Wednesday Words

Almost forgot it was Wednesday, but don't worry: I remembered. So per request, here are my favorite defintions from last week's edition (there are a few more good ones in the comments):

dubtrala, when you come crawling back home at 6am after an all-night boozefest, à la Dubya. (Randal, and very close to my take on the word)

(Close second) - a reggae remix of a song from an early Disney movie (Anonymous)

sudlibbi- Leftists from southern Germany. (Dean)

boodeval- the process by which something scary loses it's fright value (devalues) if it's repeated too many times. (Dean)

anooks - a movement for truth in ethnographic filmmaking, formed in reaction to famed but highly staged documentary "Nanook of the North." (Anonymous; my definition was "street talk used by a guy to describe an extended period of involuntary celebacy: "I been anooks fer over a month, man!)

ingedup- what a sleeping drunk says when you try to wake him (Anonymous- this one becomes clearer if you space out the first two letters: I n gedup)

Xrstian Monsters

Blogger buddy Dean Wormer has posted on this story before, but it keeps getting crazier and crazier, and nastier and nastier. From OregonLive:

Ava Worthington came into the world at a robust 10 pounds and 21 or 22 inches, according to testimony today in the faith-healing trial of her parents, but she died smaller than 99 percent of girls her age. Her development was so stunted she "was off the charts," said Dr. Christopher Young, the deputy state medical examiner who conducted her autopsy. At death, when Ava was 15 months old, she weighed 15.5 pounds and was 26 inches tall, Young testified today in Clackamas County Circuit Court. The girl's parents, Carl Brent and Raylene Worthington, are charged with criminal mistreatment and manslaughter for failing to get adequate medical treatment for their daughter. The Worthingtons' Oregon City church, the Followers of Christ, shuns medical care in favor of faith healing.

It has been suggested that the emotional pain the parents are going through is so intense that they shouldn't be criminally prosecuted. My argument is this: the parents knew their daughter was very, very sick. They sought no medical attention for her, but they did have members of their church pray for her. Despite all the prayers, she died of (what was later determined) to be pneumonia that could have been successfully treated with antibiotics. As the passage above indicates, more and more evidence is accumulating of a persistant pattern of abuse and mistreatment, of systematically withholding basic needs of the child. Note that in one year and three months, the baby's weight had increased only 50%.

So my response is this: the couple should have the charges dropped, they should be sterilized, they should be labeled as child abusers, and not allowed within 1000 feet of any other children... as we do with sex offenders. That might prevent them from going to their church; that's too bad, but them's the breaks.

Oh, and we should prohibit them from getting a divorce.

I expect within a year or two, one will kill the other, and we can put the survivor away for murder.

Sound fair?

Followup: Here's another article...

Carl Brent Worthington told detectives in tapes played for jurors today that his family tried praying, fasting and laying on of hands but never considered calling a doctor to help his dying 15-month-old daughter. "I don't believe in them," Worthington said of doctors. "I believe in faith healing."

Lethal injection is too good for these zealots.

Johnny Hit-and-Run Palin

OK, I'm such a sucker for the band X that I just had to steal the title of this post from DougJ at Ballon Juice, who tipped me off to this story from Vanity Fair. John McCain is quoted as saying,

"We have, I’m happy to say, a lot of choices out there: Bobby Jindal, Tim Pawlenty, Huntsman, Romney, Charlie Crist—there’s a lot of governors out there who are young and dynamic.” McCain went on, “There’s a lot of good people out there, and I’ve left out somebody’s name and I’m going to hear about it.”

Hee, Hee! The album "Los Angles" got heavy play at the local college radio station, KBVR, when I was and undergrad, and I've owned at least two copies of it, in addition to the cassette copy I listened to most often. Just so I can say I added something to a shameless swiping of someone else's post, here the song that the title refers to...

Congratulate Al Franken, and a Dedication

As I'm sure most of my readers know, yesterday the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld Al Franken's victory in that state's Senatorial election last fall. And Coleman quickly conceded, choosing not to take the last litigation step available to him: appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Thank God.

I tend not to bother commenting on news that I feel has disseminated quickly and widely, unless I have a perspective that I haven't seen expressed well elsewhere. And there are a lot of bloggy pundits out there who are better informed and sharper than me, so I don't comment on big news too much, and I hadn't been intending to comment on Franken's victory.

But MoveOn.org just sent me an opportunity to leave a message on Franken's virtual victory card, and doing so was a strangely fulfilling experience that I wanted to pass along. Below is Franken's messge to MoveOn members, and here's the link to sign the card.

What a day! I just wanted to take a moment amidst all this to say thank you to the MoveOn members in Minnesota and across the country.

Paul Wellstone understood that real change comes from the ground up. And there's really no better example of that than MoveOn.org.

You've been there for me since the beginning. And I look forward to working with you as a U.S. senator to make the progressive vision we all share into a reality: affordable health care for all, new jobs from clean energy, and an economy that works for everyone.

Thank you for all you do.

Senator-elect Al Franken

Congratulations, Al! This one's for you! It's time to make politics funny again.

I'm Shocked! Just Shocked!

To hear:

Records show ExxonMobil gave hundreds of thousands of pounds to lobby groups that have published 'misleading and inaccurate information' about climate change. The world's largest oil company is continuing to fund lobby groups that question the reality of global warming, despite a public pledge to cut support for such climate change denial, a new analysis shows.

From The Guardian (and take a look at some of the linked information). I am just so thankful to live in a society where we recognize that the right of a corporation to rake in profits (so large most people cannot comprehend numbers of that magnitude) far outweighs the right of people and the planet to survive with some modicum of sanity. Here's another juicy bit:

The Heritage Foundation published a "web memo" in December that said: "Growing scientific evidence casts doubt on whether global warming constitutes a threat, including the fact that 2008 is about to go into the books as a cooler year than 2007."

Yay! I lost my job, I lost my insurance, and I lost my house, but I found a buck on teh street today! The trend is looking good!

Sarychev Timelapse

When the International Space Station (ISS) caught the Sarychev eruption a couple of weeks ago, there were a couple of the images that went mainstream very quickly. I posted one myself, and at that post, as well as my last post, there are a number of links to the ISS images. Well, someone has done us a great favor and put the images together in a video clip. One caveat: the features identified as "lahars" are actually pyroclastic flows. Lahars are volcanic mudflows, and are not necessarily associated with active eruptions, though they often are. (For this and other posts where I talk about lahars, click here) I don't doubt for a second that there are lahars down under the dense billowing masses of suspended ash as they tear down the mountain side, but what you actually see in the pictures are clouds of ash suspended in air, not mudflows, and are more accurately described as pyroclastic ("fire-broken") flows.

The next task is to morph between frames to smooth out the jerkyness, as was done with the famous Mt. St. Helens photos, to create this famous (and also very awesome) clip:

Sarychev Sunsets

The sunsets here have been quite lovely the last few days, and I suspected that the ash and sulfur dioxide plume from the recent eruptions at Sarychev were responsible. SpaceWeather has confirmed that with a nice photo gallery of colorful sunsets. SpaceWeather also posted a set of photos of the eruption as captured from the ISS that allow sterescopic viewing either with a stereoscope or cross-eyed. Or, if you prefer, APOD posted a red-green glasses version a few days ago.

GIF animation of satellite data showing the movement of Sarychev SO2 (orange) from June 21-26

So how does this work? SO2 oxidizes to sulfate, SO4, in the atmosphere. The sulfate, in turn, forms very small haze particles. Tiny particles of either solid sulfate or liquid sulfuric acid in the stratosphere are very effective at scattering out the red light component of (white) light coming from the sun. The light not scattered out is thus left "bluer" or "more violet" than would ususally be the case. Consider the standard ROYGBIV representation of the spectrum... if you scatter out more of the longer wavelengths (the red end), you're left with a proportionally intensified violet end: roygBIV. So during volcanic sunsets, reds and oranges are intensified near the horizon, blues in the mid sky, and purple-violet overhead. (see the Wikipedia "sunset colors" for more info)

Incidentally, if the sulfate is in the lower, mixing portion of the atmosphere (the troposphere, from ground level to ~10+ km), it just makes haze. The sulfate needs to be in the next level up, the stratosphere, to get the great color. This is why sunsets in areas that rely on coal-burning have pretty bland colors. The smokestacks don't get the resulting SO2 up high enough.

My limited perambulations don't really get me to open areas where I can see sunsets uncluttered with buildings and trees, but it might be worth my while to walk over to the west end of campus this evening to see what I can see.

A Sewer I Particularly Don't Want to Visit

Oh my. It's not as if I've ever spent much time in sewers (though in high school, I did have a habit of exploring the storm drains in my home town). But this is too creepy:

The blogger who found this claims they're bryzoans, but doesn't explain how he's confident of this. Other suggestions in the YouTube comments include cnidarians (jellyfish, coral and anenomies are examples), land snails (slugs), and slime molds, among others, and of course everyone is suspicious of CG shenanigans. The comments are looking through for a while; some are very witty and funny. Here's an excerpt from a thread that cracked me up:

dat1337vet

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

benscottproductions

Game over, man. Game over, what the F are we supposed to now, huh, what are we gonna do?



kingpig21

Maybe we could build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh? Why don't we try that?

fresshness2001

ok look, this is an emotional moment for all of us, ok? I know that. But let's not make snap judgements, please. This is clearly, clearly an important species that we're dealing with and I don't think that you or I or anybody has the right to arbitrarily exterminate them. Look, I'm not blind to what's going on, but I CANNOT authorize that kind of action, I'm sorry.

Followup, a couple hours later... I found this quote on another blog:

Thanks for the video – I had not see it before. No, these are not bryozoans! They are clumps of annelid worms, almost certainly tubificids (Naididae, probably genus Tubifex). Normally these occur in soil and sediment, especially at the bottom and edges of polluted streams. In the photo they have apparently entered a pipeline somehow, and in the absence of soil they are coiling around each other. The contractions you see are the result of a single worm contracting and then stimulating all the others to do the same almost simultaneously, so it looks like a single big muscle contracting.

OK... whatever it is, you're sayin' this is fer realz? I've fed Tubifex to fish before... I don't remember them looking like the above.

The Blooming of ASTER Data

An image of Death Valley - the lowest, driest, and hottest location in North America - composed of a simulated natural color image overlayed with digital topography data from the ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model. (BBC)

The BBC is reporting that data from Japan's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (Aster) aboard the Terra satellite has been combined to create the world's most complete terrain map ever:

"This is the most complete, consistent global digital elevation data yet made available to the world," said Woody Turner, Nasa programme scientist on the Aster mission. "This unique global set of data will serve users and researchers from a wide array of disciplines that need elevation and terrain information."

And after a quick look around, here is the host site. I'll look around a bit more; I suspect the file is larger than I want to deal with, at least until I open up some more space on my hard drive.

Followup: The map appears to be a massive data set, not an immediately viewable "map." I expect it will eventually trickle into Google Earth, which is the app I'll continue using for the time being.

What I Think

Context here and here.

No Doubt

Of course, the Big O has been encouraging much of the watering himself. And added his contribution of fertilizer runoff. From OregonLive.

Slo-mo Katrina

Images courtesy Mike Blum via NASA (a representation of the predicted results of sea-level rise, subsidence and added sediment for the Mississippi Delta region for 2100)

I had already read and starred this article from The Guardian earlier, but the above graphic from National Geographic struck me as a... well, umm... very graphic portrayal of the results of denialism. Krugman lays it on pretty heavily in today's column. In terms of science results, he's not laying out anything that's really new to me... but then I'm a science nerd. This is an issue I follow pretty closely, and I have been feeling more and more panicky about the situation. There doesn't seem to be a broad public understanding that however bad the climatic forecasts were 4 or 5 years ago, the research and modeling, along with a torrent of new data, have led climatologists to revise their planetary prognosis from grim to much worse.

It's not that there's no good news; here's an example from yesterday, about how the Chinese are developing the technology to route the exhaust from coal burning through what amount to algae reactors. The algae can then be farmed as a source of both biofuel and animal feed. I know parallel research with algae is going on in a number of countries, including the US. Good idea, but there's a lot left unsaid. Algae and other photosynthetic organisms need lots of nutrients in addition to the raw ingredients of CO2 and water... how are those supplied? How close is this to being practical?

And that's the thing that terrifies me: what we have already done has created more damage than we even thought possible a few years ago. Five years ago it looked like a 4 degree (F) rise over the course of this century. Now it looks like 9 degrees. Over the last two summers, the meltback of the Arctic ice sheet has approached or exceded ranges predicted for mid century, and exceded ranges predicted for the end of the century by a number of more optimistic models. And it doesn't look, to me at least, as if we're within a decade, or even two, of having practical, widely available and widely implemented alternatives to dumping CO2 into the air.

In short, we're about 50 years further along in the process of climate change than we figured we'd be only five years ago. And not a bit closer to realistically addressing it.

We had plenty of information 20 years ago to indicate that this was an area that demanded not just more confirmative research, but active development of mitigation technologies. And here we are, 20 years later, twiddling our thumbs as our home burns, still listening to jackasses like Representative Paul Broun (R-Ga), and not just accepting his dementia, but applauding it:

Here's my bottom line: I will not experience the full consequences of what we have done, and continue to do, to our planet and its inhabitants. I'm not particularly healthy, and I will be quite surprised if I live to see 2020. I'm at peace with that. But it seems to me that most people, particularly those younger than me, would like to live long, healthy and comfortable lives. And, I would assume, most parents hope for the same for their children.

People, unless we figure out how to live sustainably, and in the next few years, there ain't a chance in hell of that happening. What you're buying into is hell on earth. Traitors indeed.

Did You Mean....?

The Telegraph has an amusing list of Yahoo Search mispeelings.* Below are my five favorites, but there are seven more in the article.

* Swan Flu (for Swine Flu)

* Susan Boil (for Susan Boyle)

* Paperview boxing (for pay-per-view boxing)

* Farrah Faucet (for actress Farrah Fawcett)

* “Dancing With the Starts” (for Dancing With the Stars)

*sic, he saif

Sunday Funnies

The weather has been beautiful the last few days: warm but not too hot, sunny and breezy, and clear as a bell. And you know what they say: "On a clear day you can pee see forever." I think the view would be better for urinating females than males; most of the time it would make no difference.

see more WTF Pictures and WTF videos by Picture Is Unrelated) This is the kind of thing that can spawn some very prolonged speculation... what the dickens is the story here? Of course, most of you actually have lives. Speaking of which, how's your day going?
(At the risk of being obvious, note the height of the bridge. Then note the height of the truck's cargo. From Weather Moose) If the above was a scene from an old batman show...

see more Lol Celebs

...the next few frames would have a splash graphic like this:From Dark Roasted Blend. This is an interesting one: it only seems to be moving when your eyes are moving. If you stare at a fixed point for a few seconds, it seems to stop wavering. The cat below is from the same post at DRB:
The following cat was either too rehydrated, or it was riding in the convertible above...(I Can Has Cheezburger) Turning to the news, a great deal has happened this week. I think celebrity mortality gets way, way, way over-reported, but that's the nature of the culture I inhabit; I try not to complain too much. With respect to Billie Mays, I would have settled for a laryngectomy. As I commented elsewhere a little while ago, he and his ilk are the reason I really can't watch television anymore. That said, I'll bet none of these folks will have as awesome a tombstone as Mel Blanc:
From Tombstone Funnies, a blog of (you guessed it) pictures of funny tombstones. Here's another (which has actually been around for a decade or so):Of course, when our minds are captured by thoughts of mortality, can thoughts of zombies be far behind? Not for Obama...(From Library Grape) Obama has mastered the arcane talent of not thinking about zombies by instead focussing his mind on Abe Vigoda...(Medium Large) ...or Phil Spector.

see more Celeb Look-A-Likes

In other news, we mustn't forget about the Siege of the Totally Legal and Completely Legitimate Government of Iran:

see more Political Pictures.

The above lends a certain degree of credibility to Rob Cottingham's take at Noise to Signal...
A couple of editorial cartoons from OregonLive also struck me as offering funny yet thoughtful takes on the situation...
And here's a revolutionary who has not been participating in all the twittering:From B3TA Board, via buzzfeed.

Now all fuss over Iran sort of overlooks (or allows us to forget) that we (umm, how to put this politely...) have some issues that we really need to be taking care of.
see more Political Pictures. Now obviously, I don't want to sound all revolutionary and stuff. I'm sure they're noticing what this aging sociocommunofacist hippie is looking at...
From ImageR.CC. But I do think it's fair to ask, in the face of the procedeing disembowelment of health care, ignoring a whole lot of civil rights issues, including gay rights, continuing Bush-era attitudes towards prisoners from the "War on Terror," and many others (this is supposed to be funny... don't get me started on climate change), "Is there any separation of business and state anymore?Another from Noise to Signal. And in fairness, there really is an enormous difference: Modern corporations are trying to capture maximum profits, but unlike most other parasites in the natural world, have not adapted to the fact that it is dangerous for them to kill off their target prey. In contrast, the government is opposed to trying to do anything. The Republicans are on top, below, but we're all getting screwed.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Speaking of sex, I laughed my lungs empty at this one from XKCD:
And I'm bettin' this big boy can pick up a date in seconds with that trick.
From Ugly Overload- crazy animal pictures; not necessarily funny, but the above cracked me up. Now my own approach is similar to the conclusion reached in the following XKCD cartoon... if you don't get it, go watch "War Games" again:But I'm very aware that it's a fundamental biological drive necessary for the survival of most multi-cellular organism, and not one that's easily denied. Some people just don't get it...(From Criggo. Newspapers are disappearing. That's too bad)

...and some people do, but want to make sure no one else does:
see more Political Pictures I can't reproduce it here and do it justice, but if you, like me, are starting to have trouble keeping all the political sex follies straight, Mock, Paper Scissors published a most excellent flow chart a few days ago to help us figure out which scandal is which. Unfortunately, it was apparently finished before Sanford got back from his Argentinian assignation. Nevertheless, it is clear, accurate and very funny, and Sanford can easily be added later.

Now apparently this deep concern with what others do with various portions of their respective anatomies is rooted in trying to live up to the standards of one very uptight and unhip dude:(From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) And in return for living up to this guy's standards, he performs miracles for us... just like David Copperfield.(another from Criggo) So I guess we can assume Chad hasn't done anything on the disapproved list. Yet. However, there's some suspicion that the dude in question, like Ensign and Sanford and all the others (and it's a big list), is not capable of living up to the standards that he demands of others. (The following is titled "No church this Sunday.")(And yet another from Criggo) People will do the damndest things to make themselves more appealing to their partners of choice...Another from Mock, Paper, Scissors. Why do you think R2D2 was cussing through the entire original Star Wars trilogy? Did he ever once get a chance to hook up and unwind?
see more Lol Celebs. Some people are even willing to shell out what seems to me as an absurd amount of money for a few minutes of pleasure with a complete stranger (eliot spitzer). Maybe there's some discount programs, or coupons or something that could make it a little less of a bank loan situation...
(Last one from Criggo today. Promise) The same drive can lead us to commit terrible acts of violence, as evidenced by this kitty who thought his kitty friend was cheating...

see more Lolcats and funny pictures.

So summing up, here's the deal: We're born because two people have sex. We are intriniscally and biologically driven to repeat that comedy. Then we die. The purpose of life is more life... and while it's not logical, it's nevertheless true. So I predict during the next week more people will be born, and more people will try to have sex- many of whom will make complete and utter fools of themselves in the attempt, and probably a few of whom will actually succeed. And more people will die- maybe not as well known as our losses this week, but I'm willing to bet some will.

Because, however silly the whole process may sound when I lay it out like this, unless you're made of material the earth and biosphere haven't learned how to reuse yet......you're stuck with it. That's Life! (From Indexed) So after good nutricious food...Flapjack Fiasco from This is Why You're Fat... "Layers from bottom to top: pancake; cookie dough; pancake; peanut butter and jelly; pancake; chocolate and bananas; pancake; caramel, oreo, marshmallow, sprinkles, M&M’s; pancake; caramel buttercream frosting granished with Trix cereal."

...actually, try to get the real food in before desert...
Dorm Food Casserole from This is Why You're Fat... "Bottom to top: stuffing, ramen, ground beef, shredded cheese, mac and cheese, ramen, shredded cheese, garlic mashed potatoes, shredded cheese, bread crumbs, all topped with sliced onions and pound of bacon."

(Pass the ketchup; I hate to admit it, but that last one looks good)

...you, and I and everyone else will commit laughable actions in service to undeniable drives.

Which is not to say we can't develop some wisdom about the whole situation:

Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.

So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.

See? There's an example right there. From E.B. Misfit.

Have a good week at work. I hope your employer is as concerned about your health and safety as the one who posted the sign below.

see more Fail Blog

See you in the Funnies!

Asperatus (?)

There's been a lot of fuss over the last three weeks or so about a new class of cloud form, the so-called "asperatus" (which is supposed to be pronounced, I understand, to rhyme with "asperagus"). I say "so-called" for several reasons. First, I don't think anyone (who knows what they're talking about) is claiming that this is a truly "new" class of clouds; rather it may be a class that has existed since before the dawn of humanity, but has never been given a formal name and recognition. This is not unique, or even unusual, in any branch of science- pushing science forward often involves recognizing as distinct things that have been right in front of our collective faces for as long as we've had faces. Second, there has been a rush to name all sorts of cloud structures and textures as "asperatus," as if it's a done deal- as if the meteorological community has already accepted and condoned this name. It hasn't. Third, since it hasn't been accepted as a formal term, the criteria for determining that a particular cloud, or sky full of clouds, should be described as asperatus, do not exist. As a result, all of us cloud watchers have different ideas of what that term does or should mean.

In my mind, this rush to put up (albeit beautiful) pictures labeled"asperatus" is more likely to lead to confusion rather than forward motion and resolution. On the other hand, having a wide variety of examples available for examination and study can only be useful. My compromise is shown in the title: unless and until this name is formally adopted, the term should be written as asperatus(?).

While these have been described as "rare," my perception is that, here in western Oregon, we get these types of clouds several times a year, most often in late spring and fall, and most often in association with (what seems to us) a fairly unusual combination of high humidity and temperatures. The dewpoint according to accuweather just after taking these photos was 64 (typical summer dewpoints around here are about 45 to 55), and the temp was about 80. These are from Wednesday June 3, and were taken between 7:00 and 7:10 PM (actually, I need to check my camera's clock to be certain of the time), near the corner of 16th and Monroe in Corvallis, Oregon (Outside The Interzone). I think I've accidentally overwritten one of the original photos with a processed version, but otherwise, I still have the originals. All of the below are heavily processed to bring out the contrast, but are a more accurate repsentation of what I remember than the sort of gray, washed-out photos as they came out. Click to enlarge. Beautiful!
Looking ~SSW over the OSU campus
From the parking lot off 16th, looking ~SE.
Same as the previous location, looking ~ESE, a few minutes earlier.
Looking east along Monroe Ave.
Same as above.

Several sources have put out articles on this proposed classification over the last few weeks, including The Daily Mail, The BBC, and National Geographic. Many more stunning photos can be found at The Asperatus Gallery at Cloud Appreciation Society. (I subscribe to all four of those in RSS, but if you like a steady dose of pretty cloud pictures, about 5 a day, the latter is a treat. Front page here; incidentally, these are the same folks who are pushing for the new designation.)

Finally, I asked a blogging meterologist what he felt about this (as I described it) "media blitz" over "asperatus." I was pleased to see his reaction was pretty much the same as mine. Take it away, Weather Moose...