Reading Update

I finished Dawn of the Dinosaurs. It was a very good read and deliciously illustrated with assorted oil paintings of Triassic life and and BW works of the same. It was rather shallow in certain ways, but still had some gems. First was the very strong voice throughout the whole work stating that the author was uber annoyed with the constant protrayal of the Triassic as a desert wasteland. He stated that while the Triassic did have a trend for drying and heating up, it was nota uniform desert that was barren. He loves to cite the Petrified Forest (and SW US Triassic formations in general) as good examples of why this wasn't the case. he stated its often a mistake that people make that short term changes in climate - over a few thousands of years - are mistaken for the climate over millions of years. He likes to cite the Newark supergroup for this one. The other delights were the hypothesis of the megamonsoon (you think Bangladesh has it bad now? he does have evidence against it too, btw) and, of course, the rants about paleontologists ignoring the invertebrate fossils. he does talk about the End Triassic. It's interesting. It's also rather odd. He doens't seem to have strong beliefs, but he does seem to side with the bollide guys, but does point out that there was a huge basalt formation due to the rift valley opening up that created the Atlantic.

I have also been reading about the Insular Cases while Avrora and now myself has been sick. Talk about something that makes me feel a wee bit ill on top of the viral reasons. What's interesting to note is that the cases is that the author comes away with the belief that the Supreme Court really wanted this be dealt with by the legislature (Congress) not the judiciary (them). The decisions, at least so far and I am only a little shy of half way through the book, were rather ehated and every single Justice had a very differing opinion on the subject (and wrote it) even while 'agreeing' on the decision. it was a close run thing. You have to wonder what would have happened at one justice been run down by a horse or one of those new fangled cars a few years earlier. If we'd had a second Justice like Harlan, whither the American nation?

bleh & joy

So I am at work, but will be returning home in the not too distant future. I am feeling better - I got what my daughter had -and I want to get some more sleep/rest prior to her coming home tonight. The onyl thing I can consistantly hold down is kefir and only in sips. I am now well and truly sick of it.

Y'see, today is her second Birthday! Lyuda and I woke her up this morning by singing to her. We have a bunch of gifts for her, but we are waiting until when she comes home from daycare to give them. There was one exception. Being a little contrarian, I gave her a matchbox cars bus. She LOVES getting a ride with Papa in the EmeryGoRound (our free muncipal bus in Emeryville). Since she does now and again come to work with me and I don't have a car seat in my old jeep, we use the bus to BART (the BART station is literally right outside the office). Since we started, she gets really excited every time she sees a bus, but especially the one in Emeryville. SO! I gave her that little bus this morning. She was ecstatic. We have more (and better) gifts to give later, but the day started out very well. Her delight with a simple toy bus was wonderful.

There are times, despite being truly in pain and ill, that being a father is an incredible joy.

Still at Home

fever? Beaten.

vomiting? Easily in check.

return of appetite? no problemo.

diarhea that looks like its the second coming of Noah's Flood? erm. Working on that.

Poor Kidda. She's so tired, but really trying to be a trooper. We should have this one beaten today. Rest and fluids and a little kefir.

Then there was one less. already.

Vilsack's out.

One less Democratic contender after a very short campaign and oh-so-early in the game.

Record power for military laser

A laser developed for military use is a few steps away from hitting a power threshold thought necessary to turn it into a battlefield weapon.

The Solid State Heat Capacity Laser (SSHCL) has achieved 67 kilowatts (kW) of average power in the laboratory.

It could take only a further six to eight months to break the "magic" 100kW mark required for the battlefield, the project's chief scientist told the BBC.

About time! This will end up making things VERY interesting. The cost per shot is going to be less than $1000. In fact, it will be only the cost of amoratizing the weapon and the cost of diesel to provide energy. That will put it down to less than $100. That makes the economic equation for warfare...ineresting.

Now they need to start miniaturizing this. :D

Ice on Greenland: 20 million years earlier?

The Earth had glaciers in parts of the northern hemisphere as far back as 38 million years ago, much earlier than was previously thought.

That is the conclusion of University of Southampton scientists based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS), reported online by the science journal Nature this week.

The research indicates for the first time that there was glacial ice, probably of restricted extent, on Greenland during a time when CO2 levels are thought to have been significantly higher than pre-industrial levels. The findings therefore have implications for our understanding of future climate change in an increasingly CO2-rich world. The next task is to investigate ice extent and stability during this geological analogue for the future.

Interesting. Very interesting.

Still At Home

My daughter is doing better as far as losing the contents of her stomach, but she's still not feeling well at all. She did lose it once this morning, bu that's been once in 12 hours compared the the multiple times yesterday. So! I am home and snuggling a not feeling so well kidda. Poor girl.

Urge McCain not to address the Discovery Insitute

McCain is going to address the Discovery Institute. These are the folks that worked so hard in Kanasas to get evolution yanked from the school lesson plans. I have been a McCain supporter since the 2000 election and damnit! This is something that will probably make me withdraw my support. I am getting very angry about this shift to the right. What happened to the McCain that railed against the right wing christian coalition types in 00?

There is an online petition to try to get him to not make the address, but I doubt that he will change his plans at this juncture for such a thing, but here's the vain hope. Write in and see if we can get him to stop!

Greenland to license offshore drilling

Global warming makes the search easier in challenging Arctic environs

Greenland plans to license as many as four oil companies next month to explore off its western shore as global warming melts sheet-ice and eases access to deposits.

Ok, I can't see the article itself, but damn...That is just sick and oh-so-wrong.

At Home with a Sick Kidda

Avrora woke up at 3 am this morning and was in the process of imitating a penguin feeding its hatchling. Except this looked to be milk and dinner: steamed artichoke, baked potato, bockwurst, a whole tomato (!?) and a dessert of blue berries.

The next hour, she and I were trying the survive the constant upchucking: Daddy gets late night duty. At first I thought it was that she ate too much. She's not been eating too much lately and suddenly her appetite seemed to reappear. Then...boomski.

Yet, this morning as I sit with her and we snuggle. She's been vomiting if we put almost anything down in her stomach. That doesn't make me feel terribly good. I hope that she has something that's going to pass quickly.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A very good friend of mine was pleased to call and let me know that his son was born yesterday morning. Jason and Tracy seemed to have survived the birth of Logan Dale Lowery at 7 lbs 10 oz and 19.5 in long on February 20th.

Of the cluster of NMicans that I hung out with regularly, four couples have had kids: Jared and his wife were way out in front with their daughter: I've not talked to them in a while and they were talking about a second child when last I heard from them. Lyuda and I came in second, but years later, with our daughter. Jeb and Melanie came in third with their son. Jason and Tracy are in fourth with their son. Alyssa is somewhere around four or five now. Avrora is two next week. Nathan should be one shortly. Logan is obviously just getting started. Amazing.

Congratz to the new family!

A Spectrum of an Extrasolar Planet

A Spectrum of an Extrasolar Planet

Authors: L. Jeremy Richardson, Drake Deming, Karen Horning, Sara Seager, Joseph Harrington
Comments: To appear in Nature 22 Feb 2007; 17 pages, 7 figures, includes supplementary information

Of the over 200 known extrasolar planets, 14 exhibit transits in front of their parent stars as seen from Earth. Spectroscopic observations of the transiting planets can probe the physical conditions of their atmospheres. One such technique can be used to derive the planetary spectrum by subtracting the stellar spectrum measured during eclipse (planet hidden behind star) from the combined-light spectrum measured outside eclipse (star + planet). Although several attempts have been made from Earth-based observatories, no spectrum has yet been measured for any of the established extrasolar planets. Here we report a measurement of the infrared spectrum (7.5--13.2 micron) of the transiting extrasolar planet HD209458b. Our observations reveal a hot thermal continuum for the planetary spectrum, with approximately constant ratio to the stellar flux over this wavelength range. Superposed on this continuum is a broad emission peak centered near 9.65 micron that we attribute to emission by silicate clouds. We also find a narrow, unidentified emission feature at 7.78 micron. Models of these ``hot Jupiter'' planets predict a flux peak near 10 micron, where thermal emission from the deep atmosphere emerges relatively unimpeded by water absorption, but models dominated by water fit the observed spectrum poorly.

Woo!

The INF Treaty and What Russia Really Means?

This month the long-standing resentment against the INF became public in a dramatic fashion. First, on February 7 Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov (later promoted to first deputy prime minister on February 15) announced in the Duma that the INF was "a big mistake", that it "had a negative impact on our security" since it "eliminated a whole class of missiles." Ivanov added, "Having them would not hurt" (Fednews.ru, February 7).

[...]

While the Kremlin rhetoric is today aimed at Washington and its possible strategic missile defense deployments, the true target is the INF. Moscow wants to deploy new missiles that cannot reach the United States, but are designed for neighbors. That was in essence the thrust of Putin's Munich speech, aimed at the West: Accept us as equals and give us at last our sphere of influence within the region. Keep out! Stop poking into our neighborhood -- or we may go ballistic.

Ok, now I know the Bush team has infiltrated the Kremlin.

CCSM Atmospheric Model Working Group Meeting Presentations

Again, for those that care about such things.

AAAS Lectures

The big boss man, the director of LBNL, Steven Chu PhD (multi) is one of the lecturers. His was about what to do about the energy issue.

Polish PM's Reaction to Russia about BMD

"To make it clear — this is not about Russian security; these installations do not in any way threaten Russia," Kaczynski said on state Radio 1. "It's about the status of Poland, and Russian hopes that the zone, in other words Poland, will once again find itself ... in the Russian sphere of influence."

"From the moment the missile bases are installed here, the chances of that happening, for at least decades to come, very much declines," he said.

More positive influencing of people and winning of friends by the Russians.

IMNSHO, the Russians, if they really wanted to influence and 'control' European Policy would be to join the EU. However, that bridge has been burned very effectively.

Triassic Critters

While reading Dawn of the Dinosaurs, I stumbled across some interesting critters that the author took pains to cover. One of them was the so-called monkey-lizards, the Drepanosaurs. It's not every day that you get to see something that looks like a bizarro world cross between a chameleon, anteater, and a vague attempt at a vertebrate scorpion. I wonder if anyone has examined the drepanosaurs for grooves in their tail claw? The Hairy Museum of Natural History has a bunch about them in the link above.

However, wrt to Ward et al's low oxygen hypotheses, it occurred to me that one of the ways that you can test this is by the size of the terrestrial invertebrates. Arthopods have a less efficient oxygen extraction system than do the vertebrates. If the oxygen content dropped, the size of insects ought to fall. To some extent this has been observed. However, in DotD, the author laments that there isn't much work being done on invertebrates during the Triassic. One notable exception was the work by Gorochov in Kyrgyzstan. He found the titanoptera.

What are they? They're an order of insects that was restricted to the Triassic. They are interesting in many ways. As you all know, I am not much of an enthusiast for invertebrate paleontology. Show me some good ole bones, dagnabbit. However, what's so impressive about the titanopterans was that there was a member called Gigatitan vulgaris...with a 12 inch (30 cm) wingspan! If the reconstruction in the book is at all accurate - and I cannot say since I cannot find a single image online - then it looks like its length was somewhere around 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm). it appears to be built much like a cicada and the arms of a praying mantis. Mass wise, it's pretty nontrivial. It looks to be as large or larger than our current bug-type friends. However, I am not a invertebrate paleontologist. The correct mass/volume work ought to be be done by one of them instead of me eyeballing a rendition.

However, it ought to be noted that the largest bugs today are not much bigger if at all: here and here. Note: moths and butterflies are built lighter than the rendition of G vulgaris. Assuming that G vulgaris is an active flier, then either it had a better O2 intake system or something is amiss.

Czechs to Russia about US ABM site: frak off

The Czech Republic said on Tuesday it would not be intimidated by Russia over plans to site parts of a U.S. missile defense system on its territory and said attempts at "blackmail" by Moscow would backfire.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said threats by Russian officials over the plans, which would involve placing a radar system on Czech land and a missile battery in Poland, would only make Czechs more determined to defend themselves.

"The Czechs will now think the shield is even more necessary," Schwarzenberg told Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference in Warsaw.

"We have quite an experience with Russians. You have to make clear to them you won't succumb to blackmail. Once you give in to blackmail, there's no going back. We have to be strong."

Russia's strategic forces commander, General Nikolai Solovtsov, said on Monday that Russia would be capable of firing missiles at the Czech Republic and Poland if the ex-communist states agreed to host the U.S. defense system.

Wow. That's how to win friends and influence people, alright! Are we sure that the Bush administration hasn't been infiltrating Putin's cabinet? Or are they going by the Don Rumsfeld greatest hits play book?

Robot Mule

Boston Dynamics has one very impressive - if frakin loud - robot there. The whole field has made some tremendous strides in the last decade wrt to mobility.

The Putin Successor Dance

Many commentators speculate that Sergei Ivanov is probably quite relieved to escape from the Defense Ministry, even if the new high-profile job gives him a staff of only a dozen aides and secretaries and shrinks his capacity to generate news (Vedomosti, February 16). The problem with his old job was not merely the negative publicity related to the rotten military culture where hazing (dedovshchina) has acquired such extreme forms as forcing young recruits into male prostitution (Newsru.com, February 12). More difficult to explain away are the meager results of implementing the ambitious program of modernization and rearmament that Ivanov presented to the State Duma earlier this month (Nezavisimoe voennoe obozrenie, February 9). Military expenditures during Ivanov’s six years increased more than three times, but instead of a bigger bang for this buck, the military-industrial complex emanates only pathetic squeaks. The recent tests of the much-advertised Bulava strategic missile were unsuccessful, the long promised tactical missile Iskander and surface-to-air missile complex C-400 are not ready for deployment, and the annual delivery of new weapon systems amounts to only a few dozen items (Globalrus, February 8).

This fictitious military might be able to serve some PR purposes but would certainly never support a new round of the Cold War. The commentators who interpreted Putin’s assertive speech in Munich as a turn towards real confrontation definitely got it wrong, since his “multipolar” vision amounts to nothing more than a plea to refrain from interfering in palace intrigues. His chekisty prefer to discard the rejected contenders as too soft against “hostile encirclement,” and he is eager to oblige.

Ivanov as the RF President would not be a good development for the West. Based on his performance as defense minister, I would say it would be great development for the envisioned future of Russia-as-China's-Sockpuppet though.