Tuesday, August 31, 2010

[Volcano_Vista_HS] VVHS Curriculum Night--Wednesday, September 1, 2010

On Wednesday, August 25, we met with our advisory students for the first time. This year, we have a complete curriculum to use for our students provided by the district. It was necessary that we restructure our advisories to the same grade level student for each advisor. Although this was an adjustment for many of our students who have been assigned the same advisor for several years, the change was necessary. If you are interested, the curriculum can be found at aps.blackboard.com. Of course, we will hold the student-led conferences through the advisory teachers.

Our first meeting was brief. Students picked up their packet from their previous advisory teacher and met their new teacher. We led the students in an activity that familiarized them with the student agenda/calendar. We also gave students the information for Curriculum Night. The form handed to the students has the schedule of times for each class to meet. Hopefully, your student completed the form with their schedule of classes and gave you the form for your use on, Wednesday, September 1. First period begins at 6:15 pm and zero hour begins at 6:00 pm. There are additional forms on our website.

See you tomorrow, Wednesday, September 1 at 6:15 pm.

Yvonne Garcia, Principal

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[Volcano_Vista_HS] VVHS Announcements--Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Teachers â€" remember to use your Hawk â€" Soar Cards to recognize students for exhibiting the Core Values that we expect at VVHS â€" Safety, Organization, Achievement and Respect. If you need more cards, visit your academy or stop by 9th Grade Academy office.

For anyone interested in playing chess. The first official chess club meeting of the year will be this Thursday after school in F114, Mr. Christensonâ€™s room. Feel free to come in and play any day during lunch in F114.

The FIDM Fashion Club's first meeting will be THIS THURSDAY, Sept. 2nd, at lunch in Mrs. Bergsten's room, F225 which is near the TOC room. New members are welcome and encouraged, and we will begin planning the Homecoming fashion show immediately.

MESA will be meeting in G203 every Thursday. Please plan to attend if you are interested in Math, Science or Engineering. Opportunities for scholarships, competition, field trips and much more."

A meeting will be held on Thursday, September 2 at 6 PM in room F105 for all students interested in joining the Mock Trial team. The meeting will last about thirty minutes.â€¨

COME JOIN THE FILM CLUB!!

FIRST MEETING IS: IN G184 AT LUNCH ON TUESDAY.

Students who need to recover credit in English and math should speak with their counselors about the VVHS After-school Credit Recovery Program. The courses are free and self-paced. It is the most convenient way to recover missing credits!

The ITT Technical Institute located is proud to announce the Partners in Education program for the September Quarter 2010. The program offers high school seniors the opportunity to begin taking post secondary courses in a wide range of programs. See your counselor for more information

Do you think you're smart? Could you beat Chuck Norris...in a battle of wits? If so, check out ACADEMIC DECATHLON. We'll be having our first meeting today @ LUNCH in Mrs. Taylor's room, E113. ACADEMIC DECATHLON is the ultimate competition--an intense high-octane battle of smarts, where only the strong-minded survive. Everyone is welcome."

Parking passes will be on sale at 7am and at lunch today in the Activities Office. Passes are $35.00. Please remember to bring all the requested information with you when you make your purchase. After Labor Day parking passes may be purchased on Tuesdayâ€™s and Thursdayâ€™s before school and at lunch in the Activities Office.

APS Punch Cards are still for sale in the 9th Grade Academy office during lunch.

Seniors: you may make nominations for your class song, motto, and flower in the activities office in the morning and at lunch.

Athletics:

Pre-season wrestling meeting today after school in the wrestling room. No experience required. Come ask questions and watch if you are interested.

C Team and JV Volleyball begins tonight at VVHS. Game times are 5 and 6 PM

Itâ€™s Great to be a Hawk!

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[Geology2] Marine animals suggest evidence for a trans-Antarctic seaway

Marine animals suggest evidence for a trans-Antarctic seaway

by bjs on 30. Aug, 2010

A tiny marine filter-feeder, that anchors itself to the sea bed, offers new clues to scientists studying the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet — a region that is thought to be vulnerable to collapse(1).

As part of a study for the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML), scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) analysed sea-bed colonies of bryozoans from coastal and deep sea regions around the continent and from further afield. They found striking similarities in particular species of bryozoans living on the continental shelves of two seas – the Ross and Weddell – that are around 1,500 miles apart and separated by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

This new finding, published this month in the journal Global Change Biology, leads the science team to conclude that these animals could have spread across both seas only by means of a trans-Antarctic seaway through what is now a 2 km solid layer of ice. They suggest also that this seaway opened up during a recent interglacial (warm period between ice ages) perhaps as recently as 125,000 years ago when sea level was about 5 metres higher than today.

While some geological evidence suggests that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) collapsed at least once in the last million years, scientists are keen to determine the frequency of collapse and to understand the processes and connections between warm periods and deglaciation events. Elsewhere around Antarctica the marine animals that could help scientists estimate the date when West Antarctica was ice free, were obliterated during ice ages by advancing glaciers that bulldozed their fossil remains off the continental shelf.

This new biological evidence contributes to glaciological investigations focused on the future stability of the WAIS, which may have a major impact on the rate of sea level rise in the coming centuries. Scientists estimate that a complete collapse of the WAIS would raise global sea level by around 3.3 m to 5 m.

Lead author of the paper Dr David Barnes of British Antarctic Survey said,

"The West Antarctic Ice Sheet can be considered the Achilles heel of Antarctica and because any collapse will have implications for future sea level rise it's important that scientists get a better understanding of big deglaciation events. This biological evidence is one of the novel ways that we look for clues that help us reconstruct Antarctica's ice sheet history.

"Our new research provides compelling evidence that a seaway stretching across West Antarctica could have opened up only if the ice sheet had collapsed in the past.

"When we found groups of strikingly similar bryozoans hundreds of miles apart we knew we were onto something very interesting. Perhaps these species had survived the last ice age whereas in all other regions of Antarctica they were wiped out. We know that after the last ice age groups of bryozoans dispersed freely between many of the regions we studied. But because the larvae of these animals sink and this stage of their life is short — and the adult form anchors itself to the seabed — it's very unlikely that they would have dispersed the long distances carried by ocean currents. For the bryozoans on both the Weddell and Ross sea continental shelves to be more similar to one another than to any of those found in the waters in between is striking indeed. Our conclusion is that the colonisation of both these regions is a signal that both seas were connected by a trans-Antarctic seaway in the recent past."

Issued by the BAS Press Office:

Stunning broadcast-quality footage and stills of Antarctica, along with a copy of the full Global Change Biology paper are available at: ftp://ftp.nerc-bas.ac.uk/pub/photo/DavidBarnes/

Images used should be credited to British Antarctic Survey

Global Change Biology paper: Faunal evidence for a late quaternary trans-Antarctic seaway
by David K A Barnes and Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand – see early view online version at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02198.x/full

Notes for editors:

Bryozoans (aquatic animals sometimes referred to as moss animals) feed on microorganisms suspended in the water column. Their larvae are benthic and short-lived but this is the dispersal stage – as adults they anchor themselves to the seabed. Many of the 500 species around Antarctica are restricted to shallows and particular continental shelves.

Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) is the International Polar Year 2007-08 component of the Census of Marine Life – a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world's first comprehensive Census of Marine Life – past, present, and future – will be released in 2010.

1 The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is considered to be most vulnerable to global change. It has been suggested that the WAIS may be prone to collapse under warmer climatic conditions, which could raise global sea level by 3.3-5 metres. Some scenarios predict a collapse of the WAIS within the coming centuries, and others suggest a collapse within the next 4,000 – 7,000 years. Some geological data and ice sheet models suggest that the WAIS may have disintegrated at least once during the last million years, possibly as recently as 125,000 years ago. So far, geological data has not provided clear evidence for a collapse as recently as this. Scientists recognise the urgency in improving their understanding of this region of the Earth.

British Antarctic Survey (BAS), a component of the Natural Environment Research Council, delivers world-leading interdisciplinary research in the Polar Regions. Its skilled science and support staff based in Cambridge, Antarctica and the Arctic, work together to deliver research that underpins a productive economy and contributes to a sustainable world. Its numerous national and international collaborations, leadership role in Antarctic affairs and excellent infrastructure help ensure that the UK maintains a world leading position. BAS has over 450 staff and operates five research stations, two Royal Research Ships and five aircraft in and around Antarctica.

Source

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[Geology2] 'Stocky Dragon' Dinosaur, Relative of Velociraptor, Terrorized Late Cretaceous Europe

This reconstruction shows the skeletal anatomy of Balaur bondoc. While only a few bones exist, they reveal a great deal about the organism, and represent one of the most complete predatory dinosaur skeletons from the middle to Late Cretaceous of Europe. (Credit: Mick Ellison; Zoltan Csiki; Matyas Vremir; Stephan Brusatte; Mark Norell; AMNH)

'Stocky Dragon' Dinosaur, Relative of Velociraptor, Terrorized Late Cretaceous Europe

ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2010) — By describing a new double-clawed and highly-unusual relative of Velociraptor, paleontologists have answered a long-standing question: what did the Late Cretaceous predatory dinosaurs in Europe look like? Balaur bondoc, described in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first reasonably complete skeleton of a meat-eating dinosaur from the final 60 million years of the Age of Dinosaurs in Europe and provides insight into an ecosystem very different from that of today. Europe at the end of the Cretaceous was awash in higher seas and was an island archipelago dominated by animals smaller and more primitive than their relatives living on larger landmasses.

"We've all been waiting for something like this, and the wait has yielded an interesting surprise," says Mark Norell, chair of the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History and one of the authors of the research paper describing the fossil. "B. bondoc is heavy, with unexpectedly stocky limbs and fused bones. It shows just how unusual the fauna of the area was during the waning years of the dinosaur era."

"Balaur might be one of the largest predators in this ecosystem because not even a big tooth has been found in Romania after over a hundred years of research," says co-author Zoltán Csiki of the University of Bucharest. "Fragmentary remains of Balaur were already known for more than 10 years, but the morphology is so weird we didn't have any idea where to fit them."

Balaur bondoc, which means "stocky dragon," was unearthed in Romania by geologist and co-author Mátyás Vremir of the Transylvanian Museum Society. Higher sea levels at the end of the Cretaceous flooded much of present-day continental Europe, so Romania, which was an island, is now one of the best windows into Europe at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. Other fossils discovered in these deposits include dwarf sauropods that were the size of cows and tiny duck-billed dinosaurs.

These herbivorous dinosaurs had features not unexpected in island inhabitants: the so-called "island effect" postulates that island dwellers tend to be stranger and smaller than close relatives on continental land masses. Also, animals endemic to islands are often more primitive than their mainland relatives.

The new theropod fossil, the type specimen, is a partial skeleton that includes leg, hip, backbone, arms, hand, rib, and tail bones. But B. bondoc has 20 unique features when compared to its nearest relatives, including a re-evolved functional big toe with a large claw that can be hyperextended, presumably used to slash prey. Because there is also a large claw on the second toe, as is typical of the group of dinosaurs to which B. bondoc belongs, the new species has unusual double-clawed feet. Unique features are also found in other parts of the foot, leg, and pelvis. The feet and legs are short and stocky, with bones fused together, and the pelvis has enormous muscle attachment areas, indicating that this species was adapted for strength over speed. Finally, the hand is atrophied and some of the bones are fused, features that would have made grasping difficult. This, in combination with the leg and foot traits, indicates that the lower limbs rather than hands were used to grasp and disembowel prey.

"Balaur is a new breed of predatory dinosaur, very different from anything we have ever known," says Stephen Brusatte, a graduate student at Columbia University who is affiliated with the Museum. "Its anatomy shows that it probably hunted in a different way than its less stocky relatives. Compared to Velociraptor, Balaur was probably more of a kickboxer than a sprinter, and it might have been able to take down larger animals than itself, as many carnivores do today."

"Nevertheless, Balaur is the size of an oversized turkey and unlike what we know of the large predators from other parts of the world at the same time period, like Tyrannosaurus or Carnotaurus," says Csiki. "As European dinosaur faunas were known to be peculiar, we half-expected to find peculiar predators as well. But, as the first good record of these, Balaur surely exceeds our most daring expectations."

But while B. bondoc has unique features expected from the "island effect," its relationship with other dromaeosaurs shows that there was some faunal exchange between the Romanian island that the mainland -- at least among the carnivorous dinosaurs.

"Because Balaur is related to dinosaurs like Velociraptor, it indicates that the European island archipelago had a faunal connection with other parts of Europe, Asia and North America where this group of dinosaurs has also been found in similarly aged rocks," says Norell. "It also shows how pervasive island effects can be in producing truly unusual animals."

The new fossil is described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors include Csiki, Vremir, Brusatte, and Norell. The research was funded in part by the American Museum of Natural History, the National Science Foundation, Columbia University Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, the Romanian National University Research Council, Richard and Lynn Jaffe.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by American Museum of Natural History, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

American Museum of Natural History. "'Stocky Dragon' Dinosaur, Relative of Velociraptor, Terrorized Late Cretaceous Europe." ScienceDaily 30 August 2010. 31 August 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2010/08/100830152523.htm>.

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[Geology2] Impact Hypothesis Loses Its Sparkle

Tyrone Daulton is pictured with the transmission electron microscrope he used to search in vain for shock-synthesized nanodiamonds, evidence that a extraterrestrial object such as a meteorite killed off North American megafauna. (Credit: Tyrone Daulton)

Impact Hypothesis Loses Its Sparkle: Shock-Synthesized Diamonds Said to Prove Catastrophic Impact Killed Off N. American Megafauna Can't Be Found

ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2010) — About 12,900 years ago, a sudden cold snap interrupted the gradual warming that had followed the last Ice Age. The cold lasted for the 1,300-year interval known as the Younger Dryas (YD) before the climate began to warm again.

In North America, large animals known as megafauna, such as mammoths, mastodons, saber-tooth tigers and giant short-faced bears, became extinct. The Paleo-Indian culture known as the Clovis culture for distinctively shaped fluted stone spear points abruptly vanished, eventually replaced by more localized regional cultures.

What had happened?

One theory is that either a comet airburst or a meteor impact somewhere in North America set off massive environmental changes that killed animals and disrupted human communities.

In sedimentary deposits dating to the beginning of the YD, impact proponents have reported finding carbon spherules containing tiny nano-scale diamonds, which they thought to be created by shock metamorphism or chemical vapor deposition when the impactor struck.

The nanodiamonds included lonsdaleite, an unusal form of diamond that has a hexagonal lattice rather than the usual cubic crystal lattice. Lonsdaleite is particularly interesting because it has been found inside meteorites and at known impact sites.

In the August 30 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists led by Tyrone Daulton, PhD, a research scientist in the physics department at Washington University in St. Louis, reported that they could find no diamonds in YD boundary layer material.

Daulton and his colleagues, including Nicholas Pinter, PhD, professor of geology at Southern Illinois University In Carbondale and Andrew C. Scott, PhD, professor of applied paleobotany of Royal Holloway University of London, show that the material reported as diamond is instead forms of carbon related to commonplace graphite, the material used for pencils.

"Of all the evidence reported for a YD impact event, the presence of hexagonal diamond in YD boundary sediments represented the strongest evidence suggesting shock processing," Daulton, who is also a member of WUSTL's Center for Materials Innovation, says.

However, a close examination of carbon spherules from the YD boundary using transmission electron microscopy by the Daulton team found no nanodiamonds. Instead, graphene- and graphene/graphane-oxide aggregates were found in all the specimens examined (including carbon spherules dated from before the YD to the present). Importantly, the researchers demonstrated that previous YD studies misidentified graphene/graphane-oxides as hexagonal diamond and likely misidentified graphene as cubic diamond.

The YD impact hypothesis was in trouble already before this latest finding. Many other lines of evidence -- including: fullerenes, extraterrestrial forms of helium, purported spikes in radioactivity and iridium, and claims of unique spikes in magnetic meteorite particles -- had already been discredited. According to Pinter, "nanodiamonds were the last man standing."

"We should always have a skeptical attitude to new theories and test them thoroughly," Scott says, "and if the evidence goes against them they should be abandoned."

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Washington University in St. Louis, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Washington University in St. Louis. "Impact Hypothesis Loses Its Sparkle: Shock-Synthesized Diamonds Said to Prove Catastrophic Impact Killed Off N. American Megafauna Can't Be Found." ScienceDaily 30 August 2010. 31 August 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2010/08/100830152530.htm>.

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Monday, August 30, 2010

[californiadisasters] North Ops News & Notes Update (8/30/10-6:45AM)

Date	Time	News and Notes
08/30/2010	0646	The Bullard Incident, CA-TNF, under unified command, is 1307 acres with75 percent containment.

Source: http://gacc.nifc.gov/oncc/predictive/intelligence/news_notes/index.htm

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[californiadisasters] On This Date In CA Weather History (August 30)

On This Date In California Weather History....

2008: A large and severe thunderstorm produced flash flooding and severe hail in the San Jacinto Mountains.
Flash floods up to three feet deep carried rocks and mud and covered many roads in Idyllwild-Fern Valley.
The storm dropped hailstones in size from marbles to walnuts (1.5 inch in diameter).
Hail injured two during an already progressing search and rescue operation at Suicide Rock.
These are the only documented injuries resulting from direct hail impact in California history.
Also, a helicopter made an emergency landing.
Another thunderstorm produced a minor flash flood in Forest Falls.

2007: Latest in the season Fresno has ever had a low temperature of 80 degree or better, low temperature for the day was 81 degrees.

1998: Strong thunderstorms developed each day starting on 8.29 and ending on 8.31.
1.5 inches of rain fell at Apple Valley, 0.77 inch fell in only 45 minutes at Wrightwood, and 0.68 inch fell in only 30 minutes at Forest Falls.
Homes and roads were flooded with four to six feet of water in Hesperia and Apple Valley.
Rock slides occurred in Mill Creek.
Roads were flooded in Sugarloaf and Forest Falls.
Flash flooding was also recorded in Hemet.
Severe thunderstorm wind gusts of 86 mph hit Sage (south of Hemet).
Gusts of 50 mph were recorded at Rialto and gusts of 45 mph hit San Marcos.
Trees and power lines were downed.
Record heat occurred near the coast as well on these same days.
Temperatures hit 112° in Yorba Linda, 110° in Hemet and Riverside, and over 100° in most of Orange County.
It was 114° in Dulzura on 8.29.

1998: The high temperature at Hawthorne, NV was 102.

1972: Hurricane Hyacinth moved as far west as 125 West before recurving to the northeast.
The remnants made landfall between Los Angeles and San Diego on 9.3 with winds of 25 mph and rainfall of up to one inch in the mountains from 8.29 to 9.6.
This tropical cyclone holds the distinction of traveling the farthest west before recurving and making landfall in Southern California.
This occurred during the El Niño of 1972-73.
Only 0.44 inch was measured in San Diego.

1972: A cloud burst associated with Tropical Storm Gwen off the coast of southern California dropped 0.99 inches of rain falling 14 miles southwest of Coalinga in the Bear Canyon Jupiter area resulting in flash flooding.

1967: Hurricane Katrina crossed the southern tip of Baja California, then traversed almost the entire length of the Gulf of California before making landfall again and rapidly weakening.
More than two inches of rain fell on this day and on 8.31.
Two inches fell at La Quinta and the city was cut off for several hours.
150 homes were damaged by floods in Palm Desert and Indian Wells.
Numerous roads were washed out in the Coachella Valley.
The Fort Irwin road north of Barstow was flooded, isolating the army base on this day.

1966: The low temperature in Fresno plunged to 49 degrees, setting an all-time record low for the month of August.
This is also the earliest in the season Fresno has seen a low temperature in the 40s.

1957: It was 52° in Palm Springs, the lowest temperature on record for August.
This also occurred on 8.27.1954.

1909: A heavy thunderstorm in the San Bernardino Mountains produced flood waters that damaged businesses in San Bernardino.

1906P: The high temperature at Lovelock, NV was 102.

Source: NWS Hanford, Reno, & San Diego

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VOLCANO MADNESS

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

[Volcano_Vista_HS] VVHS Curriculum Night--Wednesday, September 1, 2010

[Volcano_Vista_HS] VVHS Announcements--Tuesday, August 31, 2010

[Geology2] Marine animals suggest evidence for a trans-Antarctic seaway

Marine animals suggest evidence for a trans-Antarctic seaway

[Geology2] 'Stocky Dragon' Dinosaur, Relative of Velociraptor, Terrorized Late Cretaceous Europe

'Stocky Dragon' Dinosaur, Relative of Velociraptor, Terrorized Late Cretaceous Europe

[Geology2] Impact Hypothesis Loses Its Sparkle

Impact Hypothesis Loses Its Sparkle: Shock-Synthesized Diamonds Said to Prove Catastrophic Impact Killed Off N. American Megafauna Can't Be Found

Monday, August 30, 2010

[californiadisasters] North Ops News & Notes Update (8/30/10-6:45AM)

[californiadisasters] On This Date In CA Weather History (August 30)

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