by Ian Punnett
Is it really true that these new, high-tech swimsuits can keep a brick afloat in a pool? Sounds crazy--and maybe it's just the belief that these suits will make a difference--but the swimsuit tech wars continue. Score one for Michael Phleps:
ROME (AP) - Michael Phelps beat Milorad Cavic again. No doubt about it. With a defiant performance in a supposedly inferior suit, Phelps stayed close over the outward lap and rallied on the return to become the first swimmer to break 50 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly, beating the Serbian with a time of 49.82.
This suit controversy has gotten over-hyped a bit but the fabric technology is amazing. My son is a competitive high school swimmer--in fact he had his best time ever tonight in the 200m Butterfly at 2:14 and change coming in just a fraction of a second behind his friend, Brian and another kid--and he swears there is a difference in the suits.
As I heard the story, the kid who won the race by a knuckle was overheard laughing saying as he got out of the pool, “Man, that was the suit.”
Won’t matter soon, the high suit tech controversy will all be over when the ban goes into effect later this year but it’s been fun to watch.
Remember last week when we reported on the dark spot on Jupiter? Well . . .
A strange spot emerged on Venus last week, and astronomers are not sure what caused it. They hope future observations will reveal whether volcanic activity, turbulence in the planet's atmosphere, or charged particles from the sun are to blame.
Amateur astronomer Frank Melillo of Holtsville, New York, first spotted the new feature, which is brighter than its surroundings at ultraviolet wavelengths, on the planet's southern hemisphere on 19 July. (newscientist.com)
An explosion on Mars? Now all we need is an explosion on Mars like in the beginning of War of the Worlds. Look out, Grover’s Mill, anything is possible.
To prove that point:
(July 30) -- Scientists have discovered a rare new bird species with a bald head.
The creature, dubbed the bare-faced bulbul, was found in Laos, and is the only known bald songbird in mainland Asia.
It's also the first time in over 100 years that a new Asian species of bulbul bird has been uncovered.
The chrome-domed songbird was discovered by Wildlife Conservation Society scientists Will Duckworth and Rob Timmins and Iain Woxvold of the University of Melbourne as part of a project funded by a mining company, Minerals and Metals Group, that operates in the region.
The bare-faced bulbul lives in the sparse trees and sun-bleached karst limestone of the Laos lowlands.
The researchers describe the bird's call as a "series of whistled, dry bubbling notes."
The official name is Pycnonotus hualon.
(Live Science)
Let’s think that through a little better. The crooning bird has a bald head and sings dry bubbling notes. I think Bingus Crosbius would have been more appropriate.
Want to see a totally cool performance? Are you one of the million people who have clicked on to YouTube to watch this jazz choir from Europe do their version of a rainstorm using snaps for raindrops, handclaps for the downpour and stomping on the risers to simulate thunder? Just beautiful. I plan on having that on my ipod the next time I get a real storm over my house.
fm1071.com/show_elements/link.php?entryI...
And only because some people ask for pictures of my dog, Jack, from time to time, here he is the other morning when it was storming out and the big, fat, fraidy cat climbed under my covers and wouldn’t leave when I left for work:
fm1071.com/show_elements/link.php?entryI...
The blanket is the same chocolate brown color as the dog so he almost disappears completely into the covers.
Not exactly the Amelia Earhart mystery. Wouldn’t it be nice if that were finally solved:
It has been 72 years since famed aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while attempting to fly around the world. But the mystery remains unsolved: Nobody knows exactly what happened to Earhart or her plane.
Now researchers at the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or Tighar, say they are on the verge of recovering DNA evidence that would demonstrate Earhart had been stranded on Ni****aroro Island (formerly known as Gardner Island) before finally perishing there.
During May and June of next year, Tighar will launch a new $500,000 expedition, continuing the archaeological work it has been doing on the island since 2001.
"We think we will be able to come back with DNA," said Tighar's Executive Director Ric Gillespie, who is working with two DNA labs in Ontario, Canada, Genesis Genomics and Molecular World. "We were out there in 2007 under the impression that in order to extract DNA we would need to find a piece of a human, and we didn't find anything like that. But we did find what's best described as personal effects of the castaway that died there."
Earlier this year a woman directly related to Earhart, who wishes to remain anonymous, agreed to provide Gillespie's group with a reference sample of mitochondrial DNA. This type of genetic material differs from nuclear DNA in many ways, primarily because it's passed down the female line. (ABCnews)
Now, here’s the kicker. The “female line” of the Earhart family would almost have to come from the family of Amelia’s little sister with whom she was very close. The two sisters were close because they moved around a lot due to the financial instability of their family and their father’s difficulty in keeping a railroad in the economic times of their day. For several years, the family lived in St. Paul, MN, not far from me, and attended the local public high school until another job came up.
Anyway, Amelia Earhart wasn’t said to be particularly religious but her sister was and she attended St. Clement’s Episcopal Church and sang in the choir regularly.
And, according to a local church historian with whom I spoke, on special occasions, Amelia herself would join her sister in that choir.
The same choir that still stands on the altar of the church to which I have been assigned in my “other job.”
So, here’s the link to my new church, St. Clement’s in St. Paul. Take a look through those old photos and imagine Amelia Earhart’s sister there, a young girl who might be the key to solving the mystery today.