An Encouraging Weather Forecast

We all need some good news and I will give that to you. 

The weather is going to improve by next weekend here in the Northwest.  Much warmer and even some sun.

But there is also some bad news....we will have to get through a cool/cloudy period first.

Let's face it.  It has been cool and murky this week, a situation that heightened the stress of all the virus news.  Below are the temperatures at SeaTac during the past two weeks, with the normal highs and lows plotted.  Our daily maximum temperatures have been well below normal the last six days.   Like 5-10F below normal.  Plus lots of clouds and light rain.

Tomorrow will be similar and then a much stronger system, with real rain, will hit Monday, associated an unusually energetic upper level trough (see upper level map for 5 PM Monday).   If this was January, we would be worried about lowland snow with such a pattern.

Fortunately, as the week progresses an upper level ridge of high pressure will build along the West Coast and temperatures will rise.   To warm you up, here is the latest forecast for high and low temperatures at SeaTac based on the European Center ensemble forecasting system (running their model many times and taking the average).  High temperatures climb roughly 10 degrees between this weekend/Monday/Tuesday and later in the week.  You will notice that.

The National Weather Service GEFS ensemble of many forecasts shows a cooling trend for a few days, following by warming (see below).  Each forecast is plotted with a line and the black line is the average of all of them.   Warming towards 60F by April 4/5.  

 Southern California will warm into the upper 60s to low 70s....perhaps high enough to slow down the coronavirus there.  Also clearing skies and progression into spring will produce higher ultraviolet

radiation values along the southern tier of the U.S.:  not good news for the virus, which can be degraded or killed by UV.  Below are the forecast UV index for Sunday and Wednesday.  Big improvement over the western U.S.

This is a good time to plant your spring/cool season veggies if you have a garden.  That is my plan this afternoon!

Neutron source enables a look inside dino eggs

Did the chicks of dinosaurs from the group oviraptorid hatch from their eggs at the same time? This question can be answered by the length and arrangement of the embryo's bones, which provide information about the stage of development. But how do you look inside fossilized dinosaur eggs? Paleontologists from the University of Bonn used the neutron source of the Technical University of Munich at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Garching. This showed that oviraptorids developed at different speeds in their eggs and that they resemble modern birds in this respect. The results have been published in the journal Integrative Organismal Biology.

Reconstruction of a clutch of eggs with silhouettes of the oviraptorids
[Credit: Chien-Hsing Lee/Tzu-Ruei Yang/Thomas Engler]

Until now, researchers have assumed that the two-legged dinosaurs known as oviraptorids, which lived in Central Asia during the Upper Cretaceous (from 88 to 66 million years), should be placed between modern crocodiles and birds with regard to their reproductive biology. Crocodiles bury their eggs and the offspring hatch at the same time. With birds, however, hatching in the nest often happens at different times.

Together with scientists from Taiwan, Switzerland and the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum in Garching, paleontologists from the University of Bonn have now investigated how differently the development of embryos in three 67 million years old oviraptorid egg fossils from the Ganzhou Basin of Jiangxi Province in China had progressed. "Oviraptorid eggs are found relatively frequently in Central Asia, but most of them are removed from the context of their discovery," says Thomas Engler from the Institute for Geosciences at the University of Bonn. Often it is then no longer discernible whether the eggs are from a single clutch.

Important find in China

"This is different with the fossils we've examined: We found a pair of eggs and another egg together embedded in a block of rock," reports Dr. Tzu-Ruei Yang, who discovered the unusual find during an excavation near the city of Ganzhou in China. This led the researchers to conclude that the 7-inch (18cm) eggs were laid almost at the same time by a female oviraptorid. Yang completed his doctorate at the Institute for Geosciences at the University of Bonn and now works as a researcher at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Taiwan.

The three oviraptorid eggs studied by scientists at the University of Bonn and the TU Munich
[Credit: W. Schürmann/TU München]

The researchers tried to estimate whether the baby dinosaurs would have hatched at the same time or at different times based on the developmental stage of the embryos in the three eggs. The length of the bones in the egg plays an important role here. "The embryo with comparatively longer bones is more developed," explains Yang. Another indication is the extent to which the bones are connected to each other. A more strongly connected skeleton suggests a higher developmental stage of the dinosaur embryo.

A look inside the dinosaur egg

But how is it possible to determine the position of bones inside a fossilized dinosaur egg? The paleontologists at the University of Bonn initially tried to do this with the institute's own X-ray microcomputer tomograph. "Unfortunately, it was not possible to distinguish the bones from the surrounding rock," says Engler.

Right: Neutron tomogram as cross-section through egg 3, scanned at the ANTARES facility. Different bones can be seen
as round, lighter structures, including parts of the pelvis. A 3-D model of the surface of egg 3 can be seen on the left
[Credit: Scan created by Burkhard Schillinger/MLZ]

For this reason, the researchers took the dinosaur eggs to the research neutron source of the Technical University of Munich at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Garching. "The high penetration depth of the neutrons at the NECTAR and ANTARES facilities made it possible to visualize the internal structures," says Dr. Malgorzata Makowska, who was in charge of measurements and analyses at the MLZ and is now carrying out research at the Swiss neutron source PSI.

The length and position of the embryo bones led the researchers to conclude that the single egg must have been laid earlier than the pair of eggs in the same clutch. However, the embryos of the pair were also at different developmental stages. Thin sections confirm these results. The researchers used these to measure the thickness of the eggshells. The developing embryo absorbs part of the shell because it needs calcium for its growing skeleton. "The more material is removed from the egg shell, the more advanced the embryo's development," explains Yang.

Photogrammetry of egg 3:The object was photographed and reconstructed
from different perspectives [Credit: Jens Lallensack]

On the basis of these indications, the scientists conclude that the reproductive biology of oviraptorids were similar to that of modern birds, whose chicks hatch at different times. The results argue against the strategy of crocodiles or turtles, which all emerge from their eggs at the same time. This has brought the researchers one step closer to the life of the long extinct oviraptorids, who roamed Central Asia on two legs. "Furthermore, the study shows that exploring fossils with neutrons yields novel scientific results," says Engler.

Source: University of Bonn [January 22, 2020]

UK museums may have to follow 'decolonisation' checklist

British museums will be asked to assess their collections with a new "decolonising" checklist to ease the repatriation of cultural treasures, and could face financial repercussions if they fail to do so.

Arts Council England has called on experts to draw up new guidelines to address sacred and
significant objects like the Parthenon Marbles and Rosetta Stone [Credit: Telegraph]

Arts Council England has called on experts to draw up new guidelines to address sacred and significant objects like the Parthenon Marbles and Rosetta Stone, which have long provoked pleas for repatriation from aggrieved nations after being seized in the age of empire.

The Government-backed body already requires its portfolio organisations to follow protocols on diversity in order to receive funding, so could demand institutions adhere to its planned credo on colonialism.

It is hoped the checklist would be followed by all UK museums and fill a gap in guidance, but the Arts Council said it was “too soon” to say there would be a financial impact for the organisations it funds.

The guidance will urge UK institutions to be “proactive” about repatriation, and navigating divided public opinion surrounding contested collections.

Following the example of France, where repatriation of colonial spoils has been accelerated by the promises of Emmanuel Macron, experts will be contracted to help UK museums deal with media attention, Government policy, and the long-term future of priceless artefacts.

Easter Islanders have demanded return of the Hoa Hakananai’a statue
[Credit: Londstephen Chung/LNPON News Pictures Ltd]

An Arts Council spokeswoman said: “The aim of the guidance is to encourage a more proactive and coordinated approach across the UK museum sector by providing museums with a practical resource to support them in engaging with and responding to all aspects of restitution and repatriation.

“At this point we’re focused on developing and providing the guidance.”

The Arts Council said it was “too soon” to comment on financial arrangements , or groups being required to follow guidance in order to receive funding, in the same way diversity practices must be demonstrated by the 828 organisations within its portfolio.

An Easter Island Moai looming in the British Museum, an Aboriginal shield, and Ethiopian sacred tablets are among the many artefacts acquired amid imperial expansion which have been demanded back by their ancestral owners.

Last year Cambridge University’s Jesus College handed back a Benin bronze cockerel to Nigeria following student pressure to repatriate the plundered object, and the University of Manchester returned Aboriginal artifacts to their original communities.

Artefacts like this sarcophagus have been repatriated in the past
[Credit: EPA]

Foreseeing ever-increasing demands for repatriation in future, the Arts Council has offered a £42,000 contract to experts who can draw up guidance on decolonisation.

The contract states: “There is significant government, public and press interest and increasing calls for action by UK museums and sector bodies to address this agenda.”

It is understood that planned guidance will work as a checklist to handle claims, from how to deal with publicity and activist agitation, to possible repatriation.

The guidance will urge museums to be proactive in assessing their collections, recognising the potential colonial history of items, and working to educate visitors on both the objects and their provenance.

The Arts Council is keen to stress these benefits of decolonisation, which may lead to items being removed from collections, but can give curators and the public a greater knowledge and appreciation of the objects themselves.

Cambridge University returned this Benin bronze cockerel to Nigeria
[Credit: AFP]

The organisation I understood not to be making moral judgments in the call for guidance, either for or against repatriation, but wishes to provide a uniform template for best practice across the sector.

It is understood future funding may help foreign delegations appraise objects in British museums which could be ripe for repatriation, and the the Arts Council would welcome the range of perspectives on decolonisation provided by staff diversity.

Author: Craig Simpson | Source: Telegraph [January 17, 2020]