BLC-Anigif

today

8:30 a.m. Audubon Society Field Trip See Event Description

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8:30 a.m. Alzheimer’s Resource Center Volunteer Training See Event Description

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9 a.m. Arcata Farmers' Market Arcata Plaza

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9 a.m. Speakers' Symposium College of the Redwoods

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9 a.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens Foundation Speakers’ Symposium College of the Redwoods

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9 a.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens' Speakers' Symposium College of the Redwoods

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9 a.m. Fall Rummage Sale Arcata United Methodist Church

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9:30 a.m. AAUW Meeting See Event Description

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9:30 a.m. Little River State Beach Restoration See Event Description

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9:30 a.m. Sierra Club Headwaters Hike See Event Description

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10 a.m. Lanphere Dunes Guided Walk See Event Description

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10 a.m. 5th Annual Synergy Fair Arcata Community Center

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10 a.m. Go Green and Boost Your Bottom Line Wharfinger Building

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11 a.m. Sustaining Excellence and Enthusiasm in Health, Relationships and Work Carlo Theater (Dell'Arte)

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noon KEET's Kids Club Morris Graves Museum of Art

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1:30 p.m. Humboldt County Historical Society Humboldt County Library

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2 p.m. Arcata Marsh Field Trip Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary Interpretive Center

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4 p.m. Woodside Preschool’s 36th Wine and Ale Tasting Gala Adorni Recreation Center

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4:30 p.m. Harvest Dinner and Bazaar Humboldt Grange

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5 p.m. A Toast to Music Christ Episcopal Church

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5:30 p.m. Elvis and the Hound Dogs + Stolen Taxi Trinidad Town Hall

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6 p.m. The Tumbleweeds Chapala Cafe

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6 p.m. Arts Alive! Various Locations

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6 p.m. Day of the Dead Exhibition Ink People Center for the Arts

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6 p.m. Bar None 10th Anniversary Eureka Labor Temple

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6 p.m. Randy Spicer Piante Gallery

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6 p.m. Gallery Open for Arts Alive! Four Paths Gallery and Studio

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6:30 p.m. ShinBone (Blues R&B) Eureka Theater

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7 p.m. Mike Craighead and Sari Baker Old Town Coffee & Chocolates

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7 p.m. Harvest Concert Arcata Presbyterian Church

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7 p.m. 2 Left Feet Dance Project Redwood Raks World Dance Studio

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7:30 p.m. Joe & Me Cafe Mokka

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7:30 p.m. Cyrano de Begerac Eureka High School Auditorium

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7:30 p.m. Torch Song Summit Eureka Women's Club

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7:30 p.m. Jeff DeMark and the LaPatinas Westhaven Center for the Arts

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8 p.m. Stones in His Pockets Arcata Playhouse

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8 p.m. Humboldt Bay Brass Band Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU

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9 p.m. Synergy Six Rivers Brewery

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9 p.m. Arts Alive! with Akaboom Sound Pearl Lounge

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9 p.m. Tempest WAVE @ blue lake casino

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9 p.m. Back In The Daze Dance Party Central Station Cocktail Lounge

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9 p.m. Swingin' Country Band (country) Bear River Casino

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9 p.m. The Zygoats + Alder Camp (rock) The Lil' Red Lion

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9 p.m. DJ Knutz (funk) Muddy's Hot Cup

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10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines

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10 p.m. DJ Icy Hot Aunty Mo's Lounge

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10 p.m. These United States (indie folk) Humboldt Brews

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11 p.m. Hellbound Glory The Alibi Lounge and Restaurant

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previous columns

July 2, 2009

Stop Signs and Libraries

From Frankfurt to Fortuna, Yerevan to Eureka, a red octagon ...

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June 25, 2009

Water on the Moon?

I'm jazzed about NASA's latest venture to the moon, which ...

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June 18, 2009

Hundred-Foot Waves

Pilot Rock is the outermost of Trinidad Bay's scattering of ...

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  • How Mars might have looked four billion years ago, with oceans and active volcanoes. (From Barry Evans' book The One-Way Comet, painting by Michael Carroll. How Mars might have looked four billion years ago, with oceans and active volcanoes. (From Barry Evans' book The One-Way Comet, painting by Michael Carroll.
Dry is from Mars, Wet is from Venus

Dry is from Mars, Wet is from Venus

By Barry Evans

Maybe Humboldt isn't the best location for clear skies. After all, our airport was originally built so World War II pilots could practice landing in fog. Even here, though, we should occasionally be able to spot our closest planetary neighbors this month. Throughout July, Venus and Mars dance close to each other in the morning sky. They rise about three hours before the sun, and, given clear skies, are easily visible low in the east until the dawn light engulfs them.

We can learn a lot about the two planets just by looking at them with the naked eye. Mars is dim and orange (the color is very obvious through binoculars), while Venus is comparatively bright and pure white. True, Mars is now about twice as far away as Venus, and it's also about half the diameter, but there's a more obvious reason for the large discrepancy in brightness. When we see Venus, we're seeing sunlight mirrored off crystals of sulphuric acid atop the thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, while all we see of Mars is the sun reflected from its dry, dusty, iron-rich soil. It's oxidized iron -- rust -- that gives it its distinctive color.

That's it, in a nutshell (I'm only allowed 400 words!): Venus is bright because it has a wet, reflective atmosphere. Mars is dim because it hasn't.

Despite what it looks like now, Venus, Earth and Mars were sister planets in our solar system's youth, some four billion years ago, when the sun was putting out 30 percent less energy than it does today. They had similar surface minerals, similar atmospheric gases (mainly carbon dioxide) and all were temperate enough to support oceans of liquid water.

Later, Venus boiled and Mars froze while conditions here on Earth stayed much the same. Blame (or thank) carbon dioxide. Earth has always enjoyed a moderate climate due to our wonderful automatic feedback mechanism: When the surface is cool, more carbon dioxide is cycled into the atmosphere, so the surface warms up) and when the surface is hot, less is cycled, so it cools down.

Because of its comparatively low gravity (about 38 percent that of Earth), Mars has lost most of its carbon dioxide to space, while Venus' gravity (90 percent Earth's) traps the gas in a runaway greenhouse effect. You could walk around in a spacesuit on Mars, while on Venus you'd be fried, crushed and eaten to death by the acidic atmosphere.

Take your pick.

Barry Evans (barryevans9@yahoo.com) spends his days in Old Town Eureka wondering if men really are from Mars He hasn't a clue where women are from.

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