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...

Honesty in Advertising

You can expect it from Uranus.

Another fine product from Uranus:

From the 1974 film "The Groove Tube." I remember this as being one of the funniest films I saw as a high schooler, but I couldn't remember its name. I did remember Brown 25, though, and through the power vested in me by Google, I hereby present a small taste of the culture in which I matured. Or not.

Does anyone else remember this film? Is it still out there in the "cult" section somewhere? DVD? Online? I'd love to watch it again, 35 years later, and see if the whole thing holds up as well as these clips.

Ethics, Responsibilty and Sanford

The typical liberal position on sexual ethics, which I share, is that as long as everyone is consensual (and legally able to consent) and no one is hurt, "it's not my friggin' business!" Was I disappointed by Clinton? Sure, but the truly disgusting aspect of that whole fiasco was the way the self-appointed moral police (including Sanford himself, btw) on the right believed that somehow his personal choices were their business. So this preface is to point out that, while I feel bad for Sanford's wife and family, and for his mistress (who maybe should have known better, but nevertheless does not deserve the hounding she is undoubtedly enduring), and the many others on the fringes of the governor's life who will deal with personal stress in one way or another, Sanford's sexual choices are his alone. They're not my business.

However, that said, there are two ENORMOUS issues here. First, and perhaps less important, is the fact that Sanford apparently paid for this jaunt with funds belonging to the State of South Carolina. This is theft. Do you honestly believe he would have reimbursed those costs (as he now promises to do) if he hadn't been caught? Furthermore, we have here a person who wants to turn away federal funds for education, food supplements, health care and so on. Despite the righty noise machine's claims, the feds are not shoving those funds onto S.C.; that state's legisalture has overridden Sanford's attempts to block them. In other words, representatives of the people of South Carolina want to receive those funds, and by proxy, so do the citizens of that state. Sanford is simply a representative of a very tiny minority. My personal opinion is that all of these officials want to have their cake and eat it too, in a political sense. They know that others will override their attempts to block federal funds, but they believe they can earn political points by making a show out of vocally opposing such funding. The fact that this is tiresome and pandering hypocrisy is obvious.

But the fact that Sanford sees his state's funds as either his own personal credit card, or (my belief) debit card, casts an entirely different (yet predictable) light on the situation: "Big Government" is too big when it helps people make ends meet and stay alive and healthy as they weather tough times. "Small Government," one "small enough to drown in a bathtub" in the famous phrase, has plenty of resources to shell out (or loan) $12,000 dollars for an official of that government to fly around the planet to visit and party with his preferred penis-sheath.

Now explain that to me.

That alone, to me, is such a breach of trust that, at the very least, a full accounting of this man's expenditures should be undertaken, with the possibility of indictment looming large. But wait! There's More!

The second issue, which I think is even more important, is this: the man just picked up and disappeared. His staff didn't know where he was. His family didn't know where he was. His security, presumably (6/27- they didn't; see this article for the reason why), didn't know where he was. Now ask youself, "If I just didn't show up for work for five days, with no warning, no explanation, and no contact information, what would likely result?"

Exactly.

This man is in command of the state national guard. He's in charge of law enforcement. What if there had been a rash of tornadoes or other natural disaster? Who would take charge and responsibility? I presume the lieutenant governor... but he wasn't the one elected, was he? Aren't there some formalities involved in handing over responsibilty to a second? And Sanford has been discussed as a presidential contender?

Now the thing that prompted this rant is the following quote from an article in the NYT this afternoon:

“I wanted generally to apologize to every one of you all for letting you down,” Mr. Sanford told the gathering of his cabinet secretaries in a mahogany conference room in the ornate state Capitol complex. “Part of what it means going forward is every one of you all has specific duties to the people of South Carolina that you have to perform, that is with or without me doing right on a given day.”

So, in other words, he's saying, "Yeah, I just committed a gross dereliction of duty, and I'm sorry you guys were inconvenienced by that. Get used to it; it might happen again." Then there's this:

At the meeting, he gave no indication that he was considering resigning, despite growing calls for him to do so by members of his own Republican party as well as Democrats. Instead, he compared himself to the biblical King David, who he said “fell mightily, he fell in very significant ways, but was able to pick up the pieces.”

So. We have delusions of grandeur. We have what I take as an admission that this may very well happen again. We have a sense of entitlement to taxpayer dollars, while living in a time when people can't feed themselves or their chldren, and at the same time claiming that government is bad because it takes money away from people.

You know what that sounds like to me?

A sociopath.

This guy should be removed from office yesterday.

And what he chooses to do with his one-eyed trouser snake has nothing to do with my reasons for saying so.

What I Think

Context here.

And Sometimes It's Not

Sigmund Freud is attributed with the quote, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

To Rush Limbaugh, though, sometimes an affair is not just an affair. It's a perfectly reasonable and rational response to creeping islamosociocommunifascism, and the pending take-over by the brown people- whether they're wearing brown shirts or not. And the fact Sanford conducted this gross dereliction of duty on the government's dime is irrelevant.

"This is almost like, 'I don't give a damn, the country's going to Hell in a handbasket, I just want out of here,'" said Limbaugh. "He had just tried to fight the stimulus money coming to South Carolina. He didn't want any part of it. He lost the battle. He said, 'What the Hell. I mean, I'm -- the federal government's taking over -- what the Hell, I want to enjoy life.'"

"The point is," he added, "there are a lot of people whose spirit is just -- they're fed up, saying to Hell with it, I don't even want to fight this anymore, I just want to get away from it." (From TPM; audio at the link)

To which Freud would respond, I think, "...and sometimes it's not."