Hi Carolyn,
Well, first of all, what a great time we've all had recently in terms of interstellar events. The Pluto flyby photos that you referred to last time were simply amazing all on their own. But, then along comes the news about the discovery of Kepler452b - a planet quickly christened as "earth's older cousin" because of its similar makeup and atmospheric conditions. Here's a condensed version of a summary by the folks at Scientific American, that popped up online very recently:
Kepler-452b may be Earth’s close cousin, but living on the newfound world would still be an alien experience.
A group of pioneers magically transported to the surface of Kepler-452b—which is the closest thing to an “Earth twin” yet discovered, researchers announced yesterday (July 23) — would instantly realize they weren’t on their home planet anymore. (And magic, or some sort of warp drive, must be invoked for such a journey, since Kepler-452b lies 1,400 light-years away.)
Kepler-452 is 60 percent wider than Earth and probably about five times more massive, so its surface gravity is considerably stronger than the pull people are used to here. Any hypothetical explorers would thus feel about twice as heavy on the alien world as they do on Earth, researchers said.
But visitors to the exoplanet would probably be able to meet that challenge, said former astronaut John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. After all, he said, firefighters and backpackers routinely carry heavy loads, mimicking (albeit temporarily) the effect of increased surface gravity.
“If we were there, we’d get stronger,” Grunsfeld said. “Our bones would actually get stronger. It would be like a workout every day.”
The high-gravity environment would probably lead to significant changes in the bodies of Kepler-452b colonists over longer time spans, he and Jenkins said.
“I suspect that, over time, we would adapt to the conditions, and perhaps become stockier over a long period of many generations,” Jenkins said.
Other features of life on Kepler-452b would be more familiar. For example, the exoplanet orbits a solar-type star at about the same distance at which Earth circles the sun.
“It would feel a lot like home, from the standpoint of the sunshine that you would experience,” Jenkins said. Earth plants “would photosynthesize, just perfectly fine,” he added.
Well... the stuff about being shorter, heavier and stronger is, I guess, okay. I find I'm getting shorter here on earth anyhow and I seem to be slowly getting weaker and lighter to boot, so, if I could magically go there, it's a positive trade-off from where I stand.
60% larger seems to be the key point found in most of the earth-Kepler452b comparisons that I read. On a more subjective level, would that 60% differential mean that people who I find hard to tolerate here on earth would be 60% more obnoxious there? Would jokes be 60% more funny, or less funny ? Would decadent foods be 60% more deleterious to my health? Would dull old veggies taste 60% better ? So many questions ??
These and many other temporal possibilities are what I will have to take with me the next time I cut the lawn and have time to consider them in detail.
In fact, would the lawn grow 60% more slowly and I'd have to cut it 60% less of the time ??? Again, so many questions?
The slowly becoming " stockier " people, if we were on this older cousin planet, makes for a nice segue into my most recent singularly focused activity. MLSBH was away from dawn until long after dusk with our only 4 wheeled vehicle and I was kept inside because it was actually too hot to ride the bike ( We are, as I write, having a big time heat wave up here in the near north. Believe me, it takes fairly extreme conditions to keep me off the motorcycle.)
The upshot was that I found myself with a number of hours to utilize indoors. My previous DVD player went rogue awhile ago and I finally replaced it recently with a DVD/VHS combo item that allows me to resurrect all of the stuff I have " on tape " . It also allowed me to finally get back to the Hobbit Trilogy. I had gotten a little into it when I first obtained it but the equipment malfunction stopped that. So, I set out to view it all in one day.
Well, it's an almost eight-hour day to watch the whole story. Longer, perhaps, than reading the book - although as I recall, (and we've discussed herein) it took me half a century to actually do that. Anyhow, a few observations from my recent "Baggins Bender"
Gollum was every bit as scary onscreen as he was in the book. Wow, I was truly, as they say, glued to the screen while he was there. I figure his screen time petrified me just as thoroughly as certain parts of Alien.
Playing a part so convincingly can be a bit of a double edged sword. For example I cannot, without a concerted and constant effort, see anyone but Ferris Bueller whenever I encounter Matthew Broderick. In fact I've seen him interviewed more than once where he's implied that that role pretty well typecast him for many of his fans. 
As soon as Hugo Weaving appeared playing Elrond I'm afraid I was instantly transported back to his Agent Smith persona in The Matrix. I guess it diminished his performance for me, as a resultSmaug was far from what I imagined him to be from reading the novel. I can't quite put my finger on just how he was so different. It may be one of those instances where the motion picture iteration actually surpasses the literary one for me. He was well beyond scary and evil. I think a good part of that may come from the vocal performance of Benedict Cumberbatch - Is there anything that guy can do in a merely mediocre way ??
Finally, I've made no secret in these pages of my pathological dislike of spiders. The spider sequence was so chilling that I was actually contemplating fast forwarding through much of it - they were that convincingly repulsive!
By the time I reached the last few minutes of the third part I can honestly say I was sated and spent. My spouse arrived back home shortly after the show was over and chided me for doing nothing all day. She couldn't understand why I was tired.
Next time I contemplate watching this three movie saga, I do believe I will approach it like Mark Twain approached his cigars :
I have made it a rule never to smoke more than one cigar at a time.
Don
All images sourced from Google Images
Fig. 1 - krwgnews22.com
Fig. 2 - penny4nasa.org
Fig. 3 - www.clipart.com
Fig. 4 - airconoff.com.au
Fig. 5 - www.denverpost.com
Fig. 6 - imdb.com
Fig. 7 - theonering.net
Fig. 8 - giantfreakinrobot.com
Fig. 9 - justkillingti.me
Fig. 10 - nytimes.com
