Stale Thoughts and Broken Links

Old posts from my weblog.

(Click here for posts on geophysics and the energy industry.)


2004.06.24

Houston Business Journal: Houston Museum of Natural Science names president.

"Prior to being named HMNS president, Bartsch served as curator of gems and minerals as well as playing a key role as project manager for several of the Museum's exhibition halls including the Wiess Energy Hall."


On a related note, I took my wife to this year's HGS Guest Night at the Houston Museum of Natural Science last Saturday. NASA's Gordon McKay gave a topical talk on the on-going Mars rover mission.

The talk contained a technical component beyond that of a popular science or newspaper article. That was kind of why I wanted to go, although a good part of the presentation was over the head of my CPA wife.

In summary: NASA dropped Spirit into a hugh impact structure, maybe hoping that they would find evidence that it was filled with water some time after it's creation. But instead they found a big basin of naked basalt.

Opportunity, on the other hand, fell into a *small* impact crater with exposed outcrops, apparently of sedimentary rocks. That is, rocks formed by sediments, possibly deposited in a large body of water.


2004.06.21

Houston Chronicle: Discovery of tiniest organism could have huge implications. Colleagues skeptical of space center scientist's nanobacteria.

"The smallest, widely accepted bacteria measure about 300 nanometers across, just enough space for a single cell to pack the DNA and other ingredients needed to reproduce....

"Ciftcioglu and Kajander studied individual particles of calcium-rich mineral deposits in kidney stones. After stripping away the mineral coating on the particles, they say they found small, cell-like structures between 50 and 150 nanometers across. They also found that, over time, the particles multiplied."


2004.06.15

The Dallas Police Dept. is posting pictures of people arrested on prostitution charges before they're even convicted. On principle, I don't really agree with that.

But that doesn't stop me from looking --

Prostitution and Public Indecency-Related Offenses in Dallas.


Steve Jobs, WSJ (subscription): The Music Man.

"... I don't want to watch my favorite movie a thousand times in my life; I want to watch it five times in my life. But I do want to listen to my favorite song a thousand times in my life."


2004.06.08

My Aunt Ginny tells the story of my maternal grandfather --

The Lafayette Advertiser: Tales behind the names.

"The late Hugh Creighton Wallis was a sugar cane farmer and dairyman who farmed more than 400 acres near what is now Hugh Wallis Road...."


NYT: A Big Melt.

"If global warming has the potential for making over the planet, then what happened at the dawn of the Eocene epoch 55 million years ago may best be described as an extreme makeover. That is when a rapid influx of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere caused average temperatures to increase by close to 15 degrees Fahrenheit over 200,000 years."


2004.06.07

I just got back from a week's vacation in San Diego. Legoland is a really cool amusement park. The kids liked it too.


Walter Kessinger

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