What Is a Blue Moon

Once in a blue moon. Everyone has heard or seen that expression but might not know what it means. Its actually a fairly common saying, but really doesnt reference a blue-colored  Moon (our closest neighbor in space). Anyone who steps outside to see the Moon can tell pretty quickly that the Moons surface is actually a dull grey. In the sunlight, it appears a bright yellow-white color, but it never turns blue.  So, whats the big deal with the term blue moon? It turns out to be more of a figure of speech than anything else. Near-full moon on November 14, 2016. The full moon gives a wide variety of features to explore with any size telescope or binoculars. Tom Ruen, Wikimedia Commons.   Decoding a Figure of Speech The term blue moon has an intersting history. Today, it has come to mean not very often or something very rare. The figure of speech itself may have begun with a little-known poem written in 1528, Read me and be not wrothe, For I say no things but truth: If they say the moon is blue,We must believe that it is true. The poet was trying to convey the diea that calling the Moon blue was an obvious absurdity, like saying it was made of green cheese or that it has little green men living on its surface.  The phrase, â€Å"until a blue moon† developed in the 19th century, meaning never, or at least extremely unlikely.   Another Way to Look at the Idea of Blue Moon Blue Moon is more familiar these days as a nickname for an actual astronomical phenomenon. That particular usage first started in 1932 with the Maine Farmer’s Almanac. Its definition included a season with four full Moons rather than the usual three, where the third of four full Moons would be called a Blue Moon. Since  seasons are established by the equinoxes and solstices  and not calendar months, it  is  possible for a year to  have twelve full Moons, one each month, yet have one season with four.   A setting full moon provides a backdrop for the Very Large Telescope complex in Paranal, Chile. This is one of several high-altitude observatories in South America alone. ESO   That definition mutated into the one most quoted today when, in 1946, an astronomy article by amateur astronomer James Hugh Pruett misinterpreted the Maine rule to mean two full Moons in one month. This definition now seems to have stuck, despite its error, possibly thanks to being picked up by the Trivial Pursuit game. Whether we use the newer definition  or the one from the Maine Farmer’s Almanac, a blue Moon, while not common, does happen pretty regularly. Observers can expect to see one about seven times in a 19-year period. Much less common is a double blue Moon (two in one year). That only happens once in the same 19-year period.The last set of double blue Moons happened in 1999. The next ones will happen in 2018. Can the Moon Appear to Turn Blue? Normally in the course of a month, the Moon doesnt turn blue itself. But, it can look blue from our vantage point on Earth due to atmospheric effects.   In 1883, an Indonesian volcano named Krakatoa exploded. Scientists likened the blast to a 100-megaton nuclear bomb. From 600 km away, people heard the noise as loud as a cannon shot. Plumes of ash rose to the very top of Earths atmosphere and the collection of that ash made the Moon look a bluish color. Some of the ash-clouds were filled with particles about 1 micron (one millionth of a meter) wide, which is the right size to scatter red light, while allowing other colors to pass. White moonlight shining through the clouds emerged blue, and sometimes almost green. Blue moons persisted for years after the eruption. People also saw lavender suns and, for the first time, noctilucent clouds.  Other less-potent volcanic eruptions have caused the Moon to look blue, too. People saw blue moons in 1983, for instance, after the eruption of the El Chichà ³n volcano in Mexico. There were also reports of blue moons caused by Mt. St. Helens in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in 1991. Its fairly easy to see a Blue Moon that isnt a colorful metaphor. In astronomical terms, its almost guaranteed observers will see one if they know when to look. Searching out a moon that acually appears blue, well, thats something that is possibly more rare than the fourth full moon in a season. It takes a volcanic eruption or a forest fire to affect the atmosphere enough to make the Moon appear colorful through all the haze. Key Takeaways A Blue Moon is NOT a moon thats blue.The best description of the term Blue Moon is that its a figure of speech now used to refer to an extra full moon in any season (or in the same month).While the Moon itself doesnt ever turn blue, it can appear blue if there is a lot of ash in Earths atmosphere due to a volcanic eruption or other atmospheric effects. Sources â€Å"How Rare Is a Blue Moon?†Ã‚  Timeanddate.com, www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/blue-moon.html.NASA, NASA, science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/07jul_bluemoon.VolcanoCafe, www.volcanocafe.org/once-in-a-blue-moon/. Edited by Carolyn Collins Petersen.

Word Order in English Sentences

Word order  refers to the conventional arrangement of words in a phrase, clause, or sentence. Compared with many other languages, word order in English is fairly rigid. In particular, the order of subject, verb, and object is relatively inflexible. Examples and Observations I cant see the point of Mozart. Of Mozart I cant see the point. The point of Mozart I cant see. See I cant of Mozart the point. Cant I of Mozart point the see . . . I cant see the point of Mozart.  (Sebastian Faulks, Engleby. Doubleday, 2007)[A] characteristic of modern English, as of other modern languages, is the use of word-order as a means of grammatical expression. If in an English sentence, such as The wolf ate the lamb, we transpose the positions of the nouns, we entirely change the meaning of the sentence; the subject and object are not denoted by any terminations to the words, as they would be in Greek or Latin or in modern German, but by their position before or after the verb.(Logan Pearsall Smith, The English Language, 1912) Basic Word Order in Modern English Assume you wanted to say that a chicken crossed the road in Modern English. And assume you are interested only in stating the facts--no questions asked, no commands, and no passive. You wouldnt have much of a choice, would you? The most natural way of stating the message would be as in (18a), with the subject (in caps) preceding the verb (in boldface) which, in turn, precedes the object (in italics). For some speakers (18b) would be acceptable, too, but clearly more marked, with particular emphasis on the road. Many other speakers would prefer to express such an emphasis by saying something like Its the road that the chicken crossed, or they would use a passive The road was crossed by the chicken. Other permutations of (18a) would be entirely unacceptable, such as (18c)-(18f). (18a) THE CHICKEN crossed the road[Basic, unmarked order](18b) the road THE CHICKEN crossed[Marked order; the road is in relief](18c) THE CHICKEN the road crossed*(18d) the road crossed THE CHICKEN*[But note constructions like: Out of the cave came A TIGER.](18e) crossed the road THE CHICKEN*(18f) crossed THE CHICKEN the road* In this respect, Modern English differs markedly from the majority of the early Indo-European languages, as well as from Old English, especially the very archaic stage of Old English found in the famous epic Beowulf. In these languages, any of the six different orders in (18) would be acceptable . . ..(Hans Henrich Hock and Brian D. Joseph, Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship: An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics. Mouton de Gruyter, 1996) Word Order in Old English, Middle English, and Modern English Certainly, word order is critical in Modern English. Recall the famous example: The dog bit the man. This utterance means something totally different from The man bit the dog. In Old English, word endings conveyed which creature is doing the biting and which is being bitten, so there was built-in flexibility for word order. Inflection telling us dog-subject bites man-object allows words to be switched around without confusion: man-object bites dog-subject. Alerted that the man is the object of the verb, we can hold him in mind as the recipient of a bite made by a subject we know will be revealed next: dog.By the time English evolved into Middle English, loss of inflection meant that nouns no longer contained much grammatical information. On its own, the word man could be a subject or an object, or even an indirect object (as in The dog fetched the man a bone). To compensate for this loss of information that inflection has provided, word order became critically important. If the man a ppears after the verb bite, we know hes not the one doing the biting: The dog bit the man. Indeed, having lost so much inflection, Modern English relies heavily on word order to convey grammatical information. And it doesnt much like having its conventional word order upset.  (Leslie Dunton-Downer, The English Is Coming!: How One Language Is Sweeping the World. Simon Schuster, 2010) Adverbials One way to find out whether a sentence part is a subject or not is to make the sentence into a  question. The subject will appear after the first verb: He told me to add one tablespoon of honey per pound of fruit.Did he tell me . . .?We spread a thin layer of fruit on each plate.Did we spread . . .? The only constituent that may occur in many different places is an adverbial. Especially one-word adverbials like not, always, and often may occur almost anywhere in the sentence. In order to see if a sentence part is an adverbial or not, see if it is possible to move it in the sentence.(Marjolijn Verspoor and Kim Sauter, English Sentence Analysis: An Introductory Course. John Benjamins, 2000) The Lighter Side of Word Order in Monty Pythons Flying Circus Burrows: Good doctor morning! Nice year for the time of day!Dr. Thripshaw: Come in.Burrows: Can I down sit?​Dr. Thripshaw: Certainly. Well, then?Burrows: Well, now, not going to bush the doctor about the beat too long. Im going to come to point the straight immediately.Dr. Thripshaw: Good, good.Burrows: My particular prob, or buglem bear, Ive had ages. For years, Ive had it for donkeys.Dr. Thripshaw: What?Burrows: Im up to here with it, Im sick to death. I cant take you any longer so Ive come to see it.Dr. Thripshaw: Ah, now this is your problem with words.​Burrows: This is my problem with words. Oh, that seems to have cleared it. Oh I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee. Yes, that seems to be all right. Thank you very much.​Dr. Thripshaw: I see. But recently you have been having this problem with your word order.Burrows: Well, absolutely, and what makes it worse, sometimes at the end of a sentence Ill come out with the wrong fusebox.Dr. Thripshaw: Fusebox ?Burrows: And the thing about saying the wrong word is a) I dont notice it, and b) sometimes orange water given bucket of plaster.br/>(Michael Palin and John Cleese in episode 36 of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, 1972)

To Obey or Disobey Free Essays

Obedience is an age old expectation that rulers, priests, and government officials have required for years from their subjects. Most of the time individuals follow their leaders without question. This is the case because the population from which obedience is required believes that they continue to have a choice. We will write a custom essay sample on To Obey or Disobey or any similar topic only for you Order Now When, for whatever reason this belief is lost, some individuals will begin to exhibit an increasing disobedience to the requirement. This often increases to the point of violence or, the case of a country, war. While there are all types of disobedience, this paper will discuss civil disobedience and the social pressure often associated with it. A good example of this type of cycle can be found in the historical background of the United States. When the United States was first populated by Europeans it was a colony of Great Britain. Over the course of several decades, the British king imposed a series of taxes on the colonists. Most colonists felt that they were being taxed without any representation. Over the course of approximately 15 years the protests against the taxes became increasing violent until the Continental Congress was formed in 1775 (History Central). With Thomas Jefferson serving as the writer, the Declaration of Independence was drafted by the Congress and sent to the King of England. In it, Jefferson wrote, Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security (Ushistory) The Revolutionary War was fought and freedom from British rule was won. Today the population of the United States is expected to pay taxes. The difference is that people believe the choice is theirs because of our representative form of government. In the mid 1800s, Henry David Thoreau introduced a new concept that has greatly influenced individuals and groups desiring change since then. Thoreau spent several years living in a simple cabin near Walden Pond in Massachusetts. During this time the United States still allowed slavery. Thoreau was opposed to this. He refused to pay taxes as a form of protest. His explanation evolved into an essay entitled â€Å"Civil Disobedience†. Basically Thoreau felt that an individual should not support by any means a government that was engaging in acts of which the individual did not agree. He felt that the individual should be willing to suffer the consequences of his disobedient act, however he/she should never take a violent stand in defense of his/her belief (Williams). Today â€Å"Civil Disobedience† is considered to be the basis of several modern nonviolent resistance movements. â€Å"It is known to have been an inspiration to Mohandas Gandhi, who led the passive resistance movement for the liberation of India from British colonial rule. Thoreau’s ideas also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. s Civil Rights movement and the American struggle to end the Vietnam War† (Williams). During the fight for equal rights for Black Americans that took place in the 1950s and 60s, Martin Luther King Jr. relied on the principle of civil disobedience written a century earlier by Thoreau. While incarcerated in the Birmingham, in a letter known as the â€Å"Letter from the Birmingham Jail†, King wrote, â€Å"Over the past few years I have consistently p reached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends† (King). Others followed Dr. King’s example of non-violent protest. One evening in December, 1955, on her way home from her job in downtown Montgomery Alabama, a woman, Rosa Parks, was asked to give up her seat to a white passenger on the bus she was riding. She refused. She was arrested and fined. This simple action inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott. By June of 1956, the court declared Alabama’s racial segregation laws for public transit unconstitutional. The city appealed and on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling. . . The city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses† ( Bio. True Story). Groups of individuals, when convinced that it is no longer acceptable to conform to the expectation of the ruler can make historical changes in the world in which they live. What causes one individual to become disobedient and another to remain obedient to the group rules? Most people want to believe that they think for themselves; however, when an individual is part of a social group that person will began to assume the group’s ideas and rules. Individuals may then find themselves engaged in a struggle in which they do not believe because of the social pressure to fit into a group. Additionally they may fear being an outcast. This is especially true if friends or family belong to the same group. Doris Lessing wrote â€Å"When we’re in a group, we tend to think as that group does: we may even have joined the group to find â€Å"like-minded† people. But we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group. It is the hardest thing in the world to maintain an individual dissident opinion, as a member of a group†. (724) Universities over time have done a lot of research trying to understand why people obey and disobey. Most people believe they are good and trustworthy. These individuals feel no matter what occurs they will always try to do the right thing in their day to day life. In The Perils of Obedience, Milgram tells of a woman â€Å"that the last shock she administered to the learner was extremely painful and reiterates that she did not want to be responsible for any harm to him†. 695). Despite her desires she still administered the shock, thus being obedient to the person in charge and not to what she believed. Individuals who still believe in the concept called into question by the disobedient group, often feel intense pressure to maintain loyalty to the old ruling entity. In Doris Lessing’s article, Group Minds, she states â€Å"But the majority will continue to insist-speaking metaphorically-that black is white, and after a period of exasperation, irritation, even anger, certainly incomprehension, the minority will fall into line†. Pressure to conform can manifest itself in another way as well.. Individuals may feel compelled to follow the ideas and rules of someone else and follow that group of people no matter what path it my lead them down or where those ideas and rules may take them. Social pressure comes from everywhere; family, church, friends, jobs, co-workers, and etc.. During the height of the segregation movement in many of the minds of the south there are only two sides in this fight; for segregation or against segregation no fence riding. This concept is also apparent during times of conflict. For examples, during the Revolutionary War many colonists remained loyal to Great Britain. British sympathizers were called Tories. They often â€Å"agreed with the patriots about â€Å"no taxation without representation. † But they wanted to solve the dispute in such a way as to remain in the British Empire† (US Anabaptists). Following what you believe to be right will have consequences. For example, those wanting freedom from England formed a new country and enjoyed many rights and freedoms. All those remaining loyal to the king were considered traitors. â€Å"Most of the new states passed laws taking away the loyalists’ property. Patriot mobs attacked prominent Tories. Those found helping the British were imprisoned† (US Anabaptists).. Most people want to believe that they think for themselves; however, when an individual is part of a social group that person will began to assume the group’s ideas and rules. Individuals may then find themselves engaged in a struggle in which they do not believe because of the social pressure to fit into a group. Additionally they may fear being an outcast. This is especially true if friends or family belong to the same group. Doris Lessing wrote â€Å"When we’re in a group, we tend to think as that group does: we may even have joined the group to find â€Å"like-minded† people. But we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group. It is the hardest thing in the world to maintain an individual dissident opinion, as a member of a group†. (724) In conclusion, it appears that a person is either obedient or disobedient based on the group to which he/she belongs. Inclusion in a particular group may be based on family culture as in the case of those loyal to the King in the Revolutionary War or those engaged in keeping in tact the segregated nature of the South before 1965. Other groups include religious groups, political groups, and special interest groups. While as a people we may like to believe that we think for ourselves, the facts point in a different direction. It would take a brave person indeed to stand on principles in the face of objections from the group to which he is most closely associated. Work Citied http://www.historycentral.com/revolt/causes.html http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html http://www.anabaptists.org/history/rev-war.html How to cite To Obey or Disobey, Essay examples