Delusions...

So often we hear, from the opponents of the war on terror, that somehow we are at fault – that if only we were more understanding, or appeasing, or multi-culturally aware, then the radical Islamists would no longer hate us and attack us. Their contention is that we could live our own lives in peace, just don't offend (whatever that actually means) the Muslims, and we can all just get along.

Bullshit.

In Denmark, they just arrested some folks who were trying to kill a cartoonist. His capital crime? He drew a cartoon of Mohammed – the same sort of thing that somehow every other religion on earth manages to tolerate. How can we possibly just “get along” with people like this:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.

Two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin were arrested in pre-dawn raids in western Denmark, the police intelligence agency said.

The Dane was suspected of violating Danish terror laws but likely would be released after questioning as the investigation continues, said Jakob Scharf, the head of the PET intelligence service. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark, he said.

The agency did it mention which cartoonist was targeted. However, according to Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the drawings on Sept. 30, 2005, the suspects were planning to kill its cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

"There were very concrete murder plans against Kurt Westergaard," said Carsten Juste, the paper's editor-in-chief.

You can see these “offensive” cartoons right here.

Night Sounds...

Miki, our youngest field spaniel, is two years old today. I took him out for an evening stroll around our yard, at about 7 pm. We got down to the end of our driveway, and he suddenly went into an alert posture, staring down the hill intently, trying to figure out what that loud and persistent noise was. The sound was coming from a broad swath of land below us, basically the whole bottom of the valley.

Miki had never heard this sound before.

Frogs.

By the thousands, freshly-minted frogs were singing their hearts out, trying to find a mate. Tonight must mark the interval between the first rains intense enough to get the steam flowing and the age of tadpoles when they first crawl out of the water.

We haven't heard more than a few frogs for something like four or five years.

Welcome back, frogs...

Progress In Iraq...

The military command in Iraq released a diary captured recently – the diary of an Al Qaeda leader (“emir”). Though heavily redacted, it still contains some remarkable information:

In the Name of Allah the Most Merciful the Most CompassionateDate: Third of Shawaal of 1428 Hijri (H) [ 15 OCT 2007]Islamic GreetingsThis is My Will:

I am Abu-Tariq, Emir of Al-Layin and al-Mashadah Sector.

There were almost 600 fighters in our Sector before the Tribes changed course 360 degrees under the influence of the so-called Islamic Army (Deserter of Jihad) and other known believer groups. Many of our fighters quit and some of them joined the deserters, and later on I will mention the names of Fighters who stood by us (faithful fighters), but things started getting worse ever since, and as a result of that the number of fighters dropped down to 20 or less which led us to move some of our vehicles to another location (Al-Muthanna Establishment Area) for security reasons where our brother [REDACTED] is stationed at (I will also mention the type vehicles at the end.)

There are many details known by brothers [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] regarding the spoils, buying and selling vehicles such as:

1-Lorry (6-wheeled) in Mosul sold later and we received some of the money for it.

2-[REDACTED] still owes us [$10,000] which is the remainder of the money that is still with them after they sold two Lorries for us at the car dealerships in the al-Saqlawiyah area which we have not received yet. We gave him our business and received [$10,000] from him as a down-payment but he still owes us another [$10,000], and late we gave him [$28,000] to get the Lorry back but he did not return it yet (the actual owner of the dealership is [REDACTED]

3-The value of another Lorry which is [$25,000] is still in the possession of a person in Tikrit known by brother [REDACTED]

4-We bought a Pick-up model 2000 from a person called [REDACTED] (his phone number is [REDACTED]) of which we did not pay its value yet, and the deal was to trade in this vehicle with a truck or pay its value in al-Shirqat at al-Nahar dealership close to the house of brother [REDACTED] (Killed) and in the price of the pick-up is [$7,500]

Date: 9-10 of Shawaal of 1428 H [21-22 OCT 2007]

A BKC, ammunition and other light weapons are still in the posession of [REDACTED] and his brother [REDACTED] which belong to us and Brother [REDACTED] knows about that, and the weapons that are in the possession of [REDACTED] are 2000 C5 Rockets plus an RPG-9 but he refuses to give us any of it lately and we do not know what his intention is in that regard, therefore we have to keep truing with him to get our weapons and ammunition back due to the present condition and especially since the al-Sahwah groups started opposing us.

Weapons and ammunition such as 30 containers of bullets and four BKC's in the possession of bother [REDACTED] also belong to us.

Brothers, I want you to know that i will only mention the names of fighters who were faithful to our cause and stood by us when we needed them and later I will mention the names of the traitors so that they may be punished when time comes.

Date: 12 of Shawaal of 1428 H [24 OCT 2007]

There are very few tribe members who stood by us and supported us, such as members of [REDACTED] Tribe that were surrounded by al-Sawah fighters and even though they did not quit plus members of [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] sub-tribe members. After the raid that we did against the houses and safe heavens of the deserters which led to killing a lot of them, burning some of their vehicles and spoiling some of their vehicles and weapons which affected their morale and resources tremendously, knowing that the number of fighters who did the raid were 16 and not 150 fighters as they claimed after that.

Date: 16 of Shawaal of 1428 H [28 OCT 2007]

My request to you is not to be negligent with the deserters/traitors at all, because those kinds of people look like the cancer that grew up in the body of al-Jihad Movement, therefore we should have no mercy on them even if joined the Iraqi Government security forces and do not let them have any sense of relief despite the fact that some of them ran away from ur strong hand to unknown locations with their families. Even though our Jihadi Movement goals at the early stages were to recruit as many supporters among them in order to gain more information about the Government security forces and the infidels' military and tactical movements in order to ease our movements and missions against them despite the fact that i was against such goals for security reasons. Dear brothers, I would like you to know that even though the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) acheived a lot of projects for the benefit of the people of Iraq such as bringing water, electricity and agricultural help to a lot of areas such as [REDACTED] we were mistreated, cheated, and betrayed by some of our brothers who used to be part of the Jihadi Movement, therefore we must not have mercy on those traitors until they come back to the right side--The ISI side--or get eliminated completely in order to achieve victory at the end, and I would like to mention here the name of one of families who betrayed us and lost our trust is the [REDACTED] family who were very good, faithful Jihadi Fighters, but later on we found out that those people wer nothing but hypocrites, liars, and traitors and were waiting for the right moment to switch sides with whoever pays them most and at the end they fought against us and they tried to prevent us from attacking the al-Sawah groups in [REDACTED] area by blocking our entrance to that area.

Information about the Old Battalions of fighters im my Sector:

1 - Battalion of Laylat al-Qadr Martyrs: Its group Emir [REDACTED] (Detained), and the number of fighters in this Battalion were 200. All of them were very well-eqipped with weapons and 37 vehicles and they did a lot of good activities against the invaders and its followers, but in the meantimes there are a few fighters left who are actually fighting and some were killed and some arrested but the majority betrayed us and joined al-Sawah. This battalion was one of the first battalions whose number of fighters was tarnished after Abu-Haydar al-Ansari Battalion, and the number of fighters is now only ten. [Was 200. Now 10. 5% survival/retention rate--C#4]

2- Battalion of Abu-Haydar al-Ansari: The Emir of this battalion [REDACTED] was the first renegade in this group. He ran away one month before the al-Sawah movement started in our sector and we still do not know where he is hiding. It is no wonder that most of the information we got from him was deception and lies. There were 300 fighters in the battaslion equipped with good weapons and 17 vehicles, and since deserted us the number of fighters dropped to 16 and then to two; one of whom was arrested [REDACTED] and the second one was injured [REDACTED] and the rest joined al-Sahwah groups. [Was 300. Now down to 1 and he's injured.]

3- Battalion of Hudhayfah Ibin al-Yaman: The emir of this battalion is [REDACTED] and the number of fighters are almost 60. They are very well equipped with weapons and other supplies. All of them are true and good believers plus their activities against the invaders and their followers were very good, but for the present time their activities are frozen due to their present conditions plus their families' conditions.

4- Battalion of al-Ahwal: Most of its members are scoundrels, Sectarians, non-believers and the worst one of them was [REDACTED] and he was the first one to desert his battalion and ran away to Syria then later on came back from Syria and joined the traitors while the rest of the battalion was gone except for [REDACTED] and his sons, and the military person who was in charge of the battalion his name is [REDACTED] (bad not good) and he still has in his possession 3 BKCs and 2 sniper rifles and he claims that one of those rifles was given back to its original owner [REDACTED] (I will try to take back the rest of the weapons from him soon and I will mention that later.)

5- Battalion of Muhammad Bin Muslimah: The leader of this battalion was the Martyr [REDACTED] who was killed by the traitors of the Islamic Army with help of the invader's helicopters, which also led to the destruction of some of our vehicles and weapons. Some of the fightres of this battalion deserted and especially the ones who came from [REDACTED] tribe like the traitor [REDACTED] who became an officer with the al-Sahwah group plus others who ran away with their weapons to Diyala and then disappeared like [REDACTED] who has in his possession a sniper rifle and his brothers except for one [REDACTED] who was injured with [REDACTED] who possesses a BKC.

Technical Department:

Members of this department are [REDACTED] and his sons who are still working with us plus [REDACTED] who was injured recently.

Air Defense:

One person is left in this department who is still working with us[REDACTED] who is willing to work with us to the end and he has in his possession three operative batteries (one inoperative) plus five C5 launchers and one 23mm gun.

Names of People who are still working with al-Qaeda:

1-[REDACTED]

2-[REDACTED] and his brothers

3- [REDACTED] and His brothers

4- [REDACTED]

5- [REDACTED]

6- [REDACTED]

7- [REDACTED]

8- [REDACTED]

9- [REDACTED]

10- [REDACTED]

11- [REDACTED]

12- [REDACTED]

13- [REDACTED]

14- [REDACTED]

15- [REDACTED]

16- [REDACTED]

17- [REDACTED] the Sniper/Now he is injured

18- [REDACTED]

19- [REDACTED] /Detained

20- [REDACTED]

21- [REDACTED]/left us a week ago

22- [REDACTED] and his Sons/[REDACTED]

23- [REDACTED] and his sons

24- [REDACTED]

25- [REDACTED]

26- [REDACTED]

27- [REDACTED]

28- [REDACTED]

29- [REDACTED]

30- [REDACTED]

em>31- [REDACTED]

32- [REDACTED]/there are so many negative remarks against him

33- [REDACTED]/We have not seen him for more than 20 days so far

34- [REDACTED]/We have not seen him for more than 10 days so far

[REDACTED] showed up with their group Emir [REDACTED] and they are:

35- [REDACTED]

36- [REDACTED]

37- [REDACTED]/Left three days ago

38- [REDACTED]/came back to work with us recently after his wounds healed up

And that is the number of fighters left in my sector

Remarks:

[REDACTED] and their fighters are good and faithful and they lost one of their fighters (his name Martyr [REDACTED]) fighting against al-Sawah fighters, and in addition to that the tribe area is surrounded with al-Sawah fighters who are preventing them from leaving their area. So far we have no further information about the situation over there.

I was especially struck by the way that this emir's force was clobbered by the surge strategy: from 600 fighters to a mere 20 just before he was killed and his diary captured.

Puzzler....

Well, nobody got the right answer to last week's puzzler: how did the vacuum tube manufacturers get the high quality vacuum in such an inexpensive, mass-produced item? The correct answer is the inductively heated barium reactor, known colloquially as a “getter”. These were very simple and cheap: just a piece of sheet metal coated with a barium compound. The barium, when heated, absorbed any gas remaining inside the tube. Typically the manufacturers heated this little piece of sheet metal inductively (meaning by placing the tube in a powerful, rapidly changing magnetic field). This caused currents (“eddy currents” to flow in the sheet metal, and that caused it to get very hot. So hot, in fact, that the barium coating would flash-vaporize (absorbing gas as it did so). This vapor would then cool and adhere to the inside of the glass envelope of the vacuum tube, causing the silvery coating familiar to anyone who has handled vacuum tubes.

This week's puzzler is back to history – in this case, 20th century U.S. history. What was the middle name of a former U.S. Senator who was a judge early in his career (and was a notorious gambler while on the bench), enlisted in the Marines in 1942 to fight (despite his exclusion from obligatory service because he was a judge), came back from the war and successfully ran for the U.S. Senate (despite well-documented lies and self-serving distortions about his military service record), became a highly polarizing figure in the Senate and finally died in office, a bitter and often inebriated man? The clincher is that modern historians are starting to look at his Senate record a little more positively; in fact, some have posited him as one of the early victims of wrongful media demonization.

Quote of the Day...

By James Taranto, in Best of the Web Today:

It's remarkable how many on the left think their free speech rights are violated when they are criticized--that is, when others exercise their free speech rights.

A pattern I've oft noted. Here's the context for the quote above:

Shut Up and Respect My Freedom of Speech
San Jose's KNTV reports that the City Council of Berkeley, Calif., at its Tuesday meeting will consider backing down from its resolution denouncing the U.S. Marines, which have a recruiting center in Berkeley, as "uninvited and unwelcome intruders." This comes in the face of an effort by Republican senators to cut off $2.3 million in federal money for Berkeley. On this question, Sen. Barbara Boxer is siding against the Marines.

The station reports that one left-wing activist doesn't quite understand the concept of free speech:

Code Pink announced they would have what they called a "24-hour peace-in" leading up to Tuesday's city council meeting. They will be camping out but will have a lot of company. A group of pro-troop protesters will also be there.

"I was under the impression that we have the right of free speech," said Xanne Joi of Code Pink. "To me, I thought free speech meant you get to say what you want without recrimination."

In fact, free speech is reciprocal. Xanne Joi has the right to criminate, but the rest of us have a right to recriminate. It's remarkable how many on the left think their free speech rights are violated when they are criticized--that is, when others exercise their free speech rights.

Best of the Web Today is one of my favorite newsletters – and it's free. You can view it on the web, or you can have it automatically emailed to you each weekday. I highly recommend it.

Lamm's Plan...

Richard D. Lamm has a plan:

I have a secret plan to destroy America. ... Here is my plan:

1. We must first make America a bilingual-bicultural country. ...

2. I would then invent “multiculturalism” and encourage immigrants to maintain their own culture. ...

3. We can make the United States a “Hispanic Quebec” without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. ...

4. Having done all this, I would make our fastest-growing demographic group the least educated. ...

5. I would then get the big foundations and big business to give these efforts lots of money. ...

6. I would establish dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. ...

7. Then I would place all these subjects off-limits–make it taboo to talk about. ...

8. Lastly, I would censor Victor Davis Hanson’s book “Mexifornia” –this book is dangerous; it exposes my plan to destroy America. ...

Go read the whole thing.

Blogger Problems -- Getting Better?

Starting last night, I have been able to get into the blog most of the times that I've tried. This is still bad, but an improvement over the situation from Sunday through Wednesday, when I could rarely even get the page up. If you succeed in reading this, I'd appreciate your leaving a comment just to let me know it worked...

Blogger Problems...

We've been having major problems with Google Blogger (the hosting service for this blog) for the past week. We don't know what the problem is, or when it will be resolved...

Puzzler...

Most of you got the right answer to last week's puzzler: the orange and yellow flames in a wood fire are caused by particles (mainly carbon) heated to incandescance. The physics of burning wood is far more complex than you might think at first glance. The actual combustion that takes place happens between gases, including ordinarily solid materials that are heated to the point where they change state into a gas. If you see blue flames, that's actually a direct result of combustion – but much of the combustion takes place without emitting any light at all in the visible spectrum. Where things get really complicated is the conversion of the cold, solid wood into superheated gases ready to combust. The simplistic picture is a combination of radiant head and convective heat (from the gas combustion) heats the wood to the point where it decomposes to simpler compounds or elements, in gaseous form. The details are far more complex, and still not completely understood...

This week's puzzler is technological:

Up until the late 1960s, most electronic devices employed vacuum tube amplifiers as their fundamental component. These vacuum tubes were one of the first “high-tech” devices manufactured in very high volumes. There were several challenges in their manufacture, but one of the big ones was how to produce the extremely high-quality vacuum inside the tubes. How did they actually accomplish this?

As usual, no fair googling until after you've answered...

Voting Guide...

Simple, short one-page guide to the candidates and their positions.

Quote of the Day...

Peggy Noonan, in today's Wall Street Journal:

As a conservative I would say Ted Kennedy has spent much of his career being not just wrong about the issues but so deeply wrong, so consistently and reliably wrong that it had a kind of grandeur to it. So wrong that I cannot actually think of a single serious policy question on which I agreed with him.

Grandiose wrongness. Perfect.

North Pole...

More images and great science from MESSENGER on its recent fly-by of Mercury:

As MESSENGER sped by Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) captured this shot looking toward Mercury's north pole. The surface shown in this image is from the side of Mercury not previously seen by spacecraft. The top right of this image shows the limb of the planet, which transitions into the terminator (the line between the sunlit, day side and the dark, night side) on the top left of the image. Near the terminator, the Sun illuminates surface features at a low angle, casting long shadows and causing height differences of the surface to appear more prominent in this region.

You can read all about it here.

Two Houses...

Consider these two houses:

House #1:

A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms ) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South.

House #2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.

The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system.. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes in to underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

Guess which home belongs to an (alleged) environmentalist, and which one belongs to an (alleged) despoiler of nature?

House #1 belongs to Al (“The Goracle”) Gore, who loudly proclaims his concern for Mother Earth at every possible opportunity.

House #2 belongs to President George W. Bush, cited far and wide in the environmentalist-wacko left as “Public Enemy Number One”.

Sounds like an incovenient truth to me!

Verified by Snopes, passed along by my mom (who is becoming source #1 for this blog!)...

Political Afterlife...

Now why does this parable resonate so strongly?

While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

"Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," says the man.

"Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity."

"Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven," says the senator.

"I'm sorry, but we have our rules."

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne. Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go. Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises...

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.

"Now it's time to visit heaven."

So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.

"Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity."

The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: "Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell."

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.

Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage.

He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.

The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. "I don't understand," stammers the senator. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?"

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning... Today you voted."

Gee, I wonder...

My mother is channeling Ronald Reagan, I think – today's morning laugh comes via her, from one of the most Democratic states in the country...

More Political Snark...

Would you like a short phrase that describes the three viable Democratic candidates (Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Hussein Obama, and Johnny Reid Edwards)? How about this one:

A mother, a brother, and an ...other.

Heh.

And yes, those are their real names.

Via the indispensable Mayor of Dehesa, Jimmy Valentine (producer of the Roger Hedgecock show).

Bumper Snicker...

Reported from the corrupt liberal bastion of New Jersey, which makes it all the more wonderful:

Monica Lewinsky's ex-boyfriend's wife for President

Thanks for the belly laugh, mom...

Four Years on Mars...

About four years ago, NASA landed two robotic explorers on the surface of Mars: Spirit and Opportunity. Preceding those missions was a string of high-profile failures, some mysterious, some turning out to be simple human error. All were very embarrassing for NASA.

The hope was that with two entirely separate explorers, the chances were good that at least one would be successful – but both of them made it to Mars in one piece, and were competely functional. NASA's goal was for these explorers to survive 90 days on the surface, driving around and sending back scientific data. When both of them were still working after 90 days, the team got more funding and they kept on going. That's been repeated several times now, and four years later – more than 16 times the design life expectancy – both explorers are still going. It's been an amazing technological success, and a far richer source of solid science than anyone dared dream at the mission's inception.

At upper right is a recent panorama taken by Spirt, showing the scene from the Columbia Hills. It's parked for the Martian winter right now, conserving power until the sun shines brightly again. Spirit's in reasonably good shape; it's major problem is one dragging wheel – but it's got five more that let it keep right on truckin'. At lower right is a recent panorama taken by Opportunity – nearly on the opposite side of Mars from Spirit, near Victoria Crater (visible near the horizon). Opportunity has no major problems at all, and plans are for it to aggressively explore the inside of Victoria Crater, taking risks now that mission planners wouldn't even have considered earlier in the mission.

These two intrepid explorers (and their Earth-bound controllers) get very little attention in the media these days. I guess they're boring to most people. They have returned far more science with their sustained explorations than any manned mission would, for a tiny fraction of the cost of a manned mission. Frankly, I'm surprised (but delighted!) that NASA has funded this unexpectedly long mission – they're so focused on manned space exploration that any such robotic mission is always at risk of being de-funded (and missions that have yet to fly are always at risk of being canceled, as so many already have been).

More like this, please, NASA...

Photographs As Art...

Rick Lee is a professional photographer based in West Virginia. He keeps a blog called “On Location With Rick Lee” that I try to visit every day – his beautiful photos, usually of everyday subjects (including a regular Thursday feature of produce in the grocery store!), are a source of inspiration for this amateur.

Yesterday Rick did something very different – he experimented with photographing smoke (from incense). You can read how he did it (and see more examples) here. You can also see what inspired him here (I couldn't get the photos to come up, but the text describes the process).

This was Rick's first attempt! Just imagine what his tenth attempt might look like...

Puzzler...

Less than half of you got last the correct answer to week's puzzler (and I got one complaint about the obscurity of the question!).

Trofim Lysenko was a biologist working in the Soviet Union from about 1925 through the 1960s (he died in 1976). He promoted the notion of inheritence of acquired characteristics – an idea that was popular prior to the early 1900s, when science started to understand genetics. A simple example of inheritance of acquired characteristics: if you wanted pigs without tails, you'd cut off the tails of a male and female pig, breed them, and their descendants would have shorter tails. Lysenko (and other proponents of the inheritance of acquired characteristics) were not at all put off by the total failure of experiments to produce such results – they had an endless stream of explanations and flawed experiments “proving” the theory.

But Lysenko's main skills weren't scientific at all: they were political. By 1948 he managed to promote his ideas so effectively within Stalin's Soviet Union that he persuaded Stalin to legislate the “correctness” of his theories – outlawing Mendeleevian inheritance (modern genetics) in the process. Thousands of biologists were imprisoned or sent to gulags; hundreds died. Soviet biology, as a direct consequence, was set back decades, and was the laughingstock of the west. Not until 1964 – long after Stalin's death – was the official mandate for Lysenkoism removed, and not until then were Soviet biologist free to pursue modern genetics. It was a disastrous example of politicized science. Think about that, and then consider what has happened over the past few years with respect to the science of global warming. Political suppression of scientific debate is dangerous, and we have a frightening example of why in our recent history…

This week's puzzler is a science question: when wood is burning in a fireplace, you can see yellow or orange flames, sometimes blue flames, and red or orange embers. What is actually causing those yellow or orange flames?

Fly-By Data...

I've posted several times about the MESSENGER robotic explorer's fly-by of the planet Mercury earlier this week. The data (including images) are now safely back here on Earth, and the MESSENGER team has started posting them. It's already clear that the fly-by was a complete success – both for the technology and for the science results.

NASA's prowess with highly-reliable robotics has allowed them to make use of slower but much more efficient courses, leveraging fly-bys of planets as “slingshots” to change the spacecraft's speed without the use of rockets. In the case of MESSENGER, the spacecraft has “fallen” from the dizzying heights of Earth (above the sun) down to the lowly altitude of Mercury, and in the process it picked up a lot of speed (its potential energy converted to kinetic energy). The multiple fly-bys of Mercury are reducing its speed with only trivial use of its rockets (for navigation). The end result of this technique is that the spacecraft itself can be much larger and heavier than it could with any sort of direct-flight course. The earlier missions (such as Cassini-Huygens) that used this slingshot technique were real edge-of-the-seat cliff-hangers, as there was some perfectly reasonable doubt that NASA could pull off the missions that lasted a decade or more, and that required fantastical feats of navigation and course control. They've proven it now, though, and made it seem almost routine...

About the photo above (click on it for a larger version):

Shortly following MESSENGER’s closest approach to Mercury on January 14, 2008, the spacecraft’s Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument acquired this image as part of a mosaic that covers much of the sunlit portion of the hemisphere not viewed by Mariner 10. Images such as this one can be read in terms of a sequence of geological events and provide insight into the relative timing of processes that have acted on Mercury's surface in the past.

The double-ringed crater pictured in the lower left of this image appears to be filled with smooth plains material, perhaps volcanic in nature. This crater was subsequently disrupted by the formation of a prominent scarp (cliff), the surface expression of a major crustal fault system, that runs alongside part of its northern rim and may have led to the uplift seen across a portion of the crater’s floor. A smaller crater in the lower right of the image has also been cut by the scarp, showing that the fault beneath the scarp was active after both of these craters had formed. The MESSENGER team is working to combine inferences about the timing of events gained from this image with similar information from the hundreds of other images acquired by MESSENGER to extend and refine the geological history of Mercury previously defined on the basis only of Mariner 10 images.

This MESSENGER image was taken from a distance of about 18,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) from the surface of Mercury, at 20:03 UTC, about 58 minutes after the closest approach point of the flyby. The region shown is about 500 kilometers (300 miles) across, and craters as small as 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) can be seen in this image.

Hats off to the entire MESSENGER team – a fantastic accomplishment!