BREAKING NEWS: San Diego Astronomers Help Discover Earth-Like Planets That Could Sustain LIfe

A team of astronomers, including two from San Diego State University, today announced the remarkable discovery of a five-planet system some 1,200 light years away with two super-Earth-sized planets that could support life as we know it.

The two planets, which both have what astronomers call "endless oceans," are the most Earth-like that researchers have found to date in terms of both size and temperature, according to William Welsh, professor of astronomy at SDSU and co-author of the study published today in Science. 

"These planets are unlike anything in our solar system. They have endless oceans," Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement today. "There may be life there, but could it be technology-based like ours?"

In an era when scientific research too often gets thrown under the bus both by politicians and the media, this is exciting news that deserves our attention. I hope it's talked about in science classes across the nation tomorrow. Funding for this work was provided in part by NASA and the National Science Foundation.

The planets are located in the so-called "habitable zone," a region around a star where liquid water could theoretically exist on a planet’s surface. Since water is a requirement for life as we know it, planets in the habitable zone are particularly interesting to astronomers. 

 “The composition of the planets is not known, but it is possible they are rocky. If so, and if liquid water is present, there’s a chance these planets could harbor life,” said Welsh. “At only 60 percent and 40 percent larger than the Earth, these two super-Earth planets are the smallest planets yet discovered in the habitable zone.”

"These two planets are our best candidates for planets that might be habitable," said Bill Borucki, a space scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center who is the principal investigator for the $600 million Kepler mission.

It's estimated that he new planetary system, which is located in the constellation Lyra, is approximately 7 billion years. That's somewhat older than the solar system.

The planetary system, known as Kepler-62 (right), contains five planets, ranging from 0.54 to 1.95 times the size of the Earth. The innermost planet orbits its star every 5.7 days, while the outer one takes 267 days to complete one orbit.

The star itself is smaller and fainter than Earth’s sun with 69 percent of the sun’s mass, 64 percent of the sun’s radius, and only 21 percent of the sun’s brightness.

“Since Kepler-62’s star is only a fifth as luminous as our sun, the planets in its habitable zone have to orbit much closer to it, resulting in a much shorter year," said co-author Jerome Orosz, associate professor at SDSU. "For the two planets in the habitable zone, Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, this is 122 and 267 days."

Welsh and Orosz have been working on the Kepler mission since 2008, contributing their expertise to the discovery of dozens of new planets. “The Kepler mission continues to be a great success,” said Orosz.

Added Welsh, "All five planets are smaller than twice the size of the Earth, and one is even the size of Mars,.This is an absolute gem of a planetary system."

2013 NBA Playoff Bracket Download

The NBA Playoffs start on Saturday, April 20th (two days after the end of the regular season), thus you don’t have a lot of time to complete your 2013 NBA Playoff bracket. All the first games of the eight first round match-ups will take place on either April 20 or 21st.

The NBA playoff structure is a bit unique in that there are no first round byes, all sixteen teams (eight from each conference) compete in the first round of the playoffs. The format of the NBA playoffs consists of each team needing to win four out of seven games in order to advance to the next round. In the first three rounds of the playoff the series follow this home and away format: HHAAHAH.  The Finals follow the format: HHAAAHH.

Miami has clinched the number one seed in the East while Oklahoma City wrapped up the West. My Cleveland Cavaliers will be watching from home again. Who do you think will win the title? Miami has looked nearly unstoppable this season and I think it will be a major shock and upset if they do not win it all. What about you?

2013 NBA Playoff Bracket.xls download

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

Unique Excel Uses: Video Game

We’ve seen some very unique Excel uses in the past but this just might be the best (or most fun) application: Excel as a video game! Cary Walkin, a Canadian accountant, has transformed a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet into a playable video game. Arena.xlsm is a turn-based fantasy role playing game where the goal is to collect loot to become more powerful all the while warding off increasingly difficult  monsters. In fact, there are currently over 2000 possible enemies with different AI abilities. Sounds complex! Remarkably, it only took Cary four months to completely program this game.

Cary has received a lot or press and attention since creating his Excel game. Recently, he was featured on one of Reddit’s “I Am A” features. A few quotes from Cary:

“I'm an accountant by profession, I use excel every day of my life. I simply worked with what I knew. Also there is an old adage that underneath every RPG is a massive spreadsheet, so now the massive spreadsheet IS the RPG!”

“...a number of calculations are dependent on the background colour of a cell (such as if you are standing on fire).”

“Never stop learning.”

Read the entire interview feature here. Additionally, to see an example of how one would even begin to go about coding this massive gaming macros see Cary’s great VBA tutorial here.

Visit Cary’s site and download Arena XLSM today and try it out for yourself! But be warned, your productivity may decrease greatly after playing a few levels.  Please note you must have macros enabled in order to play the game. Arena.Xlsm will only work in Excel 2007, 2010 and 2013. It will not work in other spreadsheet programs either. Have fun!

-Nick

Of course I’m not playing this at work ;)

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

Arnie and Freddie: Fooling with Father Time at the Masters

Still the King: Arnold Palmer today

This afternoon, as I happily watched 53-year-old Fred Couples mess with Father Time during his improbable run to the top of the leader board at the 2013 Masters Golf Tournament, I was reminded of that poignant Sunday nine years ago this weekend when the legendary Arnold Palmer played his final round at Augusta National.

Watching Arnie walk the 18th fairway at Augusta, his favorite golf course, that day back in 2004, I suddenly realized why this man is arguably the nation’s most beloved athlete so far past his own athletic prime: Arnie is the definitive American father figure.

Larger than life, but with a blue-collar ethic that has always made him a favorite of the man on the street, Palmer, who is both icon and everyman, possesses the attributes every kid wishes for in a father. Charismatic, eternally youthful, and still competitive at age 83, Palmer has the rare gift of true kindness. He’s remained humble and approachable even though he’s attained great wealth and living-legend status. To his credit and my amazement, Arnie has never adopted a hint of the elitism sometimes associated with his sport and with great fame.

Amid the familiar roar of his adoring seven-deep “army” of fans, Arnie's final official round at Augusta nearly a decade ago was one of those transcendent sports moments that combine history and pathos. Broadcast live on the USA Network by the CBS broadcasting crew, which to its credit knew enough to say little, and shown later that evening on every sportscast in the country, Palmer's last Masters, which rightly eclipsed any news of the actual tourny contenders that day and even to some degree Phil Mickelson's eventual epic victory that year, must have generated a variety of emotions in viewers of all ages.

Freddie Couples

Just like Couples' run today, Arnie's final round back in 2004 wasn’t just about golf. It was about the bittersweet and inevitable passage of time. And for me, it was also about fatherhood. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in associating Arnie's final Masters with my own life, and my own father. It was both compelling and painful to watch Arnie accept his fate and take his characteristically classy final bow at the tournament he’s loved so much and to which he’s given so much the past 50 years.

I felt a surge of emotion as he tapped in his final putt that afternoon, not only because he represents a decency and civility that is fast approaching extinction in our popular culture, but because Palmer was my father’s hero, and my father was mine. 

As Arnie slowly walked off the 18th green, I hoped the moment wouldn’t end, just as you wish your father could live forever. “It’s not fun to know that it’s over,” Palmer said in an emotional interview with CBS just after his final round. “But it’s been a great week, and I’m happy. The fans have been, well, goodness, they have been so supportive.” After a pause, he added tearfully but with a resolved smile, “This is difficult for me. I’m a sentimental slob.”

MADE FOR TELEVISION

Arnold Palmer was one of the first true stars of televised sports. With his perpetual tan, windswept charm, likability, and remarkable shot-making prowess, he popularized golf the way no other athlete ever popularized a sport, before or since. 

Now known simply as The King, Arnie, who was dubbed by GQ one of the "25 Coolest Athletes of All Time," won the Masters four times, the British Open twice, the U.S. Open once, and 92 championships in all. But his on-course record only begins to describe what he’s done for golf.

The most popular player in the game’s history, Palmer was as important a figure in 20th century sports as Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Mickey Mantle or Johnny Unitas. But he’s never acted like an icon. Somehow, amid the idolatry these last six decades, he’s maintained a good nature. He still never passes an autograph seeker without signing the autograph and engaging in a conversation and making actual eye contact with his fans.

“He was a legend who walked among us,” Gary Player, another golf legend, once said of Palmer. "He gave of himself. If you give to the fans, they give back. A lot of athletes are aloof. But Arnold was always aware of the man in the street."

Defying age if only for fleeting moments, Palmer exhibited a little of the old magic in his final round at the Masters in 2004. On the infamous par three 12th hole, he knocked his tee shot within seven feet of the pin. The gallery loved it, I loved it, and Arnie, as fierce a competitor as there ever was in any sport, undoubtedly got as much enjoyment out of it, if not more, than from any of the many ovations he received.

Palmer has never lost that will to win. Even now, Arnie, who in 2012 was named an "honorary starter" at Augusta along with his close friends and rivals Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, still feels in his eternally youthful heart that he can win a tournament, any tournament. Each time he steps up to the tee box he still thinks he can hit a better shot than you. But he knows his body no longer does what his brain still begs it to do. And who can’t relate to that?

Palmer, whose Augusta Swan Song was one of those bittersweet, treasured TV moments that make you reflect on your own life, is a father figure for us all. But for me, he’s even more. My dad, too, was charismatic and kind and lived his life with great passion and dignity, and though he loved a lot of things including his family, music, sports and broadcasting, his greatest lifelong passion, like Arnie's, was golf.

A television personality himself for 50 years as well as a longtime newspaper golf columnist, my dad was a voracious and good golfer (a 3 handicap) who had the great pleasure of meeting Palmer on several occasions. Arnie never disappointed my father, who sadly died in 2002, just days after playing 18 holes. At his service, along with lots of pictures of family and friends, sat one large black and white photograph of my dad and Arnie on the golf course together, smiling.

When asked what his own late father would say about his remarkable 50-year run at Augusta, Palmer, who has two daughters and many grandchildren and whose caddie during his final Master’s appearance was his 16-year-old grandson, answered softly, “I guess he’d say the same thing he said the first time I won the Masters: 'You did good, boy.'” 

Precisely what every boy wants to hear from his dad, these words are a reminder that every man who is a father, even the heroes among us, is also someone’s son. Long live The King. 

EXCLUSIVE: A Revealing Conversation With Lou Pardini of the Legendary Band Chicago

Lou Pardini performing with Chicago

Lou Pardini has compiled a very impressive list of achievements in the music business. A Grammy-nominated songwriter as well as a gifted keyboardist and vocalist, he's worked with such artists as Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Santana, Earth, Wind & Fire and The Doobie Brothers. He's also written hit songs and toured with such acts as Patti Austin, The Commodores and The Temptations. His song Just To See Her, a Top Ten hit for Smokey Robinson in 1987, earned Smokey a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. 

But even with that stellar resume', Lou's coolest gig is his newest one. In 2009, he was asked to become the newest member of the legendary band Chicago, replacing Bill Champlin, who was in the group 28 years. It seems a daunting proposition, joining one of the most beloved and stable bands of all time. After all, Chicago still boasts four of the seven original members, 46 years later, and still performs before adoring sellout crowds worldwide. 

Ed Tiernan Bindler - bluearcher.com

But Lou is a perfect fit. Not only because of his triple-threat talent, but because of his easygoing, personable demeanor and natural showmanship. He's clearly well liked by his bandmates, and has become a fan favorite. He's obviously enjoying the ride.

"It's a huge honor to be a member of a band that I've loved for so many years," Lou told me in an exclusive interview for The Reno Dispatch. "My first band back in high school was a horn band. We played Chicago songs. The first time I found myself on stage actually performing Beginnings with the real Chicago, I had an out-of-body experience. I've worked with many great artists and musicians, but it’s another thing entirely to be a part of a legend."

Lou is preaching to the converted, of course. Anyone who knows me knows that Chicago is my favorite band. The fact that this group, whose early records were as groundbreaking and innovative as any in popular music history, is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an absolute joke. I even had the honor of recording one of my songs a few years ago with Chicago co-founder Robert Lamm, who is still in the fold and for whom Lou also has an obvious reverence.

"I'm a huge Robert Lamm fan," Lou says. "He has one of greatest pop voices, very soulful. And of course his songwriting. The guy is the complete musical package."

And, indeed, so is Lou, who's excited to report that there is new music in Chicago's future. The new, unnamed music project would be just the band's second collection of original material since 1991. The buzz about the new songs has already spread across the Chicago fan universe. Lou, who lives in Los Angeles, says the group, which kicked off its 2013 tour this past week, is "deep in the creative process right now" putting songs together, even while on tour. 

Lou (far left) and the band

"Everyone's writing and throwing their tunes in the pot," Lou explains. "Jason (Scheff) put four songs he has written into the pot. I wrote one song with Robert. We did a rough mix on that one with some fake horns, just to let people see where it starts. I've written a couple other songs that the guys like, and I also submitted an idea to Robert just a couple weeks ago that he likes. It's kind of an Otis redding, vintage R&B meets modern rock sound."

Lou says the band isn't sure yet about a timeline for the release of these songs, but "when we have six or seven songs that we're happy with that might be the point where we say, ‘OK, this is sounding like a CD, let’s do a few more and put an album together."

Longtime fans of Chicago will also be happy to hear that on the current tour, which arrives at Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay in my hometown San Diego on August 1, the band is revisiting a few classics from the early days that they don't always do - and reviving the mini-acoustic set that I personally loved so much.

"We're opening the show with Introduction and Questions 67 and 68, which we are loving," says Lou. "And there are three acoustic songs: Jason is doing Will You Still Love Me, Robert is singing Wake up Sunshine, and I’m resurrecting Look Away, acoustically with piano."

While Lou is having a blast on this tour, he was saddened by the news that Phil Ramone, the legendary record producer and engineer, died recently at age 79. Lou's worked with some great music producers in his career, but none more prestigious, or beloved, than Ramone, the so-called "Pope of Pop" who in his 50-year career won 14 Grammy Awards.

Phil Ramone in the studio

Ramone, who produced and/or engineered four Chicago albums, also worked with Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Keith Urban, John Legend, and Tony Bennett, among many others.

Ramone first teamed up with Chicago in 1978 for the Hot Streets album, then in 1979 for Chicago 13. Neither was a huge commercial success by Chicago's platinum standards, but they remain two of the band's most underrated records. And they endure. On Chicago's current tour, the band sings Alive Again from Hot Streets and Street Player from Chicago 13.

Ramone joined forces with Chicago again on the Best of Chicago record in 2007, then, after Lou joined the band, Ramone returned to produce Chicago XXXIII - O Christmas Three, the band's third holiday album.

"Phil was so relaxed in the studio, so organized and supportive," Lou recalls. "My nephew Peter (Pardini) is a director and screenwriter who started filming Chicago working, which led to him doing a complete biographical film on our 2011 summer tour of Europe. That in turn led to Peter developing a friendship with Phil. They hit it off, and were talking up to about a month ago. Phil had a movie idea and asked Peter to write a script for it.  So he did that, and Phil really liked it."

Lou says making the Christmas album was "effortless" because of Ramone's calming and positive presence. "He had a way of making you feel like you were the best," Lou says. "First time I met and him and talked to him, he told me in his infamously deep voice, 'I've been listening to your tunes, Mr. Pardini... and you are good' (laughs). I thought, 'Hey, Phil Ramone says I'm good.' He really meant it."

While it may sound counter-intuitive, Lou says Ramone would actually settle on the first or second takes more often than he expected.

"Phil would just smile when he knew that it was the right take," Lou says. "He was a good person to have around if you’re a perfectionist like myself. His philosophy was that it doesn't have to be perfect, he was always looking for the emotion of the song. Some artists get trapped into having to make every note perfect, but Phil was listening for the emotion."

Lou says Ramone brought a lot of humor to the studio. "He had a story for just about every legendary artist he worked with, and it wasn't name dropping because he really worked with all these people," Lou says. "He told me that when he produced (Barbra) Streisand's Evergreen record, a year after the song reached number one, Phil told Barbra, 'I'm remixing your vocal on that song, or we could just re-do it. Come in and let's dot those i's.' Phil said Barbra got all excited. Then he told her he was just kidding. He said, 'Barbra, the song was Number One, a year ago!' They both had a good laugh."

Lou says the sessions for the Oh Christmas Three album, which was recorded in Nashville, home of two Chicago members, Jimmy Pankow and Keith Howland, were completed in just three weeks.

The first week, the rhythm section tracked 14 songs. "It was a daunting prospect, all we had were the demos of our takes on different Christmas songs," Lou explains. "We had to be quick on our toes. We didn’t do any more than three takes on any song. The second week, we did the horns, and week three we did the vocals and mixed the music as we were going."

Was he happy with the result? "Yes, but is anybody happy? There were things that, if we had more time, we could have put more extra stuff in. Like a lot of things I've done, I'm not entirely happy at the time, but when I go back years later and listen, I can say, 'Yes, that's pretty good.'"

According to Lou, Ramone was great at moving things along, the logistics. "We had a big chalkboard of all the songs, a very organized chaecklist of what was done, what needed to be done, backing vocals, overdubs, keyboards, everything," he recalls. "He would methodically check things off. I never do that. I’m more fly by the seat of my pants, he was very organized, which was a good thing."

Lou says everyone in the band loves Ramone and will miss him. "When I heard he had passed away, it was like losing a relative," he says. "He and I connected on an artistic level. It was on my bucket list to do a few of my original songs with him. I'm so sad I won’t be able to have that chance, but very happy that I did get a chance to meet him and work with him, he was a wonderful guy."

Lou, who on the current tour is singing Make me Smile, Free, Dialogue (co-lead), Hard Habit to Break (co-lead), Call on Me, I'm a Man (co-lead), and Look Away, says being in Chicago is the highlight of his career.

"And it allows me to be as 'R&B' as I want," he says. "I've known the guys in the band for a long time. Bill (Champlin) and I have been friends for 25 years. I knew Jason (Scheff), too, and did some charity things with Jimmy (Pankow) and Lee (Loughnane) over the years. I even subbed for Bill a few times. But when they finally asked me to join the band, I was in shock. Really, it was truly mind blowing."

While he loves songwriting, producing, and being in the studio, Lou says performing "is my true love. To be able to do it every night with high-level musicians such as these, it's all you can ask for."

My Excel 2016 Wishlist

Today, I started thinking about my Excel 2016 wishlist. Microsoft Excel has been updated every three years beginning in 2007. Knowing this, we can only assume the next edition of Excel will come out in three years from now in 2016. The latest update, Excel 2013, includes new tools like FlashFill, PowerView, Timeline Slicer, and over 50 new functions. Don’t get me wrong, Excel is a very powerful tool but it’s not completely perfect yet.

Thus, it’s never too early to start thinking about the next edition of Excel and what improvements can be made. There are a number of features that I think would make creating spreadsheets even easier. A couple of simple improvements could help save users even more time. Here are some of the things I’d like to see in Excel 2016:

• A FIXTODAY() function that holds the date of the day the formula was first created or entered into the spreadsheet.
• I don’t know if this will ever be possible outside of Google Docs but allowing multiple users to edit the same document at the same time would be wonderful.This would eliminate all those extra copies of spreadsheets floating around.  This option is already available!
• I don’t know why you can’t do this already but it would be great to be able to unhide multiple worksheets at the same time. Currently, you can only unhide one sheet at a time which can be a major headache and quite inconvenient.
• Along this same line, I would like the ability to unprotect multiple sheets at once. Something like a global password may be the solution.
• An easy way to be able to see exact revision history.
• More options when protecting a sheet, like being able to use CustomViews.
• More text manipulation functions and options.

That’s what I think. What about you? What would you like to see in future versions of Excel? What’s on your Excel 2016 wishlist? Please let me know in the comments below. Who knows, maybe Microsoft will even be taking notes!

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

Legendary Comic Red Skelton Loved Rock & Roll? Who Knew?!

The Rolling Stones - the early years

Back in the late 1980s, I had the pleasure of interviewing legendary comedian Red Skelton for a story I was writing on one of his art exhibits. Red was an accomplished painter whose specialty, naturally, was clowns. And he was a very kind man. We chatted that afternoon for more than two hours. "A clown is not only what I love to paint, it's what I love to be," Red told me at the time. "There's no greater honor than to make people laugh."

Of course, Red, who died in 1997, made us laugh for decades. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest entertainers of all time. His TV show, The Red Skelton Hour, which ran on CBS from 1962-1971, was one of America’s finest TV variety shows. I remember watching it as a little kid with my parents. Red appealed to "kids" of all ages.

Red Skelton

While most people remember Red's comedy, including his lovable characters Clem Kadiddlehopper and Freddie the Freeloader, I think many of us have forgotten that some of the top musical artists of the day appeared on his show - everyone from The Rolling Stones, Simon & Garfunkel and The Animals to The Kinks, The Fifth Dimension, Jan & Dean and Dionne Warwick. 

It's really not that big a surprise, because Red loved music. He was an accomplished songwriter who wrote some 8,000 songs over the course of his life, and 64 symphonies.

But here's the thing: none of that classic rock music footage from Red's show has been seen since it first aired. It's never been available. Until now. Reelin’ In The Years Productions (RITY), the world’s largest music footage library, has just announced an agreement to exclusively represent for licensing all of the music footage from the The Red Skelton Hour. 

This is exciting news because this treasure trove of musical gems hasn't been seen by the public since the program was originally broadcast more than four decades ago. Reelin' in the Years, which is located in San Diego County, has already begun the process of meticulously categorizing the library, and has started making footage available for clips to be used in various documentary productions.

It isn't widely known that The Rolling Stones made one of their earliest national TV appearances on Red's show - two months before their legendary first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. On Red's show, the Stones performed three songs including their first American single, “Tell Me.”

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys appeared twice on Red's show: once in 1963 (their second time ever on national TV, and with original member David Marks still in the band) and, again, in 1964 performing the classics “In My Room” and “I Get Around.”

Other gems in the archive include Three Dog Night performing their smash hit “Easy To Be Hard” from the play "Hair," The Four Seasons singing “Sherry,” three appearances by Johnny Rivers including renditions of “Secret Agent Man,” “Memphis,” and his poignant chart-topping ballad “Poor Side Of Town,” and The Association performing their #1 hit “Windy.” 

Possibly the rarest musical guest on the show was Iron Butterfly, the San Diego-originated band that performed their trippy classic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" - though not the 17-minute version, of course.

  

Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

One particularly cool feature of The Red Skelton Hour archive is the broad collection of “British Invasion” performances; virtually every major UK act, save the Beatles, appeared on Red's program. In addition to The Stones, other artists include The Kinks, The Animals, The Hollies, Manfred Mann, The Searchers, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, Dusty Springfield, Peter & Gordon, The Honeycombs, Chad & Jeremy, and Freddie & The Dreamers. 

To view a sampling of the unique content from The Red Skelton Hour check out this YouTube link for a nine-minute trailer.

“Representing the performances and interviews from the musical guests on The Red Skelton Hour is truly a great honor," says Reelin’ In The Years founder and president David Peck. "The holdings are incredible, featuring many unique and one-of-a-kind performances. In addition, since the music performances haven’t been utilized in any form since the early 1970’s, it’s the rediscovery of a great American treasure.”