A colorful November sunrise in Southern California.
Environment
Hurricanes on Jupiter Must be the President’s Fault
How long before the Democrats blame this on George Bush‘s reluctance to sign the insane Kyoto Pact?
Jupiter’s Massive Winds Likely Generated From Deep Inside Its Interior, Scientists Report
A new computer model indicates Jupiter’s massive winds are generated from deep within the giant planet’s interior, a UCLA scientist and international colleagues report in the journal Nature.
This image shows results from a computer simulation of Jupiter’s winds. The color contours show wind speed with red representing eastward flows and blue representing westward flows. (Credit: Dr. Moritz Heimpel, University of Alberta, Department of Physics)
Jupiter’s powerful winds are very different from those on Earth. They continually circle the planet, and have changed very little in the 300 years that scientists have studied them. Massive east-west winds in Jupiter’s equatorial region reach approximately 340 miles per hour — twice as rapid as winds generated by strong hurricanes on Earth. At higher latitudes, the wind pattern switches to alternating jets that race around the planet.
See “Jupiter’s Massive Winds Likely Generated From Deep Inside Its Interior, Scientists Report” from Science Daily for the complete article.
And, by the way, mankind is not the cause of Global Warming.
Alligators in the Sewers, Part V
The story surrounding Reggie, the alligator in Harbor Regional Park, keeps getting stranger and stranger.
From the Daily Breeze: The alligator is still at large, but T-Bone isn’t
Sometimes you’re the hunter and sometimes you’re the prey.
Thomas “T-Bone” Quinn, the colorful New Orleans man who tried — and failed — last month to catch a defiant alligator loitering in a Harbor City lake, has himself been captured and shipped back home, court records show.
Quinn was arrested by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies Oct. 20 and extradited to Louisiana Nov. 5. Quinn’s mother said he was trying to start a new life in Los Angeles when he was nabbed for outstanding warrants related to probation violations. It seems Quinn was on parole, after serving time in prison for writing bad checks, said Sandy Quinn Barton from her home in Augusta, Ga. “He knew he was going to get picked up,” she said. “He’d have to know that. This is not his first rodeo.”
Photo: Thomas “T-Bone” Quinn – Brad Davison/Daily Breeze
Read the entire story.
Alligators in the Sewers, Part IV
I think this is just a publicity stunt by Steve Irwin, Australian celebrity reptile expert, who thinks it’s OK to dangle his infant child in the proximity of a dangerous crocodile.
See my previous post on Alligators
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From the Daily Breeze: Reggie faces trouble from Down Under croc-catcher
“Crikey, mate!” That Reggie better watch his back now.
TV’s famous Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, came to town Tuesday and spent nearly two hours poking around Reggie’s watery digs in Harbor City’s Machado Lake.
Looking ready for action in his trademark khaki shorts and boots, the celebrity known for his fearless and often zany antics in stalking and capturing all manner of dangerous snakes, crocodiles and alligators gazed calmly across the lake under gloomy, overcast morning skies, in search of the elusive 6-foot alligator.
From the Sydney Morning Herald: Steve Irwin baby concerns prompt law change
Photo: Steve Irwin feeds a croc whilst holding on to his baby.
Steve Irwin’s decision to hold his baby son near a crocodile has sparked a review of Queensland Government crocodile enclosure guidelines.
The State Government yesterday released the new rules prohibiting children and any untrained adult from entering crocodile enclosures.
In January last year, Mr Irwin, known as the Crocodile Hunter, held his baby son Bob close to a crocodile at his Australia Zoo on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
The incident was captured by television cameras, sparking an international outcry and a review of crocodile handling practices.
This doofus just happens to be in town to appear on Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien shows. Hollywood Access apparently tipped Irwin about Reggie, and (of course) he jumped at the chance.
Hauling Ass – er – Asteroid, that is
From SPACE.com — Gravity-Powered Asteroid Tractor Proposed to Thwart Impact:
A concept spacecraft could use gravity to tow asteroids away from a collision course with earth. Credit: Dan Durda – FIAAA / B612 Foundation.
An asteroid the size of two football fields could wipe out a large city or set off a series of tsunamis across the world. The threat of such an Earth-smashing asteroid has lead scientists to dream up several methods of defending the planet against such a catastrophe.
Solutions have ranged from pushing the asteroid with a spacecraft to mounting a thruster on its surface. But pushing it would require too much fuel and could break up the asteroid. Also, asteroids rotate, which could complicate the firing of a surface thruster.
Now, two NASA astronauts have presented a plan for an “asteroid tractorâ€â€”an unmanned, 20-ton spacecraft that uses the invisible bond of gravity to gently pull an asteroid into a new, non-threatening orbit.
Related item: check out my Space Rocks animation.
UPDATE: The Space Tractor is featured on today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day.
The Sky is Falling!
You may have noticed some fireballs overhead the last few nights. It’s the annual Taurids meteor shower, seen as the Earth passes through the orbit of Comet Encke. This from SpaceWeather.com:
FIREBALL SIGHTINGS: In recent nights, sky watchers have seen some spectacular fireballs. Experts suspect it’s the Taurid meteor shower, a display caused by debris from Comet Encke.
Photo: a Taurid fireball photographed by Hiroyuki Iida of Toyama, Japan on Oct. 28th.Most years the Taurid shower is weak, producing few meteors, mostly dim. 2005 appears to be different. Earth may be passing through a “swarm” of pebbles and rocks within the larger cloud of Taurid space dust. The pebbles are responsible for the fireballs.
The 2005 Taurid meteor shower is not over. Indeed, it’s just beginning. Forecasters expect the complex shower to peak during the first two weeks of November. So keep an eye on the sky!
Read the full story from Science @ NASA.
