Hartlepool made an excellent showing again this week, coming back from 2 - 1 down against Bournemouth to win 3 - 2 in what was really quite a good and exciting game. This puts them ninth again - not a great leap, but within grasping distance of the top five and still with every chance of promotion. Here's the table:

  Team         Pl.   Pts   Goal diff 
 
1 Luton        19    42      19 
2 Tranmere     19    38       9 
3 Hull         19    35       6 
4 Bradford     19    32       2 
5 Bournemouth  19    31       9 
6 Bristol City 19    30      10 
7 Sheff Wed    19    30       7 
8 Chesterfield 19    30       7 
9 Hartlepool   19    29      -3 

S'not gonna be easy, but there are only three wins separating Pools from position 2 and the season's only half through.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/28/2004 05:33:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

Soil quality

Determination of content of hydrocarbon in the range C10 to C40 by gas chromatography

Scope:

This International Standard specifies a method for the quantitative determination of the mineral oil (hydrocarbon) content in field-moist soil samples by gas chromatography.

The method is applicable to mineral oil contents (mass fraction) between
100 mg/kg and 10,000 mg/kg soil, expressed as dry matter, and can be adapted to lower limits of detection.

This International Standard is applicable to the determination of all hydrocarbons with a boiling range of 175°C to 525°C, of n-alkanes from C₁₀H₂₂ to C₄₀H₈₂, of isoalkanes, cycloalkanes, alkylbenzenes, alkylnaphthalenes and polycyclic aromatic compounds, provided that they are not absorbed on the specified column during the clean-up procedure.

This International Standard is not applicable to the quantitative determination of hydrocarbons < C10 originating from gasolines.

On the basis of the peak pattern of the gas chromatogram obtained, and of the boiling points of the individual n-alkanes listed in Annex B, the approximate boiling range of the mineral oil and some qualitative information on the composition of the contamination can be obtained.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/27/2004 05:12:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

I wonder if any of you know this site already:

http://www.greenfacts.org/index.htm

It contains a wealth of information on a variety of environmental issues. Most of it is available in German, Spanish and French, besides English. A lot of the studies can be downloaded, although I don't like the way the web pages are converted to pdf. But still very useful. The mercury and power lines studies are the two most recent publications.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/25/2004 06:11:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

The excellent Carnets de Géologie, in which an aquaintance, Bruno Granier, is involved, announced the publication of a new "letter" today:

Athanassiou A. (2004).- On a Deinotherium (Proboscidea) finding in the Neogene of Crete.- Carnets de Géologie - Notebooks on Geology, Brest, Letter 2004/05 CCG2004_L05), 7 p., 4 fig., 1 tabl. Format [HTML] or [PDF 353 KB]

Abstract: This paper reports the discovery of an incomplete proboscidean mandible near the village of Maroniá in eastern Crete. The fragment described here includes the first molar (m1) of a deinothere, that because of its large size is identified as Deinotherium giganteum. The specimen was found in shallow-water marine sediments. The presence of Deinotherium on the island, together with other Miocene vertebrate faunas, suggests that during that epoch Crete was connected to the mainland by a wide land bridge.

The complete letter can be accessed here (html). It can also be downloaded in PDF format.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/25/2004 03:47:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

The section that will interest most of you most is the glossary. It can be accessed from the main page and offers translation of terms into Danish, French, German, Hungarian and Italian, although all of the entries I have viewed so far have no entries for Hungarian and Italian. Don't ask me how they arrived at the choice of languages to be represented!

From what I've seen of the glossary so far it does look useful (well, if your working languages are English, Danish, French or German). Have fun.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/24/2004 02:11:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

At last! I have finally bought a digital camera. Not top-of-the-line, but handy enough to start with, it's a Kodak CX7300. Of course, now that I have a digital camera, my dream is to progress asap to an 8.2 megapixel SLR! Look forward to lots of pictures of all sorts of garbage.

So here's the view from the office window at about 8 o'clock this morning, just to get started.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/23/2004 09:49:00 PM 1 comments links to this post

Zur Diskussion über die Zukunft der Künstlersozialversicherung erklärt die zuständige Berichterstatterin der Arbeitsgruppe der Enquéte-Kommission "Kultur in Deutschland" der SPD-Bundestagsfraktion, Angelika Krüger-Leißner:

Die Sorge um den Fortbestand der Künstlersozialkasse (KSK) ist unberechtigt. Dies hat die Anhörung der Enquéte-Kommission "Kultur in Deutschland" gezeigt. Keiner der Repräsentanten aus der Kulturwirtschaft beabsichtigt, sich aus der Verantwortung für dieses Sondersystem zu stehlen, das 1982 von der SPD beschlossen wurde.

Im Vorfeld der Anhörung waren hunderte von E-Mails bei den Kommmissionsmitgliedern eingegangen. Künstlerinnen und Künstler waren damit einem Aufruf gefolgt, der behauptete, der Erhalt der KSK sei von der Politik infrage gestellt worden.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/23/2004 08:51:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Ich bin zwar davon nicht betroffen, aber dafür viele Kolleg/Innen, sowohl Übersetzer als auch Schriftsteller, freie Grafiker, usw.

- --- Begin forwarded message ---

Liebe Kolleginnen, liebe Kollegen,

die Enquete-Kommission des Bundestags: "Kultur in Deutschland" befasst sich derzeit in einer oeffentlichen Anhoerung mit der "wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Absicherung fuer Kuenstlerinnen und Kuenstler". Dabei geht es vornehmlich um die ZUKUNFT DER KUeNSTLERSOZIALVERSICHERUNG.

Die KSK ist ein in Europa bislang einmaliges Modell: Kuenstler, Verwerter und der Bund tragen gemeinsam die Sorge fuer die Alterssicherung von Kuenstlern, denen es in wirtschaftlichen Zeiten wie diesen ja ohnehin noch einen Tick beschissener geht als anderen Berufsgruppen. Nun ist der Fortbestand dieser Sozialversicherung ernsthaft gefaehrdet, u.a. durch das Engagement profilierungssuechtiger junger Hengste in einer Partei, die 1975 massgeblich daran beteiligt war, die KSK ueberhaupt erst aus der Taufe zu heben.

"Ernsthaft gefaehrdet" ist eigentlich sogar noch ein Euphemismus: die Kommission, die sich Montag, 22.11., 10-14 Uhr zu einer oeffentlichen Sitzung im Paul-Loebe-Haus in Berlin trifft, fragt, inwiefern die KSK ueberhaupt noch erhalten werden kann. Und ob sie erhalten werden soll.

Wir sollten, wir duerfen nicht zulassen, dass dieser Meilenstein der kuenstlerischen Sozialabsicherung einfach so mir nichts dir nichts gekippt wird. Jede(r), der / die von der KSK profitiert hat oder in Baelde zu profitieren beabsichtigt, moege sich bitte mit einer Mail an die zustaendigen MdBs in der Enquete-Kommission melden und sie bitten, unbedingt um den Erhalt der KSK zu kaempfen.

Seid rasch. Und verkuenstelt Euch dabei nicht: Die Mail wird wahrscheinlich nie zu Ende gelesen. Aber auch wenn das der Fall ist, wird sie zur Kenntnis genommen. Wenn 500 solcher Mails eingehen, werden in Berlin einige Koepfe rauchen. Aber wenn 1000 Mails eingehen, kommen die Damen und Herren betraechtlich ins Schwitzen. Noch koennen wir etwas bewegen.

Bewegen wir uns!

Viele Gruesse

Martin von Arndt

PS: Bitte verteilt diese Information an alle Kunstschaffenden, Journalisten, Publizisten. Wir brauchen eine E-Mail-Lichterkette durch die gesamte Republik.

Nachfolgend saemtliche Mailadressen der Enquete-Mitglieder (notfalls an alle ueber BCC dieselbe Mail raushauen):

Vorsitzende (CDU): Gitta.Connemann@bundestag.de
St. Vors.: (SPD) Horst.Kubatschka@bundestag.de

SPD - Kommissionsmitglieder:
siegmund.ehrmann@bundestag.de
angelika.krueger-leissner@bundestag.de
christine.lucyga@bundestag.de (Anrede Dr. Christine Lucyga)
lydia.westrich@bundestag.de

SPD - stv. Kommissionsmitglieder:
eckhardt.barthel@bundestag.de
michael.buersch@bundestag.de (Anrede Dr. Michael Buersch)
ute.kumpf@bundestag.de
petra.weis@bundestag.de

CDU - Kommissionmitglieder:
guenter.nooke@bundestag.de
matthias.sehling@bundestag.de
christian.stetten@bundestag.de (Anrede Christian Freiherr von Stetten)

CDU - stv. Kommissionsmitglieder:
christoph.bergner@bundestag.de (Anrede Dr. Christoph Bergner)
marie-luise.doett@bundestag.de
kristina.koehler@bundestag.de
dorothee.mantel@bundestag.de

B 90 / GRUeNE - Kommissionsmitglied:
ursula.sowa@bundestag.de

B 90 / GRUeNE - stv. Kommissionsmitglied:
antje.vollmer@bundestag.de (Anrede: Dr. Antje Vollmer)

FDP - Kommissionsmitglied:
haus-joachim.otto@bundestag.de

FDP - stv. Kommissionsmitglied:
helga.daub@bundestag.de

- --- End forwarded message ---

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/21/2004 11:10:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Just rummaging around the net a bit yesterday, I stumbled across these two maps at Keele University School of Earth Sciences and Geography. They are fairly simple, but excellent for the beginner. The geohazard map includes a couple of small tables on the Beaufort Scale, Torino Scale (asteroid and comet impact hazard!) and the European Macroseismic Scale. Click on the links below the images to go to the page at Keele, where they can be downloaded as *.PDFs, or ordered.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/14/2004 07:37:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

This image was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. It is Europe’s highest-resolution picture so far of the Martian moon Phobos.

This images shows new detail that will keep planetary scientists busy for years, working to unravel the mysteries of this moon. The image shows the Mars-facing side of the moon, taken from a distance of less than 200 kilometres with a resolution of about seven metres per pixel during orbit 756.

If this piece of rock was a hand specimen, I would say that it displayed easily recognisable sedimentary structures.

To read the complete article at ESA, go here

Phobos at close range

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/11/2004 09:15:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

The local rag, Hartlepool Mail, published an article today titled "A gleg at our 'ellish 'artlepool dialect" (A look at out great Hartlepool dialect), by Felicity Collinson. Since moving away, I've always considered it a bit whacky, to say the least. For one thing, we've always been known for dropping our aitches, which is why the place is known to the locals as 'artlepool. Anyway, a long list was published with the article, containing just a selection of pooly peculiarities. I'd like to present this list now (they call it a dictionary in the newspaper, said he, smiling indulgently). Some entries may have been slightly edited by me.

Pooly               English
acky          -     dirty
alley         -     marble
bar           -     GBP 1.0
barf          -     to be sick
bewer         -     female
biff          -     posh, snob
blaked        -     drunk
bonker        -     big marble
buckled       -     rich
to cark       -     to die
carked        -     dies
chore,
chorberding   -     chav
to chore      -     to take
chuddy        -     chewing gum
clamming,     
to clam       -     to need (something) (clamming for a drink)
cowie         -     cash
county car    -     police car
doyle         -     idiot
doilberger    -     big doyle
ding          -     idiot
dinger        -     idiot
divvy         -     idiot
dut           -     wolly hat
'ellish       -     good
feggie        -     first
gauge, to go
for a gauge   -     go for a beer
gleg          -     look
gis a gleg    -     let me look
ginormous     -     big
gob-all       -     (a) gossip
hork          -     to pull or to be sick
impittent     -     selfish
jammies       -     glasses (spectacles)
kali
(kayl-eye)    -     sherbert
to kick off   -     to get angry
kidder        -     friend
kite          -     stomach
knack,
knacking      -     hurting
lowwer        -     cash
lowwered
right up      -     rich
mafting       -     hot
meff          -     idiot
meg           -     to spit
megger        -     a spit
minging       -     disgusting, very dirty or untidy
mits          -     hands
mully         -     to beat up
muskers       -     police
paggered      -     tired, beaten up
pie-shop      -     overweight person
plug          -     ugly
pew           -     seat
raj, rajjy    -     tantrum
rarf          -     idiot
scutter,
skids, skuds  -     scruffy person
to sham off   -     to ignore, to split up with boyfriend or girlfriend
shan          -     awful
sheets        -     10 pound note, e.g. five sheets = fifty pounds
sneck         -     nose
to spev       -     to speed
to spraff     -     to take
tussy pegs    -     teeth
wagga dots    -     tattoed dots, generally across the knuckles
wangy         -     stomach
youk          -     hit
to yuk        -     to fight
yukking       -     hurting

Pooly                               English
I'll bull him up              -     I'll compliment him
Me head's like a toy shop     -     I'm stressed
Me head's done in             -     I'm stressed
Well aye                      -     Yeah, right
Eh?                           -     What?
Keep yer snekker out          -     Stop being nosy
I feel shan                   -     I feel embarrassed/awful

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/11/2004 08:28:00 AM 3 comments links to this post

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. But If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."

Thomas Jefferson, June 4, 1798, in a letter to John Taylor after passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/10/2004 08:32:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

A Johns Hopkins University graduate student may have solved a problem that has been baffling marine biologists and paleontologists for years: Why do coral reefs disappear from the fossil record during the beginning of the Cretaceous period -- 120 million years ago -- only to reappear after its end 35 million years ago?

The possible answer: Ancient seawater's low magnesium-to-calcium ratio during this interval made it difficult for the marine animals -- which build their skeletons from a mineral called aragonite calcium carbonate [sic] -- to grow and flourish into vast reefs. That left few to end up in the fossil record, posits doctoral candidate Justin Ries and his advisor Steven Stanley, professor in the Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the university's Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

"Scientists have grappled with this question for years, and my research shows that the answer is that the chemistry of Cretaceous seawater did not support the secretion of the aragonite mineral from which corals construct their skeleton," said Ries, who will present his research on Nov. 10 at the 116th annual meeting of The Geological Society in Denver. "What's more, my experiments suggest that corals from the Cretaceous period almost certainly built at least part of their skeletons from calcite. This is groundbreaking, because it was previously believed that organisms do not generally change their skeletal mineralogy over time. Now we know that they do."

Ries spent two months growing three species of modern Scleractinian corals (the major reef-building corals in today's seas) in seawater formulated at six different chemical ratios that have existed throughout the geologic history of corals. He created this seawater "from scratch" according to recipes provided by earth and planetary sciences Professor Lawrence Hardie, who recently discovered that the magnesium-to-calcium molecular ratio of seawater has oscillated between 1.0 and 5.2 over the past 540 million years due to chemical reaction between rising magma and seawater brine along various parts of the ocean floor.

"The artificial seawaters were created by adding different concentrations of salts as calculated by Lawrence Hardie," Ries said. "I specifically wanted to test how modern corals respond to the ancient levels of magnesium and calcium because these chemicals, along with carbon and oxygen, are the building blocks of their skeletons. More important, however, is that the ratio of these two chemicals determines whether the aragonite or calcite mineral will form."

Into 10-gallon tanks filled with these mixtures went coral fragments replete with colonies of polyps,­ tiny animals, a few millimeters in size, from which larger corals and, eventually, reefs grow. Ries prepared the polyps for the experiment by having them spend a one-month "adjustment period" in tanks filled with modern seawater. Gradually, Ries adjusted the tanks' chemistry until their contents were in line with the prescribed "ancient" seawater chemistries.

"To prevent the corals from experiencing chemical shock in the unfamiliar seawaters, I learned that they must be acclimated gradually, in stages," Ries said. "This was actually one of the most challenging aspects of the project. There were many failed attempts before I was able to keep the corals alive, so that I could observe their growth and calcification in the ancient seawaters."

The corals were grown under special lights called "PowerCompacts" which simulated true daylight by emitting a wavelength commensurate to sunrise and sunset in the morning and evening, as well as normal sunlight during the rest of the day. Ries fed the growing corals with plankton particles, and monitored each tank's pH level ­ and level of chemicals such as strontium, iodine and manganese, as well as vitamins ­ several times a week.

Ries credits his experiments with leading to "two very important discoveries about corals."

First, the skeletons of the corals cultivated in the ancient seawaters had a different mineral composition from those grown in modern seawater. Those in the so-called 'Cretaceous' seawater began building skeletons of 35 percent calcite mineral, as opposed to modern corals, which built them from 100 percent aragonite. This suggests that the skeletons of corals have been changing along with seawater throughout the geologic past.

"This is astounding, given that most scientists have long believed that the mineral composition of a group of organisms' skeletons is fixed over time," Ries said.

Secondly, the experiment was important because it proved corals cultivated in Cretaceous seawater grew more slowly than their counterparts raised in modern seawater.

"This solves, experimentally, the longstanding question of why the Scleratinian corals stopped making reefs during the Cretaceous: because the low magnesium/calcium ratios in the oceans at that time inhibited the growth of the aragonite mineral that they used to build their skeletons," Ries said.

Ries' research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Petroleum Research Fund and a J. Brien Key Grant. Moody Gardens Aquarium in Galveston, Texas, provided coral fragments for the study.

Related links: Steven Stanley home page:
http://www.jhu.edu/~eps/faculty/stanley/index.html

Lawrence Hardie home page:
http://www.jhu.edu/~eps/faculty/hardie/index.html

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/09/2004 06:33:00 AM 1 comments links to this post

Probably not the best picture ever taken of High Force ... But you can still make out the Whin Sill, the original "sill" of the geology books. If you look carefully you can just about make out the columnar structure of the quarz-dolerite intrusion of the Whin Sill in the top half, covering the bedded structure of the Tynebottom Limestone below.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/08/2004 01:29:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

This is a meadow near the beach, just at the back of the sand dunes, taken in September. It appealed to me.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/07/2004 10:35:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

Been quiet for some time now, hasn't she? Although I know one or two people near the cascades who are keeping a close track of what's happening!

I try to collect at least one picture every day, although I have missed one or two. I thought this one captured the sunrise very well. It's nearly surreal, that pink is seems almost impossible

The pictures are from the Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument - Washington State, USA. It's worth a visit.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/07/2004 03:21:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

The Independent did a two page cover story of the same name in their Review yesterday. Based on the Future Dictionary of America, which tries to map the langauge of tomorrow on the foundation of developments today, it offers a lexigraphic insight into the English of our children's children. Here are some snippets:

apologhoea [apo-lo-gea] n
Uncontrollable outpouring of apology (often specious), characteristic of early 21^st century world politics. See also: blerror (n) a mistake made, allegedly, in good conscience, first attributed to British Prime Minister Tony Blur (1997-2005).

alpha Mall [al-fa may-al] n
A person who is more paranoid and right wing than you thought possible, but who maintains an aura of Middle England common sense at all times.

Blair-faced lie [Bleuuurgh-fayced-ly] n
An untruth that you admit to only inasmuch as you blame someone else for misinforming you.

ESA - External State of America [ee-ess-ay] n
Eastern Atlantic landmass, formerly know as the United Kingdom.

testiculate [tes-tik-u-lyt] vb (intransitive)
To wave your hands about in a wild but vague manner because you suspect you are talking bollocks.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/04/2004 07:48:00 PM 0 comments links to this post