Here are 74 interesting science, technology, and health stories in this 2017 year-end article from The Atlantic. Enjoy all the links from how flamingos easily stand on one leg (#2). . .
in formation. . .
in formation. . .
to a large waterfall in Antarctica where the Nansen Ice Shelf meets the sea (#19). . .
to the way hummingbirds drink nectar using tongues that are so long that, when retracted, they coil up inside the birds’ heads, around their skulls and eyes (#59). . .
to genetically distinct uptown versus downtown rats in New York City (#60). . .
to the oldest rocks on earth (4 billion years old having fossil traces in them in the Torngat Mountains in Canada (#67) to. . . wherever the links take you.
Which links were most intriguing for you? Which did you skip past quickly (#13 for me)?
I'll leave the mole rats and their oxygen needs for you to discover (#74).
All the best for a healthy, happy, and scientifically stimulating 2018!
Steph
Happy New Year, Steph!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Joanne!
DeleteAnd all along, I thought flamingos stood on one leg because if they lifted the other one, they'd fall over.
ReplyDeleteYou say tomato, I say sherbert.
jan, I do, too. It's a sure bet.
DeleteFYI Alex Trebek
ReplyDeleteWhat is "Hope Alex is ok and that Austin Rogers didn't make him fall from too much laughter?"
DeleteThe almost exact same thing happened to a friend of mine from NYC who is also about the same age as Trebek. He had hit his head on a roof eave in Belize. He's very tall, the locals less so.
DeleteUnfortunately the hematoma was not discovered until several months later, after he fell while here in Berkeley visiting his daughter/ granddaughters. He ended up spending about 4 weeks in a convalescent hospital, no fun at all. The lesson for all of us, as we age, is to be very careful about those falls, we're not 20 any more.
Absolutely, eco. Glad your friend was able to recover.
DeleteI like Alex Trebek just fine, but I don't understand all the angst around speculation about his retirement. I mean, of all the jobs in show business, isn't his about the the least demanding of any particular talent? Couldn't he be replaced by, say, Amazon Echo's Alexa, or Watson, or something like that?
DeleteAlex could be replaced by technology, I suppose. But, where's the fun in that?!
DeleteJust so long as they don't replace Vanna and her critical task of touching the letters - which, as evidenced on their speed rounds, she actually doesn't need to do at all.
DeleteI'd rather replace Alex on those horrible rip-off insurance commercials.
DeleteYes, it surprises me he'd back such a horrible product when there are many more worthy things to plug. They must be paying him a boatload of money.
DeleteSame with Tom Selleck (and formerly Fred Thompson) and the reverse mortgage scams.... I wonder whether I would shill garbage for a lot of money. Nobody offers, so I guess it's moot.
DeleteI just read a little about speculative execution, to learn a bit more about the recently-revealed Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. Interesting stuff. Basically, the computer performs some operations that may never be needed, to prevent delays if they are needed.
ReplyDeleteThen I read that Intel's CEO sold the maximum allowable amount of Intel shares in November, 2017, after he presumably learned about the faults and the impact they may have on Intel's share price.
I say we take him out back and speculatively execute him now. We can always take it back later if he turns out to be innocent.
Hey, tomorrow, 1/06, is the 106th anniversary of Alfred Wegener's presentation of his theory of continental drift to the German Geological Society. Maybe we should celebrate that striking realization. We could call it, I don't know, the feast of the epiphany, or something.
ReplyDeletePerfect! I always found it odd that Wegner's projected velocity of continental motion, 250 cm/year, was so high. The currently accepted rate for the separation of the Americas from Europe and Africa is about 2.5 cm/year. . .
Delete. . . but it's undoubtedly increased since Trump.
DeleteI always go to Beavertail Park when I want to visit Africa.
DeleteI saw those trilobite and horseshoe crab remains discovered by students and professors at Amherst, MA. It was a cosmic moment.
DeleteMinor detail in the article, yes, it is the U. S. Geological Survey but not the U.S. Geological Society of America. It's just the Geological Society of America or GSA.
CDC: Get a flu shot. Watch your weight. Stop smoking. Duck and cover.
ReplyDelete(Of course, after a nuclear detonation, you may be smoking for a while...)
...but on the plus side ash is very slimming.
DeleteTime to pull out the plans.
Who needs plans? I've got my shovels.
Delete"This collection of beautiful, humorous, ridiculously serious blueprints and drawings is the outcome of a national competition for a "radiation-proof emergency operation center," - a nuclear bomb shelter for government officials. The book follows the exhibit "Give Them Shelter: It's Not for Everyone," and is made up of 80 photos of art work submitted by architects across the country. Because the competition did not require compliance with state and local building codes, the result is the free-flowing imaginative process of architects at their best and least restricted. The thought-provoking images on the paradox of nuclear blast and survival offer at once subtlety and wry humor." >>> Did you submit one, eco?
DeleteI did not, I was unaware of the competition/ ADPSR at the time of the competition, but did see the traveling exhibit. A few years after this was published I was invited to join the board of the local chapter, and then the national board, of the organization, where I served for about 20 years.
DeleteOf course I have copies of the book, some of the entries are darkly hilarious.
eco, I'll check to see if our library has a copy.
Deletejan,". . .It's the dirt that does it. . ." >>> That book cover may cure me of over-ellipsizing.
My first thought about the 3-foot shovels of dirt was the 3 shovels of dirt thrown into a Jewish grave. Is the author is quite serious about dirt and a door saving us from nuclear war?!
Robert Scheer, the author of the book, is a very serious journalist, and some time guest on NPR's "Left, Right and Center", sitting in the Left position.
DeleteThe quote on the book cover is from T.K. Jones, Deputy Undersecretary for Defense for Strategic and Theater Nuclear Forces in 1982.
I am happy to share my extra shovel.
DeleteI had not read Scheer before. Thanks for the background info.
Have to admit most of my shovels are for snow. But, I 'm ready for nuclear winter!
DeleteI was just reading the transcript of John Young's Gemini 3 flight. He died today at 87. That leaves 5 guys who've walked on the moon left.
Is this what you use to shovel snow? Hard to build a bomb shelter that way.
DeleteI've seen better ideas.
DeleteWow, I was surprised ice takes so much energy to melt. Electric coils in my neighbor's driveway must be more efficient since the snow melts upon contact.
DeleteCDC staff, shown here reacting to negative public perception of the above announcement, are postponing preparing us for Armageddon.
DeleteThey may be no more effective than a door and a few feet of dirt, but, get a flu shot, anyway.
Nu to flu. Flew right on by? It feels like a Monty Python sketch.
DeleteIn the same vein, perhaps...
Delete(MAD Magazine used to bill itself as "Humor in a Jugular Vein." And that's MAD as in crazy, not Mutually Assured Destruction, of course.)
I am shocked it took 38 minutes to send a false alarm text. So scary for folks in the Aloha State.
DeleteIt would've taken me even longer to get the message, since I know you should turn off your cell phone right away to keep it from getting fried by the EMP....
DeleteI didn't know that. The EMPire Strikes Back. . .
DeleteI just made it up but it seems reasonable. Of course, there's no reason to expect the cellular network to continue functioning after a nuclear event, but we still still need them to play solitaire. A LOT of solitaire...
DeleteAt the risk of being boringly realistic, there is a slight justification for early warning and duck and cover. Not everyone is at the epicenter of a bomb drop where complete annihilation is certain, and those around some perimeter have a chance of survival based on what they happen to do.
DeleteYears ago I worked with a fellow who survived Hiroshima; he was 15 at the time, working in a factory. As I recall he was about 2 miles from the bomb, and just happened to be standing behind and right next to a section of thick concrete wall. He was far enough away that the wall protected him, while those outside the building were vaporized, and most others inside the factory were killed from the heat blast and/ or flying debris. He was knocked unconscious but otherwise only received relatively minor injuries and radiation sickness, and hadn't, 45 years later, gotten cancer.
It's still sheer MADness.
Good to know about his survival, eco. Was he glad to have stayed alive when so many others perished?
DeleteSheer MADness, absolutely.
There’s no question that early warning, fallout or blast shelters, etc, would save lives and reduce injuries. The issue is cost effectiveness of defensive infrastructure versus measures to reduce the likelihood of needing it.
DeleteWW, I don't really know, I never posed the question, and he never spoke effusively about the event, which is understandable. He did have a full life with family and work, so I assume so.
DeleteJan. absolutely, we dodged a very big bullet 30+ years ago as the Soviets came to their senses. Interesting that the collapse of the USSR was doubtless in part caused by their long and fruitless war in Afghanistan....
My favorite comment on the Hawaiian ICBM false alarm, from The Onion, of course:
Delete“I’m still mad that I had to tell my family how much I love them.”
That makes me weep. . .
DeleteI was thinking about the ending of On The Beach this weekend. When Fred Astaire kills himself by running the engine of his race car in the garage, and everyone lines up for suicide pills. It’s not inconceivable that in the 40 minutes before the all clear message, some Hawaiians were thinking along similar lines. I sure hope the investigation of this incident is treated seriously.
DeleteI do, too.
DeleteI thought this account was quite telling.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThanks, eco. You can feel the sheer terror amidst those Portuguese sandwiches. Whew!
Deletejan, your link was broken, which it looks like you now know. I will try to find it.
I have friends from CO who are in Hawaii for the husband's father's funeral. Terrifying all around.
Here's what I was trying to post earlier. Another incoming missile alert! It's ironic that Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima and Nagasaki, possibly the worst cities to hit with a nuclear sneak attack scare, were affected.
DeleteIt is ironic.
DeleteOn the positive side, maybe “bark of a rabid dog” will join "dotard" in the lexicon.
DeleteI was half expecting to spot you and Maizie in these pictures of snow in the Sahara.
ReplyDeleteWow, beautiful! Thanks for the link, jan.
ReplyDeleteEcoarchitect (and others): Thought you might be interested in this:
ReplyDeleteAMPHIBIOUS ARCHITECTURE MAKES BUILDINGS FLOOD RESILIENT
Thanks, jan. I was surprised at the number of articles and videos on amphibious architecture.
DeleteI think "flood resilient" is weaselly. I also don't think "amphibious" is the right term here.
DeleteMy unfortunate train of thought on this was: Amphibious -> frogs -> Rana + architecture = Rana Plaza.
I'd seen the buoyant houses concept "floated" in the New Yorker article. They don't explain how utility connections, like gas, water, and sewer, can rise and fall, but oh well.
DeleteI think natatorial would be a better term.
The pool at the U of Denver is officially a natatorium, though I have yet to hear anyone say anything but "I'm going to the pool."
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSorry about a couple of failed posts. Our corporate overlords no longer allow us to post to Blogger on my work computer, and my iPhone html skills are rusty...
ReplyDelete"The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed it was not a meteorological event but more likely a meteor."
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love it?
Paul, that's too funny.
DeleteIgnoring Science: sigh.
ReplyDeleteIt only provides inconvenient truths.
Delete"Mr. Zinke has sought to portray himself as a champion of national parks and has compared himself to Theodore Roosevelt, the founder of the national parks system"
DeleteThere were 6 National Parks when Roosevelt left office in 1909; perhaps that's what Trump Zinke want when they leave. I had a wonderful time in Escalante/ Grand Staircase many years ago, sad to see it getting eviscerated.
eco, I agree, Escalante/Grand Staircase is a wonder. It's inexcusable to destroy its natural beauty by shrinking the size of its "steps."
DeleteNew post on "Bee Bedevilments: Colony Collapse Disorder and More" is now up.
ReplyDelete