Hold on to your seats (in the Hartlepool by-election)
Labour held on to the Hartlepool seat yesterday; not quite by the skin of their teeth, but I suspect a little too narrowly for their liking. They lost around ten thousand votes, reducing their proportion from 59% to around 41%, whilst the Liberals shot up to 34%, from 15% last time round. So the Liberals came in a quite good second, but the Conservatives. . . A staggering fourth place. Reported to be the first time in post-WWII England that the main opposition party comes in fourth in an election, it must be a gut-wrenching smack in the face for them. Their candidate can possibly console himslef with the fact that he won't have to run again here, at least I doubt it. The Labour man, Iain Wright, got off on the wrong foot, in my opinion, by declaring the result "great news" for Tony Blair. Did he mention the sods that voted for him, I wonder? Here are the prelim results:

Iain Wright (Lab) 12,752
Jody Dunn (Lib Dem) 10,719
Stephen Allison (UKIP) 3,193
Jeremy Middleton (Con) 3,044

2001 result:
Lab: 22,506;
Con: 7,935;
Lib Dem: 5,717

I may post detailed results this evening.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/30/2004 06:47:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

 
Der neue Duden ist da!
Endlich! Seit Wochen warte ich drauf, heute isset gekommen, der neue Duden! Sieht auch ganz schnieke aus, wenn'se mich fragen. Und es stimmt - Alkopops vgl. Alcopops ist drin. Dass das neu ist, erstaunt mich nicht all zu viel. Wesentlich überraschender für mich ist, dass Hyperaktiv ebenfalls neu ist. Ich kenne es seit Jahren, und die meisten anderen Eltern auch. Ich frage mich nur, was war denn meine Tochter vorher? Ach, sie hatte "übersteigerten Bewegungsdrang", na jut. Ich kann an diese Stelle für die Zweifler an die NDR auch etwas berühigen - Truppenaufmarsch wird nicht "Truppen/aufm/arsch" getrennt.
- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/30/2004 01:52:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

 
Bye-elections in Hartlepool

I actually saw "bye-elections" in an article. I won't say where exactly, but if you do a google on it, you wil find it is "not uncommon" (thanks to susan with a small s). Well, bye to Mandelson, I suppose.

So slimy Mandelson slimed off to Yurope and left a hole as big as a pinhead in Pooly politics. Since then, the war has raged on Hartlepool's streets over who will take Big M's well-paying seat in the commoner's hall in Capitol Valley. It's had its ups and downs, but has only been mildly entertaining. This is a traditional Labour seat, albeit only certain since 1964. It may just appear a teensy weensy bit wobbly again this time round. The Labour geezer is, without a doubt, a Blairite blot, a terrible toe-the-liner, otherwise he wouldn't be there now. The Conservatives have only been round the posh end of town, as far as I can gather, but who wants Mrs Thatcher's heirs on this lowly throne anyway? And the liberals (with a small L) reckon they have chances (wonder if they'll cry in front of the TV tonight?). Much has been made of their candidate, gawd knows why. She doesn't seem much more impressive to me than the rest of the measly pack. One as bland and bleak as the other. The most exciting part of the campaign was when the liberals and labour campaigners got in each others hair on York Road, the town's main thoroughfare (cf. Oxford Street in London, just with litter and boarded up windows), about who had the better crime-fighting policy. The police separated the two parties and life got back to fish'n'chips, footie and binge-drinking. But what really struck me about the fight for the local gravy train was the slagging. Seems most candidates are more interested in pointing out what the opponents are or are not going to do for Hartlepool, and what faults they may have, than informing clearly and precisely what exactly they are going to do for the town.

If you want a recommendation, vote for Arthur Scargill, Socialist Labour Party.

Go on, berate me!

- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/30/2004 01:41:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

 
"Scheinselbständigkeit" in the UK / Self-employed or not?
It appears that now, several years after the Germans have addressed the matter, the British government is trying to do something about "Scheinselbständigkeit". The importance attached to this may be reflected by the fact that the British don't have a nice, succinct word for it. The Inland Revenue (IR) pertly asks "Employed or self-employed?". They have issued some guidelines on classification; one paper can be read here (this is a *.pdf file, so you'll nead Adobe Reader). For some strange reason, though, this only seems to apply to the construction industry. Do no other industries in Britain suffer from this phenomenon? The IR are sending letters to 57,000 contractors in the UK, wherein they innocently suggest that mistakes may have been made in the classification of employees or self-employed workers, or even that the contractors may have mis-classified themselves. If you get one of these letters, get in touch with your accountant or someone similar and get advice. You may be in for a shock if you don't.
- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/30/2004 01:14:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

 
Rattus norvegicus (Wanderratte)
In the last five years (since August 1999) I have moved house five times. Before the end of this year I will have moved six times. The longest I have stayed in any one place in the last 28 years, is just over four years - that was in Celle, Germany, whilst attached to the 3rd Btn The Royal Green Jackets (alright lads?). If I count moving towns, villages or cities only, I have moved 12 times in 28 years. If, however, I count moving house from one area of town to another, or even moving rooms or blocks within a military base, I have moved a grand total of 21 times in 28 years! Can anybody beat that? There's Romany blood in there somewhere.
- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/29/2004 05:01:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

 
ESSS and CEI offer new integrated solution for visualising geology and reservoir data

OilOnline report today that ESSS and CEI have released Cyclops, a new application for integrating, manipulating and visualising multiple geology and reservoir engineering data sets in a single environment. This was announced on Monday at the Annual Technical Conference and Exposition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Houston, Texas (tis in America).

The Cyclops program was developed by ESSS (Engineering Simulation and Scientific Software), a Brazilian company that now has almost a decade of experience in providing engineering solutions for the oil and gas industry. It is being marketed and sold in partnership with CEI, maker of EnSight visualisation and Harpoon meshing software.

Cyclops can handle almost any kind of geology and reservoir data, including structured, unstructured and reservoir grids, with scalar and vector variables associated to cell centres, faces, edges or nodes. Well data from simulation or measurement can be loaded in the same environment, allowing users to analyse both simultaneously.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/28/2004 03:33:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

 
Assistant Professor in Experimental Mineralogy
The following reached me from Professor Lattard via one of my mailing lists:

University of Heidelberg, Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences Institute of Mineralogy Faculty position (Assistant Professor) in Experimental Mineralogy

The Institute of Mineralogy invites applications for a six year (3+3) faculty position in experimental Mineralogy/Petrology at the Assistant Professor level (wissenschaftliche/r Assistent/in, C1). A Ph.D. degree must be earned by the time of the appointment. The vacant position is attached to the experimental petrology laboratory and we are particularly seeking candidates with demonstrated experience in laboratory work. Preference will be given to those showing published evidence of, and a continuing commitment to independent and collaborative research in mineralogy/petrology. In addition to research, the successful candidate will be expected to teach undergraduate and graduate students. Teaching may be given in English, but at least a basic knowledge of the German language is desirable.

The Department of Mineralogy at Heidelberg University is well equipped with analytical and experimental facilities to support Earth and Planetary materials research. The experimental petrology laboratory houses several high-temperature quench furnaces with gas-mixing modules, end-loaded piston cylinder apparatus and cold-seal hydrothermal autoclaves. The institute is also equipped with a conventional Mössbauer spectrometer, a Cameca SX-50 EMP (with WDS and EDS), a Cameca ims 3f ion probe (SIMS), XRF-XRD laboratories, polarisation microscopes, a heating-cooling stage for fluid-inclusion research, a laboratory for making thin sections and mineral separation laboratories . We have also access to a modern SEM (with EDS and cathodoluminescence) in our faculty. Isotope, ICP-MS, magnetic and micro-Raman laboratories are also accessible in Heidelberg or in neighbouring universities.

Applicants should send their complete curriculum vitae, including a list of publications, and a short statement describing their research and teaching interests to:

Prof. Dominique Lattard

Mineralogisches Institut

INF 236

D-69120

Heidelberg

Germany

dlattard@min.uni-heidelberg.de

To ensure full consideration, all information should be received by October 15, 2004. Applications after this date will be considered until the position has been filled. Women are especially encouraged to apply.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/26/2004 10:30:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

 
Water cycle diagram in 36 languages
The United States Geolgical Survey (USGS) has created a new site dealing with the water cycle (hydrologic cycle). It claims to be "the most comprehensive Web site about "The Water Cycle" anywhere". It deals with the 15 topics shown in the diagram on the start page. Unfortunately, only the diagram is avaiable in 36 languages, but it's also a good resource if you're monolingual, or even multilingual, providing one of those lingus is English!
- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/25/2004 01:17:00 AM 1 comments links to this post

 
Uranium/lead dating provides most accurate date yet for Earth's largest extinction

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations (UC Berkely) 16 September 2004

BERKELEY – A new study by geologists at the Berkeley Geochronology Center and the University of California, Berkeley, improves upon a widely used dating technique, opening the possibility of a vastly more accurate time scale for major geologic events in Earth's history. In a paper published this week in Science, geochemist Roland Mundil of the Berkeley Geochronology Center (BGC) and his colleagues at BGC and UC Berkeley report that uranium/lead (U/Pb) dating can be extremely accurate - to within 250,000 years - but only if the zircons from volcanic ash used in the analysis are specially treated. To date, zircons - known to many as a semiprecious stone and December's birthstone - have often produced confusing and inaccurate results.

"Zircons have produced complicated data that are hard to interpret, though people have pulled dates out," said Mundil, a former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow now at the BGC, a non-profit scientific research institute dedicated to perfecting dating techniques for establishing the history of Earth and life on Earth. "Many of these studies will now have to be redone."

The U/Pb isotopic dating technique has been critical in dating geologic events more than 100 million years old, including volcanic eruptions, continental movements and mass extinctions. "The beauty of this new technique is that we now can analyze samples we previously could not get an accurate date for," Mundil said. "This will have a big impact on radio-isotopic dating in general."

Mundil and his colleagues, including BGC director Paul Renne, adjunct professor of earth and planetary science at UC Berkeley, used this improved U/Pb technique to establish a more accurate date for the end of the Permian period and the beginning of the Triassic period - 252.6 million years ago, plus or minus 200,000 years. This boundary coincides with the largest extinction of life on Earth, when most marine invertebrates died out, including the well-known flat, segmented trilobites.

Based on the improved U/Pb technique, the team also established that the argon/argon (Ar/Ar) isotopic dating technique that Renne employed for an earlier study of the Permian-Triassic boundary consistently gives younger dates, by about 1 percent. Renne ascribes this to a lack of a precise measurement of the decay constant of potassium. The technique is based on the fact that the naturally occurring isotope potassium-40 decays to argon-40 with a 1.25 billion year half-life. Comparison of the amount of argon-39 produced in a nuclear reactor to the amount of argon-40 gives a measure of the age of the rocks.

Uranium, on the other hand, is so well studied that its decay constant is much better known, making the U/Pb dating technique more accurate, Mundil noted. U/Pb dating relies upon the decay of naturally occurring uranium and different isotopes of lead.

"Further application of Mundil's approach will make the geologic time scale more accurate, letting us calibrate extinctions and important events in Earth's history, ranging from 100 million to several billion years ago, with unparalleled accuracy," Renne added.

The new U/Pb date, though about 2.5 million years older than Renne reported nine years ago based on Ar/Ar dating, nevertheless confirms his conclusion that the Permian extinction occurred at the same time as a major series of volcanic eruptions in Siberia. This is strong evidence that these eruptions caused, at least in part, the global die-off, which some scientists have ascribed to a meteor impact.

Mundil noted that in 1998, one group used U/Pb dating to assign a date of 251.4 million years ago for the main pulse of the Permina extinction, in apparent conflict with the new U/Pb age. That 'age,' however, "is based on interpretation of a very complicated data set," Mundil said. Mundil and his colleagues set out to resolve the issue, using a new zircon pretreatment invented by UC Santa Barbara isotope geologist James M. Mattinson. The problem with using microscopic zircons, which are prevalent in volcanic ash, is that the decay of uranium to lead is so energetic that the lead atoms smash through and destroy the zircon crystal structure, which apparently allows some lead to leak out of the crystal, throwing off the analysis. Geologists have tried various zircon treatments, including abrading the outer surfaces of the crystals, which are typically a tenth of a millimeter across, or leaching the crystals with strong acid. Despite these treatments, the U/Pb method still produced a wide range of dates for zircons from the same layer of ash.

Mattinson's idea was to first heat or anneal the zircons, sealing off the least damaged areas of the crystal, then using a strong reagent, hydrofluoric acid, to eat away the heavily damaged areas. When Mundil used this treatment, the zircon dates were much more consistent, requiring no selective interpretation of the data. The calculated uncertainty is about a quarter of a million years, which means the extinction took place over a very short time, the researchers concluded. The zircons were obtained from ash layers located in central and southeastern China. The Meishan section in the latter region is accepted as the type locality for the Permian/Triassic boundary.

Whereas the U/Pb method yields ages which are more accurate, "Ar/Ar is still king in dating rocks younger than 100 million years and is about as precise as U/Pb methods, though we need to get better data for the decay constants to establish an absolute calibration," Renne said. "As soon as that calibration is put in place, the Ar/Ar method could become as accurate as U/Pb." The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Australian Research Council and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Kenneth R. Ludwig of the BGC and Ian Metcalfe of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, also participated in the study.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/21/2004 03:32:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

 
Water and methane maps overlap on Mars: a new clue?

Recent analyses of ESA’s Mars Express data reveal that concentrations of water vapour and methane in the atmosphere of Mars significantly overlap. This result, from data obtained by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS), gives a boost to understanding of geological and atmospheric processes on Mars, and provides important new hints to evaluate the hypothesis of life present on the Red Planet.

PFS observed that, at 10-15 kilometres above the surface, water vapour is well mixed and uniform in the atmosphere. However, it found that, close to the surface, water vapour is more concentrated in three broad equatorial regions: Arabia Terra, Elysium Planum and Arcadia-Memnonia. Here, the concentration is two to three times higher than in other regions observed. These areas of water vapour concentration also correspond to the areas where NASA’s Odyssey spacecraft has observed a water ice layer a few tens of centimetres below the surface, as Dr Vittorio Formisano, PFS principal investigator, reports.

New in-depth analysis of PFS data also confirms that methane is not uniform in the atmosphere, but concentrated in some areas. The PFS team observed that the areas of highest concentration of methane overlap with the areas where water vapour and underground water ice are also concentrated. This spatial correlation between water vapour and methane seems to point to a common underground source.

Initial speculation has taken the underground ice layer into account. This could be explained by the ‘ice table’ concept, in which geothermal heat from below the surface makes water and other material move towards the surface. It would then freeze before getting there, due to the very low surface temperature (many tens of degrees Celsius below zero). Further investigations are needed to fully understand the correlation between the ice table and the presence and distribution of water vapour and methane in the atmosphere. In other words, can the geothermal processes which ‘feed’ the ice table also bring water vapour and other gases, like methane, to the surface? Can there be liquid water below the ice table? Can forms of bacterial life exist in the water below the ice table, producing methane and other gases and releasing them to the surface and then to the atmosphere?

The PFS instrument has also detected traces of other gases in the Martian atmosphere. A report on these is currently under peer review. Further studies will address whether these gases can be linked to water and methane and help answer the unresolved questions. In-situ observations by future lander missions to Mars may provide a more exhaustive solution to the puzzle.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/20/2004 02:51:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

 
New books / Neue Bücher

Here are some of the most recently published books/media on geological themes. All of these books can be ordered from the website of my German bookstore, Landkartenhaus Gleumes, or by email

__________ __________ __________

Neuauflage 2004!

Bahlburg, Heinrich; Breitkreuz, Christoph

GRUNDLAGEN DER GEOLOGIE

Regen, Wind und Eis u.a. formen die Erdoberfläche, tragen Gebirge ab und füllen Meeresbecken mit Sedimenten. Konvektionen im zähflüssigen Erdmantel verschieben die Schollen der Erdkruste. Meeresboden reißt auf und läßt Lava ausfließen; wo er unter Kontinenten versinkt, türmen sich Gebirge auf. Geologische, geophysikalische, mineralogische und sogar astronomische Vorgänge und Kräfte wirken überall zusammen. Auch der Mensch wirkt als geologischer Faktor. Diese Zusammenhänge heben die Autoren besonders hervor. Sie haben ein didaktisch modernes Lehrbuch geschrieben. Spezielle Themen sind als "Kästen" vom Haupttext abgetrennt. Viele instruktive Zeichnungen und farbige Fotos machen das Lernen zum Vergnügen. 2.Auflage 2004. 403 Seiten mit 365 z.T.farbigen Abbildungen, paperback. EUR 39,90

Lexikon der Geowissenschaften, 6 Bände

Das fünfbändige "Lexikon der Geowissenschaften" (plus Registerband), verfaßt von mehr als 150 namhaften Autoren, liefert einen kompletten Überblick über sämtliche Fachgebiete der Geowissenschaften, von der Geologie zur Mineralogie, von der Geophysik bis zur Klimatologie, von der Fernerkundung bis zur Kartographie. In über 20.000 Stichwörtern, von kurzen Begriffsdefinitionen bis hin zu ausführlichen Essays, vermittelt dieses einzigartige interdisziplinäre Standardwerk weit mehr als nur Lehrbuchwissen. Angewandte und technologische Aspekte sowie aktuellste Forschungsergebnisse liefern einen aktuellen Querschnitt der Geowissenschaften. Die historischen Wurzeln der fachübergreifenden Disziplin werden in mehr als 500 biographischen Artikelnüber Forscherpersönlichkeiten von Georgius Agricola bis Alfred Wegener lebendig vermittelt. Den geowissenschaftlichen Fachbereichen selbst, aber auch besonders aktuellen, interessanten und fachübergreifenden Themenkomplexen sind über 30 ausführl iche Essays gewidmet. Ersch. 2000-2002. 2000. zusammen 2769 Seiten mit Abbildungen, gebunden. EUR 199,00

Neuauflage 2004!

Murawski, H. & Meyer, W.

GEOLOGISCHES WÖRTERBUCH

Das klassische Wörterbuch für jeden Studenten, Geologen und Hobbygeologen endlich in überarbeiteter und erweiteter Auflage. Die 11.Auflage wurde wieder durch zahlreiche neue Fachausdrücke ergänzt, Text und Tabellen wurden auf den neuesten Stand gebracht. Alle bereiche der Geowissenschaften wurden berücksichtigt. 11.neu bearbeitete und erweiterte Auflage 2004. 262 Seiten, 82 Abb., gebunden EUR 25,00

TREATISE ON INVERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY 3 Bände neu in 2003/2004 -Porifera (revised) Vol.2 -Porifera (revised) Vol.3 -Brachiopoda (revised) Vol.5 Informationen und gesamtverzeichnis der lieferbaren Treatise-Bände

Gregor Markl & Sönke Lorenz (Hrsg.)

SILBER KUPFER BLEI

Historischer Bergbau im Schwarzwald

Das Edelmetall Silber fasziniert seit jeher die Menschen. Nur selten ist dabei aber bewußt, wie sehr die kulturhistorische Entwicklung einer Region von der Erschließung und Nutzung der Erzlagerstätten bestimmt wurde. Wie aber kam es überhaupt zur Anreicherung des seltenen Minerals im Schwarzwald? Wie wurden die Erze gewonnen und welche Spuren des 2-jährigen Abbaus sind heute noch zu entdecken? Aus dem Inhalt: Wo findet man Silber? Zur Geschichte, Mineralogie und Geologie Schwarzwälder Erzlagerstätten. Mittelalterliche Bergbausiedlungen im Südschwarzwald. Wie kommt das Silber aus dem Stein? Schwarzwälder Silberhandel als Quelle des Wohlstandes. (Schriftenreihe des Mineralienmuseums Oberwolfach Bd.1.) 2004. 215 Seiten mit zahlreichen meist farbigen Abbildungen, gebunden. EUR 24,80

soeben erschienen

GEOLOGISCHE ÜBERSICHTSKARTE VON NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN 1:500.000 („Zeitreise durch den Untergrund Nordrhein-Westfalens") Endlich gibt es eine geologische Übersichtskarte von NRW. Mit Kurzerläuterungen zur Stratigraphie und Geologie allgemein und von NRW mit farbigen Fotos auf der Kartenrückseite. 2004. gefaltet. EUR 3,00

- posted by Affenhänger @ 9/03/2004 11:12:00 PM 0 comments links to this post