Dougs Easy Deals

This wrist cuff would not work without flexible material.

Wired Design has run a raft of stories on how 3-D printers are getting better, but it’s not just the hardware that needs to improve — it’s also the raw material, the stuff your stuff is made from. So far, consumer 3-D printing has mostly been about hardened plastic, with some forays into materials like ceramic and silver. If you wanted to print something bendy, you were out of luck. Until now.

Yesterday, Shapeways, a 3-D print-on-demand service based in New York, launched Elasto Plastic. Unlike the standard ABS plastic wire, this stuff is flexible. “From what we can tell,” says Director of Marketing Carine Carmy, “it’s the only highly flexible 3-D printed material accessible to everyone.”

Why is this important?

In terms of its evolutionary progress, 3-D printing is in 1987, the year you got your first desktop printer and had just a handful of fonts to play with. The materials available are limited in number, and their properties are influenced by the method of manufacturing. Every material has a different weight and durability and strength and handles differently under stress, heat, and tension. One of the core parts of industrial design is choosing materials that work well for your application.

On one level, this is obvious — the glass on a smartphone is very, very different from the glass in a windshield. For makers, having a variety of materials to play with blows open the field of possible projects.

Dino Hand and Squishy Duck discuss the finer points of elasticity and tensile strength.

Shapeways’ mission is to “enable people to make whatever they can buy,” says Shapeways Product Manager Nancy Liang. For that to work, Shapeways needs to have a palette of raw materials that can at least approximate the range of capabilities in the stuff we buy. Adding a flexible material is another step in filling out that palette.

Shapeways has been throwing out teasers to its community, and even ran a contest for designs that take advantage of flexibility. “We’ve received shoes, gloves, erasers, fishing lures, jewelry, gadget cases, and many other household products,” says Carmy — stuff that would be nearly impossible if one were working with rigid plastic.

Designer WillLaPuerta made a rubbery dragon pencil topper, remarking in the description, “No, this is not an eraser.” As it turns out, Elasto Plastic does function as an eraser, and WillLaPuerta is walking away with the prize for Innovative Use of Material.

Designer WillLaPuerta made a dragon to put on your pencil which turns out to be a great eraser.

The Shapeways community is getting a handle on the material in the same way a professional industrial designer would — with a lot of experimentation.

“There is still a lot to learn,” says Liang, “It’s not perfect yet, but it is innovative, and very exciting stuff to work with.”

Images courtesy of Shapeways.

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/AzLD-QLC2VE/

Photo: SpaceX/Roger Gilbertson

After months of anticipation and a series of delays, SpaceX is once again ready to fly.

In the early hours of May 19, the private spaceflight company’s Dragon capsule is scheduled to lift off from the launch pad and, four days later, attempt to dock with the International Space Station. (You can watch the launch live at 4:55 EDT on our Open Space site.) If everything is successful, SpaceX will become the first private company to accomplish something that only nation-states have previously done.

But success remains a big “if.” Even the company’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk, has been quick to point out that SpaceX is still in a kind of beta-testing mode.

“It’s not as though we’re asserting that success is highly likely,” Musk told our aerospace reporter Jason Paur during a live Google+ hangout interview. “In fact, we’re saying that there’s a very good chance that the mission might not succeed. That’s the nature of a test.”

In the buildup to the test launch, Wired has been conducting interviews with experts from the spaceflight community, getting their opinions and asking what sort of an impact the Dragon’s launch will have. Those weighing in have included a legal scholar, a former SpaceX executive, a NASA engineer, a former astronaut, and two of our own Wired Science bloggers: space historian David S. Portree and DIY spacecraft builder Kristian von Bengtson. You can read the full interviews or check out some key excerpts below.

The mission has attracted a variety of viewpoints. Some have praised SpaceX for their attempt to usher in a new era of spaceflight while others have criticized the company for over-hyping what they can realistically achieve. Here we present a roundup of the diverse ideas regarding this SpaceX launch.

We first wanted to know how much to believe the buzz about this upcoming flight. Elon Musk has stated that he started SpaceX to bring down the cost of spaceflight and eventually develop the technology to bring people to Mars. While that day is far in the future, we wondered:

Will this launch be a big game-changer for how spaceflight is done?

“Emotionally, it’s a big deal. If it’s a spectacular success, there will be a lot of high-fiving and pats on the back, and they will be very well deserved. If it’s a failure, we can take comfort in the fact that it’s just a step. This is a challenging test program and that’s how you learn.” Read more.

– Michael Lopez-Alegria
President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a private-spaceflight advocacy group.

“This is a game changer in terms of proving it’s a commercially viable thing to do. It’s being done and procured on a commercial basis. So this launch is like a Netscape moment in many ways. SpaceX will open up the gates for a lot of new business opportunities.” Read more.

– Lawrence Williams
Former vice president for strategic relations at SpaceX and one of its founding executives.

“In certain ways yes, and in others ways, it won’t be as big a change as all the hype behind it. SpaceX is a private company but they could not succeed without significant government money and the promise of a fairly large supply contract.” Read more.

– Henry Hertzfeld
Scholar of economic, legal, and policy issues surrounding spaceflight and NASA at George Washington University in Washington D.C.

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Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/SwgYd4AYSGA/

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

The world’s youngest ocean has tides that were first recorded in 600 AD by men of what profession?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER (mouseover to see):

Search [frown lines muscles] to learn that a frown contracts muscles between your eyebrows called the corrugator and the procerus. Search [corrugator procerus] to find that the corrugator muscles run obliquely, while the procerus muscle runs vertically and is shaped like a small pyramid just above your nose, fanning up into your forehead.

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/eiGA4lVZoB8/

*Gosh, I love wire art. I bet there’s some way to mash-up an app for Calder-style mobiles to a gizmo like this, and go completely nuts.

*That’s really a beautiful example of “cheap complexity” in 3d manufacturing.

The DIWire Bender
by PENSA! 2 weeks 3 days ago

“The DIWire Bender is a rapid prototype machine that bends metal wire to produce 2D or 3D shapes.

“Wire unwinds from a spool, passes through a series of wheels that straighten it, and then feeds through the bending head, which moves around in 3 dimensions to create the desired bends and curves. Vector files (e.g., Adobe Illustrator files), text files of commands (e.g., feed 50 mm, bend 90° to right…) provide DIWire’s instructions.

“It’s essentially a 3D printer that describes lines, instead of volumes, in space, and it could be used for anything from prototypes to customized products.”

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/Qp2zzu1L3vY/

*Given the state of things, it’s a wonder that European “extremists” aren’t a whole lot extremer than the likes of this guy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/18/greek-leftist-leader-alexis-tsipras

“I don’t believe in heroes or saviours,” says Alexis Tsipras, “but I do believe in fighting for rights … no one has the right to reduce a proud people to such a state of wretchedness and indignity.”

“The man who holds the fate of the euro in his hands – as the leader of the Greek party willing to tear up the country’s €130bn (£100bn) bailout agreement – says Greece is on the frontline of a war that is engulfing Europe.

“A long bombardment of “neo-liberal shock” – draconian tax rises and remorseless spending cuts – has left immense collateral damage. “We have never been in such a bad place,” he says, sleeves rolled up, staring hard into the middle distance, from behind the desk that he shares in his small parliamentary office. “After two and a half years of catastrophe, Greeks are on their knees. The social state has collapsed, one in two youngsters is out of work, there are people leaving en masse, the climate psychologically is one of pessimism, depression, mass suicides.”

“But while exhausted and battle weary, the nation at the forefront of Europe’s escalating debt crisis and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy is also hardened. And, increasingly, they are looking towards Tsipras to lead their fight….”

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/6p1WKblwQy4/

A model of the USS Enterprise. Image: Louie Kenny/Flickr

Only an imagination made of stone could fail to stir at the thought of a real-world USS Enterprise blasting away from Earth within 20 years, reaching Mars in three months and restoring a sense of epic grandeur to mankind’s spacefaring dreams.

But is that vision, which went viral thanks to the detailed blueprints of an anonymous self-described engineer known only as BTE Dan, actually possible? Trillion-dollar price tag aside, could this 21st century interpretation of the Enterprise boldly go where no one has gone before?

Unfortunately not, say spacecraft designers, but it’s still a worthwhile thought experiment.

“In summary: Cool idea, not very practical, extremely optimistic in assumptions for near-term developments,” said John Elliott, flight system lead on NASA’s Outer Planet Flagship Mission. “But if it gets people talking and thinking outside the box, it’s not a bad thing.”

With a faster-than-light warp drive remaining science fictional, BTE — “Build the Enterprise” — Dan’s ship would be propelled by ion engines running off a 1.5 gigawatt nuclear reactor. That’s roughly the amount of energy generated by a decent-sized terrestrial nuke plant, and harnessing its power in space would be hard.

“Reactors might be scalable to those high power levels, but the radiation shielding and heat rejection system would be a huge design challenge,” said Elliott, who qualified his comments as a personal perspective rather than official NASA or Caltech views. “I’d hesitate to say it couldn’t be done with sufficient resources, but it probably wouldn’t end up looking like the original design.”

Ion propulsion, in which charged atoms of gas are magnetically expelled through a tube, would also be difficult at Enterprise scales. Such engines already power many spacecraft, and currently reach speeds of 200,000 mph, but their acceleration is extremely slow.

NASA’s website notes that the push provided by one modern ion thruster is “equivalent to the force you would feel by holding nine U.S. quarters in your hand.” Though a bank of ion thrusters could eventually push the Enterprise’s 200,000,000 pound bulk at high speed, it would take a long time to get there.

According to astronautics researcher Nicolas Lee of Stanford University, the Enterprise’s iconic shape could be a hindrance. “If we wanted to build something that large, a sphere or cylinder would be better at holding pressure against the vacuum — think scuba tank or submarine,” he said.

Lee also said the Enterprise’s proposed gravity system — a giant spinning wheel magnetically suspended inside the ship’s hull, producing gravity through centrifugal force — would cause steering problems.

“To get a sense of this effect, try taking an external hard drive and wobbling it around a bit while it’s running,” said Lee. “It tries to torque you in a perpendicular direction when you tip it.” (On his website, BTE Dan says a second, counter-rotating wheel could solve the problem.)

A final challenge is the sheer amount of material required to build the Enterprise, which would need to be assembled in orbit rather than on Earth, where gravity would make liftoff impossible. Elliott said the quoted bulk would amount to 650 trips by NASA’s new heavy launch vehicle.

For the cost of this endeavor it might actually be cheaper to envision using lunar resources or even mining and processing asteroids to get materials for construction,” said Elliott.

“But there, as improbable and audacious as it seems, you see the value in scoping projects like this,” he continued. “It makes you think, even if it’s to say, ‘That’s a dumb idea, but maybe if we did this here and tweaked these assumptions here….’ That often leads to valuable innovations in other, more near-term developments.”

Size comparisons for BTE Dan’s proposed USS Enterprise. Image: Build the Enterprise

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/q10tMUutsjI/

If you’re a space enthusiast, this weekend is going to be a doozy.

In the wee hours of Saturday, May 19, the private spaceflight company SpaceX is planning to launch their Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The launch window is for 1:55 a.m. PDT, so West Coast night owls might just want to stay up to catch the action.

Join us here on Wired’s Open Space site for live coverage starting an hour before the launch. If you sleep through the event, don’t worry; we’ll have a recap video up shortly after.

The historic flight will see SpaceX’s craft go through some orbital ballet maneuvers over the following days, eventually lining up in an attempt to dock with the International Space Station four days after launch.

If that isn’t enough, Sunday, May 20 will see an annular solar eclipse visible from eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean and much of the North American West Coast.

In this type of eclipse, the moon passes in front of the sun but – because of some quirks of celestial mechanics – it will be too far from the Earth to completely block out the sun’s light. Instead, a thin ring of glowing fire will be visible around the black circle that is the moon’s shadow.

Don’t look directly at the sun, even during the eclipse, without special lenses. Better yet, join us here to watch live feeds of the eclipse from various locations. We will host the Slooh Space Camera’s live show beginning at 2:30 p.m. PDT, which will feature cameras in Japan, California, Arizona and New Mexico, as well as expert commentary. We will also have Panasonic’s live feed from the top of Mt. Fuji in Japan starting at 3 PDT. And for an eerie treat, we will be playing amateur astronomer Scotty Degenhardt’s broadcast from Area 51 in Nevada.

If you are planning to watch the skyward event yourself, it will begin shortly after 3 p.m. PDT over southern China, quickly sweeping across Japan. Just before 5 p.m. PDT the eclipse will reach its point of greatest occultation over the central Pacific. By 6:30 PDT it will be visible from Northern California and Nevada, eventually reaching as far as Texas. You can check the eclipse time for your local city if you’re in the U.S. with this table (.pdf) or with this one (.pdf) if you’re in Mexico, Canada or Asia.

Those not directly in the path of the eclipse will still see some strange effects by stepping outside. Shadows cast from trees and bushes will contain thousands of tiny odd crescents, as the spaces between leaves become pinhole cameras.

Image: SpaceX/sancho_panza/Flickr/Wired Science

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/gSpnABY5F3E/

Nokia’s share prices from May 2007 to today. Image: Google Finance

Curious about how to burn through $2.5 billion in less than a year? Nokia might have some suggestions. According to a Reuters poll of analysts, Nokia is on track to lose 2 billion euros, or $2.5 billion, of its cash pile in the next three quarters — after already losing $2.7 billion of its cash reserves in the past five quarters.

And that’s not even the most pessimistic of outlooks.

More bullish analysts predict that the Finnish mobile company will wipe out the entirety of its 4.9 billion euro, or $6.2 billion, cash pile by the end of 2012. It’s a worsening outlook for Nokia, which suffered a $1.7 billion loss in Q1. And less than a month ago, the once-largest mobile handset company lost its position to Samsung and had its bonds downgraded to “junk” status.

“I would not rule out the possibility of Nokia being downgraded further,” Nancy Utterback, credit strategist at Aviva Investors, told Reuters. “The company is in a negative spiral that will be hard to reverse.”

Nokia declined to comment on the poll’s findings.

There is, however, still hope for Nokia, according to the 30 banks and brokerages polled by Reuters. The poll found that, on average, analysts believe Nokia will end the year with an actual cash buffer, albeit a small one, of 2.9 billion euros, or $3.6 billion.

It’s a significant loss compared to the company’s 2007 cash pile of more than 10 billion euros, or $12.7 billion. But at least there’s a sliver of hope that Nokia can survive longer than a couple of years.

And Nokia still has the potential to bounce back with its Lumia line of smartphones and the growth of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. The polled analysts predict that Nokia will sell a total of 46 million smartphones next year, more than double the expected 20 million units for this year.

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/afQrFjlLP2o/

Photo: SpaceX

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — This morning’s scheduled launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was scrubbed with less than a second remaining on the countdown clock due to unusually high pressure in one of the engines.

In the pre-dawn darkness at Cape Canaveral in Florida, everything was looking good for a 4:55 a.m. EDT liftoff with all eyes focused on SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40. About 15 minutes before launch, SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced via Twitter the software used for liftoff had “initiated master countdown script ‘Auto Sequence: Yoda.’”

Excitement was building as the countdown made its classic downward progression from 10 seconds and veteran NASA announcer George Diller made it all the way to “T-0 seconds.” With a flash of light emanating from the bottom of the rocket Diller continued with “liftoahhh….” before his voice trailed off as it was clear the rocket was going nowhere.

The ignition sequence for the nine Merlin rocket engines had started, but the pressure in engine five was trending high. Once the limit was hit, launch software took over and aborted the liftoff. In a post abort press conference, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the problem looked like an actual issue with the engine and was not one of the sensor or software issues that had led to delays in the schedule earlier this year during simulations.

“We can not blame the software guys for this one” Shotwell noted.

The abort actually happened at T-0.5 seconds after all engines had “started nominally” and only engine five was trending high. The problematic engine is located in the center of the engine layout pictured above in the hangar before the launch attempt.

One of launch procedures SpaceX uses is to hold the rocket on the launch pad for a few seconds after ignition to make sure everything is working properly. Shotwell said today’s abort is a perfect example of why the procedure is used. She said it is analogous to an airline pilot lining up on the runway and holding the brakes as the power levers are pushed forward, “we were revving the engines, we were looking at the gauges, we decided not to fly.”

Aborts are nothing new to the rocket launching world. The decision not to launch is considered critical to the safety and capabilities of any launch vehicle. Shotwell emphasized the upstart space company did not suffer a setback other than a few days on the schedule. She says the cause of the problem is not known other than it was likely due to a lack of sufficient fuel in the combustion chamber.

“This is not a failure, we aborted, with purpose”  Shotwell told reporters. “It would be a failure if we had lifted off with an engine trending in this direction.”

Because of orbital mechanics and the path of the International Space Station, the next opportunity for a liftoff will be on Tuesday at 3:44 a.m. EDT. The SpaceX team must wait until ISS is in a proper orbital path to minimize the amount of propellant needed to chase down and get in phase with the station. The team wants to preserve as much fuel as possible for the complex maneuvering that will be needed for the demonstrations required by NASA.

This isn’t the first time engine five on a Falcon 9 has caused a problem. On the first launch of the Falcon 9 in June 2010, engine five experienced a higher pressure as well leading to an initial abort.

Shotwell said initial inspection of the engine this morning showed the necessary valves appeared to be working properly and technicians must now make a more detailed inspection of the engine before determining the root cause of the high pressure.

SpaceX makes its own rocket engines at its Hawthorne, California factory. The company is investigating the possibility of fixing the engine on the rocket, or if needed, swapping out engine five from the Falcon 9 rocket in the adjacent hangar that is slated for the next flight later this year.

Article source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/-pgOQmhttic/

The mounted Tarbosaurus skeleton slated to be auctioned tomorrow. Image via Heritage Auctions.

Tomorrow, a tyrannosaur will go up for auction in New York City. It shouldn’t. The Tarbosaurus – lot 49315 – was illegally collected and smuggled out of Mongolia.

Fossil theft is a major problem. It can happen anywhere, but dinosaur poaching is especially persistent and pernicious in China and Mongolia. Prime specimens are regularly ripped from the rock to be sold to private individuals elsewhere around the world, all against the heritage laws meant to regulate the responsible collection and curation of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. (In 2009, the United States government returned to China a cache of fossils that had been stolen from that country.) As explained to me by paleontologist and Mongolian Academy of Sciences representative Bolortsetseg Minjin, Mongolia only grants permission for fossil collection to reputable scientific establishments. “Anything against that is illegal,” she said. And excavated fossils either remain in Mongolia, or, with the permission of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, may be studied and displayed elsewhere under temporary loans.

There is no doubt the Tarbosaurus in question came from Mongolia. All the major Tarbosaurus specimens we know of have been found there. And, according to the specimen’s official description, “The dino was discovered within the past decade and has been in storage in England, still in its field jackets, for the last 2-1/2 years.”  Mongolia had fossil collection regulations a decade ago, just as they do today, and the fact that this undocumented specimen went from the field to a private collection outside Mongolia is a sure sign that the specimen was illegally collected and smuggled elsewhere.

The tyrannosaur – as well as a set of several other Mongolian dinosaur specimens – was scheduled for auction several weeks ago. During the past forty eight hours, Mongolian officials and paleontologists have been rallying to stop the auction. Elbegdorj Tsakhia, president of Mongolia, issued a statement yesterday questioning the details of how the Tarbosaurus was collected. If the dinosaur really was discovered in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, the statement noted, “President Elbegdorj Tsakhia said that it was illegal to auction the T-Rex and the fossil must be returned to Mongolia.” And American Museum of Natural History paleontologist Mark Norell, who is an expert on Mongolia’s dinosaurs and has frequently excavated fossils there, wrote a letter to Heritage Auctions affirming that the Mongolian dinosaurs slated for auction were almost certainly excavated illegally:

In the current catalogue Lot 49317 (a skull of Saichania) and Lot 49315 (a mounted Tarbosaurus skeleton) clearly were excavated in Mongolia as this is the only locality in the world where these dinosaurs are known. The copy listed in the catalogue, while not mentioning Mongolia specifically (the locality is listed as Central Asia) repeatedly makes reference to the Gobi Desert and to the fact that other specimens of dinosaurs were collected in Mongolia. As someone who is intimately familiar with these faunas, these specimens were undoubtedly looted from Mongolia. There is no legal mechanism (nor has there been for over 50 years) to remove vertebrate fossil material from Mongolia. These specimens are the patrimony of the Mongolian people and should be in a museum in Mongolia. As a professional paleontologist, am appalled that these illegally collected specimens (with no associated documents regarding provenance) are being sold at auction. [You can see the entire letter at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs.]

Other paleontologists, volunteers, and concerned parties have been adding their signatures to an online petition to stop the auction, created by paleontologist Neil Kelley. These dinosaurs do not belong in someone’s mansion or at a corporate headquarters. They should be returned to their country of origin. “If we can succeed, the best thing for those specimens is to go back to the country. That’s who they belong to,” Minjin said.

But Heritage Auctions may not budge. When I asked Minjin if the auction house showed any sign of cooperating with the Mongolian government, she said that their response “wasn’t really encouraging.” Now that several statements from Heritage Auctions have been published, I can see what she means.

The president of Heritage Auctions, Greg Rohan, wrote a snippy letter in response to the online petition trying to save the dinosaur for science. “You should all be aware that this auction has been publicicized [sic] broadly for 4 weeks,” Rohan wrote “and the Mongolian Governments request issued today less than 48 hours before the auction is unreasonable and inappropriate.” As if the timing of the protest has anything to do with whether the dinosaurs were obtained illegally or not. And, strangely, Rohan claims that the Tarbosaurus was discovered at a different time than what the auction’s official listing states. While the dinosaur’s description is clear that the tyrannosaur was excavated “within the past decade”, Rohan claimed that “Mongolia won its independence in 1921 and this specimen is obviously quite a bit older than that.” That’s quite a discrepancy, and I have no reason to take Rohan’s word for it. Based on what the official documents state – and the fact that no one even knew that tyrannosaurs existed in the Gobi until Tarbosaurus was described in 1955 – the dinosaur in question was undoubtedly collected during a time when Mongolia’s heritage laws were already in place.

Frustratingly, despite the fact that the Mongolian dinosaurs were illegally acquired and transported, other countries do not necessarily have laws forbidding the import or sale of fossils that have been improperly obtained. The excavation of transport of the Tarbosaurus was illegal, but, now that the dinosaur is here, the dinosaur’s sale might be legal. And Heritage Auctions has not been swayed by the appeals of the Mongolian government and the scientific community. In a statement to Dan Vergano’s Science Fair blog at USA Today, lawyer Carl Soller – who represents Heritage Auctions – said that there appeared to be no legal boundaries to the dinosaur’s auction tomorrow. “Our client has no reason to believe that any laws enforced by the United States have been violated,” Soller said, “and we are unaware that Mongolian law would have prevented export from Mongolia.” The auction is still on.

Whether or not the dinosaur was looted seems irrelevant to Heritage Auctions. They want to keep their centerpiece for tomorrow’s auction – a tyrannosaur they expect to go for about a million dollars. And the company seems unmoved by the implication that such sales only fuel the impression that dinosaurs can rake in massive amounts of cash – a perception that gives more impetus to poachers and thieves who trash field sites for specimens which wind up as status symbols for celebrities.

The Tarbosaurus, Saichania, and other Mongolian dinosaur specimens should be pulled from auction. Rohan’s statement that it is “unreasonable and inappropriate” to protest the auction is a loathsome and limp response. The timing of the objection is irrelevant. These fossils were illegally collected, and auctioning them off only fuels additional criminal activity. To put the dinosaurs on the block tomorrow would be a completely reprehensible action by Heritage Auctions, and I don’t believe that it would be all that difficult to pull the controversial specimens from the schedule.

Fossil poaching is a major threat to paleontology, and robs scientifically-significant specimens from everyone. Speak out against the auction. Sign the petition calling for a stop to the dinosaur auctions, and email Heritage Auctions via Bid@HA.com. These dinosaurs are part of Mongolia’s natural history, and that of our planet. They should be treated as such, and not as home decor for the affluent.

UPDATE (5/19/2012):

I just received the following press release, courtesy of Painter Law Firm PLLC, which states that the auction of the Tarbosaurus specimen will be halted thanks to a temporary restraining order. I have asked for more details on the fate of the other Mongolian dinosaur fossils due to go up for auction tomorrow, and will update this post as I find out more.

Judge Issues Restraining Order Stopping Sale of Possibly-Smuggled Mongolian Dinosaur

The Honorable Carlos Cortez, a Dallas, Texas district court judge, granted a “Temporary Restraining Order” (TRO), after an application by Houston attorney Robert Painter, legal counsel for His Excellency Elbegdorj Tsakhia, President of Mongolia.  

The TRO prevents Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, Inc. from selling a rare national treasure that paleontology and dinosaur experts believe may have been illegally removed from Mongolia.

The emergency TRO was issued Saturday morning to stop a New York City auction tomorrow of the dinosaur remains to a private buyer in New York City. At issue is an extremely rare near-complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus bataar, a cousin of the North American T-Rex.

This is not the first time that looters have desecrated excavation sites.  However, this sale is particularly unique.  It is of grave concern to officials in Mongolia that Heritage Auctions, Inc. has declined requests to disclose the owner and provenance, or to answer questions about whether the dinosaur was illegally smuggled out of Mongolia.  Further, it is rare for a near-complete and mounted dinosaur body, at 24-foot long and 8-feet tall, to be sold as a whole unit.

Mongolia is particularly vulnerable to looters taking advantage of the country.  Because of the country’s expansive size, it is very difficult to secure all excavation sites.

When President Elbegdorj learned of this imminent auction, he knew that he had to take action to preserve Mongolia’s history, culture and treasures.

Attorney Painter said, “The temporary restraining order preserves the status quo, while the true ownership of the Tyrannosaurus bataar is legally proven and decided in court. President Elbegdorj was wise to use this legal procedure to protect the interests of the Mongolian people.”

The auction house was served with the TRO on Saturday afternoon. Robert Painter will be in New York City for the auction to ensure that Heritage Auctions, Inc. complies with the TRO terms.