Since every one of these undying threads turns into something about geology, including the last one, it is only fitting that we reveal the truth here: rocks are evil. They want to turn everything into stone.
Now watch: no one will talk geology at all in this open thread.
Nerd of Redhead, #492
Exactly!
Though as a later commenter pointed out, the presence of a high pressure system in the east is screwing with the picture.
Just as a high pressure system in the west is screwing with the picture out here (our temperatures are supposed to be in the mid60s this time of year, not the low 70s).
Still, the presence of a (relatively) warm ocean west of San Diego versus the presence of a (relatively) cold continent west of Savannah does make a difference. But, events such as high pressure systems and the presence of the California Current and the Gulf Stream do make a difference.
(BTW, an off-shore flow is supposed to raise local temperatures to the low 80s; here’s hoping things warm up a bit back east as well.)
Katrina, #496
It also helps that you get cold air masses off of the Russian Far East via the Gulf of Alaska. On great occasion you pass such an air mass on to us, and so local temperatures can drop as much as 40 degrees in an hour’s time. (I remember a day when people were in shirt sleeves in the morning, and piling on sweaters and jackets in the afternoon.)
On a really unrelated note, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) once observed that the coldest winter he’d ever experienced was a summer in San Francisco.
If you can take a moment and remove that sword from your gut, maybe you can answer the followup question I have. Of course, maybe NoR will get there first…
OK, so the Wiki on Kinetic isotope effect, Mathematical details in a diatomic molecule states “Thus, the zero-point energy (n = 0) will decrease as the reduced mass increases. With a lower zero-point energy, more energy is required to overcome the activation energy for bond cleavage.”
Am I correct in understanding that that means that ¹³CO2 will require more energy to break down (and thus participate in a reaction) than ¹²CO2?
Oh, and the section of the Wiki article on heavy water/dideuterium monoxide about metabolism was fascinating — toxic at 50% of body water, but also a potential longevity treatment at 25% of body water (in fruit flies).
Not that I’m volunteering for human trials or anything.
Yet prokaryotes don’t seem to have any problem with it at all. Hmm.
Whoops, I mistyped.
25% of body water causes sterility, eep!
The percentage that putatively lengthens lifespan is not stated on the wiki article.
And I see that it was reported on in… New Scientist. Confidence level falling… falling…
Louis, wherefore are you????? Here’s your chance…
If anyone wants to feel really, really insignificant, there are new Hubble photos available here:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/01/image/a/
OK that’s it. Nerd & Rorschach off to the spanking couch the both of you.
Heh. Found this link via Jerry Pournelle’s blog, thought I’d share: First Atomic Clock Wristwatch.
#477 Owlmirror
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll take a look. Where I live is close to where 3 microterranes meet with (minor) earthquakes on one of the fault systems.
That’s not what I’d call ‘minimal’ clothing ‘Tis, or were you being ironic?
A bit closer to minimal:
Windy, perhaps Himself was pointing out dancing can be um, “sexy”, even with voluminous amounts of clothing?
#512
It is my understanding that the can-can dancers, did not, shall we say, always wear such voluminous underwear. Indeed, sometimes they wore none at all …
Being a UKian, I had to sleep, sorry for my lateness!
Nerd, your generosity shall not go unnoticed….just unrewarded. ;-) Should I start singing “This is my Moment”? I’m going with “no”.
Owlmirror #504/505/506:
Yes, that’s what it means. However, the 13C substituted molecule vs the identical 12C substituted molecule reaction rate differences are (typically) much smaller than D vs H. This is, rather obviously, largely due to the fact that a difference of ~ 1 mass unit in 13 is less significant than a difference of ~ 1 mass unit in 2. This is without considering the effect of orbital overlap and bonding modes btw (this becomes more significant for heavier nuclei with very different isotopes).
As for the biological effects, I can’t really add much to the Wiki article without getting technical! Simply put those biological reactions/processes which rely particualrly heavily on hydrogen bonding (like mitosis), or where D has substituted for a crucial H, will feel the pinch of the stronger D-X bond the most. (BTW I’m using X here for any atom D is bound to, C, O, N, S, etc)
Reading around a little, something that struck me was that it seems like relatively “fast” biochemical reactions were significantly effected (various reactions with cytochrome P450 for example) by heavy water/D-labeled molecules. That impression makes sense to me at least, especially if we’re condiering primary kinetic isotope effects. Hmmmmm…
I’m off to the library!
Louis
On plants and carbon, I fount this article most intereesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_plants#Evolutionary_record
I meant to link to it in my post above.
Had an interesting conversation with my 7-y-o skepchick over dinner last night.
She informed me that one of her classmates has been going around saying, “God made us. God made us. God made us.” She said she finally got tired of it and said to him, “No he didn’t. Charles Darwin proved more than a hundred years ago that we evolved from non-human ancestors.”
Her second-favorite book (her favorite is whatever she happens to be reading) is Voyage of the Beetle, by Anne Weaver and George Lawrence.
Katrina, if I ever have a child (or children), I dearly hope s/he is as smart as your daughter seems to be.
This child of mine begs me to play NOVA specials for her on my computer.
Of course, I comply. ;-)
Let’s have a try at isotope fractionation by a purely physical processes to show how enrichment /depletion can occur.
Graham’s Law of gaseous diffusion dates back to 1829 and states that the rate of diffusion is inversely proportional to the square root of its density. Thus, for 2 gases with densities d1 and d2, the rates of diffusion (D1 and D2) will be in the ratio:
D1/D2 = Sqrt (d2/d1)
For ideal gases, 1 mole of any gas occupies a fixed volume at constant temperature and pressure. (For example, the density of carbon dioxide with C-12 will be slightly less than the density of carbon dioxide with C-13.) So:
D1/D2 = Sqrt (M2/M1) where M1 and M2 are the molecular weights.
Let’s look at 3 examples. In each case M1 is the lower value:
1) Carbon dioxide in plants
Thus, C-12 carbon dioxide diffuses about 1.1% faster than C-13 carbon dioxide.
Since diffusion of carbon dioxide into a plant leaf is the first stage of incorporation into plant cells there will be a slight increase in the ratio of C-12 to C-13 available to take part in photosynthesis and the ratio of C-12 : C-13 in the plant material will be slightly enhanced. (Or C-13 slightly depleted). Chemical porcesses then occur each of which will be affected slightly by the difference in the rates for C-12 and C-13. In general, the activation energy for reactions involving C-12 will be slightly faster than those with C-13. This will add to the depletion of C-13 in the plant-produced carbohydrates. Finding this depletion in C-13 is an indication that there may have been life. In addition, the quantitative depletion in C-13 depends on the photosynthetic route (C-3 & C-4) but this is out of my depth without looking up the detail.
2) Enrichment of Uranium in U-235
Natural Uranium (a mixture of U-235 and U-238) in enriched in U-235 by gaseous diffusion of the hexafluoride – UF6. Here the density difference is less:
Thus, the slightly lighter UF6 (235) will diffuse through a hole or porous medium 0.4% faster than the undesirable UF6 (238). Collect the light fraction and you will have a slight enrichment in U-235. Repeat ad nauseam and you get bomb grade Uranium.
3) Finally, water containing O-16 and O-18.
Thus, water molecules that have diffused out of the surface of the sea in evaporation will be slightly enriched in O-16 water, leaving behind water slightly enriched in O-18. This depletion/enrichment is observed.
If you want to know more about these processes then I can give you a reference work from Cornell Uni.
Cornell reference:
http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/classes/Geo656/656home.html
and click on Lectures on the LHS to give you a full set of lecture notes delivered 2009.
You will want Part IV Stable Isotope Geochemistry.
Alan, I’m going to enjoy reading #520 (I think you and Nerd should geek out to your chemistry strengths whenever you like). But first, dinner calls.
#477 & #451
Looked further at the site. Interesting.
The concept of multiple “slices” making up Great Britain is well known. In addition, the Midlands platform as shown in his figure is believed to be made up of 3 pieces. I have found 1 or 2 reliable references that assume this to be so. There is a paper that presents the evidence but I can’t put my hands on it (yet).
#522 Josh
You surely don’t want a “KemistryKorner” as well as “Share and Enjoy”?
Remember, except where I had to use it in my job, my chemistry is over 40 years out of date. On second thoughts, I am quoting Graham’s Law from 1829 – maybe some things don’t change.
#515 Louis
Remember, the effect of the 2 carbon isotopes is likely to be not 1 part in 12 / 13 but 1 part in the molecular weight (whatever the molecule). Likewise for H-1 and H-2.
For carbon dioxide 44 vs 45.
For deuterium it would probably be 16 vs 17 (for water).
#525
(Unless the hydrogen was involved in a reaction as the ion, “H+”, where the effect would be larger. Depends on the rate limitting process.)
It’s OK guys. The race is over. These guys won.
Oh, I don’t think that would be a bad thing…
Hey Nerd, I’ve very recently (and am sitting here on a second bottle of Best Brown Ale) discovered Bell’s Brewery, which hails from Comstock, MI. Are you familiar with the brand? It’s not UP, but…was curious. The “Best Brown Ale” is tasty.
Through his comment series Alan B shows another reason why I like this blog and its commentors, the generosity.
Sorry. Shoulda caught up first. They guys came a close second to Katharine’s 7yo.
Well, Alan B, I should know something about geochemistry, but really I know fuck all. I truly enjoyed your comment 520.
I won’t remember the math, but I will remember that the formula exists … so I can look it up if needed. Mostly, I’ll remember the concept behind the diffusion rates (especially liked the explanation of carbon in plants), and the relationship to porous mediums, hole sizes, etc.
Do you feel like tackling the chemistry behind irradiated topaz (changing common brownish shades to blue)? ‘Tis Himself gave us an overview some time back, and I either need to be told again, or I need a more detailed explanation. Throwing the stuff into a nuclear reactor, and the dangers that result (hot gemstones!) made for an interesting discussion.
Rex Rammell, the candidate for governor of Idaho that feels like he is ordained by God and prophesied by Joseph Smith to save the constitution is in the news here again (or still in the news).
I agree with Rex Rammell on one point, he knows no shame.
Josh, yes it is a tasty ale. I grew up near Comstock in Battle Creek, and still have family there. That ale is served in one of the restaurants in BC, which we often visit while in town. I grew as a troll, but did spend 15 years near Superior. Don’t tell me you were training at Ft. Custer.
I will not comment on unit operational posture. Except now–no, there is a great little package store a block away from me that has it*. Very nice stuff. The owner recommended it to me a couple of days ago and I’m going to totally be into it for a while.
*they also have a spectacular single malt collection, but I’ve largely been good.
I’ll chime in to the Isotopic Effect discussion, though I must admit at the outset that I am about a half-dozen pints into the evening already.
OK. Metabolic rates of organisms are of interest for any number of reasons. By “metabolic rate” I mean “rate of energy expenditure,” which ought to be measured in units like moles of ATP per day, but are approximated instead by measurements of oxygen consumption and/or carbon dioxide production. Gas-exchange rates are measurable directly in the laboratory (not easily, believe me, but measurable). But sometimes what we want to know is “Field Metabolic Rate,” the rate of energy expenditure by animals behaving naturally in their natural habitats.
Long story short, the best (most accurate) way to measure/estimate FMR is called the “doubly labelled water” (DLW) technique. Here’s the idea. You enrich the body water of a bunch of individuals with isotopes of both oxygen (O18) and hydrogen (H2 or H3). Wait for the injected water to equilibrate with the body water, take a blood sample, and let em go to behave naturally etc. Now the (usually) hard part: recapture the labelled individuals after an appropriate interval (24h for a small bird or mouse up to 30d for a tortoise). Nother blood sample.
Now you distill out the water from the blood samples and analyze it for the H and O isotopes (via various radio- spectro- photo- alchemicalo- techniques). Proportions of both enriched isotopes will have decreased over time. Hydrogen isotopes are lost almost entirely as H2O, so the deuterium or tritium concentration decreases (and is interpretable as water flux rate). Now oxygen is also lost as water, BUT is lost in CO2 too. Paying attention? Subtract the rate of H isotope decrease (water) from the rate of O isotope decrease (water + CO2) and whaddaya get?
A: Carbon dioxide production rate, a stoichiometric correlate of ATP production and (therefore!!!) chemical-energy-use rate; i.e. metabolic rate (=, btw, and via the FLoT, heat production rate). In the field. FMR.
The technique has been applied to dozens of species of terrestrial animals. Pretty cool stuff. OK.
Bells Cherry Stout is also good and their Two Hearted Ale is one of my favorites.
Shit, I forgot the whole point: One of the things one has to take into account when interpreting rates of decrease in isotope levels is fractionation. For example, simple evaporative water loss favors lighter isotopes…
But enough about me.
Here’s my vote RIGHT NOW for the–yo, I’ma let you finish, but this is the greatest recording by anybody ever of All Time! OF ALL TIME!!!
Sven, interesting. I’m familiar with energy expenditure being expressed in terms of power (i.e. units of energy per units of time), but I can see the point of expressing it in terms of units of (chemical energy source processed) per unit time¹ as a basis for determination.
Clever biochemists!
—
¹ However, I thought the processing efficiency dependent on a number of factors, not least temperature. I guess homeostasis in organisms is taken as a given?
new chick tract. the message: 1)Native Americans are evil
2)their magic is weaker than our magic
3)we don’t care if you’re a rapist and a murderer; as long as you “accept jesus”, you’re going to heaven
As a teenager working a drive-thru window, I got really good at grabbing money stuff into the pages of a chick tract and letting the tract drop to the ground without coming through the window. I see they aren’t any less despicable than they were back then.
PORTUGAL !
Catholic Portugal, traditionally one of Europe’s most socially conservative countries, is expected to approve the legalisation of gay marriage on Friday with a minimum of fuss.
negentropyeater, interesting link, but it’s weird.
Though Portugal is contiguous with Spain (where I spent my childhood) and their borders are porous, in some ways they might as well be on opposite sides of Europe.
Anyway. I might be straight as an arrow, but I’m also firmly egalitarian, and I think this is good news.
You know it’s going to be a long day when you start it off by wandering past a dead body on your way in to work.
Ugh, it’s going to be a long day here too. We are getting our first significant snowfall of the season, and the Redhead is going into Chicago (by train) to see a matinee dress rehearsal of an opera. It should be interesting when she returns (about 4-7 inches expected by then). Nothing like people unused to driving on snow, and suddenly having to cope with doing so. Scary.
You have no idea. I live in Charleston, SC (as you know) and they are threatening just a whisper of snow tomorrow.
People are losin’ their god damn mind. I’m betting there is a serious run on milk and bread at the store.
Something I never really understood.
I hate trying to drive here when it snows. Everyone seems to collectively lose their mind.
Also a run on marshmallows, rice, and popcorn. It’s sympathetic gastronomy.
So, Josh, is there a story behind the dead body, or is this a typical ‘long day’ indicator?
Someone jumped off* the bridge I walk across to get to work. His day ended early…and poorly.
*I think. I was on the bridge, in low light, about 30 feet above him, and could see that he was crumpled on the rocks, on his back. As such, I think “pushed off” and “set in position after death” are also likely possibilities.
You’re right Josh, not a great way to start the day.
Damn. Yeah that is a bad start to your day but a worse start to theirs.
I found a dead person once in high school, that wasn’t a great experience either. Kinda fucks you up for a while.
Actually, damn come to think of it I found another dead person when I was climbing in the Tetons. Shit I had kind of forgotten about that one. ugh. That wasn’t pretty at all.
I’ve seen a lot of dead people, and so sadly I’m kind of numb to it. Indeed, my immediate reaction was to start organizing the observations in my head and erecting hypotheses for how he got into that specific position–for a good 20 seconds–before the human side of my brain was like “hey asshole–this guy’s life just ended.”
*shakes head*
And yet another misleading headline:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100106/sc_livescience/fourleggedcreaturesfootprintsforceevolutionrethink
Sorry about the dead guy, Josh. Not a good way to start the day. We’re fairly used to seeing dead deer next to our roads, but it was only when we got close to Las Vegas on one of our longer expeditions that we saw a dead human. I saw human bones once in an abandoned mining site, bones probably more than a century old — still creepy.
In another kind of creepy, here’s a story that illustrates the perversion of justice in a community that veers too close to theocracy. A girl who was slightly brain-damaged and also raised as a naive mormon girl was sexually abused. So the community prosecuted her instead of the abusers. Comments from True Believers below the story continue to prosecute the girl. The cop/father of the molesters did not investigate, the mormon Bishop to whom the girl confessed did not investigate nor report the crime.
John Morales,
Yeah, it’s weird. I was expecting a lot more opposition to the bill from the right, but the opposition is mainly coming from the left*!
All I’ve heard from the right is the usual “oh, sure, just don’t call it marriage, ‘kay?” and the very persuasive “but…but… *pulls out random red herring* What about this More Important IssueTM!? We can’t waste time with minor issues!!” I guess they’re doing their best not to sound like homophobic bigots.
*That’s because while this bill legalizes same sex marriage it also makes it explicit in the law that married gay couples cannot adopt. The only thing keeping gay couples from adopting children** at the moment is the fact that they can’t marry, otherwise they would fit all the legal requirements to adopt. This bill removes the requirement that two people need to be of different sex in order to marry BUT it adds that requirement to adoption by couples. Needless to say, not everyone in the left is happy with this (I’m not, but it’s better than nothing).
**As a couple. As far as I know, there’s nothing preventing non-heterosexuals from becoming single parents by adoption.
#531 Lynna
I’m onto the Topaz question. I may be able to write it up this evening (19:50 currently)
best wishes
(I have not forgotten the map! Currently we’ve had about 2-3 inches of global warming locally – you know, the white stuff. I know, I know, that’s hardly anything but it is common to have alternating snow/thaw/freeze [small fluctuations around 0 deg C] which means we end up with ice rather than the powdery stuff. Hoping to do non-essential stuff – sorry, including your map – shortly.)
Am posting this here, as well as in the I WANT A UNITY CONVENTION! thread in the hopes that more people will see it, since the Unity thread has kinda wound down.
ATTN: Baltimore Blasphemous Bastards
We will attempt to get together for the first time on Friday, Jan. 29, between 5:30 and 8:30 PM at Brewers Art which is in the upper Mt. Vernon area of downtown Baltimore. Feel free to bring one or more companions.
Because of the reluctance of some Pharyngulates to join Facebook, and my reluctance to pay meetup.com’s group organizer’s fees, I have set up a yahoo group for us, Baltimore Pharyngula Fans. Not as catchy as Baltimore Blaspheming Bastards, admittedly, but not as scary for the less militant who might potentially join us.
Please join the yahoo group and let me know if you’ll be coming to this meetup or just to keep in touch with other Pharyngula fans in the Baltimore area.
Because of the (surely) spam and (potential) troll issues, I have set moderator (that’s me, so far) approval of members and messages from new members, so there may be some delay in seeing your first message appear.
love the “also”
BDC, #552
I recall a time when a fellow died in public, on a major street downtown, and the authorities didn’t figure out he was dead for about three days.
Snow! :-) Half a cm of snow lying in Paris.
All of it fell today morning, except for a single layer of snowflakes that fell yesterday morning. That’s right, a single layer.
Jadehawk,
I reply with the the previous chick tract.
The message I took away from it is “believe in Jesus, and he’ll kill your enemies for you”.
Josh,
That’s nothing compared to what I just saw on the news show minutes ago:
“Footprints discovered in Poland may revolutionize the theory of evolution: First vertebrates on Earth may have appeared 20 million years earlier than previously thought”
That’s right. First vertebrates. On Earth, capital E, the planet.
I’m not sure that’s what they meant, but it was what they wrote.
*headdesk*
Yep.
And I’ve lost count of how many times the theory of evolution has undergone a “revolution” lately…
And how minutely incremental the changes are…
:-D
Will we see a punctuation of this equilibrium? Inquiring minds want to know!!!1!
The LDS Church just bought 13 more acres of downtown Salt Lake City. They already own Temple Square, part of Main Street, and several acres on which they are building a new mall, and some condos. Sounds to me like they are creating their own version of Vatican City.
Earl Holding is, of course, a mormon. In an interview, Stephen Trimble said about Holding:
Perhaps if the vestigial appendix finally goes and takes more of the bowel with it you might get a semi-colon.
At first the mormons were proud of the fact that poor church members in Brazil gave the gold out of their dental work as contributions to help build a new temple (1998-2000). Then, belatedly, the mormons realized that it was pretty bizarre to everyone but them, and that the photo of Apostle Faust holding a handful of gold fillings was not as glorifying to God as they thought.
STORY ONE Excerpt:
STORY TWO Excerpt:
The photo of the handful of fillings is nowhere to be found on lds.org, but it’s archived here
Josh #544, that is a traumatic way to start the day. Ugh is right.
#531 Lynn asked me:
Here goes, the second KemistryKorner (I blame Josh #528)
(The first, not IDed as KK, was #520 on isotope fractionation by diffusion.)
I am taking most of my information from an excellent website initially developed by Jill Banfield while she was a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The internet materials were developed in summer 1995, and distance education students began to take in Fall 1995. The course was first offered as an internet option to UW students in 1997. The course (Gems and Gem Materials) was then offered at UC Berkeley (Ref 1). The student material is freely available and well worth a look if you want a simple introduction to “Gemology”. I read through much of it some 8 or so years ago.
(Colour and emphasis removed)
The course covers a range of Gems and Gem Materials. To keep this post a sensible length, I will cover ONLY topaz and ONLY the conversion of naturally-occurring pale topaz to sky blue topaz by radiation and the implications of the process. (See Ref. 2 for the study notes on topaz.)
Wiki gives some helpful information about topaz (Ref. 3). Topaz is a silicate of aluminium (note the correct IUPAC spelling!) with fluorine and hydroxide ions in varying ratios. Pure topaz is colourless and transparent but is usually tinted by impurities; typical topaz is wine, yellow, pale grey or reddish-orange, blue brown. It can also be made white, pale green, blue, gold, pink (rare), reddish-yellow or opaque to transparent/translucent.
Orange topaz, also known as precious topaz, is the traditional November birthstone, the symbol of friendship, and the state gemstone for the US State of Utah.
Blue topaz is the Texas state gemstone. Naturally occurring Blue Topaz is quite rare. Typically colourless, grey or pale yellow and blue material is heat treated and irradiated to produce a more desired darker blue.
I will leave an explanation about the way radiation affects the colour and deal with the other issue:
Is residual radioactivity a problem?
The answer is: it depends! It depends on how the radiation treatment is done. Consider 2 different methods:
Neutron irradiation. Firing neutrons at a topaz target risks the formation of long lived radionuclides of Scandium and Tantalum (Ref. 4). Sc-46 has a half life of 84 days and is a beta emitter (Ref. 5). No one is going to chew up and eat a topaz. For a start, it has a Mho’s hardness of 8 compared with the highest value of 10 for diamond! Some beta particles may well go through the skin but not from a mounted gemstone.
Ta-182 is a greater concern. Thus, according to Wiki (Ref. 6):
Thus, if irradiation was carried out by neutrons there is a risk of trace impurities being activated to produce small amounts of unpleasant radionuclides with long half lives.
Electron Irradiation
According to the Gems and Gem Materials site (Ref. 7), the most common tool for irradiation is Linac (linear accelerators) using electron beams:
Ten days (240 hours) is 16 half lives. In 10 half lives the radioactivity will have decayed to one thousandth of the initial value. A further 6 half lives will reduce it by another factor of 60. (Both figures approximate – actual value 1/65,536. A further ten days will reduce it to vanishingly low values. (The gamma rays emitted by Na-24 are easily detected).
So the answer is if the irradiation process is by an electron beam linear accelerator there is no residual problem with radioactivity from the process. (There could, of course, be trace amounts of naturally-occurring radionuclides, as there could be with many gemstones).
Part 2 on the effect of radiation on the physics/chemistry of the effect of radiation on colour tomorrow (if it weren’t this site, I might put “DV”).
References
Ref. 1 nature.berkeley.edu/classes/eps2//wisc/intro2.html
Ref. 2 http://nature.berkeley.edu/classes/eps2//wisc/Lect10.html
Ref. 3 Wiki article “Topaz”.
Ref. 4 nature.berkeley.edu/classes/eps2//wisc/radio.html
Ref. 5 Wiki article “Isotopes of Scandium”
Ref. 6 Wiki article “Isotopes of Tantalum”
Ref. 7 nature.berkeley.edu/classes/eps2//wisc/L10c1.html
If something fucked up happens, like as not I’ll end up in the vicinity. I have no idea why that is.
I’m going to happily take the blame for this.
That’s because there are GAPS in the theory, Dania, my love.
Gaps I tell you! GAPS that you could drive a Mac truck through!
GAPS!
Did I mention the Gaps, by any chance?
oh, the gaps
how they gape
#574
And every time you fill one GAP you get 2 more GAPS!
The more scientists look at it, the worse it gets!!
/sarc Do I have to …?
Better check in with Ed on that…
Naah. :)
I am now going to inflict on you the lesson of the radioactive cookies.
Let’s suppose we have three radioactive cookies, one is an alpha emitter, one a beta emitter, and the last a gamma emitter. Which cookie can you eat, which cookie can you stick in your pocket, and which cookie do you leave on the table?
You can eat the gamma emitter, put the alpha emitter into your pocket, and leave the beta emitter on the table.
Alpha particles (ionized helium nuclei, two protons and two neutrons) will not penetrate the cloth of your pocket. A meter or so of air will stop beta particles (electrons) so you can leave it on the table. Gamma radiation (similar to x-rays only more energetic) can only be stopped by lead or other dense material, so you might as well eat it because it’ll give you the same dose whether you eat it, put it in your pocket or leave it on the table.
#578 ‘Tis Himself, OM
Pretty good rule of thumb for alpha and beta although I’m trying to think of occasions when you would have pure alpha, beta or gamma other than manufactured sources.
Not so sure about the gamma radiation. Inverse square law comes in so putting it in your pocket doesn’t seem an awefully good idea. Depending how quickly the radionuclide passes through the body, I’m not sure if I would want to eat it and have it lodge in some particular organ. Some gamma emitters also emit beta particles, of course (e.g. I-131).
No. All told, I will keep away from the gamma and rely on the inverse square law to help me.
Alan B @573: That was lovely. Thanks. Though I don’t know why Josh gets all the credit. Unless he is getting credit only for Kutesy spelling, I object.
Thanks, so much ‘Tis, for the radioactive cookie lesson. I assume you haven’t tested this on yourself. I think I may not ever accept any cookies from you.
No, no. I only get credit for goading him into making the post…
I’d prefer to have a couple of centimeters of lead and a meter or two of diesel fuel* between a gamma emitter and me.
*Hydrocarbons are a pretty good radiation shield, particularly for gamma radiation.
Don’t be so literal minded. The radioactive cookies are a thought problem, not a real life situation. BTW, tritium (³H) is a pure beta emitter with a half-life of approximately 12.33 years.
Huh…I didn’t know that. That’s pretty interesting.
Oh, dearie me, more pseudo-proof of the “history” portrayed in the Book of Mormon:
I read somewhere that mormon bigwigs were meeting with Meldrum. Sounds to me like they paid him to make a film. Looks like followed the “Expelled” protocol and invited some real scientists to appear in the film. One wonders how many of them knew what they were being roped into. Here’s a partial list:
You will witness video footage of interviews with each of the following experts in this film (in order of appearance).
Roger G. Kennedy, Director Emeritus
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Author, Hidden Cities: The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization
Alice Beck Kehoe, PhD
Anthropology, Harvard University
Author, The Land of Prehistory, A Critical History of American Archaeology
Sonya Atalay, PhD
Anthropology, University of California – Berkley
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Indiana University
Wayne N. May
Publisher
Ancient American Magazine
Sure there were some really bigoted scientists in the 19th Century. Louis Agassiz was the most famous (although he wasn’t early 1800s) but there were others. So what? That doesn’t say anything about there being no real evidence that two bunches of middle-easterners came to the Americas as the Book of Mormon claims.
The movie “8: The Mormon Proposition” is going to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival, and it is already drawing fire from True Believers. Here’s an example:
Freedom from spellcheck for everyone! Freedom from proper punctuation for everyone! Ample persecution for all mormons!
Freedom from thought!
‘Tis Himself, the trailer for “The Lost Civilization of North America” shows the expert bemoaning the racism, which, as you say, is only too evident in historical records. But the trailer also reveals the unethical editing that creates an unwarranted leap from that racism to “proof” of a conspiracy to hide the “truth” of all those tribes mentioned in the Book of Mormon. It’s a fucking crime.
And that’s just the trailer.
I didn’t realize that hydrocarbons could be used as a shield against gamma radiation. ‘Tis, you are just full of useful info. So, as part of my emergency-preparedness kit I can keep a 50-gallon drum of diesel fuel handy.
@ Lynna #584:
If they’re contactable you could ask them. Some may even already have blogged/tweeted or whatever about it.
Good idea, SEF. I’ll get on that.
‘Tis Himself, did you see this bit:
I sent an email to Roger G. Kennedy, Director Emeritus
Smithsonian National Museum of American History. If someone wants to tweet Alice Beck Kehoe, she’s on twitter, but I didn’t find an email contact for her.
Time for a hit of music: Ashley Macisaac live. I’m in love with the slightly weird guy in the kilt.
Note on my link @592: Unfortunately, they pixelated the kilt-wearing dude’s treasure when he did his high kick at the end.
This really rocks my world fro some reason…
386,
Now a Hank Fan
Rock on, dude…
Actually, I found the following article about her on SciAm, which ends with: “In her retirement Kehoe enjoys writing and traveling: She’s off to Angkor Wat in Cambodia in January to see the pyramids there that bear a similarity to the ones in Mexico. ”
Granted, that was Dec. 08, but she still might be traveling around somewhere.
Oh, and I found her book.
I wonder if she might include the Book of Mormon under pseudoscience, or under legitimate “controversy”?
This other book has only one mention of Mormons in it, as a putative source for petroglyphs.
*shrug*
========================
Thanks, by the way, to Alan, ‘Tis, and Sven “poopyhead” DeMilo for the contributions the Kemistry Korner.
I read about the climate effects of δ16O/18O in Prothero’s After the Dinosaurs, but seeing the diffusion difference laid out makes it a bit clearer.
Just to make sure I understand: Water molecules with the lighter isotope of oxygen evaporate and diffuse more easily from the sea and become precipitated as snow/ice at the poles and on glaciers. So colder climates mean there is more 18O and less 16O everywhere else, and this ratio changes during warmer climates when the snow and ice melts and the 16O returns to the seawater. Right?
Rex Rammell, uncut, unedited, and unhinged.
I’d love to know how to “exist anciently”.
horrid grammar; adverbs do not work that way.
Jadehawk, yeah, the “exist anciently” was not their only sin against the English language. I particularly liked ” Where are the physical manafestations…” with “manafestations” instead of “manifestations.”
The trailer for the movie contains dog whistle moments for mormons, like the comparison of Native American rock art to Egyptian hieroglyphics. Remember Joe Smith and his “reformed Egyptian” translations? The “Lost Civilization of North America” is really just salivation movie for mormons.
What I’d really like to know is how much the LDS Church paid him to make that travesty.
Owlmirror @595 and @596: I read bit more about Alice Beck Kehoe, but, like you, I can’t tell if she would be a debunker of the Book of Mormon or not. The Kensington Rune Stone seems to show up in Rod Meldrum’s previous work and in articles about or by Kehoe. I don’t know enough about that to judge Kehoe’s assessment of the stone. Nor do I know if her assessment (runes of northeastern European origin?) means anything at all to the fantasists that adhere to the BoM.
I’ll have to look again at the list of scientists, both real and faux, involved in Meldrum’s movie to see if they have a real DNA expert instead of just those “experts” blinded by mormon confirmation bias. The movie description includes this gem:
I keep calling it a “movie” because I can’t bear to put it in the category of “documentary”.
Lynna,
That Rex Rammell video is a gem! Thanks.
Gotta love the claim that he invited only Mormon elders to his campaign rally because (paraphrasing) “I didn’t realize that anyone else would be interested in discussing the prophecy.”
boygenius, All we have to do is stand back and watch Rex Rammell shoot himself in the foot over and over again. It’s like he issued a hunting license for his foot rather than that hunting tag he wanted to issue for Obama.
I noticed that he backed off from his earlier offer that non-mormons could come to his “Elders of Israel” meetings if they just emailed him first. Now he backtracks and says that the room will be filled with Elders, so there’s no room for the gentiles … and no room for mormon women either.
Unfortunately, I’m sure Rammell is correct about attendance. He’ll have wall-to-wall elders nodding in agreement. We’d like to think that Rammell is the only one that unhinged, but he has plenty of company.
Only the guy with the exploding underpants on the flight to Detroit is crazier.
Wow, Hank Williams had a lot of monster hit songs. Why was I not aware of this person’s existence before?
Rex Rammell’s Ten Principles to Govern America:
http://rexrammell.com/tenprinciples.aspx
“Principle” #4 kind of stands out, in light of their involvement in Prop. 8.
Lynna:
Angrier? Yes, absolutely. Crazier? That’s a toss up.
In the tradition of posted lectures :
Sean B Carroll-Year of Darwin
Neil Shubin–Year of Darwin
Ken Miller–The collapse of Intelligent Design
386sx…,
Perhaps you have been living under a rock since 1938? :-) You may be interested to learn that he also had a son that achieved some level of success:
His grandson is doing quite well for himself, too:
PS For you northern-hemispherians, here is my local weather forecast (Centigrade):
—begin quote —
IDS10034
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
South Australia
Adelaide Forecast
Issued at 4:00 pm CDT on Friday 8 January 2010
Warning Summary
The SES has issued an Extreme Heat Warning for South Australia.
Fire Weather Warning has been issued.
Forecast for Friday evening
A dry, warm to hot and clear evening. Light to moderate afternoon sea breeze.
Winds tending moderate southeasterly during the evening.
Precis Dry. Clear.
Forecast for Saturday
Dry, very hot and sunny. Moderate southeasterly winds becoming light during the
morning before a moderate early afternoon sea breeze. Winds tending moderate
southeasterly during the evening.
Precis Dry. Sunny.
City: Min 26 Max 41
Elizabeth: Min 22 Max 41
Mount Barker: Min 17 Max 39
Noarlunga: Min 23 Max 39
UV Alert: 9:10 am to 5:30 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 12 [Extreme]
Fire Danger: Severe [50-74] (Mount Lofty Ranges Fire Ban District)
Sunday Dry. Sunny. Min 27 Max 43
Monday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 30 Max 43
Tuesday Possible shower. Min 24 Max 26
—- end quote —-
I live and work in the Mount Lofty Ranges Fire Ban District.
soooo yeaaah…. I’ll take the -27C I have here over the Australian 41C
not that I needed another reason not to move to Australia, ever :-p
Perhaps you have been living under a rock since 1938? :-)
Well, I was familiar with II, was completely unaware of III, and had known the name of I from the son, II. But I never really paid much attention to I before. Turns out he’s a genius and has got some cool moves to boot! It’s like a total fresh discovery for me.
I think I like them in this order:
1) I
2) II
3) III
-27C !!!
FFS! That’s downright inhospitable.
What a hell-hole.
From memory, does funny things to your ears and eyebrows when you attempt to be brave and walk to the petrol station for some booze in those conditions…
And yeah, just to contrast that, air-con running here with 34C outside…20/20 Cricket match is about to start, cold beers in the fridge, must be summer !!
like i said: i’ll take the cold over the heat. one can dress against the cold, but there’s only so much you can take off in the heat (and then you’ll get skin-cancer from doing that)
386sx…,
Yes, Hank Sr. is pure genius. Listen to as much of his work as you can, and consider the influence he had on music in general. Country/western, rock-n-roll, blues, bluegrass, americana, even jazz.
It is indeed tragic that he drank himself to death at 29, but he’s in good company. (Pigpen, Janis, Bird, Jimmy, Jim, Frank, Jerry, Brent, just to name a few that died too soon.)
Yes, Hank Sr. is pure genius. Listen to as much of his work as you can, and consider the influence he had on music in general.
Yeah I’ve been listening to some of them, and they are songs that I’ve heard before from other people! But they were doing covers of the man. I never knew.
Jadehawk,OM,
I’ll second that emotion. If it’s cold, you can put on more layers and be warm. If it’s hot, you can get naked and still be hot. (temperature-wise)
386sx…,
Welcome to the flock. But don’t just listen to the covers. Rather, understand that Hank changed the landscape for many musicians in many different genres. If you listen to enough (American) music, you will find his influence over & over.
For example, from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music:
Performed by Ray Charles but written by Don Gibson, who was greatly influenced by Hank Williams.
Only a not-so-impressive -17C here.
Positively balmy -5C here. We didn’t get the predicted 12″ of snow, but I still have to run the snow-blower before I go to work.
I’d be thirding Jadehawk and boygenius on the whole too much hot versus cold thing ‘cept you know I would anyway… Reference previous comments on the relative practicalities of putting on more clothes versus peeling off your skin when all layers above that are already gone and it’s still not helping.
Well, there’s that and the fact that I seem to have some kinda blast furnace-like metabolism probably suitable for heating up to something like a 1500 square foot space all on its own, but which also poaches me like an egg at anything more than five degrees above room temperature. I do often use those iron oxidation-based foot warmer thingies when boarding below -15 C since I also happen to have size 13 clodhoppers and my toes are so far from my heart it’s probably a long distance call, but otherwise, cold, I mostly see it as a relief. Gives me somewhere to vent the heat.
(/Related, for the last few days, however, I’ve more been packing frozen gelpacks against skin than foot warmers. There’s a rumour going around I may have cracked a rib–or possibly two–boarding. But the X-rays aren’t back yet. And I’m crossing my fingers that it’s just bruising, since I actually boarded like that for about a week before figuring I might want to have someone look things over… The good news, anyway, is the person who did look it over sez either way I can probably still do Whistler as planned in a few weeks. Which is good. Very, very good.)
A lot of snow is supposed to fall this weekend! :-) :-) :-) Well, whatever “a lot” means in Paris. We’ll see.
Mohs hardness. The name is German, probably the same as the word Moos which means “moss”.
Manafestations? Seriously? :-D
Cahokia is utterly awesome. It just hasn’t got anything to do with Mor(m)on history, it’s a coincidence.
Northwestern, I hope?
Anyway, the Kensington runestone is fairly convincing (pdf), except of course that I don’t see how the Mormons would want to profit from it. It’s completely orthogonal to their story.
Heat only gets annoying when it’s damp.
…where rainforest conditions do not count as “hot”. 37 °C and damp, that gets on my nerves.
Bout right. What the hell is that thing Hank 3 is wearing on top of his head?
I’ll also note in a socio-historical mode that, whereas Woody Guthrie’s guitar read “This machine kills fascists,” Hank Williams III’s guitar reads “FUCK.”
Probably a dissertation in there for some north-campusy type.
Damp is never pleasant, hot or cold.
It’s a rainy 5C here in the Puget Sound area this morning.
____
I saw Hank, Jr. live in concert when I was in college. He was so drunk he could hardly stay on his stool and he kept forgetting the verses. A very disappointing concert, to say the least.
David M., Thanks for the corrections. I think we have proof that I should have stopped posting earlier in the evening — should have gone to bed when I started nodding at the keyboard.
Yeah, the Rune Stone is from Scandinavia, I think. I see so much blather about it when I do a search that it looks too much like yet another mormon-tainted black hole. Bleh.
Rorschach can be cruel about the weather, offering cold bear and all. Fuckin’ frozen northlands here, with the kind of cold that starts to creep inside and leave frost in unexpected places. I haven’t seen it this cold since … last January. When I lived in Alaska it was common to see frost forming on the nail heads (that’s frost on interior walls!). Lessons in cold conductivity.
#582 (& #579, 583, 588)
Hi ‘Tis. I want to find something to agree with first. Yes. Tritium is a low energy pure beta emitter. I would still suggest that finding a source of pure alpha, beta or gamma would not be common.
The rest. No. The key sentence is:
That is nonsense. I want a source that tells me that – I can’t find one. For neutrons I would agree with you. See footnote. For gamma I do not agree with you. Some examples:
1)
Source: http://www.tpub.com/content/doe/h1017v2/css/h1017v2_78.htm
(Section on shielding starts on page 18 of the pdf i.e. 78.htm, as above. The quotes on gamma rays are on page 20 i.e. 80.htm)
The document appears to be from the United States DOE (Department of Energy).
2)
Source: http://trshare.triumf.ca/~safety/EHS/rpt/rpt_7/node17.html#hvl
TRIUMF is Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics located on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is now owned and operated by a consortium of eleven Canadian universities.
3)
Source: www-diva.eng.cam.ac.uk/energy/parksteaching/nuclear/4a1healthphysics.pdf
Cambridge University Engineering Department. Based on the advice from National Radiological Protection Board, UK.
All three are from highly reputable sources and all say the same thing – you want dense, high atomic number material such as iron (or even better lead). Water contains an element [O-16] which has a higher atomic number, and the liquid has a higher density, than hydrocarbons [C-12]. I have no figures for the effectiveness of hydrocarbons but based on the information above it does not seem likely to be any more effective than water.
I accept that anything will shield from gamma radiation. Even in a vacuum, the inverse square law comes in and one might even argue that as a result, a vacuum is effective (but for a totally different reason). Similarly, a thick layer of water or hydrocarbon fuel will absorb gamma radiation and will keep the operator further from the source. However, to say that:
is straining the meaning of words when you need between 1 and 2 orders of magnitude greater thickness than common materials such as lead or iron.
If you are in a nuclear submarine with a reactor that has to be shielded, I would agree that hydrocarbon fuel might be useful to reduce neutron exposure and, if the tanks are large enough to shield from gamma radiation. No one would choose water or hydrocarbon fuel, either of which could drain away, unless there were special conditions.
Footnote
Source: Same document from Cambridge Uni Engrg Dept.
Calling mormons out for their outrageous claims, only this time it’s not me, but a newspaper in New York, 1912. This was the first (and certainly not the last) time the Book of Abraham was proven to be a fraud.
#621 David Marjanović
Fair cop, guv. Mho’s Hardness Scale it is.
[Ed. He started off with “Ohm’s”. Only another 4 possible wrong answers and he picked one!]
I’ve only ever seen it as Mohs.
Mormon missionaries made the news in Melbourne (there’s a lovely photo of the duo):
One of the missionaries is Elder Woo. Nope, not kidding.
We may have to ask Rorschach to explain “spruiking” to us.
Re #629: the book of Abraham thing is one of those Mormon bits that actually seriously makes me cackle. It’s a nice, vivid reminder that not only was Smith incredibly obviously a con, he wasn’t even a particularly smart con…
There is of course, a darker message in this: that apparently, you don’t even have to be. It almost seems as if any fucking moron who’s willing to spin up enough bullshit can start a religion if he really wants to. You get to thinking: you could probably actually start one of these things by accident… Make a three-sentence joke on Pharyngula about having received a vision to the effect that Joseph Smith was actually a space alien sent here to test human gullibility, find out six months later you’ve just become the prophet for a 1,000-member strong cult that holds this as their principal article of faith…
But somewhat more cheeringly, I’ve actually read comments from former Mormons for whom the ‘Book of Abraham’ bit was a key part of their throwing the whole mess of silliness overboard, and getting the hell out. And yep, I can sure as hell see how that might happen.
Here’s some interesting new work on the “runes” supposedly translated by Joseph Smith. Turns out to be Latin shorthand, with origins in the writings of Irish monks (?). There’s a nice illustration of the “rune” characters.
Video from the mormons, with intent to brainwash, frighten, and blame young women.
The video begins with a comparison of men to mosquitoes, bears, and sharks. Nice.
If something goes wrong, it’s the young woman’s fault. No doubt about it.
The teaching of Deadly Virtues.
Yeah, that Book of Abraham fiasco was the breaking point that turned a lot of mormons into ex-mormons. On the other hand, it turned some mormons into whirling dervishes in the Giant Spin Factory that is mormonism. To whit: Joseph Smith was “inspired” by [fill in the blank here] and was not literally translating anything. God (or Moroni or Nephi or whomever or whatever) just sent an inspirational piece of claptrap to inspire Joe. From there, Joe was on his own, spouting truth without end.
You could probably do a better job of starting a religion than Joe Smith did. I advise a collaboration with Owlmirror. Let me know if you want to buy some seer stones.
#630, #631
Even when acknowledging a correction I still can’t get it right! O.K. Moh’s Hardness Scale was what I wanted.
Actually, if you Google Mhos scale you get some links with MHOS scale with values up to 15. What’s that about, Josh? For example:
http://www.osborn.com/lit/LITATB.pdf
Is it a peculiarity of the abrasives industry and wanting a wider scale at the upper end? After all, the differences in Vickers Hardness between Diamond and Corrundum, is far larger than between, say, Quartz and Topaz. Just a thought …
OK, radiation is my day job and gemstones are a hobby, so here’s my take on the subjects of topaz enhancement and radiation shielding.
First, what is happening with irradiation of topaz when you zap it? It turns out that when you get imperfections in the crystaline lattice of topaz, these imperfections (defects) can trap charge and the trapped charge responds by absorbing some frequencies of light. This changes the color. If you irradiate with gammas or electrons, you don’t create many new defects. You only create charges that can be trapped at existing defects, so there’s a limit to how dark a blue you can get. When you irradiate with neutrons, you are creating new defects/charge traps, so you can get a deeper blue. The nice thing about topaz is that the charge traps tend to be pretty stable. In other minerals, the color can bleach if exposed to heat or ultraviolet light.
The thing about neutron irradiation is that the neutrons can alter the nuclei in the topaz and form unstable/radioactive isotopes. So you have to wait a couple of half-lives before distributing the gems. There have been a couple of incidents where the dealer didn’t wait and you got some rather hot rocks.
Now as to radiation shielding, there are two things to consider–ionizing dose and non-ionizing dose. Ionizing dose is just the interaction of a charged particle (alpha or beta) with the charges inside the medium it’s passing through (e.g. you). Since the nucleus is about 100000 times smaller than the atom, this means mostly the electrons in the medium.
So to a first approximation, the shielding of a material scales with the number of electrons in it, which scales roughly with the density. So a dense material will provide more shielding per unit volume/thickness. However the same mass per square centimeter will give the same shielding to first order. (Note: second order effects (e.g. charge screening, etc.) tip the balance just slightly in favor of less dense materials–like Tis’s hydrocarbons, but the effect is slight.
Note: When a gamma ray passes through matter, it interacts by compton scattering to produce an energetic electron–it’s this electron that actually does the damage to tissue, so gamma dose damage looks a lot like beta dose. A gamma ray has a long range because it doesn’t lose energy until it interacts and produces a compton electron. Beta particles have a shorter range because they lose energy continually in matter. Alphas have the shortest range because they are heavy and have a charge of 2 units–they do a lot of damage over a very short range (~ the thickness of a sheet of paper).
Neutrons are especially pernicious. They cause damage by scattering off of nuclei (so-called nonionizing energy loss or NIEL) in crystalline lattices, DNA molecules, etc., resulting in dense regions of damaged lattice/tissue. Neutrons are uncharged, so they don’t interact with electrons, only the nuclei. They also scatter more effectively and lose energy more rapidly off of light nuclei–e.g. hydrogen. The more hydrogen in a material, the better it is at shielding neutrons. Unfortunately, that also makes the material very light, so you need a lot of it for an effective shield.
Hope this helps.
Lynna (@#635): Nice vid. It is clear that modesty and virtue will attract white men and small children instead of bloodsuckers and carnivores.
Bout right. What the hell is that thing Hank 3 is wearing on top of his head?
I’m not sure. I’m calling it a hellbilly hat though! Works for me!
As far as Hank III’s head covering, I’m postulating a new species of Cowboy Metrosexual. The hat is not as practical as a real cowboy’s hat, but it pretends to cowboyness, and it pretends to be well broken in by being worn while riding hell bent for leather. However, the distressed look and rolled brim can be bought in Manhattan, I’ve seen it.
Still, if a guy can carry it off and still look/sound bad ass, I’m all for it.
Sven, yes I too liked the formula for mormon women to attract white guys and perfect babies. Good tips in that video.
I have my doubts, though, about the modest dress working as promised. I read an article some time ago (in The New Yorker, I think) that told the story of a guy visiting Saudi Arabia. At a mall, he sat with young men watching women coming down the escalator. The young men would hoot and holler when they saw a young woman. So how did they know a woman covered head to toe, with only her eyes showing, was hot? They’re good at reading subtle clues like shoes, carriage, nimbleness, amount of eye makeup, cell phone in hand, and so forth.
Women in Iran report that virtue police berate them for running, even to catch a bus, as the movement of their buttocks while running is inflammatory and lewd.
Then there are all the Victorian novels that have men swooning over the sight of an ankle, the back of a neck, or a wrist
In other words, there is no way that dressing modestly will turn off the spigot of lust (true for both men and women). And the idea that women are, in the main, responsible for either exciting or controlling men’s desires is bad for society. That idea essentially gives men free reign to express lust in any way, and anywhere, without fear of offense or retribution. After all, it’s the woman’s fault. It would be much better for societal norms to be taught that require both men and women to be responsible for their own actions, and to show as much respect as is necessary to establish equality in relationships. After that, they can express as much lust as is mutually agreeable.
a_ray_in_dilbert_space @638: Thanks! That was great. I have a much better mental picture now of what changes the color in topaz, and why, and how a blue topaz might damage me if handled while hot.
However, I’m still not sure if I should keep the 50-gallon drum of diesel fuel as part of my preparation for nuclear war (jump in with a breathing tube?), or if I need an entire swimming pool filled with diesel fuel, or if I should encase my house in 50 gallon drums of diesel fuel, or if any diesel fuel at all will play havoc with my insurance costs. Maybe I’ll just go back to concrete blocks — or maybe I’ll stand outside naked and take the full blast and be done with it. Yeah, that last option sounds good.
Anyway, practicing for the assault by standing outside naked will be good for my neighbors. They need all the excitement they can get to counteract the boredom of endless church functions.
#638
I have just about finished a write-up about topaz as promised. Having put the time in I will post it anyway, although it is close to what a_ray_in_dilbert_space has said.
I received an email reply from Roger G. Kennedy (see comment #584, 587 and 589, plus a few other comments from ‘Tis Himself and Jadehawk that are in the mix):
KemistryKorner 3
Radiation-Induced Colour Change in Topaz – continuation from #573
Note on language: “colour / color” and “centre / center” will be used interchangeably throughout.
There are a number of different causes of colour in gemstones. I shall be relying heavily of the Internet-based course referred to previously and I will be dealing only with Topaz. For more general information go to Lecture 7, “Color in Minerals”:
http://nature.berkeley.edu/classes/eps2//wisc/Lect7.html
Topaz can derive its colour from a number of causes e.g. trace metals (e.g. Chromium). A common cause is colour centres
From Lecture 7, “Color Centres”
The last sentence is important. Coloured gemstones do not generate colour. In general (and especially with colour centres) they are the colour of the light that can get through the gem, all else being absorbed. For example a green diamond results from missing carbon atoms. This leads to absorption of red light while other colours can pass through and hence the diamond is seen as being green.
Topaz is the most common irradiated gem on the market. Particles, or electromagnetic rays (ionizing radiation), have enough energy to produce color centers.
Irradiation of topaz with beta particles (electrons) produces a greenish brown color (= blue + yellow + reddish tinge). Each of the components of the color is due to a different kind of color center. Least stable are the yellow and reddish: controlled heating removes these, leaving blue color centers.
#642
Lynna: you are a bad girl!
Here’s a book review of “Hidden Cities”, the book to which Mr. Kennedy referred me: http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-09/news/ls-60416_1_north-america
Alan B 2646
Thank you, Alan.
Thanks also for more info on irradiation of topaz. I’m gathering all the info up, and then I’ll go discuss it with my brother, Steve. After that, I might actually know something.
@ Lynna #644:
Excellent. Sometimes being direct does work.
Lynna: you are a bad girl!
So spank her! Yes, yes, spank her!
And then… the oral sex.
Yes, yes, the oral sex!
blf, you need to provide the Monty Python link for the full effect.
I would just like to add that you are all in great peril!
Oh please let us have a little peril.
Alan can handle it. Really, Alan can handle it.
As I was waiting for that last comment to load, my browser was aimed at the I feel sorry for this kid and my eye fixated on this:
This part of Genesis has long bothered me*. Just think about the mentality that’s necessary if there is actually anyone out there who believes that this statement, as written, is true.
New species of animals have been discovered and named during my lifetime. I mean extant ones. What, so Adam had some other name for each of them? Where are those names recorded?
_____________________
*What Josh, just that part?
*cowers in fear*
From the LA Times review mentioned by Lynna:
Mwahahaha!
WHo said Adam gave each animal a unique name? He could’ve just had a few names, like Big Fecker Run for Hills, Little Fecker Start the Fire, and That Thing Over There. After a while people realized that it’d be useful to more precisely distinguish the different-looking Big Fecker Run for Hills, and so started calling them things like Tigers, Hippos, and Women. Similar for Little Fecker Start the Fire, so now you’ve got Cow, Dog, and Bacon. That Thing Over There turned into Whale, Eagle, and Your Finger You Fool.
Just posted this on another thread, but it probably belongs here too/instead.
And now, the greatest of all trucker songs. I loved the Tom Waits version for decades before I stumbled upon the original (w/ Frankie Lee/Judas Priest background pickin):
Oh, Josh. Your theology is so poor.
Adam didn’t name each and every species. He named all of the baraminim.
Sheesh.
[You have to wonder a bit about the animals not being “help meet for him”…. Did he, you know, try with each one? “No… no… I don’t think it’s going to work with this…. this… sheep either. Sorry, no offense meant.”]
It’s the same mentality that allows some people to maintain the belief that one single ark built 4000 years ago was enough to save all life from extinction in the face of a global, catastrophic flood. It’s the don’t-think-too-much-about-it-or-you’ll-make-baby-Jesus-cry* kind of mentality.
* And… “That would be bad.”
Yeah, everyone knows it takes three Arks, called A, B, and C.
“And what’s this? Hm, kinda low to the ground. Lots of sharp teeth, too. Why’s that, God? What do you mean, I’ll find out? […later…] No, I don’t think it’s going to work with this…. crocodile.”
[…much, much, later…]
“OK, God, what the — *ouch!* — hell is this? Ouch! Fuck! This… porcupine has painful sharp points everywhere. You’re just fucking with me, now, aren’t you?”
=============
PS: Chicxulub.
Thread closed, again. Go here. Careful, merging traffic.