The more countries work together, the more it gets set into society that people from other countries are okay, and working with them is NOT like working with the enemy.
You're very much right. Before the election of 2000, the US was on its way to becoming a cooperative international power. We were involved in negotiations on the Kyoto treaty, we weren't developing "Star Wars" ABM weapons, and we were even showing signs of getting with the program on such no-brainers as land mines.
It was looking for a while like people could get along. What a difference a blown election can make. Or more specifically -- and echoing comments in other threads -- what a difference a small group of xenophobic warmongers can make in a formerly peaceful society.
By the way, I lay the blame for this mess squarely at the feet of Mr. Al Gore. The election was his to lose, and he did so in craptacular fashion. Blaming the Supreme Court is like blaming the umpire -- if you'd really played better than the other team, you'd have won.
(And this message is now officially 100% -1, Offtopic. Karma to burn, baby!)
Phil Plait's page linked to the Skeptic's Dictionary, which in turn linked to this cool site:
Miracles of Islam: * Does this tomato carry a message from God? * Second Miracle Tomato * Miracle stone * Name of 'Allah' on eggs and beans * Miracle Melon * Holy Message on Eggshell
This is strangely comforting to me, as a Christian myself. I had thought that visions of Christ in pond scum and the Virgin Mary on tortillas were God's way of helping us laugh at ourselves, but I wondered why He would have everyone else giggling as well. Turn out He's being a divine Prankster to the rest of his children as well.
As for us Methodists, I don't think we tend to make a big deal about religious signs in fruit, stones, and tortillas. Perhaps this is due in part to the Protestant reluctance to worship iconic figures. Note that at your local Baptist or Methodist church, the cross is empty... symbolically, that's an important distinction from our Catholic brethren.
But if that tortilla is what it takes to strengthen your faith... "God works in mysterious ways," indeed.
So Brian Morrissey, the Senior Editor of the DMNews, thinks spam isn't all that bad. That consumers shouldn't be able to sue to take back their inboxes.
I guess we can't say he's not putting his money where his mouth is, though... he put his email in a clickable link right there on the DMNews.com site.
Of course, some spammers may exclude dmnews.com from their spidering. That does Mr. Morrissey a huge disservice! Clearly, unsolicited email is something he strongly supports, and we should help him in any way we can.
So if anyone would like to include bmorrissey@dmnews.com on their email list, I'm sure Brian Morrissey would not mind at all! After all, Mr. Brian Morrissey (whose email address is bmorrissey@dmnews.com) is Senior Editor of "The Online Newspaper of Record for Direct Marketers." He probably knows the Webmaster and the Postmaster, too, and I'm sure they would never consider UCE to be Abuse.
This has been a public service of the Slashdot community. Don't worry, you can thank us later!
I wonder what other yummy metals (arsenic, gallium, indium, etc.) might be found on the surface?
I spent a day Googling on that idea a couple of years ago, but didn't come up with much. But you've got to figure that even "trace" amounts of particularly valuable metals would be worth gigabucks -- if there were only a way to get to them.
Here are the specific elements I found mentioned in the.pdf paper:
This line is talking about what happens on Earth, but it's probably fair to assume that at least some similar chemistry is going on on Venus: Halides and/or chalcogenides of several volatile metals (e.g., Cu, As, Pb, Sb, Bi) occur around terrestrial volcanic vents and fumaroles or are present in volcanic gases (Brackett et al. 1995).
They're definitely looking for interesting minerals (for those not familiar, Au is gold and Ag is silver): The calculations shown in Figures 1 included the elements O, C, N, S, H, Cu, Cl, As, Pb, Tl, Se, Br, F, In, Ag, Sb, I, Bi, and Te. We also considered Zn, Ge, Sn, Cd, Hg, and Au. Approximately 660 compounds of the trace metals were considered.
Tellurium (Te) isn't considered a major player: We therefore conclude tellurium frost cannot be the high dielectric material found in the highlands because of its low abundance and thermodynamic instability.
Next, they look at Copper (Cu), Lead (Pb), and Bismuth (Bi). I think they're saying that Cu could be found, but the Pb and Bi are what's causing the interesting radar readings: Copper condenses over Venus' entire surface as Cu2S (chalcocite) and converts to CuS (covellite) at an altitude of ~19 km. Other condensates that are stable at all elevations (i.e., above ~2.6 km) include Ag2S (acanthite), In2O3 and PbS (galena). Bismuthite (Bi2S3) condenses at an altitude of ~1.6 km and stibnite (Sb2S3) condenses at ~16.6 km. Of these compounds, only galena and bismuthite have both dielectric constants high enough to be interesting (see Table 2) and reasonable abundances.
Now for the good news! If terrestial volcanoes provide a workable model, some of the really interesting elements (Au, Ag, & co) could be present in trace amounts -- but likely much higher concentrations than found in Earth rocks: Near terrestrial fumaroles, lead and bismuth often condense together to form lead, bismuth sulfosalts such as galenobismutite (PbBiS4), lillianite (Pb3BiS6), cannizarite (Pb4Bi5S11), and cosalite (Pb2Bi2S5) (Borodaev et al. 2000, 2001). If present on Venus, these compounds may contain large amounts of Cu, Ag, and Cd, which also form stable condensates at Venusian surface conditions. Several other sulfosalts of the elements Pb, Bi, Cu, Ag, As, and Sb also form as volcanic condensates and cannot be ruled out as the heavy metal frost on Venus.
And wouldn't the aerospace industry be pleased to find some bonus Titanium (Ti)? One of the most puzzling aspects of the highland radar data is that at the highest elevations the dielectric constant drops back to values consistent with bare rock. Some of these summit areas, such as Ovda, Atla, and Beta Regiones, also seem to have a porous surficial deposit with a low dielectric constant (Campbell et al. 1999). The perovskite model for the high dielectric material explains these regions by weathering of perovskite (CaTiO3) to fluorite (CaF2) plus rutile (TiO2) through reaction with HF (g). This reaction produces a significant decrease in volume, leading to an increase in the porosity of the rock (Fegley et al. 1992).
And just in case all this profit has you shaking your head, here's some pure science: We propose that lead condensed in the Venusian highlands is a representative sample of Venusian lead, just as Pb in oceanic sediments is apparently a representative sample for terrestrial lead (Patterson 1956). Therefore, it should be possible to determine the age of Venus by measuring the Pb207/Pb204 and Pb206/Pb204 lead isotopic ratios in the heavy metal frost.
Just a rough copy-and-paste. I'm not posting it AC because nobody trusts AC text reposts anymore. Too many troll text insertions (sometimes funny, sometimes just dumb). I've left out the footnotes and tables that don't format well -- if this piques your curiosity, download the original.pdf.
Heavy metal frost on Venus Laura Schaefer and Bruce Fegley, Jr. Planetary Chemistry Laboratory Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences Washington University St. Louis, MO 63130-2302 USA Submitted to Icarus 12 September 2003 Revised: 13 November 2003 Pages: 20 Tables: 2 Figures: 4
Proposed Running Head: Heavy metal frost on Venus Editorial correspondence to: Bruce Fegley, Jr. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Campus Box 1169 Washington University St. Louis, MO 63130-4899 Phone: (314) 935-4852 Fax: (314) 935-4853 E-mail: bfegley@levee.wustl.edu
ABSTRACT Chemical equilibrium calculations of volatile metal geochemistry on Venus show that high dielectric constant compounds of lead and bismuth such as PbS (galena), Bi2S3 (bismuthite) or Pb-Bi sulfosalts condense in the Venusian highlands and may be responsible for the low radar emissivities observed by Magellan and Pioneer Venus. Our calculations also show that elemental tellurium is unstable on Venus? surface and will not condense below 46.6 km. This is over 30 km higher than Maxwell Montes, the highest point on Venus? surface. Elemental analyses of Venus? highlands surface by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and/or X-ray fluorescence (XRF) can verify the identity of the heavy metal frost on Venus. The Pb-Pb age of Venus could be determined by mass spectrometric measurements of the Pb207/Pb204 and Pb206/Pb204 isotopic ratios in Pb-bearing frosts. All of these measurements are technologically feasible now. Key Words: Venus, geochemistry, trace elements, Te, Pb, Bi, dielectric constant,
INTRODUCTION Pioneer Venus and Magellan radar observations of Venus? surface reveal a puzzling shift in radar properties at a planetary radius of ~6054 km (Pettengill et al. 1982, 1996, 1997, Ford & Pettengill 1983). Below this altitude and over most of Venus, the radar properties are typical for anhydrous rocks, such as dry basalt. In contrast, higher elevation regions have lower radar emissivity indicating the presence of semiconducting minerals with high dielectric constants (Pettengill et al. 1996). A number of models have been proposed to explain the unusual radar properties of the Venusian highlands. Among these are: volumetric scattering from decimeter sized voids in surface rock (Pettengill & Ford 1993), the presence of a low-loss soil layer (Tryka & Muhleman 1992), the loading of surface rock with small conductors or dielectrics such as pyrite (Pettengill et al. 1982, Ford & Pettengill 1983) or perovskite (Fegley et al. 1992), the presence of ferroelectric minerals (Shepard et al. 1994), and the vapor phase deposition of high dielectric constant metallic compounds (Brackett et al. 1995). However, Magellan bistatic radar observations of the Maxwell Montes highlands (Pettengill et al. 1996) are best explained by the metallic frost model (Pettengill et al. 1996, Brackett et al. 1995). Brackett et al. (1995) proposed that the low emissivity minerals in the Venusian highlands are metal halides or chalcogenides produced by volcanic outgassing. Halides and/or chalcogenides of several volatile metals (e.g., Cu, As, Pb, Sb, Bi) occur around terrestrial volcanic vents and fumaroles or are present in volcanic gases (Brackett et al. 1995). Although volcanic outgassing may occur anywhere on Venus? surface, the volatile metals and their compounds only condense in the cooler Venusian highlands, which are cold traps for the heavy metal frost. Pettengill et al. (1996) suggested that the metalli
Now I won't have to be limited to using a hyphen! I can register d[i-circ]xiechicks.com, or dixi[e-grave]chicks.com, or maybe dixie[c-cedil]hicks.com!
That last one would be doubly good, because if I understand the Punycode spec correctly, it'll get translated to ASCII as dixiehicks-XXXX.com. Not my opinion of the group, but maybe it would attract hits from the Toby Keith crowd.
You certainly made a fool out of all those experts working for the bank who replied to your previous post. That or you just got lucky with a shot in the dark.
Hmmm... I'll choose option "B". Even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes.
From the article: "The actual point of service terminal itself getting infected-- that's pretty crazy," said [Windows expert Marc] Maiffret. "But worms are always going to be able to infect a lot more interesting machines than individual intruders are." Moreover, before reaching an ATM network, a human attacker would likely encounter more alluring high-finance targets along the way. "They're going to have to go through a lot of juicer networks first."
Oh, yeah, that's crazy. As I recall, we discussed this very issue in a previous Slashdot story, and all the experts told us mere geeks that we were ignorant and stupid to even worry about it. Some of the most choice comments came in reply to my own post on the subject.
Now, even *after* a worm has found its way into an ATM, the "Windows Experts" say there's *still* nothing to worry about.
Well, ok... I'm not going to worry about my own personal finances, because I'll just ask the bank to reverse any bogus transactions. But if/when some savvy hacker does figure out how to infiltrate an ATM and walks away with a few hundred bucks, someone's going to come up short on their books at the end of the day...
About the reentry, I'm not sure it will burn up completely. Meteorites crashing on Earth are said to be warm, not scalding hot.
Hmmm... you actually triggered a memory that would have made me write a rather different posting. A quick Google found this page dealing with a meteorite that was seen over Jordan. What appeared to be an area where a meteor fell out of the sky and scorched the land turned out to be the remnants of an unrelated brushfire.
And it's pointed out several times that the hot bits get peeled off by atmospheric friction so quickly that the rock itself is cold if it's big enough to impact.
So I think you've helped me disprove my point. Oh, well, hopefully we were going to infest Mars with our microbes -- carried on human bodies -- anyway.
Another guy saw the BSOD, and then subsequent rebooting and attempts to fix the system being displayed on a "jumbotron" type display on the Las Vegas Strip
Not quite the scale of a Jumbotron, but there's an outfit in Dallas' (wannabe) "Little Asia" area that has a large LED display, visible from I-35E, that frequently seems a bit messed up. Finally, one day, I found out why. The top right corner of a Windows 95-style error message was displayed... just the top of the exclamation point triangle, plus enough of the other graphic elements to make its origin pretty certain.
I think the outfit is called "EasyComm", but that name doesn't show up at that location at Superpages.com. They sell phones and security systems. Yeah, I'm *sure* to buy a security system from someone who 1) isn't listed in the phone book and 2) can't configure their own hardware.
From the article: Friday's JAXA statement denied one Tokyo press report that probe was doomed to impact Mars and possibly contaminate the planet. Such a scenario would violate an international "space quarantine" treaty.
I know we've had a lot of cool reports that microbes have survived exposure to hard vacuum for extended periods, but do we really have to worry about "contaminating" Mars? The craft was probably sterilized pretty well before being launched. Then, a year and a half ago, it got hit with a solar flare strong enough to make it miss Mars the first time... that should have baked any hitchiking bugs pretty well. And then, there's the latest round of Solar hiccups to take into account.
Finally, if the craft does hit Mars, it's going to do it in a totally uncontrolled manner -- 'cause if they get any control, they'll steer it away. That implies a high velocity, which even in the thin Martian atmosphere should melt the craft into slag.
Extremophile bacteria at molten sulfur vents is one thing, but hitchiking in a blob of ablating steel?
And as far as that "space quarantine" treaty... what exactly is the punishment for sneezing in space?
I keep a copy around for a rescue disk and for detecting hardware for new installs.
This is going to be fun. I've got a PC in the shed that a co-worker gave me... it's got two hard drives and neither one seems to work. He and the tech guy here at work poked on it for a while before giving up on it entirely. I had no idea I could pop a CD in there and either get things going again in Linux, or at least use the CPU power.
I think I'll put in an order at TuxCDs.com (referenced on the Knoppix site) for a Knoppix distro and a Linux games CD -- hopefully the games disc will give my wife a good feeling for the OS.
But I'll wait until Monday... see if any more Slashdotters come back with even more cool ideas I didn't even know were options. I've been chained to MS and VB for waaaaay too long.
I'm impressed so far, too. I placed an order for the same basic PC you got -- PII-350 for $35. I didn't see a shipping amount when I was making the order, though, so I put a note in the "comments" box asking them to call me if the shipping was over $20.
I got a call this morning, 8:40 central time. I wasn't in the office yet, so they said they'd hold the order until they heard back from me. Good service and great price... not much more I could ask for.
Now, I've just got to find an easy newbie Linux installation... but the hardest task will be telling my wife I'm not planning to install Windows! Maybe I'll put Windows on this box and put Linux on the old box, for the sake of the marriage...
yeah - I know I'd love to have a 133 mhz laptop with 24 mb of ram, no cd, usb, network, etc etc... that sounds so cool!
Not compared to the 133t b0x3n your typical Slashdotter runs... but my box at home is a P-90 with 16 meg (maybe 24, who knows?), no usb, and no CD-ROM. The CD-ROM is there, and works fine, but the HD/CD ports (which are on the motherboard, right in the middle) conflict if they're both connected more than a few hours. Got it used for a hundred bucks four years ago or so, but had to saw it open to get to the innerds 'cause it didn't come with a key to the locked case!
So I've ordered a P-II 350Mhz, 64MB RAM, 6.4 gig HD, USB, and oh-my-goodness a working CD-ROM drive. The kids are going to think we took out a mortgage by comparison... and it was all of $35 bucks, plus high but understandable shipping/handling of $27.50.
Unfortunately, I had to make a deal with my wife -- she gets to blow^W spend about sixty bucks on clothes. Fair enough.
So far, the best thing I've gotten from the article is the link to RetroBox.com, an outfit that buys old equipment from companies, wipes the HD, and resells them.
My company used to have an annual old equipment sale for employees. It was so popular, you actually had a lottery drawing for line position -- like a rock concert. But when we got bought by the Faceless International Corporation Ltd, that was just one of the personal touches we lost.
If I remember correctly wasn't a "Unix system" also implicated in the chaotic havoc that was Jurassic Park?
I thought it was interesting when they name-dropped an actual OS in the movie. Though the way the kid said it was more like "Its a uniquesss... system." I wonder if the non-programmer community heard it as anything other than gobbledygook?
Not nearly as cool as Trinity's use of a real hacker tool in the second Matrix flick. For once, the filmmakers knew more than me about some aspect of computers! Cool!
So we're talking about 10^21 Joules. So, I don't see how you'd do it.
I know darned little about thermodynamics, but I'd imagine that even if you *could* impart that much force, you would then have to dissipate an equal amount of force when the object reaches its destination. Assumably, it would be released by the impact with whatever planetary body you aim that sucker at.
I guess the idea of slamming it into Mars is that it's ok to vaporize the water, ammonia, and other compounds into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, you'd also vaporize a lot of Martian rock as well, and I can't imagine that the extra dust would help make the air breathable -- for either humans or for machinery. You'd be trading a very thin atmosphere for airborne Martian mud.
Putting it in orbit sounds nice, until you realize how hard a time we've had putting fridge-sized objects launched from the next planet over. Multiply that to a mountain-sized object launched from half a dozen planets over...
And don't forget which planet is next in line in case that big ball of ice misses Mars...
I remember using Excite as my search of choice for full-text searches, back before Yahoo! started charging for everything, including directory listings. Then, there was Webcrawler, once the home of the canonical robots.txt standard.
I even remember back in the day, when notall AltaVistas were created equal.
Then came Google's PigeonRank system, and it's been downhill (or uphill, whichever you see as a positive metaphor) ever since.
So the Excite.com link was a trip down memory lane. Not that I'm expecting the Good Old Days to return; when I tried to access the home page with my Opera browser, I got an error message: "The browser you're using is not allowing you to sign in to Excite." Don't worry, Excite.com... I won't be trying again.
Foo: I am a professional in New York City making very decent cache Bar: So is it level 1 or level 2?
Hey, I think the guy's pretty 1337. Most of the folks I've dealt with who are talking about (memory) cache spell it "CASH", or prounounce it "cash-ay".
As in, "Does this PC have enough cash-ay?" To which the appropriate response, it seems, would be "It depends on how you accessorize, dahhhling."
Therefore, "schemas" isn't wrong according to Webster.
Unfortunately, my original post used the totally made-up "schemae" as the plural of Schema. I'm not alone in thinking along those lines, though my faux-Latin compatriots appear to be college students, for the most part.
2004 New Years Resolution: I will not use any word in a Slashdot post that I can't pronounce.
That certainly is a nice pro-Microsoft spin you put on things... Honestly, please explain your rationale.
Dude, did you read my post?:)
Why should I believe this is anything more than PR and spin?
That was my point -- unfortunately PR and spin are too often what the PHB's depend on when they're choosing a "strategic" direction. When I suggested that MS has cut you down, I meant in the view of the non-technical manager who believes everything Bill Gates says.
But in full disclosure, I will admit that I've been coding VB apps for over 10 years, and the Microsoft shackle is firmly attached to my ankle...
I was struck by Microsoft's about-face on proprietary data formats when I attended their "Microsoft Office System Launch" (details here) earlier this month.
On the "Development" track, I was hoping to get some information on interfacing Office tools as objects in an existing (very large) VB application. Well, I didn't get that, but I did get to see how Microsoft is using XML to cut off one of Open Source software's big draws: open file formats. As mentioned, one of the big selling points was that you no longer have to install an app like Word on your server. You can instead use any XML-generating program to create fully compliant Word/Excel/Whatever files.
So if the PHB was almost talked into Open Source by the security issues of installing a virus portal like Word on a trusted system behind the firewall, Microsoft just cut your legs off.
An interesting case of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, *then* beat 'em."
By the way, I bailed out of the "Development" track at lunch. The presentation didn't get into code at all... it was just a demo of how new features in Word will now allow anyone to create XML Schemas and "Solutions" (groups of schemae), and thereby call themselves a "programmer". Just what we need, another way to quickly generate bloated, write-only code.
Don't forget that people also have an irrational fear of certain things that tends to cloud their judgement (see nuclear vs. coal power, for example).
Even more apropos to the original discussion -- artificially created viruses and their possible evolution -- is the debate over Evolution vs. Creationism. Here in Texas, we have a state board that approves or disapproves textbooks for the entire state. No textbook publisher is willing to give up the Texas market, so what they do to appease the conservatives here is what goes out to the entire country.
I'm a dedicated Christian, and I see no conflict between my faith-based belief in a higher power and my scientific "belief" in evolution. "Creationists", to me, simply have too little faith -- they limit God's ability to what could be explained to illiterate shepherds 4000 years ago! "Moses, go tell the people that they decended from apes." Yeah, like that's going to keep them from going back to Egypt.
This topic came up on NPR's Diane Rehm show last week. One of her panelists pointed out that when teachers avoid teaching evolution (out of fear of parent complaints), students don't learn some of the basics of biology. As a result, they are not grounded in enough of the basics to offer an opinion based on anything but fear and conjecture.
Slashdot Mirror
The more countries work together, the more it gets set into society that people from other countries are okay, and working with them is NOT like working with the enemy.
You're very much right. Before the election of 2000, the US was on its way to becoming a cooperative international power. We were involved in negotiations on the Kyoto treaty, we weren't developing "Star Wars" ABM weapons, and we were even showing signs of getting with the program on such no-brainers as land mines.
It was looking for a while like people could get along. What a difference a blown election can make. Or more specifically -- and echoing comments in other threads -- what a difference a small group of xenophobic warmongers can make in a formerly peaceful society.
By the way, I lay the blame for this mess squarely at the feet of Mr. Al Gore. The election was his to lose, and he did so in craptacular fashion. Blaming the Supreme Court is like blaming the umpire -- if you'd really played better than the other team, you'd have won.
(And this message is now officially 100% -1, Offtopic. Karma to burn, baby!)
Phil Plait's page linked to the Skeptic's Dictionary, which in turn linked to this cool site:
Miracles of Islam:
* Does this tomato carry a message from God?
* Second Miracle Tomato
* Miracle stone
* Name of 'Allah' on eggs and beans
* Miracle Melon
* Holy Message on Eggshell
This is strangely comforting to me, as a Christian myself. I had thought that visions of Christ in pond scum and the Virgin Mary on tortillas were God's way of helping us laugh at ourselves, but I wondered why He would have everyone else giggling as well. Turn out He's being a divine Prankster to the rest of his children as well.
As for us Methodists, I don't think we tend to make a big deal about religious signs in fruit, stones, and tortillas. Perhaps this is due in part to the Protestant reluctance to worship iconic figures. Note that at your local Baptist or Methodist church, the cross is empty... symbolically, that's an important distinction from our Catholic brethren.
But if that tortilla is what it takes to strengthen your faith... "God works in mysterious ways," indeed.
So Brian Morrissey, the Senior Editor of the DMNews, thinks spam isn't all that bad. That consumers shouldn't be able to sue to take back their inboxes.
I guess we can't say he's not putting his money where his mouth is, though... he put his email in a clickable link right there on the DMNews.com site.
Of course, some spammers may exclude dmnews.com from their spidering. That does Mr. Morrissey a huge disservice! Clearly, unsolicited email is something he strongly supports, and we should help him in any way we can.
So if anyone would like to include bmorrissey@dmnews.com on their email list, I'm sure Brian Morrissey would not mind at all! After all, Mr. Brian Morrissey (whose email address is bmorrissey@dmnews.com) is Senior Editor of "The Online Newspaper of Record for Direct Marketers." He probably knows the Webmaster and the Postmaster, too, and I'm sure they would never consider UCE to be Abuse.
This has been a public service of the Slashdot community. Don't worry, you can thank us later!
I wonder what other yummy metals (arsenic, gallium, indium, etc.) might be found on the surface?
.pdf paper:
I spent a day Googling on that idea a couple of years ago, but didn't come up with much. But you've got to figure that even "trace" amounts of particularly valuable metals would be worth gigabucks -- if there were only a way to get to them.
Here are the specific elements I found mentioned in the
This line is talking about what happens on Earth, but it's probably fair to assume that at least some similar chemistry is going on on Venus:
Halides and/or chalcogenides of several volatile metals (e.g., Cu, As, Pb, Sb, Bi) occur around terrestrial volcanic vents and fumaroles or are present in volcanic gases (Brackett et al. 1995).
They're definitely looking for interesting minerals (for those not familiar, Au is gold and Ag is silver):
The calculations shown in Figures 1 included the elements O, C, N, S, H, Cu, Cl, As, Pb, Tl, Se, Br, F, In, Ag, Sb, I, Bi, and Te. We also considered Zn, Ge, Sn, Cd, Hg, and Au. Approximately 660 compounds of the trace metals were considered.
Tellurium (Te) isn't considered a major player:
We therefore conclude tellurium frost cannot be the high dielectric material found in the highlands because of its low abundance and thermodynamic instability.
Next, they look at Copper (Cu), Lead (Pb), and Bismuth (Bi). I think they're saying that Cu could be found, but the Pb and Bi are what's causing the interesting radar readings:
Copper condenses over Venus' entire surface as Cu2S (chalcocite) and converts to CuS (covellite) at an altitude of ~19 km. Other condensates that are stable at all elevations (i.e., above ~2.6 km) include Ag2S (acanthite), In2O3 and PbS (galena). Bismuthite (Bi2S3) condenses at an altitude of ~1.6 km and stibnite (Sb2S3) condenses at ~16.6 km. Of these compounds, only galena and bismuthite have both dielectric constants high enough to be interesting (see Table 2) and reasonable abundances.
Now for the good news! If terrestial volcanoes provide a workable model, some of the really interesting elements (Au, Ag, & co) could be present in trace amounts -- but likely much higher concentrations than found in Earth rocks:
Near terrestrial fumaroles, lead and bismuth often condense together to form lead, bismuth sulfosalts such as galenobismutite (PbBiS4), lillianite (Pb3BiS6), cannizarite (Pb4Bi5S11), and cosalite (Pb2Bi2S5) (Borodaev et al. 2000, 2001). If present on Venus, these compounds may contain large amounts of Cu, Ag, and Cd, which also form stable condensates at Venusian surface conditions. Several other sulfosalts of the elements Pb, Bi, Cu, Ag, As, and Sb also form as volcanic condensates and cannot be ruled out as the heavy metal frost on Venus.
And wouldn't the aerospace industry be pleased to find some bonus Titanium (Ti)?
One of the most puzzling aspects of the highland radar data is that at the highest elevations the dielectric constant drops back to values consistent with bare rock. Some of these summit areas, such as Ovda, Atla, and Beta Regiones, also seem to have a porous surficial deposit with a low dielectric constant (Campbell et al. 1999). The perovskite model for the high dielectric material explains these regions by weathering of perovskite (CaTiO3) to fluorite (CaF2) plus rutile (TiO2) through reaction with HF (g). This reaction produces a significant decrease in volume, leading to an increase in the porosity of the rock (Fegley et al. 1992).
And just in case all this profit has you shaking your head, here's some pure science:
We propose that lead condensed in the Venusian highlands is a representative sample of Venusian lead, just as Pb in oceanic sediments is apparently a representative sample for terrestrial lead (Patterson 1956). Therefore, it should be possible to determine the age of Venus by measuring the Pb207/Pb204 and Pb206/Pb204 lead isotopic ratios in the heavy metal frost.
Cool possibilities, for such a hot planet!
Just a rough copy-and-paste. I'm not posting it AC because nobody trusts AC text reposts anymore. Too many troll text insertions (sometimes funny, sometimes just dumb). I've left out the footnotes and tables that don't format well -- if this piques your curiosity, download the original .pdf.
Heavy metal frost on Venus
Laura Schaefer and Bruce Fegley, Jr.
Planetary Chemistry Laboratory
Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences
Washington University
St. Louis, MO 63130-2302 USA
Submitted to Icarus
12 September 2003
Revised: 13 November 2003
Pages: 20
Tables: 2
Figures: 4
Proposed Running Head: Heavy metal frost on Venus
Editorial correspondence to:
Bruce Fegley, Jr.
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Campus Box 1169
Washington University
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
Phone: (314) 935-4852
Fax: (314) 935-4853
E-mail: bfegley@levee.wustl.edu
ABSTRACT
Chemical equilibrium calculations of volatile metal geochemistry on Venus show that
high dielectric constant compounds of lead and bismuth such as PbS (galena), Bi2S3
(bismuthite) or Pb-Bi sulfosalts condense in the Venusian highlands and may be
responsible for the low radar emissivities observed by Magellan and Pioneer Venus. Our
calculations also show that elemental tellurium is unstable on Venus? surface and will not
condense below 46.6 km. This is over 30 km higher than Maxwell Montes, the highest
point on Venus? surface. Elemental analyses of Venus? highlands surface by laser
induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and/or X-ray fluorescence (XRF) can verify the
identity of the heavy metal frost on Venus. The Pb-Pb age of Venus could be determined
by mass spectrometric measurements of the Pb207/Pb204 and Pb206/Pb204 isotopic ratios in
Pb-bearing frosts. All of these measurements are technologically feasible now.
Key Words: Venus, geochemistry, trace elements, Te, Pb, Bi, dielectric constant,
INTRODUCTION
Pioneer Venus and Magellan radar observations of Venus? surface reveal a
puzzling shift in radar properties at a planetary radius of ~6054 km (Pettengill et al. 1982,
1996, 1997, Ford & Pettengill 1983). Below this altitude and over most of Venus, the
radar properties are typical for anhydrous rocks, such as dry basalt. In contrast, higher
elevation regions have lower radar emissivity indicating the presence of semiconducting
minerals with high dielectric constants (Pettengill et al. 1996). A number of models have
been proposed to explain the unusual radar properties of the Venusian highlands. Among
these are: volumetric scattering from decimeter sized voids in surface rock (Pettengill &
Ford 1993), the presence of a low-loss soil layer (Tryka & Muhleman 1992), the loading
of surface rock with small conductors or dielectrics such as pyrite (Pettengill et al. 1982,
Ford & Pettengill 1983) or perovskite (Fegley et al. 1992), the presence of ferroelectric
minerals (Shepard et al. 1994), and the vapor phase deposition of high dielectric constant
metallic compounds (Brackett et al. 1995). However, Magellan bistatic radar
observations of the Maxwell Montes highlands (Pettengill et al. 1996) are best explained
by the metallic frost model (Pettengill et al. 1996, Brackett et al. 1995).
Brackett et al. (1995) proposed that the low emissivity minerals in the Venusian
highlands are metal halides or chalcogenides produced by volcanic outgassing. Halides
and/or chalcogenides of several volatile metals (e.g., Cu, As, Pb, Sb, Bi) occur around
terrestrial volcanic vents and fumaroles or are present in volcanic gases (Brackett et al.
1995). Although volcanic outgassing may occur anywhere on Venus? surface, the volatile
metals and their compounds only condense in the cooler Venusian highlands, which are
cold traps for the heavy metal frost.
Pettengill et al. (1996) suggested that the metalli
Now I won't have to be limited to using a hyphen! I can register d[i-circ]xiechicks.com, or dixi[e-grave]chicks.com, or maybe dixie[c-cedil]hicks.com!
That last one would be doubly good, because if I understand the Punycode spec correctly, it'll get translated to ASCII as dixiehicks-XXXX.com. Not my opinion of the group, but maybe it would attract hits from the Toby Keith crowd.
You certainly made a fool out of all those experts working for the bank who replied to your previous post. That or you just got lucky with a shot in the dark.
Hmmm... I'll choose option "B". Even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes.
From the article:
"The actual point of service terminal itself getting infected-- that's pretty crazy," said [Windows expert Marc] Maiffret. "But worms are always going to be able to infect a lot more interesting machines than individual intruders are." Moreover, before reaching an ATM network, a human attacker would likely encounter more alluring high-finance targets along the way. "They're going to have to go through a lot of juicer networks first."
Oh, yeah, that's crazy. As I recall, we discussed this very issue in a previous Slashdot story, and all the experts told us mere geeks that we were ignorant and stupid to even worry about it. Some of the most choice comments came in reply to my own post on the subject.
Now, even *after* a worm has found its way into an ATM, the "Windows Experts" say there's *still* nothing to worry about.
Well, ok... I'm not going to worry about my own personal finances, because I'll just ask the bank to reverse any bogus transactions. But if/when some savvy hacker does figure out how to infiltrate an ATM and walks away with a few hundred bucks, someone's going to come up short on their books at the end of the day...
About the reentry, I'm not sure it will burn up completely. Meteorites crashing on Earth are said to be warm, not scalding hot.
Hmmm... you actually triggered a memory that would have made me write a rather different posting. A quick Google found this page dealing with a meteorite that was seen over Jordan. What appeared to be an area where a meteor fell out of the sky and scorched the land turned out to be the remnants of an unrelated brushfire.
And it's pointed out several times that the hot bits get peeled off by atmospheric friction so quickly that the rock itself is cold if it's big enough to impact.
So I think you've helped me disprove my point. Oh, well, hopefully we were going to infest Mars with our microbes -- carried on human bodies -- anyway.
Another guy saw the BSOD, and then subsequent rebooting and attempts to fix the system being displayed on a "jumbotron" type display on the Las Vegas Strip
Not quite the scale of a Jumbotron, but there's an outfit in Dallas' (wannabe) "Little Asia" area that has a large LED display, visible from I-35E, that frequently seems a bit messed up. Finally, one day, I found out why. The top right corner of a Windows 95-style error message was displayed... just the top of the exclamation point triangle, plus enough of the other graphic elements to make its origin pretty certain.
I think the outfit is called "EasyComm", but that name doesn't show up at that location at Superpages.com. They sell phones and security systems. Yeah, I'm *sure* to buy a security system from someone who 1) isn't listed in the phone book and 2) can't configure their own hardware.
From the article:
Friday's JAXA statement denied one Tokyo press report that probe was doomed to impact Mars and possibly contaminate the planet. Such a scenario would violate an international "space quarantine" treaty.
I know we've had a lot of cool reports that microbes have survived exposure to hard vacuum for extended periods, but do we really have to worry about "contaminating" Mars? The craft was probably sterilized pretty well before being launched. Then, a year and a half ago, it got hit with a solar flare strong enough to make it miss Mars the first time... that should have baked any hitchiking bugs pretty well. And then, there's the latest round of Solar hiccups to take into account.
Finally, if the craft does hit Mars, it's going to do it in a totally uncontrolled manner -- 'cause if they get any control, they'll steer it away. That implies a high velocity, which even in the thin Martian atmosphere should melt the craft into slag.
Extremophile bacteria at molten sulfur vents is one thing, but hitchiking in a blob of ablating steel?
And as far as that "space quarantine" treaty... what exactly is the punishment for sneezing in space?
I keep a copy around for a rescue disk and for detecting hardware for new installs.
This is going to be fun. I've got a PC in the shed that a co-worker gave me... it's got two hard drives and neither one seems to work. He and the tech guy here at work poked on it for a while before giving up on it entirely. I had no idea I could pop a CD in there and either get things going again in Linux, or at least use the CPU power.
I think I'll put in an order at TuxCDs.com (referenced on the Knoppix site) for a Knoppix distro and a Linux games CD -- hopefully the games disc will give my wife a good feeling for the OS.
But I'll wait until Monday... see if any more Slashdotters come back with even more cool ideas I didn't even know were options. I've been chained to MS and VB for waaaaay too long.
I'm impressed so far, too. I placed an order for the same basic PC you got -- PII-350 for $35. I didn't see a shipping amount when I was making the order, though, so I put a note in the "comments" box asking them to call me if the shipping was over $20.
I got a call this morning, 8:40 central time. I wasn't in the office yet, so they said they'd hold the order until they heard back from me. Good service and great price... not much more I could ask for.
Now, I've just got to find an easy newbie Linux installation... but the hardest task will be telling my wife I'm not planning to install Windows! Maybe I'll put Windows on this box and put Linux on the old box, for the sake of the marriage...
yeah - I know I'd love to have a 133 mhz laptop with 24 mb of ram, no cd, usb, network, etc etc... that sounds so cool!
Not compared to the 133t b0x3n your typical Slashdotter runs... but my box at home is a P-90 with 16 meg (maybe 24, who knows?), no usb, and no CD-ROM. The CD-ROM is there, and works fine, but the HD/CD ports (which are on the motherboard, right in the middle) conflict if they're both connected more than a few hours. Got it used for a hundred bucks four years ago or so, but had to saw it open to get to the innerds 'cause it didn't come with a key to the locked case!
So I've ordered a P-II 350Mhz, 64MB RAM, 6.4 gig HD, USB, and oh-my-goodness a working CD-ROM drive. The kids are going to think we took out a mortgage by comparison... and it was all of $35 bucks, plus high but understandable shipping/handling of $27.50.
Unfortunately, I had to make a deal with my wife -- she gets to blow^W spend about sixty bucks on clothes. Fair enough.
So far, the best thing I've gotten from the article is the link to RetroBox.com, an outfit that buys old equipment from companies, wipes the HD, and resells them.
My company used to have an annual old equipment sale for employees. It was so popular, you actually had a lottery drawing for line position -- like a rock concert. But when we got bought by the Faceless International Corporation Ltd, that was just one of the personal touches we lost.
Hard to beat a $70 laptop... even if it does have a dark spot on the screen!
If I remember correctly wasn't a "Unix system" also implicated in the chaotic havoc that was Jurassic Park?
I thought it was interesting when they name-dropped an actual OS in the movie. Though the way the kid said it was more like "Its a uniquesss... system." I wonder if the non-programmer community heard it as anything other than gobbledygook?
Not nearly as cool as Trinity's use of a real hacker tool in the second Matrix flick. For once, the filmmakers knew more than me about some aspect of computers! Cool!
Gee... I wish I could speak whale.
Well, it wouldn't really help much in this case.
You just lose too much in the transliteration, since Slashdot doesn't support the "Whale, Northwest Pacific" Unicode character set.
So we're talking about 10^21 Joules. So, I don't see how you'd do it.
I know darned little about thermodynamics, but I'd imagine that even if you *could* impart that much force, you would then have to dissipate an equal amount of force when the object reaches its destination. Assumably, it would be released by the impact with whatever planetary body you aim that sucker at.
I guess the idea of slamming it into Mars is that it's ok to vaporize the water, ammonia, and other compounds into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, you'd also vaporize a lot of Martian rock as well, and I can't imagine that the extra dust would help make the air breathable -- for either humans or for machinery. You'd be trading a very thin atmosphere for airborne Martian mud.
Putting it in orbit sounds nice, until you realize how hard a time we've had putting fridge-sized objects launched from the next planet over. Multiply that to a mountain-sized object launched from half a dozen planets over...
And don't forget which planet is next in line in case that big ball of ice misses Mars...
What surprised me most was the URL of the story!
I remember using Excite as my search of choice for full-text searches, back before Yahoo! started charging for everything, including directory listings. Then, there was Webcrawler, once the home of the canonical robots.txt standard.
I even remember back in the day, when not all AltaVistas were created equal.
Then came Google's PigeonRank system, and it's been downhill (or uphill, whichever you see as a positive metaphor) ever since.
So the Excite.com link was a trip down memory lane. Not that I'm expecting the Good Old Days to return; when I tried to access the home page with my Opera browser, I got an error message: "The browser you're using is not allowing you to sign in to Excite." Don't worry, Excite.com... I won't be trying again.
How do we know that you didn't have a purple dragon in your garage for about one billionth of a trillionth of a second?
I think we know for certain that a purple dragon *was* in the garage, we just don't know *when* it was there.
Or do we know that a purple dragon was in *a* garage at 10:40am, but we don't know *which* garage?
Purple dragon physics always confused me in high school.
Foo: I am a professional in New York City making very decent cache
Bar: So is it level 1 or level 2?
Hey, I think the guy's pretty 1337. Most of the folks I've dealt with who are talking about (memory) cache spell it "CASH", or prounounce it "cash-ay".
As in, "Does this PC have enough cash-ay?" To which the appropriate response, it seems, would be "It depends on how you accessorize, dahhhling."
Therefore, "schemas" isn't wrong according to Webster.
Unfortunately, my original post used the totally made-up "schemae" as the plural of Schema. I'm not alone in thinking along those lines, though my faux-Latin compatriots appear to be college students, for the most part.
2004 New Years Resolution: I will not use any word in a Slashdot post that I can't pronounce.
That certainly is a nice pro-Microsoft spin you put on things... Honestly, please explain your rationale.
:)
Dude, did you read my post?
Why should I believe this is anything more than PR and spin?
That was my point -- unfortunately PR and spin are too often what the PHB's depend on when they're choosing a "strategic" direction. When I suggested that MS has cut you down, I meant in the view of the non-technical manager who believes everything Bill Gates says.
But in full disclosure, I will admit that I've been coding VB apps for over 10 years, and the Microsoft shackle is firmly attached to my ankle...
I was struck by Microsoft's about-face on proprietary data formats when I attended their "Microsoft Office System Launch" (details here) earlier this month.
On the "Development" track, I was hoping to get some information on interfacing Office tools as objects in an existing (very large) VB application. Well, I didn't get that, but I did get to see how Microsoft is using XML to cut off one of Open Source software's big draws: open file formats. As mentioned, one of the big selling points was that you no longer have to install an app like Word on your server. You can instead use any XML-generating program to create fully compliant Word/Excel/Whatever files.
So if the PHB was almost talked into Open Source by the security issues of installing a virus portal like Word on a trusted system behind the firewall, Microsoft just cut your legs off.
An interesting case of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, *then* beat 'em."
By the way, I bailed out of the "Development" track at lunch. The presentation didn't get into code at all... it was just a demo of how new features in Word will now allow anyone to create XML Schemas and "Solutions" (groups of schemae), and thereby call themselves a "programmer". Just what we need, another way to quickly generate bloated, write-only code.
Don't forget that people also have an irrational fear of certain things that tends to cloud their judgement (see nuclear vs. coal power, for example).
Even more apropos to the original discussion -- artificially created viruses and their possible evolution -- is the debate over Evolution vs. Creationism. Here in Texas, we have a state board that approves or disapproves textbooks for the entire state. No textbook publisher is willing to give up the Texas market, so what they do to appease the conservatives here is what goes out to the entire country.
I'm a dedicated Christian, and I see no conflict between my faith-based belief in a higher power and my scientific "belief" in evolution. "Creationists", to me, simply have too little faith -- they limit God's ability to what could be explained to illiterate shepherds 4000 years ago! "Moses, go tell the people that they decended from apes." Yeah, like that's going to keep them from going back to Egypt.
This topic came up on NPR's Diane Rehm show last week. One of her panelists pointed out that when teachers avoid teaching evolution (out of fear of parent complaints), students don't learn some of the basics of biology. As a result, they are not grounded in enough of the basics to offer an opinion based on anything but fear and conjecture.