Labor Day Weekend -- Quiet -- Except In North Korea Where H-Bomb Testing Said To Be Successful -- September 3, 2017

Active rigs:

$47.35→	9/3/2017	09/03/2016	09/03/2015	09/03/2014	09/03/2013
Active Rigs	56	33	75	193	186

Well, la-di-da: From Reuters via Rigzone:

Oil giant Saudi Aramco is using new technology to re-explore areas of the vast Arabian desert known as the Empty Quarter, which could help to bolster its proven reserves of oil and gas before the company offers its shares to the public.

A team of about 900 people is using advanced seismic technology developed over the last few years to explore 15,400 square kilometres (5,950 square miles) around Turayqa in Saudi Arabia, Aramco said in a statement.

Gas avalailability in north north Texas: worsened overnight. Not much driving expected today. Heavy traffic tomorrow. Folks will need gasoline for Tuesday, going back to work. Situation will be aggravated by people like me who are now keeping their tanks full. Although, on the other hand, I've eliminated all but absolutely necessary driving, like taking Sophia out for ice cream.

Timely: probably the most timely obituary of the year -- that of President Reagan's science advisor, Jay Keyworth.

Jay Keyworth had little idea what to expect when he was named President Ronald Reagan’s science adviser in 1981.

The president called the nuclear physicist his “personal Merlin,” or wizard. One of Dr. Keyworth’s first assignments from Mr. Reagan was to have a quiet chat with his daughter Patti Davis, who was campaigning against nuclear reactors.

Dr. Keyworth’s role became much more public and controversial after President Reagan in March 1983 introduced his Strategic Defense Initiative. Dubbed “Star Wars,” it called for heavy spending on research to create space-based technology to destroy nuclear missiles before they could reach the U.S.

Political foes and many scientists called it wishful thinking. The media played up images of laser beams zapping missiles from space. Dr. Keyworth energetically defended the program as feasible. Although it was dropped by later administrations, the initiative rattled the Soviet Union and contributed to the crumbling of that empire, Dr. Keyworth argued, in a view shared by other Reagan supporters.

One wonders what Patti Davis thinks about North Korea having nuclear-tipped ICBMs that can reach the US?

Asian stock markets: yawn.

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Notes for the Granddaughters

I guess summers always bring out the stories on dinosaurs.

Last month The Smithsonian had this article: Will the Public Ever Get to See the “Dueling Dinosaurs”? America’s most spectacular fossil, found by a plucky Montana rancher, is locked up in a secret storage (scanned).

There was another dinosaur article a reader sent me earlier and now a third article, this one from The Washington Post: 

A 66-million-year-old skull could unlock secrets about triceratops.

During a Facebook Live broadcast from the discovery site, Joe Sertich, dinosaur curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, explained that, as with other triceratops located in the Denver area, this one appears to be about half the size of those that lived farther north, in the Dakotas and Montana.

“We don't really know why,” he added. “Even though we have hundreds of triceratops from the American West, we only have three good skulls. And this might be one of the best skeletons to tell us why Denver triceratops are smaller than all of their cousins everywhere else.”

The ten celebrated fossils unearthed at Hell Creek, Montana, west of Williston:

From the graphic above:

• 1. T. rex, 1908, American Museum of Natural History, NYC;  nearJordan, MT
• 2. T. rex, 1988, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, DC; Jack Horner, nearly 85% of its skeleton complete; nearJordan, MT
• 3. Torosaurus lotus, 1981, Milwaukee Public Museum; most complete specimen of this contested horned species — some think it’s a mature triceratops; nearJordan, MT
• 4. Nanotyrannus lancensis, 2003, Burpee Museum of Natural History, IL; “Jane”; a young T. rex or a pygmy relative of T. rex; second fossil of its kind; one of the Dueling Dinosaurs would make the third; found in SE Montana; directly west of the Black Hills
• 5. Edmontosaurus annectens, 1999, North Dakota Heritage Center, ND; Tyler Larson, teenager, found it; “Dakota”: four-ton duckbilled plant-eater; most of its skin envelope intact; found north of Marmarth, ND, along MT border;
• 6. T. rex, 1987, Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Hill City, SD; the second-most complete T. rex; possessing the most complete skull; “Stan”; found in NW South Dakota, north of Black Hills
• 7. Pachycepahlosaurus wyomingensis, 1995, National Museum of Nature & Science, Tokyo, Japan; bony-headed plant-eater; found in/near Black Hills
• 8. Anzu wyliei, 1998, Carnegie Museum of Natural History; “The Chicken From Hell”; found in/near Black Hills
• 9. Thescelosaurus neglectus, 1993, North Carolina Museum of Natural Selection, Raleigh, NC; “Willo”; inside the ribcage there may be a preserved heart — if so, it would be a first (important: would help establish relationship with birds, reptiles, mammals); found in/near Black Hills
• 10. T. rex, 1990, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL; “Sue”; set auction record at more than $7 million; arguably the most celebrated; more than 90% of her bones recovered; found NE of Faith, SD

It should be noted that "Sue" will be moved "upstairs" at the Field Museum early next year to make room for the world's largest dinosaur discovered so far:

Beginning with her dismantling in February, the apex predator and apex museum specimen is being kicked upstairs in favor of a dinosaur much bigger and much more recently discovered — the world’s largest, in fact, the Patagotitan mayorum, a plant eater unearthed in South America in 2014.

My best dinosaur books:

The opened book is Evolution: The Whole Story, Thames and Hudson, general editor, Steve Parker, c. 2015, perhaps the best "general/overall" book on this subject, for middle school, high school, and undergraduate students.

I found Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway at the Pioneer Trails Regional Museum, Bowman, ND, a couple of years ago.