Hello, and welcome to UNR Today. I'm Sharon Adams. You might be wondering why
I'm sitting behind the wheel of this 1910 Franklin Touring car. It's all part
of a special exhibit here at the Fleischmann Planetarium. When Halley's
Comet was last seen, this car was brand new.
It's unlikely the car will ever be seen much outside of a museum now, but in the
spring of 1986, Halley's Comet will be seen around the world.
We'll see how the planetarium is celebrating the re-emergence of Halley's
Comet. We'll also introduce you to the UNR cable system. You won't be seeing any
reruns here. And, as part of our special Centennial Celebration, we'll talk to a
famous Nevada author who's also a famous UNR grad. All that and more, right after
this.
John Mortenson; For more than twenty years, the Fleischman Planetarium on the UNR campus has served
the university community and the people of Nevada. While the planetarium is
located on the campus and is part of the UNR community, it is a special mission to
serve a wider public. Ariginally known as the atmospherium, because of special
concerns with the environment, it is now known as Fleischmann Planetarium. In the
coming months, millions of people will have the once-in-a-lifetime experience
of viewing Halley's Comet, so this seems like an appropriate time for UNR Today
to visit Fleischman Planetarium and talk with its director about Halley's Comet.
Point that we're hearing about Halley's Comet, is that while, everybody is talking
about it, nobody's doing anything. Now, what do you have to say to that? Art Johnson; Well, at
the planetarium, we're doing a lot about Halley's Comet, John. We've been running a
planetarium show for several months now called "Comet Halley Once-In-a-Lifetime".
Here in the exhibit room, we've got the whole exhibition about the comet and
about the life and times of Reno when last the comet came our way. Only we're
showing the comet to the public through our telescopes many times between now
and the end of January when it goes behind the sun for a while. So, we're
doing lots of things. John Mortenson; Well. the "once-in-a-lifetime" phrase now, that's not
entirely true is it, because some people are watching it for the second time?
Art Johnson; Right, and it's a special privilege for us to be able to help that to happen. If
you were born about 1900 and are still alive, which would make you in your
mid-eighties, it's quite possible that you will be, what we call, a two-timer. John Mortenson; A
two-timer! Art Johnson; The two timers club, but we're signing up members right here right now.
We've had a number of people come by the planetarium and sometimes they're hardier
than our telescope operators. They're here and they want to see that comet.
John Mortenson; Something else it seems to me, that how much the comet has been around for a long
time. Do we really know how old Halley's Comet is? Art Johnson; Probably in the sense that it
formed when the rest of the solar system did. It's five billion years old. We know
that the comet has been coming every seventy-six years since at least 240 BC. After that,
the records become pretty difficult to look that far back in history, but it's
conceivable that it's been coming around even for longer than that. John Mortenson; And now, for
the first time in human history, we're not simply
passively watching Halley's Comet. We're actually going out to greet it aren't we?
Art Johnson; Sure. Consider the technological leaps. In 1835, two visits ago, hi-tech was drawing
a picture of the comet with a pencil on a piece of paper and incidentally Mark
Twain was born that year. John Mortenson; I was going to say, Mark Twain is who we all associate with that visit.
Art Johnson; Right. Next time it came by, Mark Twain checked out, but the quantum leaps in
technology. In 1910, we could photograph the comet and the spectroscope had come
into use with the telescope, so we could actually find out something about what
the comet is made of. Right now, 1985-86, three different nations or well
two different nations in one consortium of nations, are sending space probes out
to the comet so we don't have to just sit by and measure it and study it from
a great distance. John Mortenson; I really got to salute it. Art Johnson; Absolutely, the Russians are spending
are sending to Vega, space probes so-called, to encounter the comet. This
happens. All of this action happens in March, incidentally, but the Russians have
their Vega probes. Japan is sending two probes to the comet, and finally the
European Space Agency, which is a consortium of, I think, eleven European
nations - Western Europe, essentially. It's sending one probe, called Giotto, and
Giotto is going to really go right into the head of the comet and come within, I
think, three-hundred miles of the nucleus so we can expect, assuming that these. John Mortenson; And, send back um
messages to. Art Johnson; Assuming that they're not destroyed by impacts with
cometary debris. We ought to get from these spacecraft some pretty spectacular
color TV pictures. John Mortenson; One of the things we're wondering about is, do we know what
Halley's Comet is made of? Art Johnson; In brief, ever since about 1950, and the astronomer Fred
Whipple's Theory being published, we thought of comet nuclei as dirty
snowballs. I should say, really, a comet comes in three parts. There's the little,
tiny, dirty snowball, which is maybe, in the case of Halley's, three or four miles
wide. Just a little mass of carbon dioxide, ice, water, ice, and some sand and
dusts and stuff like that all frozen up in this dirty snowball. Or, when that
snowball gets near the sun, say. John Mortenson; Okay, what's near? Art Johnson; No orbit of Mars or so. We're
talking sixty or seventy million miles out or. No, actually more like a hundred
some. The solar heat will cause that ice to sublime or go directly from a solid
phase into a vapor phase and this shell of gases forms. It's maybe a hundred
thousand miles wide. That's called the coma or head of the comet. Huge! This tiny
little three mile object is shooting out gases that produce a shell a hundred
thousand miles wide. Finally... John Mortenson; When you begin to can see it. Art Johnson; Yes, we can and then
as it gets closer still, the solar wind blows some of the material out of that
shell into a long tail which can be a hundred million miles long or so. I will
invite a colleague of mine, Ken Miller, to step in for a minute and actually show
us - make a comet for us, right. Ken Miller; For our school shows, we like to show the
students and anyone, in fact, what a comet is really made out of. A comet nucleus
starts out with some water. Turns out there's a lot of water out there in
space. Most of them floating around as water vapor between the stars, but some
is also in comet nuclei. We add some organic material, anything that might be
like methane or propane sorts of gases, anything from motor oil to sugars and
alcohol are also organic materials and there's some of that stuff in a comet
nucleus also, the solid part of a comet. To that water and organic material, we
add a little bit of dust. This is when it really starts to get yummy and I offer
anyone a chance to lick the spoon at this point. That's the ordinary stuff
that we find in a common nucleus, things that you'd find in your own backyard, if
you'd like. To that, we're going to add a frozen gas. A frozen gas here that, in
fact, started out as carbon dioxide, the same gas that we exhale, that can be
frozen squeezed and squeezed and frozen at the same time down to a solid form of
carbon dioxide that we often call dry ice. This is solid, frozen a gas is the
major component of the dirty snowball that will make a comet nucleus. Okay, to
this, we're going to add our water and dirt and organic material to make our
dirty snowball. Here we go. This is the fun part. When I use these
oven mitts to protect myself from a hundred and thirteen degree below zero temperatures of a
comet nucleus or in this case dry ice and pack it into a dirty snowball. This
big, dirty snowball should come out looking exactly like or very similar to
the nucleus of Halley's Comet. That dirty snowball then sublimates, keeps giving
off gases and giving off gases, and those gases are going to make the tail of the
comet, as the solar wind blows past, they will turn out into a long steady tail. A
very small nucleus, in Halley's Comet's case, about three miles across can create
a comet tail, extending this time, for Halley's fifty million miles and distance.
John Mortenson; Thanks Ken. Well, I think that we've covered a number of the things, that in
answer to my original question, or what what we can do is out of it. So, I would
simply like to remind our viewers that if they're watching the sky more, but
enjoying it less, that they should switch to the Fleischmann Planetarium brand
here and can you tell us a little bit about precisely how they can do that
exactly? Art Johnson; Surely. This coming week, beginning the 2nd of January, as I
said, we will have free telescope viewing. If you want to know about where the
colonies in the sky tonight or any night, you can call our Halley hot line at.. John Mortenson; Halley
hot line! Art Johnson; Awww, isn't that a touch so cute: seven eight four one SKY. John Mortenson; T-shirts too? Art Johnson; T-shirts, bumber
stickers, everything. Call: seven eight four one SKY. We've got about a two minute...
John Mortenson; Call that again: seven eight four one SKY. Art Johnson; All right: seven eight four one SKY. That's a two
minute long recording that tells where Halley's is on any given night and it
announces our telescope viewing plans for that night and the next few nights. If
you'd like to come to a planetarium show and learn about Edmund Halley and
what he had to do with the comet and just learning something about the
physics and astronomy of comets, you can give us a call on our other number at:
seven eight four forty eight eleven. No cute words there.
You have to remember: seven eight four four eight one one and that tells all of the
schedules of performances. If you want to make a booking you can call...John Mortenson; For special
groups? Art Johnson; If you want a special show or if you simply want to make reservations for
one of our public show times, so you won't be disappointed with a sellout,
you can call: seven eight four forty eight twelve and make make your reservation. The museum in which we're
standing is open every day of the week on a regular schedule. Weekdays, were open
from 8:00 to 5:00 and 7:00 to 9:30. On weekends, we open at 10:30 and so forth.
There's a big exhibit right now that's temporary and it which has been produced
through loans from two organizations. Harrah's Automobile Collection has
loaned us two 1910 cars and our neighbors across the street at the Nevada
Historical Society have put together some cases of artifacts from the year
1910, so together we call these our exhibit "Reno and the Comet 1910-1986". A
lot of fun things to see. John Mortenson; Well thank you, Art. We've certainly learned a lot about
Halley's Comet. We appreciate the time you spent with us and I'm sure that
people who visit the planetarium will enjoy Halley's Comet even more. For UNR
Today, this has been John Mortensen.
Betsy Piccata; It has taken more than a year to put together the campus cable network system
at UNR. We are here today with the director of instructional media services,
Dan Tone, to find out what this system can do. How much and what kind of
information is going on the network? Dan Tones; Well Betsy, the campus cable network is now
throughout the campus and twelve or thirteen buildings right now and we're going to
expand it to another nineteen or twenty over the next few months. And, the kind of
information that's going to be communicated over the system, is going to
be a huge amount of computer interactive information, two-way television are
interconnecting the major computers at the computer center with the major
computers down here on the campus. We also expect to be able to put such
things as compressed video, facsimile which is a means of transmitting paper
information around campus, slow scan television, just about any kind of
technology that can be carried electronically will will be carried on
this system. Betsy Piccata; Who can use this system on this campus now? Dan Tone; Betsy, anywhere there's a
plug. Anywhere there's the cable drop and that's within those thirteen buildings that I
mentioned and that most of the thirteen buildings have been wired internally and
whatever there's a plug-in in the wall, somebody can access it. Betsy Piccata; What does this
mean for the future of education? Dan Tone; Well personally, I believe that that with the
immense amount of information available in our world today, that it's impossible
for us to really to keep up unless we use technology, effectively, and so in the
instructional area, this means that we're going to have an enormous increase in
access to information not only for teachers but for students and
researchers, as well. Betsy Piccata; How many other campuses carry this system? Dan Tone; When the
State of Nevada, UNR piloted the project on a statewide
basis and now what's happening is in Las Vegas, at UNLV, a pilot project is
developing down there. We're also doing a design statewide so
that we can have campus cable systems all over the state, in the community
colleges, at UNLV, here, at Desert Research Institute, and so on. Our goal is
to interconnect these cable projects so that professors here and administrators
here can be an immediate access in communication with professors and
administrators statewide. Betsy Piccata; What about nationwide? Dan Tone; You're right, absolutely,
nationwide as well. We will we will be able to interconnect from our campus to
places like Stanford. We had a request last week to interconnect to a research
laboratory in San Diego and from the Physics Department and it means that
even though we may be isolated, Reno may be isolated geographically from the rest
of the world, electronically, we want we want our professors and our students to
have much better access to information nationally and perhaps internationally.
Betsy Piccata; What are some of the aspects of the network? Dan Tone; With the technology as we have
have designed it, one little plug that comes into the wall in a classroom or in
laboratory, we're able to put many many many different kinds of technology on
that one plug and I think I've already mentioned some of those being facsimile,
slow scan television, two-way television, computer graphics, compressed
video, a huge amount of data and eventually eventually we're looking at
putting telephones on the system as well. So, it's a it's a it's a broadband system
that is a capable of carrying just about any kind of informational technology.
Betsy Piccata; Thanks Dan. UNR is a pioneer in this
endeavor. Within a few years, the entire university system will be a part of the
campus cable network. For UNR Today, I'm Betsy Piccata.
Unknown Speaker; He's been a boxer, a reporter for the United Press International, and he
founded and directed the University of Nevada Press for almost thirty years.
But, Robert Laxalt is best known as an award-winning author. His latest book, "A
Cup of Tea in Pamplona", is about the Basques, from whom he is descended. The
Basques are notoriously good story tellers. The institution a tributor exists there
still. The last person world were those of the bards and troubadours that improvising,
tell stories and song and verse and and of course graduating from that, they are marlevous
storytellers. The story has a beginning and an end and they pride
themselves on it. I think that was most probably to do with whatever inherited
influence I have in storytelling. Unknown Speaker; What are you working on now? You're writing
another book? Robert Laxalt; Well, you're looking at it right there. It's a
story of four or five generations of a Basque immigrant family, party autobiographical,
of course. I'm starting with two generations in Europe. My own family and
I lived in Basque villages for two years, so we know the mores and and so
it'll be real, it's real and it is real. And uhm, it's no fairy tales. It's so grim too
because life in any village anywhere has its beautiful side and then
it has its bad side too and so that and then and then into a
transition to America and three generations here. Unknown Speaker; Could you tell us something
about your experience with National Geographic? Robert Laxalt; Well, I spent the longest there,
about seventeen to twenty years now. I've done, on an average of, about one story a year.
Then, a great relationship. Obviously, you go to places and see people and
things that uh are fascinating. They're a very demanding magazine, and you have to be very very
good and very very accurate and uh for sometimes
you know, this case, the problem for writers were all born liars anyway. Well, but with
Geographic, you learn to be very honest. There's been a good relationship
and and just finished one story this year, was published this year. Then, hopefully I'll be leaving
on another assignment, not too long from now. Unknown Speaker; Do you have any preference between
fiction and nonfiction writing? Robert Laxalt; Well, fiction is is uh that's for real. I mean it's a
decreative process I think. I much refer to write fiction. It's
demanding and uh but in somewhat not nearly as demanding as nonfiction
writing. But, unless your imagination run free circle and and
even so what your heart really thinks and what you head really thinks. So, I love fiction
writing. Unknown Speaker; But, when did you decide that you actually didn't want to make writing a
career? Was that your original goal? Have you always wanted to be a writer? Robert Laxalt; Yeah, I think so.
When I was very young, I was a voracious reader of adventure, as one is. The
Yukon, Tarzan, Albert Pason Treehound books and everything. I began writing early and
I like to write and uh but as far as of certifying a career in it that that
didn't occur until I got into journalism, into a journalistic work. Then, I realized
people care could make a living off of writing. It wasn't a very good paying living,
but they were living. So, from journalism, where I spent five years with United
Press and and you learn Economy of Language and you learn to sharpen the
tools of your trade with your words and, which, I'm constantly drumming into my
students now. You have to keep writing and writing and writing. The words are the
tools of their trade. You don't sharpen them until you
write and write and write, so that's what I did through five years with United Press
and, then there when I bring stuff in the magazine writing and fiction novels and
nonfiction books and that, so that was a process. Unknown Speaker; What gave you the confidence to
think that you could do all these things without even having graduated in
journalism? Robert Laxalt; I think it was ignorance, actually. I didn't realize that you weren't supposed to do things
so like, I wrote my first short story, I wrote nice, and they sent it off and they sold it
to a national magazine. My first article I wrote, and they send it off
to Saturday Evening Post in those days and sold it. And, then then I thought that that I had
something in the world really wanted to hear. It was very precious, very precious and
then I never saw the damn thing for two years. Unknown Speaker; One thing we must touch on here, is in the age of word
processors. Is this what you do you're writing on? Robert Laxalt; You're damn right. I
think that I check notes with Charles Karout, a good friend, and then he and I
are the last two people in the United States, actually the world, we're out on a
rare portable typewriter that everyone has gone to word processors. They terrify
me. They're so indelible and I'm afraid they're going to devour my language and
me. Unknown Speaker; But, isn't that just our jurist to have to...? Robert Laxalt; No, instead of pushing a
very scientific button that may do fifteen different things, I can just
x out all the words I don't need. Unknown Speaker; I get the feeling this is a kind of physical
thing here like... Robert Laxalt; Yeah. Unknown Speaker; contact with the earth. Robert Laxalt; They're more empowered
guess is so happens when you learn enough of that that I rather do fury
road unless you get in physically hand rode it from mind to heart to hand it
over so - running a winning step through the
portable with several events like wrestled in a rope a society preferring
the fire well but lack salt has had a lifelong association with the University
the city of nevada-reno is currently a visiting professor at the Reynolds
school of journalism I teach one person on teacher writing for magazines and
then another question in the way journalism that means of doing those
such as Stephen Crane regressive courage John Steinbeck Hemingway and miss mr.
Tom Wolfe and John McPhee who move from repertory to reading literature
your class is just open for journalism students or can anybody that would like
to learn to write well take one of your classes the primary will graduate
journalism students but then a lot of people a liberal arts graduates in some
sense squared use to have come in like you're out of this plant apologist and
everything left to learn how to write women's English one thing that the
school of journalism has in common with when you're at UNR is it a very strong
liberal arts requirement and exist and in fact you didn't have any journalism
classes it isn't something you would recommend oh they're definitely I I
think that another journalism schools I've been criticized for lack of
humanities or weaknesses in there I think they should be rectified I think
they should have a solid grounding in history I think they should have a solid
grounding go to the science and I think that an English of course in good
literature I'm not lacking somewhat and and in the reading that students do or
should have done and then the only other course that I would recommended would be
required the rest of Santa Clara's logic hmm that means reasoned and logical
thinking and I think that should every college student should have that very
serious thing so they don't muddle up there thinking this world some people
say that you can't teach writing what advice would you give to somebody that
wanted to learn to write perhaps like you do
I think is crazy either there's so much talent wasted in this state but which we
should be turning our rather well nothing right out of school journalism I
think Mike Lander was really fine is my is my mentor in ditching yeah he's
going to turn he is turning out good writers hopefully I will between are
good letters to Aram but I think the writing is is an acquired trade to as
much as an inherited trait and I think the students just have to learn the
mechanics of what girls how it goes and it's not all that complicated just walk
through a story and you and then they learn what's the for all I know it'll be
published what are the plans for the future
combine my writing and the teaching is a really long neck and with wrenching
chairs and a move whatever else I can do keep up the National Geographic them
because I do love to travel you always come back to Nevada you have a great
affinity for the state yeah I know the state is in my blood and bones
I mean I'll let you sometimes you kill to praise you want to die or be buried
and one premiere will be the Basque Country because all my ancestors are the
very and on and then modality because this is who were going on where I've
lived all my life so the dust is in much as much in my
bread as the green of the Basque Country
For more infomation >> 宮野真守さん初のアリーナライブツアー「MAMORU MIYANO ARENA LIVE TOUR 2018 ～EXCITING!～」のBlu-ray＆DVDよりトレーラー映像公開 - Duration: 3:42. 
For more infomation >> НОВЫЙ БРОНИРОВАННЫЙ ПРЕМИУМ ТАНК CHRYSLER K ● WoT Blitz - Duration: 5:05. 
For more infomation >> Sacramento police K-9 can now train at night - Duration: 0:46. 
For more infomation >> Super Police Movie Comedy Scene HD | Telugu Comedy | Venkatesh | Nagma | Suresh Production - Duration: 6:14. 
No comments:
Post a Comment