»space«

A star is exploding as a super nova next door, and astronomers are pointing their devices on it, reports Andrew Pollack in the NY Times (24.2.2006). Actually, it's beyond the unaided eye; some 440 million light-years away in the constellation Aries.

Hall gets around to define what culture is stating that definitions are just models. Models are actually to be understood in the broad sense: parents are models for the young, mechanical models might explain the construction of a machine, grammar and the system of writing are models of language, ...
"The purpose of the model is to enable the user to do a better job in handling the enormous complexity of life. By using models, we see and test how things work and can even predict how things will go in the future." (p. 13)
Models are based on drawbacks: man's explanation of nature actually tells much more about man than about nature, the model or explanation just expresses how he sees the world. Accordingly, it is impossible for an anthropologist to define the things that make up culture. Every model about culture would just reflect the specific culture from which it originates.
Therefore, instead of developing generalized models he introduced two specific cultural models: language and time.

He quotes Saphir who says that "[L]anguage is much like a mathematical system which previsages all possible experience in accordance with certain accepted formal limitations.... [C]ategories such as number, gender, case, tense, mode, voice, 'aspect' and a host of others... are not so much discovered in experience as imposed upon it." (p.15) He gives an example of Navajo kids who in school had to learn how to express themselves in English and failed because the language didn't offer them the words they needed for articulating their experiences.
At this point I was thinking of the Inuit whose language offers them 10 or more words for the color white while we have only one. I always saw the language to reflect the daily experience while Hall introduces the idea of a language-model vice-versa: it sure reflects experience but it limits experience as well. (While at the same time it has to be questioned if language equals experience...)
While it sounds as if this as nothing to do with expatriates encountering different cultures it has to be remembered that language is one of the most obvious parts of communication and that it is the very use of words that shape how the other person is perceived. (I'll work on this later: perceived level of language treated as indicator for intelligence, English -> action-orientated, not only the right words but the right use, better have a professional translator, ...)

Another big concern of Hall lies in the modelling of time. He differentiates into monochromic- and polychromic time. Monochromic refers to time as linear, "segmented like a road or a ribbon extending forward into the future and backward to the past. It is also tangible; they speak of it as being saved, spent, wasted, lost, made up, accelerated, slowed down, crawling, and running out. [...] M-time scheduling is used as a classification system that orders life." (p.19) M-time people do one thing at a time, acknowledging the most time to the most important things, ... This means that life gets divided into units. This way time is shaping perception just as much as language is: I only perceive those things I put my attention, too.
Hall puts up a nice connection to space. Only upon the time arriving in the office, I am perceived as to be working. The fact that I might have been sitting at home or might have discussed the problem with friends at night, is not acknowledged as work. This becomes obvious in P-time-cultures. In those cultures, following Hall, everybody is always involved with everybody else. Time and space reveal many more layers which interrelate with each other. Work might not only be about sitting in the office but about being outside and making things happen.

Hall ends this chapter emphazing that models are learned. Language and its used are learned. Time is learned. Our perception of space is learned. Models are not existential in nature but cultural agreements. The problem is that they are felt to be natural.

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Further to chapter two

The Economist (11.5.2006) is enthusiastic about private space flights and compares the trials with the first flight of the Wright brothers. However, it seems that ideas meet enough money, and five concepts compete to earn the support of the rich investors. All is about sub-orbital flight because bringing a spaceship into orbit costs to much energy (keep in mind the large booster rockets of the Space Shuttle). "Instead, it will travel briefly into space, offering a short thrilling ride out of the atmosphere, a few minutes of weightlessness, and a spectacular view of the planet from about 100km," writes the Economist.

At the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne researchers test the wheels of a rover for the forthcoming European space mission to planet Mars called ExoMars. The prototype rover is called Solero, short for Solar Powered Exploration Rover. It's one meter long and has got six wheels. Crucial is the wheel's material. Air tyres are of no use: at the deep temperatures of Mars they become too rigid. Cosmic radiation makes them brittle, thus they run flat. Thus, researchers developed a flexible wheel with metal parts. A special construction guarantees a high contact area with the surface to ensure good traction. This autumn a one-year-lasting evaluation phase will start to finalise the wheels' design, reports Guido Meyer in Deutschlandfunk radio (12.7.2006).

The NY Times editorial (22.9.2006) in appraise of the recent shuttle mission: "We?ve never been great fans of the International Space Station, an enormously costly project that will yield such limited scientific and economic benefits that it seems destined to be considered a white elephant. Nevertheless, we had to marvel at the magnificent performance of the crew of the shuttle Atlantis, which ended an arduous 12-day mission to the station with a flawless landing yesterday."

And with slight optimism: "For the first time in years it seems possible that NASA may actually be able to finish the station by 2010 and then retire the aging shuttle fleet so as to free up money for new vehicles to carry out the more ambitious program to explore the Moon and eventually Mars."

Pictures of the Omi instrument at Nasa's Aura satellite show the smoke level over Europe. Actually, the instrument adds up all the nitrous oxide in an air column of 10 km above ground. As estimated levels above industrial hot spots are highest. Red is high concentration. Image (c) KNMI
[Correction: The data-processed picture of 14. December does not show the smoke plume of the oil tank fire near London. Investigator Richard Friebe was told that scientists who do the data-processing and modelling of Omi satellite data may not track the smoke plume of the fire.]

Eventually the new world adopted the metric unit measurement system from the old, at least for Nasa's moon exploration projects. Keep in mind that there were problems in recent space projects because different suppliers used different measurement systems. What also pleased me is that Nasa refers in the weblink section of its news release to Wikipedia as an explanatory source of the metric system.

The recent scientific report of a map of the spread of dark matter in our universe is featured in an article of the Boston Globe (15.1.2007). What makes the piece fascinating is the accompanying info graphic. If you haven't understood what scientists achieved, the graphics explains.

The particle smasher LHC at Cern will start work in year, or so, and Jim Holt looks for the NY Times (14.1.2007) into what's a possible outcome of the research. The Higgs particle that may give matter mass, another particle, one more particle. Well, you cannot predict the unknown, especially in particle physics. The article has a wonderful slideshow of photographs that corresponds well with the subject: physicists try to unravel symmetries in the early universe and Simon Norfolk takes pictures of the very symmetric equipment and detectors at Cern.

Negotiations about the concession to operate the Galileo satellite navigation system are tough, but insiders hope they will be finalized this March. According to a report of Deutschlandfunk radio (23.2.2007), the German national radio broadcaster, Galileo is in heavy delay. There are not only struggling the European Space Agency and the European Union on one side and the private consortium on the other side about the contract, the so called public private partnership. Also the multi-national consortium has to distribute shares between its members EADS (FR/DE), Thales (FR), Alcatel (FR) and Finmeccanica (IT). A key technological element of Galileo will be the launch of the next test satellite Giove-B later this year. The satellite will carry a new type of atomic clock crucial for a navigation precision down to centimeters. The success of Galileo will depend on the workings of this clock. The first four navigation satellites (out of 30) are scheduled for launch in 2008. "Let's wait and see," comments the press report. Orders for the remaining 26 satellites are still out to be done. It is expected that Galileo goes into service by the year 2012, or later.

In addition, check our project site at http://ongalileo.com