The
April 24, 2013
Countryy Editor Just good reading
Giganticus’ sculpture helps Route 66 renaissance ~ Page 5
Never too young to give back ~ Page 2
Volume 1 Number 2
East Take a Hike! ~ Page 3
John’s Kayak by Emily Enger The first time I learned that my husband built boats, I hadn’t yet met him. I was in high school and had just finished reading a fantastic novel. In my curiosity to learn more about the author — I was an aspiring writer myself — I dug up some old interviews where this author chatted with a reporter about his life in rural Minnesota and his current acitivites — including building a r owboat with his youngest son, John. Like the sentimental female I am, I gave a brief “Awww, so sweet. That’s adorable!” But that was the end of it. I certainly never imagined that in a couple years I’d meet this boy in a packed college
classroom nor did I anticipate the romantic paddle he’d take me on in that very brown-andcream boat along Lake Superior in Bayfield, WI. Today, my husband and I live in Amsterdam, NY. Apartment living in the midst of a city 1500 miles from where we grew up instilled in John a restlessness that back in Minnesota had been much more tempered. John has wanted to do more building for years. The plans for his dream boat traveled with us to New York, snug safely in his “man box” — a location I bequeathed him after he fussed every time I tried to throw away odds, ends and other pieces of junk that apparently held senti-
mental — or “cool” — value. The boat is a Nordic Faring, a huge rowing shell that would allow John to tap into the bad boy spirit of our Viking ancestors. A fun goal, perhaps, but we have no land, no shed, no truck, no supplies and only a few of his tools here in our new home. Thus, boat building was one of the items on our growing list of “things to do when we move back to Minnesota.” But then something changed. In a sudden burst of weekend boredom after an inspirational visit fr om his family at Christmastime, his innovative spirit flipped on with the sudden decisiveness I had come to recognize.
The kayak is made from Red Oak. It is 17 feet long by 21 inches wide. Shortly after this step, John stretched 12 oz nylon over the skeleton, adding several light coats of varnish to create the skin. Kayak page 2
NASA sees distant planets that seem ideal for life
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by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA’s planet-hunting telescope has discovered two planets that seem like ideal places for some sort of life to
Two planets have been discovered that seem ideal for some sort of life to flourish.
flourish. They are just the right size and in just the right place near their star. The distant duo are the best candidates for habitable planets that astronomers have found so far, said William Borucki, the chief scientist for NASA’s Kepler telescope. The discoveries, published online in the journal Science, mark a milestone in the search for planets where life could exist. In the past when astronomers found exoplanets — planets outside our solar system — they have not fit all the criteria that would make them right for life. Many planets are not in the habitable zone — where it’s not too hot and not too cold for liquid water. And until now, the handful of planets astronomers found in that ideal zone, were just too big. Those are likely to be gas balls like Neptune and that’s not
suitable for life. Similarly, the Earth-size planets that had been found weren’t in the right place near their stars, Borucki said. In the Goldilocks game of looking for other planets like ours, the new discoveries, called Kepler -62-e and Kepler-62-f are just right. And they are fraternal twins. They circle the same star, an orange dwarf, and are next to each other — closer together than Earth and its neighbor Mars. The planets are slightly wider than Earth, but not too big. Kepler-62-e is a bit warm, like a Hawaiian world and Kepler-62-f is a bit chilly, more Alaskan, Borucki said. “This is the first one where I’m thinking “Huh, Kepler-62f really might have life on it’,” said study co-author David Charbonneau of Harvard. “This is a very important barrier that’s been crossed. Why
wouldn’t it have life?” Both planets are tantalizing. The dozens of researchers who co-authored the study disagree on which one is better suited to life. Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy in Germany likes Kepler -62-3 more because it’s closer to the star and is warmer. She said it is probably “like Washington in May.” Pennsylvania State University professor James Kasting, who wasn’t part of the research, called the findings “a big discovery.” The planets are 1,200 light years away. A light year is almost 6 trillion miles (nearly 10 trillion kilometers). The planets circle a star that is 7 billion years old — about 2.5 billion years older than our sun. “If there’s life at all on those planets, it must be very advanced,” said Borucki.