Tales of Interest

[nrc]

We have some history buffs here - cool opportunity:

Smithsonian Digital Volunteers (https://transcription.si.edu/)


Please note that some language in this collection may be culturally insensitive or offensive to some viewers. It is presented as it exists in the original document for the benefit of research. The material reflects the culture and context in which it was created and not the views of the Smithsonian Institution.

:rolleyes:

[Napoleon]

Toronto, Ontario's crack smoking mayor (http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-crack-video-toronto-mayor.html)

Man, this story keeps getting better and better. After Toronto police say they have a video of him smoking what appears to be a crack pipe he finally comes clean yesterday and admitts to it with the excuse "Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/world/americas/toronto-mayor-admits-smoking-crack.html?src=me)

Awesome!

[SurfaceUnits]

Honesty doesn't pay off for ex-homeless man

Posted: Nov 11, 2013 6:25 AM CST Updated: Nov 11, 2013 7:13 AM CST

A good deed has come back to haunt a formerly homeless northern New Jersey man.

James Brady found $850 on a Hackensack sidewalk last April and turned it in to police. Brady was awarded the money six months later after no one contacted police during the required waiting period.

Now, The Record reports that Brady has been denied General Assistance and Medicaid benefits by the Hackensack Human Services Department through Dec. 31 because he failed to report the $850 as new income he received.

The director of human services tells the newspaper they are just following the rules.

Brady was homeless when he found the money but has since found housing. He was featured in news reports nationwide for turning in the money, despite his own financial struggles.

Bergen County’s United Way has now set up a fund to benefit James Brady. Donations can be made through the charity’s website at www.bergenunitedway.org/compassionfund/helpjamesbrady

Or by check, made out to “BCUW/Compassion Fund/Mr. Brady," and mailed to United Way, 6 Forest Ave., Paramus, NJ 07652.

[Napoleon]

Manfred Rommel, Son of German Field Marshal, Dies at 84 (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/world/europe/manfred-rommel-son-of-german-field-marshal-dies-at-84.html?hpw&rref=obituaries)

Didn't know this - he was 3 term mayor of Stuttgart, famously liberal, was considered a possible national leader but only ran for municipal office and had friendships with a son of Montgomery and a son of Patton.

[Gnam]

Great story. I didn't know Rommel was suicided. Proof that Hitler was everyone's enemy.

I like the end the best, "Please turn over." :D

[Gnam]

In Lewis and Clark news...

August 11, 1806

On the way home, travelling down the Missouri River, Meriwether Lewis stopped to go hunting and got shot in the butt by a nearsighted Frenchman.


Peter Cruzatte a frenchman went out with Capt. Lewis they Soon found a gangue of Elk in a thicket. Capt. Lewis killed one and cruzatte killed two, and as he Still kept firing one of his balls hit Capt. Lewis in his back side and the ball passed through one Side of his buttock and the ball went out of the other Side of the other buttock and lodged at his overalls which wounded him bad.

-John Ordway

http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/read/?_xmlsrc=1806-08-11.xml&_xslsrc=LCstyles.xsl


Ken Burns left out that part of the story. :D

[dando]

In Lewis and Clark news...

August 11, 1806

On the way home, travelling down the Missouri River, Meriwether Lewis stopped to go hunting and got shot in the butt by a nearsighted Frenchman.



Ken Burns left out that part of the story. :D

Dude, there wasn't picture to pan. :gomer:

[SurfaceUnits]

Freighter travel is a less crowded, cheaper alternative for crossing a sea or ocean, not using airplanes or commercial cruise ships or ferries.

Understand
A well-kept secret in these days of airport anxiety and worry about aircraft emissions is that it is still possible to book a regularly scheduled sea passage to most parts of the world. While the world-famous Queen Mary 2 offers sometimes two departures in a month between Southampton and New York, many cargo-passenger services offer sailings every week of the year.

A tour of ports tells us what’s going on. From Southampton, for example, there are four weekly sailings, two each to the Far East and the Mediterranean, from Long Beach, there is a sailing nearly every week to the Far East, from Le Havre a weekly sailing to Martinique and Guadeloupe and so on. In all, there are now about seven or eight regularly-scheduled weekly services accepting passengers. In addition, there are frequent sailings to Australia and New Zealand, South America, the Far East and West and South Africa. Freighter travel is also possible in some smaller and/or third world countries. Freighter travel is virtually the only way to travel across the Caspian Sea and is a very common way to travel across the Black Sea. Be warned however, that in these regions, it is possible that ships will have to wait for days to be given access to the final port, facilities are bad, you likely have to bring your own food, and service is sporadic/unreliable(you will have to check every morning for departing ships).

Essentially, you are paying a cargo vessel to transport you along with whatever they are ferrying across the sea, usually containers these days, although some multi-purpose ships still survive and you can sail from the USA and Europe to China and Japan in a heavy-lift ship or from the Great Lakes to Europe in a grain carrier. Imagine having your own 100,000-tonner for just five passengers instead of the 5,000 that a similar-sized cruise ship might carry - many of the new container ships that serve the Far East from Europe and from California are now in this category.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Freighter_travel


Cruise lines have re-positioning cruises during spring and fall when they move ships from the Med to the Caribbean or v.v. with fewer stops and lower prices than normal, but you couldn't come back in just a week as you could with Cunard.

[Gnam]

^for more on freighter passenger service see:
1. Indiana Jones, Raiders
2. Burt Munro, World's Fastest Indian
3. Charles Bronson and that other guy, The Great Escape
4. Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan, and these are not the droids you're looking for, Star Wars

;)

[SurfaceUnits]

But they never had to deal with the Darién Gap

Jungles, swamps, guerillas and corrupt military - all in the most intense 90km on Earth

You might have wondered if it's possible to drive between North and South America - for surely there must be a road between these two continents! Well, as it turns out, there is absolutely NO ROAD connecting them, and all travel advisories clearly say "Don't Go", even if you feel somewhat suicidal. I am talking about the wild and wildly dangerous Darien Gap.

Read more at http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/09/darien-gap-most-dangerous-absence-of.html#usmX4ZWi5VYAxRMT.99

[Andrew Longman]

I went to college with few guys who worked summer jobs on Great Lakes freighters. It sounded like a gritty but pretty decent summer job. Today those jobs are rarer as ships get bigger, fewer and more productive. But the ships are far more pleasant and comfortable.

One thing to expect if you "sign on" as a passenger is that other that the Captain and senior officers you might be to only one on board who speaks English. That might be just fine with you. Time alone at sea can have its up side. But it can freak some people out.

[emjaya]

^for more on freighter passenger service see:
1. Indiana Jones, Raiders
2. Burt Munro, World's Fastest Indian
3. Charles Bronson and that other guy, The Great Escape
4. Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan, and these are not the droids you're looking for, Star Wars

;)

5. Anne Darrow, King Kong.

[SurfaceUnits]

http://www.julienslive.com/images/lot/11588/0/lot11588.jpg
Chinese freighters can be rather rough

Whereas, your own freighter can be interesting
http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/4200000/Serenity-crew-firefly-4200915-1024-768.jpg

[cameraman]

Okay how do you set up a drilling rig without calling Blue Stakes first to determine whether or not you happen to be sitting on top of a 10" LNG pipeline?

http://media2.kjrh.com//photo/2013/11/14/explosion_20131114121933_640_480.JPG

Seriously wtf Texas...

:eek::shakehead::rolleyes:

[SurfaceUnits]

Looks like a drone strike

[dando]

Bat **** crazy in Cbus.

:saywhat:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/11/14/Man-and-woman-charged-in-kidnapping-torture-case.html


A man and woman were arrested by Columbus police SWAT officers last night for what investigators say was hours of sexual assault and torture of three people.

Obryan “Black” Jones, 29, and Belynda “BB” Coffman, 23, were arrested at 178 N. Harris Ave. around 9:30 p.m. Investigators say that’s the same Hilltop apartment two men and a woman were forced into at gunpoint in July.

The three were blindfolded and held for six to seven hours, according to sexual assault unit detectives. The men were tortured, beaten and had teeth pulled out with pliers. The woman was sexually assaulted, detectives said.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2xauk4l_Hg

[TravelGal]

Freighter travel is a less crowded, cheaper alternative for crossing a sea or ocean, not using airplanes or commercial cruise ships or ferries.

Understand
A well-kept secret in these days of airport anxiety and worry about aircraft emissions is that it is still possible to book a regularly scheduled sea passage to most parts of the world. While the world-famous Queen Mary 2 offers sometimes two departures in a month between Southampton and New York, many cargo-passenger services offer sailings every week of the year.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Freighter_travel

Cruise lines have re-positioning cruises during spring and fall when they move ships from the Med to the Caribbean or v.v. with fewer stops and lower prices than normal, but you couldn't come back in just a week as you could with Cunard.

This is not new. It doesn't get much press for a reason. Most of them are pretty basic from what I hear. These guys have been around since I hung out my agent shingle in 1985 although I've never booked with them so [liability notice] I can't speak to their service, etc. but if you want more info, they seem to be the folks that know. https://www.freightercruises.com/ I've always been intrigued and know it can be done. I'm not that into roughing it. :eek:

There are also some lines that are putting in luxury cabins. Check out the Aranui 3 around Tahiti. I've always wanted to do that but could never afford it. Even when I toured the the original one with bunk beds and curtains for doors, it was above my pocketbook. Then there is Hurtigruten, the mail boat service through Scandinavia.

[nrc]

Bat **** crazy in Cbus.

:saywhat:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/11/14/Man-and-woman-charged-in-kidnapping-torture-case.html


Just another day in the Hilltop area.

[dando]

Just another day in the Hilltop area.

Pardon me while I go snort some bath salts. :saywhat: As I always say, nothing good happens south of I-70. :(

[Napoleon]

As I always say, nothing good happens south of Route 30. :(

Fixed

[Elmo T]

Wrong turn with a passenger train (http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/article/Amtrak-train-to-NYC-ends-up-in-Philly-suburbs-4994307.php)


Amtrak officials are looking into how a New York-bound train took a wrong turn and ended up in the Philadelphia suburbs.

:confused::shakehead:

[cameraman]

Very lucky that it didn't result in a collision:saywhat:

[emjaya]

50 years of Dr Who Google Doodle and game.


https://www.google.com.au/

[SurfaceUnits]

Duke lacrosse accuser found guilty of murder

The woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape was convicted of second-degree murder Friday in the stabbing death of her boyfriend, reports the Associated Press.

Crystal Mangum, 34, was sentenced to between 14 years and 18 years in prison after a jury reached a verdict after six hours of deliberations.

http://tracking.si.com/2013/11/22/duke-lacrosse-accuser-found-guilty-of-murder/?xid=ob_top

[TravelGal]

50 years of Dr Who Google Doodle and game.


https://www.google.com.au/

Rats, I never had time to play it. :mad:

[G.]

Rats, I never had time to play it. :mad:

You can always try going here, http://goo.gl/maps/FcQmm and giving it another go.

(hint: see those funny arrow clusters on street view? Yeah, do that.)

Or, I suppose you could be boring and just go here. :\ http://www.google.com/doodles/finder/2013/All%20doodles

[TravelGal]

Not sure where to put this but, among the real news in today's briefing was this tidbit. No linky, sorry. Maybe someone can find it?

Uhhh....that would be an Airbus in your photo

An advertisement placed in The Seattle Times on Wednesday by a group hoping to encourage Washington state to keep up its fight to secure the coveted work on the new Boeing 777 includes a notable miscue. At the top of the full-page ad, under the all-caps text "The Future of Washington," is pictured not a Boeing jet, but rather an A320 from archrival Airbus.

[TravelGal]

You can always try going here, http://goo.gl/maps/FcQmm and giving it another go.

(hint: see those funny arrow clusters on street view? Yeah, do that.)

Or, I suppose you could be boring and just go here. :\ http://www.google.com/doodles/finder/2013/All%20doodles

LOL. The second one showed me how many I miss. As for the Dr. Who, I never realized what a world I'm missing by not watching!

[cameraman]

This just makes you shake your head...

http://libertystreeteconomics.typepad.com/.a/6a01348793456c970c019aff7d446e970b-450wi

http://libertystreeteconomics.typepad.com/.a/6a01348793456c970c019aff7d441a970b-450wi

It wasn't always like this...

The Liberty Street Blog (http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2013/11/a-way-with-words-the-economics-of-the-feds-press-conference.html) 33 Liberty Street being the address of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

[Gnam]

Who said Skynet only controlled nuclear weapons?


from the wikipedia:

A special class of algorithmic trading is "high-frequency trading" (HFT). Many types of algorithmic or automated trading activities can be described as HFT. As a result, in February 2012, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) formed a special working group that included academics and industry experts to advise the CFTC on how best to define HFT. HFT strategies utilize computers that make elaborate decisions to initiate orders based on information that is received electronically, before human traders are capable of processing the information they observe. Algorithmic trading and HFT have resulted in a dramatic change of the market microstructure, particularly in the way liquidity is provided.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_trading
...information that includes press releases and press conferences. The machines are watching. ;)

[SurfaceUnits]

The Fed printing money is all that has driven the market for quite some time

[RaceGrrl]

Epic swirly...

http://news.yahoo.com/unusual-ice-circle-forms-north-dakota-river-170950600.html

[G.]

LOL. The second one showed me how many I miss. As for the Dr. Who, I never realized what a world I'm missing by not watching!



Me: *strolling through comic shop*
Shop attendant: The Doctor Who stuff is actually over here.
Me: How did you-
Shop attendant: You flinched at the Angel statue outside.




Torchwood is an anagram for Doctor Who. TMYK





(I watch Dr. Who sometimes, but not really a fanatic. No, really!)

[cameraman]

Went to the theater to see the Doctor Who special last night with my son. It was an interesting crowd but I found the tween girls screaming when David Tennant first appeared to be a little disturbing. 13 year-olds all hot & bothered about a 42 year old The guy is older than half their fathers.

[nrc]

Epic swirly...

http://news.yahoo.com/unusual-ice-circle-forms-north-dakota-river-170950600.html

It's an amazing wonder.

[Gnam]

...the tween girls screaming when David Tennant first appeared...
Could just be star struck. If a female pop star rolls by they still scream, right?
The grown wimmins scream on Oprah all the time. ;)

[TravelGal]

Freighter travel is a less crowded, cheaper alternative for crossing a sea or ocean, not using airplanes or commercial cruise ships or ferries.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Freighter_travel



Thinking of freighter travel, though not QUITE as economical, from today's briefing:

Cruise to Siberia?
Siberia is usually considered the last place in the world you'd want to go, especially if you're a Russian dissident. But it's undoubtedly on some bucket lists. And so a German expedition ship has scheduled a May cruise to the Primorye region in Siberia, an area inaccessible to foreign visitors until 1991 and still virtually untouched by modern tourism.
Kidding aside, Primorye is a prosperous region in southeastern Russia known as the maritime territory. Its mountains, forests, caves and waterfalls are home to Siberian tigers, black bears, Manchurian deer and hundreds of species of birds. The 17-day voyage on Hapag-Lloyd's 184-passenger Hanseatic cruises from Shanghai, China, to Otaru, Japan, and spends about seven days exploring Siberia, with Zodiac raft exploration in Cape Maksimov, Cape Gilyak and the Samarga River. Also on the itinerary are its main city, Vladivostok, the Rimsky Islands, Petrov Island and some places so obscure a description doesn't even pop up on Google.The "Expedition Siberia" trip operates May 10-27, 2014, and is priced from $9,360 per person, cruise only.

[cameraman]

That's the kind of cruise I would go on, my tolerance for shipmates tops out ~150...

If the number of passengers on the ship exceeds the population of several of Utah's counties there is no way I'm getting anywhere near it.

[cameraman]

So after a dead ***** whale has sat around for a few days the gas pressure inside starts to build...

dCsMNurn3bQ

Think about it for a moment or two before you view it...

Seriously the proper English name for Physeter macrocephalus is a banned word???
Could we perhaps grow up?

[cameraman]

Next time you read about someone complaining about EPA AQ regulations remember this photo of downtown Shanghai taken today.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Baw0TzDCUAA0E0K.jpg:large

The AQI was in the 400s. That isn't fog... :eek::shakehead::yuck:

[Gnam]

It's just a little dragon's breath. You can hardly notice it at night. :gomer:

Seems like everyone who goes to China on vacation comes back with a horrific cough that lasts for months. Could just be a coincidence. :yuck:

[Napoleon]

The AQI was in the 400s. That isn't fog... :eek::shakehead::yuck:

So where did you get that number? My understanding is there is only one sample site that makes its results public and that is the one that sits on the top of the US Embassy in China.

[dando]

So where did you get that number? My understanding is there is only one sample site that makes its results public and that is the one that sits on the top of the US Embassy in China.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_SHANGHAI_POLLUTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-06-06-55-20



Shanghai's concentration of tiny, harmful PM 2.5 particles reached 602.5 micrograms per cubic meter Friday afternoon, an extremely hazardous level that was the highest since the city began recording such data last December. That compares with the World Health Organization's safety guideline of 25 micrograms.

[Napoleon]

^^^

I wonder if they are loosing up on letting people report air quality readings.

[Gnam]

Holy macaroni. It's inside the airport.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2013-12/06/content_17157352.htm
http://s29.postimg.org/ue6ix17sn/0023ae82cb0c140ba03012.jpg

[Don Quixote]

I was in Beijing and Shijiazhuang during the fall of 1994. The air was clear up to and including October 31. On November 1 the citizens are allowed to heat their homes with coal. Blue government trucks dumped piles of coal on street corners right there in the cities. People would haul it off in baskets, wagons, wheelbarrows, etc. Every day after that the air got worse and worse. Eventually, you couldn't see the buildings right across the street. On top of that, every single person that I worked with chain smoked all day long. For about a year after that trip I was so desensitized to smoke that I didn't even notice it.

[cameraman]

So you think that it is cold outside right now? Well you don't know cold...


Scientists recently recorded the lowest temperatures on Earth at a desolate and remote ice plateau in East Antarctica, trumping a record set in 1983 and uncovering a new puzzle about the ice-covered continent... ...temperatures from −92 to −94 degrees Celsius (−134 to −137 degrees Fahrenheit) in a 1,000-kilometer long swath on the highest section of the East Antarctic ice divide.

Now that's seriously chilly.

http://nsidc.org/news/press/2013_ColdestPlace_PR.html

btw the data is now being collected by Landsat 8. It began operations in March of this year. The only other Landsat still functioning is Landsat 7 which has been in service for over 14.5 years now. It was designed to last 5-10 years...

Landsat 6 did not make it to orbit
Landsat 5 operated from 1984-2013 a record for satellites. It's design life was 3 years
Landsat 4 operated from 1982 to 1993 on a 5-year design
Landsat 3 operated from 1978 to 1983 on a 1-year design
Landsat 2 (ERTS-B) operated from 1975 to 1982 on a 1-year design
Landsat 1 (ERTS 1) operated from 1972 to 1978 on a 1-year design

If you look at the totality of NASA's earth observation satellites, they are wearing out faster than they are being replaced...

[dando]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/11/21860157-fake-sign-language-interpreter-at-nelson-mandela-memorial-provokes-anger

:saywhat:

[Andrew Longman]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/11/21860157-fake-sign-language-interpreter-at-nelson-mandela-memorial-provokes-anger

:saywhat:


South African sign language covers all of the country's 11 official languages, according to the federation. It wasn't immediately clear if the unidentified man was using a different method to communicate.So that might be part of the problem right there.

Might have been better to hire Garrett Morris g2Q0cyJSs04

[RaceGrrl]

So that might be part of the problem right there.

Might have been better to hire Garrett Morris

I thought the same thing when I saw this story! :laugh::laugh:

[cameraman]

So you are living in southern Utah and one day the mountain behind your house lands in your living room. It killed both people at home at the time.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/25127147.jpg

The University seems to be blocking Photobucket... I guess I'll fix the photo later tonight

[Gnam]

Dis won? http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/utah-rockslide-kills-flattens-home-article-1.1546911

:( stupid gravity.

[KLang]

Stuff falls out of the mountains all the time. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.

[dando]

Stuff falls out of the mountains all the time. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.

**** comes up from underground as well.

http://nypost.com/2013/12/12/beneath-yellowstone-a-volcano-that-could-wipe-out-u-s/

I've read about this bubble for years. It's just a matter of time before it goes Mt. St. Helens or Krakatoa.

[dando]

http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/one-way-manned-mission-mars-just-got-closer-reality

I have a list of peeps I'd like to send on this one-way trip to Mars. :saywhat:

[KLang]

http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/one-way-manned-mission-mars-just-got-closer-reality

I have a list of peeps I'd like to send on this one-way trip to Mars. :saywhat:

They might be all that is left of the human race after Yellowstone blows. :\

[Gnam]

I don't do pods. I demand a dome, or GTFO.

[Elmo T]

They might be all that is left of the human race after Yellowstone blows. :\

And the Mrs. wants to head out there this summer. :saywhat::rofl:

[cameraman]

**** comes up from underground as well.

http://nypost.com/2013/12/12/beneath-yellowstone-a-volcano-that-could-wipe-out-u-s/

I've read about this bubble for years. It's just a matter of time before it goes Mt. St. Helens or Krakatoa.

"It is an underground cavern measuring some 55 miles by 20 miles and containing between 125 and 185 billion cubic miles of molten rock."

Wow that bubble is mighty impressive, You would think we would have noticed something that stretches from Yellowstone to 1/3 of the way to Jupiter before this week. Go figure.

The take home is don't get your science from the NY Post.

[Napoleon]

The take home is don't get your science from the NY Post.

Really, a newspaper that runs stories like "Headless Body Found in Topless Bar" doesn't do great science reporting?

[dando]

The take home is don't get your science from the NY Post.

I don't. Just grabbed an interesting linky. It's a widely known FACT that Yelllowstone is a huge geological hotspot, and there is a bubble that has been brewing there for eons. Could blow tomorrow, could blow in 100 years or more. Who predicted Mt. St. Helens?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/01/110119-yellowstone-park-supervolcano-eruption-magma-science/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/08/AR2007110801336.html

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/292/5521/1479.summary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera

Does that suit your scientific sensibilities better? :saywhat:

[cameraman]

Here is a view of the pyramids that has never been photographed before...

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BbeDG3ZIAAAyRxI.jpg:large

Covered in snow! Planes hadn't been invented the last time it happened.

[dando]

Here is a view of the pyramids that has never been photographed before...

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BbeDG3ZIAAAyRxI.jpg:large

Covered in snow! Planes hadn't been invented the last time it happened.

Global warming, yo. We almost have a season's worth of snowfall and it's not even winter yet. :saywhat: I blame Don Q. :gomer: :p

[Napoleon]

Covered in snow! Planes hadn't been invented the last time it happened.

Wait a second, didn't space aliens leave those? Didn't they have things that fly?

Jerusalem has a foot of snow.

[emjaya]

Kiwi ancestor 'flew from Australia'

The kiwi can now be put alongside Phar Lap, Crowded House and Pavlova as Kiwiana classics Australians try to claim as their own.

Researchers at Flinders University in Adelaide have examined a 20-million-year-old fossil which they say shows the kiwi descended from an emu and had been able to fly here from Australia.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/9528036/Kiwi-ancestor-flew-from-Australia

Hi Rusty. :)

[Gnam]

Inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, passes away at 94.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25497013

There's a one minute scene in 'Lord of War' that sums up the gun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF-t-0hDDIA

[Napoleon]

OK, we all know that the leadership of North Korea is nuts, but Kim Jong Uns executed uncle was eaten alive by 120 hungry dogs (http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/03/22156917-kim-jong-uns-executed-uncle-was-eaten-alive-by-120-hungry-dogs-report)?

[cameraman]

I don't think too many people are trusting the Chinese newspaper that published the report. Just sayin'...

[Napoleon]

I don't think too many people are trusting the Chinese newspaper that published the report. Just sayin'...

Hey, even if that is lying that is still a story. I understand they are connected to the leadership, so it they are dissing the North Koreans like that with a story like that, it tells you something.

[Andrew Longman]

I don't think too many people are trusting the Chinese newspaper that published the report. Just sayin'...True. But even if the official communist Chinese paper is making it up they are trying to move China away from the whack job mess that is N. Korea.

[nrc]

Crazy stories about North Korean human rights violations come in from all over Asia. It's all pretty much impossible to verify. Fortunately the UN has formed a commission on the subject... :rolleyes:

[cameraman]

This is a cool shot even if it is of Texas...

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BdN5vE9CYAAUGSI.png

[Napoleon]

North Korean execution by dog story likely came from satire (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/06/us-korea-north-jang-idUSBREA050DP20140106)

[cameraman]

This is an exceptionally well written article on prions, Vurt Vonnegut, mad cow disease, sherry and fighting off a cold. It is looking more and more like we have have another entire facet of molecular biology to figure out.

The Bright Side of Prions (http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38721/title/The-Bright-Side-of-Prions/)


In Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, scientists create a highly stable form of crystalline water called “ice-nine” that stays frozen even at high temperatures. Ice-nine instantly freezes any liquid water it touches. Its accidental release into nature solidifies the oceans and all contiguous bodies of water, and global catastrophe threatens our existence. Luckily for us, ice-nine is fictitious. But its biological counterpart, unfortunately, is not. The misfolded proteins known as prions are very real.

Prions are proteinaceous infectious particles, formed when normal proteins misfold and clump together. Biochemists Byron Caughey of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Peter Lansbury of Brigham and Women’s Hospital were among the first to explore the analogy between Vonnegut’s ice-nine and prions in their 1995 review of scrapie, an infectious and deadly neurological disease of sheep.1 Like ice-nine, the particles that spread scrapie consist of highly stable crystals of a normally innocuous material found in the brains of sheep. Crystalline clumps of a misfolded version of this protein coax other molecules of the same protein to fold into the aberrant conformation. The process continues until virtually all of that protein in a cell or tissue has been converted to prions. In the case of scrapie and other mammalian prion diseases, the consequence of this self-amplifying cycle is an accumulation of toxic clumps of proteins that destroys neurons and invariably kills the organism.

The chilling similarity between the modus operandi of ice-nine and prions is an apt illustration of the long-standing and well-deserved reputation of prions as catastrophic agents. Researchers are identifying more and more cases of prion-like protein misfolding that cause neurodegenerative diseases.

But a different side of prions is also coming to light. Many newly discovered prions and prion-like proteins do not appear to cause disease at all. On the contrary, some even protect against it. Still other prions are turning out to be key players in basic biological processes. (See illustration.) These discoveries are driving a new appreciation for prions as versatile components in the machinery of life, a paradigm that has fostered conceptual advances in fields as diverse as signal transduction, memory formation, and evolution.

[cameraman]

And a rather important update concerning the flu vaccine...



We Are Playing a Game of Telephone Regarding H1N1 Influenza And It Will Get People Killed

I don’t know how this happened, but I’m seeing news reports that are then being circulated around the intertoobz claiming that this year’s flu vaccine doesn’t protect against H1N1 influenza.

This is untrue (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/) (under “Antigentic Characterization”; boldface mine):


CDC has antigenically characterized 452 influenza viruses [398 2009 H1N1 viruses, 46 influenza A (H3N2) viruses, and 8 influenza B viruses] collected by U.S. laboratories since October 1, 2013 by hemagglutination inhibition (HI).

2009 H1N1 [398]:

All 398 2009 H1N1 viruses tested were characterized as A/California/7/2009-like, the influenza A (H1N1) component of the 2013-2014 Northern Hemisphere influenza vaccine.


Because this year’s H1N1 is slightly different than previous H1N1 viruses, previous vaccinations might not provide protection–making it all the more urgent that you get this year’s vaccine.

This is irresponsible journalism that will convince some people that the vaccine ‘doesn’t work.’ I almost never blogwhore, but please circulate this post or the CDC links. Right now, poor reporting is doing a lot of harm. It needs to stop now.

Update: It has been suggested to me, mostly tongue in check, that for purposes of this post, I should point out that I’m actually Mike the Mad Microbiologist (that’s my day job). Really, we’re not making this stuff up. For clarification, I think the problem stems from a couple articles I’ve read where experts said last year’s vaccine might not be effective, and that got turned into this year’s vaccine.

http://mikethemadbiologist.com/2014/01/06/we-are-playing-a-game-of-telephone-regarding-h1n1-influenza-and-it-will-get-people-killed/

[cameraman]

This happened last April but it didn't get posted here and these are some of the best photographs.

The Bingham Canyon Mine is the largest open pit mine in the world and it sits on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley. Back in April there was a landslide in the mine and the northern side of the mine collapsed. The mine had been evacuated are the in-pit laser ground movement system had warned that something was going to happen. They were not expecting this:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/Kennecott1.jpg
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/kennecott2.jpg
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/Kennecott3.jpg

See those little yellow machines half buried at the bottom of the last photo. Those are these:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/Bingham4.jpg

It turns out it was the largest non-volcanic landslide in North America since people started keeping records.

•The slides at 9:30 p.m. and 11:05 p.m. had magnitudes of 5.1 and 4.9, respectively, on various seismic scales. Each lasted about 90 seconds.

• Right after the second rock slide, a real earthquake of magnitude 2.5 on the Richter scale was measured. A half dozen small quakes occurred between the two slides, the other 10 after the two, but none was detected in the 10 days before the event.

• About 2.3 billion cubic feet of dirt moved in the slides. If Central Park in New York City were covered by that amount of dirt, Pankow and Moore calculated, it would be 66 feet underground.

• The landslide traveled almost 2 miles — "much longer than we would see for smaller rockfalls and rock slides," Moore said, adding "We can safely say the material was probably traveling at least 100 mph as it fell down the steepest part of the slope." Its average speed: 70 mph.

It will take them several years to dig it all out.

There is an article about the slide in GSA Today (http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/24/1/article/i1052-5173-24-1-4.htm) if you want to get into the finer details.

[Gnam]

Interesting. Make a hole, fill a hole. ;)

[dando]

http://www.infowars.com/1400-radiation-hot-spot-found-on-san-francisco-beach/


Following reports of abnormally high radiation readings on a beach in San Francisco, experts have discovered radiation hot spots measuring 1,400 per cent above normal background levels, although they are keen to stress there is no link to Fukushima.

Gnam be glowing. :gomer:

[cameraman]

Okay if you are picking up radium with a Geiger counter then you are looking at 228Ra the only beta emitting radium isotope. You won't pick up alpha emitters with a Geiger counter. 228Ra just so happens to be the decay product of 232Th. Now 232Th is an alpha emitter with a half life of 14,050,000,000 years. That is your naturally occurring thorium. So what they seem to have are some deposits of thorium and its decay product radium on the beach. How did it get there? Well there are those pipelines mentioned in the story and also San Francisco had all manner of gold mills and other refineries in the late 1800's. The folks back then had no compunctions about dumping their tailings on the beach. Pre-1950's researchers at UCSF were not any neater.

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to map the area and remove any overly toasty bits of sand but I really don't see it as anything to really worry about. Background Th radiation levels are about as close to zero as you can get so 1400% of damned near zero is still damned near zero.

But even mentioning Fukushima in context with this find is just idiotic.

[Gnam]

A geiger counter is the new must have 2014 accessory. ;)
I look forward to all the new mutant superheros about to be created.

Hopefully, some science teacher will use the article to teach kids about radiation so they understand what makes the geiger counter go bing!

[Andrew Longman]

Interesting. Make a hole, fill a hole. ;)so it would seem except they have been digging that hole for 107 years and given the physics and forces and the irregular nature of nature it would have collapsed many times over if it wasn't very carefully engineered. Oh, and it has to make money too. And there is a smelter and concentrator and miles long conveyors that are part of the process too. And thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the SLC area at stake. I had little appreciation when I first went there.

Up until the slide I had spent a few years helping them make sense of the complex projects to extend the life of the mine well into this century. Now things aren't so clear. That's about all I can say.

[cameraman]

It seems like things are recovering a little faster than they had hoped. Seems to me that the bigger issues will be the permitting to expand the mine and the air quality issues.

[Andrew Longman]

My experience there indicated they took being a good neighbor and permitting issues very seriously so they wouldn't lose "permission to do business". But the slide buried a brand new truck shop expansion and the new underground mine work. Both were important to making the business case work. I don't know what they need now to make the business case work but I am guessing a lot will likely have to change.

[cameraman]

My experience there indicated they took being a good neighbor and permitting issues very seriously so they wouldn't lose "permission to do business". But the slide buried a brand new truck shop expansion and the new underground mine work. Both were important to making the business case work. I don't know what they need now to make the business case work but I am guessing a lot will likely have to change.

Another mildly crappy day at the mine. Not the end of the world but annoying and they did shut down while they look at it.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BdpsG2XCIAAEQgB.png

[Gnam]

Mining ain't easy. sixteen tons, what do you get...

[Don Quixote]

another day older and deeper in debt

[cameraman]

This is a good way to waste your afternoon

http://www.headlinesagainsthumanity.com

You will be presented with headlines from internet news sites and it will be your task to determine which are real and which are fake.

Sadly if often is not an easy decision.

[cameraman]

Here is a review of a modern dance performance. The pair was described as follows:

"This review and this show can both be replicated if you chill a brick in the freezer and then gently smash your face."

The tweeter has a gift for understatement concerning the review:eek:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/arts/dance/sarah-michelsons-4-at-the-whitney-continues-a-series.html

[TravelGal]

From today's ARTA briefing:
FAA Sends Its Last DC-3 To Museum
The FAA has formally retired its last DC-3 and the faithfully restored N34 has made its last flight to the Texas Air & Space Museum in Amarillo. The aircraft was acquired by the agency in 1958 and it flew around the U.S. as a navaid inspection platform. It retired from that duty in 1981 and the decision was made to keep the old aircraft in a promotional role. When it wasn't in proper storage, it traveled to airshows as an ambassador for the agency. In 2002 it got a major makeover. The FAA did a nose-cone-to-stinger restoration of the aircraft to help mark the centenary of the Wright brothers' first flight. N34 went on the show circuit for the year and was seen by thousands of aviation buffs. Since then it's been flown for special occasions and put on some hours for the 50th anniversary of the FAA in 2008 and 2009. It flew from its home base in Oklahoma City to Amarillo last week and that was almost certainly its last flight. One of the conditions placed on the donation to the museum was that it not be flown. It will go on display March 1.

[Elmo T]

The development posed in this article is on the grounds of the old Langhorne Speedway. The Kmart was built in the late 1970's, but the remaining portion remains undeveloped. Just seems odd that given the amount of development surrounding the place, the remaining section is still open after all these years.

Middletown residents voice displeasure with new development (http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/news/communities/levittown/middletown-residents-voice-displeasure-with-new-development/article_f309b4d6-d73d-5c67-bfce-5fad4d799220.html)

http://i60.tinypic.com/2h2ffyx.jpg

http://i62.tinypic.com/34zlpao.jpg

[nrc]

The development posed in this article is on the grounds of the old Langhorne Speedway. The Kmart was built in the late 1970's, but the remaining portion remains undeveloped. Just seems odd that given the amount of development surrounding the place, the remaining section is still open after all these years.

Middletown residents voice displeasure with new development (http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/news/communities/levittown/middletown-residents-voice-displeasure-with-new-development/article_f309b4d6-d73d-5c67-bfce-5fad4d799220.html?mode=image&photo=1)

Yeah, who wants a bunch of "dwelling units" in their back yard?

[Elmo T]

Yeah, who wants a bunch of "dwelling units" in their back yard?

It is about saving the "nature habitat" which most likely consists of rabbits, rats, and squirrels. :rolleyes:

[cameraman]

It is about saving the "nature habitat" which most likely consists of rabbits, rats, and squirrels. :rolleyes:

I could see traffic concerns about a 400+ unit development dumping out onto what looks to be an odd sort of single lane road. That might gum things up a bit.

So what's that building with the wye entrance and exit with two lanes in front of it in one direction? It looks like it was built for a lot of traffic but it is just a smallish office type thing.

If you live in Salt Lake for any length of time you come to think that every minor residential road is 40' wide. I'm shocked now how narrow the roads are if I go back east. The standard downtown street here has parking on both sides, 4 lanes of traffic with the turning lane in the middle and the lanes are striped wider too.

[Elmo T]

I could see traffic concerns about a 400+ unit development dumping out onto what looks to be an odd sort of single lane road. That might gum things up a bit.

So what's that building with the wye entrance and exit with two lanes in front of it in one direction? It looks like it was built for a lot of traffic but it is just a smallish office type thing.



That is an Aldi grocery store. The Kmart has a large furniture store attached.

That area is completely built out. The mall is just around the corner. I don't see those added houses making it substantially worse that it is normally.


Here is a link to the Google Maps view:

Langhorne Speedway area (https://www.google.com/maps?q=Oxford+Valley+Mall&ll=40.170479,-74.879723&spn=0.042696,0.080595&t=h&cid=0xcc17d7a1fc49d0df&z=14&iwloc=A)

[Andrew Longman]

The roads couldn't handle the traffic 30 years ago. Rt 1 is a mess as well as the secondary roads. As people around here say, "you can't get anywhere on that road".

[TravelGal]

From today's briefing. Any comments from the aviation folk among us?

United Takes First Commercial Flight Using Split Scimitar Winglets
A United Airlines Boeing 737-800 aircraft freshly retrofitted with new Split Scimitar Winglets took to the skies marking the first commercial flight worldwide to operate with the advanced winglet technology. United flight 1273 on Tuesday took off from the airline's Houston hub and flew to Los Angeles. The airline installed the innovative winglets on the Boeing 737-800 after the FAA approved the technology made by Aviation Partners Boeing (APB) earlier this month. This new winglet design demonstrates significant aircraft drag reduction over the basic Blended Winglet configuration United uses on its current fleet. Using a newly patented design, the program retrofits United's Boeing Next Generation 737 Blended Winglets by replacing the aluminum winglet tip cap with a new aerodynamically shaped "Scimitar"™ winglet tip cap and by adding a new Scimitar-tipped ventral strake. The new design will reduce fuel consumption by up to 2 percent per aircraft. United currently has more than 350 aircraft fitted with advanced blended winglet technology. Once the Split Scimitar Winglets installation is complete, the combined winglet technology on United's 737, 757 and 767 fleet is expected to save the airline more than 65 million gallons of fuel a year, equivalent to more than 645,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and $200 million per year in jet fuel costs. The savings from the Split Scimitar Winglets will contribute to United's overall fuel-savings initiative to reduce its fuel costs by $1 billion by 2017.

[cameraman]

Windtunnels & computers ftw

http://www.ainonline.com/sites/default/files/uploads/newwinglets_english_800.jpg

http://www.b737.org.uk/images/winglet-splitscimitar.jpg

[Napoleon]

genius girl scout sells cookies outside pot club (http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/02/20/genius girl scout sells cookies outside pot club/)

[Gnam]

I think the new lower winglet creates a second vortex (horizontal tornado) that reduces the strength of the first wingtip vortex. Although both tornados spin in the same direction, where they meet (interfere) they are blowing in opposite directions and work against each other. A weaker wingtip vortex means less drag, which means less fuel has to be burned to go the same speed.

That could be all wrong though. :gomer:


from the patent

Winglets reduce drag generated by wingtip vortices. However, winglets produce lift that increases the bending moment on the wing.

The split winglet includes an upward sloping element similar to an existing winglet and a down-ward canted element (ventral fin). The ventral fin counters vortices generated by interactions between the wingtip and the lower wing surface.

The split winglet is designed to reduce drag but without generating the increased bending moment found in existing winglet designs. The split winglet design is believed to improve fuel burn or reduce fuel burn by approximately 1.5%, reduce drag by up to 9.5% over an unmodified wing, and improve cruise performance by more than 40% over existing blended-winglet configurations.

Other aerodynamic characteristics are similarly enhanced, which result in higher cruise altitude, shorter time-to-climb, improved buffet margins, reduced noise, and higher second segment weight limits. No adverse effects on airplane controllability or handling qualities are expected.

Any improvement in structural stiffness characteristics of the wing will result in an additional drag benefit corresponding to a reduction in wing aeroelastic twist.

http://www.google.com/patents/US20120312928

[SteveH]

According to my son who is a 737 pilot for United the fuel savings is less than 2%. But they weigh more so aren't as efficient overall for shorter flights.

United has a huge amount of 737s, so even a 2% savings is massive.