OceanPark

6-4-05 Distributed Computing Statistics

Account statistics
climateprediction.net member since	12 Feb 2005 17:39:13 UTC
Total credit	96880.44
equivalent HadSM3 Model-Years	640.74
Recent average credit	2716.94
Pending credit	View
Team	Ars Technica - Team Baked Alaska

Your credit:
Name (and URL)	Raven@the-Yahoo-SETI-Club-Team
Results Received	18510
Total CPU Time	9.277 years
Average CPU Time per work unit	4 hr 23 min 25.9 sec
Average results received per day	8.80
Last result returned:	Sun Jun 5 06:48:49 2005 UTC
Registered on:	Thu Sep 2 03:23:37 1999 UTC
	View Registration Class
SETI@home user for:	5.762 years
	View User Profile
Your group info:
You belong to the group named:	Yahoo-SETI Club Team
You are not currently the founder of any teams.
Your rank: (based on current workunits received)
Your rank out of 5432144 total users is:	11823rd place.
The number of users who have this rank:	2
You have completed more work units than	99.782% of our users.

Good news. I have found that third distributed computing project I have been looking for. My favorite computer magazine, Maximum PC (Minimum BS), has a Folding-At-Home team I'll be joining soon. I'll leave the dual Opteron 244 on Climate Prediction, switch the dual Opteron 246 to the Folding Project, and leave the SETI crunching to the three Pentium machines. Works out to an initial 3.8GHz for Climate Prediction, an initial 4.0 GHz to Folding, and 7.3GHz left over to roam among those projects and still do some SETI units.

4-16-05 A 5.1 Earthquake...

...kind of a nice, gentle, rolling motion. Very pleasant.

A moderate earthquake occurred at 12:18:13 PM (PDT) on Saturday, April 16, 2005.
The magnitude 5.1 event occurred 22 km (13 miles) W of Wheeler Ridge, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 11 km ( 7 miles).

Magnitude	5.1 - local magnitude (Ml)
Time	Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 12:18:13 PM (PDT) Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 19:18:13 (UTC)
Distance from	Wheeler Ridge, CA - 22 km (13 miles) W (277 degrees) Grapevine, CA - 24 km (15 miles) WNW (292 degrees) Taft, CA - 28 km (17 miles) ESE (117 degrees) Bakersfield, CA - 42 km (26 miles) SSW (203 degrees)
Coordinates	35 deg. 1.6 min. N (35.027N), 119 deg. 10.7 min. W (119.178W)
Depth	10.8 km (6.7 miles)
Quality	Fair
Location Quality Parameters	Nst=110, Nph=110, Dmin=12 km, Rmss=0.42 sec, Erho=0.3 km, Erzz=1 km, Gp=61.2 degrees
Event ID#	ci14138080
Map

4-12-05 Supervolcano

The Discovery Channel ran a very excellent docudrama on the Yellowstone Supervolcano Sunday night. It's three hours of decent acting combined with real science, topped off with Tom Brokaw in his new, post anchor Walter Cronkite role and interviews with real scientists.

Catch it if you can. It will air again on Saturday, April 16th, at 8 p.m. eastern and pacific times. Check local listings for other time zones.

I'm also reposting a blog I did on the world's most powerful volcanic eruptions, two of which occurred at Yellowstone.

THE TEN MOST POWERFUL VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

There are few lists in science that are in more dispute than this one. By some notable accounts, for example, the eruption that is ranked number one on most lists, Toba, ranks second according to other analyses. Number two on many lists, Tambora, is sixth here. In spite of the disagreements, it's a fascinating subject.

1) Fish Canyon Tuff Eruption, La Garita Caldera. 27.8 million years ago. Location: Current day San Juan Mountains, San Juan Volcanic Field, southwestern Colorado, USA. 3,000 to 5,000+ km3 (cubic kilometers) of material ejected. (The scale here is virtually unimagineable. For the purposes of comparison, the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980 blew 1,314 feet off the top of the mountain, buried the North Fork of the Toutle river under as much as 150 feet of ash, and blew down 4 billion board feet of timber. Mount St. Helens ejected one cubic kilometer of material. By the way, tuff is the term used to describe volcanic ash and other kinds of ejecta that have solidified into rock deposits. Volcanic Explosivity Index: VIII. Mega-Colossal. Ultra Plinian.

2) Toba (Young Toba Tuff eruption). Location: Current day Indonesia, Island of Sumatra; 74,000 years ago. 2,800 km3 ejected. Pyroclastic flows covered an area of at least 20,000 square km. Toba is in the Sumatra Earthquake Fracture zone, the same one responsible for the Magnitude 9.0 earthquake on December, 26, 2004. VEI-VIII. Mega-Colossal. Ultra Plinian.

3) Yellowstone, Huckleberry Ridge Tuff. Location: Current day Yellowstone National Park. 2.2 million years ago. 2,500 km3 of ejecta. VIII. Mega-Colossal. Ultra Plinian.

4) Yellowstone, Lava Creek Tuff. 600,000 years ago. 1,000 km3 ejected. VIII. Mega-Colossal. Ultra Plinian.

5) Long Valley Caldera, 700,000 years ago. Present day Southern California. 800 km3 ejected. Very close to Los Angeles and still very much alive, unfortunately.

6) Tambora. Location: Sumbawa Island, Indonesia. 1815 A.D. 150 km3 of ejecta. VEI - VII. Super-Colossal.

7) Taupo. Present Day New Zealand. 180 A.D. VEI - VI.

8) Novarupta Vent (Katmai), the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, Alaska Peninsula. 1912. 15 km3 ejected. VEI- VI.

9) Krakatoa. Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java. 1883. 10 km3 of ejecta. Colossal. VEI- V.

10) Pinatubo. 1991. Philippines. 10 km3 ejected.

3-28-05 Magnitude 8.7 earthquake in Indonesia

Magnitude 8.7 - NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
2005 March 28 16:09:36 UTC

Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

Magnitude	8.7
Date-Time	Monday, March 28, 2005 at 16:09:36 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Monday, March 28, 2005 at 11:09:36 PM = local time at epicenter Monday, March 28, 2005 at 08:09:36 AM (PST) A great earthquake occurred at 16:09:36 (UTC) on Monday, March 28, 2005. The magnitude 8.7 event has been located in NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)
Location	2.065°N, 97.010°E
Depth	30 km (18.6 miles) set by location program
Region	NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
Distances	205 km (125 miles) WNW of Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia 250 km (155 miles) SW of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia 535 km (330 miles) WSW of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia 1410 km (880 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 4.6 km (2.9 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters	Nst=239, Nph=239, Dmin=538.5 km, Rmss=0.79 sec, Gp= 25°, M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	usweax
Felt Reports	At least 290 people killed, 100 injured and 300 houses destroyed on Nias. Extensive damage on Simeulue. Felt in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and as far north as Bangkok, Thailand.

Event follows two strong earthquakes of magnitudes 6.5 and 6.7 at Sulawesi, Indonesia and at Simeulue, Indonesia on Feb. 19 and Feb. 26.  A magnitude 9.0 was recorded off of the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia on Dec. 26.

3-22-05 A Pretty Good Little Jolt

Let's see if that was an earthquake just now. Either that or the abandoned school on the hill above us is about to slide down on top of us.

Yep! Pretty small, actually, but very close by, just down the beach from us.

Magnitude	3.4 - local magnitude (ML)
Time	Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 4:07:06 PM (PST) Wednesday, March 23, 2005 at 0:07:06 (UTC)
Distance from	Manhattan Beach, CA - 6 km (4 miles) W (261 degrees) Hermosa Beach, CA - 7 km (4 miles) WNW (284 degrees) El Segundo, CA - 7 km (5 miles) SW (232 degrees) Torrance, CA - 13 km (8 miles) WNW (293 degrees) Los Angeles Civic Center, CA - 28 km (18 miles) SW (227 degrees)
Coordinates	33 deg. 52.8 min. N (33.880N), 118 deg. 28.2 min. W (118.469W)
Depth	2.1 km (1.3 miles)
Location Quality	Fair
Location Quality Parameters	Nst=103, Nph=103, Dmin=9 km, Rmss=0.54 sec, Erho=0.5 km, Erzz=0.7 km, Gp=54 degrees
Event ID#	ci14133232 SOURCE: U.S. Geological Survey; Earthquake Hazards Program - Southern California

3-15-05 Distributed Computing Statistics

My SETI stats

Your credit:
Name (and URL)	Raven at the Yahoo-SETI-Club-Team
Results Received	18002
Total CPU Time	9.139 years
Average CPU Time per work unit	4 hr 26 min 49.7 sec
Average results received per day	8.90
Last result returned:	Tue Mar 15 20:28:34 2005 UTC
Registered on:	Thu Sep 2 03:23:37 1999 UTC
	View Registration Class
SETI@home user for:	5.539 years
	View User Profile
Your group info:
You belong to the group named:	Yahoo SETI Club Team
You are not currently the founder of any teams.
Your rank: (based on current workunits received)
Your rank out of 5378044 total users is:	11395th place.
The number of users who have this rank:	1
You have completed more work units than	99.788% of our users.

Climateprediction.net Account statistics
climateprediction.net member since	12 Feb 2005 17:39:13 UTC
Total credit	24858.10
equivalent HadSM3 Model-Years	164.41
Recent average credit	844.00
Team	Ars  Technica - Team Baked Alaska*

*#16 of 158 team members in Recent Average Credit; #37 in Total Credit as Raven5655.

3-7-05 Distributed Computing Statistics-Part 2

SETI @ Home stats

Your credit:
Name (and URL)	Raven@the-Yahoo-SETI-Club-Team
Results Received	17939
Total CPU Time	9.120 years
Average CPU Time per work unit	4 hr 27 min 12.6 sec
Average results received per day	8.91
Last result returned:	Mon Mar 7 21:25:55 2005 UTC
Registered on:	Thu Sep 2 03:23:37 1999 UTC
	View Registration Class
SETI@home user for:	5.517 years
	View User Profile
Your group info:
You belong to the group named:	Yahoo SETI Club Team
You are not currently the founder of any teams.
Your rank: (based on current workunits received)
Your rank out of 5369153 total users is:	11276th place.
The number of users who have this rank:	1
You have completed more work units than	99.790% of our users

3-7-05 Three Things in Cleveland That Aren't a Joke...

...and are, in fact, world class facilities:

the Cleveland Museum of Art;

the Cleveland Clinic (ranked as one of the top four hospitals in the nation by U.S. News and World Report in 2004);

and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (my favorite place for a school field trip when I was a kid)...

World's oldest biped skeleton unearthed

Date: 15:13 07 March 2005; NewScientist.com news service; By Katharine Davis

The fossilised skeleton of a four million-year-old human ancestor able to walk on two legs could provide clues as to how humans' upright walk evolved. The remains, found in north-east Ethiopia, are the oldest yet discovered of an upright hominid, scientists told a press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday.

Several fossils from one individual have been discovered at the site, including parts of the ribs, vertebrae, pelvis, shoulder blade and thighbone. But it is the ankle joint that is most interesting, showing that it walked on two legs.

"This skeleton helps us to understand what happened in the joints, how walking upright occurred - what we never had before," says Bruce Latimer of the Natural History Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, who made the discovery together with Yohannes Haile Selassie of the National Museum in Addis Ababa.

Modern ankles

The discovery was made about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from where the fossilised remains of a hominid called Lucy were found in 1974. At about three million years old and with modern ankles, Lucy was the oldest example of a hominid able to walk upright discovered for many years. These newly discovered fossils are much older, and so may reveal more of the evolution process.

A study of a six million-year-old hominid thighbone in 2004 revealed walking habits closer to humans than chimpanzees, but scientists hope the ankle bone of the new find could reveal exactly how the as yet unclassified creature walked. "Normally, you find one bone or two from an individual and you are happy. Now we have found parts of a skeleton, this is very rare," adds Latimer.

Despite being older than Lucy, the skeleton is also bigger, with longer legs, which has surprised the scientists and remains unexplained. But they hope and expect that further work will reveal more of how humans evolved. "This is the world's oldest biped," says Latimer. "It will revolutionise the way we see human evolution."

2-13-05 The World's Worst Natural Disasters

Someone recently asked where the recent Tsunami disaster ranked in terms of the deadliest natural disasters. While it is certainly at or near the top of the worst in the history of humankind, it pales when compared to other events. Although our planet is (so far) the only known place hospitable enough to support and sustain life, there have been at least five times when much of that life was reduced to so much dead and decaying biomass.

There were at least five mass extinctions in earth's very distant path. Some suggest that we are, at best, on the cusp of the sixth extinction or, at worst, knee deep in it. Here's the scary part about that. In terms of geologic time, it is now widely believed that the Permian-Triassic mass extinction occurred over the course of about 10,000 years. That is considered "an instant" for 4.5 billion year old planet. But it is an unfathomably slow passage of time for human beings, meaning that we could be in the middle of a mass extinction and not even know it.

Known Events

Ordovician-Silurian Extinction: 439 million years ago; Severe global cooling that led to an Ice Age that dramatically lowered sea levels. Two events suspected, the first from the shock of the sudden glaciation, the second from the shock of its sudden end. Toll: 25% of all marine families (a family can include a few or several thousand species); 60% of all marine genera (a class more extensive than a species, such as all four-legged animals as opposed to all four-legged mammals). Life on land, if any, very limited at the time.

Late Stage Devonian Extinction: 364 million years ago. Cause disputed; no generally accepted theories. Toll: 22% of all marine families; 57% of all marine genera.

Permian-Triassic Extinction: 251 million years ago. Several possible causes: comet or asteroid impact, but, unlike the more recent Cretaceous-Tertiary, no likely crater has been discovered; massive volcanic activity from the Siberian Traps depleting ocean oxygen levels; the former (comet or asteroid) may have caused the latter (Siberian Traps); also suspected massive release of frozen methane from the ocean. Toll: all life nearly extinguished; 90% to 95% of all marine species died.

End Stage Triassic Extinction: 214 million to 199 million years ago. Suspected cause is the creation of the present day Atlantic Ocean resulting from massive volcanism. Toll: 22% of all marine families, 52% of marine genera.

Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Extinction: 65 million years ago. Suspected causes: massive asteroid impact at present day Yucatan Peninsula and gulf of Mexico; massive volcanism at the Deccan Traps in present day India; possibly the former (asteroid) causing the latter (Deccan Traps). Toll: 16% of all marine families, 47% of all marine genera, 18% percent of all land vertebrates.

Suspected Events

Each of the aforementioned extinctions took place during the Phanerozoic Eon, which began 543 million years ago and continues today. But most of earth's history came before that, in Precambrian time, which began 4.5 billion years ago.

#1. 650 million years ago. Believed by some to be earth's first mass extinction, killing off 70% of Precambrian flora and fauna, long before the development of hard-bodied and complex organisms.

#2. Vendian. 543 million to 523 million years ago. Before the rise of hard-bodied, complex organisms. Claimed creatures similar to today's jellyfish, sea worms and segmented worms.

#3. Jurassic. 206 million to 144 million years ago. (Two) More than 80% of marine bivalves and other shallow water species in the first. Stegosaurs and most sauropods did not survive the second.

#4. Oligocene. 33.7 million to 23.8 million years ago. Land mammals most affected.

#5. Late Miocene to Pleistiocene. As many as six separate events. The most recent, about 11,000 years ago, marked the end of mastodons, wooly mammoths, saber-toothed cats and large ground sloths.

2-13-05 climateprediction.net, Team Ars Baked Alaska

Logged on as raven5655 to climateprediction.net, Team Ars Baked Alaska. Ars Technica produced more SETI classic units than any other team and I've always admired their zeal. It feels good to add my little 13.7GHz home network to their fold.