Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Saturday Science News and Open News Thread

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From the science newswires …

From Earth and Sky Videos

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Giant Robotic Jellyfish Readied for Sea Patrol

… a giant robotic jellyfish is being readied to take to the seas, all in the name of science.

Mechanical engineers at Virginia Tech College of Engineering have been developing an autonomous robotic jellyfish they think could be an efficient way to monitor ocean conditions, map ocean floors and study aquatic life. Last year they created a small hand-sized version called RoboJelly. Recently they debuted an enormous prototype (video) nicknamed Cyro.

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Why Mars exploration will be suspended in April, 2013

The planet Mars was a bright red “star” in our sky on August 5, 2012, when the newest Mars rover Curiosity made its dramatic descent to the surface of the Red Planet. But by early April 2013, when Mars and Venus will sweep near each other after sunset, what otherwise would be an awesome conjunction of two cool planets will lost in the sunset glare.

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Quick Takes …

Video: Underwater fish tornado

Rare Australian possum could be continent’s first climate change victim

Termites ‘engineer fairy circles’

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Bonus Video: Why do we see illusions?

In this video, neuroscientist Mark Changizi explains why illusions occur, and why the brain can’t properly render simple optical stimuli.

From TedEd

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Feel free to share your science and other news stories here.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 33 Comments

33 comments

  4. princesspat

    For the Documerica Project (1971-1977), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hired freelance photographers to capture images relating to environmental problems, EPA activities, and everyday life in the 1970s.

    The U.S. National Archives digitized more than 15,000 photographs from the series Documerica (Local ID 412-DA) and included them in our online catalog. Our Web site has quick catalog search links for featured DOCUMERICA topics, locations, and photographers.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/u…

    This is an interesting collection, and an easy way to spend even more time on the internet!

  5. princesspat

    Forterra moves closer to saving Port Gamble’s sweetest forests

    In the long run, says Sullivan, who lives on his tribe’s small reservation above the eastern shore, he has a personal vision of a bay filled with “bright and pristine” water. “I won’t see it,” he acknowledges, “but my kids and their kids and their kids will.”

    The state Department of Ecology and Pope Resources have just moved Port Gamble Bay a bit closer to that vision. On March 22, they announced an agreement that commits Pope – a spin-off of the mill, created to own and manage the company’s extensive Washington holdings – to a $17 million clean-up of the bay, which will include removing both tons of sediment and thousands of pilings.

    The agreement also commits $2 million in state money to buy 470 acres of Pope land and 83 acres of tidelands along the western shore, saving them from development. The dry land will be held by Kitsap County, the tidelands by the state Department of Natural Resources.

    ~snip~

    “In terms of a Puget Sound drama,” he argued, “you just do not get better than this … It’s the ultimate ‘save Puget Sound’ drama.” He recalled that “someone in one of the state [environmental agencies] said, ‘You know, if we can’t pull this thing off, I fear for our efforts to save Puget Sound.'”

    I’m on the search for positive scientific and environmental news these days…..trying to keep my balance!

  6. slksfca

    …for the science-y goodness this morning.

    As for me, I’m still on an arts high after watching a concert last night which I’d recorded from PBS a few weeks ago. It was Broadway diva Kristen Chenowith, performing a variety of songs from great musicals and was part of Lincoln Center’s tribute to the “Great American Songbook.”

    However, that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate science as well. Just don’t blind me with it. ;-p

  7. princesspat

    John Spellman’s rendezvous with Puget Sound’s destiny

    A new biography details a remarkable story of how plans to put an oil pipeline under Puget Sound ran into an unlikely antagonist, a mild-mannered Republican determined to follow the law and protect the Sound.

    The following article is the first part of an excerpt from a new biography by John C. Hughes, “John Spellman: Politics Never Broke His Heart.” It recounts a story, relevant today in the controversy over coal ports on Puget Sound, of an abortive effort to build the Northern Tier Pipeline for shipping Alaska crude oil to the Midwest.

  9. JanF

    Pope’s Foot-Wash a Final Straw for Traditionalist Catholics

    VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis has won over many hearts and minds with his simple style and focus on serving the world’s poorest, but he has devastated traditionalist Catholics who adored his predecessor, Benedict XVI, for restoring much of the traditional pomp to the papacy.

    Francis’ decision to disregard church law and wash the feet of two girls – a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic – during a Holy Thursday ritual has become something of the final straw, evidence that Francis has little or no interest in one of the key priorities of Benedict’s papacy: reviving the pre-Vatican II traditions of the Catholic Church.

    In Madison, the right-wing archbishop here said “men’s feet or no feet at all!” when he found out that some parishes wanted to honor the women who do so much for their churches.

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    Limbaugh On Petition Against Carson: ‘We’re Losing The Country’

    To me that’s evidence that… I don’t know what it is. We’re losing the country or what have you.”

    Losing whose country … and to who exactly?

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    Essay from Think Progress: Why Rich People Hate Talking About Inequality

    This is the third and final post in a TP Ideas symposium on Branko Milanovic’s The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality.

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    Three Years On, States Still Struggle With Health Care Law Messaging

    According to a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 80 percent of people don’t know whether their state is going to expand Medicaid under the law, a huge piece of the health care changes coming down the pike.

    Half of people don’t know whether their states are going to be setting up so-called health exchanges, and half of people think the law gives undocumented immigrants health care subsidies – it doesn’t. The poll also shows that 40 percent of people still think the government is going to set up death panels to decide if someone gets heath care when they’re dying – it won’t.

  10. JanF

    Archival Find Could Shed New Light On Emmett Till Murder

    New details about one of Mississippi’s most infamous murders are coming to light – more than a half-century later. The death of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who whistled at a white woman, helped spark the civil rights movement.

    Till lived in Chicago, and was visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta when he was murdered. His body was mutilated and dumped into a river. The accused were the woman’s husband and half-brother, and their trial drew reporters from both the white and black press.

    A black newspatper, the St. Louis Argus, had reporters at the trial but the archives from that era were missing. A professor from Florida State University and his students found the missing issues in a state historical society in Missouri. They are digging through it now:

    The discovery is already a treasure trove, however, with never-before-seen pictures of the NAACP’s Medgar Evers as well as articles written during the trial and long forgotten.

  11. JanF

    Big Biz/Labor Finalize Immigration Pact

    Big business and labor have resolved a dispute over a low-skilled worker program that threatened to hold up agreement on a sweeping immigration bill, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

    The deal was struck in a phone call late Friday night with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, U.S. Chamber of Commerce head Tom Donohue, and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who’s been mediating the dispute.

    The deal must still be signed off on by the seven other senators working with Schumer to negotiate a bipartisan immigration bill – but that’s expected to happen. The agreement between business and labor removes the biggest hurdle to completion of the immigration bill to secure the border, crack down on employers, improve legal immigration and create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants already here.

    A bill is expected to be introduced the week of April 8th.

  12. slksfca

    Marie Osmond was ABC News’ Person of the Week.

    (Disclosure: I once danced with Marie at the opening of a giant discotheque back in the late ’70s. And my sister briefly dated one of the other Osmond Brothers at about the same time.)

    Good for her!

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