I know that timing of ice ages are generally understood to be driven by peak points of Milankovich Cycles.
That is the general hypthesis, unfortunately there are severe problems with Milankovich, especially as regards the 100kyr & 41kyr cycles based on eccentricty and lack of 27kyr signal in the data that should be there for precession.
Here's some of articles on the issues, the theory and proposed alternatives to M's hypothesis:
Ice Ages & Astronomical Causes
Brief Introduction to the History of Climate
by Richard A. Muller
An Orbital Theory for Glacial Cycles
Peter Bogenschutz
March 2006
http://www.met.utah.edu/reichler/6030/presentations/Pete_Milankovitch.pdf
A Causality Problem for Milankovitch
Daniel B. Karner and Richard A. Muller
http://muller.lbl.gov/papers/Causality.pdfColloquium Paper Spectrum of 100-kyr glacial cycle: Orbital inclination, not eccentricity
Richard A. Muller* and Gordon J. MacDonald
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=33747Indexed links to Muller's work on the ice ages
And if you are a real glutton for punishment, a totally different route centered on what is going on inside the sun:
Solar Resonant Diffusion Waves as a Driver of Terrestrial Climate Change
Robert Ehrlich (2007)
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0701117v1A theory is described based on resonant thermal diffusion waves in the sun that appears to explain many details of the paleotemperature record for the last 5.3 million years. These include the observed periodicities, the relative strengths of each observed cycle, and the sudden emergence in time for the 100 thousand year cycle. Other prior work suggesting a link between terrestrial paleoclimate and solar luminosity variations has not provided any specific mechanism. The particular mechanism described here has been demonstrated empirically, although not previously invoked in the solar context. The theory also lacks most of the problems associated with Milankovitch cycles.
Here in Texas for the past several days, the moon has been totally visible throughout the day--does this have something to do with alleged global warming conditions?