Trudy Myers's Blog, page 35
March 8, 2017
Hatra in History
As I put together my list of things to research for blogs (and my own edification), I put several of them in line to be done ‘soon’. I thought I had a fairly random method of choosing what to slap on that ‘soon’ list, yet here we are, looking (yet again) at what little is known about an ancient city.
Hatra was founded in the 2nd or 3rd century BC by the Seleucid Empire, which was established by a group of Greeks. But Hatra wasn’t in Greece, it was located in the northern part of modern Iraq. It was captured by the Parthian Empire (based in ancient Iran) probably in the 1st century AD, and it then thrived as a religious and trading center. As an important fortified frontier city, Hatra resisted repeated attacks by the Roman Empire and others, but fell in 241 AD to invading Iranians.
Hatra had more than 160 towers and two walls - inner and outer - that circled an area 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter. It was a religious center, but it didn’t seem to care what god people wanted to worship; it adopted them all. The major temples were gathered together over 1.2 hectares in the middle of the city, dominated by The Great Temple, which at one time rose 30 meters (100 feet) into the air.
For many centuries, the Hatra ruins were the best preserved example of a Parthian city. Unfortunately, in2015 it was reported that ISIL was destroying the ruins. I did not find any report about how much – if any – of it might remain.
I did see some lovely pictures of the ruins, and they were impressive. I also found a list of rulers for this city, but I didn’t care about that. Archeologists studied the site at various times during the 20th century, and there was some effort to preserve the site. But I have no clue about the topography of the city’s location, no idea where the people got their water and food, what they ate or wore. The only way I could possibly ‘use’ this information in a story would be as the ruins that Hatra has been for so long. And that seems like a crying shame.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatraht...
Hatra was founded in the 2nd or 3rd century BC by the Seleucid Empire, which was established by a group of Greeks. But Hatra wasn’t in Greece, it was located in the northern part of modern Iraq. It was captured by the Parthian Empire (based in ancient Iran) probably in the 1st century AD, and it then thrived as a religious and trading center. As an important fortified frontier city, Hatra resisted repeated attacks by the Roman Empire and others, but fell in 241 AD to invading Iranians.
Hatra had more than 160 towers and two walls - inner and outer - that circled an area 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter. It was a religious center, but it didn’t seem to care what god people wanted to worship; it adopted them all. The major temples were gathered together over 1.2 hectares in the middle of the city, dominated by The Great Temple, which at one time rose 30 meters (100 feet) into the air.
For many centuries, the Hatra ruins were the best preserved example of a Parthian city. Unfortunately, in2015 it was reported that ISIL was destroying the ruins. I did not find any report about how much – if any – of it might remain.
I did see some lovely pictures of the ruins, and they were impressive. I also found a list of rulers for this city, but I didn’t care about that. Archeologists studied the site at various times during the 20th century, and there was some effort to preserve the site. But I have no clue about the topography of the city’s location, no idea where the people got their water and food, what they ate or wore. The only way I could possibly ‘use’ this information in a story would be as the ruins that Hatra has been for so long. And that seems like a crying shame.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatraht...
February 8, 2017
The Malagasy Dinosaur
When I first read the name Malagasy Dinosaur, my eyes rearranged the letters and I thought I had read “Madagascar Dinosaur”. Then I thought, Of course not. Madagascar isn’t big enough to have had a population of dinosaurs.
Well, it turns out Madagascar is big enough. I guess you can’t judge a place by how it looks on a map. Especially not when it’s snuggled up next to a continent as big as Africa.
Madagascar is an island, and it’s believed it separated from the super-continent Gondwana about 85 million years ago. It has plenty of wildlife of some pretty strange species, as evolution has worked to fill all the niches in the food chain. Fossils found on Madagascar seem to indicate it’s had some strange species for a long, lo-o-ong time. Here’s some samples:
Beelzebofus antinga, an extinct frog that weighed up to five kilo (11 pounds). It is the heaviest extinct frog ever known. (Okay, not a dinosaur, but still…) If they were still around, maybe they’d be raised as food, like a chicken?
Rapetosaurus krausei was a dinosaur that reached 15 meters (49 feet) in length. It walked on all 4 feet and had a small head on a very long neck. It was a vegetarian, so I suppose we’d only have to worry that it might step on us, if we’d been alive at the same time as it.
Rahonavis ostromi was about 50 cm (19-20 inches), wore feathers over its entire body, had claws, a long skull and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Could this be the ‘missing link’ between dinosaurs and birds?
Sinosuchus clarki looked somewhat like a modern crocodile. Kinda. Except it was less than 80 cm (32 inches) long, including a short, broad head and a short tail. It also had teeth perfect for grazing on plants, and bone plates under its skin to protect it from predators.
Speaking of crocodile-like dinosaurs, the Araripesuchus tsangatsangana looked a lot like modern crocodiles, except it had much longer legs.
But none of these interesting creatures were the one called the Malagasy dinosaur. Only the Majungasaurus crenatissimus bears that nick-name. The Malagasy looked similar to a Tyrannosaurus rex, except it only reached a length of 6 to 8 meters (19 to 26 feet) and probably only weighed a ton. Even though it was so much smaller than its cousins, scientists say it took 20 years to reach its full size, so it grew much more slowly than the others, also. They made that discovery by studying cross-sections of several bones from a nearly complete skeleton found in 2003. The bones had marks of annual growth, rather like trees have tree rings. Of course, some bones had marrow in the center, displacing the earliest years’ record of growth. Other bones were hollow, and many of the bones were carved in order to reduce the creature’s weight.
The Malagasy lived 66 to 70 million years ago. However, it seems to have links to dinosaurs in south Asia (India) and South America (Argentina). So, could it be that Madagascar clung to Gondwana longer than was thought?
http://www.madamagazine.com/en/die-di...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/scienc...
Well, it turns out Madagascar is big enough. I guess you can’t judge a place by how it looks on a map. Especially not when it’s snuggled up next to a continent as big as Africa.
Madagascar is an island, and it’s believed it separated from the super-continent Gondwana about 85 million years ago. It has plenty of wildlife of some pretty strange species, as evolution has worked to fill all the niches in the food chain. Fossils found on Madagascar seem to indicate it’s had some strange species for a long, lo-o-ong time. Here’s some samples:
Beelzebofus antinga, an extinct frog that weighed up to five kilo (11 pounds). It is the heaviest extinct frog ever known. (Okay, not a dinosaur, but still…) If they were still around, maybe they’d be raised as food, like a chicken?
Rapetosaurus krausei was a dinosaur that reached 15 meters (49 feet) in length. It walked on all 4 feet and had a small head on a very long neck. It was a vegetarian, so I suppose we’d only have to worry that it might step on us, if we’d been alive at the same time as it.
Rahonavis ostromi was about 50 cm (19-20 inches), wore feathers over its entire body, had claws, a long skull and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Could this be the ‘missing link’ between dinosaurs and birds?
Sinosuchus clarki looked somewhat like a modern crocodile. Kinda. Except it was less than 80 cm (32 inches) long, including a short, broad head and a short tail. It also had teeth perfect for grazing on plants, and bone plates under its skin to protect it from predators.
Speaking of crocodile-like dinosaurs, the Araripesuchus tsangatsangana looked a lot like modern crocodiles, except it had much longer legs.
But none of these interesting creatures were the one called the Malagasy dinosaur. Only the Majungasaurus crenatissimus bears that nick-name. The Malagasy looked similar to a Tyrannosaurus rex, except it only reached a length of 6 to 8 meters (19 to 26 feet) and probably only weighed a ton. Even though it was so much smaller than its cousins, scientists say it took 20 years to reach its full size, so it grew much more slowly than the others, also. They made that discovery by studying cross-sections of several bones from a nearly complete skeleton found in 2003. The bones had marks of annual growth, rather like trees have tree rings. Of course, some bones had marrow in the center, displacing the earliest years’ record of growth. Other bones were hollow, and many of the bones were carved in order to reduce the creature’s weight.
The Malagasy lived 66 to 70 million years ago. However, it seems to have links to dinosaurs in south Asia (India) and South America (Argentina). So, could it be that Madagascar clung to Gondwana longer than was thought?
http://www.madamagazine.com/en/die-di...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/scienc...
February 1, 2017
Ick! It’s an Ichthyosaur!
Ichthyosar means “fish reptile” in Greek. Fossils reveal that they appeared about 250 million years ago, and one branch lasted until 90 million years ago. Their ancestors were some unidentified land reptile that decided to return to the water and become fish-like, much like dolphins and whales.
Science became aware of ichthyosaurs in the early 1800s when the first complete skeleton fossil was discovered in England. Later that century, many more Ichy fossils were found in Germany, and some of them included soft tissue remains. (No longer soft, after being fossilized, of course.)
Ichys ranged from 1 meter to over 16. Some resembled modern fish, others looked more like dolphins. They had pointed heads and often pointed teeth. Some could and did attack large animals that wandered into reach. They had large eyes, probably so they could dive deep. Their legs had completely converted into flippers, although many species’ flippers had numerous digits and phalanges (bones of the digits). They were not really fish, because they breathed air, gave birth to live offspring (up to 11 at a time), and were warm-blooded.
Life as an ichy was not all hunting and reproducing. One fossil had bite marks on its snout, apparently from one of his own kind. The bites had started to heal, so it survived the attack, but was this common? Or had he/she really made someone angry? Another fossil was complete… except for its tail. The theory is that it was ambushed by another of the big ocean predators, which bit off its tail. That ichy – unable to swim – sank deeper, drowned, and eventually became a fossil.
At one of my jobs, they decided to install an aquarium. If you want a healthy aquarium, you need a bottom feeder, usually a catfish. The fish they got included a bottom feeder, probably some type of catfish, but I thought it was ugly; flat bottom, thick whiskers, brown with black spots on skin that looked slightly fuzzy. I wound up calling it ‘Ichy’. I was familiar with the name, but didn’t realize they had all died out long ago. And since this fish didn’t actually look anything like an Ichthyosar, the name really didn’t fit.
I feel sorry for that poor bottom-feeder, now. I grew to rather like him, but I still called him ‘Icky’ (my pronunciation). It really wasn’t fair. I’m sure others of his species – whichever one he belonged to – thought him quite acceptable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyo...
Science became aware of ichthyosaurs in the early 1800s when the first complete skeleton fossil was discovered in England. Later that century, many more Ichy fossils were found in Germany, and some of them included soft tissue remains. (No longer soft, after being fossilized, of course.)
Ichys ranged from 1 meter to over 16. Some resembled modern fish, others looked more like dolphins. They had pointed heads and often pointed teeth. Some could and did attack large animals that wandered into reach. They had large eyes, probably so they could dive deep. Their legs had completely converted into flippers, although many species’ flippers had numerous digits and phalanges (bones of the digits). They were not really fish, because they breathed air, gave birth to live offspring (up to 11 at a time), and were warm-blooded.
Life as an ichy was not all hunting and reproducing. One fossil had bite marks on its snout, apparently from one of his own kind. The bites had started to heal, so it survived the attack, but was this common? Or had he/she really made someone angry? Another fossil was complete… except for its tail. The theory is that it was ambushed by another of the big ocean predators, which bit off its tail. That ichy – unable to swim – sank deeper, drowned, and eventually became a fossil.
At one of my jobs, they decided to install an aquarium. If you want a healthy aquarium, you need a bottom feeder, usually a catfish. The fish they got included a bottom feeder, probably some type of catfish, but I thought it was ugly; flat bottom, thick whiskers, brown with black spots on skin that looked slightly fuzzy. I wound up calling it ‘Ichy’. I was familiar with the name, but didn’t realize they had all died out long ago. And since this fish didn’t actually look anything like an Ichthyosar, the name really didn’t fit.
I feel sorry for that poor bottom-feeder, now. I grew to rather like him, but I still called him ‘Icky’ (my pronunciation). It really wasn’t fair. I’m sure others of his species – whichever one he belonged to – thought him quite acceptable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyo...
January 25, 2017
Which Kish?
I started a list of things I had read or heard about that sounded interesting. I consult that list for ideas for blogs. Sometimes my list entry is a helpful short paragraph; other entries are a phrase or just a word. This time, the entry was “Kish, Iran”.
I googled “Kish, Iran” and came up with Kish Island, a duty-free giant shopping mall on an island, according to Wikipedia. What? I must have misunderstood or mis-wrote, because I have extremely little interest in giant shopping malls, duty-free or otherwise. I read the history section, and it mentioned some ancient info about the island, but it was all summed up in a couple sentences, with lots of references to other articles, and it didn’t sound all that interesting.
What a bummer. What do I do, cross off that entry and pick another?
I opened google again, and put in “Kish”. What came up concerned an ancient city in what is now Iraq. I always seem to confuse Iran and Iraq. I decided to take look at what Wikipedia had on this Kish.
Around 4000 BC, the Sumerian people appeared in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates River in Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq). They all shared the same culture and language, but they settled in about a dozen different places, which eventually became walled cities.
Kish was a city that came into existence around 3100 BC, sitting on the Euphrates River. The Sumerians as a whole developed a system of writing that was adopted by many other cultures. They also invented the wheel, the plow, law codes, literature and brewing. They placed their cities on rivers so that they could irrigate crops.
Although the Sumerian cities all shared a culture and language, they were constantly at war with each other, which explains why their cities were walled. The contained area was almost always dominated by a ziggurat – a tiered, pyramid-like temple. Individual houses were built either of bundles of marsh reeds or mud bricks. Sumerians traveled long distances to trade with other peoples. They may have reached as far as Afghanistan and Ethiopia.
Kish was the first city to have kings after the deluge, according to the ancient Sumerian kings list. It had several dynasties. Two leaders from the 2nd dynasty, Enmebaragesi and his son, Aga of Kish, are said to be contemporaries of Gilgamesh of Uruk.
The third dynasty had an unusual beginning; the new king was Kubau, a female who had previously been a tavern keeper. She came to power at about 2500 BC. At some point, she was deified. The fourth dynasty consisted of Kubau’s (male) descendants.
Early in the 2nd millennium BC, Sumer was invaded by the Amorites and Babylonians. The culture did not survive this invasion. By 1750 BC, their history, culture, language were all forgotten. Eventually, Kish was abandoned and also forgotten. Just like the people who had been living in this area when the Sumers arrived.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish_Islandhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish_(Sumer)http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-ancient-sumerians
I googled “Kish, Iran” and came up with Kish Island, a duty-free giant shopping mall on an island, according to Wikipedia. What? I must have misunderstood or mis-wrote, because I have extremely little interest in giant shopping malls, duty-free or otherwise. I read the history section, and it mentioned some ancient info about the island, but it was all summed up in a couple sentences, with lots of references to other articles, and it didn’t sound all that interesting.
What a bummer. What do I do, cross off that entry and pick another?
I opened google again, and put in “Kish”. What came up concerned an ancient city in what is now Iraq. I always seem to confuse Iran and Iraq. I decided to take look at what Wikipedia had on this Kish.
Around 4000 BC, the Sumerian people appeared in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates River in Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq). They all shared the same culture and language, but they settled in about a dozen different places, which eventually became walled cities.
Kish was a city that came into existence around 3100 BC, sitting on the Euphrates River. The Sumerians as a whole developed a system of writing that was adopted by many other cultures. They also invented the wheel, the plow, law codes, literature and brewing. They placed their cities on rivers so that they could irrigate crops.
Although the Sumerian cities all shared a culture and language, they were constantly at war with each other, which explains why their cities were walled. The contained area was almost always dominated by a ziggurat – a tiered, pyramid-like temple. Individual houses were built either of bundles of marsh reeds or mud bricks. Sumerians traveled long distances to trade with other peoples. They may have reached as far as Afghanistan and Ethiopia.
Kish was the first city to have kings after the deluge, according to the ancient Sumerian kings list. It had several dynasties. Two leaders from the 2nd dynasty, Enmebaragesi and his son, Aga of Kish, are said to be contemporaries of Gilgamesh of Uruk.
The third dynasty had an unusual beginning; the new king was Kubau, a female who had previously been a tavern keeper. She came to power at about 2500 BC. At some point, she was deified. The fourth dynasty consisted of Kubau’s (male) descendants.
Early in the 2nd millennium BC, Sumer was invaded by the Amorites and Babylonians. The culture did not survive this invasion. By 1750 BC, their history, culture, language were all forgotten. Eventually, Kish was abandoned and also forgotten. Just like the people who had been living in this area when the Sumers arrived.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish_Islandhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish_(Sumer)http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-ancient-sumerians
January 18, 2017
Science Quiz
For 7 years, I’ve tried to ‘update my science [knowledge].’ I’ve always wanted to write science fiction, but my last science class was a quarter century ago, the one before that in 1970. I’d been busy working full time, raising kids, and so on. So when I retired and started writing science fiction, I found the vast research I did – and the results produced – shot huge holes in my time, the story background, and the plot I had picked.
Therefore, I subscribed to magazines, watched science and history documentaries, did other ‘educational’ things. I love to learn but… have I caught up? Am I ready to write science fiction?
Last week, I received the Jan/Feb 2017 issue of Discover. It includes a list of the ‘Top 100 Stories of 2016’. As I read through some of this list and the entry for each article, I realized I was not familiar with everything listed. Have I failed?
I decided to keep track of which stories I had and had not already heard about. Now, I don’t get to read a magazine in one sitting, so as of today, I’ve only gotten to #40. Don’t worry, I will finish this issue, but in the meantime, how many of these 40 items had I already learned about before this issue?
First, the ones I had no knowledge of:#4. Oldest Human DNA Revises Our Family Tree (I’d heard of Neanderthals & Denisovans, but not this particular story)#5. Biologists Create Organism with Smallest Genome#9. New Particle Fizzles, Leaving Physicists to Soul Search#10. Did Lucy Fall and Not Get Up? (I knew about Lucy, but this was a new hypothesis that she died by falling out of a tree.)#11. Bangladesh Sits Atop Potential Major Quake Zone#12. Big Data May Lead to Earlier Alzheimer’s Diagnosis#18. Electrons ‘Split’ in New Form of Matter#19. Science in a Post-Brexit World#22. NIH Proposes Lifting ‘Chimera’ Research Ban#23. Picky Primes (Prime numbers are not as random as believed.)#24. Finding China’s Great Flood#27. Battle for Access (Should scientific papers be available to all, or only those who can afford to subscribe to scientific journals?)#28. A Bone to Pick about Philistines#29. Go, Go AlphaGo (Computer learns game, beats human champion.)#31. Pushing the Limits of Life in the Lab#32. Disrupting Dopamine Dogma#35. Mathematicians Find the Answers (I was unaware of this question.)#36. T. Rex Evolution: Smarts First, Size Second#37. The Rise and Fall of Theranos (Fake medicine exposed)#39. Plenty of Room at the Bottom (Saving data with chlorine and copper)#40. Pluto’s Hidden Ocean (I knew it had one, but this article is about how it’s freezing, breaking Pluto apart.)
And the ones I was familiar with:#1. Einstein’s Ripples in Space-Time#2. Earth’s Surprise Neighbor Hints at Exoplanet Abundance (planets of Proxima Centauri)#3. A New Enemy Emerges (zika and mosquitoes)#6. The Pace – and Problems – of Climate Change Accelerate#7. Can America Avoid Another Flint?#8. Looking for Planet Nine#13. Persistent Heat Decimates Coral Reefs#14. The Ozone Hole is Finally Healing (Still has a long way to go.)#15. More Hobbitses, Prescious! (More remains of hobbit-sized hominids found.)#16. We Are All Africans#17. The Falcon Has Landed, Now SpaceX is Eyeing Mars#20. Ceres Hosts an Ice Volcano#21. Regulating the Brave New World of Human Gene Editing#25. The End of the Periodic Table? (How many more elements can scientists make?)#26. Drug Couriers for Brain Injuries#30. Crowdsourced Study Pinpoints Depression Genes#33. Planets of the Milky Way#34. Superbug Arrives in the US (Bacteria not deterred by any known medicine.)#38. A Sharp Find (Ancient sword found in Denmark)
How did I shape up? Hmm, 21 stories I did not know; 19 I was semi-familiar with. If I were in school, that would be less than 50%, a solid F. But, I can’t know everything, so I don’t feel bad. Besides, some of these articles have hinted at background knowledge or even a story plot. I am stoked!
What have you learned in the past 7 years? I bet it’s a lot, whether science or not.
Therefore, I subscribed to magazines, watched science and history documentaries, did other ‘educational’ things. I love to learn but… have I caught up? Am I ready to write science fiction?
Last week, I received the Jan/Feb 2017 issue of Discover. It includes a list of the ‘Top 100 Stories of 2016’. As I read through some of this list and the entry for each article, I realized I was not familiar with everything listed. Have I failed?
I decided to keep track of which stories I had and had not already heard about. Now, I don’t get to read a magazine in one sitting, so as of today, I’ve only gotten to #40. Don’t worry, I will finish this issue, but in the meantime, how many of these 40 items had I already learned about before this issue?
First, the ones I had no knowledge of:#4. Oldest Human DNA Revises Our Family Tree (I’d heard of Neanderthals & Denisovans, but not this particular story)#5. Biologists Create Organism with Smallest Genome#9. New Particle Fizzles, Leaving Physicists to Soul Search#10. Did Lucy Fall and Not Get Up? (I knew about Lucy, but this was a new hypothesis that she died by falling out of a tree.)#11. Bangladesh Sits Atop Potential Major Quake Zone#12. Big Data May Lead to Earlier Alzheimer’s Diagnosis#18. Electrons ‘Split’ in New Form of Matter#19. Science in a Post-Brexit World#22. NIH Proposes Lifting ‘Chimera’ Research Ban#23. Picky Primes (Prime numbers are not as random as believed.)#24. Finding China’s Great Flood#27. Battle for Access (Should scientific papers be available to all, or only those who can afford to subscribe to scientific journals?)#28. A Bone to Pick about Philistines#29. Go, Go AlphaGo (Computer learns game, beats human champion.)#31. Pushing the Limits of Life in the Lab#32. Disrupting Dopamine Dogma#35. Mathematicians Find the Answers (I was unaware of this question.)#36. T. Rex Evolution: Smarts First, Size Second#37. The Rise and Fall of Theranos (Fake medicine exposed)#39. Plenty of Room at the Bottom (Saving data with chlorine and copper)#40. Pluto’s Hidden Ocean (I knew it had one, but this article is about how it’s freezing, breaking Pluto apart.)
And the ones I was familiar with:#1. Einstein’s Ripples in Space-Time#2. Earth’s Surprise Neighbor Hints at Exoplanet Abundance (planets of Proxima Centauri)#3. A New Enemy Emerges (zika and mosquitoes)#6. The Pace – and Problems – of Climate Change Accelerate#7. Can America Avoid Another Flint?#8. Looking for Planet Nine#13. Persistent Heat Decimates Coral Reefs#14. The Ozone Hole is Finally Healing (Still has a long way to go.)#15. More Hobbitses, Prescious! (More remains of hobbit-sized hominids found.)#16. We Are All Africans#17. The Falcon Has Landed, Now SpaceX is Eyeing Mars#20. Ceres Hosts an Ice Volcano#21. Regulating the Brave New World of Human Gene Editing#25. The End of the Periodic Table? (How many more elements can scientists make?)#26. Drug Couriers for Brain Injuries#30. Crowdsourced Study Pinpoints Depression Genes#33. Planets of the Milky Way#34. Superbug Arrives in the US (Bacteria not deterred by any known medicine.)#38. A Sharp Find (Ancient sword found in Denmark)
How did I shape up? Hmm, 21 stories I did not know; 19 I was semi-familiar with. If I were in school, that would be less than 50%, a solid F. But, I can’t know everything, so I don’t feel bad. Besides, some of these articles have hinted at background knowledge or even a story plot. I am stoked!
What have you learned in the past 7 years? I bet it’s a lot, whether science or not.
January 11, 2017
Gone Fishing on Ganymede
In the past, fishing was a skill used to provide food for the table. Whether or not ancient man enjoyed the process, they needed to be good at it – or at hunting – in order to thrive. Today, fishing on a personal level has become a pleasurable activity for some. They don’t
need
to do it to put fish on the dinner table, but they find the experience rewarding. Some go so far as to try for ‘a big fish’ out in the middle of the ocean.
What do you suppose will happen when humans find their way to other planets?
Water has been found on our moon, Mars, Ceres, even Pluto, as well as various other places. On Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, salty water is hidden under a thick (about 95 miles) crust of ice. There is probably more water on Ganymede than all of the Earth’s surface water combined. Scientists believe that ocean is 60 miles deep, about 10 times the deepest part of any Earth ocean.
I can envision future tours being organized to take die-hard fishers to Ganymede to drill a big hole in the exterior ice to facilitate fishing. I doubt if they’ll dangle a 100-mile-long fishing line into that hole – think how long it would take to reel it back in! So maybe their spacesuit for leaving the space boat would also be a diving suit, and they would ‘hunt’ for ‘fish’ with a spear gun.
Hmm. There’s problems with that vision, according to some of what I read. The Ganymede’s ocean is not only covered with ice, it also rests on ice, pressurized into a crystalized form. On other moons, the ocean bed is rock, which apparently keeps the water warmer, and provides various minerals as it is eroded by the salty ocean. The theory is that those warmer, rock-bedded oceans are far more likely to produce some kind of ‘life.’
Still, we keep getting surprised, the more we look around our neighborhood, don’t we? And science fiction writers like to take the science we know now and extrapolate possibilities we don’t – yet - have any proof for.
So, how about this? There’s a lot of different salts, besides table salt, which could be helping Ganymede’s ocean remain liquid. Nobody definitively stated the only salt in Ganymede’s ocean was NaCl (table salt), so these other salts could provide minerals for building ‘life’. I’m not sure the temperature of the ocean is that big a deal, but the salty ocean of Ganymede reacts to the magnetic field of Jupiter, and I’m thinking that reaction might produce some heat, although probably not much.
Sounds good to me. So good, I anticipate someone will make some money someday, selling signs that say, “Gone Fishing on Ganymede.”
http://www.space.com/28807-jupiter-moon-ganymede-salty-ocean.htmlhttp://earthsky.org/space/underground-ocean-on-jupiters-largest-moonhttp://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/03121716-ganymede-ocean.html
What do you suppose will happen when humans find their way to other planets?
Water has been found on our moon, Mars, Ceres, even Pluto, as well as various other places. On Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, salty water is hidden under a thick (about 95 miles) crust of ice. There is probably more water on Ganymede than all of the Earth’s surface water combined. Scientists believe that ocean is 60 miles deep, about 10 times the deepest part of any Earth ocean.
I can envision future tours being organized to take die-hard fishers to Ganymede to drill a big hole in the exterior ice to facilitate fishing. I doubt if they’ll dangle a 100-mile-long fishing line into that hole – think how long it would take to reel it back in! So maybe their spacesuit for leaving the space boat would also be a diving suit, and they would ‘hunt’ for ‘fish’ with a spear gun.
Hmm. There’s problems with that vision, according to some of what I read. The Ganymede’s ocean is not only covered with ice, it also rests on ice, pressurized into a crystalized form. On other moons, the ocean bed is rock, which apparently keeps the water warmer, and provides various minerals as it is eroded by the salty ocean. The theory is that those warmer, rock-bedded oceans are far more likely to produce some kind of ‘life.’
Still, we keep getting surprised, the more we look around our neighborhood, don’t we? And science fiction writers like to take the science we know now and extrapolate possibilities we don’t – yet - have any proof for.
So, how about this? There’s a lot of different salts, besides table salt, which could be helping Ganymede’s ocean remain liquid. Nobody definitively stated the only salt in Ganymede’s ocean was NaCl (table salt), so these other salts could provide minerals for building ‘life’. I’m not sure the temperature of the ocean is that big a deal, but the salty ocean of Ganymede reacts to the magnetic field of Jupiter, and I’m thinking that reaction might produce some heat, although probably not much.
Sounds good to me. So good, I anticipate someone will make some money someday, selling signs that say, “Gone Fishing on Ganymede.”
http://www.space.com/28807-jupiter-moon-ganymede-salty-ocean.htmlhttp://earthsky.org/space/underground-ocean-on-jupiters-largest-moonhttp://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/03121716-ganymede-ocean.html
January 5, 2017
Oldest People in England
Anthropologists theorize that the human family tree began in Africa, and at some point, various versions of our ancestors spread into the Arabian peninsula, Europe, Asia, Australia… and eventually the Americas. Lucy and the skeletons of many other almost-humans have been found scattered across Africa. Besides the skeletons and various stone tools, scientists have also discovered footprints, most notably some that are 3.75 million years old in Tanzania, and others left 1.5 million years ago in Kenya.
Long ago, I read that footprints were not a common find in the world of paleontology and anthropology; the footprint had to be made in a type of soil soft enough to take an impression, but firm enough to retain it, then covered and filled in by something else that would not disturb the impression. After all, a footprint is not a body that can be fossilized; it’s an impression that needs to be retained without being squashed.
But lately, I wandered across an article concerning ancient footprints discovered in England. These are the oldest footprints discovered (so far) outside Africa.
In May of 2013 (reported in February of 2014), about 50 footprints were discovered in Happisburgh, in Norwich. Previous footprints found in England were only 7,500 years old, but the Happisburgh prints were 900,000 years old, made by members of the extinct homo antecessorbranch. (You remember Aunty Cessor, don’t you? No? Perhaps she was a bit before your time.) The prints came to light on the beach through erosion, and unfortunately, they disappeared the same way. Scientists got them measured and photographed, but only lifted a mold from one before they were gone.
These prints were made by 5 individuals, both adult and children, walking across the wet silt of an ancient estuary. They are the oldest direct evidence of humanoids in all of Europe, let alone England. The next oldest evidence in Europe is a 780,000 year old skull fragment found in southern Spain. Before this discovery, England had some 700,000 year old stone tools to indicate a human presence.
How did people get across the Channel to trek to the west side of the island? At 1,000,000 years ago, there was no channel; England was connected by land to the mainland, and that could have been the case for another 100,000 years. Maybe a geologist could tell you when the channel became a water-way, but the Happisburgh footprints were made just as the ice age was beginning, so the water level was lower.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/news/the-million-year-old-family-human-footprints-found-in-britain-are-oldest-ever-seen-outside-of-africa-9114151.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/10623660/900000-year-old-footprints-of-earliest-northern-Europeans-discovered.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-envir...
Long ago, I read that footprints were not a common find in the world of paleontology and anthropology; the footprint had to be made in a type of soil soft enough to take an impression, but firm enough to retain it, then covered and filled in by something else that would not disturb the impression. After all, a footprint is not a body that can be fossilized; it’s an impression that needs to be retained without being squashed.
But lately, I wandered across an article concerning ancient footprints discovered in England. These are the oldest footprints discovered (so far) outside Africa.
In May of 2013 (reported in February of 2014), about 50 footprints were discovered in Happisburgh, in Norwich. Previous footprints found in England were only 7,500 years old, but the Happisburgh prints were 900,000 years old, made by members of the extinct homo antecessorbranch. (You remember Aunty Cessor, don’t you? No? Perhaps she was a bit before your time.) The prints came to light on the beach through erosion, and unfortunately, they disappeared the same way. Scientists got them measured and photographed, but only lifted a mold from one before they were gone.
These prints were made by 5 individuals, both adult and children, walking across the wet silt of an ancient estuary. They are the oldest direct evidence of humanoids in all of Europe, let alone England. The next oldest evidence in Europe is a 780,000 year old skull fragment found in southern Spain. Before this discovery, England had some 700,000 year old stone tools to indicate a human presence.
How did people get across the Channel to trek to the west side of the island? At 1,000,000 years ago, there was no channel; England was connected by land to the mainland, and that could have been the case for another 100,000 years. Maybe a geologist could tell you when the channel became a water-way, but the Happisburgh footprints were made just as the ice age was beginning, so the water level was lower.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/news/the-million-year-old-family-human-footprints-found-in-britain-are-oldest-ever-seen-outside-of-africa-9114151.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/10623660/900000-year-old-footprints-of-earliest-northern-Europeans-discovered.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-envir...
December 28, 2016
Learning From Others
Sometimes I edit for another publisher. These are manuscripts that they have already accepted, and it is my duty to make sure the grammar is correct, that there are no plot holes or inconsistencies.
I do it as an editor, but as an author, I have learned quite a bit.
For instance, one author – let’s call him Ace – usually writes historical (light) romance set during World War II. I have a few qualms about his writing style, but only one really made me impatient with the story line. I immediately recognized that Ace was telling the story of a couple - relatively minor characters he had introduced in his first book. The girl of this couple was raised in a different place from the others, and it was she he followed in this episode. What irritated me was that he didn’t introduce the male half of this couple until half-way through the manuscript!
Don’t get me wrong; Ace doesn’t write the usual, run-of-the-mill romance, and I don’t expect him to. Strongly interspersed among tidbits of romance are great explanations of the way life was during that time period, shown by what the characters do and expect. But I thought waiting that long to introduce the girl’s love – after spending so much time going through two earlier ‘boy friends’ – was a bit much. It may have me wondering about my own timing in my romances (which I write as Linda Joy).
And then there’s ‘Bill’, who writes contemporary romances. Or rather, one contemporary romance, which never seems to end. There have been five volumes so far, and he thinks the story line deserves at least another five. I find myself getting extremely irritated as I edit these manuscripts. Each one ends on what others would consider a ‘Happy Ever After’, and yet, during the next episode, the main characters immediately continue what they were doing before; jumping to conclusions, keeping secrets, not being truthful, and being super-jealous. They neverseem to learn to not be stupid.
I can understand not wanting to set aside characters you’ve lovingly created and worked with for a long time. And many readers enjoy multiple volumes dealing with the ‘adventures’ of characters they’ve read about before. However, there is a reason why the typical romance novel is shorter than other fiction novels; there is usually only so much stupidity a person can tolerate in their love interest before they fall out of love, so to have an HEA ending, the couple needs to realize they are making mistakes and stopmakingthem.
Is it possible to have too many volumes in a series of some other genre? Probably, although other genres offer a far greater variety of adventure types for the main characters to have to deal with and learn from. Still, when I decide to work on another volume for some series that I am writing, I will pause to consider whether the continuation makes sense, if it is significantly different in context from previous episodes, and if the main characters will be learning from it.
I thought I would be boning up on my grammar and punctuation. Sure, that’s happening, but I'm also learning so much more.
I do it as an editor, but as an author, I have learned quite a bit.
For instance, one author – let’s call him Ace – usually writes historical (light) romance set during World War II. I have a few qualms about his writing style, but only one really made me impatient with the story line. I immediately recognized that Ace was telling the story of a couple - relatively minor characters he had introduced in his first book. The girl of this couple was raised in a different place from the others, and it was she he followed in this episode. What irritated me was that he didn’t introduce the male half of this couple until half-way through the manuscript!
Don’t get me wrong; Ace doesn’t write the usual, run-of-the-mill romance, and I don’t expect him to. Strongly interspersed among tidbits of romance are great explanations of the way life was during that time period, shown by what the characters do and expect. But I thought waiting that long to introduce the girl’s love – after spending so much time going through two earlier ‘boy friends’ – was a bit much. It may have me wondering about my own timing in my romances (which I write as Linda Joy).
And then there’s ‘Bill’, who writes contemporary romances. Or rather, one contemporary romance, which never seems to end. There have been five volumes so far, and he thinks the story line deserves at least another five. I find myself getting extremely irritated as I edit these manuscripts. Each one ends on what others would consider a ‘Happy Ever After’, and yet, during the next episode, the main characters immediately continue what they were doing before; jumping to conclusions, keeping secrets, not being truthful, and being super-jealous. They neverseem to learn to not be stupid.
I can understand not wanting to set aside characters you’ve lovingly created and worked with for a long time. And many readers enjoy multiple volumes dealing with the ‘adventures’ of characters they’ve read about before. However, there is a reason why the typical romance novel is shorter than other fiction novels; there is usually only so much stupidity a person can tolerate in their love interest before they fall out of love, so to have an HEA ending, the couple needs to realize they are making mistakes and stopmakingthem.
Is it possible to have too many volumes in a series of some other genre? Probably, although other genres offer a far greater variety of adventure types for the main characters to have to deal with and learn from. Still, when I decide to work on another volume for some series that I am writing, I will pause to consider whether the continuation makes sense, if it is significantly different in context from previous episodes, and if the main characters will be learning from it.
I thought I would be boning up on my grammar and punctuation. Sure, that’s happening, but I'm also learning so much more.
December 22, 2016
What I'm Doing
Merry Christmas! Hope yours is joyous!
Okay, Hubby and I are in the area of Orlando, FL, bouncing from resort to resort as we wait for the closing date on our new home. We've been here since November 1, and we don't get the new house until the middle of February.
We have annual passes for Disney World, but we've found the parks crowded and busy after 11:30 or noon, so we don't go every day. Half of Hollywood Studios is closed down while they build two new areas, anyway.
So, you'd think I'd be getting lots of writing done. Alas, no.
We've checked out 2 'maker spaces' in Orlando, tracked down the Tandy store, and a fabric store. Spent time with friends in Tampa, and visited another friend in Davenport. John's done 3 appearances as a sand trooper, and we've built him a new pair of pants and shirt(s) for his Darth Vader. These ones are actually made for him, not the previous owner, so he can sit down in them without splitting the seams.
I've fought off 2 illnesses in the last 3 weeks; a cold and I don't know what the 2nd one was; I felt like I was freezing, and I had no energy, so - a fever. Every few days, we run to the post office to pick up our mail. We've seen 4 movies (5 for me-I saw a movie during one of his troops). We've spent entire days doing paperwork, either to sell the old house, or to buy the new one. And we've visited our next mortgage holder several times, turning in paperwork.
Oh, yes, we went to the one-day Clermont Comic Con. John was with the 501st, but I was at a table, trying to sell some books and some other things I had thrown together in a few days. And I've visited a local dentist several times. (Shudder)
Yesterday, I got out the pattern I'd bought and started 'adjusting' it to my size to make the 'flight suit' for a Mandalorian costume. The helmet and armour are sitting at a friend's house in Tampa until we get our house.
And I've been editing.
I am SOOOOOO looking forward to having an office again!
Okay, Hubby and I are in the area of Orlando, FL, bouncing from resort to resort as we wait for the closing date on our new home. We've been here since November 1, and we don't get the new house until the middle of February.
We have annual passes for Disney World, but we've found the parks crowded and busy after 11:30 or noon, so we don't go every day. Half of Hollywood Studios is closed down while they build two new areas, anyway.
So, you'd think I'd be getting lots of writing done. Alas, no.
We've checked out 2 'maker spaces' in Orlando, tracked down the Tandy store, and a fabric store. Spent time with friends in Tampa, and visited another friend in Davenport. John's done 3 appearances as a sand trooper, and we've built him a new pair of pants and shirt(s) for his Darth Vader. These ones are actually made for him, not the previous owner, so he can sit down in them without splitting the seams.
I've fought off 2 illnesses in the last 3 weeks; a cold and I don't know what the 2nd one was; I felt like I was freezing, and I had no energy, so - a fever. Every few days, we run to the post office to pick up our mail. We've seen 4 movies (5 for me-I saw a movie during one of his troops). We've spent entire days doing paperwork, either to sell the old house, or to buy the new one. And we've visited our next mortgage holder several times, turning in paperwork.
Oh, yes, we went to the one-day Clermont Comic Con. John was with the 501st, but I was at a table, trying to sell some books and some other things I had thrown together in a few days. And I've visited a local dentist several times. (Shudder)
Yesterday, I got out the pattern I'd bought and started 'adjusting' it to my size to make the 'flight suit' for a Mandalorian costume. The helmet and armour are sitting at a friend's house in Tampa until we get our house.
And I've been editing.
I am SOOOOOO looking forward to having an office again!
December 15, 2016
A Different Place
If someone mentions New Zealand, what tidbits of thoughts race through the back of your mind? Mine include ‘hobbit films location’, ‘weird landscape’, ‘two islands’, ‘south Pacific’, and ‘near Australia’. Of course, I don’t often think about New Zealand. It’s very far away, and I’m not likely to get there soon.
A couple weeks ago, I saw a headline about a recent earthquake NZ had. It took my head a couple seconds to realize, “Oh, yeah, it sits on the other side of the ring of fire.” So, just because my curiosity was aroused, I’ve been looking into the geology of NZ.
First of all, yes, New Zealand does have two large islands, but they are surrounded by a bunch of little ones. Islands tend to come in groups, right? Seems like it to me.
The south island is home of the Southern Alps, the tallest some 12,316 ft tall. These steep peaks and the deep fjords on the southwest coast indicate the glaciation that once covered the area. Makes me shiver just thinking of the ice that was once there.
The north island is not as mountainous, but does have volcanoes, which have formed a plateau. That plateau hosts that island’s highest peak (9,177 ft) and the country’s largest lake, which sits in the caldera of one of the world’s most active supervolcanoes. Okay, that’s a little too much heat for roasting marshmallows.
New Zealand is what’s left of Zealandia, a microcontinent (half the size of Australia) that long ago broke off from the super-continent Gondwana, and then slowly submerged. It also straddles the border between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates.
The border of these plates is most evident by the Southern Alps, pushed up and contorted by the force of the 2 plates pushing against each other. In other places, the edge of one plate gets pushed beneath the other, producing deep trenches in the ocean, most notably south of NZ, east of North Island, and 2 others further north.
So, NZ has mountains and bays once scoured by glaciers, deep ocean trenches and volcanoes. What about earthquakes? Of course! It sits on a giant fault. In fact, Wikipedia says they experience 150-200 earthquakes every year that can be felt, and almost 14,000 more each year that aren’t felt.
The headline that caught my attention not long ago was about an earthquake in November of this year; a section of seabed that had been raised 6 feet above sea level on a beach. As I researched ‘New Zealand earthquakes,’ I saw another interesting headline, this one about 3 cows that were left stranded on a ‘land island’ after an earthquake. Apparently, that earthquake caused a lot of land to collapse, leaving dots at a higher altitude with sides too steep for the cows to navigate. And possibly some tourists were also trapped on similar ‘land islands’ and had to be rescued.
Just one more way New Zealand is ‘different.’
A couple weeks ago, I saw a headline about a recent earthquake NZ had. It took my head a couple seconds to realize, “Oh, yeah, it sits on the other side of the ring of fire.” So, just because my curiosity was aroused, I’ve been looking into the geology of NZ.
First of all, yes, New Zealand does have two large islands, but they are surrounded by a bunch of little ones. Islands tend to come in groups, right? Seems like it to me.
The south island is home of the Southern Alps, the tallest some 12,316 ft tall. These steep peaks and the deep fjords on the southwest coast indicate the glaciation that once covered the area. Makes me shiver just thinking of the ice that was once there.
The north island is not as mountainous, but does have volcanoes, which have formed a plateau. That plateau hosts that island’s highest peak (9,177 ft) and the country’s largest lake, which sits in the caldera of one of the world’s most active supervolcanoes. Okay, that’s a little too much heat for roasting marshmallows.
New Zealand is what’s left of Zealandia, a microcontinent (half the size of Australia) that long ago broke off from the super-continent Gondwana, and then slowly submerged. It also straddles the border between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates.
The border of these plates is most evident by the Southern Alps, pushed up and contorted by the force of the 2 plates pushing against each other. In other places, the edge of one plate gets pushed beneath the other, producing deep trenches in the ocean, most notably south of NZ, east of North Island, and 2 others further north.
So, NZ has mountains and bays once scoured by glaciers, deep ocean trenches and volcanoes. What about earthquakes? Of course! It sits on a giant fault. In fact, Wikipedia says they experience 150-200 earthquakes every year that can be felt, and almost 14,000 more each year that aren’t felt.
The headline that caught my attention not long ago was about an earthquake in November of this year; a section of seabed that had been raised 6 feet above sea level on a beach. As I researched ‘New Zealand earthquakes,’ I saw another interesting headline, this one about 3 cows that were left stranded on a ‘land island’ after an earthquake. Apparently, that earthquake caused a lot of land to collapse, leaving dots at a higher altitude with sides too steep for the cows to navigate. And possibly some tourists were also trapped on similar ‘land islands’ and had to be rescued.
Just one more way New Zealand is ‘different.’
