Paying attention

Yesterday I ran through a series of photos of potential cabinet members. Some of the shots showed the individuals in conversation with Obama and what stood out to me was that you could tell the at-that-time presidential candidate was intently listening. I saw the same thing of this election night photo of Barack listening to McCain's speech.

Gotta love it

This would be something interesting to carry around.

The "It's Not Because He's Black" Excuse Wheel^®

If you're like many of us, you become uncomfortable when anyone asks you why you’re voting against Obama. You can’t just tell the truth and say "it’s because he’s black." That's socially unacceptable. So you come up with an excuse like "I think he’s secretly Muslim" or "he compared Sarah Palin to a pig." But you can only get away with parroting McCain surrogate talking points for so long before people start laughing at you and asking you to become an Amway distributor.

You need to vary your response, so it looks like you're not desperately latching on to the first non-racist excuse that pops into your head. I've developed the "It's Not Because He's Black" Excuse Wheel^® to help you do just that. Now, whenever your mind is too clouded with crystal meth or too preoccupied wondering how Noah tricked the dinosaurs into getting on a Liberian-flagged ark to think up a decent excuse for voting against Obama, all you need to do is spin the excuse wheel's pointer.

If you're like many of us, you become uncomfortable when anyone asks you why you’re voting against Obama. You can’t just tell the truth and say "it’s because he’s black." That's socially unacceptable. So you come up with an excuse like "I think he’s secretly Muslim" or "he compared Sarah Palin to a pig." But you can only get away with parroting McCain surrogate talking points for so long before people start laughing at you and asking you to become an Amway distributor.

You need to vary your response, so it looks like you're not desperately latching on to the first non-racist excuse that pops into your head. I've developed the "It's Not Because He's Black" Excuse Wheel^® to help you do just that. Now, whenever your mind is too clouded with crystal meth or too preoccupied wondering how Noah tricked the dinosaurs into getting on a Liberian-flagged ark to think up a decent excuse for voting against Obama, all you need to do is spin the excuse wheel's pointer.

Just for fun

This is one of a series of pics sent by boyhood friend Jeff.

Allow an Aries his fixation

The greatest joy in life, for me, is the delight of discovery. Just as we are continually uncovering the rich complexity of this world, we now have a whole new planet being revealed. Just wait until we can operate with equal 'comfort' on Venus and the Jovian moons.

Martian Clays Tell Story of a Wet Past
Layers of clay-rich rock have been found in Mars' Mawrth Vallis, a potential landing site for future rovers.
This work, published in the August 8 issue of Science, suggests that abundant water was once present on Mars and that hydrothermal activity may have occurred.

The Mawrth Vallis outflow channel is a feature in Mars' northern highland region, a heavily cratered, ancient area of the Red Planet whose geology is a time capsule offering revelations to those who can read it. A team of researchers led by planetary scientist Janice Bishop of the SETI Institute has used the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to examine infrared light reflected from clays situated in the many-kilometer wide channel. Mawrth Vallis resembles a dried-up, broad river valley through which water may have flowed.

Link

Canary with scales?

There are very fundamental concerns which should be attracting our attention but we appear to be easily distracted by vacuousness. Reality will, in the long run, prevail but will it be too late?

Study: Earth's edible fish face extinction

A U.S. scientist predicts continued overfishing will lead to the extinction of the Earth's edible species of fish and affect other levels of the food chain.

But Jeremy Jackson, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, says just the enforcement of fishery regulations would help prevent such extinctions.

Jackson says certain steps, if taken immediately, might reverse the demise of the Earth's ocean species. Those measures include establishing marine reserves, eliminating subsidies for fertilizer use and limiting fossil fuel consumption.

In addition to the extinction of edible fish species, he said without the immediate implementation of ocean-protection measures, larger dead zones and toxic algal blooms may form along the coastal zones of all of the world's continents, increasing disease outbreaks and inhibiting vertical mixing of ocean waters.

Link

Getting spacey

When I first saw this, my mind immediately insterted 'Moon'... Not so fast, buck.

Enhanced Color Caloris

The sprawling Caloris basin on Mercury is one of the solar system's largest impact basins. Created during the early history of the solar system by the impact of a large asteroid-sized body, the basin spans about 1,500 kilometers and is seen in yellowish hues in this enhanced color mosaic. The image data is from the January 14th flyby of the MESSENGER spacecraft, captured with the MDIS instrument. Orange splotches around the basin's perimeter are now thought to be volcanic vents, new evidence that Mercury's smooth plains are indeed lava flows. Other discoveries at Mercury by NASA's MESSENGER mission include evidence that Mercury, like planet Earth, has a global magnetic field generated by a dynamo process in its large core, and that Mercury's surface has contracted significantly as its core cooled.

Link

More maps

You can count on Google to create a clean and usable product. They have done it again with a 'suite' of election options.

Keep up-to-date on the 2008 election with Google Maps

Browse through these political maps to learn about this year's race for the Presidency and show off your favorites by embedding them around the web for the world to see. Feeling ambitious? Design and create your own elections map with our getting started guide.

Link

A capsule quote:

“If we had started working on the solutions to this before it became a problem, back in the 70s when it was already clear where the use of oil was heading us, we would not be having this discussion today,” writes Cindy Prince of Portland, Oregon

This should be the motivating force behind everything we do. Want to fight a war? This one doesn't kill people.


Our Mission

The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution in America to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, cut the carbon emissions that are destabilizing our climate, and expand opportunities for American businesses and workers.

Inspired by the vision and technological achievements of the Apollo space program, we promote policies and initiatives to speed investment in clean energy technology and energy efficiency, put millions of Americans to work in a new generation of well-paid, green collar jobs, and make America a global leader in clean energy products and services.

Link

IMHO, the really good news is that this provides a vehicle for local implementation.

Apollo Across the Nation: States, Cities, and Campuses

The Apollo Alliance is moving policy and projects that advance clean energy and good jobs in your area. We are on the ground establishing local alliances of labor, environmental, community and business representatives. Check below for the most recent news on our efforts!

Link

From one of the best

Larry Sabato, UVA poly sci guy, called the 2006 election almost to THE seat so I pay attention to his work. This is his current Electoral College map:


Link

and the Zogby map:

Link

Surprising source

This energy proposal comes from one of the most notorious of all 'oilies', T. Boone Pickens. What he is proposing on a 'macro' scale can also be done on a 'friendlier' and more local basis.

We Are in a Crisis

Our dependence on foreign oil forms the intersection of the three most critical issues America currently faces: the economy, the environment and our national security.

There is a Solution

America is blessed with the world's greatest wind power corridor and abundant reserves of clean natural gas. The Pickens Plan will utilize these tremendous resources to build a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives and buying time for us to develop even greater new technologies.

The Plan calls for building new wind generation facilities that will produce 20% of our nation's electricity and allow us to use natural gas as a transportation fuel. The combination of these domestic energies can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports. And we can do it all in 10 years.

We Can Bring Change

On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office. We’re organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration. Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America’s energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability.

Link

Resisting the obvious odorifous crack

Some very important events are for the most part eluding public attention. In this case, there is a very large and precarious human population involved.

ENVIRONMENT: Global Fish Catches Vastly Underestimated
Fisheries catches in tropical island nations may be as much as 17 times higher than officially reported, according to a new study released Tuesday.
"The underreporting of fish catches is of such a magnitude it boggles the mind," said Daniel Pauly, a renowned fisheries expert at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

All of the 20 small Pacific island countries in the study underreported catches, mainly because they did not count the catch by small-scale local fishers. This is not unique -- even the U.S. does not report local and recreational fishing statistics, Pauly told IPS at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Tuesday.

A different study also released Tuesday estimates that the unreported recreational fish catch in the Hawaiian Islands doubles the size of the official catch. It also concluded that 75 percent of reef fishes in the main Hawaiian Islands are depleted or in critical condition because of overfishing.

Pauly and other fish experts long suspected that many nations do not measure small-scale and recreational fisheries. The Sea Around Us Project located at UBC is the first attempt to reconstruct actual catches between 1950 and 2004.

"Even though small-scale fisheries feed many people in poor countries, their contribution goes unreported," Pauly said.
Link

Green thumb

Some things are simply counter-intuitive. Imagine not reacting in pure revulsion to a huge, sluggish caterpillars.

Q&A: Caterpillars on Tomatoes

Question: Help! I found several large caterpillars munching on my tomatoes. What should I do to get rid of them?

Answer: It sounds like you're seeing tomato hornworms, which can grow to an alarming size! Like most caterpillars, hornworms can be controlled by using Bt, Bacillis thuringiensis.However, since tomato hornworms can do a lot of damage in a short time, you may want to remove the ones you see by hand. Note: If you see a caterpillar with what looks like grains of rice all over it, relocate it elsewhere in the garden rather than killing it. It has been parasitized by a certain wasp laying its eggs on it. These small wasps are harmless to humans, but will help the hornworm population in check. (The parasitized hornworm will die anyway.)

Democratic float

Reports said the Dems far out-shined the GOPers parade effort.

Words, words, words

misprize \mis-PRYZ\ (transitive verb) -
1 : To hold in contempt.
2 : To undervalue.

peccant \PEK-unt\ (adjective) -
1 : Sinning; guilty of transgression.
2 : Violating a rule or a principle.

preternatural \pree-tuhr-NACH-uhr-uhl; -NACH-ruhl\ (adjective) -
1 : Existing outside of nature; differing from the natural; nonnatural.
2 : Surpassing the usual or normal; extraordinary; abnormal.
3 : Beyond or outside ordinary experience; inexplicable by ordinary means.

One of those 'wordy' pictures

There are times when reality takes on a glaringly sharp focus. This strikes me as one such moment. My apologies for not being able to offer a 'clean' pic. There are both pros and cons to Flash and in this instance the link will have to suffice.

Gas prices by county

With commentary

Marvelous, eh? I have lost myself in exploring on many levels but I just felt the sharp, harsh, stinging slap of reality.

Wrap your mind around the fact it is all waste. Man sure is a sorry lot.

Story

They are replacing the siding on the almost 100 apartments in this complex. Being a guy, I had to 'supervise' the project.

When it came time to do my unit, my attention level rose. I watched as I a worker arbitarily whacked off a length of the vinyl siding and banged a nail through it at a point in the approximate middle of a span and then attached additional slabs on either side of that. Befuddled, I told my neighbor, who had joined my vigil, that I could not understand... the panels being attached were random in length, were placed vertically when all other siding was running horizontally and in what appeared to be a haphazard manner.

The worker, a 'brassaro' if you must know, then brought the whole process into clarity. He took a tap measure and marked the distance from right to left. I started chuckling and when 'Juan' looked at me I smiled, held up my finger and nodded my head...

"I get it now... Those first panels were just to allow you to get an accurate measure without any 'bowing' of the tape.' He smiled and said, 'You smart'.

Who was I to argue?

Mixed media

This is an interesting merger of data and images from a rather remarkable source.

Running the numbers
Photographer Chris Jordan turns cold hard stats into provocative statements on economics, culture and the American way of life.
Link

Words, words, words

morass \muh-RASS\ noun
1 : marsh, swamp
2 a : a situation that traps, confuses, or impedes
*b : an overwhelming or confusing mass or mixture

shebeen (shuh-BEEN) noun
An unlicensed drinking establishment.

supererogatory \soo-puhr-ih-ROG-uh-tor-ee\ (adjective) -
1 : Going beyond what is required or expected.
2 : Superfluous; unnecessary.

Back in action

This is the 'cause de jour' and worthy of comment. Great map at the link.

The Varying Impact of Gas Prices

Gas prices are high throughout the country, but how hard they hit individual families depends on income levels, which vary widely.

Link

Words, words, words

Opposites are linguistically interesting.

pantagruelian (pan-tuh-groo-EL-ee-uhn) adjective

1. Enormous.
2. Displaying extravagant and coarse humor.

lilliputian (lil-i-PYOO-shuhn) adjective

Very small.
noun
A very small person.

spall (spal) verb tr., intr.

To break into small pieces; to splinter.
noun
A chip or splinter, especially of stone.

Time Waster

I wasted a good bit of this morning learning how to adjust for the wind direction. Have fun.

Link

Serious stuff

We like to live with the fiction we are masters of our own ship. It seems the extent of our control depends on making a conscious effort. Link courtesy of chat friend Benedict.
Multinationals make billions in profit out of growing global food crisis
Speculators blamed for driving up price of basic foods as 100 million face severe hunger

Giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. And speculation is helping to drive the prices of basic foodstuffs out of the reach of the hungry.

The prices of wheat, corn and rice have soared over the past year driving the world's poor – who already spend about 80 per cent of their income on food – into hunger and destitution.

The World Bank says that 100 million more people are facing severe hunger. Yet some of the world's richest food companies are making record profits. Monsanto last month reported that its net income for the three months up to the end of February this year had more than doubled over the same period in 2007, from $543m (£275m) to $1.12bn. Its profits increased from $1.44bn to $2.22bn.

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Sign of the times

We try to go through life and make decisions with our eyes open. This gives cause for concern and contemplation.
30 of the fastest declining occupations
Worried that technology improvements or the struggling economy might soon cost you your job? While a prediction isn't a guarantee, employment predictions from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics show that some occupations are expected to decline in the near future.The projections, which are updated every two years, show that the total number of people employed in the United States will have increased 10 percent — by 15. 6 million — between 2006 and 2016. Not all jobs, however, are on the rise. Check out this list of 30 jobs expected to be among the fastest declining.
Link

Green thumb

Tip: Mark Bulbs

Spring-flowering bulbs that didn't flower should be marked with colorful ribbons for transplanting later. Once the foliage has yellowed dig and replant bulbs into a sunny, well drained site amended with compost.

This is timely because I am dealing with daffodils which have not bloomed and grape hyacinth which have disappeared.

Challenge

Think of nefarious use of this development and then try to think of a benevolent application.

Boeing Awarded DARPA Contract to Develop Ultra-Long-Endurance Aircraft Technologies

Boeing [NYSE: BA] has been awarded a $3.8 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for Phase 1 of the Vulture air vehicle program, an effort to create a new category of ultra-long-endurance aircraft.

DARPA's Vulture program calls for developing technologies and ultimately a vehicle that can deliver and maintain an airborne payload on station for an uninterrupted period of more than five years using a fixed-wing aircraft. Boeing is teaming with United Kingdom-based QinetiQ Ltd. for the program.

The yearlong Phase 1 covers conceptual system definition, and formal reliability and mission success analysis, concluding with a System Requirements Review. It also requires conceptual designs for sub- and full-scale demonstrators.

"Boeing has worked closely with DARPA on a number of innovative programs in the past and we welcome this important opportunity to again team with them to define a new air vehicle system with unprecedented reliability and endurance that significantly extends current aircraft and spacecraft capabilities," said Pat O'Neil, program manager, Boeing High Altitude Long Endurance Systems. "We will combine our strengths in highly reliable aerospace systems development with the unique capabilities of our teammates, QinetiQ, Versa Power Systems and Draper Laboratory."

QinetiQ is currently flying and testing a solar-powered, high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial system for the U.K. Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense under the Zephyr Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration. QinetiQ's role will be to leverage the technologies developed and demonstrated in Zephyr for the DARPA Vulture program.

The Vulture vehicle's goal is to be capable of carrying a 1,000-pound, 5-kilowatt payload and have a 99 percent probability of maintaining its on-station position.

Link

Getting to the root

Ever wonder, as I do, how some of our language came into usage? This link offers some answers.

Idioms

It isn’t always the nonnative speaker’s accent (which may be perfect) that enables people to recognize instantly an outsider who is learning their language—it’s the odd mistakes that no native speaker would make. The idiomatic use of words such as to, for, and with varies from language to language. Just as each person has a unique, characteristic signature, each language has unique idioms. In fact, the word idiom comes from the Greek root idio, meaning a unique signature. Thus, each language contains expressions that make no sense when translated literally into another tongue. The humorist Art Buchwald wrote a famous column, often reprinted, in which he translated some of our Thanksgiving (Mercidonnant) terms into literal French, with comic results. If a German or Spaniard or Italian literally translated birthday suit and get down to brass tacks, the terms would make no sense, or the wrong sense. Even a native speaker of English who is not used to hearing literate idioms such as fits and starts, cock-and-bull story, hue and cry, and touch and go will not be able to make sense of them. Our purpose in defining these idioms is to let the cat out of the bag for those who haven’t heard them often enough to catch their meanings.

Other idioms are really allusions or foreign-language terms that make no sense unless you know what the allusions or terms mean. Carry coals to Newcastle translates adequately into any language, but it makes no sense to a person who doesn’t know that Newcastle is a coal-mining city. Knowing the literal meaning of idioms won’t enable you to understand them unless you also know what they allude to. Such ignorance is an Achilles’ heel and an albatross around one’s neck. Moreover, just knowing a baker’s dozen of them is not enough; you have to know them en masse. Educators who complain about the illiteracy of the young but pay no attention to teaching idioms are just weeping crocodile tears. We have therefore decided to cut the Gordian knot by systematically defining some of the most widely used idioms in American literate culture.

Link

Trend

One would hope we will start making smart decisions about our energy sources.

Coal Boom to Bust? New Power Plants Face Challenges

When Duke Energy asked North Carolina air quality regulators permission to build a new coal-fired power plant unit west of Charlotte, the company got a green light only after agreeing to limit carbon dioxide emissions.

But to the north, just across the border in the heart of Virginia coal-country, state regulators are moving closer to giving Dominion Virginia Power the go-ahead to build a new coal-facility without limitations on the release of the climate changing gas.

Over the last several years, power companies have pushed to build more than 150 new coal-fired power plants. But with Congress poised to restrict carbon dioxide emissions some analysts say that the boom may be coming to an end.

For now, though, the different tact on carbon at two plants separated by a three hour drive across a state line highlights the country’s patchwork, state-by-state approach to forestalling climate change.

As the likelihood of national carbon regulation has grown, Wall Street and the federal government have suddenly grown skittish about funding new coal plants. And state regulators in many parts of the country have in recent months blocked proposed coal plants on global warming grounds, even in states with no carbon restrictions on the books.

Link

Words, words, words

geoponic (jee-uh-PON-ik) adjective

Of or relating to agriculture
Simple... the opposite of hydroponic

endogamy (en-DOG-uh-mee) noun

The practice of marriage within a specific social group

noctilucent (nok-tuh-LOO-suhnt) adjective

Shining at night.

Wise words

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst: Aristotle

Great thought from the world's smartest man

We all would benefit from having a vision and goal for the future. Considering who is saying this, I think the idea merits serious consideration.

Stephen Hawking urges new era of space conquest
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking called Monday for a new era of space conquest akin to Christopher Columbus' discovery of the new world, in a speech on the 50th anniversary of NASA space agency.

"In a way, the situation is like Europe before 1492. People might well have argued that it was a waste of money to send Columbus on a wild goose chase," the British scientist said at Georgetown Washington University.

"Yet the discovery of the new world made profound difference to the old. Just think, we would not have a Big Mac or KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)," he added referring to the ubiquitous US fast food outlets.

"Spreading out into space will have an even greater effect. It will completely change the future of the human race and maybe determine whether we have any future at all," added the 66-year-old theoretical physicist, who is known for his works in cosmology and quantum gravity.

Hawking envisions a long-term space exploration project that would include building an experimental base on the moon within 30 years, and devising a new propulsion system to take us on a planetary hunt outside our solar system in 200-500 years.

"It will not solve any of our immediate problems on planet earth," he said, "but it will give us a new perspective on them and ... Hopefully, it will unite us to face a common challenge."

"Going into space will not be cheap, but it will take only a small portion of world resources," he added.

Hawking has suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative motor neurone disorder, since he was 20. It has left him almost completely paralyzed, and he can only speak through a voice synthesizer.

A year ago, however, he was able to step off his wheelchair and float about in a state of zero gravity aboard a special plane.

He hopes to repeat the experience in space, above the atmosphere, aboard the maiden, suborbital flight of the Virgin Galactic of British billionaire Richard Branson's venture company Virgin Group, whose first flight is planned for next year.

Link

Local application?

This is one of those ideas which I think can and should spread. It seems to answer many problems at once.

Pedal-powered cabs coming to Toronto

A fleet of pedal-powered EcoCabs will hit the downtown Toronto core starting May 1, offering passengers a speedy — and free — ride to their favourite restaurant, nightclub, business meeting or even the Rogers Centre for a ball game.

Eight of the cars, which have a futuristic yellow outer shell, were introduced today at Dundas Square by William Kozma, president of GO Mobile Media.

There is no charge (although tips won't be turned down) because the cabs are supported by corporate sponsors. Lipton Green Tea is one — and riders are provided a free glass of green tea with their ride.

The cabs, which are about 10 feet long and four feet wide, can accommodate two passengers on the padded seats and a child under 12.

And the three-wheeled cabs will travel on the right-hand lane of city streets at a top speed of 12 km/h. The average speed in the downtown core will be about 6 km/h.

"The idea is to have the vehicles throughout the downtown core in the areas where there is the most congestion," Kozma said.

Link

Where have I been?

I have been involved, to put it in a way that avoids saying I have been lazy.

A couple of links tell the story.

Update For Spring 2008

• Leola Street Garden Outreach

The Leola Street Community Garden is entering its 3rd growing season. Over the past two years the community garden has seen 45 different participants with 30 active participants each year. We have grown all kinds of vegetables, flowers, and herbs. There is a peace garden with medicinal herbs and herbs for tea along with flowers randomly about. Along Leola Street we have 35 dwarf apple trees which came from Big Horse Creek Farms in Ashe County. There are benches for resting, socializing, or observing. We have created the beginnings of a children's garden with the work of Two Rivers Community School. W.A.M.Y. has partnered to assist in meeting low-incomes with necessary resources. The community garden has supported participants by providing seeds, compost when enough funds, mulch, straw, leaves, and tools.

Those who have participated last year I must know by March 15th if you will renew your space or want more space or have something else you need to do. Please email, phone, or meet with me so we can sign up, deal with the usage fees, and cover guidelines or questions.

Link

Obama Wins Watauga County Democratic Straw Poll

The vote today in the Presidential Preference Straw Poll among 121 registered delegates at the Watauga County Democratic Party's annual convention...

79 Obama
42 Clinton

That's approximately 65% Obama to 34.7% Clinton.

Link

Hey, I can identify with this guy

We cross the thresholds of advancing age with begrudging resignation and then you suddenly get slapped with a story like this one.

Saoul Mamby back in boxing ring fighting at age 60

At age 60, Saoul Mamby has gotten back into the ring, and he wants to stay there.

The former super lightweight champion lost a unanimous 10-round decision last Saturday to Anthony Osbourne at the Lions Gate Center in Grand Cayman. Mamby became the oldest boxer in a sanctioned fight, weighing 149 1/2 pounds (68 kilograms), not far from his weight in his prime.

He plans to keep fighting, manager Steve Tannenbaum said.

Mamby turned pro on Sept. 23, 1969, with a six-round decision over Roy Goss in Kingston, Jamaica. He won the WBC super lightweight title (140 pounds, 64 kilograms) with a 14th round knockout of Kim Sang-hyun of South Korea on Feb 23, 1980.

In Mamby's first title defense, he stopped former lightweight champion Esteban DeJesus of Puerto Rico.

Eight years ago, Mamby became the first boxer in history to compete in five decades. Two weeks later, Roberto Duran became the second fighter to do it.

Before the loss to journeyman Osbourne, Mamby's last bout was Dec. 27, 2004.

Link

Another discovery

Big and small, near and far, old and new; the range and diversity of discovery continually amazes me.

Secret 'dino bugs' revealed

It is like a magic trick - at first there is nothing and then it appears: a tiny insect unseen by any eye for 100 million years.

We are with Paul Tafforeau who is scrolling through images on his computer.

His pictures have been produced by a colossal X-ray machine that can illuminate the insides of small lumps of clouded amber (fossil tree resin).

As he plays with the settings, what starts out as grey nothingness suddenly becomes the unmistakable outline of a "wee beastie".

Who knows? This little creature could once have buzzed a dinosaur. It's certainly the right age.

Tafforeau is a palaeontologist. But whilst others of his profession will be in the dirt with a rock hammer and trowel, you'll find him at the end of one of the most remarkable "cameras" in the world.

The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, produces an intense, high-energy light that can pierce just about any material, revealing its inner structure.

Tafforeau and colleague Malvina Lak have put kilos of opaque amber chunks in the way of this beam and have found a treasure trove of ancient organisms.

Link

Getting spacey

Even if you are not paying attention, our awareness and understanding is steadily expanding. I would love it if all that effort was ultimately and directly applied to improving the human condition.

Scientists Discover 10 New Planets Outside Solar System
An international team of astronomers has found 10 new "extra solar" planets, planets that orbit stars other than our sun. The team used a system of robotic cameras that yield a great deal of information about these other worlds, some of which are quite exotic. The system is expected to revolutionize scientific understanding of how planets form.

Two participating astronomers from the U.S. are Rachel Street and Tim Lister. Street is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGTN) located in Santa Barbara. Lister is a project scientist with LCOGTN.

Team leader, Don Pollaco of Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, will announce the findings in his talk at the Royal Astronomical Society's national astronomy meeting in the U.K. on Wednesday, April 2.

The new international collaboration is called "SuperWASP," for Wide Area Search for Planets.

Link

Words, words, words

The words fall into my mailbox as random rain, at times eerily appropriate to the moment.

coalesce \koh-uh-LESS\ verb

1 : to grow together
2 a : to unite into a whole : fuse *b : to unite for a common end : join forces
3 : to arise from the combination of distinct elements

limn \LIM\ (transitive verb)

1 : To depict by drawing or painting.
2 : To portray in words; to describe.

melange \may-LAHNZH\ (noun)

A mixture; a medley.

This gets me excited

The three greatest needs of society are water, food and energy. This is a sensible answer to at least one of those.

A $20 Solar Charger Runs All My Gadgets
by Justin Thomas, Virginia
I bought this portable solar panel from SolarStyle on eBay for $20. This small solar charger has a built in battery (see this previous article for more information). With this portable solar panel, I charge my MP3 player, a portable amplifier, a set of battery-powered Sony surround sound speakers, a cellular phone, a digital camera, two LED lamps, a LED booklight, and a LED flashlight. If you are already positioning yourself to optimize sunlight, it is quite simple to do this. If I added a $50 solar panel, I can power two laptop computer, and have all of my audio-visual and computer devices running on renewable energy.

Link

Back

Net friend Sherry, in a rather polite way, wondered what happened to this blog. The simple answer is 'distraction' and my apologies are extended both outward and toward myself.

Time to get back to being productive.

My latest interest

I am curious if this could be a locally-produced substitute for those obiquitous sytrofoam containers.

Molded pulp

Molded pulp ,also named Moulded pulp or Molded Fibre,is a packaging material, typically made from 100% recycled old corrugated board, newspaper. It is used for protective packaging or for food service trays and beverage carriers. Molded pulp is also commonly referred to as molded fiber. Other typical uses are end caps, trays and clamshell containers.

For many applications, Molded pulp is less expensive than expanded polystyrene (EPS), vacuumed formed PET and PVC, Corrugation and Foams.

Molded pulp is considered a sustainable packaging material, as defined by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, since it is produced from recycled materials, and can be recycled again after its useful life-cycle.

Link

H2O - Pt. 3

Is this the carrot for exploration or exploitation?

Unique Martian Formation Reveals Brief Bursts Of Water

Researchers from the United States and the Netherlands report that several formations on Mars indicate incidents of rapid release of water from the planet's interior. Mars has many basins that contain formations that look like fans. A few of these fans, only about 10, have steps down into the basin. Since scientists first reported this feature three years ago, there has been no clear consensus on how they formed.

So, following an example of a project they had created for high school students, geosciences faculty members at Utrecht University in the Netherlands reproduced the process. "There are no fans with steps on earth, so we had to build one," said Erin R. Kraal, now a geosciences research scientist at Virginia Tech.

In the article, "Martian stepped-delta formation by rapid water release," published in the Feb. 21, 2008, issue of Nature, Kraal and her Utrect colleagues, Maurits van Dijk, George Postma, and Maarten G. Kleinhans, describe how they made a stepped fan -- and what it says about at least one source of water on Mars.

Link

H2O - Pt. 2

If you have been there, you would not be surprised.

Going Down: Climate change, water use threaten Lake Mead

If climate changes as expected, and future water use goes unchecked, there's a 50 percent chance that Lake Mead—one of the southwestern United States' key reservoirs—will become functionally dry in the next couple of decades, a new study suggests.

Besides providing water for millions, flow from Lake Mead—the reservoir formed as the Colorado River collects behind Hoover Dam—generates prodigious amounts of hydroelectric power. Over the past century, on average, about 18.5 cubic kilometers of water flowed into Lake Mead each year, says Tim P. Barnett, a climatologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. Of that amount, about 2.1 km³ evaporate into the dry desert air or soak into the ground beneath the lake each year. What's left in the lake is more than spoken for: The amount of water drawn from Lake Mead this year to meet demand in cities as far-flung as Los Angeles and San Diego will exceed 16.6 km³.

And the situation will likely get worse, Barnett and colleague David W. Pierce speculate in an upcoming Water Resources Research. By 2030, the researchers note, annual demand for Lake Mead's water is projected to rise to 17.4 km³. Also, some climate studies suggest that the Colorado's flow will drop between 10 and 30 percent in the next 30 to 50 years. Using these data, as well as weather simulations that impose random but reasonable annual variations in river flow volume, Barnett and Pierce used a computer model to estimate the remaining useful life of the Lake Mead reservoir.

Thanks in part to the worst drought in the Southwest in the past 500 years (SN: 6/26/04, p. 406), Lake Mead is now at about 50 percent capacity. If current allocations of water persist, there's a 50 percent chance that by 2023 Lake Mead won't provide water without pumping, and a 10 percent chance that it won't by 2013. Moreover, there's a 50 percent chance that Hoover Dam won't be able to generate power by 2017, the researchers estimate.

"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us," says Barnett.

Results of the new study are "fairly provocative, an eye-opener," says Connie Woodhouse, a climatologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Using estimates of river flow based on an average of the past century may be optimistic, she adds, because tree ring–based reconstructions of the region's climate suggest that the 20th century was one of the wettest in the past 500 years. "The more we learn about the Colorado River and its hydrology, the more worried we need to be," says Peter H. Gleick, a hydrologist at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080223/fob2.asp

H2O - Pt. 1

Some news is sad.

Human Shadows on the Seas

Now scientists are building the first worldwide portrait of such dispersed human impacts on the oceans, revealing a planet-spanning mix of depleted resources, degraded ecosystems and disruptive biological blending as species are moved around the globe by accident and intent.

A paper in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Science is the first effort to map 17 kinds of human ocean impacts like organic pollution, including agricultural runoff and sewage; damage from bottom-scraping trawls; and intensive traditional fishing along coral reefs.

About 40 percent of ocean areas are strongly affected, and just 4 percent pristine, according to the review. Polar seas are in the pristine category, but poised for change. Some human impacts are familiar, like damage to coral reefs and mangrove forests through direct actions like construction and subtler ones like the loss of certain fish that shape ecosystems.

Others were a surprise, said Benjamin S. Halpern, the lead author and a scientist at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, Calif. He said continental shelves and slopes proved to be the most heavily affected areas, particularly along densely populated coasts.

Link

It lives!

Despite the stories about how this remarkable site had been shut down, it persists.

Wikileaks
global defense of sources and press freedoms, circa now—

Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking and public analysis. Our primary interests are in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we expect to be of assistance to peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact.

Link

Tools

This should go in a file marked either 'Media' or 'Entertainment'.

LocateTV

Type in the name of a TV show, movie or actor and LocateTV will find where it is viewable for you.

Link

This is an interesting bit of history. Imagine the gems (and rewards) for those people who started at this early time to stake out ownership of domains. The evolving value for a 'hot' property would make an intriguing study.

THE 100 OLDEST CURRENTLY-REGISTERED .COM DOMAINS

Rank	Create date	Domain name
1.	15-Mar-1985	SYMBOLICS.COM
2.	24-Apr-1985	BBN.COM
3.	24-May-1985	THINK.COM
4.	11-Jul-1985	MCC.COM
5.	30-Sep-1985	DEC.COM
6.	07-Nov-1985	NORTHROP.COM
7.	09-Jan-1986	XEROX.COM
8.	17-Jan-1986	SRI.COM
9.	03-Mar-1986	HP.COM
10.	05-Mar-1986	BELLCORE.COM
11=	19-Mar-1986	IBM.COM
11=	19-Mar-1986	SUN.COM
13=	25-Mar-1986	INTEL.COM
13=	25-Mar-1986	TI.COM
15.	25-Apr-1986	ATT.COM
16=	08-May-1986	GMR.COM
16=	08-May-1986	TEK.COM
18=	10-Jul-1986	FMC.COM
18=	10-Jul-1986	UB.COM
20=	05-Aug-1986	BELL-ATL.COM
20=	05-Aug-1986	GE.COM
20=	05-Aug-1986	GREBYN.COM
20=	05-Aug-1986	ISC.COM
20=	05-Aug-1986	NSC.COM
20=	05-Aug-1986	STARGATE.COM
26.	02-Sep-1986	BOEING.COM
27.	18-Sep-1986	ITCORP.COM
28.	29-Sep-1986	SIEMENS.COM
29.	18-Oct-1986	PYRAMID.COM
30=	27-Oct-1986	ALPHACDC.COM
30=	27-Oct-1986	BDM.COM
30=	27-Oct-1986	FLUKE.COM
30=	27-Oct-1986	INMET.COM
30=	27-Oct-1986	KESMAI.COM
30=	27-Oct-1986	MENTOR.COM
30=	27-Oct-1986	NEC.COM
30=	27-Oct-1986	RAY.COM
30=	27-Oct-1986	ROSEMOUNT.COM
30=	27-Oct-1986	VORTEX.COM
40=	05-Nov-1986	ALCOA.COM
40=	05-Nov-1986	GTE.COM
42=	17-Nov-1986	ADOBE.COM
42=	17-Nov-1986	AMD.COM
42=	17-Nov-1986	DAS.COM
42=	17-Nov-1986	DATA-IO.COM
42=	17-Nov-1986	OCTOPUS.COM
42=	17-Nov-1986	PORTAL.COM
42=	17-Nov-1986	TELTONE.COM
42=	11-Dec-1986	3COM.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	AMDAHL.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	CCUR.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	CI.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	CONVERGENT.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	DG.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	PEREGRINE.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	QUAD.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	SQ.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	TANDY.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	TTI.COM
50=	11-Dec-1986	UNISYS.COM
61=	19-Jan-1987	CGI.COM
61=	19-Jan-1987	CTS.COM
61=	19-Jan-1987	SPDCC.COM
64.	19-Feb-1987	APPLE.COM
65=	04-Mar-1987	NMA.COM
65=	04-Mar-1987	PRIME.COM
67.	04-Apr-1987	PHILIPS.COM
68=	23-Apr-1987	DATACUBE.COM
68=	23-Apr-1987	KAI.COM
68=	23-Apr-1987	TIC.COM
68=	23-Apr-1987	VINE.COM
72.	30-Apr-1987	NCR.COM
73=	14-May-1987	CISCO.COM
73=	14-May-1987	RDL.COM
75.	20-May-1987	SLB.COM
76=	27-May-1987	PARCPLACE.COM
76=	27-May-1987	UTC.COM
78.	26-Jun-1987	IDE.COM
79.	09-Jul-1987	TRW.COM
80.	13-Jul-1987	UNIPRESS.COM
81=	27-Jul-1987	DUPONT.COM
81=	27-Jul-1987	LOCKHEED.COM
83.	28-Jul-1987	ROSETTA.COM
84.	18-Aug-1987	TOAD.COM
85.	31-Aug-1987	QUICK.COM
86=	03-Sep-1987	ALLIED.COM
86=	03-Sep-1987	DSC.COM
86=	03-Sep-1987	SCO.COM
89=	22-Sep-1987	GENE.COM
89=	22-Sep-1987	KCCS.COM
89=	22-Sep-1987	SPECTRA.COM
89=	22-Sep-1987	WLK.COM
93.	30-Sep-1987	MENTAT.COM
94.	14-Oct-1987	WYSE.COM
95.	02-Nov-1987	CFG.COM
96.	09-Nov-1987	MARBLE.COM
97=	16-Nov-1987	CAYMAN.COM
97=	16-Nov-1987	ENTITY.COM
99.	24-Nov-1987	KSR.COM
100.	30-Nov-1987	NYNEXST.COM

Link

Tools

This is a handy thingie if sky-watching is an interest. Thanks go to webgenie for the link.

Stellarium
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.

Link

Words, words, words

intersillent, adj.
Suddenly emerging in the midst of something.

rejectamenta, n.
Things that have been rejected, as being worthless.

immorigerous, adj.
Unyielding, inflexible.

Yep, a quiz

No room for bragging, I got only five right.

Trivia Quiz: Gardening Challenge
Test your knowledge of plants, flowers, and the best place for them in your garden.

Question 1: Which of these flowers has the nickname "heartsease"?
A: Lily
B: Tulip
C: Rose
D: Pansy

Question 2: What common pie ingredient is the rose related to?
A: Blackberries
B: Rhubarb
C: Pumpkins
D: Cloves

Question 3: Which side of the garden is the best place for tall or climbing plants?
A: South
B: West
C: East
D: North

Question 4: Which family is the potato a member of?
A: Tomato
B: Pea
C: Carrot
D: Morning Glory

Question 5: Which of these bulbs can have yellow flowers?
A: Cyclamen
B: Snowdrop
C: Daffodil
D: Bluebell

Question 6: Where do pinks get their name?
A: The seeds make a "pink" noise when released
B: Most are pink in color
C: The petals have zig-zagged edges, as though cut with pinking shears
D: The leaves are tinged pink

Question 7: Which of these shouldn't be planted in a dry, sunny area?
A: Rosemary
B: Artemisia
C: Lavender
D: Hydrangea

Question 8: Which of these flowers comes in a type that smells like chocolate?
A: Rose
B: Geranium
C: Cosmos
D: Phlox

Question 9: Which of these trees has white bark?
A: Maple
B: Ash
C: Cherry
D: Birch

Question 10: Which of these always has green leaves?
A: Camellia
B: Holly
C: Smoke bush
D: Berberis

Link

Problem solver

This product seems to answer most, of not all, of the arguments against wind power. It remains to be seen how quickly it is adopted.

Aerotecture International Inc.

...visionary technology

Aeroturbines are wind turbines designed for urban settings. Invented by University of Illinois industrial design professor, Bil Becker, Aeroturbines are a new development in wind turbine technology. Aeroturbines can be installed on existing rooftops or built into the architecture of new buildings to provide clean renewable electricity at its site of consumption. Aeroturbines are uniquely suited to urban environments because they are:

• Noise and vibration-free
• Safe for birds
• Able to utilize multi-directional and gusting winds
• Self-regulating (no overspeed protection required)
• Low maintenance
• Made from low-cost and readily available materials

Link

More on 'Earthlights'

I posted a while back perhaps my all-time favorite net pic; 'Earthlights' a shot of the earth engulfed in darkness and dotted with the glare of human habitation. This story looks at the impact of those rampant lumens. The most striking example of this phenomenon I have seen was the glow of Las Vegas appearing on the horizon while driving across the desert. The inserted photo was taken after the blackout in August 2003 in Goodwood, a small town about 45 minutes NE of Toronto.

Starry Night, circa 2007
If you live anywhere near a big city it’s likely you can’t see much through the fog of light pollution. Now, a movement of activists and scientists are taking up the cause of darkness

To the meat:

Many believe the profusion of light is taking a great toll on us and the plants and animals with which we share the planet. Their concern has even sparked a new science – scotobiology. Although so far it's more about questions than answers, this budding branch of research argues a simple idea. For Greek speakers, the name offers a clue. Skoteinos translates roughly into "full of darkness."

In short, the theory is this: Plants and animals are programmed to function in a certain pattern of daylight and darkness. Alter it and unhealthy things happen. It applies equally to organisms that are active at night and those, including humans, whose bodies require regular periods with the lights out.

Concern about light pollution didn't begin with scotobiology.

Originally, it came from astronomers who found it increasingly tough to see the stars, unless they moved their telescopes to pristine, remote locations or, in the case of the Hubble, out into space.

It was buttressed by a sense that humans lose something precious when they sever their joyful, fearful connection to the vast night time canopy, and the stark lesson it offers about our insignificant place in space and time.

Link

A tidbit for your memory bank

This is just one view of how man spread to the western hemisphere and serves as a portal through which an opposing view can be offered. Pushing me closer to accepting the 'southern' hypothesis is a vague memory of an article linking the DNA of domesticated animals to Micronesia.

Humans Inhabited New World's Doorstep For 20,000 Years

The human journey from Asia to the New World was interrupted by a 20,000-year layover in Beringia, a once-habitable region that today lies submerged under the icy waters of the Bering Strait. Furthermore, the New World was colonized by approximately 1,000 to 5,000 people - a substantially higher number than the 100 or fewer individuals of previous estimates.

The developments, to be reported by University of Florida Genetics Institute scientists in the open-access journal PLoS ONE on February 13, help shape understanding of how the Americas came to be populated - not through a single expansion event that is put forth in most theories, but in three distinct stages separated by thousands of generations.

"Our model makes for a more interesting, complex scenario than the idea that humans diverged from Asians and expanded into the New World in a single event," said Connie Mulligan, Ph.D., an associate professor of anthropology at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and assistant director of the UF Genetics Institute. "If you think about it, these people didn't know they were going to a new world.

"They were moving out of Asia and finally reached a landmass that was exposed because of lower sea levels during the last glacial maximum, but two major glaciers blocked their progress into the New World. So they basically stayed put for about 20,000 years. It wasn't paradise, but they survived. When the North American ice sheets started to melt and a passage into the New World opened, we think they left Beringia to go to a better place."

Link

And on to the other side of the coin...

Find May Rewrite Americas' Prehistory

The Americas were inhabited by human beings at least as early as 12,500 years ago -- far earlier and a half a world farther south than previously believed -- a team of archaeologists announced yesterday.

Artifacts unearthed at a site near Monte Verde, Chile, the nine-member group determined, predate by at least 1,300 years the evidence of human habitation from Clovis, N.M., conventionally accepted as the oldest known in the Western Hemisphere.

More portentous, however, is the fact that the discovery is in South America, thousands of miles away from the Clovis site. That suggests that the first Asian immigrants arrived by a different path from the one traditionally assumed (across what is now the Bering Strait) or got there much earlier than the current scientific consensus allows, or both. Indeed, the Monte Verde dig also has revealed preliminary evidence that Homo sapiens may have been in residence there as long as 33,000 years ago.

As to be expected, there are theories waiting substantiation.

Alternatively, many experts speculate, the early Asian immigrants may not have traveled by land at all. Instead, they may have gone by boat, hugging the shoreline all the way from Alaska to Chile. The closing of the Bering Strait, Stanford said, would have caused a backup of seawater nutrients and ocean life in the North Pacific that might have given early nautical explorers an ample food source.

Link

I posit the lowered sea levels, while facilitating that north land bridge, could also have exposed more of the tops of the submerged mountain ridge (clearly seen on Google earthGoogle Earth and well worth the download) which stretches from Micronesia (Pitcarin Island forms the terminus to the west) to Easter Island and San Felix close to the South American coast.

The romantic in me envisions family groups loading up their catamarans with provisions, supplies and live stock and heading for the next island. The answer will probably be found in DNA.