Rule 5 Saturday - The Indestructible Hayden Panttiere

I'm breaking  my trends and choosing an American woman for Rule 5 this week.  Hayden Panttiere is probably best known for her role as Claire Bennett, the indestructible cheerleader in Heroes.

Oh, and get your mind out of the gutter; Panttiere means "baker" in Italian.

However, she started acting at 11 months of age, in a Playskool advertisement, so the the ingenue act really is just an act.

She cut her teeth as a child in the soaps, both "Guiding Light" and "One Life to Live".  I'm trying not to hold that against her.

Another prominent role was "Beth Cooper" in "I Love You, Beth Cooper!"  She did the voice over of "Dot" the bug in "Bugs Life" as well.  (Why waste looks like this on a voice over?). In all she's been in over 20 movies.

She has also done voices for video games, "Kingdom Hearts", and "Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep", neither of which I've heard of.  To be fair, I really haven't played a video game since Quake II.

 She has a misspelled tattoo running down one side of her body. It reads "Vivere senza rimipianti", which, in Italian might mean "To live without regrets" if she had spelled it "rimpianti"  Deliberate?  It would be an amusing statement, if so.

I couldn't find a photo of that...

She also sings, having been nominated for a Grammy for her song in a "Bugs", and having recorded songs for several other movies

See below the jump for more pictures of Hayden.

Sweet Child of Mine

How Steve Jobs Got Dan Rather Fired

How Steve Jobs was inspired to put proportional fonts on Apple Macs.

"If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later."

Inspired by a post by Althouse.

It's So Hard To Be a Good Hippie

Your Belated Friday Monkey Dacker Gooser

PSA: How to Change Strings on a Guitar

Oh, Eli? My 12 string needs an new set. Could you help me with that too?

Link picked up by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook; go check out her paean to Paris Hilton, the Princess of Skanks. Thanks to the Rule 5 Wombat at The Other McCain's for the link and his weekly Rule 5 omnibus.

Washington D.C. To Continue Polluting Bay

EPA renews D.C.’s stormwater discharge permit

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it renewed the District’s permit to discharge stormwater into local waterways, but only under the condition that it significantly reduce rainwater runoff and the huge amount of garbage that comes with it.

Under the terms of the permit, the District is required to add a minimum of 350,000 square feet of green roofs on city properties, plant at least 4,150 trees yearly, and assure that new properties of 5,000 square feet soak up more than an inch of rainwater over a 24-hour rainfall to keep it from flowing into sewers and into rivers, streams and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay

The city will have a year and a half to carry out the measures. The requirements are partly the result of the EPA’s strict new pollution diet placed on six states and the District in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

OK, I was a little hard on them in the post title.  They are making it better, somewhat.  However, we have plenty of rain events in this area that vastly exceed one inch in 24 hours (TS Irene for example, gave us 7 inches in 24 hours, over a foot in some areas close by).  For them to be able to achieve it in six months suggests that they already have the ability, and are not using it.

If this were a corporation whose pollutant release were being tightened up, I'm sure they'd focus on how much pollution being left in the environment rather than how much was being remove.

Fishing at Dusk 10/6/11

I met Trevor down at the dock after work for a short evening of fishing.  I hadn't been out since before Irene, when I had the boat pulled out of the slip, for protection, and to get rid of a couple of years worth of barnacles and to get a fresh coat of bottom paint.  It was put back in the water with fresh paint late last week.

We found birds working on a school of mixed Striped Bass and Bluefish just outside the harbor, but they proved to be small fish and we moved on.   We found a few bigger fish in the shallow water at a familiar location.  The one above was the biggest, about 25-26 inches (I didn't actually measure it).  The one I'm holding (right) was only 20 inches, although I did finish my limit with one only slightly smaller than the one above.  But it was completely dark by then, and I passed on a photo. I would try to convince you that that a 25-26 inch striper was 15-17 lbs, but I know better.  Maybe 6 to 10, tops.

The lure of the day was a Yozuri floating minnow, in the 6.5 inch size.  Mine was silver and black, Trevor's was a facsimile, and dark gold.  And no, I didn't pay that much for it...

Scientist Denies Consenus - Wins Nobel Prize

Vindicated: Ridiculed Israeli scientist wins Nobel

When Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman claimed to have stumbled upon a new crystalline chemical structure that seemed to violate the laws of nature, colleagues mocked him, insulted him and exiled him from his research group.

After years in the scientific wilderness, though, he was proved right. And on Wednesday, he received the ultimate vindication: the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

The lesson?

"A good scientist is a humble and listening scientist and not one that is sure 100 percent in what he read in the textbooks," Shechtman said.

The shy, 70-year-old Shechtman said he never doubted his findings and considered himself merely the latest in a long line of scientists who advanced their fields by challenging the conventional wisdom and were shunned by the establishment because of it.

In 1982, Shechtman discovered what are now called "quasicrystals" — atoms arranged in patterns that seemed forbidden by nature.

"I was thrown out of my research group. They said I brought shame on them with what I was saying," he recalled. "I never took it personally. I knew I was right and they were wrong."

Lesson?  What lesson?

Steve Jobs - RIP

You've almost certainly heard by now that Steve Jobs finally succumbed to the pancreatic cancer that had dogged him for quite a while.  I have no special news to offer.

My first personal computer was an Apple II+, purchased in about 1981 to use as a word processor to write my PhD dissertation.  I also wrote programs for the graphics and data analysis for the dissertation.  Only a couple of years earlier, I would have had to have the dissertation typed, done the graphics using a pen and ink, and, perhaps, done the data analysis by hand on a calculator.  In fact, I did all of the above for my Masters thesis.

Since then, I have not been a particularly loyal Apple customer.  I followed the Apple II+ with a IIe, and I was given an IPod for Christmas a few years ago, but since the IIe all my computers have been IBMs and as I have mentioned before, my phones have all been resolutely stupid.

Nevertheless, Steve Jobs was one of "those" people, people who made a great impact on the world.

To Be Fair, We Hold Baseball Players to a Higher Standard

Investors Business Daily: Indict Eric Holder

A major-league pitcher was indicted for lying to Congress about steroid use. Administration memos show Eric Holder lied about what he knew about Fast and Furious and when he knew it. What's the difference?

Somewhere, Scooter Libby must be scratching his head. He was indicted and convicted simply because his recall of when a meeting occurred differed from others. He didn't lie about a gun-running operation that led to the deaths of two American agents and at least 200 Mexicans.

But Attorney General Eric Holder did, according to memos obtained by CBS News and Fox News.

They show Holder lied to Congress on May 2, 2011, when he was asked about when he knew about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Fast and Furious gun-running operation. He told House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa he was "not sure of the exact date, but I probably learned about Fast and Furious over the last few weeks."

Cove Point Gas Dock to Switch to Export Facility?

Dramatic Reversal for Natural Gas on Chesapeake Bay

In a sign of how drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale formation is transforming the region’s energy landscape, owners of a liquid natural gas import terminal on the Chesapeake Bay want to transform the facility to export gas.

The Virginia-based Dominion power company announced yesterday that it has applied to the U.S. Department of Energy for approval to rebuild the Cove Point liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in southern Maryland into a “bi-directional” facility, capable of exporting up to 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, according to the company’s website.

Since it was built in 1978, Cove Point -- one of the largest LNG terminals in the U.S. -- has been the docking point for massive ships importing super-cooled, liquefied natural gas from countries around the world, including Algeria, Trinidad, Nigeria, Norway and Venezuela.

But import now will become export.

Why? Surging natural gas production in the U.S. from the Marcellus shale, a formation of black rock permeated with gas that lies under Pennsylvania, New York, Western Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio, and the nearby Utica shale, according to Dominion.

I had noticed that we were seeing less ships come into the Gas Dock, but I hadn't thought that it might be the result of increased natural gas production in the region, and that less imports were needed. 

Imagine if the US were to become a net energy exporter from the natural gas industry. They could hire some of those unemployed kids protesting Wall Street.  Or not.

The major change needed at the Old Dominion site (it's hard to remember that there is big storage facility on land there as well), is that a plant to cool the natural gas to a liquid for transport will need to be added.  Then the cold liquid natural gas can be pumped out to the gas dock for loading onto tankers.

The Band Goes On Tour

At Least It's an Honest Job

Find more here.

IIRC the Tennessee Legislature Made Pi = 3.2 Exactly

If not, it's a suburban legend too good not to pass on¹...

Anyway, it did about as much good as the US Congress declaring a goal for cellulosic biofuels:

U.S. unlikely to hit Renewable Fuel Standard for cellulosic biofuels

The Renewable Fuel Standard requires that 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol, 1 billion gallons of biodiesel and 16 billion gallons of cellulosic fuels be produced annually by 2022. According to the report, the corn ethanol numbers and biodiesel can be achieved, but the cellulosic goals probably cannot.

Some things are just not amenable to legislation.

¹ It wasn't Tennessee, it was Indiana, and the bill did not pass:

It happened in Indiana. Although the attempt to legislate pi was ultimately unsuccessful, it did come pretty close. In 1897 Representative T.I. Record of Posen county introduced House Bill #246 in the Indiana House of Representatives. The bill, based on the work of a physician and amateur mathematician named Edward J. Goodwin (Edwin in some accounts), suggests not one but three numbers for pi, among them 3.2, as we shall see. The punishment for unbelievers I have not been able to learn, but I place no credence in the rumor that you had to spend the rest of your natural life in Indiana.

Bonus Dog Day

After last nights events, we did not go to work today, and I was assigned to take the dogs to the beach so Georgia could get some rest...

It's gorgeous weather here now, with a clear blue sky, temperatures in the high 60s to low 70s.  A bit of a breeze.

The Flower du Jour, Pinkweed, or Pennsylvania Smartweed, or Knotweed.  Whatever you call it locally, it's Polygonum pensylvanicum in the Buckwheat family  It grows in dense mats in damp areas.  I was a bit surprised to find this clump on the cliff growing amid the Kudzu.  You often see it in large masses along road edges.  Even though it's a weed, you can buy seeds to start it.

The Monarch Butterflies must be on their way south to Mexico.  I saw quite a number of them today, all flitting about, and never landing.  I was luck this shot came out as well as it did.

The eagle are still about.  This one stayed quite still as I wrestled with Hendrix on the leash while trying to get this shot.  I also saw a pair of juveniles flying together (siblings?) today, but the result of my attempt at a photo of them was pretty awful.

 We met up with Red and Joel way up the beach.

Skye is happy she didn't have to stay on the leash.  Hendrix drinks bay water until she get an awful case of diarrhea; not a happy thing, she's not trusted off...

Can Burning Chicken $#!* Save the Bay?

How Heating manure could lead to cleaner bay

Maryland chicken farms produce a substantial amount of phosphorous-rich chicken manure, which contributes to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. One solution to the problem: Turn the poop into power.

A new grant program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will bring $850,000 to Eastern Shore chicken farmers to install technologically advanced systems to convert waste into green energy.

"We're trying to create a network of people who have experience (with) these technologies to provide assistance to farmers," said Amanda Bassow, director of the Chesapeake Program at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which is administering the USDA grant.

Yes, the Bay has lots of chicken farms, and chicken litter and other farm wastes are significant sources of nutrients that fuel eutrophication and anoxia.  Better disposal of the waste would be great forward.  And using it to generate power would help kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.  So how would it be done?

There are several ways farmers can convert manure to energy that can be used to power the farm or sold back to the electrical grid.

Combustion systems burn the manure, which produces steam to power a turbine that turns a generator to produce electricity.

Gasification systems heat the manure at temperatures up to 1,560 degrees in a low-oxygen system to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

And anaerobic digestion systems use microbes to break down the manure in an oxygen-free system to produce methane.

Gasification and combustion systems are the only viable option for Maryland chicken farmers because chicken manure is too dry to be used in anaerobic digestion systems.

Well, it's not like the Eastern Shore lacks for freshwater supplies, at least enough to help chicken shit rot; but let that go for now, combustion and gasification seem like reasonable enough options.  So why haven't such systems been adopted already, if you can solve your waste disposal problems and produce needed power at the same time?

But the high cost of installing waste-to-energy systems and the steep learning curve for farmers to learn the new technologies could prevent widespread adoption.

"At this point it has been difficult," Dubin said.

It's unclear how much it will cost to install combustion or gasification systems on Maryland chicken farms under the grant, officials said, because it depends on the size and location of the farm. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will decide in the next few months where to install the systems funded by the grant, Bassow said.

Another idea that has been proposed, and largely rejected on the Eastern Shore, is to build a power power plant specifically designed to burn poultry litter, and have farms sell their litter to the plant to burn as a fuel source.  A company called Fibrowatt tried to build such a plant in the 90s and was rebuffed largely by the environmental lobby.

But not everyone is in agreement on the necessity of these systems, Dubin said.

"We're seeing community disagreement over these projects as far as concerns about air quality, emissions, road traffic and other things of that nature," he said.

Now with the "Bay Diet" plan starting to bite, the shit-burning alternative is starting to look more attractive to all concerned.

So, should it be at the individual farm level, or at a regional manure burning power plant level?  Why not try both, and let the market decide which, if not both, actually works?

Feds Look at Eel Protection

American eels may need protection

The federal government is again considering listing the American eel on its endangered species list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will begin an "extensive status review" to determine if the snakelike fish should receive protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Once among the most lucrative commercial fisheries in Virginia, eels have been in decline for decades in the Chesapeake Bay. Harvests exceeded 700,000 pounds in Virginia during the 1980s, but they dwindled to 134,000 pounds in the Potomac River last year.

Scientists blame freshwater dams, which prevent eels from reaching spawning grounds, loss of habitat, overfishing and other reasons for the decline.

I used to catch eels once in a while when bottom fishing.  I haven't done that in years.  We do occasionally see one washed up dead.

I don't know that I buy the dam argument.  Seems to me there were lots of eels only a few years ago, while there were still plenty of dams; new dams have not been popular around here for years, and many older ones are being removed.  I do know there was an active eel fishery in the Patuxent River until recently, to the point that it was hard to steer through all the eel pots. I also know the reason they stopped fishing was lack of eels, not lack of a market for eels.

The seafood industry contends there are plenty of eels; the drop in catch reflects a decline in the fishery's infrastructure, officials previously told the newspaper.

Fish and Wildlife officials considered protecting the eel, whose habitat runs from Greenland to Brazil, last decade. They decided in 2007 that eels, which are prized by sushi eaters and used as bait, didn't warrant such measures.

The seafood industry opposes any listing because it could affect other fisheries.

 They'll consider eel protection after they take the last one.

A Long Night

Georgia passed out at the table in a restaurant up near Annapolis last night, where we were having dinner with friends and colleagues.  Anne Arundel County medics were there in minutes, and took excellent care.  The result was a night at the emergency, spent doing not so much.  She got poked and prodded, blood drawn, had two EKGs (one in the ambulance and one at the hospital) hooked to an IV, and X-Rayed.  In the end, nothing was found, and the diagnosis was "syncopy", a fancy name for fainting.  She has low blood pressure most of the time, and did have fainting spells as a child. She was released around 10:30 with instructions to see her own doctor, and we got a late start sleeping.

Thanks to Charlie, for coming over to see to the dogs.

New Types of Hybrid Engines Proposed

From Instapundit, news of two new types of hybrid engines that may be used for cars:

First, a system that uses "waste" energy to compress air, then uses the compressed air to help drive the engine when power is needed:

Scuderi, based in West Springfield, Massachusetts, has altered the way the internal combustion engine operates to convert kinetic energy into the potential energy of high-pressure air. It splits the four parts of the internal combustion cycle across two cylinders synchronized on the same crankshaft. One cylinder handles the air intake and compression part of the cycle, pumping compressed air via a crossover passage into the second cylinder. The crossover contains the fuel-injection system, and combustion and exhaust are handled in the second cylinder.

Upsides, avoids the heavy metal and rare-earth requirements and the weight for the batteries for conventional hybrids.  Downsides?  Compressed air can be a danger on it's own , and does impose a weight requirement as well for it's containment.  I would guess it's less than the batteries for a conventional hybrid, though. 

The second system is kind of interesting, using a fly wheel to store the "waste" energy and give it back when needed:

Across the Atlantic, a team that formerly worked for the Renault Formula 1 team has adapted its motorsport-developed flywheel system for use with conventional vehicles. The team has formed a company, Flybrid Systems, to commercialize the technology, and has teamed up with Jaguar Land Rover to trial the Flybrid technology that was originally developed as the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) used in Formula 1 racing to provide a boost during racing. But while most KERS systems work by using a flywheel to charge an onboard battery or supercapacitor, Flybrid uses a gearbox system to transfer kinetic energy directly to and from the wheels.

Flybrid cars transfer energy via either a continuously variable transmission or a less complex three-gear system, which allows 15 different gear ratios on a standard five-gear model. "There are always efficiency losses when you convert energy," explains Flybrid's technical director, Doug Cross. "This system eliminates those losses, making it far more efficient."

The flywheel weighs five kilograms and is made from carbon fiber wrapped around a steel core. Because it is so light, it has to spin fast—at 60,000 rpm—which means that its rim is traveling at supersonic speeds. As a result, it has to operate in a vacuum, and Flybrid has developed special seals so that the wheel can be fully enclosed inside a safety container in case of a crash. At top speed, the flywheel can store 540 kilojoules of energy, which is sufficient to accelerate an average-sized automobile from a standing start to 48 kilometers per hour.

Upside, light, stores a lot of energy, no dirty metals or expensive rare earth, downside?  That's a lot of kinetic energy sitting there if something goes wrong.

Sound interesting.  I remember as a kid (OK, maybe a young adult), an article in Scientific American on the potential to use fly wheels as the source of energy for cars.  If I have located the right reference (R.F. Post, S.F. Post, Flywheels. Scientific American, Dec. 1973) it appears to have been in 1973.  Anyway, IIRC, the main outstanding problem at the time was materials able to withstand the forces involved, and bearings able to function without much frictional loss.  We've had lots of advances in materials since then, so maybe the technology is ripe at last.  

The other anecdote I would relay relates to the power retained in a spinning weight.  Back when Georgia and I were in Grad School, she worked in a Biochem lab where they made heavy use of preparational ultracentrifuges, that spun at speeds similar to the flywheels proposed above.  One night, a centrifuge rotor failed, and essentially exploded.  It was contained by metal walls in the centrifuge, but someone in the lab at the time said it sounded like standing next to a car crash.

What Irene Giveth, Lee Taketh Away

One of the few "blessings" of Tropical Storm Irene was that the strong winds mixed the Bay, and ended the annual occurrence of anoxic water in the Bay early.  Now we find that the massive amounts of nutrients, sediment and freshwater entering the Bay as a result of the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee have fueled another outbreak of anoxia:

The director of the University of Maryland's Horn Point laboratory says heavy rains from Tropical Storm Lee are causing low-oxygen areas in the Chesapeake Bay.

Laboratory director Mike Roman returned to the Cambridge lab Wednesday after eight days aboard the University of Delaware's research vessel Hugh Sharp. Roman told The Star Democrat of Easton (http://bit.ly/nagyir) that researchers found low-oxygen levels and dead water from north of the Bay Bridge to south of the Patuxent River.

While the storm and flooding stirred bay waters, flushing out a dead zone that had grown over the summer, it also brought debris, pollutants and nutrients that can fuel oxygen-robbing algae blooms.

The one thing I've learned you can count on is that every years is different from the last one...

Dying for Carbon Credits

The first real victims of Global Warming?

The reported killing of 23 Honduran farmers in a dispute with the owners of UN-accredited palm oil plantations in Honduras is forcing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) executive board to reconsider its stakeholder consultation processes.

In Brussels, the Green MEP Bas Eickhout called the alleged human rights abuses "a disgrace", and told EurActiv he would be pushing the European Commission to bar carbon credits from the plantations from being traded under the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Several members of the CDM board have been "personally distressed" by the events in Bajo Aguán, northern Honduras, according to the board's chairman, Martin Hession, who said they had "caused us great difficulties."

"Plainly, the events that have been described are deplorable," he told EurActiv. "There is no excuse for them."

But because they took place after the CDM's stakeholder consultations had been held, and fell outside the board's primary remit to investigate emissions reductions and environmental impacts, it had been powerless to block project registrations.

Another board member told EurActiv that Aguán was a "hot potato," which struck at the heart of the emissions trading scheme's integrity. "We all regret the situation extremely," he said.

I blame Al Gore.

Holder: The Doj Ate My Homework

Word from DOJ that Holder received briefings on "Operation Fast and Furious" far earlier than he testified to Congress. Doj says he doesn't always read his briefings...

What's Green and Red and Goes Round and Round...

A frog in a blender, of course.

Watermen Plot Pilfering of Penultimate Oysters

Oyster season may be gloomy as Oyster Season Opens

When oyster season starts today, most watermen will continue doing what they've been doing all summer -- catching crabs.

"It's guaranteed money," said Danny Webster of Deal Island.

Eventually, they will switch over when crab season ends in November, but they aren't excited about the outlook for this year's oyster harvest.

"We don't think there's much out there," Webster said. "We're not optimistic."

Generally, watermen can tell how a season will be by the number of baby oysters they see the year before --and last season there weren't many, he said.

While Tangier Sound remains one of the areas where oysters seem to thrive, the few remaining oyster beds in the upper Chesapeake Bay may suffer the effects of recent storms.

After Tropical Storm Lee, flood gates on the Conowingo Dam were opened, letting an estimated 4 million tons of sediment from the lower Susquehanna River watershed into the bay."That's a valid concern," said Mike Naylor, assistant director of fisheries for the Department of Natural Resources. "It's likely a lot of sediment fell on those oyster beds."

So, even though the expected harvest is below even the short term average, which is far, far below the former number in the bay, watermen, with the collusion of the state, will continue the harvest.

It's long past time to call an end to the farce, and ban wild oyster harvesting in the Chesapeake Bay, at least for five years, to see if natural reproduction, and restoration efforts can even start a recovery process.

Sex News You Can't Miss

Three four articles came in that I just can't help hitting, so to combine them all:

92% of Top Ten Billboard Songs Are About Sex - Really, is that all? I guess some of them have to be about food and dogs.

We always knew that with all your nipple-showing and lesbian-kissing and crotch-grabbing that you're obsessed with sex, and today we have the science to back it up: "Approximately 92% of the 174 songs that made it into the [Billboard] Top 10 in 2009 contained reproductive messages," says SUNY Albany psychology professor Dawn R. Hobbs in Evolutionary Psychology. That's right--"reproductive messages," our newest favorite euphemism.

Those 174 top-selling songs were analyzed in order to determine how many sexy messages they contained in any of 18 sexy categories, including "arousal," "sexual prowess," and "genitalia." There was an average of 10.49 sex-related phrases per song, with R&B being head-and-shoulders(-and-maybe-some-other-body-parts) above the two other musical genres analyzed, country and pop. "Sexual appeal" was the most popular theme among both R&B and pop songs, while "commitment" (yawn) was most prevalent in country music.

Male Orgasm Cures the Sniffles - I guess, since the study was done in Iran, it was impolite to ask the girls...

Sina Zarrintan, a neurologist from the Tabriz Medical University in Iran, says that the logic behind this proposition is based on the fact that the nose and the genitals are both connected to the same part of the nervous system that controls certain reflexes - the sympathetic nervous system.

The researcher points out that swollen and inflamed nasal blood vessels, irritated either by an infection or by pollen in the air, generally lead to blocked nose.

Zarrintan reckons that a well-timed ejaculation, during which the sympathetic nervous system constricts blood vessels across the body, should soothe the swollen nasal blood vessels and, thereby, free the airway for normal breathing.

Although no clinical trials have been performed to test Zarrintan's hypothesis, he believes that it may have many benefits over decongestant drugs if proved to work.

You know, that's not really a hard one to test.  But I guess you get two pubs if you publish as a hypothesis, and then test it and publish that.

Sex will pose a huge challenge for interstellar travel - I suspect humanity will rise to this challenge assuming we can figure out interstellar travel.

"Sex is very difficult in zero gravity, apparently, because you have no traction and you keep bumping against the walls," Andreadis said. "Think about it: You have no friction, you have no resistance."

 Bungee cords... There, I figured it out.  Now someone else work on the spaceship.

UPDATE:  Make that four articles...

Hot Women have the same effect on men as cocaine. - Illustrated article from a British "paper."

It is Rosie's baby-face features that give men that same type of rush, Men's Health reported

The study, conducted by Harvard University researchers, found the face of an attractive woman triggers the same reward centres in a man's brain as the narcotic.

Test subjects were shown images of attractive females, and brain imaging scans revealed that reward circuitry fired off when they looked at comely faces.

A prominent curved forehead, eyes, nose and mouth located relatively low, large eyes, round cheeks and a small chin were among the features men found most attractive.

Ants Add Turrets to Their Castles Made of Sand

How ants build nest-ventilating turrets

Grass-cutting ants build gigantic nests - underground cities where up to seven million insects live and tend a fungal garden that feeds their young.

Scientists have now discovered how the ants build nests that stay at the right temperature for this precious fungus to grow. The ants build porous turrets, specifically to ventilate the nests.

A study, reported in the Journal of Insect Behaviour, has revealed how they manage this feat.

Ant really are remarkable examples of what evolution can produce.  Starting with individualistic, flying, free living, wasp like creatures, they've evolved into species where most of the individual no longer fly, no longer reproduce, live largely underground in huge numbers in a colony where they serve the needs of the the very few individuals in it who do reproduce.  And they've been wildly successful, evolving to meet habitats all over the world, at least the above water, and not completely frozen portions.

They gave the ants three building materials: clay, coarse sand and fine sand, and tested the insects' building techniques by regularly changing the amount of each material that was available to them. They even simulated rain damage to the nest by pouring water on to the structure.

"When [the ants] finished a turret, we analysed the arrangement of the building materials [under] the microscope," Dr Cosarinsky told BBC Nature. This revealed that, whatever materials they used, the ants always made turret walls that were highly porous and allowed air to flow through.

I guess 'Little Wing' embedded in there is just a bonus; unless it refers to vestigial ant wings.

Washington Post Crawls Out From Under the Rock to Knock Perry

Yesterday the Post had a long article on, seriously, a rock at a hunting camp that Rick Perry's father rented in Texas.  Apparently the rock, about 3 by 5 ft,  had the word "Niggerhead" written on it since time out of mind, and the word was widely used to refer to the parcel of land.  As the Post itself points out, when Rick Perry first saw the rock, in the 80's he told his father, who had the rock painted over.

“When my Dad joined the lease in 1983, he took the first opportunity he had to paint over the offensive word on the rock during the 4th of July holiday,” Perry said in his initial response. “It is my understanding that the rock was eventually turned over to further obscure what was originally written on it.”

Upon being grilled about the rock...

“My mother and father went to the lease and painted the rock in either 1983 or 1984,” Perry wrote. “This occurred after I paid a visit to the property with a friend and saw the rock with the offensive word. After my visit I called my folks and mentioned it to them, and they painted it over during their next visit.”

The Post apparently sent a major research team to search out this important story and found as many as seven people, only one of whom is named, who claimed to have seen the word on the rock in question, as recently as 2008.

Perry’s version of events differs in many respects from the recollections of seven people, interviewed by The Washington Post, who spoke in detail of their memories of seeing the rock with the name at various points during the years that Perry was associated with the property through his father, partners or his signature on a lease.

Not content to merely accuse Perry of being insufficiently race sensitive as to not spend all his time keeping the rock painted, the Post goes on to grievance monger regarding race relations in Texas in general and Perry's native Haskell County and "The Rock's" Throckmorton County:

Throckmorton County, where the hunting camp is located, was for years considered a virtual no-go zone for blacks because of old stories about the lynching of a black man there, locals said. The 1950 Census listed one black resident in Throckmorton County out of a population of about 3,600. In 1960, there were four; in 1970, two; in 1980, none. The 2010 Census shows 11 black residents.

Mae Lou Yeldell, who is black and has lived in Haskell County for 70 years, recalled a gas station refusing to sell her father fuel when he drove the family through Throckmorton in the 1950s. She said it was not uncommon in the 1950s and ’60s for whites to greet blacks with, “Morning, nigger!”

“I heard that so much it’s like a broken record,” said Yeldell, who had never heard of the hunting spot by the river.

Let's in the 50's Rick Perry would have been how old?  10 at most.  That's quite an indictment. Was it Rick Perry who greeted this woman?  Well, not that we hear.  Finding this woman alone probably cost the research team 10 man PC person days.

The article concludes:

As recently as this summer, the rock was still there, according to photographs viewed by The Washington Post.

In the photos, it was to the left of the gate. It was laid down flat. The exposed face was brushed clean of dirt. White paint, dried drippings visible, covered a word across the surface. An N and two G’s were faintly visible.

Today, the post follows up with a new story about "The Rock", and how it is causing him to go on the defensive in the presidential campaign.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign spent Sunday deflecting scrutiny of a report in The Washington Post detailing a West Texas hunting camp he once leased with his father that includes a racial epithet in its name...One of Perry’s rivals for the GOP nomination, former Godfather’s Pizza executive Herman Cain, criticized Perry in appearances on “Fox News Sunday” and ABC’s “This Week” as tolerating the sign on a property he used. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton called for Perry to explain more fully his relationship to the property or bow out of the presidential race.

I have to say, this is the first strong negative reaction the Cain has garnered from me.  He should recognize this as a dirty political hit from the other side, and either ignore it, or congratulate Perry for taking the actions he did, as opposed to jumping on the Post's bandwagon.

A few comments I've heard in the blogosphere.  First, the entire media ignores Obama spending 20 years in the pews at Rev. Wright's church listening to his anti-white racial screeds as much as they could.  Obama denied even hearing them, and certainly never said that he tried to persuade Wright to talk in a less racist manner. Second, absolutely no mention by the Post that all this occurred during a period when Perry was a Democrat.

UPDATE: "Washington Post editor goes hunting up at 'Redskinsrock.'"

OK, Who Did It?

Shannon Tweed Jumps For Joy

Shannon and Tracy Tweed Jump for Joy!

After Gene Simmons Says "I'll do my best to be faithful"

After all, you can't ask more from him than his best, right? Of course, this comes just in time to drum up viewer interest the new season of their reality show "Gene Simmons Family Jewels", which starts Oct. 4.

In a preview clip for the upcoming season of the show, Simmons and Tweed can be seen discussing their problems, despite having wedding bells on the way.

“He doesn’t promise to be faithful to me," Tweed complained.

Like she promises to be faithful to him, at least unless the script calls for it.  Shannon, lest it be forgotten, is a former Playboy Playmate of the month October, 1981, and Playmate of the Year 1982, and subsequently 'star" in numerous cheesy "romantic/erotic" thrillers.

“I will do my best,” was all that Simmons had to say about that.

Of course, I'm sure she's not such a good actress that she could fake a jealous moment or two to help get new publicity in advance of their new season..

 

“It is time for me to grow up,” he admitted. “I’m 62. I’ve been doing a lot of wacky stuff for an awfully long time — the band, the thing, traveling around the world and all that. There’s nobody I’ve ever loved. There’s nobody I’ve ever said ‘I love you’ to. I even find it difficult to say ‘I love you’ to my mother, but I love Shannon with all my heart and all my soul and always will.”

Of course, this post is just pure Rule 5 blog-whoring.  Over the past two days the hit counter has been off the chart (at least in my experience) on this old stupid post about how she and Gene had a falling out (conveniently at the end of last year's season, setting up a cliff hanger), and a follow up post on Gene's public and video-taped marriage proposal in the off season (clearly designed to whet more interest in the series). Oh, and the new series starts tonight.

At least we all know what our goals are here...

 Thanks to the Rule 5 Wombat at The Other McCain's for the link and his weekly Rule 5 omnibus, and The Classical Liberal for his link, go see his collection!

Feynman on Science and Beauty

Will the United States Become the Next Saudi Arabia?

Despite active opposition from the Obama Administration, US Oil Output Increases.

The US now produces more than half the oil it uses.

You'd expect an oilman to make the "drill, baby, drill" pitch. But since 2005 America truly has been in the midst of a revolution in oil and natural gas, which is the nation's fastest-growing manufacturing sector. No one is more responsible for that resurgence than Mr. Hamm. He was the original discoverer of the gigantic and prolific Bakken oil fields of Montana and North Dakota that have already helped move the U.S. into third place among world oil producers.

How much oil does Bakken have? The official estimate of the U.S. Geological Survey a few years ago was between four and five billion barrels. Mr. Hamm disagrees: "No way. We estimate that the entire field, fully developed, in Bakken is 24 billion barrels."

But that's just reserves.  How much of the oil we use do we produce, and how does that compare to previous usage?

When OPEC was at its peak in the 1990s, the U.S. imported about two-thirds of its oil. Now we import less than half of it, and about 40% of what we do import comes from Mexico and Canada. That's why Mr. Hamm thinks North America can achieve oil independence.

That makes approximately 90% of the oil the US uses comes from ourselves or our two closest neighbors.  Now Mexico isn't very reliable politically but I don't doubt their desire to make a buck on their oil.  And Canada?  Heck, we could conquer them in an afternoon even after the planned Obama cuts in the military.  That should make us feel a lot more secure.

How did the US become such a power house of oil production? I've been hearing stories about "peak oil" for year.  I thought all the oil in the US had already been found and exploited?

The other reason for America's abundant supply of oil and natural gas has been the development of new drilling techniques. "Horizontal drilling" allows rigs to reach two miles into the ground and then spread horizontally by thousands of feet. Mr. Hamm was one of the pioneers of this method in the 1990s, and it has done for the oil industry what hydraulic fracturing has done for natural gas drilling in places like the Marcellus Shale in the Northeast. Both innovations have unlocked decades worth of new sources of domestic fossil fuels that previously couldn't be extracted at affordable cost.

How does the White House react to the decrease in foreign dependence caused by increased production?

When it was Mr. Hamm's turn to talk briefly with President Obama, "I told him of the revolution in the oil and gas industry and how we have the capacity to produce enough oil to enable America to replace OPEC. I wanted to make sure he knew about this."

The president's reaction? "He turned to me and said, 'Oil and gas will be important for the next few years. But we need to go on to green and alternative energy. [Energy] Secretary [Steven] Chu has assured me that within five years, we can have a battery developed that will make a car with the equivalent of 130 miles per gallon.'" Mr. Hamm holds his head in his hands and says, "Even if you believed that, why would you want to stop oil and gas development? It was pretty disappointing."

Washington keeps "sticking a regulatory boot at our necks and then turns around and asks: 'Why aren't you creating more jobs,'" he says. He roils at the Interior Department delays of months and sometimes years to get permits for drilling. "These delays kill projects," he says. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission is now tightening the screws on the oil industry, requiring companies like Continental to report their production and federal royalties on thousands of individual leases under the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting rules. "I could go to jail because a local operator misreported the production in the field," he says.

The White House proposal to raise $40 billion of taxes on oil and gas—by excluding those industries from credits that go to all domestic manufacturers—is also a major hindrance to exploration and drilling. "That just stops the drilling," Mr. Hamm believes. "I've seen these things come about before, like [Jimmy] Carter's windfall profits tax." He says America's rig count on active wells went from 4,500 to less than 55 in a matter of months. "That was a dumb idea. Thank God, Reagan got rid of that."

Of course, the rationale for tax credits for domestic manufactures is to keep jobs in the US.  So, the purpose of singling out the oil and gas industry to rescind that credit in the "Jobs" Bill is..., well almost by definition, decrease the competitivity of the oil and gas industry and cause them to lose jobs to foreign competitors.

Not content to merely discourage the oil and gas business through tax policy, the administration seems to be targeting the industry for minor environmental infractions, while ignoring much more serious infractions in the favored "green" industries.

A few months ago the Obama Justice Department brought charges against Continental and six other oil companies in North Dakota for causing the death of 28 migratory birds, in violation of the Migratory Bird Act. Continental's crime was killing one bird "the size of a sparrow" in its oil pits. The charges carry criminal penalties of up to six months in jail. "It's not even a rare bird. There're jillions of them," he explains. He says that "people in North Dakota are really outraged by these legal actions," which he views as "completely discriminatory" because the feds have rarely if ever prosecuted the Obama administration's beloved wind industry, which kills hundreds of thousands of birds each year. ... "This shouldn't happen in America," he says. To him the case is further proof that Washington "is out to get us."

You mean, the government isn't applying the law equally?  I'm shocked, shocked.

It's hard to disagree with Mr. Hamm's assessment that Barack Obama has the energy story in America wrong. The government floods green energy—a niche market that supplies 2.5% of our energy needs—with billions of dollars of subsidies a year. "Wind isn't commercially feasible with natural gas prices below $6" per thousand cubic feet, notes Mr. Hamm. Right now its price is below $4. This may explain the administration's hostility to the fossil-fuel renaissance.

Mr. Hamm calculates that if Washington would allow more drilling permits for oil and natural gas on federal lands and federal waters, "I truly believe the federal government could over time raise $18 trillion in royalties." That's more than the U.S. national debt, I say. He smiles.

You wouldn't want to eliminate the debt.  How else would the feds be able to manipulate the economy?

Weeds de Jour

 Golden Rod (Solidago sp.) is a common late summer/fall blooming weed here, forming large masses of flowers in wild spaces.    Note some of the trees in the background starting to turn color.  Dogwoods, Black Gum (Tupelo), and various maples are all starting to turn red, in addition to our Tulip Poplars, which start to get yellow leaves begin loosing leaves in summer if the rain fails.

In Europe, Goldenrod is grown as a garden plant; in America it is mostly considered a weed.  They are beloved of insects.  They have a bad and undeserved reputation for causing allergies, since they bloom during hay fever season, however, Ragweed, which blooms at the same time, but has an inconspicuous bloom, and a wicked pollen is responsible for most of it.

I also ran into a mass of a previous Weed de Jour, Spotted Bee Balm, growing in the same area. (It's in the foreground in the first photo).

Finally, there were a large group of mushrooms growing nearby too.  Good looking, but edible?

Let's see, white gills and a veil?  A very bad sign.  There might be an edible mushroom with those characteristics, but I would have to guess that this is one of the deadly Amanita mushrooms, maybe even the Destroying Angel.

Beach Report, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011

Weather wise, it was partly cloudy, chilly, well down into the 40s.  Just a touch of breeze. Definitely a taste of Fall in the air.

We were a bit late, what with trying to herd two dogs, and had to catch Joel and Red along the beach.  Joel was just of a cruise along the Northeast Coast, and gave us a run down.  Red made friends with Hendrix, and scavenged the beach

The relatively warm water, and the cool air produced a pretty good mirage, despite the breeze, which breaks it up and blurs it.

The eagles were out.  At one point there were four in the sky at one time, including two that were going after each other.  Love or hate?  I'm not sure.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good shot of any flying so I had to settle for this shot of one sitting in a tree atop the cliffs.

Mommy, What Does Virgin Mean?

Needs More Cowbell

Red Wine Back on the To Do List

At least for women: Red wine ingredient resveratrol stops breast cancer growth

About a week ago we found a downer article suggesting that red wine may not be the magic elixir of life extension that some people had been touting it as.  But now, another study suggests that the active ingredient in question in red wine might prevent the growth of breast cancer.

A new research report appearing in the October 2011 issue of The FASEB Journal shows that resveratrol, the "healthy" ingredient in red wine, stops breast cancer cells from growing by blocking the growth effects of estrogen. This discovery, made by a team of American and Italian scientists, suggests for the first time that resveratrol is able to counteract the malignant progression since it inhibits the proliferation of hormone resistant breast cancer cells. This has important implications for the treatment of women with breast cancer whose tumors eventually develop resistance to hormonal therapy.

 So, the scientists are advocating a glass of red wine with dinner each night, right?  Well, not exactly:

"These findings are exciting, but in no way does it mean that should people go out and start using red wine or resveratrol supplements as a treatment for breast cancer," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "What it does mean, however, is that scientists haven't finished distilling the secrets of good health that have been hidden in natural products such as red wine."

But you can't be blamed for trying.

When Dogs Get Cold

Only, my dog never, ever, ever gets cold...

Found at Theo's.

100,000!

The hit counter just turned 100,000.  Now accepting that I put a few on there myself before I figured out how to turn that off, I should get the real 100,000 hits in an hour or so.  I'm kind of amazed, actually.

Thanks!

Beach Walk With a Guest 10/1/11

As you can see, the beach continues to improve from the great post-Lee trash fall. The weather has really turned here.  It's overcast and showery.  The temperature is struggling to get much above 50 F.  Definitely the beginning of fall weather.  Even a few trees are starting to turn yellow or red.

Alex and Kelly came down last night.  They're headed out for their honeymoon this afternoon (gone already, in fact). We're taking care of their dog, Hendrix, for the week.  Our dogs get along great, fortunately.  We took her with us to the beach this morning while Alex and Kelly repacked.

An eagle was flying around when we arrived, but it set down in a tree and allowed us to approach close enough for me to get this shot.  Ospreys are still here, but  it won't belong before the eagles are hunting for themselves again.

One of the Great Blue Herons tries out the posing post...

This is a shed horseshoe crab shell.  A large number of them seem to shed in September, and lots of their shells in a variety of sizes wash up.  I haven't seen as many as usual this year; maybe the low salinity kept most of them farther south.  You can take these and wash them out (to help keep the smell down, and get rid of sand), then pose them to dry.  I've even seen people paint them.

Fishermen on the jetty, and a crab boat working close by.  It was fishing pots right off the jetty, and he didn't look happy maneuvering so close to it.  I wonder if some of his pots got blown in closer than where he set them.  You can see the effect of the Fata Morgana mirage over at Taylor's Island in the back. 

... is an Italian phrase derived from the vulgar Latin for "fairy" and the Arthurian sorceress Morgan le Fay, from a belief that the mirage, often seen in the Strait of Messina, were fairy castles in the air or false land designed to lure sailors to their death created by her witchcraft.

Rule 5 Saturday - Happy Birthday Brigitte Bardot!

As noted by Theo, this past Wednesday, Brigitte Bardot celebrated her 77th birthday.

Born in Paris, her father was an engineer, and her mother kept the house.  She and her sister took up dance.   At one time she considered a career in belly dancing. Many of us are glad she surpassed her initial goals.

She got into modeling young. At age 15, she was a cover girl for ELLE.  A babysitting job brought her to the attention of future husband #1, director Roger Vadim, who clearly recognized a good thing when he saw it.

She began acting in 1952 at 18, the year she married Vadim, and had appeared starred in 16 films by the time Vadim gave her the starring role in "And God Invented Woman" in 1956.  No Slacker!

The film narrates the experience of Juliette, an 18-year old orphan with a high level of sexual energy. She makes no effort to restrain her natural sensuality - lying nude in her yard, habitually kicking her shoes off and walking around barefoot, and disregarding many societal restraints and the opinions of others. These factors cause a stir and attract the attentions of most of the men around her.

Uh, yeah, I can see her in that role... 

Film critic Dennis Schwartz wrote, "The breezy erotic drama was laced with some thinly textured sad moments that hardly resonated as serious drama. But as slight as the story was it was always lively and easy to take on the eyes, adding up to hardly anything more than a bunch of snapshots of Bardot posturing as a sex kitten in various stages of undress. The public loved it and it became a big box-office smash, and paved the wave for a spate of sexy films to follow. What was more disturbing than its dullish dialogue and flaunting of Bardot as a sex object, was that underneath its call for liberation was a reactionary and sexist view of sex."

Rule 5; sex sells, and you can't talk politics all the time.

Needless to say, the film made Bardot into a major international star, and made her the talk of French intellectuals, who rediscovered sex through her:

She was the subject of Simone de Beauvoir's 1959 essay, The Lolita Syndrome, which described Bardot as a "locomotive of women's history" and built upon existentialist themes to declare her the first and most liberated woman of post-war France.

  Isn't French intellectual an oxymoron?

In Bardot's early career, professional photographer Sam Levin's photos contributed to her image of sensuality. Onephoto shows Brigitte from behind, dressed in a white corset. British photographer Cornel Lucas made iconic images of Bardot in the 1950s and 1960s that have become representative of her public persona.

I mean, how much farther than "Sex Kitten" do you have to go? 

She divorced Vadim in 1957...

and then later married two other inconsequential men, which should give hope to the rest of us.












Anyway she went on to to star in 40 films and decided to retire in 1973, at the ripe age of 38.

She retired to the tough life of southern France.  Having found that a bit quiet, she apparently became a crank for Animal Rights founding the...

....Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. She became a vegetarian and raised three million francs to fund the foundation by auctioning off jewelry and many personal belongings.

But you know what?  When you're that old you're entitled to become a bit of a crank.  I may even become a bit of one.  Oh, wait, too late...

Ted has Erica Durance as his Weekend Woman this week.

Takes the Wheel When I'm Seein' Double...

Pays my ticket when I speed: Mind Reading car could drive you home when you're drunk

The idea of your car being able to read your brain to decide whether you're about to dose off or just need a little driving assistance could become a reality. Nissan's doing research to create a smarter car — one that predicts what you might do next when you're behind the wheel. Hell yeah!

Nissan's not doing it alone, though. It's partnered up with Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne to figure out how to implement mind-reading tech into tomorrow's cars.

According to FastCompany, the researchers already have a mind-reading wheelchair system in place and are moving on to the next big challenge — cars. Presumably, a number of sensors will "monitors brain activity, eye movement, and the surrounding environment to predict whether a driver plans to, say, make a right turn, speed up, or change lanes on the highway."

More importantly, when you're sloshing back to your car inebriated, such a system in your car could sense that you're too smashed and refuse to start up, keep speeds at certain speed limits or maybe even kick things into auto-driving mode.