PLEASE NOTE:
*
CCNet, 66/2000 - 8 June 2000
-----------------------------
"NASA's achievement is like
Napoleon declaring victory
when his troops were assembled before
the battle of Waterloo."
-- F. James
Sensenbrenner, Jr., Chairman,
U.S. House Science Committee
"The shape of Kleopatra remains a
mystery for the time being.
If it tells us anything, it's that we
still have much to learn
about asteroid origins and collisions.
We can expect nothing
less than the unexpected as more members
of the asteroid zoo are
unveiled in the coming years."
-- Duncan Steel, 8
June 2000
"How do you study sex? You can't
really observe it in the way
an astronomer tracks the movement of
planets."
-- New
Scientist, 10 June 2000
(1) THE DOD STAR'S BONE?
The Guardian, 8 June 2000
(2) AUSTRALIAN SCIENTISTS FIND NEW EVIDENCE OF EARLY LIFE
Larry Klaes <lklaes@bbn.com>
(3) SPACE PHOTOS SHED LIGHT ON ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES ON EARTH
Larry Klaes <lklaes@bbn.com>
(4) TURNING SC-FI INTO REALITY: GOOD NEWS FOR PLANETARY DEFENSE
SpaceDaily, 7 June 2000
(5) NEW ROTATIONAL PERIODS OF 18 ASTEROIDS
C. Blanco et al., *)UNIVERSITY OF CATANIA
(6) THE TORINO IMPACT HAZARD SCALE
R.P. Binzel, MIT,DEPT EARTH ATMOSPHER &
PLANETARY SCI
(7) SATELLITE COLLISION RISK
A. Rossi et al., CNR,IST CNUCE,AREA RIC PISA
(8) A PLUTONIUM OPPORTUNITY TO TOXIC TALK?
Bob Kobres <bkobres@uga.edu>
(9) AND FINALLY: IF THERE WERE AWARDS FOR SPIN DOCTORING, THIS
WOULD GET
FIRST PRIZE!
Larry Klaes <lklaes@bbn.com>
===========
(1) THE DOD STAR'S BONE?
From The Guardian, 8 June 2000
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,329559,00.html
Duncan Steel looks at an astronomical anomaly among the asteroids
Thursday June 8, 2000
Astronomers often speak of the cosmic zoo, reflecting the exotic
variety
of phenomena to be seen in the deep space. Pulsars, colliding
galaxies
and superluminous quasars are just a few of the bizarre images
their
telescopes pick up. But right here in the solar system, we still
have a
few surprises in store. Such as an asteroid shaped like a dog's
bone.
Cartoonists tend to draw asteroids as rocky spheres pockmarked by
craters. They're halfway correct. Asteroids not only slam into
the moon
and planets producing craters, but they're also holed themselves
by
smaller projectiles.
But spherical? Only the very largest asteroids - bigger than a
couple of
hundred miles across - have sufficient gravity to pull themselves
into a
completely rounded shape. Smaller bodies are expected to be
irregular in
profile. But just how irregular?
Our vantage point is so far from the main belt between Mars and
Jupiter
that only the largest asteroids can be resolved. Using the Hubble
Space
Telescope, we find that the behemoths such as Ceres (at 600 miles
diameter the largest asteroid), Pallas and Vesta are close to
being 7938
6285 spherical, but we know little about the smaller rocks.
While on its trip to Jupiter Nasa's Galileo spacecraft returned
close-up
photos of Gaspra and Ida, showing these to be angular and
elongated,
like pebbles. No surprises there. Similarly, since the
NEAR-Shoemaker
space probe entered orbit around asteroid Eros in February, it
has sent
back vivid photographs of that body indicating the anticipated
rounded
but non-spherical shape, scattered with craters.
Another way of profiling an asteroid's shape is to use radar.
Over the
past few years Nasa researchers led by Steve Ostro at the Jet
Propulsion
Laboratory in California have taken the briefly available
opportunities
to get radar bounces from various small asteroids whizzing close
by the
Earth, revealing the expected rocky shapes. Some look like
peanuts, some
like potatoes, others like footballs in need of a pumping up.
But the huge numbers of asteroids in the main belt, more than 100
million miles away, were too distant, out of the range of their
radar
equipment. Too far away, that is, until the recent multi- million
dollar
upgrade of the vast radar located at Arecibo in Puerto Rico was
completed, funded by the US National Science Foundation. This has
dramatically improved its sensitivity, making observations of
more
distant objects feasible.
The Arecibo radar employs a dish 1,000 feet across, fixed in
place in a
natural bowl-shaped valley to the north of the island. It is not
steerable in the way that most radio telescopes, such as that at
Jodrell
Bank, can be directed to any point in the sky. So astronomers
using
Arecibo need to choose targets that happen to pass overhead
during their
observation runs.
The first main belt asteroid to be selected was Kleopatra. This
object,
discovered in 1880, was not thought to be remarkable in any way.
It was
just a suitably located target on which to test the new radar
system.
Data from optical telescopes indicated a size of about 100 miles,
and
its colour indicated a metallic composition. Because metals are
good
reflectors of radio waves, a strong echo seemed likely.
This was a complicated experiment. Kleopatra was so far away -
further
away than the sun from the earth - it took the radar pulse 19
minutes to
make the round trip. A strong echo was obtained, but it varied in
a way
which initially perplexed the astronomers. As more data were
collected,
it became possible to build up a picture of the overall shape of
the
asteroid. It looks somewhat like a dumb-bell, 135 miles long and
58
miles wide. "With its dog bone shape, Kleopatra has the most
unusual
shape we've seen in the solar system," commented Ostro.
The best guess is that the surprising shape may be the result of
some
phenomenal inter-asteroid collision many aeons ago. The lumps
thrown off
at high speed in that collision may then have made their way to
our
planet, some of them ending up in museum collections of
meteorites. Many
meteorites have nickel-iron compositions similar to the presumed
make-up
of Kleopatra, making it a candidate parent body for at least some
of
these samples. So maybe we've got some of the meat off the dog's
bone
available for study in our laboratories.
Alternatively, rather than Kleopatra originally having been more
rounded, and disfigured by a cataclysmic collision, perhaps it
gradually
accumulated debris to attain this form.
Another member of the team, Scott Hudson of Washington State
University,
suggests that the asteroid "may once have been two separate
lobes in
orbit around each other with empty space between, subsequent
impacts
filling in the area between the lobes with debris." This
idea has appeal
because the radar echoes also indicate Kleopatra to be somewhat
porous,
rather than one solid lump of metal.
The shape of Kleopatra remains a mystery for the time being. If
it tells
us anything, it's that we still have much to learn about asteroid
origins and collisions. We can expect nothing less than the
unexpected
as more members of the asteroid zoo are unveiled in the coming
years.
* Duncan Steel researches asteroids and comets at the University
of
Salford.
Copyright 2000, The Guradian
============
(2) AUSTRALIAN SCIENTISTS FIND NEW EVIDENCE OF EARLY LIFE
From Larry Klaes <lklaes@bbn.com>
From ABC News, 7 June 2000
LONDON (Reuters) - Australian scientists said on Wednesday they
had
discovered the fossil remains of micro-organisms in
3,235-million-year-old sulphur deposits usually formed by
deep sea
vents on the oceans' floor.
The discovery by Birger Rasmussen, of the University of
Western
Australia in Nedlands, pushes back the existence of known
submarine
life by more than 2,700 million years.
It also adds new evidence to the theory that life on Earth began
in the
very dark, extremely hot deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
"They represent the first fossil evidence of microbial life
in a
Precambrian (about half a billion years ago) submarine
thermal spring
system, and extend the known range of submarine
hydrothermal biota by
more than 2,700 million years" Rasmussen said in a
letter to the
science journal Nature.
"Such environments may have hosted the first living
systems on Earth."
How life began on the planet is a hotly contested issue among
scientists. Some claim it began near the surface bathed in
sunlight,
while others claim it all started near the deep
hydrothermal vents
where light cannot penetrate.
Rasmussen thinks the thread-like fossils are microbes that
inhabited
environments beneath the sea floor and lived at
temperatures near 100
degrees Centigrade (212 F) using inorganic matter as an
energy source.
"Although Rasmussen's work does not show that deep-water
hydrothermal
life came before photosynthetic life, it does lend circumstantial
support to the argument that steps in the early history of
life took
place around hydrothermal systems," Euan Nisbet, of
the University of
London, said in a commentary in Nature.
Copyright ©2000 ABC News Internet Ventures
=======
(3) SPACE PHOTOS SHED LIGHT ON ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES ON EARTH
From Larry Klaes <lklaes@bbn.com>
NASA JSC Release J00-37
hsfnews@vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov
Reply-To: info@jsc.nasa.gov
June 7, 2000
Ann Hutchison
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-5111)
Release: J00-37
ASTRONAUT PHOTOGRAPHS FROM SPACE SHED LIGHT ON CHANGES ON EARTH
Like photo-hungry tourists, the astronauts and cosmonauts who
spent
time on the Russian space station Mir took along cameras and lots
of
film to record their observations. Their photographs are
providing
important new insights into how nature and humans are changing
planet
Earth.
Some of these photographs will be published this month as part of
a new
book of the results of imagery analysis in such areas as urban
growth,
El Niño impacts, and changes in sea levels, coastal vegetation
and land
use. A collaborative effort between NASA and Russian Aviation and
Space
Agency Earth observation experts, Dynamic Earth Environments: New
Observations from Shuttle-Mir Missions will include 16 pages of
color
photographs taken by astronauts and cosmonauts on Mir between
March 1996
and June 1998.
"One advantage of the long-duration program on Mir is that
crews could
observe and record a continuum of changes on the Earth, including
changes from season to season," said Kamlesh Lulla, Ph.D.,
chief of the
Office of Earth Sciences at NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston.
By observing and documenting surface dynamics and processes over
time,
scientists can gain a better understanding of the forces - both
natural
and human-induced - that change the Earth. Some of the 22,000
photographs taken by the Mir astronauts capture natural phenomena
for
the first time, such as lakes in the Andes Mountains drying up.
"Our primary goal was to use photographs taken from space to
document
environmental changes and dynamic Earth processes such as
flooding,
droughts and urban growth around the world," Lulla added.
Other areas of
interest included events related to short-lived phenomena such as
tropical storms, large fires and volcanic eruptions that
otherwise might
have gone undocumented.
A second major objective was to use the experience gained during
actual
space flight to develop approaches and tools for the next
generation of
Earth observations from the International Space Station (ISS).
"The
Shuttle-Mir missions served us well in preparing the NASA Earth
sciences
program for long-duration scientific investigations from the
ISS," Lulla
said.
He cited a variety of benefits from the operational experience
provided
by the Mir flights, including the development and testing of
interactive electronic training and reference software, an
interactive
map, and evaluation of the long-term impact of on-orbit film
reloading,
data recording and camera maintenance. "Most
importantly," Lulla added,
"we learned to plan and communicate effectively from remote
centers
with an international crew."
Astronauts Shannon Lucid, John Blaha, Jerry Linenger, Michael
Foale,
David Wolf and Andrew Thomas, and their Russian crewmates, used
hand-held 35 mm and 70 mm cameras equipped with a variety of
lenses.
They were able to record long-term and seasonal changes in
agricultural
and other land-use patterns, changes in atmospheric conditions,
and
ecological changes such as global deforestation.
"A key factor in the success of the Mir Earth observations
research was
crew initiative," Lulla said. "Some of the best and
most interesting
phenomena cannot be anticipated, but they can be documented by
well-trained astronaut observers."
Before each flight, scientists from various Earth science
disciplines
trained the crewmembers in recognition of Earth features and
processes.
Russian and American scientists then created a list of desired
sites and
requested photography of the sites when conditions permitted.
"A
relatively new focus of investigation was on the production of
aerosols
such as dust, smog and smoke around the world," Lulla said.
Such data
are becoming increasingly important in climate-change modeling,
material
transport and land-use change. Other targets of interest were
sites with
short-term natural dynamics, such as plankton blooms in oceans,
as well
as active and rapidly changing volcanic regions.
The focus and extent of photography varied from crew to crew,
Lulla
said. For example, Lucid and her Russian crewmates documented the
transition from winter to spring to summer in the Northern
Hemisphere.
Foale and his colleagues on Mir recorded key atmospheric changes
related
to the developing 1997 El Niño event, which formed an important
baseline
for tracking the impact of El Niño during subsequent flights.
Thomas
completed documentation of El Niño during the final U.S. flight
on Mir.
Lulla said the book is aimed at a very broad audience, not just
researchers in the Earth science disciplines. "The
photographs contain
valuable and easily understood information about regional
occurrences
and duration of hard-to-measure events," Lulla said.
"Students of the
Earth of all levels should find this book of value." The
book should be
available at large booksellers and libraries, as well as through
academic bookstores.
Astronaut photographs of Earth certainly are not unusual. NASA's
collection, which dates from the early days of the American space
program nearly 40 years ago, numbers some 400,000 images. The
images
taken during the Shuttle-Mir program have been added to the
larger
database of photographs taken by astronauts and cosmonauts during
flights around the Earth and to the Moon.
"This imagery provides us with a global perspective on the
rhythms and
spatial scale of important natural and human-induced events
taking place
on the Earth's surface," Lulla said. "If the
experiences of the
Shuttle-Mir crews are typical, Earth observations by crewmembers
on the
International Space Station will greatly improve both our
database and
our understanding of processes and changes on the Earth," he
added.
In keeping with the international nature of the book, astronaut
Frank
Culbertson and cosmonaut Valery Ryumin - managers of the
Shuttle-Mir
program -- provided the foreword. The volume also has both an
American
and a Russian editor. Editing duties were shared by Lulla and by
Lev
Desinov, Ph.D., of the Institute of Geography of the Russian
Academy of
Sciences in Moscow. Associate editors were Cindy Evans, Julie
Robinson
and Pat Dickerson, senior scientists in JSC's Office of Earth
Sciences.
An on-line database of astronaut photographs from space is
available at
the following Web sites: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
,
http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov
, and http://images.jsc.nasa.gov
===========
(4) TURNING SC-FI INTO REALITY: GOOD NEWS FOR PLANETARY DEFENSE
From SpaceDaily, 7 June 2000
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/laser-00g.html
World's First Ray Gun Shoots Down Missile
Redondo Beach - June 7, 2000 - TRW, the U.S. Army and the
Israel
Ministry of Defence (IMoD) have blazed a new trail in the history
of
defensive warfare by using the Army's Tactical High Energy
Laser/Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator (THEL/ACTD), the
world's
first high-energy laser weapon system designed for operational
use, to
shoot down a rocket carrying a live warhead.
The successful intercept and destruction of a Katyusha rocket
occurred
on June 6 at approximately 3:48 p.m. EDT at the Army's High
Energy
Laser Systems Test Facility (HELSTF), White Sands Missile Range,
New
Mexico.
The shoot-down was achieved during a high-power laser tracking
test
conducted as part of the ongoing THEL/ACTD integration process.
"We've just turned science fiction into reality," said
Lt. Gen. John
Costello, Commanding General, U.S. Army Space & Missile
Defense
Command.
"This compelling demonstration of THEL's defensive
capabilities proves
that directed energy weapon systems have the potential to play a
significant role in defending U.S. national security interests
worldwide."
"This shoot-down is an exciting and very important
development for the
people of Israel," said Major General Dr. Isaac Ben-Israel,
Director of
MAFAT, Israel Ministry of Defence.
"With this success, THEL/ACTD has taken the crucial first
step to help
protect the communities along our northern border against the
kind of
devastating rocket attacks we've suffered recently."
"The THEL/ACTD shoot-down is a watershed event for a truly
revolutionary weapon," said Tim Hannemann, executive vice
president
and general manager, TRW Space & Electronics Group, the
THEL/ACTD
system prime contractor.
"It also provides a very positive opportunity for our
customers to
consider developing more mobile versions of THEL." Any
future THEL
developments would benefit from continued testing and performance
evaluations of the THEL/ACTD's current subsystems, he added.
For this critical first test of THEL/ACTD's defensive
capabilities, an
armed Katyusha rocket was fired from a rocket launcher placed at
a site
in White Sands Missile Range.
Seconds later, the THEL/ACTD, located several miles away at
HELSTF,
detected the launch with its fire control radar, tracked the
streaking
rocket with its high precision pointer tracker system, then
engaged the
rocket with its high- energy chemical laser.
Within seconds, the 10-foot-long, 5-inch-diameter rocket
exploded.
According to Hannemann, the THEL/ACTD shoot-down represents
significant
advancements in the maturity of engineering technologies used to
design
and build deployable directed energy weapon systems.
"In February 1996, as part of the Nautilus laser test
program, TRW, the
Army and the IMoD used the Mid Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser
(MIRACL) and the SeaLite Beam Director installed at HELSTF to
intercept and destroy a Katyusha rocket," he said.
"Those tests established high-energy laser lethality against
short-range rocket threats, but we had to use a large
facility-based
laser and beam control system to perform the test." By
contrast, he
added, THEL/ACTD was designed and produced as a stand-alone
defensive
weapon system.
Its primary subsystems have been packaged in several
transportable,
semi-trailer-sized shipping containers, allowing it to be
deployed to
other test or operational locations.
The U.S. currently has no weapon systems capable of protecting
soldiers
or military assets involved in regional conflicts against
short-range
rocket attacks.
Conventional missile-based defense systems, such as the Army's
Theater
High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Patriot Advanced
Capability -3
(PAC-3), are designed to defend against longer range threats such
as
Scud missiles.
By comparison, tactical directed energy systems such as THEL/ACTD
send
out "bullets" at the speed of light, allowing them to
intercept and
destroy "last minute" or low-flying threats such as
rockets, mortars or
cruise missiles on a very short timeline.
"It's pretty hard to run from a laser," said Hannemann.
The THEL/ACTD was designed, developed and produced by a TRW-led
team of
U.S. and Israeli contractors for the U.S. Army Space &
Missile Defense
Command, Huntsville, Ala., and the Israel Ministry of Defence.
Requirements for the system have been driven in part by Israel,
which
needs to protect civilians living in towns and communities along
its
northern border against rocket attacks by terrorist guerrillas.
TRW has been engaged in laser research and development since the
early
1960s. The company produces solid-state lasers for defense and
industrial applications, and designs and develops a variety of
high-energy chemical lasers for space, ground and airborne
missile
defense applications.
Copyright 2000, SpaceDaily
===========
(5) NEW ROTATIONAL PERIODS OF 18 ASTEROIDS
C. Blanco*), M. DiMartino, D. Riccioli: New rotational periods of
18
asteroids. PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE, 2000, Vol.48, No.4,
pp.271-284
*)UNIVERSITY OF CATANIA,IST ASTRON,VIALE A DORIA 6,I-95125
CATANIA,ITALY
The results of photoelectric observations of 18 main-belt
asteroids are
discussed. The V-band lightcurves, the B-V colors, and the values
of
the synodic rotational period are presented. There exists no
previous
determination of the period for 13 of them. (C) 2000 Elsevier
Science
Ltd. All rights reserved.
==========
(6) THE TORINO IMPACT HAZARD SCALE
R.P. Binzel: The Torino Impact Hazard Scale. PLANETARY AND SPACE
SCIENCE, 2000, Vol.48, No.4, pp.297-303
MIT,DEPT EARTH ATMOSPHER & PLANETARY SCI,BLDG 54 ROOM 410,77
MASSACHUSETTS AVE,CAMBRIDGE,MA,02139
Newly discovered asteroids and comets have inherent uncertainties
in
their orbit determinations owing to the natural limits of
positional
measurement precision and the finite lengths of orbital arcs over
which
determinations are made. For some objects makings predictable
future
close approaches to the Earth, orbital uncertainties may be such
that a
collision with the Earth cannot be ruled out. Careful and
responsible
communication between astronomers and the public is required for
reporting these predictions and a 0.10 point hazard scale,
reported
inseparably with the date of close encounter, is recommended as a
simple and efficient tool for this purpose. The goal of this
scale,
endorsed as the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, is to place into
context
the level of public concern that is warranted for any close
encounter
event within the next century. Concomitant reporting of the close
encounter date further conveys the sense of urgency that is
warranted.
The Torino Scale value for a close approach event is based upon
both
collision probability and the estimated kinetic energy (collision
consequence), where the scale value can change as probability and
energy estimates are refined by further data. On the scale,
Category 1
corresponds to collision probabilities that are comparable to the
current annual chance for any given size impactor. Categories
8-10
correspond to certain (probability >99%) collisions having
increasingly
dire consequences. While close approaches falling Category 0 may
be
no cause for noteworthy public concern, there remains a
professional
responsibility to further refine orbital parameters for such
objects
and a figure of merit is suggested for evaluating such objects.
Because
impact predictions represent a multi-dimensional problem, there
is no
unique or perfect translation into a one-dimensional system such
as the
Torino Scale. These limitations are discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
===============
(7) SATELLITE COLLISION RISK
A. Rossi*), G.B. Valsecchi, P. Farinella: Collision risk for high
inclination satellite constellations. PLANETARY AND SPACE
SCIENCE,
2000, Vol.48, No.4, pp.319-330
*) CNR,IST CNUCE,AREA RIC PISA,VIA ALFIERI 1,I-56010 PISA,ITALY
We assess the collision hazard for a constellation of
telecommunication
satellites such as IRIDIUM, arising from the possible chance
impact
break-up of one of the satellites. The resulting swarm of
fragments
will orbit the Earth at about the same altitude as the surviving
satellites, but will gradually spread due to orbital
perturbations, so
as to make possible impacts with satellites staying on orbital
planes
different from that of the parent satellite. We find that at
intermediate fragment masses of the order of 1 kg, sufficient to
trigger subsequent catastrophic impacts, the self-generated
collision
hazard for the constellation satellites exceeds the background
level
due to the overall debris population for several years. This is
true,
in particular, when differential precession of the orbits leads
the
fragments to encounter satellites revolving around the Earth in
the
opposite sense, resulting both in higher impact speeds and in
enhanced
collision probabilities. We estimate that there is about a 10%
chance
that a first-generation fragment will trigger subsequent
disruptive
collisions in the constellation within a decade. (C) 2000
Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
===========================
* LETTERS TO THE MODERATOR*
===========================
(8) A PLUTONIUM OPPORTUNITY TO TOXIC TALK?
From Bob Kobres <bkobres@uga.edu>
A plutonium opportunity?
Excerpted from:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/415110.asp?0m=-13P
At their get-together on Sunday Putin and Clinton announced a
landmark
agreement on destroying weapons-grade plutonium stocks. The two
leaders
agreed that their countries each would dispose of 34 tons of
weapons-grade plutonium and provide early warnings of missile and
space
launches.
The plutonium would be enough to build tens of thousands of
nuclear
weapons. The deal calls for the "safe, transparent and
irreversible
disposition" of the material. Details of the agreement had
been worked
out in advance of the weekend meeting.
"This is the first, permanent U.S.-Russia military agreement
ever,"
Clinton told a news conference with Putin. "It is a
milestone in
enhancing strategic stability and I welcome it." [...]
The plutonium agreement was something of a consolation prize and
allowed Clinton to walk away from the summit's most substantive
meetings with a deal.
Although disposing of the plutonium will cost a total of $5.75
billion
- $4 billion in the United States and $1.75 billion in Russia -
the
deal will eliminate the possibility of the material falling into
the
wrong hands. Other countries will be asked to contribute to the
program's cost.
The Russian plutonium is to be converted for use in civilian
nuclear
power reactors. Some of the U.S. material will be used for
reactors,
and the rest will be buried.
The International Atomic Energy Agency will monitor the carrying
out of
the agreement, which could take 20 years.
About 25 members of Greenpeace, some dressed in military garb,
protested outside the U.S. Embassy as Clinton's motorcade passed
by.
The environmental group complained that the plutonium deal would
cause
greater environmental damage because the material would be used
in
nuclear reactors.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Six billion $mackers and 34 tons of plutonium could provide a
good
start and justification for an international lunar base. A
storage/research/observatory facility located in a polar region
of the
Moon would seem a safe and feasible goal over a twenty year
period.
This approach not only removes the biologically toxic plutonium
from
our terrestrial environment, it also provides an ample store of
already
in Space PHO-repellant when the need ultimately arises.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The times they do change, but on schedule?
The notion that glacial and interglacial periods have some
intrinsic
length of duration is probably incorrect. Also, if conditions
were so
starkly impoverished during the "Ice Age" then how'd
them beaver get so
BIG!/?
http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/beavlink.html#giantbeaver
Below is an excellent collection of up-to-date info on this
different
yet rich time. From: http://www.peak.org/csfa/pubs.html#part4
Ice Age Peoples of North America: Environments, Origins, and
Adaptations of the First Americans, edited by Robson Bonnichsen
and
Karen L. Turnmire. Oregon State University Press. 536 pages.
Hardcover.
$49.95.
An up-to-date summary of important new discoveries from Northeast
Asia
and North America that are changing perceptions about the origin
of the
First Americans. The 19 papers collected here provide regional
archaeologcal syntheses and address such topics as ice marginal
dynamics, the impact of plant nutrients in glacial margins, and
periglacialecology of large mammals. 8-1/2-by-11-inch format with
over
200 illustrations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Toxic talk?
Benny, jabs from the Right are no less apt to be bogus than
rhetoric
from the Left. When people resort to name calling or lay
psychoanalysis
it's a pretty good sign that objectivity is a minor factor in
their
spiel. I don't think we need to propagate divisive verbiage in
this
forum!
I've not met anyone who is always correct. If someone is
genuinely
concerned with working toward a sustainable social arrangement
for our
species, I at least view that their heart is in the right place.
Too
many people prefer not to make an effort because they feel their
god
will have the final say anyway or they just don't really care
much
about what happens beyond their local personal-space/time
horizon.
Clearly traditional ways have been shown to have value:
http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/05/05312000/india_2757.asp
I would also highly recommend this book:
http://www.ecobooks.com/water.htm
Implementing low tech solutions is not an inevitable return to
disease
and poverty as implied by Peter Foster's review of Strong's new
book.
For example: http://wild.allindia.com/case3.htm
The forest-facts above clearly contradict certain arguments of
both
parties in the following exchange excerpted from:
http://www.greenspirit.com/Ecoissues6.htm
I recently attended a reception for Robert Kennedy Jr. of the
Natural
Resources Defense Council in a small art gallery in a trendy part
of
New York City. I found myself standing with a group of
environmental
activists who were having a lively conversation about the
desirability
of wood-free paper. A young woman reported that she was hoping to
get
tobacco farmers to grow kenaf instead of tobacco, with the
apparent
intention of earning double eco-points by simultaneously saving
trees
from death and people from lung cancer. "Wouldn't it be
better," I
offered, "to plant trees that are native to the area and use
them to
make paper? In that way the tobacco farms could be put back to
something like the original eastern hardwood forest." To
this came the
quick reply, "People can't plant a forest, only nature can
produce a
forest. People can only plant trees." Surprised by this I
tried again:
"But surely it would be better to plant native trees than
some exotic
sub-tropical annual farm crop that needs pesticides and
fertilizer.
Birds and squirrels would like trees more than kenaf." This
line of
reasoning got nowhere. When I suggested that if all the paper
derived
from wood had to be replaced with wood-free paper we would end up
deforesting vast areas of the continent to get enough land to
grow hemp
and kenaf, my listeners' eyes rolled back and I could see I was
dismissed. It amazes me that some people can't understand that if
you
don't use trees to make paper and other forest products there is
less
reason to plant and grow trees. The next thing you know there
will be a
campaign for "tree-free wood."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Personal attacks on individuals such as the Forest Action Network
(FAN)
launched against Patrick Moore have no positive value.
http://www.greenspirit.com/notaliar.htm
Let's avoid further rhetoric and stick to specific issues. There
are
plenty of problems and plenty of opinions on how to solve them. I
suspect that if we do make it unscathed through these rapidly
changing
conditions our new knowledge has engendered it will be because we
elected to work together in establishing an economic system that
is
more closely aligned with the rules of Nature than with the rule
of
artificial banking systems.
Later.
bobk
===========
(9) AND FINALLY: IF THERE WERE AWARDS FOR SPIN DOCTORING, THIS
WOULD GET
FIRST PRIZE!
From Larry Klaes
From Space.Ref, 7 June 2000
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=1980
PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Wednesday, June 07, 2000
House Science Committee
You've Got to be Kidding: NASA Hails Mars Polar Lander's Robotic
Arm as
a Success Committee on Science
F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., Chairman
Ralph M. Hall, Texas, Ranking Democrat
www.house.gov/science/welcome.htm
June 7, 2000
Press Contact:
Jeff Lungren ( Jeff.Lungren@mail.house.gov
)
(202) 225-4275
How Does NASA Know?
The Lander Crashed and The Arm Was Never Deployed
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a recent annual performance report, NASA
declared
"target achieved" with the Mars Polar Lander's robotic
arm, even though
NASA lost the Lander probe in December, 1999. A single line of
missing
computer code caused the spacecraft to crash into the surface of
Mars;
as a result, the robotic arm-and all of the other scientific
instruments
aboard the Lander-were never deployed.
The Polar Lander was to land on Mars and perform an investigation
of the
planet's soil and climate, in part by using a robotic arm to
scoop up a
sample of Martian soil and analyze it for the presence of water.
Knowledge about water on Mars will help answer the question of
whether
the Red Planet is--or ever was--capable of supporting life.
"A lot of phrases came to my mind upon hearing the Mars
Polar Lander was
lost. 'Performance target achieved' was certainly not among them.
By
demonstrating merely that the robotic arm worked prior to launch,
NASA
claims success in the Performance Report, even though the mission
failed
and the arm was never used as intended. If this is NASA's
definition of
success, planetary exploration just got a whole lot easier,"
House
Science Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., (R-WI)
said.
"NASA's achievement is like Napoleon declaring victory when
his troops
were assembled before the battle of Waterloo."
According to NASA's fiscal year 1999 Performance Report, the only
performance target for the Mars Polar Lander was to
"Demonstrate an
advanced robotic manipulator with an order of magnitude
performance
improvement compared to the manipulator used on Viking in
1976" [p. 12].
NASA's report continued, "Despite the later failure of the
Mars Polar
Lander to land successfully, the manipulator system passed
acceptance
tests prior to launch" [emphasis added], leading NASA to
declare "target
achieved."
"Such nonsense from NASA calls into question the report's
credibility. I
hope to hear better answers from NASA on the Mars Polar Lander
when
Administrator Goldin testifies before this Committee later this
month,"
Chairman Sensenbrenner added.
Watch the award-winning arm move here:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/lander/
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