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Week of Nov. 29 -- Dec. 5, 2009
With the holiday season racing toward us like an out-of-control train, it won't be long before we begin seeing and hearing ads to have a star named after someone special.
Now, I'm a huge proponent of the free enterprise system, but, much like P.T. …Read more.
Week of Nov. 22-29, 2009
Anyone frequenting singles bars back in the '70s has surely heard the question "What's your sign?" And while most of us know the answer, not many know what it actually means. It's really quite simple.
The sun's annual path through the …Read more.
Week of Nov. 15-21, 2009
There are few sights more beautiful than the glistening stars and planets on a clear, dark rural night. But just where do all those heavenly bodies go during the daytime? And why can't we see them when the sky is bright?
As I'm sure you already know,…Read more.
Week of Nov. 8-14, 2009
Anyone who has ever gazed at a dark sky for more than a few minutes has almost certainly seen a burst of light appearing out of nowhere that disappears just as quickly.
We call such a startling phenomenon romantic names like a "falling …Read more.
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Week of Sept. 20-26, 2009I don't know about you, but I'm always a bit sad to see summer end. True, where I live in the Southwestern desert, summers can become so blistering hot that even the lizards rent RVs and head to Minnesota for relief. But autumn is on its way, bringing with it shorter days and pleasant temperatures. This whole seasonal business comes about because our planet's axis is tipped 23.4 degrees to our orbit around the sun. This causes sunlight to fall more directly onto one hemisphere than the other at various times of the year. The moment that our sun "crosses" the equator from north to south — in other words, when it illuminates both hemispheres equally — marks the "autumnal equinox." It occurs this year on Sept. 22 at 2:19 p.m. PDT (5:19 p.m. EDT). Watch the position of the mid-day sun throughout the year and you will see one manifestation of this annual change. Over billions of years, life on our planet has adapted to these seasonal changes. But suppose our world had no tilt at all? How might life on Earth be different? With no tilt, climate at each location on Earth would be fairly stable and flora and fauna might become quite specialized. And if our planet's axis were tilted more? Seasonal changes would be extreme. Strong winds and powerful storms would be more prevalent. Most locations would experience hot tropical summers and hostile arctic winters. Massive polar ice caps would form during winter and melt during summer, changing sea levels by more than a hundred feet every six months. Land masses where life could evolve would shrink; less of our planet's surface would remain for long periods at a temperature conducive to life; and even less would have seasonal variations moderate enough for life to develop successfully. Life forms that did manage to evolve on land would need to be quite mobile to cope with these stark seasonal changes. Animals would have to migrate huge distances to survive, and most would be prone to extinction if anything should block their movement. So, while it might seem sad to bid adieu to the summer of '09, we must remind ourselves to relish the changes that are coming our way. We owe to them our very existence. To find out more about Dennis Mammana and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM 
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