UB313

Time to rewrite the textbooks. The number of planets in the solar system has increased to at least 10. The new addition, 2003 UB313, is estimated to be 1.5 times the size of Pluto and over twice Pluto's distance from the sun.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/29jul_planetx.htm?list165102

Gertrude's

Saturday night, we met up once again with Ian, Lisa, and Donna along with Paul and Rob, Tony and Leah, et al. at Gertrude's in Fitzroy to celebrate Tony's birthday. We had a great time and met some fun people, although Paul got into a little trouble playing with the bar's sound board. Tony also had his wallet stolen, but it was recovered a short time later after he issued a subtle threat of bodily harm to the suspected thief.

We closed out the night witnessing the long-overdue expulsion of one of the bar's patrons, who had annoyed everyone in the place by groping males at random, drinking profusely, and ordering more drinks that he could pay for (which went over very well with the bartenders). He was led out of the establishment into the arms of the Victoria police, who managed to pack him (with some struggle) into the back of a police wagon. The wagon sped off at a rapid rate down the street, only to slam on brakes about 50 yards away, undoubtedly an uncomfortable experience for any unsuspecting occupants who might have been, say, sitting in the back of the vehicle in handcuffs and no seatbelt. Clever trick. . .the LAPD would be proud.

Mariscos Beach

Saturday morning, Uta and I joined Ian, Lisa, Donna, and Durte for a screening of the French film, Mariscos Beach, as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival. Uta and I enjoyed breakfast at a cafe near home before the film, and we all went out for food and coffee afterwards. The movie was delightful, despite the impromptu Broadway-style closing scene.

Week in Review

Time flies, and the week was busy, so I'll hit the highlights.

Saturday, July 23rd: We had dinner with Donna (CSIRO) and Giovanni @ Djakarta in Richmond.

Sunday, July 24th: We had dinner with Rueben and his wife (? - yes I'm a lousy friend) at ? (and I don't pay attention) in St. Kilda.

Monday, July 25th: I had dinner with (and presentation to) the CSIRO Executive Management Council (which necessitated a stressful drive across the city during rush hour in the rain).

Tuesday, July 26th: Interpol @ the Metro - awesome.

Wednesday, July 27th: German class - Theme: Umwelt. Wie bitte?

Thursay, July 28th: Home late, blah, etc.

Friday, July 29th: Weekend here again. Thankfully.

Krispy Kreme

The first Melbourne Krispy Kreme store is to open this month at Fountain Gate shopping center. I have no idea where this is, but I plan to find out in the near future. KK plans to open 20 stores throughout Australia before they're done. And they say globilization doesn't have any benefits. . .

Hofbrauhaus

Hofbrauhaus
Originally uploaded by BLP.

Last night, we dined at Helmut Mayer's Hofbrauhaus, which I believe is Melbourne's only authentic German restaurant (typisch Bayerisch). I had the Schweinebraten and Uta had Goulash. Dessert was Apfelstrudel (naturlich!).

http://www.hofbrauhaus.com.au/

Large Bananas Available Here

Bananas
Originally uploaded by BLP.

We have been amazed at the size of bananas available in Melbourne's markets. Here, our latest purchase is shown with one of my shoes for scale - perhaps only useful for those of you who know how big my feet are.

Climate Laboratories Have Problem with Climate Control

I came in to the office this morning to find that our advanced climate research laboratories are having trouble maintaining a temperature suitable for advanced climate research - it's about 15C in my office right now.

Polka Champion

I was informed by my wife yesterday that a Melbourne man, Joseph "Hash" Hachem, became the first Australian to win the Polka chapionship in Las Vegas Nevada - with winnings totaling $10 million. I spent quite some time scratching my head in wonder, finding it hard to believe that one can earn such a vast sum of money by being a Polka enthusiast. A vigorous debate ensued, which was interrupted by the announcement on the nightly news that indeed Hachem had, in fact, won the World Series of Polka, only it was the World Series of Poker. This made much more sense to me, and, in fact, was what Uta had been trying to tell me all along. I attributed the misunderstanding to Uta's accent. She attributed the misunderstanding to me being stupid.

In any case, congrats to Hachem. Well played.

Seeing Red

Speaking of the Heartland. . . There was a French documentary on the tele yesterday which focused (in a rather amateurish manner) on America's "war" on indecency, using the Janet Jackson incident, Howard Stern, FCUK (French Connection UK) fragrances, and Florida's Bubba the Love Sponge, as examples. The campaign against FCUK was rather amusing, given that if one takes the argument to its ridiculous conclusion, we should restrict the use of any word or acronym that has letters that can be arranged to say something potentially offensive (e.g., "this"). But Bubba the Love Sponge, fired from his #1 radio show in 2004 for indecency) was quite successful at pointing out the true absurdity of American conservatism. While taking the French journalist on a tour of his home, he showed his collection of autographs and memorabilia - featuring a letter from Jeb Bush thanking Bubba for letting him come on his show (during his gubernatorial campaign). He also showed off his gun collection which included an AR-15 assault rifle and a .308 sniper rifle. According to Bubba, "I can't say asshole on the radio, but I'm allowed to own these".

In the magazine section of Saturday's newspaper, there was also an article by a journalist who travelled through the U.S. by train - from Chicago to Los Angeles - to take a look at the red states. In the wake of the last presidential election, the rest of the world appears fascinated by this portion of America. The writer recounted various anecdotes involving encounters with obese, gun loving Americans who wear their religion on their sleeves. The general message was that Americans are simple, overweight, God-fearing, and somewhat ignorant anachronisms in an increasingly progressive and self-aware world. But they're also very nice and welcoming.

Rover, Red Rover

Australian newspapers have finally decided that the spotlight on Karl Rove is not going anywhere anytime soon, and reported on his current political and legal troubles over the weekend. I guess Bush likes his advisors like his God - vengeful, in an Old Testament kind of way. It'll be interesting to see how Rove's poor judgment plays in the Heartland.

Dirt Cheap Music

Uta has saved us by finding a CD chain in Melbourne (Dirt Cheap Music) that has CDs at reasonable prices. New releases sell for $15 while older stuff can be purchased for $10. These prices are about half of those one finds at the more mainstream outlets, and rather cheap by anyone's standards.

La La Land

Thursday night the "early career scientists" of CSIRO met up at La La Land in Pran. All new staff in Atmospheric Research have been on the young side (relatively), and at this point, there are about 10 of us and more are arriving every month, creating a new cadre of colleagues. Thursday night marked our first collective outing. La Land was the rallying point, where we spent an hour or two before trying to track down a restaurant in the neighborhood that could seat all of us. We did a few laps up and down Chapel Street before negotiating space in a place called Tusk. A good time was had by all (although the waitress forgot Ian's order, a mistake that was eventually corrected with Ian receiving a free beer), and we managed to go through the evening without discussing science or climate and "modeling" only came up once (but only as a pun).

Live Performance

With our move, my travel to my German class now takes me through the central business district. I change trams outside the Flinders Street Station, where there is always something interesting to see. Monday night, it was a homeless guy singing (quite enthusiastically) Whitney Houston's I Want to Dance with Sombody.

I Am Trying to Break Your Bank

I found it mildly amusing when Reprise records (owned by AOL Time Warner) dumped Wilco in 2001, opted not to release their album (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot), and, in fact, let Wilco buy the rights to YHF for a mere $50,000 and walk away with a finished album in hand. Wilco subsequently signed with Nonesuch (also owned by AOL Time Warner). YHF, which Reprise described as "career ending", received nothing but critical acclaim and outsold all previous albums by the band. Wilco's second album on Nonesuch, A Ghost is Born, topped first week sales of YHT by 55%.

However, this example of music-industry schizophrenia and poor judgment pales in comparison with Mariah Carey (who is currently, unfortunately, as ubiquitous as E. coli), who signed an $80 million/four album contract with EMI in 2001. She received $21 million upfront. A year later, after her album Glitter sold only 500,000 copies in the U.S., the movie Glitter did even worse, and Carey went through a nervous breakdown, EMI opted to buy out her contract for $28 million. So EMI paid out $50 million for 1 lousy album, no doubt losing millions in the process. Island/Def Jam, which picked up Carey after EMI, is quite clearly making a killing right now – Carey’s latest album is #1 on just about every chart in the world, selling nearly 2 million copies in the U.S. in its first two months.

Ex-pat? How about No-pat.

I've sent my passport off to be renewed, which means I'm flying without a net for the moment, which is a bit scary in a country that's been known to deport its own citizens. Hopefully, I won't end up like this guy:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4673103.stm.

Still waiting. . .

Our belongings, recently reported to be somewhere in the Melbourne area after their adventure on the high seas, are still on the loose. We're currently negotiating to have them released into our custody, but it's slow going. I think Uta finds the idea of all our comforts of home sitting in a warehouse somewhere while we continue to live out of suitcases and sleep on an air mattress to be a bit hard to handle. I sent off some necessary paperwork this afternoon, so hopefully we'll be able to get our stuff back soon and get rid of the damn echo in our apartment.

Lygon Street

Last Friday night, we dined out in Carlton on Lygon Street, generally considered the Italian quarter, at least with respect to restaurants. We found Lygon surprisingly active - all the cafes had sidewalk seating which, thanks to gas heaters, was packed and rather cozy. There were indeed a large number of Italian eateries, and we picked one almost at random. Our pasta was top-notch and quite inexpensive (which may explain the large number of Uni students around us, but then that could have simply been due to the fact that Lygon street runs past Melbourne Uni). We were also surprised to find long lines for Gelato, despite the rather frigid temperatures. Must have been really good Gelato - we passed.

Oops, I Did it Again

My latest scientific endeavor (or latest as of last August) was just accepted to the journal Climatic Change. Entitled Risk-based reanalysis of the effects of climate change on U.S. cold-water habitat, it's sure to keep my family and friends on the edge of their seats. Unfortunately, my guess is that it probably won't be in print till late 2005/early 2006 (maybe I can use those reprints as Christmas presents).

The Other Preston

Thanks to Cpt. Phathauser for pointing out the other BP blog: bpreston.blogspot.com. Welcome back, Cpt.

Gee, Wait

Strange things are afoot in climate policy these days, likely due to current activity in the U.S. Congress as well as the recent G8 (aka "Gee, Wait" or "Gee, Late") meeting. On the latter, it was rather apparent that the G8's stance on climate change was essentially the U.S. stance on climate change. Take for example the following summary statement which emerged:

"While uncertainties remain in our understanding of climate science, we know enough to act now to put ourselves on a path to slow and, as the science justifies, stop and then reverse the growth of greenhouse gases."

This sounded rather familiar to me, so I went back and looked at the language from Bush's climate change strategy released 2.5 years ago (February, 2002):

"While scientific uncertainties remain, we can begin now to address the factors that contribute to climate change." This new approach focuses on reducing the growth of GHG emissions, while sustaining the economic growth needed to finance investment in new, clean energy technologies. It sets America on a path to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, and – as the science justifies – to stop and then reverse that growth."

So much for breaking new ground. . . Meanwhile, Bush's brilliant (from a PR perspective) greenhouse gas intensity target continues to generate confusion around the world (kind of scary that years later, journalists still can't get this right). A recent editorial in the Scotsman stated: "President Bush has pledged to reduce US greenhouse gas intensities by 18% within 10 years - a tougher target than Kyoto-signing Britain, which has set a target of 12%." This statement is wrong on two fronts. First, Bush's intensity target is just that - emissions reductions relative to GDP. Intensity has been declining for decades. Meanwhile, U.S. emissions increased by 1.7% between 2003 and 2004, and will continue at that pace well past 2010 at which point they will be well above 1990 levels. Second, although the UK has signed up for Kyoto, its national target is 60% below 1990 by 2050. Rather ambitious.

In other news, Joe Barton (R-TX) of the U.S. House of Representatives has made the press with a political move of unprecedented stupidity.
[http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Letters/06232005_1570.htm]
He's sent letters to the heads of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Science Foundation, and three other scientists, making all manner of demands regarding their activities, research, funding, etc. Most of these requests are highly redundant as they're matters of public record and have been aired out in the open or in the literature over the past few years. This is just the latest attempt to discredit the IPCC prior to the 2007 report and the latest attack on Michael Mann, who has become the poor abused child of the IPCC process. It’s also the latest demonstration that anti-mitigation conservatives really have no idea what’s going on in the scientific community. It's a sad state of affairs when scientists who do pioneering work to understand the history of the planet get smeared just so some politician can help out the special interests that control the purse strings. Most disturbingly, Barton's "investigation" seems to stem largely from the WSJ editorial from a few weeks back, which was rife with errors to begin with. There's nothing that makes my skin crawl more than individuals who are clearly ignorant of (and uninterested in) science questioning the work of scientists.

Google Earth

I discovered Google Earth today (http://earth.google.com/) - Google's new toy based upon their acquisition of satellite imagery and aerial photography. Heaps of fun. . .

Here's a view from Melbourne's airport. Unfortunately, high res images for our neighborhood aren't available.

The Wall Street Journal vs. The Scientific Consensus

This is a bit dated, but there's an interesting discussion at RealClimate.com re: an article on climate change science which appeared in the Wall Street Journal. http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=167#more-167

Suffice to say, it's no wonder the American public's level of science education is so poor, when trusted media outlets provide erroneous information to achieve political goals.

Big Pond

After a two week ordeal, rumor has it that we now have DSL in our very own home. The end result was never in question, but there were a few bumps in the road:

First, we were informed that our self-installation kit would be delivered within "5-7 days". By "delivered", we assumed that we would recieve the kit personally. After 5-7 days elapsed, Uta called Telstra to inquire after our kit. She was told to just go by the local branch of the post office, where a box was eventually unearthed. It'd been sitting in the dead letter office for a week. Prior to this, we received no information whatsoever regarding the existence of said box or any attempt at delivery.

Second, I proceeded with the "self-installation" processes. I assumed this meant I would be able to do it myself. With Macs, installing internet usually means inserting a cable into the computer. Various variations on this theme did not result in an acceptable outcome. Eventually, a call was placed to Big Pond technical support, who informed us that the unpublished step #1 in the self-installation process was to call Big Pond and make sure they've enabled your line.

Third, after the helpful technical support people enabled our line, our line still wasn't enabled. This necessitated another call to the happy technical support people who eventually (two days later) sent out a technician who "did something on the side of the house". Problem solved. We're good to go. Yet, I have decided that the "self-installation" process is somewhat of a misnomer that is only valid under a given set of antecedent conditions of unknown likelihood.

In any case, home internet access is good, as I'm finding it increasingly hard to find time for such fun & games at work. In addition, it will hopefully enable Uta to take over some of the burden of attempting to be clever on this page.

12-8=1

apostles
Originally uploaded by BLP.

The Great Ocean Road's 12 Apostles suffered a major setback overnight when one of the 9 stacks of the popular sandstone attraction collapsed into the ocean. This follows the 1990 collapse of London Bridge, another sandstone formation along the Victoria coastline, which left 2 tourists stranded for hours while they waited for a helicoptor to secure their rescue.