Science Buzz

Admiral military commander to rise

lingfeng — Thu, 31 May 2012 08:58:22 +0000

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New of shoes:Soweto style requires f'irst tentative methods on runway

Gabriele — Thu, 31 May 2012 07:45:57 +0000

STRUGGLING designers obtained an opportunity to existing performance stimulated by way of the imagination and historic previous of to the south Africa's most well-known township at Soweto's 1st style Week.
The township on Johannesburg's south-western borders was the healthy location for just about any existing for new designers, says 23-year-old entrepreneur and Soweto style day organiser Stephen Manzini.
''You wander around Soweto, the thing is imagination everywhere,'' he says.

Manzini failed to ask for designers to existing considerable collections or cost them to think about part.
Fashion blogger Mahlatse James says this gave http://www.nbc.com/ designers who've not but created a identify an opportunity to existing their performance to boutique proprietors and feasible investors.
''Creatives from Soweto do need their extremely own platform,'' James says. ''If another style systems cannot pay for them that, they need to produce their own.''
Manzini acknowledges Soweto style day is definitely an ambitious name for his three-day showcase of 16 designers, which opened very last Thursday. Rehearsals happen to be kept within the vehicle pool and lawn of the modest condo borrowed from the tailor friend, within a northern Johannesburg neighbourhood some designers found out complex to total by taxi van, the major type of lowered amount mass transportation.
''We refused to become halted supplied that individuals don't have funding,'' Manzini says. He raised 60,000 rand ($7300) from churches, organization men and grownup females too as other sponsors using the event. His mother, a nurse, tapped her contacts and acted as http://racked.com chairwoman using the event.
Manzini is confident that in arriving years, the performance will produce to some total day and give much more designers an opportunity. He hopes to commence his extremely own organization distributing types from Soweto style Week.
Valencia Mache, a 31-year-old lawful adviser from Soweto who attended the opening, experienced this guidance using the youthful designers: ''Even if there may be no opportunity, make an opportunity.''
Her friend, 30-year-old businesswoman Jabu Mlangeni, explained she very last went to some style existing many years ago, much from Soweto within the upscale Johannesburg neighbourhood of Sandton. Then, she said, she was cheering on David Tlale, just between to the south Africa's best-known ebenholzfarben designers. At Soweto style Week, she was just through the corner from her home, and she was hoping to view the subsequent Tlale.
Soweto has lengthy been recognized for its quirky sensation of style, with designers splashing vibrant colors and urban sensibilities on every thing far from your most current silhouettes on European runways to reworkings using the dapper matches Nelson Mandela wore when he lived within the township within the 1940s. The more mature Mandela is most effective recognized for his relaxed but colourful shirts. But just like a youthful man, he must have been a political movie celeb in Soweto, and dressed the part.
For 29-year-old performer Tebogo Lehlabi, Soweto is: ''liberation. it is freedom.'' Lehlabi experienced by no shows before participated within a style day but now hoped that boutique proprietors would see her types in Soweto and look for her out.
''It's an exceptional opportunity. it is a lengthy http://www.crainsnewyork.com/ time coming. there may be a great offer of know-how that is running on within the townships,'' says the designer, who arrives from one more Johannesburg township, Alexandra. ''Soweto is arriving along; it is arriving into its extremely own alongside using the relaxation of to the south Africa.
''We're an emerging identity.
''So, something goes. it is a youthful and refreshing identity.''
She expresses her identification in recycled supplies and pieces and items she finds at supermarkets and hardware stores. She dyes her clothing to washed-out blues and greys that she explained recommended Johannesburg's smog and ''that bleached seem which you at scenarios get just before it rains''.
Her assortment for Soweto style day included sleeveless blouses created from cloth her close by supermarkets sells for rags. She also requires the brightly examined vinyl bags impoverished travellers place on to buses and trains over Africa, and cuts them into items take advantage of as decorative trim.

When the Moon hits your eye...

mdr — Wed, 30 May 2012 22:16:31 +0000

Time-lapse taken by astronaut Don Pettit from the airlock of the Russian segment aboard the ISS. Here's a related article on the Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine website. That's amoré!

W T Frack!? Frack sand mining in the St. Croix valley

jima — Wed, 30 May 2012 22:12:24 +0000

The issue:
About a month ago, a frack-sand mining operation near Grantsburg, WI, spilled some fine-grained sediment from a settling pond into a tributary of the St. Croix River. Local news media covered the story, and more details, for example, can be found in the Pioneer Press story by Dennis Lien.

So what’s the big deal?
Well, there are standards regarding water turbidity, which means that as a society we’ve decided that we don’t like cloudy water, at least in some settings and at some levels. For a naturally clear-water system like the St. Croix, increasing turbidity would alter the food chain at all levels. Algal primary producers rely on sunlight blocked by turbidity. Sight-based predation at the top of the food change would be altered. Benthic (bottom-dwelling) organisms that depend on coarse substrates could be smothered by siltation. Especially in the St. Croix, one of the last refugia for freshwater endangered mussel species, we must be on guard against too much fine sediment. And finally, where does the sediment end up? It’s filling up not only man-made reservoirs but also treasured natural lakes, iconically Lake St. Croix and Lake Pepin. These lakes are filling in with fine-grained sediment at about 3X and 10X their natural rates, respectively. (How do we know? See work done by the Museum’s St. Croix Watershed Research Station.)

Hey, it’s only a little bit...
Or was it? How much is a little? A little here, a little there, and a little more from over there -- it starts to add up. All water in a watershed runs downhill to the river, efficiently carrying both particles and dissolved materials. The river ultimately sees it all: all the disturbances, however seemingly minor, throughout the watershed. Rivers die a death of a thousand cuts. We have enough difficulty trying to control nonpoint sources of sediment and other pollutants. Stopping discharge of fine-grained materials from a mining operation is eminently fixable. It’s the right thing to do. Fortunately, all parties seem in agreement on this, including the mining company, which has repaired its leaky dike.

Your fame is just lightyears away!

mdr — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:30:34 +0000

Science Buzz in galaxies: You can put your own name in galactic lights!Courtesy My GalaxiesEver wanted to be a star? Or see your name in lights? Or be a light, and see your name in stars? Or, to be more specific, starlight? Or to be even more specific, galactic light? I better stop with that. Just go check out this website where you have your name or any other message translated into the celestial light of billions and billions of stars, i.e. galaxies. I did that "Science Buzz" one in the picture.

SOURCE
My Galaxies website

Black Bear Caught on Motion Activated Camera

naturalist paul — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:14:47 +0000

Bear insideCourtesy Warner Nature Center
Black bear Caught on Motion Activated CameraCourtesy Warner Nature CenterApril 30 our nature center had a visit from a black bear. Apparently after 5 years of ignoring our bird seed storage under our stairs the bear decided it was time to eat.

We set up 2 cameras to see if the bear would come back. Did he ever. Both May 1 and 2 he showed up. After tearing half the door the first night the bear was back and rolled out a can of seed. The metal lid was peeled back as if it were aluminum foil.

The squirrels and raccoons took full advantage of the seed being strewn around. Piles of bear and raccoon scat were found on site the next day, sweet.

Four more days of setting out the cams showed that 3 days of bird seed was enough.

The Big Question: Sustainable plastics?

JGordon — Tue, 29 May 2012 16:42:59 +0000

Plastics!Courtesy IonEThis is a couple weeks old, but I just noticed that the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment (one of the Science Museum's partners on the Future Earth exhibit) has posted another "Big Question" video. These are short, fun videos that cover some of the challenges humans will be facing in the coming decades. This one is about plastics, and whether we can make them sustainable.

Anyway, here you are:

(And for more on the subject, check out Science Buzz posts on plastics, plastic, and sustainability.)

Battling blight

Liza — Fri, 25 May 2012 22:30:14 +0000

It's Friday, and I *know* you didn't see a Science Friday video coming because, well, I haven't posted one in ages.

Science FridayCourtesy Science Friday

But it's Memorial Day weekend (officially, as it's after 5pm on the Friday before), and Memorial Day weekend opens the tomato season, so here goes...

"Tim Stark, tomato farmer and proprietor of Eckerton Hill Farm in Lobachsville, PA, describes his battle with late blight during the summer of 2009."

Critical gene in fight against inflammation, rapid aging, and cancer isolated

mdr — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:34:10 +0000

It's in the genesCourtesy colm.mcmullan via FlickrResearchers at NYU's School of Medicine have announced in a new study that a gene known as AUF1, long known for its role in controlling inflammation has now been determined to also aid in the suppression of accelerated aging and cancer growth. The study appears today on the online version of the journal Molecular Cell and was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Go here for more about the discovery.

In Russia, Moon puts base on you!

JGordon — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:58:45 +0000

So it's true?: Not necessarily the moon thing. The other part.Courtesy Thomas Fowler and OZinOHWhat does that title even mean?! I don’t know! Yakov Smirnoff stopped making jokes when I was a baby!

In Russia, phone dials you! In Russia, self-tanner applies you! In Russia, wife buys you! They’re all just meaningless words without the code!

Could it be that Russia has plans to establish a permanent base on the moon? Could that be? I mean, on one hand, my conception of Russia is more or less summed up by an imagined scene in which an old woman and a bear fight over a wilted cabbage. The old lady has a broom … but the bear wants the cabbage too! Does that sound like a space-colonizing nation?

Then again, the mighty USA has been hitching rides into space on Russian rockets for a while now, since we apparently decided that spaceships weren’t something we wanted to buy.

So who knows? Maybe Russia will put a permanent base on the moon. (Or maybe China or Japan will.) Maybe the US will go to an asteroid or to Mars. Maybe, in Russia, asteroid will go to you. Or maybe it’s all just astronaut pillow talk.

Nature's Week in Review for May 21, 2012

tcnaturalist — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:38:34 +0000

Twin Cities NaturalistCourtesy Twin Cities NaturalistMany migratory birds are moving on, more dragonflies are emerging. The weather is both beautiful and unstable. Can we call it summer yet? Check out this week's Monday Phenology: Nature's Week in Review where professional naturalist Kirk Mona of Twin Cities Naturalist discusses what new nature observations were seen around the Twin Cities area in the past week.

Phenology is the science of the seasons. It looks at how and when nature changes according to seasonal climatic conditions.

View a summary of phenology sightings in the Twin Cities this past week.

Perfect weather makes for great eclipse viewing

mdr — Mon, 21 May 2012 06:07:43 +0000

Early stage of eclipse: the greenish tint is caused by shooting through welder's glass #14.Courtesy Mark RyanI'm happy to report that the clouds cleared out just in time this weekend to watch the Sun and Moon do their little dance together in the western sky. I went to eastern shore Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis to watch, as did a number of other people. The best views took place later on as the sun lowered near the horizon. I brought along a piece of welder's glass #14 which attracted several curious passersby who ask if they could use it to view the sun. Other people brought along their own homemade devices to view the event. Overall, it turned into a rather nice little eclipse party.
Viewing the eclipse: Two spectators use a an old printer box with a pinhole punched in it to watch the event.Courtesy Mark Ryan

The eclipsed sunCourtesy Mark Ryan

Closer view of the eclipseCourtesy Mark Ryan

Double view: Binoculars worked well in projecting the crescent sun's image onto a white surface.Courtesy Mark Ryan
Another eclipse enthusiast checks out the viewCourtesy Mark Ryan
Another viewCourtesy Mark Ryan
Look at that!: A family stopped by to view the eclipse through welder's glass.Courtesy Mark Ryan
Viewing the eclipse: A helmet isn't necessary to view a solar eclipse, but proper eye protection against the sun's rays in essential.Courtesy Mark Ryan
Makeshift viewing device: This woman made an eclipse viewer by poking a pinhole in a paper bag.Courtesy Mark Ryan
Eclipsed setting sunCourtesy Mark Ryan
Kayak and eclipseCourtesy Mark Ryan

The Flight of Dragon: SpaceX!

JGordon — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:18:55 +0000

Wheeeeeee!: I'm a computer generated mockup, but I feel like I'm flyiinggggggg!Courtesy FlyingSingerThe Flight of Dragons? Anyone? Anyone? 1982 Rankin/Bass? I don't know. I thought it was pretty dope when I was 5, but I felt that way about a lot of stuff.

Whoops! Got sidetracked there! What I meant to say is that the private spaceflight company, SpaceX, will be launching their Dragon capsule tomorrow, to rendezvous with the International Space Station. Assuming all goes well. (And let's be a glass-half-full crowd and just assume that, eh?)

The unmanned Dragon capsule will be hurled into the heavens on SpaceX's 2 stage Falcon 9 rocket. When it gets to the Space Station, it will do a practice docking run. (This whole thing is kind of a trial run, although Dragon will have some cargo for the astronauts aboard. Just for fun, I guess.)

You'll know if everything went off without a hitch, because your life will be changed forever, or something.

The Flight of Dragons!

Watch for annular solar eclipse this weekend

mdr — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:28:31 +0000

Annular solar eclipse sequence: Spain, 2005Courtesy CestomanoA rare opportunity for many of us astrogeeks takes place this Sunday (May 20, 2012) when a good portion of North America will experience an annular solar eclipse. The celestial mechanics start around 7pm CDT when the Moon begins to cross in front of the face of the Sun. Because the Moon's orbit is near its apogee with the Earth (that is at its farthest distance) it will appear smaller and won’t cover the entire solar disk (as it does in a total eclipse), but instead, a ring of sunlight will remain exposed at maximum eclipse. Here in Minnesota we won’t get that effect as only 80-90 of the sun will be covered from our vantage point, but since it starts so late in the day we should be able to watch the sun set in partial eclipse, which should look kind of cool. Let’s hope the weather cooperates. The East Coast of the US won’t see the eclipse because it will start there after sunset.

It’s best not to look directly at the Sun with the naked eye during this type of eclipse as even a sliver of sunlight can cause damage, but there are ways of viewing a solar eclipse safely.

My favorite phenomena during the partial phases of a solar eclipse are the odd shadows created by the leaves of trees and bushes. Each dappled shadow is an image of the crescent sun.

MORE INFO
NASA annular eclipse page
Mr. Eclipse info site

Mount St. Helens erupts in 1980

mdr — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:43:50 +0000

Mount St. Helens eruptingCourtesy USGS Preceded by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, Washington state's Mount St. Helens explodes with a major eruption in 1980 that flattens the surrounding forest, blankets the immediate area with mud and avalanche debris, and unleashes more than 500 million tons of ash into the air that reaches as far as Oklahoma (although traces of the ash encircle the globe). Fifty-seven people lose their lives from the eruption.

USGS page