The magical effect of bioluminescence

 

 IF you know anything about holidays you've probably been to one of those idyllic islands where time stands still and cocktails and swimming are the only things that matter.

Days filled with nothing are the best days of all.

But what about the nights? Have you ever stayed up to watch the sea? You might be surprised at the magical ambience nightfall brings.

Some nights, usually when there is no moon and the water is still, a new world opens up. Those lucky enough to be spectators will see the ocean light up with glowing bioluminescence.



Bioluminescence is a light produced by a chemical reaction within a living organism, which means when you do see this magical light there's a special marine creature producing that effect.
Most bioluminescent organisms are found in the ocean and include marine species such as fish, bacteria, and jellies (although some organisms, including fireflies and fungi, are found on land).


Think of the 2012 movie, Life of Pi, when the night sea glittered blue around Pi's raft and a glowing whale jumped out of the water. The effect is the same, although a little less dramatic in most real-life cases.

There are a few places in the world where diving into the water on a moonless night is like diving into a sea of sparkling stars. Puerto Mosquito (also known as Bioluminescent Bay) in Vieques in Puerto Rico is one of the most renowned in the world.

Halong Bay in Vietnam offers a more subtle sparkle, but you won't be able to see it at all until all the boats turn off their power and lights at around 11pm. Although it may seem understated at first, if you dive into the water (or even splash around using your feet) you'll be met with magnificent electric blue all around you.


news.com.au

Water plumes spotted on dwarf planet Ceres; makes it rare planet with conditions for supporting life



Artist rendering shows water plumes on surface - source: AP



THE largest object in the asteroid belt just got more attractive: Scientists have confirmed signs of water on the dwarf planet Ceres, one of the few bodies in the solar system to hold that distinction.

Peering through the Herschel Space Observatory, a team led by the European Space Agency detected water plumes spewing from two regions on Ceres.

The observations, published in Nature, come as NASA's Dawn spacecraft is set to arrive at the Texas-sized dwarf planet next year.

It's long been suspected that Ceres is water-rich, but previous detections have been inconclusive. This is the first definitive evidence of water on Ceres and confirms that it has an icy surface, said lead author Michael Kuppers of the European Space Agency.

"It makes Ceres a more exciting target" for exploration, he said.

The latest finding puts Ceres in a special class of solar system objects with active plumes of water, a key ingredient for life.

 

Earth-Moon-Ceres Comparison - source : wikipedia

The company includes Jupiter's moon Europa - where an underground ocean is believed to exist - and the Saturn moon Enceladus, where jets have been seen venting from the surface.

The source of the water plumes is still unclear. Scientists think there may be a layer of ice just below the surface that gets heated by the sun or the plumes could be spewed by ice volcanoes.

Dawn won't be in the best position to witness any water activity since it'll arrive at a time when Ceres is far from the sun. But the spacecraft carries instruments that can detect water and it will map the dwarf planet in detail, said Dawn deputy project scientist Carol Raymond, who had no role in the research.

Launched in 2007 and powered by ion propulsion, Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two space rocks.

Ceres is different from Dawn's first target, Vesta, the second largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The zone is littered with rocks left over from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, allowing scientists to study how Earth and the other planets evolved.

Unlike Ceres, Vesta is dry and rugged. Its scars reveal it got whacked twice by smaller asteroids. Some of the debris was cast into space and rained on Earth as meteorites.


 news.com.au

This could be the coolest boarding pass ever

Airlines, listen up: Here's the boarding pass you should be using

Fed up with constantly being handed confusing and poorly designed airlines boarding passes, a traveller decided to make his own. What he ended up creating could be the best boarding pass ever and has grabbed the attention of passengers and airlines.

The idea came to UK designer Peter Smart when he embarked on a flight marathon as part of his project 50 Problems in 50 days, which explores social problems and how design can assist. After boarding 14 planes in two months, he had seen a LOT of boarding passes.

"Somewhere between check-in and boarding, I realised something: Boarding passes are pretty awful," Peter Smart said.

"Take a look at your boarding pass. You want to know where you need to be and how to get there - your boarding pass should quickly and simply communicate your next steps. The problem is, it doesn't. What you're looking at is a collection of strangely ordered acronyms, oddly formatted times and numbers and sequences that demand significant attention to decipher.

"You're feeling jet-lagged, you start to feel uncertain and you're not sure where to head amongst the thousands of other passengers trying to reach their gate. Surely something so crucial should be simpler?"



Traditional boarding pass format

 

What's more, when you tuck away your boarding pass into your passport, it extends out both ends, often getting bent or sometimes even falling out.

"Boarding passes need to be kept safe," Smart said. "Their current format makes this difficult to do."

Instead, this is what he came up with: a pass stripped of all the clutter, that actually makes life easier for passengers.

Smart said the pass fits easily into a passport when folded, while leaving crucial information sticking out of the top, such as the flight number and gate.

The information is displayed vertically and is listed logically and in chronological order. It even lists the weather forecast so you'll know whether you'll need to keep your coat within easy reach.

Even better, the ticket tells you what kind of seat you'll be in (e.g. aisle).

It's also the same, standard dimensions of the traditional boarding pass, so airlines won't have to get new printers or cards to switch to the design.

 

When asked if Sky Haven Airlines would consider using the design, Sky Haven Airlines was enthusiastic.


news.com.au
Gizmodo.com


Lightning breaks Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue's finger



Lightning and rain across Rio de Janeiro flooded streets and knocked out power in some neighbourhoods



 

LIGHTNING has broken a finger off the right hand of Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

Father Omar, rector of the shrine that holds the statue, told the Globo radio station that lightning frequently strikes the 30-metre-high statue, a symbol of Rio that overlooks the Brazilian city from the peak of the 700-metre Corcovado mountain.

Christ the Redeemer statue overlooks the Brazilian city

 

Its right hand had been damaged sometime ago, but the finger finally broke off in a storm late Thursday.

"They say lightning does not strike the same spot twice. But with the Christ it does,'' the priest said on Friday.

A lightning rod and other equipment are in place "to protect the image,'' but they do not always do the trick, he said.

Father Omar noted that people who work at the site are usually warned in advance by city officials about electrical storms so they can ensure the safety of the thousands of visitors at the site on top of Corcovado mountain.

Top of the Corcovado mountain

 

"I have already endured the situation of being at the Christ at a time of rain and a lot of lightning, and it is scary. But we have a plan to quickly take all visitors away from there,'' the priest said.

The statue is set to be refurbished next month, so this and other damage are set to be fixed.

news.com.au
Associated Press

Official website could be down for months, says UTSH official

UTSH official website could be down for months 

'Our official website could be down for months', says the spokesman of the UTSH government.

UTSH official says the website is being taken down due to being too expensive renewing the web domain.

'There isn't any technical issues renewing it, but getting a new .info web domain will only cost the government 6 time as less than to renew the current web domain' says the spokesman. The spokesman says it is yet to decide if a new web domain should be use in the future.

The website has now been out of action for eight days, and official says it may be up and running again as early as tomorrow, if a decision is made.

UTSH official website

In a bid to placate frustrated users, the government is planning to use the free web domain utsh-govt.yolasite.com (offered by Yola) until its official web domain eventually comes back online.

"I know perfectly well that this is not good for our nation's reputation," the Emperor of IK told the Narpotan Times.

Many micronations are currently using free web domains, that include Indontian Republic (offered by awardspace), Republic of Atlantis (offered by Weebly) and Grand Duchy of Flandrensis (offered by WIX).

Grand Duchy of Flandrensis website

However, official says the website outage is unlikely to meaningfully affect the nation. Citizens of the nation seem to agree that the outage will not seriously dent the website's purpose of raising public awareness and promotion of the nation.

The Narpotan Times

Niagara Falls frozen in polar vortex that battered US and Canada

The frozen falls of Niagara.

WE watched in amazement as images of Americans and Canadians shivering through an arctic chill beamed into our homes this week. But we saved the best for last with the latest images coming from Niagara Falls.

Water from the falls literally froze midair as it dropped on Tuesday when the temperature dropped to a record low of -2C.

Images of the falls are circulating online, but beware not all are authentic.

The cost of the deep freeze has been estimated at US$5b (A$5.63b) - the biggest economic disruption delivered by the weather since Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

While the impact came nowhere close to Sandy, which caused an estimated $US65 billion in property damage alone, the deep freeze's impact came from its breadth.

"There's a lot of economic activity that didn't happen," said Evan Gold, senior vice president at Planalytics, a business weather intelligence company in suburban Philadelphia.

"Some of that will be made up, but some of it just gets lost."

Gold noted his $US5 billion estimate pales in comparison with an annual gross domestic product of about $US15 trillion - working out to maybe one-seventh to one-eighth of one day's production for the entire country.

"It's a small fraction of a per cent, but it's still an impact," Gold said.

Major US airlines, which cancelled about 20,000 flights starting last Thursday, lost anywhere from $US50 million to $US100 million, said Helane Becker, an analyst with Cowen and Co in New York.

JetBlue was hit especially hard because 80 per cent of its flights go through New York or Boston, where the carrier shut down on Monday evening and into Tuesday.

The airline also was affected by other airport closures and new regulations limiting pilot hours.

School closures took their own toll, keeping home parents who couldn't find alternatives for their kids.

Even if those parents worked from home, they might not have been as productive, said Tony Madden, regional economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

"People in the northern climates are used to dealing with issues of snow and cold," Madden said.

"However, when you get a one-in-20-year event like this, that disrupts activities."

The insurance industry has yet to estimate costs, but Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute in New York, said insurers plan for about $US1.4 billion in winter storm catastrophe losses in any given year.

"We certainly know there is an epidemic of frozen and burst pipes this week," Hartwig said.

Damage to a Minnesota state health laboratory in St Paul could top $US1 million after the heating system failed and pipes leaked, while Alabama Governor Robert Bentley's home in Tuscaloosa took an estimated $US50,000 blow from a burst water pipe.

Meanwhile, governments are tallying costs for depleted road salt reserves, blown overtime budgets and repairs.

Other impacts will be felt in about 30 days when high heating bills start coming due, Gold said, which will affect how much consumers can spend in February.

But somebody always benefits, he said.

On-demand cable TV and restaurant delivery services gained, as did home centres and convenience stores where people went to stock up.

Online retailers benefited from customers with an estimated $US30 billion worth of new holiday gift cards burning holes in their pockets, Gold said.

Other beneficiaries may be farther away, with Boston-based Hopper Research saying the frigid temperatures caused a 52 per cent spike in searches for flights to Cancun, Mexico, from people in Minneapolis and Chicago.

news.com.au

US icebreaker to rescue Chinese and Russian ships in Antarctica

A US icebreaker was dispatched yesterday to assist an icebound Russian research ship and Chinese vessel trapped during a rescue bid in Antarctica.

The Xue Long icebreaker as seen from an Australian supply ship.

The 122-metre cutter, the Polar Star, is responding to a request from Australia, Russia and China to assist the ships because "there is sufficient concern that the vessels may not be able to free themselves from the ice", the US Coast Guard said. It is expected to take seven days to reach Commonwealth Bay, where the two ships are trapped.

The Russian research ship Akademik Shokalskiy has been trapped there since Christmas Eve, while the Chinese ship which came to its rescue, Xue Long or Snow Dragon, reported on Friday it too had become stuck nearby, after a dramatic helicopter rescue of the Shokalskiy's 52 passengers the previous day.

The Chinese leadership has vowed "all-out efforts" to assist the ship, which is surrounded by ice up to four metres thick and is stuck 21 kilometres from open water, according to Xinhua. It has reporters on board.

American icebreaking cutter the Polar Star, seen in the Antarctic in 2002

 

The People's Daily said the Chinese icebreaker had already cleared out a one kilometre long runway and might attempt to free itself from the ice today, if weather conditions permit.

There were around seven icebergs floating around the Chinese vessel, the newspaper quoted the onboard oceanic scientist Jiao Yutian as saying.

The Chinese crew was monitoring the icebergs round the clock to avoid any collision. A total of 101 people, including crew members, scientists and journalists, are on board.

The Xue Long has ample food and fuel and is waiting for a change in the weather, as a tropical cyclone is likely to pass by today and tomorrow, according to the newspaper.

"The weather changes rapidly in the South Pole. Monday is a chance for Xue Long to break out, but the [time] window of escape could close very soon and we must get very well prepared in advance," Qu Tanzhou, head of the Antarctic Office under the State Oceanic Administration, was quoted as saying.

The Chinese vessel is over 160 meters long, and its size also made escape more difficult, he said.

Xinhua said the State Oceanic Administration had set up a task force to lead and co-ordinate the new rescue mission.

The Polar Star is capable of continuously breaking ice up to 1.8 metres thick while travelling at three knots, and can break ice more than six metres thick by ramming.

SCMP