[clskrk]

Originally posted by angelize56:
A spokesman for an Indian planetarium says meteors usually burn up before hitting the ground and says this one may have been usually large.

I think this falls into the "understatement" catagory.........

[Tipacanoe]

Jay Ingram
THE BARMAID'S BRAIN
And other strange tales from science

Book review by Anthony Campbell.
Copyright © Anthony Campbell (2000).

Jay Ingram, a science writer, has investigated some of the byways of science and presents his findings in this book. The title refers to the surprising ability of some waitresses to memorise the drinks orders of large numbers of customers. In an experiment in which the subjects were required to serve 33 drinks to the right individuals, experienced waitresses managed 90 per cent accuracy on average, compared with 77 per cent for untrained students. Six out of 40 waitresses tested did particularly well; they attained 100 per cent accuracy and were also extremely quick. These results are difficult to explain in view of the known limitations of short term memory. The waitresses disliked writing down the orders and said that they performed best under pressure.

One advantage of a book like this is that it allows you to catch up with stories that for one reason or another have dropped out of the news though they were never actually shown to be baseless. An example is the theory, first put forward by Sir Alister Hardy and later popularised by Elaine Morgan, that human evolution included an aquatic phase. Ingram thinks there is something to be said for this idea even though the theory presents a number of difficulties. Another idea, which was fashionable at one time but now has died almost completely, is the claim that it is possible to transmit memories by means of molecules, at least in flatworms. No one seems to be working on this any more, but the theory was not so much disproved as abandoned by common consent.

Ingram has an interesting piece on the reasons why moths fly to lights. Actually, they don't always go to the light itself; often they end up a short distance away. The generally accepted explanation is that they have an inbuilt mechanism to steer by the moon and they mistake the light for the moon. This may be true in some cases but seemingly not in all. Other suggested explanations are based on pheromones and infrared radiation. It appears that we still really don't know why moths behave in this way. I thought this was one of the best discussions in the book.

In a chapter on Joan of Arc, Ingram discusses the peculiarities of her `voices'. He correctly points out that attempts by rationalists to attribute these phenomena to cerebral pathology are attended by various difficulties, and he concludes that there is no adequate explanation available at present. To me, Joan's case fits rather well into the pattern described by Julian Jaynes in his The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind; one could interpret Joan as being a throwback to an earlier state of consciousness, although admittedly it is still hard to account for the evident veridicality of some (though not all) of the voices' pronouncements.

This is an entertaining book at a popular level, which would make a good present for a young person thinking about taking up a career in science. Sometimes Ingram seems not to have thought carefully enough about his descriptions of events: for example, in his account of the reproductive process in Volvox, a spherical multicellular organism, the process whereby the daughter colonies turn themselves insider out to get their flagella on the outside doesn't make sense; a couple of steps appear to be out of sequence. In general, however, he seems to have done his homework well and a bibliography is provided.

The real lesson from many of these accounts is that one should be cautious of accepting received opinion at face value; what everyone knows may still be wrong. On the other hand, it's important not to go too far in the other direction: as Ingram shows in his account of perpetual motion machines, ignorance of well-established facts about the world can lead people up very long garden paths indeed.

[Tipacanoe]

Memory and Learning

Memories also have a biological basis. Wilder Graves Penfield (1891-1976) first recognized that the temporal lobe cortex and portions of the limbic system in humans have important functions when it comes to recall and memory. Memories allow animals to learn from the past and therefore improve chances of survival. They rarely make the same mistakes twice; humans are often an exception. All animals have the ability to remember and therefore learn in the process. Rats can learn to master a maze. Even planarians (flatworms) can learn to avoid certain unpleasant stimuli.

Humans have the ability to pass on their memories to their offspring. We pass this information and experience to our young through verbal and written communication. Other animals, without the benefit of verbal or written communication, are able to pass on information and experience to their offspring as well. Snow monkeys in Japan now wash their vegetables in the sea prior to eating them, a product of one individual who began the practice back in the 1950's. Parents pass this food washing practice onto their children today. Predatory animals teach their young how to hunt, a practice that is passed on from generation to generation. There was even a controversial experiment that was done in the 1960's on planarians. The flatworms were taught to avoid electric shock. The experiment showed that the flatworms that ate the "trained" flatworms also avoided electric shock; learning through cannibalism. The experiment has never been duplicated, but it does open up whole new ideas for science fiction writers. What about an alien culture that has no verbal or written language? How does the mother leopard teach her young to hunt? How do snow monkeys teach their young to wash food prior to eating it? Having no written or verbal communication should certainly not be an impediment.

Aliens may pass on their experiences and memories in entirely different ways, different from anything that can be observed on Earth. A fascinating tale of science fiction anthropology comes from the mind of Rebecca Ore who wrote Becoming Alien. It is a story about a boy who is taken from the earth and tutored by the very original aliens. What about memories that could be stored in chemicals that can be passed from generation to generation, no need for a language of any sort. Michael Stanwick's "Midwinter's Tale" is a story about alien carnivores that feed on the brains of their victims in order to absorb their intelligence (similar to the planarians). When one of the carnivore group dies, the rest eat its brain to absorb its intelligence. One day, the carnivore group consumes a human brain.

[gotrootdude]

New evidence shows that there are over 10 trillion earth-like planets in the universe, all with their own Walmarts and football teams..

http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/.../story003.html


University of New South Wales -- The question of whether we're alone in the universe just got a lot bigger.

Two astronomers from the University of New South Wales, Australia - Dr Charles Lineweaver and Daniel Grether - have found that at least 25 per cent of Sun-like stars have planets.


"This means there are at least 100 billion stars with planets in our Galaxy," says Dr Lineweaver, a Senior Research Fellow at the University's School of Physics.


Until now, astronomers believed that only five to 15 per cent of Sun-like stars had orbiting planets, but Lineweaver and Grether's work shows that previous estimates under-reported the proportion of so-called extrasolar planets.


The Astrophysical Journal, the world's leading journal of astrophysics, has accepted their research for publication.


Astronomers have been carefully monitoring 2,000 nearby stars for the presence of orbiting extrasolar planets.


"To date, they've detected a hundred or so, meaning the fraction of stars with extrasolar planets was around five per cent," says Dr Lineweaver.


"But most planets are too small or take too long to orbit their host stars to be detected. For example, if the Sun were one of the stars being monitored, we still wouldn't have detected any planets around it.




"Using a new method to correct for this incompleteness, we found that at least 25 per cent of Sun-like stars have planets."


Dr Lineweaver believes that the figure of at least 100 billion stars with orbiting planets could be on the low side when it comes to cosmic counting. It could be that close to 100 per cent of stars have planets.


"Given that there are about 400 billion stars in our Galaxy alone, it means there could be up to 400 billion stars with planets," he says.


"With about 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, our result suggests that there are at least 10 trillion planetary systems in the Universe."


'What Fraction of Sun-like Stars have Planets?' by Charles H Lineweaver and Daniel Grether will be published later this year. It is available online.


Dr Lineweaver is an ARC Senior Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer, School of Physics, UNSW. Daniel Grether is working on a PhD.

[Tipacanoe]

News extra - BMJ

Report warns of danger of genetic discrimination in the workplace

London Susan Mayor

Changes in the law are needed to prevent employers in the United Kingdom from refusing people jobs on the basis of results of genetic tests, warns a report published this week that argues that the evidence for a link between genes and occupational illness is weak.

The report looked at the potential for misuse of genetic information by employers. It reviewed the genetic tests that might be used for employment purposes and the research evidence linking genetic factors to occupational illness.

Four main types of health related genetic tests might be considered for use in the workplace, it says:

* Specific tests to identify people at risk of a work related disease or who might be susceptible to a workplace chemical
* Specific tests for people who have been exposed to a harmful chemical or radiation at work
* General tests for people at risk of a genetic illness, such as Huntington’s disease, and
* General tests for people at risk of common illnesses, such as heart disease.

Several genetic tests for susceptibility to occupational disease are being developed, according to the report, and a few have already been used in workplaces in the United States. These include tests to identify susceptibility to exposure to a range of chemicals and radiation. However, none of these tests could accurately or reliably predict whether an individual was at risk, the report found.

"It is neither scientifically nor ethically valid to use these tests for employment purposes, but there is a real danger that they could be used inappropriately to discriminate unfairly against employees," warned Dr Helen Wallace, deputy director of GeneWatch UK, a non-profit science policy research group and publisher of the report.

However, many employers wish to use results of genetic test results, despite their poor predictive value. A survey carried out by the Institute of Directors in 2000 found that 50% of employers thought it would be appropriate to carry out genetic testing to see whether employees were at risk of developing occupation related disease arising from exposure in the workplace. In addition, the report found that many research projects were under way to find genetic tests to identify people who are "genetically susceptible" to workplace hazards.

If genetic testing were introduced to workplaces, the report suggested, large numbers of people would need to be excluded from employment in an effort to prevent a single case of work related illness. "Workplace hazards affect everyone—not just people with ‘bad genes’—so the remaining workers would still be at risk," pointed out Dr Wallace.

Under current UK employment law, says the report, employers can refuse people jobs on the basis of genetic test results because—although not mentioned specifically in the law—such action could be considered as part of efforts to protect the health and safety of employees. Furthermore, people with adverse results from genetic tests but no symptoms have no protection under the existing Disabilities Discrimination Act, the report points out.

GeneWatch recommends the development of new legislation to prevent all forms of genetic discrimination and to prohibit employers (and insurers) from using or accessing people’s genetic test results. It has called on the UK government to sign the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, which states that people should not be discriminated against on the grounds of their genetic inheritance, as one way forward. Overall, the report suggests that greater emphasis should be placed on reducing workplace hazards rather than identifying and removing the people who are seen as susceptible to such hazards.

Genetic Testing in the Workplace is available at www.genewatch.org

[angelize56]

Tip: I think that goes a little too far in the "need-to-know!

Wan Hu: China's 16th century astronaut
Legendary Ming Dynasty official was space pioneer
By Joe Havely
CNN
Wednesday, October 1, 2003 Posted: 2:38 AM EDT (0638 GMT)

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- The countdown has started, the capsule is ready and China is preparing sometime -- at least before the end of the year -- to launch its first man into space.

If succesful, the launch will grant China entry to an elite club making it only the third nation after Russia and the United States capable of putting humans into space.

Of course, as any space historian knows, Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space.

His 1961 flight aboard a Soviet Vostok space capsule, catapulted the former air force pilot into the history books and set alarm bells ringing in the Western world that the final frontier was about to turn a very communist shade of red.

But was he really the first?

Several centuries earlier -- legend says about 1500 AD, sometime around the middle of the Ming Dynasty -- a Chinese stargazer named Wan Hu dreamed of going where no man had gone before and set out to turn that dream into space age reality.

According to the legend, Wan, a local government official, was obsessed by the stars and planned a rather harebrained scheme to get himself closer to them.

Something of a nutty professor character, Wan set out to make himself the world's first astronaut.

Picking up on China's recently developed expertise in rocketry, he took up the task of building himself a space ship.

Centuries before the Wright brothers took to the air or the Germans launched their V1 and V2 rockets, Wan was convinced that the weapons of war could also be a means of transportation and his ticket to the stars.

He was somewhat ahead of his time.

Big bang

Gagarin: First in space and hero of the Soviet Union... but did someone boldly go before him?

Wan's pioneering spacecraft was built around a sturdy chair, two kites and 47 of the largest gunpowder-filled rockets he could lay his hands on.

Come the launch day, Wan dressed himself in his imperial finery, strapped himself in the chair and called upon his 47 servants, each armed with a flaming torch, to light the 47 fuses.

Their job done, the servants speedily retreated to a safe distance ... and waited.

What came next, the legend goes, was an enormous bang.

When the smoke eventually cleared, Wan and his chair were nowhere to be seen.

Whether Wan actually made it or not has never been made clear.

The prognosis does seem a little doubtful.

But despite the somewhat cranky nature of spacecraft he was certainly on the right track.

Four-and-a-half centuries later and those same principles behind the first Chinese rockets did indeed lift Gagarin on his historic flight beyond Earth's gravity.

And now expectations are high that modern China is set to follow suit, aiming to become only the third nation in history to launch a man into space and turn Wan Hu's centuries-old dream into reality.

[angelize56]

Discovery may spur cheap solar power
Thursday, October 2, 2003 Posted: 4:13 PM EDT (2013 GMT)

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- A major European chip maker said this week it had discovered new ways to produce solar cells which will generate electricity twenty times cheaper than today's solar panels.

STMicroelectronics, Europe's largest semiconductor maker, said that, by the end of next year, it expected to have made the first stable prototypes of the new cells, which could then be put into production.

Most of today's solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity, are produced with expensive silicon, the same material used in most semiconductors.

The French-Italian company expects cheaper organic materials such as plastics to bring down the price of producing energy. Over a typical 20-year life span of a solar cell, a single produced watt should cost as little as $0.20, compared with the current $4.

The new solar cells would even be able to compete with electricity generated by burning fossil fuels such as oil and gas, which costs about $0.40 per watt, said Salvo Coffa, who heads ST's research group that is developing the technology.

"This would revolutionize the field of solar energy generation," he said.

ST's trick is to use materials that are less efficient in producing energy from sunlight but which are extremely cheap.

Coffa said the materials should be able to turn at least 10 percent of the sun's energy into power, compared with some 20 percent for today's expensive silicon-based cells.

"We believe we can demonstrate 10 percent efficiency by the end of 2004," Coffa said.

Following that, ST and others would need to develop production technologies to make solar cells and panels in large quantities to achieve the $0.20 per watt target, he said.

"Our target is fixed at $0.20," said Coffa, who expects no major technological difficulties in going from prototypes to mass-produced commercial products.

Renewable energy is an essential part of research for ST, which says its chip and material expertise can be used to develop future solar cells and fuel cells.

ST said three weeks ago it had found a new way to produce tiny yet extremely efficient fuel cells that could power a mobile phone for 20 days.

[gotrootdude]

Kid photographs an enormous fireball in the sky

Jon Burnett, a teenager from South Wales, UK, was photographing some friends skateboarding last week when the sky did something very strange. High in the distance, a sofa-sized rock came hurtling into the nearby atmosphere of planet Earth and disintegrated. By diverting his camera, he was able to document this rare sky event and capture one of the more spectacular meteor images yet recorded. Roughly one minute later, he took another picture of the dispersing meteor trial. Bright fireballs occur over someplace on Earth nearly every day. A separate bolide, likely even more dramatic, struck India only a few days ago



Large pic... Good for walpaper.... http://www.rednova.com/imagery/iod/0...hn-burnett.jpg

And link to source.
http://www.rednova.com/rnprogs/iodge...=2003&m=10&d=1

[angelize56]

Wow! What an amazing picture! Thanks for posting that got! Take care. angel

[gotrootdude]

New Hubble Telescope Images..

This magnificent Hubble image reveals a swarm of stars in the Sombrero Galaxy. Credit: HST/NASA

Large image, wonderful wallpaper..
http://www.rednova.com/news/images/1...104_hubble.jpg


Large version
http://www.rednova.com/news/images/1...ect_hubble.jpg



Large version
http://www.rednova.com/news/images/1...745_hubble.jpg


Large version
http://www.rednova.com/news/images/1...ead_hubble.jpg

Huge Gallery located at the Hubble Heritage here...
http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery.html

Example: The egg nebula..

Large...
http://heritage.stsci.edu/2003/09/big.html

[angelize56]

Report: China Sets Oct. 15 for Manned Space Launch
Wed October 8, 2003 01:50 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's first manned space flight is provisionally planned for Oct. 15 and will be shown live on television, an official with state CCTV said on Wednesday, but a mission spokesman dismissed the comment as hearsay.
"The provisional plan is for October 15," said the TV official, who declined to give his name.

"The relevant department announced that it would be launched in mid-October. We have plans to cover the launch of Shenzhou V live," he said, referring to the spacecraft.

"But the exact time has not been fixed yet."

China is aiming to become the third country to send a man into space after the former Soviet Union and the United States. It has ballyhooed the mission as a matter of national pride but kept the date and most details of the launch under tight wraps.

Official media Web sites, quoting reports that originated in Hong Kong, said a single Chinese astronaut would pilot the mission in mid-October. The solo flight would blast off in the morning and orbit Earth once, they said.

An official at the China Aviation Manned Aircraft Office, which is handling publicity for the mission, said the media reports and television official's comments were "hearsay."

"They are not from the official channels," he said. "We will inform the media at the right time."

There has been widespread speculation of a launch timed to coincide with the week-long October 1 National Day holidays, which ended Tuesday, or a major annual meeting of Communist Party leaders which runs from October 11-14.

But a Beijing-based diplomat tracking the launch said it might not take place until late October.

"I've heard more late October for a variety of technical reasons as the equipment and monitoring equipment will not be ready until then," he said.

"There's a fixed timeframe it would take to get some of the rocket equipment together and in place, and there's a fixed timeframe to get the monitoring equipment up, and there's no way they can leapfrog that or rush it."

Fourteen astronauts were making final preparations at the Jiuquan launch base in the western province of Gansu and three top candidates had been tapped to fly the mission, the Web sites of the Xinhua news agency and the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily said.

The astronauts were all fighter pilots and two had trained in Russia, they said.

The projected cost of the launch was $2.4 billion, the Web sites quoted diplomatic sources as saying.

Hong Kong-based television stations were also bidding for rights to air the launch, Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao newspaper reported.

[angelize56]

Earth buffeted by big solar storm
By Kate Tobin
CNN
Wednesday, October 29, 2003 Posted: 11:58 AM EST (1658 GMT)

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite spies the third most powerful solar flare on record, the bright blip near the sun's middle.

(CNN) -- A big electrified gas cloud hurled by one of the largest solar flares on record began hitting Earth early Wednesday, triggering a major geomagnetic storm that has the ability to affect satellite radio communications and Earth-based electrical systems.

The fast-moving shock wave buffeted our planet at about 1 a.m. EST, much soon than expected. It arrived about 19 hours after the third largest solar flare on record erupted on the sun, according to Paal Brekke, a project scientist with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a sun-watching satellite mission jointly run by NASA and the European Space Agency.

Solar scientists expect strong to severe geomagnetic storm conditions to persist throughout the day, abating early Thursday.

Tuesday's flare outburst was classified an X17.2 flare, according Brekke. In comparison, two solar storms observed last week were between X1 and X5.

Flares also are often associated with coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, like the one that arrived Wednesday morning. Usually CMEs need several days to make the 93 million mile trip, but this one was one the fastest ever.

So far, no major problems have been reported. Yet one Japanese satellite went out of commission this weekend, possibly due to electrical problems associated with increased solar acivity. And instruments onboard the SOHO orbiter have been turned off during the storm to prevent malfunctions.

The high-energy solar winds produced by a CME can generate geomagnetic storms when they interact with Earth's magnetic field -- often increasing displays of the northern and southern lights.

Because this CME is hitting Earth directly, it is possible that the geomagnetic activity will disrupt satellite communications or power grids. In recent years, however, satellite and utility operators have devised safeguards that usually prevent or minimize damage from solar storms.

NASA has taken precautions as well with its most precious cargo, astronaut Mike Foale and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri on board the International Space Station. Foale and Kaleri, the only humans currently outside the protection of the Earth's atmosphere, are retreating during peak exposure times to the living quarters of the station, which provides the best radiation protection.

As a precaution, NASA shut down the station's robotic arm, which is the most exposed piece of hardware.

Researchers classify solar flares using three categories: C for weak, M for Moderate and X for strong. The largest flare on record, one of two known X20s, occurred on April 2, 2001. However, it was not directed at the Earth.

Space weather forecasters say this spate of strong solar flares is unusual because it is not following normal patterns of solar behavior. The sun follows an 11-year cycle of activity, and the last peak took place in 2000.

[pyritechips]

CBC Radio One CBC Radio One CBC Radio Two CBC Radio Two CBC Radio MPs consider rules for reproductive technologies

Last Updated Tue, 28 Oct 2003 6:25:34

TORONTO - The House of Commons debated a bill Friday that could make it more complicated for infertile couples to have a baby.

Bill C-13 deals with many topics, including embryonic stem cells research and cloning.
The reproductive rules could have a major impact on some Canadian families. Under the bill, couples wouldn't be able to pay for donated eggs.

Like more than 1,500 Canadian babies born every year, Claire and Angelique Lawrence of Toronto were conceived through invitro fertilization (IVF).

Their births were made possible when Lori Hickling donated her healthy eggs to an infertile couple. In exchange, they paid for her IVF treatments.
The procedure costs $7,000 a shot and about four or five attempts are needed, said Burke Lawrence, the girls' father.

Bill C-13 prohibits:

any kind of buying or selling of eggs, sperm and embryos
sex selection unless it's to prevent a sex-linked disease
paying surrogate mothers for more than lost income or expenses without receipts.
Dr. Art Leader, an infertility specialist in Ottawa, supports the legislation in general. But he doesn't think people will volunteer to donate sperms and eggs and he fears the supply may dry up.

"Within two years, 6,000 to 7,000 couples would be denied donor sperm for fertility treatment, and then there'd be probably another 1,000 couples a year who couldn't benefit from egg donation," Leader said.

Dr. Patricia Baird headed the Royal Commission on Reproductive Technology back in the early 1990s. She says when people talk about paying for donated sperm and eggs, they need to think about the children who are created in the process.

"To know that your biological father or progenitor actually did this for money is a different way of coming in to the world than knowing that someone was sympathetic with people who couldn't have a family," said Baird of the University of British Columbia.

Hickling and Laurence say they're relieved they were able to complete their family before the legislation was introduced. They've kept two embryos frozen in case they want to have more children.



Written by CBC News Online staff

[angelize56]

Jim: What next! A child born of bought eggs would feel blessed to know that their parents wanted them that much and were willing to pay to have a child. And the government doesn't own my eggs! But women can always donate their eggs....then the law wouldn't cover them! Right! Take care. angel

[angelize56]

Lunar eclipse to turn moon red
Latest in string of cosmic shows
Thursday, November 6, 2003 Posted: 10:00 AM EST (1500 GMT)

(AP) -- Stargazers across North and South America, Europe and Africa will watch the full moon dim into a dark, ruddy orb over the weekend as the moon drifts through Earth's shadow in the latest celestial event this year to pull eyes skyward.

Sky watchers scrutinized Mars during its closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years this summer and were awed by red and green aurora displays as far south as Florida thanks to big explosions on the sun in recent weeks.

And now more heavenly happenings are on the way.

Saturday's lunar eclipse will be followed by the Leonid meteor shower, a total solar eclipse over the southern hemisphere -- and a chance for more auroras if the sun stays active. Another eruption Tuesday on the sun ranked among the most intense solar events ever recorded. But the explosion was aimed away from Earth, meaning it would have little impact here.

Still, the otherworldly event the public has the best chance of seeing is Saturday's total eclipse of the moon. At its peak, the moon will hang eerily in the night sky like a dark, reddish-orange coal.

Unlike unpredictable comets and meteors, the moon is a reliable show, said Stephen Maran, a spokesman for the American Astronomical Society.

"Nowadays people who've grown up in the city or suburbs have never seen the Milky Way, but even in the most light-polluted place I've ever been -- downtown Los Angeles -- you can see the moon," he said.

Weather cooperating, people in the eastern United States, South America, Europe and Africa will witness the entire eclipse; it will already be under way when the moon rises around sunset in the western United States, and it will not be visible at all in Asia and Australia.

The eclipse reaches totality at 8:06 p.m. Saturday night, EST. That stage -- when the moon, Earth and sun are lined up precisely and the moon passes through the darkest part of Earth's shadow -- lasts just 24 minutes.

Unlike eclipses of the sun, which can damage viewers' unprotected eyes, lunar eclipses are safe to watch with the naked eye or binoculars.

Total lunar eclipses come in many colors, from dark brown and red to bright orange, yellow and even gray, depending on how much dust and clouds are in the Earth's atmosphere at that time, Maran said.

In ancient times, the phenomenon was believed caused by some unseen monster bloodying the moon, an omen of disaster.

Leonids to peak mid-November

If clouds blot out Saturday's event, disappointed viewers won't have to wait long before the annual Leonid meteor shower arrives.

The shooting star display will peak first for viewers in western Asia, Indonesia and Australia before dawn on November 14th. For western Africa, western Europe, North America and western portions of South America, the display peaks a few days later, on November 19.

Viewers will be able to see 100 or so meteors per hour, some of them fireballs, said Stuart Levy of the Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society in central Illinois.

Levy's views of spectacular Leonid showers during the past few years were ruined by clouds, but he'll be trying again this month.

"I've missed the best, when people were seeing hundreds of meteors an hour. If I see 100 an hour this time around I'll be happy. It might be a really good show, with luck," he said.

November 28 also will bring a total solar eclipse, although seeing it will require a bit of travel. It will be visible only in Antarctica.