The Face of a Star: The Sun

1991 ◽  
pp. 169-177
Author(s):  
W. Schlosser ◽  
T. Schmidt-Kaler ◽  
E. F. Milone
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
10.28945/4750 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 001-025
Author(s):  
Samuel Barrington ◽  
Randy Esponda ◽  
Timothy E Newsome ◽  
Say Sengsouvanna ◽  
Cynthia L Steel

With the sun losing its glare and now appearing as a beautiful orange orb just above the distant horizon where the sky meets the sea, Barry O’Connor thought to himself, “This is as close to paradise as you can get.” Yet, the vast empty sea of white sand surrounding him told a very different story. It was July 17, 2020, and this beautiful area should have been overrun with college students and young families as they enjoyed their summer vacation. Instead, the executive order that came as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic four months earlier forced him to immediately close his four bars and six Caddy’s Waterfront Dining restaurants, laying off 600 employees and dashing his dreams of another lucrative season. Barry gazed at the beautiful sunset one more time before turning his thoughts to the monumental problem that faced him. While he agreed that the health and safety of his employees and loyal customers was paramount, he couldn’t help but feel the pang that losing a few million dollars a month brings. Now, as businesses began to reopen their doors in the face of new restrictions brought about by COVID, Barry was left to figure out how to navigate the uncharted landscape of new in-house capacity restrictions, everyone’s fear of contracting the virus, and the unknown of when this pandemic would end. All the while, Barry’s bar business was in shambles due to a second government shutdown of bars, which only added pressure on the Caddy’s brand to drive revenue and keep the other half of the business afloat. A potential solution loomed on the horizon, however. This Caddy’s location in Treasure Island had an extensive beach immediately outside its doors, which could expand its footprint, allowing an additional 450-500 customers to enjoy the Caddy’s experience in the safety of an outdoor arena. However, due to local government zoning restrictions, Caddy’s was not legally allowed to treat this area as a traditional restaurant setting. But Barry had become a self-made man because he understood that the nature of business was never static. He knew that the best way forward was to disregard the inconvenience of circumstances beyond his control, and instead pour his efforts into a search for the opportunities that always accompanied such impacts. But just what opportunities did the pandemic create? How could he best leverage technology to exploit them? How would he manage the impact of the changes on his customers and employees?


Author(s):  
Andrew Ross

Nothing has driven the growth of metro Phoenix more than the sun’s rays. For most of its residents and visitors, the chief reason for coming to the region was its 334 days of annual sunshine, yet precious little of this radiation showed up in the energy supply. Indeed, Arizona has often been held up as an object of shame for the cause of solar power. Despite the bounty of its sun cover, by 2009 the state generated only 7 watts of photovoltaic power (PV) per capita, while New Jersey, with only half the available sunlight, managed 14.6 watts per capita, and Germany, with even less, delivered 100 watts to each person. If the solar industry was to have its long-deferred day in the United States, then the Valley of the Sun had to be at, or near the top, of the location list. Surely, it should be easier to generate “clean electrons” here than almost anywhere else. Yet the dismal historical record shows that the abundance of this natural resource mattered very little in the face of a political and economic environment that has prevented the sun’s energy from being enjoyed by its liberty-loving residents, let alone developed on an industrial scale. For a metropolis in the deepest trough of the Great Recession, the prospect of developing solar industry was just about the only source of boosterism I could find among the business community. Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, bragged that, with the help of federal and state incentives currently available, “the cocktail is in place for Arizona to truly be a national and international leader in solar. . . . with our incredible natural advantage, we have just about the world’s best solar resource.” Someone in his position could reasonably be expected to be gung ho about any new local market for investment, but Hamer also happened to be former national director of the Solar Energy Industries Association.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 10573-10590 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Bernhard ◽  
A. Dahlback ◽  
V. Fioletov ◽  
A. Heikkilä ◽  
B. Johnsen ◽  
...  

Abstract. Greatly increased levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation were observed at thirteen Arctic and sub-Arctic ground stations in the spring of 2011, when the ozone abundance in the Arctic stratosphere dropped to the lowest amounts on record. Measurements of the noontime UV Index (UVI) during the low-ozone episode exceeded the climatological mean by up to 77% at locations in the western Arctic (Alaska, Canada, Greenland) and by up to 161% in Scandinavia. The UVI measured at the end of March at the Scandinavian sites was comparable to that typically observed 15–60 days later in the year when solar elevations are much higher. The cumulative UV dose measured during the period of the ozone anomaly exceeded the climatological mean by more than two standard deviations at 11 sites. Enhancements beyond three standard deviations were observed at seven sites and increases beyond four standard deviations at two sites. At the western sites, the episode occurred in March, when the Sun was still low in the sky, limiting absolute UVI anomalies to less than 0.5 UVI units. At the Scandinavian sites, absolute UVI anomalies ranged between 1.0 and 2.2 UVI units. For example, at Finse, Norway, the noontime UVI on 30 March was 4.7, while the climatological UVI is 2.5. Although a UVI of 4.7 is still considered moderate, UV levels of this amount can lead to sunburn and photokeratitis during outdoor activity when radiation is reflected upward by snow towards the face of a person or animal. At the western sites, UV anomalies can be well explained with ozone anomalies of up to 41% below the climatological mean. At the Scandinavian sites, low ozone can only explain a UVI increase of 50–60%. The remaining enhancement was mainly caused by the absence of clouds during the low-ozone period.


The use of the black rete mucosum of the negro is a subject which has fruitlessly engaged the attention of the physiologist. The author’s mind was directed to this inquiry by the circumstance of a silver fish having its back scorched in consequence of the removal of some trees which shaded the pond in which it lived; this recalled to Sir Everard’s recollection the circumstance of his having suffered severely from the scorching sun of the tropic, upon parts of the body protected from the direct rays of the sun by thin white linen, and led him to suspect that the noxious effects were derived not, as has commonly been supposed, from the mere heating power of the sun’s rays, but from the joint agency of heat and light: he therefore made certain experiments, detailed in this paper, which show that the face and hands may be exposed to a temperature of 100° to 120°, without producing pain, provided light be excluded; but that if the same, or even an inferior degree of heat, be produced by the direct light of the sun, it scorches and elevates the cuticle in blisters; this effect is prevented by covering the hand or face with thin black kerseymere, and the same purpose is attained by the black rete mucosum of the negro. In these cases perspiration comes on, which it does not in the former, and the surface, though actually hotter, is uninjured. Nature has provided a similar defence from the injury of light, by placing a black pigment at the bottom of the eye of those animals who are exposed to the intensity of the sun’s rays; whereas in the inhabitants of shady and dark situations the pigment is either pale, or altogether wanting.


1981 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Boisvert ◽  
Gilles Barbeau ◽  
Alain Boisvert

More than 30 cases of bullous photodermatitis have already been associated with the administration of nalidixic acid. This reaction is reported in a 57-year-old woman whose sun exposure was minimal. Nalidixic acid-induced photoreactions generally occur in females; they affect mainly the dorsal surfaces of the hands, feet, and legs, and usually do not involve the face. Blistering is always reported, and erythema is common. Dosage regimen and duration of treatment have little influence on the onset and severity of the reaction, which is probably of allergic nature. Its duration may be long, from three to six weeks, and reexposure to the sun may trigger the reappearance of blistering for several months, even in the absence of a drug rechallenge.


Author(s):  
Toby Musgrave

This chapter points out Joseph Banks's participation in determining the places to properly observe the ensuing transit of Venus. It explains that the transit of Venus is a rare astronomical event during which the planet passes across the face of the sun. It also describes the twenty-five-year-old Banks who desperately wanted the opportunity to collect, study, and record both natural history specimens and knowledge from mostly unexplored part of the world, the South Seas. The chapter highlights Banks's preparation for the first southern circumnavigation of HMS Dolphin and take full advantage of the voyage's natural history potential. It also talks about Alexander Dalrymple, a distinguished hydrographer who joined Banks in the South Seas.


Paragrana ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gordon White

AbstractIn the late Upanishads and the Mahabharata, one begins to encounter descriptions of Yogis who are possessed of the power to exit their bodies—via “rays” (raśmi) that radiate outward from their eyes, heart, or fontanel—as a means to rising up to the sun or to entering the bodies of other creatures. In the centuries that follow, this power becomes a commonplace of yogic theory and yogic lore, with ritual, narrative, and philosophical texts describing the Yogi′s appropriation of other creatures′ bodies in both symbiotic and predatory modes. In the former case, the yogic “fusing of the channels” is the means by which a Tantric teacher initiates his disciple: exiting his own body, his mindstuff travels along a ray to enter his disciple′s body, which he transforms from within. In the latter, the practice of “subtle yoga,” as described in the ninth-century Netra Tantra, becomes a means by which a Yogi may take over another person′s body, either to inhabit it or to draw its energy back into his own body, thereby increasing his own power. Through these techniques, the Yogi is said to possess the power to enter multiple bodies simultaneously, creating armies of “himself” in the process. These practices, which are attested in hundreds of documents, fly in the face of received notions of so-called “classical yoga,” in which the emphasis is placed on turning the senses inward to isolate the mind-body complex from the distractions of the outside world. In the light of these practices of yogic self-externalization, a re-evaluation of “classical yoga” itself is in order.


The Geologist ◽  
1858 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 175-178
Author(s):  
J. E. Vaux

The name “Iceland” raises ideas, especially in the winter time, the reverse of cheering; and a subsequent low average of fingers and toes suggests itself as no very unlikely price to pay for witnessing the marvels of Thing Valla. Gentle reader! what think you of an al fresco breakfast taken on the plain, “in shirt-sleeves, with a white handkerchief wrapped round the head for fear of the sun, the whole landscape gleaming and glowing in the beauty of one of the hottest summer days I ever remember?” Such is the description given of the summer climate as the party encamped to examine the place more in detail.Descending the gorge of the Almanna Gja, they went towards the lake. “The perpendicular walls of rock rose on either hand from the flat greensward that carpeted its bottom, pretty much as the waters of the Red Sea must have risen on each side of the fugitive Israelites. A blaze of light smote the face of one cliff, while the other lay in the deepest shadow; and on the rugged surface of each might still be traced corresponding articulations that once had dovetailed into each other, ere the igneous mass was rent asunder. So unchanged, so recent, seemed the vestiges of this convulsion, that I felt as if I had been admitted to witness one of nature's grandest and most violent operations, almost in the very act of its execution. A walk of about twenty minutes brought us to the borders of the lake—a glorious expanse of water, fifteen miles long, by eight miles broad, occupying a basin formed by the same hills, which must also, I imagine, have arrested the further progress of the lava torrent. A lovelier scene I have seldom witnessed. In the foreground lay huge masses of rock and lava, tossed about like the ruins of a world, and washed by waters as bright and green as polished malachite.


1798 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 357-360

Dear Sir, On Wednesday last, July 26, about five oʼclock in the afternoon, whilst I was sitting in my dining-room at this place, which is situated upon the Parade, close to the sea shore, nearly fronting the south, my attention was excited by a great number of people running down to the sea side. Upon inquiring the reason, I was informed that the coast of France was plainly to be distinguished with the naked eye. I immediately went down to the shore, and was surprised to find that, even without the assistance of a telescope, I could very plainly see the cliffs on the opposite coast; which, at the nearest part, are between forty and fifty miles distant, and are not to be discerned, from that low situation, by the aid of the best glasses. They appeared to be only a few miles off, and seemed to extend for some leagues along the coast. I pursued my walk along the shore to the eastward, close to the waterʼs edge, conversing with the sailors and fishermen upon the subject. They, at first, could not be persuaded of the reality of the appearance; but they soon became so thoroughly convinced, by the cliffs gradually appearing more elevated, and approaching nearer, as it were, that they pointed out, and named to me, the different places they had been accustomed to visit; such as, the Bay, the Old Head or Man, the Windmill, &c . at Boulogne; St. Vallery, and other places on the coast of Picardy; which they afterwards confirmed, when they viewed them through their telescopes. Their observations were, that the places appeared as near as if they were sailing, at a small distance, into the harbours. Having indulged my curiosity upon the shore for near an hour, during which the cliffs appeared to be at some times more bright and near, at others more faint and at a greater distance, but never out of sight, I went upon the eastern cliff or hill, which is of a very considerable height, when a most beautiful scene presented itself to my view; for I could at once see Dengeness, Dover cliffs, and the French coast, all along from Calais, Boulogne, &c . to St. Vallery; and, as some of the fishermen affirmed, as far to the westward even as Dieppe. By the telescope, the French fishing-boats were plainly to be seen at anchor; and the different colours of the land upon the heights, together with the buildings, were perfectly discernible. This curious phenomenon continued in the highest splendour till past eight o’clock, (although a black cloud totally ob­scured the face of the sun for some time,) when it gradually vanished.


Author(s):  
R Hofmeyr ◽  
M Sorbello

Faced with limited time, severely constrained resources and a lack of manpower in the face of the overwhelming numbers in Xerxes’ invading Persian Army, the Greeks strategised to halt their foe using two natural barriers which restricted movement: the Straits of Atremisium, and the narrow pass at Thermopylae. King Leonidas of Sparta led 7 000 mettlesome troops to engage at the Hot Gates, preparing to face a force today believed to have exceeded 150 000 fighters. When told that the Persians were so multitudinous that each volley of their arrows would block out the sun, Herodotus writes that the plucky Spartan soldier, Dienekes, replied laconically: “In the shade, then, we will fight!” The Battle of Thermopylae is history interwoven with legend, but speaks of the power of strategic interventions applied at the right place, at the right time, by the right people, even in the face of overwhelming odds.


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