Venus: Where has all the water gone?
Conditions on the surface of venus are reviewed and evidence for the existence of a hydrosphere assessed. Escape mechanisms are examined and found to be insufficient to explain the presumed absence of liquid water on venus. The consequences of a hot, acidic hydrosphere are explored as is marginal evidence for biological activity.
The Upper Atmosphere of Venus: A Review
Abstract The implications of recent data on Venus obtained by Mariner 5, Venera 4 and ground based observations for the aeronomy of Venus is received. The theoretical thermal structure model of McElroy based on a pure CO2 atmosphere is in good agreement with the temperature deduced from the hydrogen distribution obtained by Mariner 5. No credible mechanism has been devised to recombine CO and O to CO2 in the upper atmosphere. It is suggested that O2 is formed but that CO and O2 recombine to CO2 in the dense atmosphere far enough above the cloud tops to agree with abundance measurements. Serious difficulties exist for the H2 model of the upper atmosphere. It is suggested that deuterium can account for the anomalous Lyman α glow observed by Mariner 5 without implying a large D/H planetary ratio. Other problems such as the maintenance of the ionosphere at night and the escape of water are discussed.
Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist
This classic is the benchmark against which all modern books about Nietzsche are measured. When Walter Kaufmann wrote it in the immediate aftermath of World War II, most scholars outside Germany viewed Nietzsche as part madman, part proto-Nazi, and almost wholly unphilosophical. Kaufmann rehabilitated Nietzsche nearly single-handedly, presenting his works as one of the great achievements of Western philosophy. Responding to the powerful myths and countermyths that had sprung up around Nietzsche, Kaufmann offered a patient, evenhanded account of his life and works, and of the uses and abuses to which subsequent generations had put his ideas.Without ignoring or downplaying the ugliness of many of Nietzsche's proclamations, he set them in the context of his work as a whole and of the counterexamples yielded by a responsible reading of his books. More positively, he presented Nietzsche's ideas about power as one of the great accomplishments of modern philosophy, arguing that his conception of the "will to power" was not a crude apology for ruthless self-assertion but must be linked to Nietzsche's equally profound ideas about sublimation.He also presented Nietzsche as a pioneer of modern psychology and argued that a key to understanding his overall philosophy is to see it as a reaction against Christianity. Many scholars in the past half century have taken issue with some of Kaufmann's interpretations, but the book ranks as one of the most influential accounts ever written of any major Western thinker.