A small group of experts in philosophy, conservation and dolphin behaviour were canvassing support for a “Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans”.

They believe dolphins – and their whale cousins – are sufficiently intelligent and self-aware to justify the same ethical considerations given to [...]]]> Or so the Belfast Telegraph says, with a report on scientists devising a document outlining dolphin rights:

A small group of experts in philosophy, conservation and dolphin behaviour were canvassing support for a “Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans”.

They believe dolphins – and their whale cousins – are sufficiently intelligent and self-aware to justify the same ethical considerations given to humans.

Recognising cetaceans’ rights would mean an end to whaling and the captivity of dolphins and whales, or their use in entertainment.

The move is based on years of research that has shown dolphins and whales to have large, complex brains and a human-like level of self-awareness.

Squid of many species have been seen to ‘fly’ using the same jet-propulsion mechanisms that they use to swim: squirting water out of their mantles so that they rocket out of the sea and glide through the air. [...]]]> Nature eases no one’s mind when the revered journal explains it’s actually more efficient for some squid fly than to swim:

Squid of many species have been seen to ‘fly’ using the same jet-propulsion mechanisms that they use to swim: squirting water out of their mantles so that they rocket out of the sea and glide through the air. Until now, most researchers have thought that such flight was a way to avoid predators1, but Ronald O’Dor, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, has calculated that propelling themselves through the air may actually be an efficient way for squid to travel long distances.

…

…[A]mateur photographer Bob Hulse in 2009 off the coast of Brazil…shot rapid-succession pictures of what the researchers believe were orange-back squid (Sthenoteuthis pteropus), a small cephalopod with a body length (excluding arms and tentacles) of around 6 centimetres, leaping out of the water.

Because they knew the intervals of time between each photo, O’Dor and his colleagues were able to estimate the squid’s velocity and acceleration, and compare them with these values for squid in water. They found that the velocity in air while the squid were propelling themselves with the water jet was five times faster than than any measurements O’Dor had made for comparable squid species in water.

“It makes perfect sense that these species are using flight as a way of saving energy,” says O’Dor.

Watch the skies, people.

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen did away with Terra Australis Incognito for good in December 1911. (It was more than a decade later that he went after Santa Claus in his polar fortress.)

He credited his success with not wasting much time surveying and mapping – he went to the South Pole, took two photographs, claimed it [...]]]>
^{Click to embiggen}

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen did away with Terra Australis Incognito for good in December 1911. (It was more than a decade later that he went after Santa Claus in his polar fortress.)

He credited his success with not wasting much time surveying and mapping – he went to the South Pole, took two photographs, claimed it for King Haakon, and left. He later wrote: “I may say that this is the greatest factor—the way in which the expedition is equipped—the way in which every difficulty is foreseen, and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it. Victory awaits him who has everything in order — luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.”

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: Based on “Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest subglacial lake”, Washington Post, 31 Jan 2012, as used in the post “Lovecraft report: Scientists set to disturb primordial lake, deep under Antarctic ice.” (cf. 2011)

ABSTRACT: This is an anthem, written (as [...]]]> SONG: “Antarctica Awakes!” _{(To download: double right-click & “Save As”)}

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: Based on “Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest subglacial lake”, Washington Post, 31 Jan 2012, as used in the post “Lovecraft report: Scientists set to disturb primordial lake, deep under Antarctic ice.” (cf. 2011)

ABSTRACT: This is an anthem, written (as was last month’s song) for Song Fu 2012. The prompt was simply too good to pass up – Neil Gaiman challenged participants to… “Write the national anthem for a new country. A country made up of, well, people like us.” Already considering the nationless space of Antarctica for something involving whatever is sleeping below Lake Vostok, it was a short leap to an anthem for people like us. Drawn to the frozen wastes by an urge they can barely name.

I grew up listening to national anthem albums, so I could already feel how this one should go. With a little more time and a full orchestra, I would have interpolated something like the frenzied strings from Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slav somewhere… but really, a Cossack choir, pipe organ and bagpipes were enough.

Now, everyone stand and salute the white flag of our science utopia….

Lyrics:

Lenses gleam through jets of steam
Above volcanic lakes
We guide devices through miles of ice
Till Antarctica awakes!

Hear our voices on the wind
& rumbling from below
Nameless things await within
From 20 million years ago

Our home fires burn as our engines turn
The ground begins to quake
With winch and steel, by gear and wheel,
Till Antarctica awakes!

See the shadows on the storm,
Faces in the snow
Nameless things shall be reborn,
From 20 million years ago

Drill and dredge to define our leg-
end – as every limit breaks
So knowledge shines in the darkest mines
Till Antarctica awakes!

Feel the shift behind your eyes
Hold fast to what you know,
What nameless sleeps but never dies
From 20 million years ago

Through reason, hope and microscope
What we build, no one unmakes
Through logic, wish and radar dish
Till Antarctica awakes!

There are, however, some brief periods in a person’s life when old routines fall apart and buying habits are suddenly in flux. One of those moments — the moment, really — is right around the birth of a child, when [...]]]> New York Times takes a quick look at how retailers virtually read our minds by clocking all the little details:

There are, however, some brief periods in a person’s life when old routines fall apart and buying habits are suddenly in flux. One of those moments — the moment, really — is right around the birth of a child, when parents are exhausted and overwhelmed and their shopping patterns and brand loyalties are up for grabs. But as Target’s marketers explained to [statistician Andrew] Pole, timing is everything. Because birth records are usually public, the moment a couple have a new baby, they are almost instantaneously barraged with offers and incentives and advertisements from all sorts of companies. Which means that the key is to reach them earlier, before any other retailers know a baby is on the way. Specifically, the marketers said they wanted to send specially designed ads to women in their second trimester, which is when most expectant mothers begin buying all sorts of new things, like prenatal vitamins and maternity clothing. “Can you give us a list?” the marketers asked.

“We knew that if we could identify them in their second trimester, there’s a good chance we could capture them for years,” Pole told me. “As soon as we get them buying diapers from us, they’re going to start buying everything else too. If you’re rushing through the store, looking for bottles, and you pass orange juice, you’ll grab a carton. Oh, and there’s that new DVD I want. Soon, you’ll be buying cereal and paper towels from us, and keep coming back.”

…

He ran test after test, analyzing the data, and before long some useful patterns emerged. Lotions, for example. Lots of people buy lotion, but one of Pole’s colleagues noticed that women on the baby registry were buying larger quantities of unscented lotion around the beginning of their second trimester. Another analyst noted that sometime in the first 20 weeks, pregnant women loaded up on supplements like calcium, magnesium and zinc. Many shoppers purchase soap and cotton balls, but when someone suddenly starts buying lots of scent-free soap and extra-big bags of cotton balls, in addition to hand sanitizers and washcloths, it signals they could be getting close to their delivery date.

As Pole’s computers crawled through the data, he was able to identify about 25 products that, when analyzed together, allowed him to assign each shopper a “pregnancy prediction” score. More important, he could also estimate her due date to within a small window, so Target could send coupons timed to very specific stages of her pregnancy.

…

About a year after Pole created his pregnancy-prediction model, a man walked into a Target outside Minneapolis and demanded to see the manager. He was clutching coupons that had been sent to his daughter, and he was angry, according to an employee who participated in the conversation.

“My daughter got this in the mail!” he said. “She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?”

The manager didn’t have any idea what the man was talking about. He looked at the mailer. Sure enough, it was addressed to the man’s daughter and contained advertisements for maternity clothing, nursery furniture and pictures of smiling infants. The manager apologized and then called a few days later to apologize again.

On the phone, though, the father was somewhat abashed. “I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”

More mind-reading at the link.

[via Liminal Nation]

On Wednesday, ground controllers activated computer software that enabled the robot to extend its right hand, fingers outstretched. Burbank took the mechanical hand and pumped it up and down, as the robot’s fingers tightened around [...]]]> That’s how ISS Commander Daniel Burbank describes his interaction with Robonaut 2 yesterday. PhysOrg has more on the space station’s new, robot crew member:

On Wednesday, ground controllers activated computer software that enabled the robot to extend its right hand, fingers outstretched. Burbank took the mechanical hand and pumped it up and down, as the robot’s fingers tightened around his hand.

“The first human-humanoid handshake in space,” Burbank proclaimed.

A cheer went up in the control room in Huntsville, Ala.

“For the record, it was a firm handshake,” Burbank radioed. “Quite an impressive robot.”

Robonaut – the first humanoid in space, built from the waist up – said via Twitter that it was an awesome experience, then followed up with some sign language.

“The handshake was definitely one of the highlights of the day, but I’m not done yet,” Robonaut said in a tweet. (A NASA spokeswoman actually files the tweets under the handle AstroRobonaut.)

“Did you catch that? I don’t have a voice, but I sent you a message — Hello world … in sign language!” Robonaut tweeted. “What a day! I passed my tests with flying colors!!!”

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will increase the energies of the bunches of subatomic particles called protons that it smashes together.

The boost should improve the collider’s chances of discovering “new physics” and [...]]]> BBC reports that the Large Hadron Collider is driving toward a new breakthrough. All the physicists have to do is put the pedal to the metal:

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will increase the energies of the bunches of subatomic particles called protons that it smashes together.

The boost should improve the collider’s chances of discovering “new physics” and definitively confirming or denying the existence of Higgs boson particle.

The proton beams’ energies will be increased by 14%, for a total collision energy of 8 trillion electron volts.

The announced increase will break the LHC’s own high-energy record.

The study, spearheaded by the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory in collaboration with NOAA, looked into the aftermath of the 2007 Cusco Busan spill, when that tanker hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled 54,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the [...]]]> PhysOrg has bad news for the Gulf of Mexico. Oil spills are even more toxic than we thought:

The study, spearheaded by the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory in collaboration with NOAA, looked into the aftermath of the 2007 Cusco Busan spill, when that tanker hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled 54,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay.

The key finding involved the embryos of Pacific herring that spawn in the bay. The fish embryos absorbed the oil and then, when exposed to UV rays in sunlight, physically disintegrated. This is called phototoxicity, and has not previously been taken into account when talking about oil spills.

“This phenomenon had been observed in the laboratory, but had never been observed in the field, and there were even some skeptics out there wondering if this was just a phenomenon that people would see under lab conditions,” said Gary Cherr, director of the marine lab and professor of environmental toxicology.

Pestalotiopsis microspora, found in the jungles of Ecuador, can digest polyurethane – which often currently ends up in landfill and takes generations to decay.

Burning polyurethane releases toxins as well as carbon dioxide; and, while [...]]]> TG Daily reports on a new hope for clearing up our old landfills – by feeding the plastic to a very special rain-forest mushroom:

Pestalotiopsis microspora, found in the jungles of Ecuador, can digest polyurethane – which often currently ends up in landfill and takes generations to decay.

Burning polyurethane releases toxins as well as carbon dioxide; and, while it can be recycled, it frequently isn’t.

The fungus can live entirely on polyurethane. And, most intriguingly, the fungus can break down polyeurethane even without the presence of oxygen, meaning it could do its trick even at the bottom of a landfill site.

The fungus was discovered on [Yale's] annual Rainforest Expedition last year. It’s one of several that the team found could break down polyeurethane, but was the only one to manage this without oxygen.

This device paraded at the inaugurations of President Grover Cleveland and the Statue of Liberty.

It also put out fires, nobly, before the turn of the last century.

Image from the New York Public Library Picture Collection.