Asteroid Flyby - 2006 VV2

As another lump of something unfriendly flashes by in what seems to be the near distance, it occurred to me to wonder how an Intelligent Designer would respond to being asked the reason for creating these delinquent bodies who seem to have little other purpose in life than to go tearing up the neighbourhood for years on end, often to end their days by smashing full-tilt into hapless moons and planets such as ours; I've said it before and I'll say it again - I blame the parent stars.

Thanks as ever to Spaceweather.com for continuing to post images of spectacularity in action - if such an abstract noun can be proven to exist.

Please click the image to see the movie.

New Horizons Web Site - Storm Spectra On Jupiter

These images, taken with the LEISA infrared camera on the New Horizons Ralph instrument, show fine details in Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere using light that can only be seen using infrared sensors. These are "false color" pictures made by assigning infrared wavelengths to the colors red, green and blue. LEISA (Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array) takes images across 250 IR wavelengths in the range from 1.25 to 2.5 microns, allowing scientists to obtain an infrared spectrum at every location on Jupiter. A micron is one millionth of a meter.

These pictures were taken at 05:58 UT on February 27, 2007, from a distance of 2.9 million kilometers (1.6 million miles). They are centred at 8 degrees south, 32 degrees east in Jupiter "System III" coordinates. The large oval-shaped feature is the well-known Great Red Spot. The resolution of each pixel in these images is about 175 kilometers (110 miles); Jupiter's diameter is approximately 145,000 kilometers (97,000 miles).

More eye-catching pictures taken millions of miles from here.

NASA - Big Auroras on Jupiter

More pictures from our solar neighbourhood, this time featuring this spectacular view of Jupiter and its X-ray auroras, this time snapped by the Chandra telescope.

Jupiter's auroras were discovered by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1979. A thin ring of light on Jupiter's nightside looked like a stretched-out version of our own auroras on Earth. But those early photos merely hinted at the power involved. The real action, astronomers soon learned, was taking place at high-energy wavelengths invisible to the human eye. In the 1990s, ultraviolet cameras on the Hubble Space Telescope photographed raging lights thousands of times more intense than anything ever seen on Earth, while X-ray observatories saw auroral bands and curtains bigger than Earth itself.

Heady stuff indeed.

Many Planets May Have Double Suns

Accustomed as we are to gazing up at only a single sun in our skies, it had been thought that our type of solar system would represent the norm, but according to those analysing data from Spitzer, there seems to be a good possibility that double star systems may be at least as common as our own monostellar model

Below is a link to a nice looking NASA video discussing double suns and the Spitzer telescope - and although promising spectacular sunsets, such binary systems are thought to be inherently unstable, and a potentially lethal hazard to any life-forms considering taking up residence within their spheres of influence.

NASA JPL - Alien Sunsets

see also - Double Stars Aswarm with Planets? over at Centauri Dreams

Bandurria May Rival Caral As Oldest Citadel In Americas

Although the site of Bandurria was actually discovered back in 1970, and at the time appears to have been the residence of modern dwellers who have since been obliged to move house, it is suggested here that it may be an older site than previously estimated, although further details are scant.

Located north of Lima, near the city of Huacho, the Bandurria archaeological centre has been found to have similar structures as those found in Caral. Among the similarities are a circular plaza made with circular borders, and a ceremonial centre made of clay, all in an asymmetrical style.

A couple of unusual discoveries made at the site include a set of clothing, thought to have belonged to one of the original settlers, which says something about the stability of preservation conditions, as well as part of a cotton fishing net.

It is thought that cotton played an important part in the early economies that sprang up along the coastal valleys of Peru, used in what was thought to be a barter system which seemed to include copious quantities of fresh fish.

Darwin 'Was Committed To Publish'

Although published in 1859, 'On The Origin of Species' had actually been completed some two decades earlier, a fact that has prompted speculation that Charles Darwin held back from releasing the text due to doubts and anxieties he had regarding the perceived reaction the book would receive from his peers.

Some say he prevaricated because he feared scorn from scientific colleagues, others that he was concerned about persecution by the church; some even that his ideas might have annoyed his religious wife, or reflected some deep inner psychological turmoil.

But it turns out Darwin preferred to wait a while before publishing other work as well...

The naturalist's book on orchids was not published until 30 years after that research began; he published his earthworms book 42 years after first conceiving the idea.

Apparently much of the delay was caused by what Darwin himself had referred to as 'other work' which included...

...writing up the detailed descriptions of animals, plants and rocks he saw on his career-defining voyage to the Galapagos Islands on HMS Beagle.

In particular, it seems, he spent an inordinate amount of time describing new barnacles - a personal passion.

Strange to think that the humble barnacle may have contributed to the delay in publishing one of the most influential books in the world written in the past couple of centuries.

Mind The Gap: Did Darwin Avoid Publishing His Theory For Many Years? - full text

Pre-Review: 'Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism' edited by Andrew Petto and Laurie Godfrey

Although I'm aware it's customary to actually finish writing a review in its entirety before posting, I've decided to post a link to the book so that readers don't have to wait another couple of days whilst I wade through several thousands words of notes, deciding what to omit from my review.

Because this book is so good and packed full of must-read material, I would recommend buying it now anyway, especially anyone who was previously unsure as to the gravity of the threat now being posed by Intelligent Design, which in its current configuration is little more than a shameless attempt by dyed-in-the-wool Creationists, intent on hijacking the educational system in the US, and probably the entire world. But as will be apparent from the book, the assault on academia is in itself part of a wider campaign to promote a society which is essentially bible-driven.

And while many will say that the Bible actually contains much positive material that can benefit mankind, there are so many wars, massacres and executions that have been conducted by people wielding a weapon in one hand, and Bible with the other, the absolute last thing we as a society want is life lived according to the dictates of what some people claim the Bible advocates.

The book itself comprises a set of 16 essays, in which are included papers from a wide-ranging array of professional from across the scientific spectrum, all experts in their own field, and all with plenty to say regarding the true nature of science and why it is so important that one of the very few spheres of current human activity, i.e. Science, and associated critical thinking and teaching, might one day help us extricate ourselves from some, if not all, our present day problems and woes.

One of the key themes running through the book is that although the ideas of Creationists have changed little in the past quarter century, Science itself has moved in leaps and bounds, and it is of particular note that we today see more and more branches of science collaborating their efforts and knowledge which combine to give far more detailed pictures of who we are and where we came from - but despite these apparent advances, the US boasts a population which overwhelmingly believes in the literal account of Genesis and the Flood, with ideas of human evolution being particularly frowned upon by the religious Right.

In fact, it's the sheer amount of material in the book which makes it difficult to know which parts to leave out whilst writing my review, but still generate a consistent thread through the essay by which the reader can best view the overall picture from afar and up front in close detail.

And even if immediate answers aren't forthcoming - indeed some of the questions now facing Science may never be solved, it's still more than valid to at least try and fathom out some of the deepest mysteries, rather than ascribe it all to a Creator and cease all rational and inquisitive thought. The problems we have in the world today aren't going to be solved by mankind abrogating responsibility for the planet and the biosphere, in the forlorn hope that sooner or later God or ET will turn up to make everything better again. It hasn't happened yet, and it looks increasingly unlikely that such a deus ex machina destiny awaits any of us

This is a mammoth book which aptly demonstrates how these early days in the 21st Century are no time for woolly thinking (sorry, couldn't resist), so please don't stand on ceremony by waiting for me to finish the final version of this review, just make sure you buy a copy as soon as possible - I doubt there's a better book out there dealing with these topics in such a thorough and erudite way, and regardless of the religious issues involved, the information contained in each specialist essay makes each one an excellent read in its own right.

As mentioned at the top of this post, this is more a heads-up than the full review, the remaining parts of which will be added here, before finally being posted both here and elsewhere, so many thanks for your patience while I wade through my overly-written notes, and knock the rest of this review into shape.

For a quick teaser, this link,(scroll down to 3rd clip) will take you to one of the editors, Andrew Petto, talking in a recent radio interview in which he discusses aspects of the book, and particularly why he feels it needed to be published at this point in time.


N.B. Author's note: One thing I would like to request is that people use the National Center For Science Education store link if they are going to buy their books at Amazon. NCSE gets a little donation for each book sold that way, and since NCSE is the only national organization doing nothing but defending evolution against this silliness, it would be good to help them out in any small way we can. Once at the NCSE site, please click on the title or cover image and you'll reach Amazon's page for the book.

29/03/07 - There is now a podcast available, featuring Andrew Petto reading the preface, 'Why We Did It Again', while elsewhere on the same page is a link to the list of contents, as well as sources from which to purchase the book.

American Association Of Physical Anthropologists

Readers might also like to check the following YouTube link..."Creation Science 101" by Roy Zimmerman

n.b. the full review which appeared briefly a couple of posts above this one, is currently in the repair shop for an extensive overhaul, and will re-appear in due course - apologies for that, but there were many elements either lacking in the original, or that should not have been there in the first place, hence the running repairs.

NASA - Saturn's Strange Hexagon

First spotted over 20 years ago by the two Voyager craft, this peculiar hexagonal structure that surrounds the North Pole of Saturn, is not only still in existence, but appears to have grown since those initial images were captured.

"This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is."

And it's not just the shape that's makes this phenomenon so spectacular - estimated to be 15,000 miles wide and extending down into the atmosphere for 60 or 70 miles, its scale and seemingly inherent stability appear to defy explanation, and it will be interesting to see how NASA, ESA and interested others will go about trying to unravel the mystery.

Cassini Images Bizarre Hexagon on Saturn

Encounter with Saturn: Voyager 1 Imaging Science Results

No Hexagonal Wave Around Saturn's Southern Pole - with original 1980 Voyager images of Hexagon

Enceladus Geysers Mask the Length of Saturn's Day

Monkeys' Stone Percussion Studied

Capuchin monkeys living in Brazil are in the news today, following research that has shown how an alarm signal alerting others to the approach of a possible enemy or predator, is communicated by the expedient of banging stones together, in a manner described as loud.

Moreover, it is believed that not only do monkeys within this specific community pass along the skill to each other, but even go so far as to extend their hospitality to strangers, by teaching them as well.

"Dr Antonio Moura from the University of Cambridge, UK carried out his work in the Serra da Capivara National Park, in the Piaui state of north-east Brazil.

The use of stone technology in foraging for food is well known in non-human primates; monkeys will use rocks to crack open nuts.

But this may be the first time they have been seen using stones to create a noise to keep predators away, and warn one another of potential danger.

"Stone-banging could be a social tradition in the population studied" added Antonio Moura.

Dr. Mauro became aware of this behaviour over the course of many visits to the capuchin community, noting that in the initial stages when he was an unknown intruder, much banging of stones accompanied his approaches, whereas over time, and as he became recognised and not perceived to be a threat, this activity decreased markedly.

But to me the most surprising aspect of this behaviour, is as described here...

What is more, captive monkeys released into the area to join the study animals appeared to learn to bang stones as well.

I had always been under the impression that animals released from captivity into the wild were more than likely to be rejected and even attacked and killed by those into whose communities or territories they strayed - so to read here that not only do capuchin monkeys allow them in, but additionally issue these outsiders with security and safety techniques as an aid to their continued well-being, is notable to say the least.

Altruism, in the guise of behaviour that seemingly benefits others rather, or more than, than oneself, has traditionally been one of those areas fiercely debated by those studying early and present human cultures, so to find what might be evidence of similar behaviours in capuchin monkeys is a remarkable find in itself, possibly even more so than the percussive innovations themselves. Although no mention is made here, I briefly wondered whether the capuchins in this research were also trying to teach Dr. Mauro, as he became an accepted outsider, these same warning techniques.

But the oddest aspect of this story, although only semi-related, is still worth a mention - I googled 'capuchin monkey', and the third result links to someone here in Bilbao who has three of them for sale - how can that be? I'm pretty sure they're not native to the area, and I would have thought that such creatures would be on some sort of list which prohibits private ownership. But a quick look at Wikipedia indeed confirms that this species is popular as a pet, and is will be familiar to those who have witnessed organ-grinders on the street, and the like. I'm fairly certain that the UK doesn't permit ownership of such creatures as pets, although unofficially there are doubtless all manner of exotic creatures enduring lives in gilded cages behind closed curtains and locked doors, in any large town or city one cares to visit.

As a quick look at the linked page will show, (though I've decided against posting the actual link), these baby capuchins have been somewhat bizarrely dressed in human baby clothing, which to me just looks weird. However, presumably there is someone out there to whom such images will appear sufficiently beguiling to prompt a purchase. I'm tempted to end by saying something like 'I guess sometimes it's a dog's life, being a full-time pet, and that's all there is to it', but on a more serious note I hope that whoever does end up owning these particular capuchins, they at least take good care of them.

New Evidence Of 'Human' Culture Among Primates

New Map Proves Cook Didn't Discover Australia

Another little piece of history needs to be re-written, with this news that Captain James Cook was rather late in filing a claim to be the man who discovered Australia for the West in 1770. However, there is nothing specifically 'new' about the map mentioned in the headline, and is in fact, quite well known.

For now, that honour is being bestowed upon Portuguese captain Cristovao de Mendonca, who sailing with four ships out of Malacca, (a Sultanate that was later fought over by Portuguese and the Dutch) and on what is termed a secret mission on behalf of his king, Manuel l., "sailed past Fraser Island, into Botany Bay, around Wilsons Promontory and as far as Kangaroo Island before returning to Malacca via the North Island of New Zealand."

According to Australian author Peter Trickett, the evidence for this earlier discovery can be found on a misaligned map, the famed Vallard Atlas, created no later than 1545, one of whose 15 hand-drawn maps appears to indicate that at least one of the cartographers had detailed knowledge of the eastern coastline.

Scholars had long asked why part of one of the Vallard maps - featuring 120 place names in Portuguese, not French - closely resembled the coast of Queensland. But they had dismissed it as a coincidence, because the map suddenly jutted out at right angles for 1500 kilometres, bearing no relation to any known coastline.


However, once part of the map had been rotated 90 degrees..."the entire east coast of Australia, and part of the south coast as far as Kangaroo Island, was revealed in incredible detail."

What isn't revealed by this article is how King Manuel knew of the location in the first place in order to send this small flotilla on an exploratory voyage which may well have taken them into Botany Bay itself.

The reason given for the mystery of why no-one else was privy to the knowledge of a previously unknown continent is because the Portuguese wished to exploit the resources there for themselves, or at least prevent their European rivals from gaining access to them.

There are similarities here to the way in which the modern discovery of the Americas, for so long attributed to Columbus, is now disputed on a regular basis, with claims from the Chinese and Vikings amongst the more familiar. In any event, it is also believed by some that those who financed Columbus were themselves in possession of prior knowledge to the existence of the American continents, hence their willingness to fund the first of his four voyages.

However, Peter Trickett is by no means the first to suggest that de Mendonca and the Poruguese got to Australia first - in 1977, another Australian author, Gordon McIntyre, in his "Secret Discovery of Australia", (1977) proposed that a shipwreck at Warrnambool, known as The Mahogany Ship, was a Portuguese caravel, presumably having been under the command of de Mendonca.

This claim is in turn disputed by former submariner Gavin Menzies, who proposes in his book "1421", that the ship belonged to the Chinese admiral Zheng He, whom he credits with the discovery of both Australia and the Americas.

image of map from here

Need Fiber? Have Some Coffee: Scientific American

As readers may be aware, much of the Internet has traditionally been powered by weapons-grade coffee, a natural resource widely available in shops around the world - it's just a pity that it takes about 25 litres of water to produce a single cup, a stark statistic which alone almost ensures the imminent commercial extinction of this beverage.

Which means we'll probably have to turn in the future to the twin evils of fruit and veg, as a source of fibre - somehow, blogging through dark nights munching forlornly on muesli laced with lettuce leaves doesn't hold quite the same appeal as good coffee, which has the added advantage of actually tasting like something real.

Fulgencio Saura-Calixto and Elena Díaz-Rubio, food scientists at the National Research Council in Madrid,tested the dietary fiber content in three common coffee types: espresso, drip and freeze-dried.

Using a method similar to that used to measure fiber in beer and wine, they treated each type of coffee with enzymes to break apart constituent molecules, then filtered out the water and analyzed the remaining solid compounds. Their findings, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry: all three types of coffee contained between 0.47 and 0.75 grams of fiber per 100 milliliters. Freeze-dried coffee came out on top, most likely, Saura-Calixto says, because its high-temperature preparation process ensures that large amounts of soluble fiber are extracted from the beans.

We are cautioned against over-doing things by relying solely on coffee as a source of fibrous nutrition, advice which on this blog will continue to be cheerfully disregarded long into the shortening evenings.

image 'latte art by Kyle'from here

Alberta's Development Boom Is Pay Dirt For Fossil Hunters

Whilst maybe not internationally recognised for its preservation of past life on Earth, the Province of Alberta in Canada is nevertheless doing its best to remind us that surprises can be uncovered wherever modern man chooses to dig up the ground in the eternal quest for more resources and energy.

We first of all learn of a 9,000 year-old site, presumably a flint mine, where implements long since discarded by now dead human hands, have been recovered.

However, there are numerous sites all over Canada, and with the insatiable demand for gas and oil, new finds are coming to light with great regularity, but such is their abundance, the comparative sparsity of archaeological funding means that many of these sites aren't fully recorded, let alone excavated, before construction projects are completed, and the specimens are once more consigned to long periods of anonymity, often lasting for millions of years at a time.

Fossils and bones from the dinosaur era have turned up. So has evidence of other prehistoric creatures and plants.

Previously unknown sites used by early humans are also being uncovered.

"Every year is a record-breaking year," said Link, who is director of the Heritage Resource Management Branch with Alberta Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture. "Over the last five years, it just goes up, up, up."

But the deluge of artifacts and historical sites also has scientists battling industry concerns that the development projects will be shut down if workers hit upon something interesting. Some scientists are also worried that while history is briefly exposed, funding cuts to research make it tough to pull it out of the ground.

Unlike the US, where recovered artifacts on privately-owned land belong to the landowner, all finds and sites must be announced to the relevant provincial authorities - at present there are some 35,000 sites on a database, which must be scrutinised each time someone wishes to open up large holes in the ground - currently, some 500 requests per month are filed, far outstripping the number of archaeologists and palaeontologists on hand who are able to visit and investigate each site on which ancient remains or artifacts are found, amongst which have been...

In 2001, three complete fossilized skeletons of Lepisosteus, a gar fish that lived 65 million to 55 million years ago, were discovered in a slab of rock near Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, where a new subdivision was being built. Recent development in Calgary has also exposed impressions of leaves and plants, as well as turtles and small animals that are considered to be millions of years old.

And although it might not be possible to dig up each and every discovery, sites can at least be recorded, meaning that in years to come, researchers can go back to likely-looking sites and try to resume operations, albeit in areas where the ground has already been significantly disturbed, which in many cases will mean that the original context of the finds has already been destroyed for ever.

Royal Alberta Museum - Collections

Preserving Alberta

image of Lake Athabasca from here

Prehistory in Primorsky Krai – Vladivostok News

Brief article from Georgia J. Michlig, reporting from Vladivostok, a city not previously visited on this blog, and one that is half a day ahead of us in time-zones.

However it's not so much the city that is home to the Russian Pacific Ocean Fleet that we're discussing here, rather than the region in which it is situated, namely Primorye, which although not immediately familiar by name to many in the west, is nevertheless of great interest to those considering how and when early settlers in the Americas crossed the Beringian land-bridge, which existed at different times throughout prehistory.

Archaeologists speculate that this land bridge could have been a route for the initial human population of North America. This would make the Primorye region, and the area surrounding Vladivostok, a staging ground for one of the most significant mass-migrations in the history of our species.

A few intrepid archaeologists are sifting through what can be reached, with limited resources and limited funding, but information on current archaeology being conducted in the region is hard to come by for the armchair enthusiast. This is unfortunate considering its incredible promise and inherent significance.

Archeological discovery and exploration excite the cultural and historical mind. Such continued archeological investigation has the power to connect the prehistoric past of the Primorsky Krai, and Vladivostok, to the great past of the world.

The author calls for an increase in archaeological research to be conducted in the region, which along with illuminating the rest of the world regarding the presence of humans in the region for what is claimed to be 30,000 years, would also be of great cultural and ultimately material benefit to a part of the world that has traditionally been very difficult for outsiders to access.

I have to say, I know next to nothing about the Upper Palaeolithic occupation of these territories, and I would suppose that many of us are more familiar with the archaeology of the Central Russian Plain, with sites such as Kostienki and Sungir, being the best known to us in the West.

However, Chapter 5 of the linked book, 'American Beginnings'The Prehistory and Palaeoecology of Beringia, edited by Frederick Hadleigh, and published in 1996, might well be worth reading.

Tooth Decay Analysis Supports 'Out Of Africa' Theory Of Human Evolution

Quite a curious tale of tooth decay and the part it has played in helping researchers to confirm the spread of our Homo sapiens ancestors from Africa into the world at large.

The team, led by Page Caufield, a professor of cariology and comprehensive care at NYUCD, discovered that Streptoccocus mutans, a bacterium associated with dental caries, has evolved along with its human hosts in a clear line that can be traced back to a single common ancestor who lived in Africa between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago.

S. mutans is transmitted from mothers to infants, and first appears in an infant’s mouth at about two years of age.

Rather strange - what possible evolutionary benefit could be conferred on a species by the inclusion of an element which causes a valuable 'tool' such as teeth to decay and ultimately disintegrate, which often require extraction - not to mention the sheer pain and and dangerous infections that can often result in the interim.

“As humans migrated around the world and evolved into the different races and ethnicities we know today,” Caufield said, “this oral bacterium evolved with them in a simultaneous process called coevolution.”

It would be interesting to know how this bacterium managed to appear in the first place - did it, for example, coincide with a change in the dietary habits of early modern humans - was it caused by consuming starch or sugars that had not previously been on the palaeolithic menu, or did it jump from another species entirely. It would be good to have an idea of which other animals, presumably mammals, that have been in close contact with humans, and which also suffer from tooth decay caused by similar bacteria, and whether we can also trace their movements over the past few hundred thousands of years.

“By tracing the DNA lineages of these strains,” Caufield said, “We have constructed an evolutionary family tree with its roots in Africa and its main branch extending to Asia. A second branch, extending from Asia back to Europe, traces the migration of a small group of Asians who founded at least one group of modern-day Caucasians.”

Additional branches, tracing the coevolution of humans and bacteria from Asia into North and South America, will be drawn in the next phase of Caufield’s analysis.

And it would certainly be fascinating to discover more about the peopling of the ancient Americas through such research, as well as to find out whether the bacterium, and others like it, confer benefits that we have so far not yet detected - after all, natural selection would surely by now have rooted out a bacterial threat that only caused harm and pain at such a superficial level across so many members of the population, and the fact that Streptoccocus mutans is now available in 60 varieties, indicates that there is a very strong selective element at play.

And if our own natural selection processes are unable to get rid of S.mutans, it can only be a matter of time, and of course a huge leap in orthodontic and genetic technology, before we back-engineer ourselves to a pre-decay state.

It is noticeable that even extremely old fossil teeth, and particularly those which belonged to Neanderthals, often look for all the world as if they had just won an entire series of 'Tooth of Year' competitions, such is their pristine and wholesome appearance.

See also: American Museum of Natural History Exhibits NYU Dental Professor's "Lucy"

NASA - Stereo Eclipse

Just a very quick post, this time from NASA who have released a few images, including a movie, of the Moon transiting the Sun, which were captured as the cameras aboard STEREO-B were being calibrated.

"What an extraordinary view," says Lika Guhathakurta, STEREO Program Scientist at NASA headquarters. The fantastically-colored star is our own sun as STEREO sees it in four wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light. The black disk is the Moon. "We caught a lunar transit of the sun," she explains.

The purpose of the experiment was to measure the 'dark current' of STEREO-B's CCD detectors. The idea is familiar to amateur astronomers: Point your telescope at something black and see how much 'dark current' trickles out of the CCD. Later, when real astrophotography is taking place, the dark current is subtracted to improve the image.

STEREO-B is one of a pair of spacecraft tasked with imaging the Sun, and is 1 million miles 'back' from STEREO-A, the 'advanced' positioned craft, which allows for offset images to be captured, which are then later combined to produce 3-dimensional images of such events as solar storms.

Of particular interest are coronal mass ejections (CMEs), billion ton clouds of electrified gas hurled into space by explosions on the sun. "STEREO's ability to see these clouds in 3-dimensions will revolutionize our understanding of CMEs and improve our ability to predict when they will hit Earth," she says.

The STEREO mission is still in its early stages. The two spacecraft were launched in Oct. 2006 and reached their stations on either side of Earth in January 2007. Now it's time for check-out and calibration. The first 3D views of solar storms are expected in April.

So hopefully, we'll be back in a month or two hence, gazing at suitably wondrous images of our shining parent star.

In the meantime, it's definitely worth paying the STEREO website a visit, as well as bookmarking it for return visits

Anthropology.net | Beyond bones & stones

Just a very quick and somewhat belated post to announce that Kambiz has now updated Anthropology.net, the most immediate effect of which has been to speed up the loading-time quite dramatically.

The site itself has a new but familiar look, the digital equivalent of a fresh lick of paint to coincide with Springtime, but of course all the original material is still there, which itself is added to on a daily basis.

Be sure to check out the media section as well, there are a few good entries there, and it's more than likely that this will be substantially added to in due course.

And if you're up for discussing stuff with interested others, it might be an idea to check the forums as there's plenty to discuss across a wide variety of subjects.

So, many thanks to Kambiz for the update, and don't forget to bookmark Anthropology.net for future and frequent reference.

Amalgamated Friday #3

Over at About.com: Archaeology, Kris Hirst has recently been compiling a weekly round-up of related blogs from around the Net, in response to the growing number of sites that have sprung up in the last year or two. And as it's Friday, as suggested by the headline, it's time for Issue 3, giving ample opportunity for some good weekend reading.

Here's a couple of sites and articles that caught my attention, and although the second article isn't actually mentioned in the original round up, it was such a good article that I included it anyway.

Hannibal Barca's Theophoric Destiny and the Alps

An Archaeology of the Spanish Civil War

Digital Digging

Did the Olmec Know How to Write? Revisiting the Cascajal Block

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection audio files in mp3 format, from Libri Vox

And for a fuller selection of links and stories, with a wide spread of topics, just head over to the Archaeology.about.com site, and be sure to check the front page for this week's articles and news stories from around the world, including one on what has been claimed to be the tomb of Jesus and his family, one on the upcoming summer school at Seep Springs, as well as a look at 'Great Churches in Archaeology'.

image of Seep Spring from here

Scientists Set To Rock The World

Good news for geologists everywhere, and indeed anyone with an interest in the lithic composition of our rocky geosphere, because thanks to the efforts of the folks at the OneGeology project, there should in the future, be access to all the available geological data currently available, through a single Web portal.

Led by the British Geological Survey (BGS), the effort calls on scientists from more than 55 nations.

It hopes to be able to display searchable rock data for the entire Earth down to the scale of 1:1,000,000.

"There is currently a problem of accessibility," said Ian Jackson, the OneGeology Project Leader from BGS.

"We know the data exists; but it's not always clear where it is, and some of it is still in paper form. We want to make more available the data that has already being surveyed, modelled and paid for."

One of the more extraordinary aims of this project is work out how to store carbon dioxide underground, safe from harm. As we see...

Professor John Ludden, executive director of BGS, cited the example of carbon capture and storage, which is being proposed as a possible solution to global warming.

This would see carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the main greenhouse gases, captured at power stations and buried deep underground.

"Some of this is what I call 'big science' - science that no one country or geological survey can do on its own," he said.

It will be of great interest in the short term, and of even greater benefit to us all in the long if a project such as this could actually stop this planet going into runaway meltdown mode. Earlier news this week discussed how Mars is currently undergoing a warming process, claimed by some to be a result of solar irradiance, and cited as a possible cause from warming on thsi planet. And although this idea has been roundly criticised, there will be a nagging doubt in the minds of some, who contend that global warming might be man-made, as well as being generated by our parent star.

If we can avoid the warming, we may yet escape the Ice Age that is predicted to follow hard on the heels of such a episode - but as yet, it's unlikely that we understand enough of the big climatic picture to confidently start planning our summer holidays moer tha a year or two ahead.

Speaking of Summer holidays, OneGeology is hosting an event at the Old Ship Hotel, on the southern coastal resort town of Brighton. Back in the feckless years of remotecentral's youth, I myself worked at that very establishment, in probably one of the most enjoyable jobs I can recall.

This involved my still sleep-stupefied self reprting to the kitchens at an insanely early hour of the morning, (i.e. pre-7 a.m.) making vast quantities tea and coffee, and curiously, after the breakfast customers had slurped their last hot beverages, melba toast - that curly, cold toast in a basket which has probably since vanished from the dining rooms of our restaurants and associated hostelries. As I recall, this meant ordinary white sliced bread, crusts removed, being toasted both sides under a grill, with the toasted result being split through the middle to create two thin slices, whose untoasted sides were then re-introduced to the grill, the process of which curled the toast into the required configuration. Quite possibly the first professional skill I ever acquired, and one which I am sorry to say, have never used since.

The guy in charge of me, Vince, was an old WW2 veteran of the North African campaigns, and naturally referred to our German head chef as 'Rommel' at all times - such was the regard for that commander in the eyes of his own and our troops, this nickname was in fact something of an accolade, albeit a possibly grudging one. But all in all, it was one of those rare times when the entire crew of that kitchen, as a separate band of individuals all congregated together at a single place and time to create a unique combination of faces and personalities that just gelled together in an unforgettable way, nearly 30 years ago.

So if you are one of the people from 55 countries there in Brighton this weekend for the OneGeology, have a tea on me - better to stay clear of the rock cakes though, you'll break your teeth on those for sure.

image of Stair Hole, Lulworth, Dorset, from here

Digging Up the Past: Stone Age Camp Found In Germany

This post will appear shortly and in full at Anthropology.net

Although I covered this story elsewhere back in February, I'm surprised to see no follow-up to the initial release, or much in the way of comment on its possible ramifications.

Also covered is this more recent find...

First-Ever Dwelling Mound Found in Germany

State Archaeologist Casts Doubt On Ancient Find In Walker

Mixed news from Minnesota, in which State Archaeologist Scott Anfinson confirms he thinks it unlikely that the Walker Hill site was a site visited by pre-Clovis humans, casting doubt on the posited stone tools recovered by Leech Lake Heritage Sites archaeologist, Matt Mattson and colleagues.

To continue reading this post, please visit my blog at Anthropology.net, where it should appear in the not too distant future.

Surviving The Hobbit Wars

This article should now be up at Anthropology.net, so please follow the link if you'd like to read it, sorry for the confusion caused by temporarily posting here. If it's not there yet, it should be soon...thanks.

The Carnival of the Godless #61: 'Things God Wants'

Hell's Handmaiden is the site to visit in order to catch the latest Carnival of the Godless, so many thanks due there, and once again there's a huge selection of contribitutions from far and wide, and as soon as I get a chance to check it properly, a round-up of sorts will probably follow.

I should point out that the post from myself was accidentally sent too late for the previous edition, and as such the theme of 'Things God Wants' wasn't directly addressed in my entry, which is a shame because that's a good thought-provoking idea - what would an omnipotent God possibly lack, apart from the ability not to be a God?

image from here

Total Lunar Eclipse

Although it's not often live events get covered here, there is as we speak, a total lunar eclipse happening far in the sky above me - and although the Moon has yet to redden, a large chunk is already obscured by our collective shadow.

The eclipse begins around 3:30 pm EST (2030 UT) when the Moon enters the outskirts of Earth's shadow. During this early stage, it's possible to look at the Moon and not realize anything is happening. Only a hint of shadow cast across the lunar terrain hints of what is to come: By 5:00 pm EST (2200 UT) the difference will be unmistakable -- at least half the Moon is in deep shadow -- and by 6:00 pm EST (2300 UT) the whole Moon will turn a delightful shade of sunset red: animation.

My favourite TV advert referencing the Moon, is probably the Jaffa Cake ad of a few years back, with a teacher speaking English in an eastern European accent addressing her class while holding aloft said orange-jam encased chocolate and sponge confection, circular of course, saying 'Full moon' eats half, 'Half Moon', then eats the rest, before announcing with her mouth full - 'total ecleepse'. She then begins to repeat the process, which will ultimately entail her eating the entire packet. I guess you had to be there in front of the TV, probably c.2003, to appreciate that one, and alth