Lofty Matters

Well…we’ve got January under our belts so that means winter is one-third over. How does that feel? Not quite enough for you yet? Yeah…me neither. I hate winter. We are back into the deep freeze here in the upper midwest and it is not nice. Although, I hear temps are supposed to moderate slowly over the next few days and then get pretty decent next week. Sounds like people all over the country are getting hit with nasty weather of some sort or another.

Needing some good news? Me too!

Scientists have finally confirmed color in a dinosaur.

The first proof of color has been determined in the fossilized tail feathers of a small meat-eating dinosaur named Sinosauropteryx. The dinosaur seems to have red rings. This also confirms what some experts say is even more conclusive evidence that some dinosaurs had feathers.

The dinosaur feathers contain melanosomes like other feathers. Melanosomes are molecules that contain color-producing pigments. Although the pigment is long gone in the fossils, the shape of the melanosome indicates what color it was. Sinosauropteryx had sphere-shaped melanosomes, which indicates red, and sausage-shaped melasomes, which indicates whitish-gray.

Tablets Are On Their Way to Consumers
Apple’s tablet is not the first of this new generation of devices, although it may be the most anticipated.

HTC and Google are joining forces to create on a tablet. HP and Dell expect to have their own tablets. Microsoft may as well.

Other tablets announced or available:

Archos 5 Internet Tablet (available since last fall) has a 5-inch touchscreen which can show movies in high-definition, includes 3-D GPS navigation and operates with the Android operating system.

The enTourage eDGe has two screens and is labeled as an e-reader, tablet, netbook, notepad, and “audio/video recorder and player.

The Litl Webbook has a 12-inch screen and a keyboard that flips around to give the device more functionality.

Hanvon tablet (uses the Windows 7 OS) has a 10.1-inch touchscreen and has handwriting recognition software.

White Roofs Do Cool Temperatures
Painting the roofs of city buildings white could make a big difference. White roofs can be effective for reducing urban heat. The idea is being tested in Seattle and Washington, D.C., as well as Europe.

If every roof in a city were entirely painted white, the urban heat could be reduced by 33 percent. This would cool the world’s cities by an average of 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit, with the cooling influence being particularly dramatic during the day.

The downside? White roofs would cool temperatures within buildings as well. Good in the summer but not so much in the winter.

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