November 02, 2009
A Japanese fishing trawler has been sunk by giant jellyfish.
Now although I have wanted to be able to truthfully report something like this since I was six, I was initially skeptical.So, I read the article to find out if:
A) the source was the Weekly World News or Pravda
B) what REALLY happened
To my surprise the source is the London Telegraph and what seems to have happened is that giant jellyfish have sunk a Japanese trawler. Fortunately no one was hurt.
See also here and here.
The culprit seems to be the infamous nomura jellyfish, which has been in the news before.
There was a huge infestation of the things in 1958 and 2005. Unlike the 1958 infestation, their numbers have remained rather high for the last several years and they have caused considerable difficulties for the Japanese fishing industry.
This year, another very large infestation has hit Japan.
Now in fairness to the jellyfish, were I doing a marine casualty investigation of this (assuming the facts as reported are true) I'd be disinclined to issue a finding of fault against the jellyfish. However, it is important to keep a sense of perspective and focus on what is surely the most important thing to take away from this bizarre occurrence. To that end, one of the Brickmuppets crack team of science babes has some insightful thoughts on this incident.
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October 29, 2009
Magnetic Monopoles?
Tony Stark call your office. This has been one of the holy grails of physics for some time, now 4 different teams have produced considerable evidence that they exist. More on the discovery can be found here and Brian Wang has an overview of the implications, if this can eventually be replicated commercially here.
Metallic Hydrogen?
Researchers at the University of Buffalo have found that adding lithium to hydrogen they can vastly reduce the pressures at which it becomes metallic. IF this can be made stable at reasonable pressures, the implications for this are potentially game changers for both rocketry and electronics. As a rocket fuel it would theoretically have performance heretofore never attained by man. As explained here it's applications for electronics are something that has been long sought.
Metallic hydrogen is predicted to be a high-temperature superconductor. A superconductor is a state of matter where electrons, and thus electricity, can flow indefinitely and without resistance.
Wow! There are certainly hurdles to be overcome....
The calculations also predict that LiH6 could be a metal at normal pressures. However, under these conditions it is not stable and would decompose to form LiH and H2.
...still, this takes metallic hydrogen from the purely theoretical to something that might well be made practical with refinements in stabilizing it. As a fuel it is, like regular H2, not an energy source, but an energy carrier albiet one with high density, it would require a lot of power to produce...power that might best come from....
Atomic Power Plants: We here at Brickmuppet Blog really like atomic power and we are overjoyed to report that mass production of some of the small reactors we've blogged about before is indeed iminent. Hyperion's nuclear reactors are finally going to enter production, albeit in the UK. In Japan, Drudge reports that small reactors are taking off, Toshiba (with Westinghouse) is planning to mass market their 4s Reactor. While the reactor itself is old news it appears that Toshiba no longer considers it experimental and is looking beyond Alaska to the third world. Mitsubishi is also developing small mass produced reactors for third world consumption. Such reactors dispersed around the US could provide a robust, redundant, reliable, decentralized and nearly carbon free source of power if it were pursued aggressively, particularly if domestic reprocessing facilities were developed. This would be a vital and necessary investment if one genuinely considered global warming to be a transcendental threat and a damned good one if one was more concerned about the well being of the U.S.A. with regards to infrastructure, strategic, and economic (cheap power=jobs) well being. Those in power seem to have little concern about any of that.
Alas...
Well...back to the miracle of SCIENCE!
Touchy Feely Bionics!
The BBC reports on the first prostetic arm with a sense of touch!
Caves on the Moon!
Japans Kayuga lunar probe seems to have spied a cave....no word on the presence of amazons, diamonds and giant spiders...but we'll keep you posted.
Finally, via Jerry Pournelle, comes this astonishing powerpoint presentation of the earth from space....look.
Science Babe is the scientist Yayoi from Mouse by Satoru Akahori
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May 02, 2009
Scott Lowther reports that you can now buy canned chicken...no...not canned chicken...A canned chicken. I cannot do justice to Lowther's sublime commentary.....go see for yourself.
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March 11, 2009
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October 26, 2008
huge roundup of really interesting technology advancements here. Some have been touched on here before, but Wangs' got a lot more and links within links. Get a cup of hot chocolate, sit down and start clicking.
A few highlights...
Cardboard harder than cast iron.
Nuclear fuel from seaweed.
3-D printers...for buildings, that Caterpillar expects to be field testing by the end of the year.
As has been mentioned here numerous times, we are on the cusp of, or witnessing several breakthroughs that have the potential to greatly increase our quality of life.
The only thing standing in the way of most of them most of them are Luddites, and those who would unwittingly regulate them out of existence. That fact bears considerable pondering over the next 8 days at least.
The idea that great advances could just be shelved for silly, political reasons is not at all far fetched as the continued existence of Leon Kass outside of a pillory demonstrates.
Historically such decisions have had very bad results.Rome had very rudimentary steam engines. However the development of them for more practical applications was officially discouraged for fear that they would displace slave labor...and thereby create an employment crisis and subsequent social upheaval....the implications of the industrial age and the elimination of slavery...2000 years ago.....are fascinating, but rife with assumptions more the purview of Harry Turteldove.
China is the most commonly cited example, and unlike the Roman example above requires little assumption that necessary advances would have been made. In possession of the largest merchant fleet in history, the oldest and most advanced civilization on earth decided in the early 1400's to stop exploring and engaging the world. The nation rapidly lost the applicable technologies and did not become a world power again until the 1960's...and was not a serious economic power until the early 90s.
The lead in economics and power the US currently enjoys is infinitesimal in comparison to the lead in technology, knowledge, and both hard and soft power that China enjoyed in the 1400s. Other nations were literally centuries behind, and yet a group of visonless bureaucrats, for reasons of both well intentioned but short sighted idiocy, and the most venal self interest, stymied through legislation (or simply outlawed) not only emerging technologies, but existing ones as well. China was leapfrogged and became the plaything of the nations who had put her inventions to good use. In a last fit of bureaucratic group think, the descendants of those who had brought this about, ended the modernization efforts of the Tang Dynasty solely because they feared that the new ministries and corporations focused on technological development would threaten their power and relevance. The result was 70 years of blood, culminating in the worst mass murder humanity has ever seen.
The people who oppose nuclear power and other technologies occasionally do so out of good faith. Even so, following their tragically flawed path is a journey through despair and blood.
We cling desperately to the face of a precipice, but we are about to grow wings. There are those who presume to know whats best for us, and think we should not posses wings. It is imperative that we not hand them shears.
(Science babe is actually Klan Klan from Macross Frontier)
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September 03, 2008
Ike's currently projected track is just plain mean.
Of course, as anyone who has followed these storms the last few weeks knows, they are anything but predictable...except to the extent that they are an annual annoyance.
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September 01, 2008
Now attention turns to Hanna and Ike.
In addition to the possibility of a very rough landfall, Hanna looks like it could go up the spine of the Appalachians, storm systems drop moisture when they hit mountains which could cause it to dump a lot of rain between North Carolina and Pennsylvania. I have no idea what sort of rain potential this storm has but Appalachia by its nature is vulnerable to flash floods. Historically several Hurricanes have killed more people in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina via flooding than they did in coastal regions.
Ike appears poised to wreak havoc in the Caribbean, though it looks like most nations and all the US Territories will thankfully be in the happy quadrant of this one if it doesn't stray too far from the NOAA model (though the Bahamians are going to have a rough time with this one). The big question here again is rain, which has historically caused lots of damage in the area, particularly on Hispaniola due to deforestation.
Still, it looks like we dodged a big one.
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August 27, 2008
Via Colleen Doran who has further thoughts and reminiscences here.
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July 26, 2008
Wow.
This fellow made a gyrocopterhelicopter out of scrap metal and a lawnmower engine!
These are puportedly the same guy and same machine but the two vids show vehicles that appear to be operating on different principles. It may be that the autogyro was modified at some point to be a full helicopter which would make sense if the guy was learning as he went. Autigyros are rather more simple and helicopters are such an abomination against physics that the inventor may have wanted to get one half of the whirlly bits right before trying for the full Sikorskey.
Of course, they may also be unrelated machines.
More here.
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Over at Ars Technica, Ethan Gutman has an analysis of this and concludes that the situation is, unsurprisingly, neither as dire as the worst predictions, nor as rosy as the more pollyanish takes on this have been.
Ultimately this planet has limited resources. However, even putting aside the obvious merits of recycling, Mercury is likely to be exceedingly rich in heavy metals and most other things we need for an industrial civilization can be found in some abundance from the moon to the outer planets. There is no reason to panic, but there is one more reason to work towards cheap access to space.
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Now a deformed farm animal is not normally news but the picture was disturbing enough to make me shiver...thus it warrants discussion about this stories implications.
The way I see it there are 5 possibilities here...
1: It is a bizzare but random mutation, the snout and jaw, shortened enough to give the piglets face an almost human face and the Brickmuppet nightmares.
2: As above, but not quite as random, having been triggered by the appalling pollution levels in parts of China.
3: This was an in vitro fertilized pig and due to incompetence at a government facility this farmers sow was accidentally impregnated with one of those human animal hybrids that Leon Kass gets the vapors over. This is possibly part of a program to grow transplantable organs or to make Chinese pigs taste even more like pork.
4: Its a pod pig.... the Body Snatchers are in China. Head for the hills. Trust no one.
5: It's a pig thing...you wouldn't understand...but you should react as in #4.
Scenarios 1&2 can be safely dismissed in the interest of fearmongering and hysteria. #3 is disturbing in a Soylent Green / Clonus Horror sort of way but points (tangentially) to the distant possibility of catgirls being developmentally just around the corner. Scenarios 4&5 pretty much just suck and have no silver lining that I can see....
Anyway, discuss....
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July 23, 2008
An albino humpback whale is making waves near Byron Bay Australia*.
While whales making waves are not news (they tend to splash a lot) albino whales that have made it to adulthood certainly are.
(* For Mee.Nuvians, that's on the east coast about 220 miles north of Pixyville )
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July 21, 2008
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June 25, 2008
Via Jerry Pournelle
Scientists using archaeological and astronomical evidence have pinpointed the most likely date for the return of Odysseus to his wife Penelope, April 16, 1178 B.C ( about noon). The accuracy was due to the fact that only one total eclipse was visible from Greece during any time in the ballpark for an actual war between Greece and Asia Minor. Additionally several other astronomical events (some quite rare) occurred about this time that seem to be alluded to in the Odyssey.
The date given is fairly close to the most likely time frame of the fall of Illos/Troy and in any event astronomical cycles are likely a more precise dating system than some of the archaeological dating techniques.
More here, here and here.
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June 09, 2008
The local WAWA seems to be pulling their salads as well.
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May 21, 2008
Summit'
We can only stand by and hope that Mothera will be appeased...
Via Wonderduck...
(who says he is too tired to blog about this...while denying any involvement with vampires.)
UPDATE: I should have known...this innocuous tip from the Duck...it was a trap.
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April 26, 2008
Read the whole thing.
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March 01, 2008
DU may not be terribly dangerous but it does seem to be a troll attractant.
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February 22, 2008
So when Andromenda comes over here to cause trouble in a little while....we'll kick her butt!
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February 10, 2008
One of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes (tm)points the way to better living through chemistry with this report from Brian Wang on recent carbon nanotube developments. It looks like commercial grade resins may be able to significantly bring down the cost of these light strong structures! w00t!
Chemistry doesn't always lead to breakthroughs...sometimes it just reminds us of the bleedingly obvious and tries to dissuade us from doing something stupid...like burning food. Yes, it seems that...(shock!!)....using food crops for fuel is bad...even if you are a green. More here.
Chemistry is founded upon the first law of thermodynamics which enables chemistry to point out even more fundamental stupidity. Like passing a law that violates...said law. Sacramento...meet science. California homes are NOT going to be able to generate as much power as they receive from the grid...even if you pass a law.
But enough chemical idiocy....
Chemistry happens on a nano-scale and now we are approaching the ability to do chemistry sort of like an erector set. Via the Blogfather comes this report on DNA scale pliers and construction equipment that will enable nano-engineersand future chemists to create nano-scale machines and exotic compounds...one molecule at a time (hopefully in very rapid succession or it'll take ferever').....and they will be able to look at their handy work with this atom scale microscope!
Good Lord look! Those little dotty things...they are ATOMS! Its an actual picture of ATOMS! Unbelievable! Of course Atoms can be split and that segues into one of the favorite topics here at Brickmuppet Blog,
You see, while atomic power is not strictly speaking chemistry, (it's physics) it involves doing physics stuff to chemicals...like uranium (or preferably thorium)...Said elements, in order to be used in most reactors must be refined...and refining is...a CHEMICAL PROCESS. Well, not all reactors are alike in this regard as the Mysterious Dr. Buzzo tells us with this post on the many merits of the Canadian CANDU reactor. This is a nuclear reactor which can actually run off unrefined uranium. This is a huge advantage! In fact the CANDUs are virtually flexfuel reactors in that they can run off a fairly wide range of nuclear fuels including some types of nuclear waste (!!) as well as abundant thorium. Here is CANDU...the motion picture!
Finally, unrelated to space or energy matters, comes this bit of chemical innovation. A professor at
UC Berkeley has invented a tape-like substance that has so much adhesive strength that a person clothed in such a sticky suit could conceivably scale a building like Spider-Man. ...well, there ARE issues to be sure but its more proof that the future is here!
Sorry, Brickmuppeteers, I've no idea who the miniskirted science babe is....but she cried out for a chemistry post.
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February 01, 2008
All of history and invention have led to this point.
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October 14, 2007
No, I won't explain,....go read the whole thing.
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September 19, 2007
Ah hear tell that this rock from beyond the southern lights has fallen like a cannon shot upon some town in Pizarro's old tramping grounds.
But that don't be the worst of it.
The scurvy thing smells worse than a 4 day ole' glowin' mackerel in August....and it be makin' the locals sicker'n a bunch of choirboys in a skipjack in a hurricane.
Keep yer powder dry, cause if this yarn be trutheful, there may be zombies on the horizon!
A Tip o' me tricorner to the good ship Chizumatic!
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September 15, 2007
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September 14, 2007
OK....all silliness aside, it is actually it is an interesting story....
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