gregladen | March 20, 2011Cuddly Cub Polar Bear Knut has died unexpectedly, at the age of four. The cause of death is unknown but speculation abounds.
In memoriam, please remain silent for a moment while we play the Knut Song:
Here is the last video of him, showing his death. This is a bit gruesome. Perhaps, if you know your comparative medicine, you can suggest a possible cause:
It is typical for captive polar bears to live much longer than four years old. The oldest ever in captivity may have been Debby who lived in a zoo in Winnipeg to the age of 42, although there are different opinions on that. More…
gregladen | March 20, 2011Some time ago we had a party in Minneapolis to celebrate the one millionth's comment on Scienceblogs. Finally, I've uploaded the video taken at that party, at the Black Forest Inn.
gregladen | March 19, 2011Reverend Mike gives it a try.
Also, don't forget that March 16th is St. Urho's Day!
What? We missed it? I guess I'll have to save my purple beer for next year.
gregladen | March 19, 2011I will be over by the holy water waiting for an apology on behalf of most of humanity from the nearest religious person ...
gregladen | March 19, 2011Today is DuWayne Brayton's birthday. His web site is here, but his best writing is in comments on my blog!
Happy Birthday DuWayne. Many happy returns. Though I actually have no idea what that means, and assume it has to do with gift receipts.
gregladen | March 19, 2011"Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand" by Chris Hedges was brought by Mike the Mad Biologist to the attention of Stephanie Zvan who wrote: Rights Must Be Protected *and* Shared
Nature Blog Network turns us on to a blog of photos and video about about wildlife conservation, and a blog by a forest conservation officer. I always wanted to be a forest conservation officer.
gregladen | March 19, 2011Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin is coming out next month and it sounds pretty amazing.
...The space vehicle is shoddily constructed, running dangerously low on fuel; its parachutes -- though no one knows this -- won't work and the cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov, is about to, literally, crash full speed into Earth, his body turning molten on impact. As he heads to his doom, U.S. listening posts in Turkey hear him crying in rage, "cursing the people who had put him inside a botched spaceship."...
Read more here
gregladen | March 19, 2011James at Class:M has an important post on the perception and cost of Nuclear Energy: What Fukushima doesn't change
PalMD at The White Coat Underground has an important rant about iodine, which is much in the news these days for obvious reasons: Saturday Evening Rant, Iodine Edition
gregladen | March 19, 2011Skepchick Evelyn (who also comments here now and then) is writing an interesting series of posts that consist of interviews by her of her dad, an Nuclear Engineer, regarding what is going on in Japan. I think this link is probably the best way to get to them.
Speaking of Skepchicks, you should check out this post. It's amazing. Yet mundane. You will, like, totally LOL. Hebbo.
gregladen | March 19, 2011The amount of water available to produce floods is at a much higher than average level for Minnesota, including the Minnesota, Red, Mississippi and Saint Croix river drainages, not to mention smaller rivers and streams. As I write this personnel at the National Weather Service are dotting the i's and crossing the t's on watches and warnings for this area.
The snow pack has been melting for a few days and continues to do so, and is actually doing it at a nice pace. The melting stops over night as it gets cold, and only slowly resumes until the warmest part of the day, then slows down again…
gregladen | March 19, 2011One day I was walking along a path dedicated to philosophers in Kyoto, Japan, with my friend Hitomi. It was interesting that there even was a path dedicated to philosophers. It made me think deeply about paths, which at the time was the subject of my PhD Thesis. Suddenly, earning a Doctorate of Philosophy with a specialization in Paths made sense. But that feeling wore off quickly enough when we something rather unusual unexpectedly appeared in the sky.
First, we heard it. A thump thump thump sound. Then we noticed other people looking up and in one direction, so we looked too. We…
gregladen | March 18, 2011... continued ...
Ana's Feed
Starting about midnight, March 17th
Today's chopper missions over Daiichi have been canceled.
The IAEA has asked Japan to cooperate with the international community. Kan says he will do the utmost to overcome the crisis - vows to disclose more info to the int'l community. -kyodo news
The new electrical cables are on site, but radiation may prevent the workers from connecting them. Readings of 20mSv/hr. are regular. - NHK
2 more fire trucks and 1 borrowed US pump truck have cycled through . -NHK
4AM March 18th
"High radiation detected 30km from nuke plant" - NHK
"…
gregladen | March 18, 2011Join artist Lynn Fellman and Professor Perry Hackett for a science and art presentation at Hennes Art Gallery in Minneapolis. It's an evolutionary tale about an ancient fossil gene discovered by Hackett's Lab at the University of Minnesota. The lab awakened the gene from an evolutionary sleep and named it "Sleeping Beauty". Intrigued by the science and the metaphor behind a 14 million year old gene, Lynn created a dimensional art titled "Waking Sleeping Beauty"
In a lively exchange, the artist and scientist tell the bench-to-bedside story how the gene was developed as a valuable biomedical…
gregladen | March 18, 2011Nine of ten nuclear reactors at two locations at Fukushima, Japan, have problems ranging from damaged cooling systems to partial meltdowns, and spent fuel storage facilities at several of these reactors are severely damaged. In some cases, facilities seem to have been shut down safely. In other cases, there is a strong suspicion of serious damage but the degree of damage is uncertain.
Executive summary: The current most likely worst-case scenario is that the spent fuel rods in the storage pool at Reactor Number 4 will undergo a renewed chain reaction. However, two reactors, Number 1 and 3…
gregladen | March 18, 2011There will not be a Mark Zuckerberg action figure.
After being told it can no longer sell its Apple CEO Steve Jobs action figure, M.I.C. Gadget has been ordered to kill off its Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg action figure as well. The lifelike Zuckerberg doll was available for $70 online, but now Facebook has had it banned, just like Apple did for the Jobs doll.
This time around, M.I.C. Gadget made a point to call the action figure the "Poking Inventor" and not "Mark Zuckerberg." It wanted to avoid Facebook getting involved, since Apple threatened it with legal action if it didn't stop selling…
gregladen | March 18, 2011For the first time, rain has been observed falling at low altitude on this moon of Saturn.
Extensive rain from large cloud systems, spotted by Cassini's cameras in late 2010, has apparently darkened the surface of the moon. The best explanation is these areas remained wet after methane rainstorms. The observations released today in the journal Science, combined with earlier results in Geophysical Research Letters last month, show the weather systems of Titan's thick atmosphere and the changes wrought on its surface are affected by the changing seasons.
"It's amazing to be watching such…