The Art Neuro Weblog

More Shots of Titan
In between the on-going 'War on Weasel Words' we are carrying out here, folks should check out this article about the radar imaging of Titan. Kind of cool.

The area shown is in the northern hemisphere of Titan and is about 150 kilometers (93 miles) wide by 300 kilometers (186 miles) long. The image is a part of a larger strip created from data taken on Oct. 26, 2004, when the Cassini spacecraft flew approximately 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) above Titan's surface.

More On The Huygens Probe
Here's an artricle about the possible surface conditions for the landing of the Hugens probe.

Commenting on the latest data results and implications for the Huygens probe Mark Leese of the Open University, Programme Manager for Science Surface Package [SSP] instruments that will unravel the mysteries of Titan said: "It's interesting that all of the possible landing scenarios that we envisaged - a hard crunch onto ice, a softer squelch into solid organics or a splash-down on a liquid hydrocarbon lake - still seem to exist on Titan."

Leese added, "A first look at the measurements of Titan's atmosphere during the fly- by suggest that the "Atmosphere Model" we developed and used to design the Huygens probe is valid and all looks good for the probe release on Christmas day and descent to the surface on 14th January 2005."

Further analysis of Titan's upper atmosphere, the thermosphere, has revealed a strange brew as Dr Ingo Mueller-Wodarg of Imperial College London explained," Our instrument, the Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS), made in-situ measurements of atmospheric gases in Titan's upper atmosphere and found a potent cocktail of nitrogen and methane, stirred up with signatures of hydrogen and other hydrocarbons. We are now working on a 'Weather Report' for the Huygens landing in January".

More On The Melting Polar Caps
There are still people in denial about the melting polar caps.
Here's the latest, and it ain't good. Ain't good at all.
I know it's a copyright no-no, but I've decided to copy the entire article here.

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming is heating the Arctic almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet in a thaw that threatens millions of livelihoods and could wipe out polar bears by 2100, an eight-nation report said on Monday.

The biggest survey to date of the Arctic climate, by 250 scientists, said the accelerating melt could be a foretaste of wider disruptions from a build-up of human emissions of heat-trapping gases in the earth's atmosphere.

The "Arctic climate is now warming rapidly and much larger changes are projected," according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), funded by the United States, Canada, Russia, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Arctic temperatures are rising at almost twice the global average and could leap 4-7 Celsius (7-13 Fahrenheit) by 2100, roughly twice the global average projected by U.N. reports. Siberia and Alaska have already warmed by 2-3 C since the 1950s.
Possible benefits like more productive fisheries, easier access to oil and gas deposits or trans-Arctic shipping routes would be outweighed by threats to indigenous peoples and the habitats of animals and plants.

Sea ice around the North Pole, for instance, could almost disappear in summer by the end of the century. The extent of the ice has already shrunk by 15 percent to 20 percent in the past 30 years. "Polar bears are unlikely to survive as a species if there is an almost complete loss of summer sea-ice cover," the report said. On land, creatures like lemmings, caribou, reindeer and snowy owls are being squeezed north into a narrower range.

FOSSIL FUELS BLAMED
The report mainly blames the melt on gases from fossil fuels burned in cars, factories and power plants. The Arctic warms faster than the global average because dark ground and water, once exposed, traps more heat than reflective snow and ice. Klaus Toepfer, head of the U.N. Environment Program, said the Arctic changes were an early warning.

"What happens there is of concern for everyone because Arctic warming and its consequences have worldwide implications," he said. And the melting of glaciers is expected to raise world sea levels by about 10 cm (4 inches) by the end of the century. Many of the 4 million people in the Arctic are already suffering. Buildings from Russia to Canada have collapsed because of subsidence linked to thawing permafrost that also destabilizes oil pipelines, roads and airports.

Indigenous hunters are falling through thinning ice and say that prey from seals to whales is harder to find. Rising levels of ultra-violet radiation may cause cancers. Changes under way in the Arctic "present serious challenges to human health and food security, and possibly even (to) the survival of some cultures," the report says.

Farming could benefit in some areas, while more productive forests are moving north on to former tundra. "There are not just negative consequences, there will be new opportunities too," said Paal Prestrud, vice-chair of ACIA.

Scientists will meet in Iceland this week to discuss the report. Foreign ministers from Arctic nations are due to meet in Iceland on Nov. 24 but diplomats say they are deeply split with Washington least willing to make drastic action. President Bush pulled the United States, the world's top polluter, out of the 126-nation Kyoto protocol in 2001, arguing its curbs on greenhouse gas emissions were too costly and unfairly excluded developing nations.

"Kyoto is only a first step," said Norwegian Environment Minister Knut Hareide, a strong backer of Kyoto. "The clear message from this report is that Kyoto is not
enough. We must reduce emissions much more in coming decades."

So much for the vapid claim that the US Republicans are somehow eco-friendly.

Predicting Earthquakes
They used to joke about this, but now we find that there's a group that claims they have accurately predicted all the Earthquakes in the last 4 years.

Using historical seismic records as a base, the Rundle-Tiampo earthquake forecast has accurately predicted locations for 15 of the last 16 temblors with magnitudes greater than 5.0 on the Richter scale, all of which have occurred since January 2000. The forecast is currently about halfway through its 10-year timespan.

“I have to say that it's gratifying, though I'm not surprised,” said Kristy Tiampo, an assistant professor with the University of Western Ontario in Canada, during a telephone interview. “The Southern California and Northern California seismic networks have quite good databases, the best freely available data around.”

This is indeed a breakthrough. Watch insurance companies fund the research in future... methinks. :)

- Art Neuro