What Caught My Eye Today - Milky Way, Admiration, Congress

Happy 2013, everyone! Let's start this year's musings with some light-hearted fare. I'm sure things will turn south soon enough.  You'll need to get your geek on for this first item.

Milky Way - A new study suggests that the Milky Way galaxy is home to at least 100 billion alien planets. Have you noticed that more often than not, we refer to planets as "alien planets"? I wonder if all those alien planets refer to Earth as that one "human planet"? The findings are based on the study of a five-planet system called Kepler-32, which lies about 915 light-years from Earth. The five worlds were detected by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, which flags the tiny brightness dips caused when exoplanets cross their star's face from the instrument's perspective. The Kepler-32 planets orbit an M dwarf, a type of star that is smaller and cooler than our sun. Are you with me so far? We're not done just yet.  The five Kepler-32 worlds are similar in size to Earth and orbit quite close to their parent star, making them typical of the planets Kepler has spotted around other M dwarfs. So the Kepler-32 system should be representative of many of the galaxy's planets. Kepler-32 worlds have diameters ranging from 0.8 to 2.7 times that of Earth, and all of them orbit within 10 million miles of their star. By comparison, Earth circles the sun at an average distance of 93 million miles. For our astrologically challenged readers, what this basically means is that the planets these guys studied are pretty similar to the Earth, which makes the comparison a bit more newsworthy.   M dwarfs are the most common star in the Milky Way, accounting for about 75 percent of the galaxy's 100 billion or so stars.  Researchers calculated the odds that an M-dwarf system in the Milky Way would have this orientation, then combined that with the number of such systems Kepler is able to detect to come up with their estimate of 100 billion planets. The galaxy may actually harbor many more planets than the conservative estimate implies, perhaps 200 billion, or about two per star. These researchers probably kill more brain cells over their morning coffee, than I have in my entire brain, so why is it that the best they can do is a guess that could be off by as much as 100% or more?  If it was me, I'd stick with 100 billion and wait for someone to prove me wrong. Seriously, how many naysayers will have access to the Kepler Space Telescope?

Admiration - Gallup has run its most-admired man and woman survey since World War II, and in the 2012 edition. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and U.S. President Barack Obama kept their top positions among those asked a simple question: “What man that you have heard or read about, living today in any part of the world, do you admire most?" Don't get me wrong, I admire the heck out of Clinton and Obama. I just find it hard to believe that a nation as politically divided as the United States can't find anyone else to admire than the woman and man that makes most conservatives cringe at the very mention of their names. Clinton was named as most-admired woman for the 17th time since she became a national figure in 1992. In the current rankings, Clinton had 21%, followed by First Lady Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Condoleeza Rice. Eleanor Roosevelt held the previous record when she was named 13 times as the most-admired woman. The only two women to finish ahead of Clinton in that 20-year period were Mother Teresa (twice) and Laura Bush (once). Obama was named most-admired man for the fifth time. Obama had 30% of the polling for men, followed by Nelson Mandela, Mitt Romney, the Reverend Billy Graham, George W. Bush, and Pope Benedict XVI. President Dwight Eisenhower was named 12 times in the survey as most admired. No offense to Hilary and Barack, but as admired as they might be right now, they have a long way to go in order to contend with the big guns. The Reverend Billy Graham has appeared in the top 10 list 56 times. Queen Elizabeth II has been in the top 10 list 46 times.

Congress - In a recent survey, Public Policy Polling found that Congress; approval rating is mired at 9%.  If you ask me, that actually seems a bit high. 85% of respondents said they disapproved. I don't buy it. There is no way these guys found people who actually think Congress is doing a good job?  The survey pitted Congress against a series of unpleasant things or unpopular people, and the results were not flattering for lawmakers. First, the good news. Congress is more popular than telemarketers (45 to 35%), the deadly ebola virus (53% to 25%), gonorrhea (53% to 28%), the Kardashians (49% to 36%), Lindsay Lohan (45% to 41%), communism (57% to 23%), disgraced Democratic former Senator John Edwards (45% to 29%) and North Korea (61% to 26%). Good news is a relative term. I think that comparing Congress to the ebola virus speaks volumes in and of itself. And now, the bad news. Here are some things Americans have a higher opinion of than Congress: head lice (67% to 19%), colonoscopies (58% to 31%), cockroaches (45% to 43%), Nickelback (39% to 32%), NFL replacement refs (56% to 29%), and root canals (56% to 32%).  Speaking from personal experience, colonoscopies are getting a bum wrap here getting compared to Congress. That crap they make you drink the day before clears you out far more effectively then any of the health spa de-tox programs and costs a lot less too. The procedure itself isn't too bad either. It's the part after you wake that kind of sucks, the feeling that you have been violated in some unspeakable way. And how about a shout out to Nickelback? It has be to somewhat comforting to the band that there is a group out there more hated than they are.  That should take away some of the sting of being the most hated band that has sold more than 50 million albums.