I'm Ecstatic!

I've just been told by my 10th grade English teacher (Mrs. D'Alessio) that I received the highest score on the English portion of the HSPA of my entire grade!

That's going to look wonderful on my college application.

"Dark" Supermoon Tonight!

Tomorrow night  Tonight the new moon will make a close approach to Earth, giving rise to the second supermoon of the year—but this one will have the power of invisibility.

Because the moon's orbit is egg shaped, there are times in the roughly monthlong lunar cycle when the moon is at perigee—its closest distance to Earth—or at apogee, its farthest distance from Earth.

"A supermoon occurs when the moon is at perigee and it's in either a full or new phase," said Raminder Singh Samra, an astronomer at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada.

In March sky-watchers were treated to a full moon at perigee, which made for the biggest full moon seen in 18 years.

(See "Supermoon Pictures: Best Shots of Biggest Full Moon.")

A new moon happens when the lunar orb positions itself between Earth and the sun, so that the side of the moon that faces Earth is unlighted.

"The upcoming moon on September 27, 2011, is set to be at perigee and at the new phase," Samra said, "so we won't be able to witness the event, as the moon and sun will be in the same region of the sky" and the lunar disk will be entirely dark.

Supermoon to Affect Earth's Tides?

Because the size of the moon's orbit also varies slightly, each perigee is not always the same distance from Earth.

When at perigee, the moon is about 18,640 miles (30,000 kilometers) closer to Earth than its average distance of roughly 240,000 miles (385,000 kilometers). When perigee occurs during a full moon, the lunar disk can appear about 14 percent bigger in the sky, Samra said.

Tuesday's dark supermoon will be just 222,175 miles (357,557 kilometers) away from Earth.

Some people have speculated that this lunar proximity can have unusual gravitational effects on Earth, triggering dramatic events such as earthquakes. (Take a moon myths and mysteries quiz.)

But the truth is that there's only a very small correlation between full or new moons and seismic stresses, said Jim Todd, planetarium manager at theOregon Museum of Science and Industry.

"Stronger tidal forces caused by the alignment of the sun and moon may put added stress on tectonic plates," Todd said.

"However, seismologists have found no evidence connecting lunar perigees to heightened seismic activity. Instead the Earth constantly stores up energy and releases it any time the built-up energy becomes too great."

Lunar close encounters are well known to cause slightly higher ocean tides, so any localized flooding during a supermoon would be most noticeable around beaches and other low-lying areas.

(Related: "Hurricane Irene 'Looking Bad' for U.S.—Moon May Make It Worse.")

But linking the supermoon to effects beyond that is far-fetched, the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre's Samra said.

"While the supermoon is thought to provoke various natural disasters on the Earth," he said, "such claims are exaggerations, as there is simply no scientific evidence for them."

                                                         © 1996-2011 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

Things of Fortune

Either I am cursed with bad luck, I've lost God's favor, or I'm having a daily lapse in common sense.

I was so into Sea that I lost my gym class and ended up getting locked out of the school.

A story about a young girl dealing with her own traumas,
helping tsunami victims in Indonesia.
Comes with romance :)

...only me.

This book has gotten me in a bit of trouble.

And then, as I read at the desk at the library, I was so caught up in the story that I hadn't noticed two people were waiting in line for me.

...again...only me.

Thank goodness Dave is here working this period with me, or else I'd be twice as tensed right now.

I'm embarrassed as it is.


Anyway, on Wednesday I am leaving immediately after school for Canada.


A trip to Niagara falls sounds wonderful right about now. 


And it's a good four days, too. Plenty of time to take photographs to post here, and plenty of time to soak in the sights.


Best part is, I only learned of this trip a week ago. Somewhat of a surprise I suppose.


I will be posting many photos for you guys, need not worry. Knowing myself, I'm pumped for a taste of adventure, even if it's just a 9-hour drive up north.


Plenty of M&M's for the trip.


-Ashley Marie

Action Alert: Lear's Macaw

Prevent the Extinction of the Lear’s Macaw - Global Action Atlas - Explore Projects Around the World:

"This Land" Hans Zimmer

Photos From Sea Bright

Empty chairs, little sound here but that of the ocean waves. Even in the scattered tide pools, there is emptiness. Gulls encounter few people compared to that of other beaches. They are fearful, and we are alone on this shoreline...for now.


There is life here, but she enjoys riddles in this place. You need to solve them to find her.

My Book Update

There appears to be no soul behind the empty gaze of a fish, for its eyes do not question, they do not fear, they simply do their job. They see what no one sees. They see the havoc we create.

 There’s a soul in every creature, I suppose. Much like atoms, we can not see them, but they are there. They encircle matter as smoke does, rising into the heavens when their earthly bodies become merely embers and pass away. At least, that’s what Grandfather had taught me. His ideas contradicted those of everyone else within the dome; he always told me “Gail, they are ignorant people. They don’t believe in life.”

            My thoughts seemed to fade into a blur as I traced the imperfections that streaked the desk in front of me. Or rather, they weren’t imperfections, really. Merely they are patterns that can be studied on the surface of cut wood. Swirls and currents of richer browns enveloping the beige shade of “oak”. It was something that never failed to grab my attention.

The dancing shadows and lights created by the water on the other side of the glass wall seemed to embrace my arm; a sleeve of invisible life, absorbing its power from an indirect source. Looking up at the ceiling, I took a moment to admire this space I resided in. The ceiling was a smooth, high-tech concrete which helped to maintain a comfortable temperature throughout the room. The wall beside me was glass, seven inches thick, but specially made to withstand the pressure at those depths with ease. On the other side of the wall, seen clearly through its transparency, were the depths of the Pacific Ocean. An aquarium was at the center of the room, a cylinder that extended from the ceiling to the floor. It was the rooms only light source. In it was one animal: a nautilus.

Grandfather and I deeply valued that small, intelligent cephalopod. Long before I was born, he discovered where nautili laid their eggs on an expedition to the reefs of the Indo-Pacific Ocean. It was a mystery before then, and it’s a mystery to many still. In his personal effort to protect the nautili, coveted by many for their precious shells, he kept the coordinates disclosed within the TERC. This way, no one could disturb their breeding. Many have searched, and still no one has rediscovered it. Grandfather never even told me the coordinates, although he trusts me with his life. His response was peculiar. “The time is right when it’s in your hand.”

On the desk beside me were fossils and specimens that pulsed and glowed. A small machine with an even smaller current generator was switched on, the plankton within it glowing as they collided with one another in the currents and whirls of the churning water. I admired it, and often I watched the glowing creatures for long periods of time. Grandfather’s office rarely bored me.

            “Gail?” The footsteps were all too familiar.

            Swiveling the seat around, I caught Grandfather’s gaze. His eyes were wrinkled, knowing, and green. Green as if they had been grown in the soil and positioned into his face. They had seen many years, and his arms were old but rather toned. His hair not lost, fell as dry, brittle, gray strands on his shoulders. Grandfather’s clothes were always charcoal or tan, with that same button-down coat every day. Regardless of the temperature, that long coat was always on his shoulders, completely buttoned, and secured tightly by the attached belt. To take his coat was to risk your life; he protected it fiercely.

            “Yes?”

            He pointed a wrinkly finger into my face as he pulled up a rolling chair. “I, for one, have made a remarkable discovery.”

 “Will it help us?”

            “Certainly. With what I have found, they must fund the expedition now.”

            The onshore expedition. He had been planning that adventure for nearly a decade. He would pour over construction designs, notes, and yellowing documents into the latest hours of the night, into the early hours of the morning, even into noon. I would walk around the dome as he slept for many hours, his old soul catching up on the precious rest that he had pushed aside.

            “Did you find a law; something that would force them to fund us?”

            He stared at me for a moment. “You have a genuine concern for this program, Gail, and I have always deeply appreciated it. With that said, I would like you to know that I have found a remarkable piece of evidence that suggests that these council members have been breaking various codes for quite some time, now. I think I can crush them under the authority of the High Court.”

            “What codes?”

            “I found out from one of their secretaries that they have been denying funds for repairs from the dome maintenance team. That in itself is breaking a code.”

            “We have a chance.” I was beginning to get excited. “The High Court can fire them now. But that doesn’t entirely fix our issue.”

            “You’re right, Gail, it doesn’t. And that is precisely why I set out to find something else.”

            “What? What did you find?”

            “I found this.” He said. His hands reached far into his coat and retrieved a bulge that slid toward his neck and up through his collar. It was an old book, small and compact. He placed it on my lap. “Read the title.”

            “Codes and Honors: The Pacific Councils” It read. Twelve faded names listed below the title; the original writers, perhaps.

            I began to fidget somewhat. “You stole this, didn’t you?”

            “Heavens, no. Thievery is certainly not in my vocabulary.”

            “You just spoke the word.”

            He stared me down, amused. “How could you doubt the morals of an old man? I have received it from the secretary, she of which who had also revealed the information I have previously explained to you. She, for one, is on our side.”

            “That’s good, I suppose.” I wasn’t sure what to do with the book.

            “Look at article U618.” As if reading my mind. He opened the front page for me. “It presents the code that we’re interested in.”

            I searched through the book, small, but thick it was. It was divided by chapters, one per letter. Each chapter comprised of several hundred codes, pages determined by the first code on each page. Each letter was assigned to different types of court cases, broken further into hundreds of tiny numbers for specific situations pertaining to each case. I was hopelessly confused at first. Of course, the council was not required to memorize this book, only to use it as reference. The first few pages explained some basic rules for the council to follow, followed by the contents and then the endless sea of letters to be scoured through. U618 was one of many pages dedicated to research funding.

            “I found it.”

            “618? U?”

            “I think so.” The lettering was extremely small. “Yes, I have.”

            “Read it aloud.” His voice had an authoritative demeanor to it.

             “Code 657 of page U618: All funding requested for research purposes, provided with substantial evidence by a professor and doctorate degreed official of the T.E.R.C (Terrestrial Expedition and Research Campaign) must be funded immediately for the sake of the original purposes for establishing research in P1, P2, P3, respectively continued through P11 within six-month time span. Code violations call for immediate consequence, hence council officials present during hearing will be prosecuted accordingly under the authority of the High Court (Federal Pacific Law).”

            “Continue. There’s more.” Grandfather urged me.

            “Consequences for violations of code U657 of page (encoded) U618 will result in all of the following. Highest position in council will be removed from seat, payment for research team will double in amount upon request, and all council members present during hearing will be punished according to case involvement under judgments of the high court.”

            “Splendid, isn’t it?” Grandfather gestured toward the book. “Not only will we receive our coveted money, but our payment will double in amount.”

            “How on earth did you find this?” The book was long and complex, he couldn’t have possibly scrolled through it all.

            “The secretary was present in the office when the council returned from our hearing. They referred to the book, cursing and swearing over it, and openly stating in her presence how they did not want any of our hands on it.” He leaned back in the chair, no longer tense. “It was foolish of them considering how they treated the lady. And after they left the room, she made a phone call to my office, as she explained, and I did not pick up. I hadn’t returned to the office yet.” He coughed. It took him a couple of moments to regain his composure. He pulled himself upright and continued. “Next morning, she arrived at my door with the book. She apologized for not providing me with the computer access, for she was restricted for that under law, but she was allowed to reveal the book to me. She told me which page to refer to and if I needed any guidance to contact her promptly.”

            I was dumbfounded. “But why would their trusted secretary just place the book on your doorstep? That’s ridiculous.”

            “She explained her reasons to me after I welcomed her into our office for some coffee. I wanted to retrieve a little more information, for obvious purposes.” He looked out into the glass walls of our office, as if absorbing the memory from the passing fish.  “She told me that she hadn’t received her pay-check from those scoundrels for a period of time, and the council would not give her any reasons to justify it. When she finally did receive pay, it wasn’t the pay she was expecting. It was lower. As any functioning human would be, she was angry.” He paused, I suppose, for emphasis. “Only hours after her pathetic payment had arrived, she explained that the council members walked in from our hearing at the wooden room. With their apparent panic upon referencing to the codes, she came up with the idea to involve us in forming a case against them. Imagine the charges their numerous violations would bring!” He sipped from what was perhaps his eighth coffee that day. “Of course, she couldn’t represent her position in court alone, so she presented the evidence to me straight on my doorstep. She needed us to help her. Because of this, as you know, we have a truly good chance at getting our payment once and for all.”

            “When will the trial be held?” I had no remorse in asking so many questions, Grandfather always encouraged it.

            “It could be months, it could be days. We first need to organize all of the evidence, gather information, and schedule the trial.” A shadow covered the room. It was a large ray swimming on the other side of the wall, his gill slits and odd mouth pressed against the glass. Grandfather resumed speaking. “If the court is booked, it might be awhile.”

            “I can’t believe we didn’t know about these codes before. I thought the council funded out of mere judgment, but mandatory funding? That’s splendid!”

            “It is. My fathers before me only dreamed of heading onshore, now it is a reality.”

            “Why don’t you think they want to fund the actual expedition, though?” I asked. “They funded the research, why don’t they fund the expedition?”

            Grandfather looked at the nautilus, happily feeding on the suspended crab meat in the cage. “Power, Gail. It’s power.”

            “They’re afraid that once we head onshore, there will be no purpose for their power any longer?”

            “They’re afraid because they know it. It is written that once we return to land, the old system of government will return.”

            “That’s why they’ve been putting up such a fight.”

            “A decade, Gail. Ten years of stress and frustration because of their lust for power.” His eyes cast down. “And a battle still looms ahead.”

            “We need to call Adam. He’ll be able to help us out.” Adam was another student of Grandfather’s. He’d been with the TERC as long as I have, and I considered him my closest companion since early childhood. “I failed to tell you he has a new specimen from P4 you might wish to see.”

            “Does he? Well I suppose we should ring up the young man.”

            Grandfather stood up from the chair. As I imitated, I could feel the blood rush from my head. We must have been sitting for quite awhile. He glanced at the clock on the desk and sighed.

            “Contact Adam for me, will you? I need to head back to the dark room. Greg’s got a new set of photographs I promised I’d look over. Probably another set of sponges.” His eyes cast to the floor. “Greg adores sponges.”

            Greg was just another member of P2’s TERC. He was nearly Grandfather’s age and had an obsession with things that couldn’t move; hence why he loved sponges.

            “I’ll call Adam.” I said. “He should be at the crop house around this time.”

            “Very well. Call me when you’re finished.” He slid the book back into his coat. “I’m dreadfully curious, now. The boy never fails to find something interesting for me.”

            “That’s because there’s always something interesting to be found.” I said. “And Adam knows that.”

Chapter 2:

            It took me a good half hour to reach the outside of the office building: My tribute of sorts to the dome’s monstrous scale. I pushed through the screen doors and inhaled the smell of moist vegetation. It was always a welcoming scent after spending a week in the office building. And since the semester was over, and it was break, I spent most of my time in that building with Grandfather. I didn’t mind, because marine sciences excited me, and anything was better than school.

            I pulled out my tablet and requested a transport vehicle to be ready for me by the market, located a mile from where I was standing. It was the only pick-up point I ever used, because it was the only point that provided any convenience for me at all. Grandfather told me that a long time back, when the domes were being created, that the pick-up points were spaced very far apart to help cure a disease called obesity. He told me that the more people moved the more it was cured. I never learned about it in school, because it was not a contagious disease and no one had it at the time.

Phenomenal 5: Sept 24

Photograph by Wilfried Niedermayr, My Shot

Photograph by Vlad Min, My Shot

Paul Nicklen/National Geographic Image Collection

David Doubilet/National Geographic Image Collection

Photograph by Lisa Armstrong, My Shot

A Dinosaur's Color Revealed

Sinosauropteryx

Turkey-sized, carnivorous, bird-like and feathered, Sinosauropteryx is not only cute, but the first dinosaur (excluding birds) to have its color scientifically established.

In the year 1996, it was also the first dinosaur reported to have feathers.

Found in the Yixian Formation (130- to 123-million-year-old sediments in Liaoning Province in northeast China), scientists were enthralled.

The Yixian site has since produced thousands of feathery fossils for scientists to pour over.

(133号 Nanguan St, Yixian, Jinzhou, Liaoning, China, 121100)

In a recently released report by the Nature journal, an international team of paleontologists and experts in scanning electron micrography, inferred that this dinosaur had reddish orange feathers running along its back and a striped tail.

But why on earth would a dinosaur need a striped tail?

Well, think of the avian species we have walking the planet today. Think of the lyrebird, sporting a brilliantly striped tail, or think of various species of Paradise birds that sport brilliantly patterned plumage.

These species have such plumage for courtship displays, so we must assume that Sinosauropteryx also found use for stripes in this department.

___________________________________

The feathers of Sinosauropteryx have been the subject of controversy ever since they were first described.

To the naked eye, the fossilized feathers are fine hairlike filaments that give the impression of being soft and downlike. Some researchers proposed that these structures were not feathers at all, however, but the remains of collagen from inside the tail.

The new study shows that these structures—visible in this fossil Sinosauropteryx as dark patches along the back and tail—are packed with melanosomes, pigment-carrying, sub-cellular structures found in the feathers of living birds but not in collagen.

This strengthens the argument that the fossil hairlike structures are protofeathers, an early stage in feather evolution before feathers had central shafts with vanes out to each side, as seen in modern birds.

The feather of an extinct Confuciusornis bird may have had colors similar to those in this modern feather from a zebra finch, according to the new study.
Feather color in Confuciusornis—an early beaked bird found in 120- to 130-million-year-old fossil beds in Liaoning Province, China—was inferred from microscopic melanosomes preserved in a fossil specimen.
Two types of melanosomes were found. Eumelanosomes (such as the finch eumelanosomes inset at left) are rodlike and associated with the colors black and grey in living birds. Phaeomelanosomes (inset right) are spherical and produce colors ranging from reddish brown to yellow. A lack of melanosomes makes white.
Using a scanning electron microscope, the researchers found that a fossilConfuciusornis feather contained both types of melanosomes and was likely multicolored in life.

An international team of researchers reported finding fossilized rod-shaped eumelanosomes, shown here in a scanning electron micrograph, and spherical phaeomelanosomes in 125-million-year-old fossil birds and dinosaurs from China.
Eumelanosomes and phaeomelanosomes are two types of sub-cellular structures called melanosomes that are packed with the dark pigment melanin. A close packing of eumelanosomes from the extinct bird Confuciusornissuggests black was part of its color pattern, the new Nature study says.
Melanosomes are found in abundance within the feathers of living birds, and they have been reported before in fossil feathers. (See "First Proof: Ancient Birds Had Iridescent Feathers.")
This is the first time, though, that melanosomes have been found in the fossilized feathers of non-avian dinosaurs—such as Sinosauropteryx andSinornithosaurus—and in the exquisitely preserved fossil birds from Liaoning Province, China.
Finding melanosomes in dinosaurs shows that the controversial hairlike structures seen in many feathered dinosaur fossils are indeed related to feathers. Analysis of fossilized melanosomes in creatures that lived and died millions of years ago promises to open up exciting new avenues of research and provide a glimpse into the previously unknown world of prehistoric color. 

© 1996-2011 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

Species of the Day: Star Finch

Plans

In Efforts to Re-Introduce a Curiosity of Wildlife to my Community, I Plan on Creating a Public Masterpiece in the form of Native Plant Species.


In Clark, New Jersey, there is a small park conveniently nestled in the midst of woods and narrow paths winding through a tranquil habitat where birds and aquatic ecosystems flourish.

I hope to create a community garden here. I will be posting more soon.

Here's a little idea of a native garden:

-Ashley Marie