Out Of My Mind-An Incredible Biography

Everybody we all know Mark Harmon. He’s Agent Jethro Leroy Gibbs on NCIS. He has an older sister named Kristin Harmon Nelson. Right now she’s 71 years of age, She was quite a television actress in her own right. She raised 4 wonderful boys. She spent 20 years with the rock and roll legend Ricky Nelson. I have seen her on television numerous times. She looked like this beautiful but not exceptional woman. I discovered her 1997 biography: Out Of My Mind. I ordered it as a used book for a few dollars. When I opened the box from Amazon I got a huge and a positive surprise. It is a large book loaded with her beautiful paintings, memories, and vignettes of 35 years or more of her family and her life. It’s a real treasure and I’m loving it.

Yes U.S. Elections Are Rigged But Not In The Way That Donald Trump Says

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/27/us-elections-rigged-donald-trump-gerrymandering?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

For Those Of You Who Don’t Believe In Global Warming, Please Read The Article Below

DAY IN REVIEW

Studies Offer New Glimpse of Melting Under Antarctic Glaciers Fast Facts: › Related studies of three West Antarctic glaciers have measured the intense melting on their floating undersides and how fast the glaciers are coming unstuck from bedrock. › The fastest-changing glacier of the three (Smith Glacier) is melting nearly six times as fast as a previous estimate for this region, losing up to 230 feet in ice thickness each year. › Smith’s fast retreat and thinning are likely related to the shape of its underlying bedrock. The other two glaciers studied are on differently shaped beds and are retreating more slowly. Two new studies by researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine (UCI), detect the fastest ongoing rates of glacier retreat ever observed in West Antarctica and offer an unprecedented direct view of intense ice melting from the floating undersides of glaciers. The results highlight how the interaction between ocean conditions and the bedrock beneath a glacier can influence the glacier’s evolution, with implications for understanding future ice loss from Antarctica and global sea level rise. The two studies examined three neighboring glaciers in West Antarctica that are melting and retreating at different rates. Smith, Pope and Kohler glaciers flow into the Dotson and Crosson ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica, the part of the continent with the largest loss of ice mass. A study led by Bernd Scheuchl of UCI, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters on Aug. 28, used radar measurements from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellite and data from the earlier ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites to look at changes in the glaciers’ grounding lines — the boundary where a glacier loses contact with bedrock and begins to float on the ocean. The grounding line is important because nearly all glacier melting takes place on the underside of the glacier’s floating portion, called the ice shelf. If a glacier loses mass from enhanced melting, it may start floating farther inland from its former grounding line, just as a boat stuck on a sandbar may be able to float again if a heavy cargo is removed. This is called grounding line retreat. Scheuchl’s team found a rapid retreat of Smith Glacier’s grounding line of 1.24 miles (2 kilometers) per year since 1996. Pope retreated more slowly at 0.31 mile (0.5 kilometer) per year since 1996. Kohler, which had retreated at a slower pace, actually readvanced a total of 1.24 miles (2 kilometers) since 2011. These differences motivated Ala Khazendar of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California — a coauthor of Scheuchl’s study — to measure the ice losses at the bottoms of the glaciers, which he suspected might be underlying the changes in their grounding lines. Khazendar’s study, published Oct. 25 in the journal Nature Communications, used measurements of changes in the thickness and height of the ice from radar and laser altimetry instruments flown by NASA’sOperation IceBridge and earlier NASA airborne campaigns. Radar waves penetrate glaciers all the way to their base, allowing direct measurements of how the bottom profiles of the three glaciers at their grounding lines changed between 2002 and 2014. Laser signals reflect off the surface, so for the floating ice shelves, laser measurements of changes in surface elevation can be used to infer changes in ice thickness. Previous studies using other techniques estimated the average melting rates at the bottom of Dotson and Crosson ice shelves to be about 40 feet per year (12 meters per year). Khazendar and his team, using their direct radar measurements, found stunning rates of ice loss from the glaciers’ undersides on the ocean sides of their grounding lines. The fastest-melting glacier, Smith, lost between 984 and 1,607 feet (300 and 490 meters) in thickness from 2002 to 2009 near its grounding line, or up to 230 feet per year (70 meters per year). Those years encompass a period when rapid increases in mass loss were observed around the Amundsen Sea region. The regional scale of the loss made scientists strongly suspect that an increase in the influx of ocean heat beneath the ice shelves must have taken place. “Our observations provide a crucial piece of evidence to support that suspicion, as they directly reveal the intensity of ice melting at the bottom of the glaciers during that period,” Khazendar said. “If I had been using data from only one instrument, I wouldn’t have believed what I was looking at, because the thinning was so large,” Khazendar added. However, the two IceBridge instruments, which use different observational techniques, both measured the same rapid ice loss. Khazendar said Smith’s fast retreat and thinning are likely related to the shape of the underlying bedrock over which it was retreating between 1996 and 2014, which sloped downward toward the continental interior, and oceanic conditions in the cavity beneath the glacier. As the grounding line retreated, warm and dense ocean water could reach the newly uncovered deeper parts of the cavity beneath the ice shelf, causing more melting. As a result, “More sections of the glacier become thinner and float, meaning that the grounding line continues retreating, and so on,” he said. The retreat of Smith might slow down as its grounding line has now reached bedrock that rises farther inland of the 2014 grounding line. Pope and Kohler, by contrast, are on bedrock that slopes upward toward the interior. The question remains whether other glaciers in West Antarctica will behave more like Smith Glacier or more like Pope and Kohler. Many glaciers in this sector of Antarctica are on beds that deepen farther inland, like Smith’s. However, Khazendar and Scheuchl said researchers need more information on the shape of the bedrock and seafloor beneath the ice, as well as more data on ocean circulation and temperatures, to be able to better project how much ice these glaciers will contribute to the ocean in a changing climate. Scheuchl’s study is titled “Grounding Line Retreat of Pope, Smith, and Kohler Glaciers, West Antarctica, Measured with Sentinel-1a Radar Interferometry Data.” It was published in Geophysical Research Letters. Khazendar’s paper, titled “Rapid Submarine Ice Melting in the Grounding Zones of Ice Shelves in West Antarctica,” was published in Nature Communications. NASA collects data from space, air, land and sea to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.

China Chafes at North Korea’s Nuclear Program

Pyongyang’s mounting hostility toward the rest of its region has begun to compromise Beijing’s strategic gains.

Source: China Chafes at North Korea’s Nuclear Program

I’m Now A Qualified Segway Driver!

Jim Helberg of Segway of Silicon Valley called and asked me to come over at 14:00 for a two-hour Segway orientation. I agreed to do so. I arrived 15 minutes early. They didn’t have a helmet that fit me for sale. I got a loaner that I’m using until the new one arrives. I met Ashley and Shawn from Sacramento, my team mates for the ride. It was raining but that did not stop Jim. (He’s amazing for a man 76 years old.) We all got a Segway unit and assembled near Rock’n Rob’s Famous Burgers. We did simple practice runs and learned basics. We then went down to the quarry and over to Sharp Park. It was raining, my legs hurt, and I was scared. The wind got so hard that I thought that I was going to be knocked over a few times. I didn’t see how I was going to make it but I did. I came down one hill too fast. I was behind a lot of the time. I felt like the Mitchell Gant in the book Fire Fox. But I didn’t quit. We came back from Sharp Park and went to the motel next to Nick’s Restaurant. We began a climb into the hills. The views of the beach were spectacular. I didn’t think that I could do such a complicated and demanding area but I did.( I was always aware that one mistake would see me and the Segway falling off a high cliff to beaches full of rocks below.) We went to Taco Bell’s and came back through the hills. I was so glad when we arrived at the Segway of Silicon Valley offices. I also felt wonderful that I had made it. Jim Helberg was an incredible teacher and taught us all the safety things that are vital to prevent an injury.

Today I make it to 68 years of age. I’m humbled to have survived this long. Three times in my life I truly came close to death. When I would come to see my mother, she would first smile at me. Then she would bury her face in her hands for a few moments. When she looked up she would have a grim look on her face and always say the words: “Son it’s a miracle that you’re still alive.”

I have been present at three incredible moments in history.The first was when humans landed on the moon. The second was the military coup when Pinochet came to power. The third was in April of 1994 when I got to vote in the first all-race election in South Africa.

Elena remembers how poor that we were at first. A great dinner out was hamburgers. We had to drink water because we did not have the money for a beverage.

In two months I will have lived eight more years than my dear father. I talk to him quite often in Heaven. He knows that I’m doing well.

Last year at this time I published my pearls of wisdom from 67 years of life. The first one is even more truer today than last year as follows:
“Never trust any politician anywhere in the world.”

Exo Mars: Schiaparelli Analysis To COntinue

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Posted by Ruth McAvinia

2016/10/20 17:05 UTC

Topics: mission status, ExoMars TGO

The fate of the ExoMars lander, Schiaparelli, remains uncertain. European Space Agency mission controllers had been optimistic on Wednesday night that a definitive answer would be known by Thursday morning’s news briefing (watch it here). However, although some more details have been made public about the lander’s descent, it is not yet clear whether it hit the martian surface at a speed it could not survive.

The entry, descent, and landing sequence was fully automated and should have consisted of clear phases. As it reached the atmosphere of Mars, the lander would slow down with atmospheric drag and heat up through friction, before opening a parachute, later jettisoning its heat shield, jettisoning the back half of the protective aeroshell along with the parachute, and firing thrusters shortly in advance of touchdown. The parachute and aeroshell should have been released at 1.2 kilometers from the surface, followed one second later by the activation of the thrusters bringing the lander down to around two meters before a final drop to the surface. The data suggest that the heatshield performed well. The parachute phase happened, and the thrusters fired at least briefly, but possibly not at the intended time or altitude.

ESA / D. Ducros

Schiaparelli separating from Trace Gas Orbiter

Artist’s impression depicting the separation of the ExoMars 2016 entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, named Schiaparelli, from the Trace Gas Orbiter, and heading for Mars.

Investigations are continuing into exactly what happened and at what stage of the flight. ESA has emphasized the experimental nature of the lander, and the benefits of the data already collected. The detailed monitoring of the descent was a lesson learned from the loss of the UK’s Beagle 2 lander in 2003, whose fate was unknown until 2015. All of the data transmitted by Schiaparelli, also known as the entry, descent and landing demonstrator module (EDM), during descent has been recovered, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may add some more information about its fate, although MRO has not been in contact with the lander.

Andrea Accomazzo, ESA’s head of solar and planetary missions said: “The EDM entered the atmosphere of Mars and most important of all we have collected all the engineering information from this phase. This we have successfully done with the Trace Gas Orbiter.

“We have data from all the hardware of the EDM. This is fundamental for a test. We can also see the hardware has provided meaningful data. Now we need to analyse why, when we put together this data in the martian environment, the spacecraft did not behave exactly as we expected. It will take more time to have a global picture of the descent.”

Don McCoy, ExoMars project manager, said that the AMELIA (Atmospheric Mars Entry and Landing Investigation and Analysis) instrument team believed most of their data were collected. AMELIA co-principal investigator Stephen Lewis tweeted that 600MB of Schiaparelli data had been received and that 99% of the test was complete.

ESA / NASA

Science with AMELIA

The Schiaparelli Entry, descent and landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) carried a number of sensors to measure characteristics of the atmosphere during atmospheric entry and descent. The AMELIA (Atmospheric Mars Entry and Landing Investigation and Analysis) programme, to be carried out by the Schiaparelli science team, will use the engineering data from these sensors to reconstruct the module’s trajectory and determine atmospheric conditions, such as density and wind, from a high altitude to the surface. These measurements are key to improving models of the Martian atmosphere. In this illustration, a temperature profile of the Martian atmosphere obtained by the NASA Mars Pathfinder probe is shown.

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Stephen Lewis @_stephen_lewis_

600 MB of Schiaparelli data !

1:29 AM – 20 Oct 2016

• 22 Retweets

• 22 likes

ESA Director General Jan Wörner again emphasized the value of the information gained by the lander, and the success of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO).

TGO continues to perform well following its orbit insertion manoeuvre on Wednesday. It will have a challenging aerobraking phase next year to change its orbit. In addition to conducting science around Mars, TGO will serve as a relay station for ExoMars 2020.

ESA

ExoMars 2020 rover on Mars

Artist’s rendering of ESA’s ExoMars 2020 rover on the surface of Mars.

See other posts from October 2016

---

Other related posts:

Likely Schiaparelli crash site imaged by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Brief update: Opportunity’s attempt to image Schiaparelli unsuccessful

ExoMars: Long day’s journey into uncertainty

Or read more blog entries about: mission status, ExoMars TGO

Comments:

Stephen: 10/21/2016 05:07 CDT

Nil out of two landing attempts is NOT a good score and raises serious questions about ExoMars in 2020. Unless the ESA can turn things around in the next four years the odds now are that they are likely to end up with more silence instead of a functioning lander come 2020.

LocalFluff: 10/21/2016 10:42 CDT

We’ll see how the promised Red Dragon of SPX will do on its promised journeys.

Red: 10/21/2016 02:18 CDT

It is good that at least the AMELIA data was received, although naturally we wished for more out of Schiaparelli.

The MRO made a pass and there’s literally a black smear on Mars now, so sadly it appears the Beagle 2 landed intact but unable to communicate whereas Schiaparelli communicated until impact.

ScienceNotFiction: 10/21/2016 08:03 CDT

From the basic design of the Schiaparelli Lander, we can see signs of an inevitable failure. It does not seem to have sufficient heat-insulation shielding on the upper portion before detaching itself from the atmospheric entry module. The three clusters of three hydrazine-powered thrusters only increase the probability of fuel related failures including fuel line rupture caused by entry vibration, overheating of the hydrazine containers and fuel lines caused by poor heat insulation inside the entry module, and thruster malfuctions which lead to a sudden mid-air explosion…etc. You’ll have better success in landing a quadcopter on Mars than with Schiaparelli. I really doubt that we need such a complicated lander for delivering supplies to the Martian surface. A parachut and a airbag system would do the job just fine.

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What Do You DO With 34 Metric Tons Of Weapons Grade Plutonium?

RUSSIA BACKED OUT OF A DEAL TO DISPOSE OF IT. NOW WHAT?

 

When the United States broke off cease-fire talks with Russia over the war in Syria (after the Russian air force continued to bomb civilians in Aleppo), Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliated by suspending a nearly two-decades old arms agreement to get rid of his country’s extra weapons-grade plutonium.

Signed in 2000, the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement stipulated that each country dispose of weapons-grade plutonium they deemed no longer required for defense purposes. Each country agreed to get rid of 34 metric tons of its excess stockpile.

Much of that excess is from the dismantlement of tens of thousands of Cold War nuclear weapons. Russia has stored some of it in the closed city of Seversk, in western Siberia–home to two of its former plutonium-producing nuclear reactors and, at one time, among the largest nuclear complexes on the planet. When the treaty was signed in 2000, the Russians were, according to The Economist, storing highly-enriched uranium and plutonium from dismantled nukes in 23,000 canisters at the site.

The U.S., meanwhile, has stored much of its plutonium at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, which oversees the final assembly and disassembly of many of the country’s nuclear warheads, until they can be disposed of. Originally, the plutonium was to be stored in a vault at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico before those plans were scrapped; Pantex was then repurposed as a long-term storage option.

Neither Russia nor the U.S. has been quick to dispose of their excess plutonium. (It’s extremely difficult to do). But with Russia now in essence putting its stockpile back on the table in its geopolitical game of Risk, many questions arise. Namely, what is this stuff? And how the heck do we get rid of it?

What Is Weapons-Grade Plutonium?

As its name implies, weapons-grade plutonium is very good at exploding. The reason for this is the presence of plutonium-239–a plutonium isotope characterized by its long lifespan (half-life: more than 24,000 years) and an ability, when smashed, to release a lot of energy; One kilogram of plutonium-239 releases more energy than the 64 kilograms of uranium that were in the Little Boy bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima in World War II.

This particular plutonium is a byproduct of uranium-238 (a naturally-occurring form of uranium and the the most abundant on earth, found in uranium mines across the globe), after it has been used in nuclear energy reactors. Plutonium-239 packs its most powerful punch in high concentrations. So-called weapons-grade plutonium–the type Russia and the U.S. have on hand–is at least 93 per cent plutonium-239, with the remaining seven per cent being other plutonium isotopes.

Breaking apart at devastatingly high speeds is pretty much the only thing plutonium-239 is good at. There aren’t many other practical uses for it. It could be used to (slowly) heat water, sold by the government in one gram amounts as reference samples, or serve as a very dense, mostly safe paperweight–in small chunks, plutonium-239 doesn’t let off much spontaneous radiation. (Plutonium-238, a close relative, can power things; NASA uses it to power its deep-space probes.) But plutonium-239 releases so much more energy that it can only be used in certain kinds of nuclear reactors. Since its discovery during the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, it has first and foremost been a weapon.

Graphic by Sara Chodosh

The U.S. holds 81.3 metric tons of plutonium-239, while Russia holds 128. Disposing of a combined 68 metric tons would significantly reduce the stockpiles between the two nations.

How Do We Get Rid of This Stuff?

One reason the disposal agreement between Russia and the U.S. took a decade to settle was that they couldn’t agree on how to dispose of this stuff. The only realistic option, and the one settled on, was to convert it into plutonium oxide, a chemical compound of plutonium and oxygen, which could still–by the way–be used as a small nuclear weapon, but which the countries intended to combine with uranium oxide to create mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. That’s stuff that can be used in commercial power reactors. As a bonus, MOX fuel cannot be used for weapons, meaning once the plutonium-239 is caught up in it, it can’t be returned to its original, explosive state.

It’s an expensive process. The U.S. began construction in 2007 on a facility at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Savannah River Site in South Carolina to convert the surplus plutonium-239 to MOX fuel. The MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility is still unfinished and beleaguered by opposition; Neither the government nor U.S. commercial reactors are properly equipped to handle MOX fuel. It’s expected to cost as much as $10 billionto finish construction, and the cost of converting 34 metric tons of plutonium is expected to cost an additional $24 billion.

Graphic by Sara Chodosh

Plutonium-239 doesn’t have to be used in weapons, but after converting it to fuel, there aren’t many other practical options.

Science has stepped in to help. The Advanced Recovery and Integrated Extraction System (ARIES) at Los Alamos has taken on a few hundred kilograms a year. ARIES was created in the 1990s as a test system for dismantling nuclear warheads and converting their chunks of plutonium, called “pits,” into plutonium oxide. With the MOX facility unfinished, this is the only way to convert the U.S. surplus to MOX fuel.

ARIES is an eight-step process. It handles everything from dismantling a weapon, removing its pit, converting the pit’s plutonium into a plutonium oxide before further refining it, and ultimately packaging it for long-term storage in a vault at Los Alamos’ Technical Area 55 Plutonium Facility. The work is every bit as challenging as it sounds: Technicians dismantling a weapon must work through gloveboxes. These large, airtight containers separate the technicians from the weapon, and all of their work is done through a series of large gloves attached at various points. It involves firing the plutonium pits, carved into chunks, in furnaces until they become the sand-like plutonium oxide.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

ARIES GLOVEBOX

Extracting plutonium pits–spheres that resemble apricot or peach pits–from dismantled nuclear weapons is delicate work, made even more complicated by the glovebox surrounding the weapon and keeping the technicians safe.

The U.S. had planned a Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility, also intended for the Savannah River Site, to dismantle U.S. warheads, but that was cancelled in 2011. ARIES has thus taken over that task. In its first year of operation, it produced over 200 kilograms of plutonium oxide. “If requested by the [National Nuclear Security Administration] to move from a process development to a production mission, we stand ready to serve. We can do it,” Alex Enriquez, an ARIES manager, told Los Alamos’ National Security Science publication in 2012. “Not as fast, of course, nor on the scale of a large, dedicated facility, but our process works.”

At its current rate of 300 kilograms per year, it would take ARIES well over 100 years to convert all 34 metric tons of plutonium the U.S. has agreed to dispose.

Graphic by Sara Chodosh

It will take decades for the U.S. to convert its excess plutonium-239 into fuel, but even longer to wait for it to decay naturally—about 24,000 years.

So What’s the Hold Up?

The DOE is stepping away from its MOX plans. Its 2017 budget requests $270 million to terminate the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility’s construction, and asks an additional $15 million to pursue a dilute-and-dispose option. Instead of converting the excess plutonium into MOX fuel, the new plan is to blend the plutonium oxide with a series of cementing, gelling, thickening and foaming agents into a mixture called “stardust.” National Nuclear Security Administration [NNSA] experts informed Popular Science that for the dilute-and-dispose method, plutonium oxide is still necessary. Its sand-like quality makes it possible to mix it into the stardust.

A Los Alamos report indicates that by the end of the process, stardust is less then 10 per cent plutonium. As an added precaution, the stardust would be sealed in double-layered stainless steel containers and stored in a “geologic repository”–perhaps at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, where other nuclear waste is stored. In other words, it would be buried.

NNSA experts also said that in order to pursue the dilute-and-dispose method, Los Alamos is in the process of expanding its ability to convert weapons-grade plutonium to plutonium oxide. ARIES is committed to two metric tons of plutonium oxide–the rest will be done on-site once Los Alamos can handle the task.

In a statement to Popular Science, the DOE said the U.S. remains committed to verifiably disposing of its excess plutonium, despite Russia’s walk-back on the pledge. It also confirmed that the dilute-and-dispose method is now being pursued for plutonium stores not covered by the agreement, rather than the MOX fuel method, because dilute-and-dispose will be cheaper and quicker to implement.

The agreement states that the 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium being disposed must either be used as fuel–which is why Russia had chosen to convert its excess into MOX fuel–or converted into immobilized forms. NNSA experts said that the dilute-and-dispose method can be considered an immobilized form under the terms of the agreement once it has been mixed into stardust and stored.

The U.S. Department of State, which oversees the country’s involvement in the agreement, has not responded to questions about how long it will take for the U.S. to complete its disposal of its 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium and whether the dilute-and-dispose method will be used for it.

There’s no word on what Russia plans to do.

 

NYTimes: Internet Attack Spreads, Disrupting Major Websites

Internet Attack Spreads, Disrupting Major Websites http://nyti.ms/2ep3v2m

A Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warned About Trump 4 Years Ago

Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter warned about a great crisis like another horrific terrorist attack, financial meltdown, etc. Some person steps up and says: ”Give me absolute power and I will solve the problem.” He said this was the way the Roman Republic gave way to Emperors. He said it 4 years ago. He was describing Trump perfectly.