyagers are leaving the solar system. After a successful flyby of Neptune, in 1989, NASA extended the mission so as to explore interstellar space. The two probes are currently beyond the outer edge of the heliosphere, the vast bubble-like space that is created by and surrounds the sun. The interstellar space outside the heliosphere is denser, colder, with more energetic particles than the volume within. Click here if you want to see data like current speed, mission elapsed time, distance from earth, instrument status and other data, all updated in real time. The Voyagers communicate with earth via their on-board transmitters; The Deep Space Network captures their signals. Click here for information on that.

By the way, Voyager 1 will encounter star AC +79 3888 in only 40,000 years. Rest assured – like Pioneer 10 and 11, the Voyagers contain greetings from earth. It is somewhat more elaborate than the plaque on the Pioneers. Click here for information on the Voyager’s golden disc.

Hubble Space Telescope

Although not a space probe, the Hubble telescope has provided images and data from Saturn. The space shuttle Discovery carried the Hubble into low earth orbit on April 24, 1990, and deployed it the next day. It has been serviced in orbit five times; each time it was drawn into the bay of a space shuttle and repaired and upgraded before redeployment.

The Hubble’s designer expected the telescope to last 15 years. It has been gathering images for more than 19 years now and is expected to last until 2025 or so. NASA will augment and then replace the Hubble with the James Webb Space Telescope, now scheduled for launch on March 30, 2021. Click here for information about that mission.

Cassini-Hyugens

The Cassini-Hyugens probe lifted off from Cape Canaveral the night of October 15, 1997. There were really two probes: the Cassini, a NASA endeavor, was to orbit Saturn. It carried the Huygens probe, created by the European Space Agency, designed to land on the surface of Titan. For a video of the launch click here.

Getting to Saturn is not a simple task. It took seven years, with two gravitational boosts from Venus and one the the earth-moon system. The route also included a fly by of Jupiter,

The above schematic does not capture the relative motions of the planets as they orbit the sun. For an animation that does, click here.

NASA controllers switched on some of the probes instruments at each flyby, both to test them and to gather data. For example, one set of instruments listened for lightning on Venus – none found.

The Cassini-Hyugens probe entered orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. On December 25, 2004, the Hyugens separated from Cassini and, with only a wake-up timer working on board, floated through space towards Titan. This phase lasted 22 days. Hyugens encountered Titan’s atmosphere on January 14. The wake-up timer revived all the instruments on board; parachutes deployed; and the probe settled though Titan’s atmosphere. The probe landed on Titan 2 hours and 30 minutes after entering the atmosphere. The Huygens transmitted data for another hour and twelve minutes after landing. Unfortunately, a software error caused 350 images to be lost – 350 were transmitted rather than the planned 700.

Titan

The Huygens probe, and subsequent observations from Cassini, showed a moon with ephemeral rivers, seasonal lakes, ice, and rain – but of methane, not water.The next image created from several images during the descent, appearr to show a dendritic river channel.

I’ve written about Titan before, in an earlier post. Warning: That post has some equations. Trust me, you can read it without worrying about the math. And it does have poetry. Check it out here.

Enceladus

Recall that one of the Voyagers acquired images of Enceladus (see above). Cassini found that Enceladus (Saturn’s sixth largest moon) was full of surprises. It is coated by clean ice, which reflects most of the incident light, and which covers liquid, salty water. In addition, jets of icy water gush out into space.

Saturn

Cassini returned stunning images of Saturn and her moons. One of Saturn’s most perplexing features is a hexagonal structure near the north poles, in which storms can be observed. For a video showing storms within the hexagon, click here.

Cassini acquired this image from behind (i.e., farther from the sun than) Saturn. Earth is visible as a pale blue dot.

The Cassini, like the two Voyagers and the Hubble, lasted longer than expected. In fact, NASA extended Cassini’s mission twice. Finally, in 2017, as its propellants were running out, it was put into a series of orbits that ended with a fiery plunge into Saturn’s upper atmosphere. Click here for more information on Cassini’s so-called Grand Finale.

The New Age of Discovery

Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493, during what is known (by Europeans anyways) as the Age of Exploration. I submit the exploration of Saturn (and Mercury and Venus and Mars, etc.) show we are in a new, mostly unappreciated, age of exploration.

Some might say I’m too limited in this – these discoveries are the inevitable continuation of the scientific revolution. In his book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari speculates on the future of Homo sapiens. In his last chapter, he focuses on biomedical issues. He wonders if humans will bio-engineer themselves right out of existence and, if so, what will replace them.

I don’t know about that. I do know Saturn was a bright presence in the early evening sky a few weeks ago, and it was fun to look at it and think about how much has been learned about it and her sister planets.

Notes and Sources

All of the images are from NASA-sponsored websites and are thus in the public domain. To get to these sites, google Voyager 1 mission, or Cassini mission, or similar. The search results will include the NASA sites.

Harrari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harper Perennial, 2018 (Paperback edition). Highly recommended.

The featured image (the one above the title) was taken by Cassini two days before it burned up in Saturn’s atmosphere.