Month: December 2016

Banner image courtesy of iStock.

 
You might be sick to death of hearing about “supermoons.” If that’s the case, I bring good news: tonight, December 13, you’ll see the final supermoon of 2016. If you’re not sick of them, I also bring good news, because you have one more supermoon to see.

Of course, where there is good news there is bad, and it’s this: The supermoon will make it very difficult to catch the Geminid meteor shower, which peaks tonight. Don’t give up, however; because of the sheer volume of meteors that comprise the Geminids, you might see some shooting across the sky.

WHAT IS A SUPERMOON?

Before last year, when the red harvest supermoon took over the world, you might never have heard of a supermoon. And now we’ve had three in a row to close out the year: October’s super hunter’s moon, November’s super beaver moon, and now December’s full cold or long nights supermoon. This is true in part because supermoon is not an astronomy term, but rather, one of astrology. (In case you are wondering about the difference: astronomy is science; astrology is make believe.) The name has stuck of late because it’s Twitter-friendly and a lot easier to remember than the actual name for the phenomenon: perigee-syzygy of the Earth–Moon–Sun system.

If you want to understand what’s going on and why there are so many supermoons recently, you really do need to look at the proper name. Perigee occurs when the Moon is closest to the Earth in an orbit. Remember: the Moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle; rather, it’s elliptical. Sometimes it’s close to Earth. Sometimes it’s farther away.

Syzygy means three celestial objects are in alignment. (It can be the Sun, Earth, and Moon, but it might be the Sun, Venus, and Earth, for example, when astronomers can view Venus cross the solar disc.) So when do the Earth, Sun, and Moon experience syzygy? In one of two instances: either the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth (that’s a new moon, because from our vantage, the Moon is completely black; the far side of the Moon is in full illumination) or the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon (a full moon, when the Sun’s rays are lighting the side we see).

Bear in mind that this does not mean perfect alignment. The phases of the moon have nothing to do with the Earth’s shadow.

So a perigee-syzygy of the Earth–Moon–Sun system means an alignment that occurs when the Moon is near to the Earth. It could be a full moon. It could be a new moon. Easy, right? Inasmuch as a made-up term from a made-up belief system can have a proper definition, a supermoon generally means a full moon.

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY SUPERMOONS THIS YEAR?

Not every full moon is at perigee (or its opposite, apogee, when the Moon is farthest from the Earth). The lunar cycle—the number of days it takes the Moon to experience each of its phases, new moon to new moon—lasts about 29 and a half days. Every 14 lunar cycles, the full moon coincides with perigee.

Supermoons tend to come in threes, however. The reason is that the full moons preceding and succeeding perigee-syzygy are still inordinately close to the Earth, and thus appear a lot larger than normal. Moons that are 224,641 miles or closer to the Earth are considered supermoons. The result: a supermoon trifecta, three in a row.

So if you’ve experienced supermoon overload this year, take comfort that it’ll be more than a year before you have to hear the term again. Enjoy it: 2016 has been a year of wildly unexpected and sometimes awful events. Something as predictable and wonderful as the cosmos can be a great comfort indeed.

You can’t talk about the history of independent film without talking about John Cassavetes. The New York-born writer/director/actor was successfully making and distributing his own films decades before the indie boom of the 1990s, nearly always to critical acclaim, and sometimes even for financial gain. The most prominent was 1974’s A Woman Under the Influence, one of eight movies he directed that starred his wife, Gena Rowlands, and the only one for which they were both Oscar-nominated.

Though they didn’t win, Rowlands’s performance as a housewife having a nervous breakdown is still regarded as a master class in acting, and Cassavetes’s sensitive, naturalistic style influenced everyone from Jim Jarmusch to Martin Scorsese. Here’s a peek behind the scenes of one of the 1970s’ most celebrated dramas.

1. IT WAS GOING TO BE A PLAY, BUT IT PROVED TOO INTENSE.

John Cassavetes first wrote A Woman Under the Influence as a stage play intended for Rowlands, who’d said she wanted to do a play about the difficulties faced by modern women. Rowlands loved what her husband wrote but realized it was too intensely emotional for her to perform it night after night without having a nervous breakdown herself. Cassavetes retooled it into a screenplay, sparing Rowlands’s sanity.

2. JOHN CASSAVETES DIDN’T APPROACH IT AS A STORY ABOUT A CRAZY PERSON.

Asked if he did any research into mental illness or nervous breakdowns when he wrote the film in an interview included on the Criterion Blu-ray, Cassavetes said, “No, because I don’t think it’s about that. I’m half crazy myself, and I think almost everyone is verging on some kind of insanity. I believe very strongly that all women who are married for any length of time—and if they love their husbands—they don’t have any place to put their emotions, and that can drive them crazy … This particular woman, I don’t think she’s crazy … I think she’s just frustrated beyond belief. More than being crazy, I think she’s just socially inept.”

3. NOBODY WANTED TO FINANCE THE MOVIE.

You’ll probably file this in the “I didn’t know that but it doesn’t surprise me” category: Though Hollywood studios were taking risks in the 1970s, giving directors more free rein than they’d had previously, nobody wanted to spend money on a film about (in Cassavetes’s words) “a crazy, middle-aged dame.” Instead, Cassavetes mortgaged his house and took up a collection among actor friends to finance the film.

4. PETER FALK PUT UP $500,000 OF HIS OWN MONEY.

Half of the film’s final budget came from Cassavetes’s longtime friend Peter Falk, who was then starring in TV’s Columbo. (Cassavetes had guest-starred a couple years earlier.) Falk was so taken with the screenplay for A Woman Under the Influence that he not only co-starred in it, he turned down another movie (The Day of the Dolphin) and ponied up half a million of his own Columbo dollars to get it made. (Perhaps that’s why he gets top billing over Rowlands.)

5. IT REQUIRED SOME STOLEN ELECTRICITY.

Making an independent, low-budget film means being resourceful. For one outdoor scene, Cassavetes powered his equipment by hijacking a municipal power line.

6. IT ALSO REQUIRED SOME UNPAID LABOR.

Cassavetes was then serving as the first filmmaker-in-residence at the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced Film Studies, in Los Angeles. That gave him access to eager young people who wanted all the practical moviemaking experience they could get. Most of his crew consisted of these students, working for free or for deferred salaries, some of whom quit before it was over (hey, you get what you pay for).

7. IT WAS ONE OF THE FIRST MOVIES TO BE SUCCESSFULLY INDEPENDENTLY DISTRIBUTED.

Not only did none of the studios want to finance the film, they weren’t interested in distributing it when it was finished, either. Ever the do-it-yourselfer, Cassavetes personally called theater owners to get them to book it, relying on his good reputation in the art-house community (A Woman Under the Influence was his seventh film, his fourth as an independent producer). He also booked screenings on college campuses, where he and Falk would appear to do Q&As. It wound up making $6.1 million (as of 1976, according to Variety), all of which went back to Cassavetes, his investors, and the cast and crew, none to any studio.

8. MARTIN SCORSESE ENGAGED IN A BIT OF BLACKMAIL TO GET IT SEEN.

A Woman Under the Influence‘s big break came when it was screened to great acclaim at the 1974 New York Film Festival, some 18 months after Cassavetes finished it. But even that almost didn’t happen: the festival rejected it. In desperation, Cassavetes called his friend Martin Scorsese (there was a lot of mutual admiration between the two), whose documentary Italian-American was already on the festival’s roster. Scorsese threatened to withdraw his film unless the festival organizers gave Cassavetes’s film a chance. (Note: In some tellings of this anecdote, it was Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, also playing at the 1974 NYFF, that he threatened to withdraw. The most reliable firsthand or almost firsthand account we could find, however, says it was Italian-American.)

9. GOOD THING SCORSESE’S GAMBLE WORKED, OR CASSAVETES MIGHT NEVER HAVE MADE ANOTHER FILM.

Cassavetes gave a long interview to journalist Judith McNally at the New York Film Festival, after he’d spent 18 months trying to find a distributor. He was also burned out on making four movies in a row without studio help. “I can’t like making films anymore if they’re this tough,” he said. “The pressures are too unnatural. I’m not crying, because I enjoy it. But I am saddened by the fact that I have physical limitations.”

Yet working with profit-minded studios was hard, too, since Cassavetes refused to bend on his artistic principles. “If that means I’ll never make [a] film again, then I’ll never make another film again,” he said. McNally followed up. “You don’t have any plans at all for another film?” He replied: “Right now all I can hope is that [A Woman Under the Influence] is extremely successful. And if it isn’t, I won’t make another one—that’s all. Which in itself is no great tragedy.” He did, in fact, go on to make five more films before his death in 1989.

10. IT FEELS IMPROVISED, BUT IT WASN’T.

Rowlands and Falk give very naturalistic performances, often seeming like they’re having unscripted conversations. When an interviewer asked Cassavetes about that, he gave a succinct, unambiguous answer: “No, the entire script was written and there were no improvisations whatsoever.”

11. RICHARD DREYFUSS HELPED PROMOTE IT.

During an appearance on The Mike Douglas Show that Falk was co-hosting, Richard Dreyfuss was asked if he had seen the movie Falk was there to promote. Dreyfuss replied enthusiastically: “It was the most incredible, disturbing, scary, brilliant, dark, sad, depressing movie. I went crazy. I went home and vomited.” (Falk piped up, “It’s also funny! It’s a funny movie!”) During the commercial, Falk telephoned Cassavetes in a panic—”He’s telling everyone how terribly dark and scary the movie is!”—but the director laughed and said, “He can say what he wants.”

Additional sources:
Interviews and commentary on the Criterion Blu-ray.
Accidental Genius: How John Cassavetes Invented American Independent Film, by Marshall Fine

If you own a Microsoft Windows phone or desktop PC, you may already be acquainted with Cortana. The voice-controlled virtual assistant is good for things like searching the web and sending emails hands-free, and pretty soon she may be useful around the home as well. As The Verge reports, Microsoft is developing the feature for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including toasters, thermostats, and fridges.

The plan was revealed by Microsoft officials at the tech company’s recent WinHEC conference in China. As Microsoft program manager Carla Forester explained to The Verge, the Windows 10 Creators Update will enable “any kind of smart device with a screen” to use Cortana. Microsoft provided some suggestions for possible IoT hardware but is leaving the door open for manufacturers to build devices for the new software.

The update also includes far-field speech, which will allow users to activate their devices with a “Hey Cortana” voice command from up to 13 feet away. This means that a homeowner with Windows 10 IoT Core appliances could adjust her thermostat or preheat his oven without leaving the sofa.

Windows users will still have to wait a bit before trying the new-and-improved Cortana for themselves; the latest Windows update is expected to roll out in March 2017. Until then they can pass the time by asking Cortana whether or not it’s raining outside.

[h/t The Verge]

Three wizard-loving scientists have named a small, conical spider species after the legendary owner of Hogwarts’ Sorting Hat. They described the fantastic new beast in the Indian Journal of Arachnology [PDF].

The team discovered the orb-weaving spider in the forests of India’s Western Ghats. Like other members of the genus Eriovixia, the new species is petite (this one maxes out at about 0.3 inches) and covered with tiny hairs. Its unusual body is patterned and shaped to resemble a curled leaf—or a ragged, but very important, hat.

Inspired by the resemblance, the researchers named their discovery Eriovixia gryffindori for Godric Gryffindor, who donated the Sorting Hat to Hogwarts at its founding in the year 990. The species name is “an ode,” the authors write, “for magic lost, and found, in an effort to draw attention to the fascinating, but oft overlooked world of invertebrates, and their secret lives.”

The team confirmed E. gryffindori’s status as a new species by comparing a female specimen’s genitals with those of existing orb-weaver species. Sure enough, the Sorting Hat’s gonads were unlike any they’d seen before.

The gleeful researchers shared their find on Twitter with Potter creator J.K. Rowling, who said she was “truly honored” by the new “fantastic beast.”

.@curiocritters I’m truly honoured! Congratulations on discovering another #FantasticBeast! ??✨ pic.twitter.com/NJ4Fe27F1r

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 11, 2016

[h/t Live Science]

Autumn is over in Japan, but locals continue to enjoy the brilliant foliage in the form of “ochiba art,” or “fallen leaf art.” As RocketNews24 reports, the recent trend involves sculpting, raking, and arranging colorful dead leaves into shapes, patterns, animals, bouquets, and other designs. (Way more fun than simply raking them into piles.) Check out a few of the nature-inspired works below.

[h/t deMilked]

The Earth is home to some pretty extraordinary destinations. Some, like a reflective salt flat that stretches thousands of miles, definitely deserve a spot on your travel bucket list. But others, like the coldest corner of Antarctica, are best appreciated from a distance. Here are seven of the most extreme environments on the planet.

1. THE HOTTEST // LUT DESERT, IRAN

The title of world’s hottest place is a subject of heated (pun intended) debate. California’s Death Valley claimed the record when temperatures reached 134°F on a summer’s day in 1913. Nine years later, El Azizia, Libya surpassed that figure by two degrees—a record that still technically stands today. But weather experts claim that temperatures get much more extreme elsewhere on the planet. In Iran’s Lut Desert for instance, the climate is so severe that it would be impractical to maintain a weather station there. Scientists have found an alternative way to measure the surface temperature using infrared satellite imagery. After looking at five years of data, the Lut Desert consistently came in as the world’s hottest spot. In one particularly hot year the temperature measured in at a blistering 159.3°F.

2. THE COLDEST // EAST ANTARCTIC PLATEAU

It’s no shock that all the extreme cold records belong to Antarctica, but just how low temperatures can dip in our southernmost continent may be surprising to some. In 1983, temperatures outside Russia’s Vostok research station on the East Antarctic Plateau plummeted to 128.6 degrees below zero—about 20 degrees colder than dry ice. Scientists believe that the alarming drop in temperature was the result of a combination of a lack of warm air that normally flows in from the southern ocean and the flow of cool air circling the station. No colder temperatures have been recorded on the ground since, but in 2013 satellites detected temperatures bottoming out at -135.8 degrees in that same area of Antarctica. 

3. THE DRIEST // ATACAMA DESERT, CHILE

It’s not unusual for years to go by before a single drop of rain hits Chile’s Atacama Desert. The arid landscape earned the distinction of world’s driest place after sustaining a 173-month long dry spell in the early 20th century. On average it receives 1 millimeter of rain a year—to qualify as a desert, an area must receive an average of no more than 250 millimeters a year. There are corners of the desert where rainfall has never been recorded, and local residents who have never witnessed the phenomenon with their own eyes. There are three main factors contributing to the Atacama’s exceptionally dry conditions: Its position west of the Andes places it in a “rainshadow,” with all the moisture carried by the ocean winds ending up on the wrong side of the mountain range; the winds that blow over it from the neighboring Pacific are unusually dry to begin with; and lastly, its position south of the equator creates high air pressure, causing any moisture in the air to evaporate. Any one of these conditions alone would be enough to create a dry climate, and together they create the perfect (rainless) storm.

4. THE RAINIEST // MAWSYNRAM, MEGHALAYA, INDIA

Anyone planning a trip to the Indian village of Mawsynram would be wise to bring an umbrella. Located in the state of Meghalaya, or “land of the clouds,” the spot receives an average of 467 inches of rainfall a year. For comparison, Seattle was drenched with just 44.83 inches in 2015. The high hills of Meghalaya create a tight space in the atmosphere that squeezes out rainwater from any clouds passing overhead. This results in roughly 320 days of rainfall a year in the area. It’s become such a common part of life that people working outside often suit up in fully-body umbrellas made of bamboo and banana leaf.

5. THE MOST ELECTRIFYING // LAKE MARACAIBO, VENEZUELA

Visit the spot where the Catatumbo River meets Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela on any given night and chances are you’ll be treated to a light show. The lake sees 260 stormy days a year, and in peak season the Beacon of Maracaibo, or the “everlasting storm”, produces 28 lightning strikes a minute. They even light up in a rainbow of colors thanks to dust particles and water vapor in the surrounding air. There are numerous theories as to the cause of the electrifying phenomenon: Uranium deposits in the ground there were once thought to attract lighting, and recently methane released from oil fields was believed to make the air above more conductive. Today it’s widely accepted that evaporating water from the lake, the topography of the surrounding Andes, and trade winds from the neighboring sea form the wicked storm clouds.

6. THE FLATTEST // SALAR DE UYUNI, BOLIVIA

Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is remarkable for what it lacks: There’s not a peak or valley for over 4500 square miles. The salt flat was formed between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago after a large lake covering what is now southwestern Bolivia dried up. Today the desert is home to 10 billion tons of salt. Tourists come from all over to walk or drive across the flat terrain in the winter season or gaze at the massive reflecting pool that forms during the wet summer months.

7. THE MOST ISOLATED // BOUVET ISLAND, NORWAY

If you’re really looking to get away from it all, there’s no better place to be than Bouvet Island. The volcanic landmass is located in the South Atlantic halfway between Antarctica and South Africa. The closest human life is on Tristan da Cunha 1404 miles away, which just so happens to be the most remote inhabited island in the world. Bouvet Island is difficult to walk on, much less live on, but despite that many people have tried to claim it for themselves. Today the 19-square-mile, glacial chunk of rock is a dependency of Norway.

See how 10 of the world’s most skilled survival experts fare all by themselves in another place known for its remoteness: Patagonia, the so-called “End of the World.” The all-new season of Alone airs Thursdays at 9/8c on HISTORY.