Althouse: "It was the delicate, feathered tail of a tiny dinosaur."

December 9, 2016

"It was the delicate, feathered tail of a tiny dinosaur."

Preserved in amber.

16 comments:

William said...: It's only one delicate, feathered tail. I don think we can all it a trend.; 12/9/16, 8:37 AM
Peter said...: And now enter the Jurassic Park cloners?; 12/9/16, 8:39 AM
chickelit said...: Electrifying!

The word "electra" comes from the Greek word for amber (link); 12/9/16, 8:46 AM
Big Mike said...: The coelosauers in Jurassic Park were featherless. Are there plans to redo the CGI in light of this discovery?; 12/9/16, 8:48 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: When that tiny dinosaur went missing, its parents probably thought it had been abducted.

I wonder if they issued any sort of an alert?; 12/9/16, 8:54 AM
rhhardin said...: Pic taken this morning through the kitchen window shows a former dinosaur awaiting either a mouse or the neighborhood cat given to hunting mice in my backyard. I haven't seen the cat for a few days; perhaps dino thinks where there's one cat there's another.

Note segment of 40m antenna (actually the tiny wire to the left is the antenna; the rest is support).; 12/9/16, 8:57 AM
rehajm said...: I wonder if they issued any sort of an alert?

That's gold, Jerry! Gold!; 12/9/16, 9:01 AM
traditionalguy said...: Are The Birds are preparing to attack Tippi Hedren again?; 12/9/16, 9:02 AM
mikee said...: In the movie Pirhana, a B- movie at best, there is a scene in the rural cabin of a mad professor where, for a few fleeting seconds, a stop-motion animated creature appears on the screen, is scared by the actors who don't even see it, then runs off. There is no explanation of the creature's appearance, it has no bearing on the plot or scene, it is just a few seconds of directorial whimsy. And it was the best few seconds of the film.

Finding a 90,000,000+ million year old piece of amber with the actual feathers of a dinosaur embedded within is, to me, a similar moment of divine, or if you prefer, universal whimsy, which should brighten the day of everyone who hears of it.

Thanks, world, for letting us enjoy this wonder.; 12/9/16, 9:05 AM
Original Mike said...: @rhhardin - Is the support metal? Doesn't that affect the radiation pattern?; 12/9/16, 9:48 AM
JAORE said...: Perhaps it was just a tiny dinosaur with a sense of style....; 12/9/16, 9:51 AM
Roughcoat said...: Perhaps it was just a tiny dinosaur with a sense of style....

You mean it was flamboyant? I.e., gay.; 12/9/16, 10:17 AM
rhhardin said...: @rhhardin - Is the support metal? Doesn't that affect the radiation pattern?

It's a Spiderbeam fiberglass pole, very nicely engineered by the way.

I have a bigger one that I'll substitute when this one falls down. For now this one does so well that I'm loathe to touch it.; 12/9/16, 10:53 AM
Alex said...: Small feathered dinosaurs will replace dogs as the new pets in 2040s.; 12/9/16, 2:34 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Rh, why don't you just fasten the end of the wire to the top of the tree?; 12/10/16, 10:59 AM
rhhardin said...: Rh, why don't you just fasten the end of the wire to the top of the tree?

Trees conduct, owing to water content; also the tree is way back by the 19kv power line and the pole is a hundred feet closer, in open space.

Antennas produce evanescent fields, meaning radio frequency waves that have the wrong wavelength to propagate owing to antenna shape, that build up and collapse back on the antenna, which means they eventually radiate after producing higher currents and voltages in the antenna they collapse back on. If they hit trees and leaves and grass first, they don't collapse on the antenna and their energy is lost.

So you want antennas away from stuff.

This particular antenna is a ground plane with radials ten feet up, to reduce radiation into the lawn as well.

If I put in the bigger pole, the radials will slope downwards somewhat, which will lower the radiation angle; whether that will improve actual performance or make it worse I can't predict. It's awfully good now.

The radials double as guy wires for the bottom half of the pole.; 12/10/16, 1:01 PM