Lstrblg

I could not be in the same ocean as this creature and not be gripped by paralyzing fear (not to mention paralyzing tentacles!). Behold, a great big jelly, the likes of which are not meant to be seen.

As the Discovery News reports, monster jellyfish like this are becoming more common as fish populations dwindle.

They say climate change could also cause jellyfish populations to grow. The team believes that for the first time, water conditions could lead to what they call a “jellyfish stable state,” in which jellyfish rule the oceans.

The combination of overfishing and high levels of nutrients in the water has been linked to jellyfish blooms. Nitrogen and phosphorous in run-off cause red phytoplankton blooms, which create low-oxygen dead zones where jellyfish survive, but fish can’t, researchers said.

Just great. We’re doomed.

Personally, I abhor top 10 lists as gimmicky click bait (for shame Newsweek, that trick works for Cracked, but it is unseemly for you), but I’ll forgive IEEE Spectrum for this list of Kim Stanley Robinson favorite Mars-related SF novels. There are at least three novels on this list I’ve never heard of, let alone read. Hunting them down might be a challenge.

I’m still in awe of Robinson, and deeply regret not being able to string two sentences together when I met him while interning at NSF.

He is in the top two of the all-time list of great SF writers named Robinson.

The Telegraph reports finding a 600ft jellyfish crop circle found in an Oxfordshire field.

Kill it!!! Oh, wait…

At the end of the article, the writer oddly refers to an entirely different crop circle from last year, and reuses the quotes from a retired astrophysicist on how THAT crop circle encodes pi.

I had to re-read it to figure out the this reference really had nothing to do with the jellyfish. Bizarre.

I posted this on Facebook, but I amused myself enough to share here too:

I’ve been tagged, and I am supposed to write a note with the ABC’s of me. I’m not feeling all touchy-feely open at the moment, so I decided to write about someone I barely remember, Benjamin Sherman “Scatman” Crothers, who would be 99 this Saturday.

If I tagged you, it’s because I want you to know more about Scatman Crothers – but not in a creepy stalker kind of way. Mostly.

A- is for Axe, you didn’t see that coming.

B – is for Benjamin, you got your start by drumming

C – is for Capone, you sang for him in Chicago

D – is for Dead, which you sorta kinda are now.

E – is for Entertaining, although your parts were often crummy

F – is for Foxx, as in Redd, who never called YOU big dummy

G – is for your cover of Ghost Riders in the Sky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBYAis7akKw

H – is for Hong Kong Phooey, a number one super guy

I – is for Instruments, including your unique voice

J – is Jazz the Autobot, an odd acting choice

K – is for Kick the Can, you’re only as old as you feel

L – is for Long, we heard its like a conger eel

M – is for “A Man’s Gotta Eat,” a song I never heard

N – is for Narcolepsy, a random sleepy kind of word

O – is for “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,” your other film with Jack

P – is for Pate, as bald as a worn out thumb tack

Q – is for Qantas, the name of an Australian airline

R – is for Random, like the word in the above line

S – is for Scat, which you were known for, but not really the best

T – is for Time, I got none, so I’m gonna scat the next

U – is for ubi, doobie dippo dee

V – is for vappa donna doo-ah debba see

W – is for Women, like that Afro-babe above your bed

X – is for Xenograph, like adding a second head

Y – is for Years gone by, as sweet as cream de cacao

Z – is for Zapped! in which you starred with Scott Baio

Good stuff to know if you are interested in the course of science under the Obama administration at ScienceInsider.

This is the first I’ve heard about asking the Chinese to shuttle our astronauts to space. I wonder where this came from…or if Holdren was just speaking off the top of his head. But why the Chinese when we have a number of home grown outfits, like SpaceX, looking to do the job? Why the Chinese over the Russians, who are particularly good at getting people safely to orbit?

The other question I have is about nukes. I don’t believe we necessarily need new nuclear weapons, but is that the job of the science advisor to decide and not, say, the military? Of course, as Holdren points out, our national labs have a broad research portfolio, not just nukes.

But that’s just one bit of the interview, its fairly in-depth and well worth the read.

And, in other Holdren news, AP is reporting that he has an interest in geoengineering .

I’m a little nervous about fiddling with the global climate, especially before we know exactly how everything plays out. What if we make matters worse? Why not wait until the damage is done? I don’t believe in irreversibility, that just doesn’t make sense…not on a geological scale, at least, but maybe that’s only irreversible on a human scale.

Here’s my plan, millions of acres of space solar panels. We’ll block out a fraction of the sunlight reaching Earth and generate safe, clean power. Sure, you say, we’d never be able to build the x gazillion solar panels we’d need to block the sun. Maybe they don’t have to all be solar panels, maybe its just a few gazillion acres of some sort of dimming fabric…in addition to the solar panels. Think of all the stimulus money that could be spent on the solar/space industry!

This is kind of neat, Warner Bros. is putting their old, rare and neglected films for sale online. Unfortunately, its DVD and not on-demand…and they all seem to cost about $20, which is a bit high for what was once late-night TV or UHF fare.

It includes this gem of a turkey, George Pal’s Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze.

And, yes, Doc Savage had a Fortress of Solitude long before Superman.

I’m a big Doc Savage fan — and George Pal, for that matter — but this one is a turd. Its played for camp, but in that 60s-70s elbow poke in the ribs sort of way. Fui.

There are a couple of films in the archive that I’m interested in checking out, including a Captain Nemo flick starring Chuck Conners Captain Nemo and the Underwater Citym and a Harryhausen-free (and thankfully, Sinbad-free) Captain Sindbad.

They don’t look bad, but I couldn’t say that they’re worth $20.

Speaking of Sindbad, who’s that most remarkable extraordinary fellow?

I’m just getting used to my new Dell mini 9. First impressions are good.

It isn’t for the feint of heart, I tried one out before I went to the Dell outlet site and managed to get one refurbished (and less than $200!). The keyboard is tiny, but passable. The only real problem I have is with the misplaced quotation marks button. I also tend to swipe the touchpad by accident, which can be annoying. I’ll end up just using a mouse, I think.

Web browsing is fine, but since space is at a premium, I won’t be collecting my links on their own toolbar.

Not a bad little machine, overall. Certainly a lot lighter than the macbook. It should be a breeze for travel, but I’m not replacing my work desktop or my home laptop.

A four foot-long reef worm capable of biting through a 20-pound fishing line.(link via Neatorama)

Dear god.

A 15 meter-long pliosaur with jaws that put T-Rex to shame. Sure, it died out 140-some million years ago, but try telling my imagination that.

Also scary, blue holes. Pathway straight to Cthulhu, if you ask me.

If the ISS-near miss last week was any indication, space debris is becoming more of a hazard to orbital navigation. If it isn’t the Chinese blowing up satellites, its the Americans blowing up satellites, or the Russians crashing into satellite*s (“crashing” for the cynically-minded).

The latter event — where a Russian satellite took out an Iridium satellite — is what supposedly caused the debris that made for a dramatic Friday morning for twitterers and ISS crew alike. Especially the crew, of course.

So, this article in Russia Today, says that the Japanese are developing microsatellites to grab debris, presumably, some of the medium-sized pieces, and fall back to earth. The tether idea sounds neat (but the headline sounds vaguely inappropriate).

Japan’s space agency (JAXA) is planning to use microsatellites to clear orbits from space junk. The robotic cleaner grabs debris with a robotic arm and then lunges down to force the dangerous pieces back into atmosphere.

The 140-kilogram device uses electrodynamics tethers to drag down the debris. The tethers are conductive wires with lengths of up to several kilometres, which can be used to generate propulsion.

The Japanese cleaner approaches debris, attaches itself to it with a robotic arm, and then moves to a lower orbit, unwinding the tether from a reel. An electric current is generated in the tether, which interacts with Earth’s magnetic field to create drag, which slows down the debris making it re-enter the atmosphere and subsequently burn up. The satellite, of course, is destroyed in the process as well.

*OK, how cool is it that Iridium had backups parked in orbit already?