LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has many new dogs needing homes this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Alaskan husky, American blue heeler, Anatolian shepherd, border collie, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, Labrador Retriever, pit bull terrier, Rottweiler and Weimaraner.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
Those dogs and the others shown on this page at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
The shelter is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday issued a proclamation declaring April 7 to 13, 2024, as “California Library Week.”
The text of the proclamation follows.
PROCLAMATION
During National Library Week, we celebrate the essential services, resources and opportunities that libraries and library workers provide for all Californians. Free and open to all, each of our 1,127 public libraries is a critical community hub for education and lifelong learning, health and wellness, civic engagement and workforce and economic development.
Our state’s public libraries provide hundreds of thousands of programs each year, adapting to the needs of Californians. They offer online tutoring, adult literacy programs, summer reading, test prep, resources for science, technology, engineering, the arts and math (STEAM), early learning for infants and toddlers, meals for children and services for jobseekers. They provide free Wi-Fi and house collaborative work spaces, career centers, quiet spaces for studying and community gardens. Libraries also support community resilience by serving as heating and cooling centers, technology and communication providers and as safe places during emergencies.
California’s library workers play an essential civic role, helping people of all ages and all backgrounds access the resources, programs and services they need and serving as a key source for trusted information. Librarians help us start new chapters at every stage of our lives, from showing us the magic of reading as children to teaching us new skills in our golden years, with expanded digital access offering more opportunities than ever before.
All too often, libraries – and librarians – face censorship and attacks amid rising school and library book challenges, many targeting LGBTQ+ authors and writers of color. It is more important than ever that we recognize the significance of books and materials that reflect the breadth of our rich diversity and defend the essential role of public libraries in protecting intellectual freedom.
In California, we know libraries hold more than books — they are the heart of our communities. During National Library Week, we honor our libraries and library workers and the endless possibilities they offer to enrich the lives of Californians across the state.
NOW THEREFORE I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim April 7-13, 2024, as “California Library Week.”
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 5th day of April 2024.
GAVIN NEWSOM Governor of California
ATTEST: SHIRLEY N. WEBER, Ph.D. Secretary of State
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Unseasonably cold conditions and the potential for more snow have led the National Weather Service to extend a winter weather advisory into early Friday morning.
The advisory, originally set to end on Thursday night, was extended overnight to 5 a.m. Friday.
That followed a day of mild snowfall in areas including Boggs Mountain, Cobb and Whispering Pines, and rain across the rest of the county, with rainfall amounts totaling about half an inch.
The forecast calls for snow above 2,000 feet, with additional snow accumulations of between 1 and 2 inches.
There are chances of snow after 11 a.m. on Friday, mixing with rain after 2 p.m. Conditions also are expected to be partly sunny, with wind gusts of more than 20 miles per hour.
Conditions are forecast to clear beginning on Saturday and continuing through Thursday, with daytime temperatures in the high 40s Saturday and Sunday, rising into the high 50s on Monday, and the 60s on Tuesday and Wednesday. By Thursday, daytime conditions are expected to reach the low 70s.
Temperatures dropped into the 30s on Thursday evening and overnight, and are expected to go lower still, into the high 20s, on Friday night.
On Saturday night, nighttime temperatures are again forecast to be in the 30s before rising into the 40s through mid week.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Most birds that flit through dense, leafy forests have a strategy for maneuvering through tight windows in the vegetation — they bend their wings at the wrist or elbow and barrel through.
But hummingbirds can't bend their wing bones during flight, so how do they transit the gaps between leaves and tangled branches?
A study published today in the Journal of Experimental Biology shows that hummingbirds have evolved their own unique strategies — two of them, in fact. These strategies have not been reported before, likely because hummers maneuver too quickly for the human eye to see.
For slit-like gaps too narrow to accommodate their wingspan, they scooch sideways through the slit, flapping their wings continually so as not to lose height.
For smaller holes — or if the birds are already familiar with what awaits them on the other side — they tuck their wings and coast through, resuming flapping once clear.
“For us, going into the experiments, the tuck and glide would have been the default. How else could they get through?” said Robert Dudley, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and senior author of the paper. “This concept of sideways motion with a total mix-up of the wing kinematics is quite amazing — it's a novel and unexpected method of aperture transit. They're changing the amplitude of the wing beats so that they're not dropping vertically when they do the sideways scooch.”
Using the slower sideways scooch technique may allow birds to better assess upcoming obstacles and voids, thereby reducing the likelihood of collisions.
“Learning more about how animals negotiate obstacles and other 'building-blocks' of the environment, such as wind gusts or turbulent regions, can improve our overall understanding of animal locomotion in complex environments,” noted first author Marc Badger, who obtained his Ph.D from UC Berkeley in 2016. “We still don't know very much about how flight through clutter might be limited by geometric, aerodynamic, sensory, metabolic or structural processes. Even behavioral limitations could arise from longer-term effects, such as wear and tear on the body, as hinted at by the shift in aperture negotiation technique we observed in our study.”
Understanding the strategies that birds use to maneuver through a cluttered environment may eventually help engineers design drones that better navigate complex environments, he noted.
“Current remote control quadrotors can outperform most birds in open space across most metrics of performance. So is there any reason to continue learning from nature?” said Badger. “Yes. I think it's in how animals interact with complex environments. If we put a bird's brain inside a quadrotor, would the cyborg bird or a normal bird be better at flying through a dense forest in the wind? There may be many sensory and physical advantages to flapping wings in turbulent or cluttered environments.”
Obstacle course
To discover how hummingbirds — in this case, four local Anna’s hummingbirds (Calypte anna) — slip through tiny openings, despite being unable to fold their wings, Badger and Dudley teamed up with UC Berkeley students Kathryn McClain, Ashley Smiley and Jessica Ye.
“We set up a two-sided flight arena and wondered how to train birds to fly through a 16-square- centimeter gap in the partition separating the two sides,” Badger said, noting that the hummingbirds have a wingspan of about 12 centimeters (4 3/4 inches). “Then, Kathryn had the amazing idea to use alternating rewards.”
That is, the team placed flower-shaped feeders containing a sip of sugar solution on both sides of the partition, but only remotely refilled the feeders after the bird had visited the opposite feeder. This encouraged the birds to continually flit between the two feeders through the aperture.
The researchers then varied the shape of the aperture, from oval to circular, ranging in height, width and diameter, from 12 cm to 6 cm, and filmed the birds’ maneuvers with high-speed cameras. Badger wrote a computer program to track the position of each bird’s bill and wing tips as it approached and passed through the aperture.
They discovered that as the birds approached the aperture, they often hovered briefly to assess it before traveling through sideways, reaching forward with one wing while sweeping the second wing back, fluttering their wings to support their weight as they passed through the aperture. They then swiveled their wings forward to continue on their way.
“The thing is, they have to still maintain weight support, which is derived from both wings, and then control the horizontal thrust, which is pushing it forward. And they're doing this with the right and left wing doing very peculiar things,” Dudley said. “Once again, this is just one more example of how, when pushed in some experimental situation, we can elicit control features that we don't see in just a standard hovering hummingbird.”
Alternatively, the birds swept their wings back and pinned them to their bodies, shooting through — beak first, like a bullet — before sweeping the wings forward and resuming flapping once safely through.
“They seem to do the faster method, the ballistic buzz-through, when they get more acquainted with the system,” Dudley said.
Only when approaching the smallest apertures, which were half a wingspan wide, would the birds automatically resort to the tuck and glide, even though they were unfamiliar with the setup.
The team pointed out that only about 8% of the birds clipped their wings as they passed through the partition, although one experienced a major collision. Even then, the bird recovered quickly before successfully reattempting the maneuver and going on its way.
“The ability to pick among several obstacle negotiation strategies can allow animals to reliably squeeze through tight gaps and recover from mistakes,” Badger noted.
Dudley hopes to conduct further experiments, perhaps with a sequence of different apertures, to determine how birds navigate multiple obstacles.
The work was funded primarily by a CiBER-IGERT grant from the National Science Foundation (DGE-0903711).
Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.
Gabriel E. Hales, Michigan State University and Keith N. Hampton, Michigan State University
Students in rural America still lack access to high-speed internet at home despite governmental efforts during the pandemic to fill the void. This lack of access negatively affects their academic achievement and overall well-being. The situation has been getting worse as the urgency of the pandemic has receded.
During the pandemic, school districts quickly deployed emergency resources such as Wi-Fi hot spots to facilitate remote learning. In rural Michigan, student home internet connectivity soared to 96% by the end of 2021, a remarkable 16 percentage-point increase from 2019.
We surveyed students in grades 8-11 from 18 rural Michigan schools before and after the pandemic, tracking changes in their digital access, educational outcomes and well-being. We found that one-third of rural students still lack high-speed broadband internet at home.
Why it matters
Our recent report highlights how rural gaps in access to the internet, mainly the lack of broadband home internet access, were not resolved over the pandemic. And these persistent access gaps could affect students’ digital skills, academic performance and well-being.
Rural students lacking adequate home internet face significant educational disadvantages compared with their better-connected peers. These disadvantages include lower classroom grades, lower standardized test scores, lower educational aspirations and lower interest in STEM careers. Our findings link these adverse outcomes, which start with access gaps, to subsequent gaps in digital skills. These digital skills are less likely to develop without reliable broadband connectivity at home.
In early 2020, schools mobilized state and federal relief to provide students with home internet and laptops. Our study demonstrates the success of these initiatives in rural areas, where school-provided Wi-Fi hot spots accounted for nearly all of the 16 percentage-point increase in home internet access during the pandemic’s peak. Importantly, as hot spot funding has ended, many households maintained access by subscribing to local internet service providers.
The success in transitioning students from school-provided Wi-Fi hot spots to paid subscriptions is now at risk. Many low-income households rely on the Affordable Connectivity Program, the nation’s largest internet affordability initiative, created under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021. This program provides a monthly discount of up to US$30 for eligible households and up to $75 for households on Native American tribal lands. The program is set to expire in April 2024.
We found that internet access among rural students had begun to decline in 2022. This trend is likely to accelerate with the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program.
Young people’s time spent online – such as surfing the internet, playing video games and interacting on social media – helps them develop valuable skills. These skills include problem-solving, information literacy and creative expression. These skills apply across both digital and offline environments. Our research shows that digital skills helped rural students maintain their interest in STEM fields and their goals of pursuing college, even as these interests declined during the pandemic.
Additionally, rural adolescents are at a heightened level of risk for social isolation. While adolescent mental health within our study – as measured by self-esteem – returned to pre-pandemic levels, rural students without adequate home internet remain at higher risk.
Maps must be finalized and grants must be made to states before large-scale infrastructure improvements will commence. However, some other early initiatives are now coming online. For example, in 2022, the Quello Center at Michigan State University, in partnership with a regional education network nonprofit, started the Michigan MOON-Light project. Funded with a $10.5 million grant from the Broadband Infrastructure Program, this project increases the bandwidth on Michigan’s education network that is being made available to local service providers. These providers will deliver reliable high-speed internet to 17,000 previously unserved households by the end of 2024.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — Thousands of pounds of trash and recyclables were collected during the city of Lakeport’s Community Cleanup Day, held Saturday, March 30.
More than 14,000 pounds of unwanted materials were collected at Saturday’s event.
Lakeport Disposal reported a solid turnout of city residents and business owners who were appreciative of the opportunity to dispose of unwanted junk and trash at no cost.
The city of Lakeport and the Lakeport Public Works Department expressed appreciation and thanks to all who participated, and offered a special thanks to Lakeport Disposal Inc. and their staff for coordinating a safe and well-organized event and for collecting tons of trash, recyclables and other solid waste materials.
The Lakeport Community Cleanup Day began in 2017 and is a semi-annual event intended to help keep the community clean and beautiful and to promote recycling opportunities.
Participation is limited to city residents. Since the event began, nearly 20,000 pounds of recyclable materials have been diverted from disposal in Lake County’s landfill.
The event is sponsored by the city of Lakeport and Lakeport Disposal Inc., the city’s contracted waste hauler and service provider.
Look for the next city of Lakeport Community Cleanup Day in the fall.
A total solar eclipse takes place on April 8 across North America. These events occur when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the Sun’s face. This plunges observers into a darkness similar to dawn or dusk.
During the upcoming eclipse, the path of totality, where observers experience the darkest part of the Moon’s shadow (the umbra), crosses Mexico, arcing north-east through Texas, the Midwest and briefly entering Canada before ending in Maine.
An international team of scientists, led by Aberystwyth University, will be conducting experiments from near Dallas, at a location in the path of totality. The team consists of PhD students and researchers from Aberystwyth University, Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in Pasadena.
There is valuable science to be done during eclipses that is comparable to or better than what we can achieve via space-based missions. Our experiments may also shed light on a longstanding puzzle about the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere – its corona.
The Sun’s intense light is blocked by the Moon during a total solar eclipse. This means that we can observe the Sun’s faint corona with incredible clarity, from distances very close to the Sun, out to several solar radii. One radius is the distance equivalent to half the Sun’s diameter, about 696,000km (432,000 miles).
Measuring the corona is extremely difficult without an eclipse. It requires a special telescope called a coronagraph that is designed to block out direct light from the Sun. This allows fainter light from the corona to be resolved. The clarity of eclipse measurements surpasses even coronagraphs based in space.
We can also observe the corona on a relatively small budget, compared to, for example, spacecraft missions. A persistent puzzle about the corona is the observation that it is much hotter than the photosphere (the visible surface of the Sun). As we move away from a hot object, the surrounding temperature should decrease, not increase. How the corona is heated to such high temperatures is one question we will investigate.
We have two main scientific instruments. The first of these is Cip (coronal imaging polarimeter). Cip is also the Welsh word for “glance”, or “quick look”. The instrument takes images of the Sun’s corona with a polariser.
The light we want to measure from the corona is highly polarised, which means it is made up of waves that vibrate in a single geometric plane. A polariser is a filter that lets light with a particular polarisation pass through it, while blocking light with other polarisations.
The Cip images will allow us to measure fundamental properties of the corona, such as its density. It will also shed light on phenomena such as the solar wind. This is a stream of sub-atomic particles in the form of plasma – superheated matter – flowing continuously outward from the Sun. Cip could help us identify sources in the Sun’s atmosphere for certain solar wind streams.
Direct measurements of the magnetic field in the Sun’s atmosphere are difficult. But the eclipse data should allow us to study its fine-scale structure and trace the field’s direction. We’ll be able to see how far magnetic structures called large “closed” magnetic loops extend from the Sun. This in turn will give us information about large-scale magnetic conditions in the corona.
The second instrument is Chils (coronal high-resolution line spectrometer). It collects high-resolution spectra, where light is separated into its component colours. Here, we are looking for a particular spectral signature of iron emitted from the corona.
It comprises three spectral lines, where light is emitted or absorbed in a narrow frequency range. These are each generated at a different range of temperatures (in the millions of degrees), so their relative brightness tells us about the coronal temperature in different regions.
Mapping the corona’s temperature informs advanced, computer-based models of its behaviour. These models must include mechanisms for how the coronal plasma is heated to such high temperatures. Such mechanisms might include the conversion of magnetic waves to thermal plasma energy, for example. If we show that some regions are hotter than others, this can be replicated in models.
This year’s eclipse also occurs during a time of heightened solar activity, so we could observe a coronal mass ejection (CME). These are huge clouds of magnetised plasma that are ejected from the Sun’s atmosphere into space. They can affect infrastructure near Earth, causing problems for vital satellites.
Many aspects of CMEs are poorly understood, including their early evolution near the Sun. Spectral information on CMEs will allow us to gain information on their thermodynamics, and their velocity and expansion near the Sun.
Our eclipse instruments have recently been proposed for a space mission called Moon-enabled solar occultation mission (Mesom). The plan is to orbit the Moon to gain more frequent and extended eclipse observations. It is being planned as a UK Space Agency mission involving several countries, but led by University College London, the University of Surrey and Aberystwyth University.
We will also have an advanced commercial 360-degree camera to collect video of the April 8 eclipse and the observing site. The video is valuable for public outreach events, where we highlight the work we do, and helps to generate public interest in our local star, the Sun.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has more new dogs waiting for families this week.
The Clearlake Animal Control website lists 33 adoptable dogs.
This week’s dogs include a 2-month-old male pit bull terrier puppy with a tan and white coat.
There also is “Blanch,” a female pit bull terrier with a tricolor coat.
Another available dog is “Petunia,” a 1-year-old female pit bull terrier mix with a black coat.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire and Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas announced an agreement on $17.3 billion in early actions to significantly reduce the existing shortfall and best position California to responsibly address the budget in June.
The package includes solutions that would enable final budget negotiations to focus on closing the gap and protecting core programs, and agrees to aim for using approximately half of the reserves this year.
It contains a mix of $3.6 billion in reductions (primarily to one-time funding), $5.2 billion in revenue and borrowing, $5.2 billion in delays and deferrals, and $3.4 billion in shifts of costs from the general fund to other state funds.
The package will be included in a budget bill that will be going into print in the coming days, and the package will be vetted by the legislative budget committees early next week. A budget bill could be taken up for votes in the Assembly and Senate as soon as Thursday, April 11.
“I thank our legislative leaders for their partnership in taking this major step to address the shortfall with a balanced approach that meets the needs of Californians and maintains a strong fiscal foundation for the state’s future,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom. “We are able to meet this challenge thanks to our responsible fiscal stewardship over the past years, including record budget reserves of close to $38 billion. There is still work to do as we finalize the budget and I look forward to the work ahead together to continue building the California of the future.”
“We are all committed to delivering an on-time balanced budget and this early action agreement is a critical first step to shrink the state’s shortfall. The Senate will be taking budget votes next week to get this deal across the finish line, and I’m grateful to the governor, speaker, and the entire Senate Budget Committee for their partnership,” said Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D-North Coast). “Next up: The Senate will be developing our final action budget plan, which we’ll release later this Spring. It will be our road map to tackle the remaining budget deficit and adopting an overall state budget.”
“I’m proud of our Assembly Democratic Caucus for their commitment to a transparent, deliberative budget process. It’s the right way to come at closing such a massive shortfall, along with freezing some undisbursed, one-time spending to preserve more options in June,” said Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas. “We expect the Governor to deliver challenging budget proposals next month to reduce the deficit in the long-term, and we’ll consider them carefully. Together, we can deliver real solutions for hardworking Californians.”
The Early Action agreement includes, by category, the following.
Formula Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program — $1 billion. Preschool, TK and Full-Day Kindergarten Facilities Grant Program — $550 million. Behavioral Health Bridge Housing — $235 million. CA Jobs First — $183.3 million. Vulnerable Community Toxic cleanup — $175 million. Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program — $140.4 million. Diablo Canyon Land Conservation and Economic Development — $110 million. Broadband Last Mile — $100 million. Ports and Freight Infrastructure — $100 million. Clean Energy Reliable Investment Plan — $100 million. Oroville Pump Storage — $90 million. Health and Human Services Innovator — $74 million.
Managed Care Organization Tax — $3.8 billion. AIDS Drug Assistance Program Rebate Fund Loan — $500 million (with commitment to enhance the program in the future). Balance is primarily other special fund loans.
Fund Shifts — $3.4 billion; Significant Issues Include:
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund — $1.8 billion. Retirement Contribution Reductions Using Prop 2 — $1.3 billion. Medi-Cal Drug Rebate Special Fund Reserve — $162.7 million. Employment Training Fund for UI Interest Payment — $100 million.
Finally, the agreement includes budget language authorizing the administration to freeze additional one-time funding that was included in the 2021, 2022 or 2023 Budget Acts.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Congressman Mike Thompson visited Lake County on Tuesday, spending time with local businesses and meeting with tribal leaders.
Thompson joined the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee, or LEDAC, to tour Lakeport’s small businesses.
They discussed how they can work together to strengthen the local economy and help create jobs.
Among the businesses Thompson visited were On the Waterfront, Watershed Bookstore, Marcel’s French Bakery and Cafe, Veronica’s Jewelers and Wine in the Willows.
Also on Tuesday, Thompson met with Robinson Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians Tribal Chairman Beniakem Cromwell and tribal leadership to discuss how they can work together to preserve and protect Clear Lake hitch.
They also discussed how to support the tribe’s efforts to protect the community against fires and other natural disasters.
What's up for April? Some easy-to-spot planets, there's still time to observe comet 12P, and how to enjoy this month's solar eclipse if you're not in the path of totality.
For several days in the first half of April, early risers can watch Mars and Saturn rising together in the morning. Taking a look about half an hour before sunrise, you can find them low in the east, about 10 degrees above the horizon. They're at their closest on April 10 and 11, but still really close in the sky the whole second week of April.
Now, on the evening of April 10th you can find the Moon with Jupiter in the west. Jupiter's easy to identify as a bright, unflickering light, low in the west following sunset, all month. Being just a couple of days after its "new moon" phase, the Moon shows only 7% of its illuminated surface on this evening, making for a beautiful crescent shining there with the giant planet Jupiter.
This is also a good night to have a look for comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, which has been getting brighter, and is easily observable with binoculars or a small telescope, especially if you can get away from bright city lights. The comet will be just beneath the Moon, and just right of Jupiter, but you'll have to be quick, as it drops below 10 degrees elevation an hour after sunset and then sets an hour later. So you'll want a clear view toward the horizon, and be looking for it as twilight ends.
If you want to catch this comet, do it soon, because it will be too close to the Sun in the sky to observable after mid-April, and later when it makes its closest approach to Earth, it will be on its way outward from the Sun and growing fainter.
2024 total solar eclipse
There's a total solar eclipse on the way, and it's kind of a big deal. We've been really fortunate to have two total eclipses visible across a wide swath of the U.S. recently, first in 2017, and now on April 8. The next time such an eclipse will cross the States is 21 years from now. If you live in or near the path of totality, or you're traveling there to experience the eclipse, you're in for an incredible experience.
But what if you're not going to be able to experience totality for this eclipse in person? What can you expect, and how can you still enjoy it? Well for starters, NASA has you covered with a live webcast, from multiple locations, as the Moon's shadow moves across the country. So join us for the total eclipse online, whatever your plans.
If you're anywhere in the continental U.S. outside of totality, you'll still experience a partial solar eclipse. The amount of the Sun to be covered by the Moon at maximum eclipse depends on how far you are from the path of totality.
In observing a partial eclipse, you'll still need to use specialized eye protection, such as eclipse glasses, a pinhole projector, or a telescope with a solar filter. One of the easiest methods is something most of us have in our kitchen – a regular colander. These make excellent pinhole cameras that project the eclipse onto the ground.
And barring that, the sun dapples that filter through the tree leaves do something very similar. It's also fun to note the eerie way the sunlight dims during the eclipse, especially in places where the Moon covers 80% or more of the Sun's disk.
NASA has a bunch of eclipse resources to help you get ready for this awe-inspiring celestial event. There's info on safe-viewing, citizen science opportunities, and you'll even find our "eclipse explorer," where you can find eclipse details for your specific zip code.
From wherever you're observing, solar eclipses are remarkable events. So observe safely, and join our live webcast, because it's an event you surely don't want to miss.
Preston Dyches works for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Aerobic exercise like jogging, biking, swimming or hiking is a fundamental way to maintain cardiovascular and overall health. The intensity of aerobic exercise is important to determine how much time you should spend training in order to reap its benefits.
There is a linear relationship between heart rate and exercise intensity, meaning as the exercise intensity increases, so does heart rate. Heart rate zone training, which uses heart rate as a measure of exercise intensity, has increased in popularity in recent years, partially due to the ubiquity of wearable heart rate technology.
The way exercise intensity is usually described is problematic because one person’s “vigorous” may be another’s “moderate.” Heart rate zone training tries to provide an objective measure of intensity by breaking it down into various zones. But heart rate can also be influenced by temperature, medications and stress levels, which may affect readings during exercise.
Heart rate and exercise intensity
The gold standard for determining aerobic exercise intensity is to measure the amount of oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide exhaled. However, this method is cumbersome because it requires people to wear a breathing mask to capture respiratory gases.
An easier way is to predict the person’s maximum heart rate. This can be done with an equation that subtracts the person’s age from 220. Although there is controversy surrounding the best way to calculate maximum heart rate, researchers suggest this method is still valid.
The American College of Sports Medicine outlines five heart rate zones based on a person’s predicted heart rate maximum. Zone 1, or very light intensity, equals less than 57% of maximum heart rate; zone 2, or light intensity, is 57% to 63%; zone 3, or moderate intensity, is 64% to 76%; zone 4, or vigorous intensity, is 77% to 95%; and zone 5, or near-maximal intensity, is 96% to 100%.
However, other organizations have their own measures of exercise intensity, with varying ranges and descriptions. For example, Orange Theory describes their zone 2 training as 61% to 70% of maximum heart rate. Complicating matters even further, companies that produce heart rate monitors also have higher thresholds for each zone. For example, Polar’s zone 2 is up to 70% of maximum heart rate, while the American College of Sports Medicine recommends a zone 2 of up to 63%.
Zone 2 has received a lot of attention from the fitness community because of its possible benefits. Performance coaches describe zone 2 as “light cardio,” where the intensity is low and the body relies mainly on fat to meet energy demands. Fats provide more energy compared to carbohydrates, but deliver it to cells more slowly.
Because fat is more abundant than carbohydrates in the body, the body responds to the cellular stress that exercise causes in muscle cells by increasing the number of mitochondria, or the energy-producing component of cells. By increasing the number of mitochondria, the body may become better at burning fat.
On the other end of the spectrum of exercise intensity is high-intensity interval training, or HIIT. These workouts involve exercising at a high intensity for short durations, like an all-out sprint or cycle for 30 seconds to a minute, followed by a period of low intensity activity. This is repeated six to 10 times.
During this sort of high-intensity activity, the body primarily uses carbohydrates as a fuel source. During high-intensity exercise, the body preferentially uses carbohydrates because the energy demand is high and carbohydrates provide energy twice as fast as fats.
Some people who turn to exercise to lose fat may eschew high-intensity training for zone 2, as it’s considered the “the fat burning zone.” This may be a misnomer.
Researchers have found that high-intensity interval training produces a similar increase in markers for mitochondria production when compared to longer, moderate aerobic training. Studies have also shown that high-intensity exercisers build muscle and improve insulin resistance and cardiovascular health similar to moderate-intensity exercisers, and they made these gains faster. The main trade-off was discomfort during bouts of high-intensity exercise.
Moderate- or high-intensity exercise?
With varying guidelines around heart rate zones and conflicting evidence on the potential benefits of training in each zone, exercisers may be left wondering what to do.
In order to yield the health benefits of exercise, the most important variable to consider is adhering to an exercise routine, regardless of intensity. Because the body adapts in similar ways to moderate- and high-intensity exercise, people can choose which intensity they like best or dislike the least.
Notice that the American College of Sports Medicine’s recommendation for exercise falls under moderate intensity. This is equivalent to zone 3, or 64% to 76% of maximum heart rate, a range you can only meet in the upper levels of most zone 2 workouts. If you’re not seeing desired results with your zone 2 workouts, try increasing your intensity to reach the moderate level.
A commonly reported reason for not exercising is a lack of time. For people short on time, high-intensity training is a good alternative to steady-state cardiovascular exercise. For people who find exercising at such a high intensity uncomfortable, they can get the same benefit by doing moderate-intensity exercise for a longer period.