Increase in Helium Detected Near Epicenters

 Phys.org published an article about a groundbreaking Japanese study that suggests an increase in groundwater helium levels mean an earthquake is imminent.  While this is only a preliminary study it could lead to more research that verifies it as factual.  If it does prove to be true, then I would wonder if animals can sense this helium shift after drinking water. 

Thousands of people have been known to report their pets acting strangely in the days leading up to an earthquake.  If these animals are drinking from natural groundwater, they may be better able to detect the helium shift, thereby anticipating the coming of an earthquake from past experience.  The article states that the shift is stronger in areas closer to epicenters, so if more reports are coming in about strange animal behavior near them, there may be a correlation.  Hopefully any future studies will include this hypothesis. 

This is tremendous news for the field of seismology.  In the future, they may be able to predict earthquakes by using helium sensors in local groundwater and monitoring any sudden changes.  They'd be able to do this by generating maps of helium content all over a country (like Japan) the same way something like radar finds rain on a weather map, i.e., remote sensing.  If a large portion of helium is concentrated in a localized area, they could forecast it as being the epicenter of a possible earthquake.  Technology like this would save companies billions of dollars in damage control, not to mention the countless lives that could be spared. 

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

If the results of the 2016 election are any indication, racism is still a relevant issue in our country. Though few will admit it, having a black president in the White House horrified many people for a very superficial reason: the simple fact that he was black. For this reason, I decided to pick up Ta-Nehisi Coates' modern classic, Between the World and Me, just to get a sense of the mindset of black America in post-segregation society. 

Written as a series of letters to his son, Coates provides a wonderfully written catalog of experiences that highlight his fight for social justice as a student and journalist. Wisely he avoids crossing the thin line between whiney and provocative. His insights show few traces of anger and serve more as a beacon for hope against police brutality, incarceration, and any reversions to pre-1960s social norms. He uses the American Dream as a platform for white suburbia's rejection of the slums, using references to the black body to prove his point. The black body has been beaten black and blue in white America's efforts to keep segregation a reality, despite all the civil rights laws that were passed to try and eradicate it. 

He is spot on. I grew up in the suburbs, and only one black kid went to our school. Any notion that our races have been united is an illusion. Though we may be slightly more tolerant, the laws haven't done enough to erase the memory of our bleak past. We are reaching a dangerous point in American history, similar to the time when Rome feasted so much on its glory that it reverted to vilifying social groups as scapegoats for its inner turmoil. We should know better than that, but we clearly don't. 

Wind, Sand, and Stars, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    This is a really great memoire-anthology on Saint-Exupery's experiences as a pilot. They aren't plain experiences either; he flew through a storm over the Andes, and nearly died of starvation after crashing his plane into the Sahara Desert. Not only that, but he spices up his memories with a lot of reflective thoughts on the condition of man, which are often poetically pleasing. These are all things I enjoy when reading, and in addition to my interest in flying it seemed the perfect combination of style, atmosphere, and subject matter. I'm glad I chose to read it on my flight to Europe; it's the perfect book to read on a plane.