So, this is how the Americans get rid of a washed up whale carcass:
and this is how we cleaned up the carcass that washed up on one of our beaches today… After about 4 or so days of every damn news station reporting on the shark activity around the carcass and interviewing all sorts experts that kept reassuring everyone that it was completely normal for sharks to be found around such a large and easy food source…idiots. The only surprise was that there wasn’t more than 1 or 2 sharks following it.
In other news, Jad’s crowing about being in the news because he caught a NASTY little norovirus, thats got our hospitals all in a frenzy. Considering how, umm, explosive it was for him, I’m quite happy to have (thus far and hopefully permanently) avoided sharing in his notoriety. think I might pop a zinc tablet before bed over the next few days.
The Herald Sun has an interesting article about climate change and how governments are reacting to it (ours, India and China in particular). Right now, Labor and KRudd’s plans scare me more than anything about the supposed “climate change problem” does. Don’t get me wrong, I do think we should all try to do our bit to recycle and find ways to use cleaner energy, etc. But I DO NOT subscribe to Al Gore and Labor’s doom-and-gloom view on climate change. I don’t think we’re affecting our climate quite as badly as they make out, and I don’t think that individual efforts (even if you refer to a country as said “individual”) can make much of a difference without a global consensus to work together. It’s a good starting point I guess, but ultimately the smaller countries are not really going to be able to do much unless the larger, and developing, countries jump onto the “Save the planet” band wagon as well. (more…)
From news.com.au last week:
A DEER with a single horn in the centre of its head has been born in an Italian nature reserve, sparking talk of unicorns. (more…)
I don’t normally take much of an interest in politics, but there are a handful of issues that I do have an interest in. One of them is the whole fuel/energy issue. It really pisses me off that our government flatly refuses to even consider putting in nuclear power plants. (more…)
From drunk to sober in 2 minutes? New Scientist published a fairly interesting article last month about the efforts to develop alcohol-replacement drugs and drugs that neutralise the adverse effects of alcohol, while maintaining the relaxing, feel-good effects that draw most of us to alcohol. Is it really possible to experience all the pleasure of drinking, without the pain? And would these drugs really solve alcohol-related problems or just promote irresponsible drinking? The article covers most of the issues pretty well, I think. (more…)
Well, not quite, but close enough. While drilling for borate in Serbia, mining giant Rio Tinto discovered a new mineral. When they couldn’t identify the white, powdery rock, they did what everyone else does these days and turned to Google. And what did good ole Google tell them? That the closest representation of the chemical formula of this element is found in the description of Kryptonite in Superman Returns. Flourine and Krypton are the only two differing elements between the two minerals. The chemical formula of Jadarite, as this new mineral will now be known (so named after the Jadar Basin, where it was found), is sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide. Although the two minerals are not perfectly identical, the similarity between their chemical composition is quite a note-worthy coincidence, or at least I think so. Its kinda cool and somehow a little freaky too.
So, some astronomical eggheads *grin* over in Chile have discovered a new earth-like exoplanet in the Libra constellation, which is pretty close to our own Milky Way. This has got all the space-heads all excited about it being potentially habitable and finding extraterrestrial life on the planet. Now, IF there is water on the planet I guess they’ve got a fair chance of finding life there too, bacterial if nothing else. (more…)
Every now and then I like to take a look at recent journal articles and science mags and stuff. PubMed is one of the places I troll through looking for these articles. This time I decided to do a search on coffee consuption. (more…)
