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Environmental News

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tochatihu, Oct 22, 2015.

  1. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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  2. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Yasuní National Park is a nifty place which has the very bad luck of sitting on a petroleum deposit. One could say that Ecuadorian government has not done enough to protect it. But better-protected ecological reserves elsewhere do not share this geological blessing/curse.

    There is also a mix of legal and illegal gold extraction nearby which adds to the stress, froth, whatever you want to call it.
     
  3. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    The matter of newly hatched male chickens being put into the grinder (I do not know the exact process) may not be a major concern here. It's 6 or 7 billion per year, but anyway...

    It is probable that CRISPR (genetic editing) could be used to make (~all) laid eggs female:

    https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/using-crispr-for-sex-selection/

    And even if the grinder thing does not raise interest, the feed and effort of producing fertile chicken eggs could be made twice as efficient. That might raise interest.
     
  4. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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  5. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    A interesting thing being constructed in Australia:

    Earth Black Box

    Its goal is to store all news and some environmental parameters for potential read back by survivors of a future ecological catastrophe. Which might or might not happen. So, a mix of providing information and laying on some current guilt I guess.

    In that light, I suppose they ought to archive PriusChat posts. Just kidding :D

    But seriously, if they presume that current information storage systems will fail, they really ought to be storing humankind's collective knowledge. Whether that features ecological journals is a decision for others to make. To do this thing fully would require a much bigger box.
     
  6. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Asteroid 4660 Nereus will pass Earth on Dec 11.

    What You Really Need to Know About That Asteroid Flying 'Towards' Earth Next Week

    About 10 lunar distances away, in case you don't click. For several reasons it appears to be the most 'mine-able' among asteroids. Which would still require dismissing a lot of relative velocity. Redirecting it for a moon crash may be possible, although not clearly wise. That could (?) happen on a subsequent pass - they are unusually frequent.
     
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  7. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    If the tabloids are sensationalizing this 330 meter rock, then buckle up and hold on to your hats for more scary headlines. Asteroid 163899 is nearly 800 meters across, and passes not all that much farther away, 14.1 LD, on Dec 17.

    Then on Jan 18, an even bigger bruiser, kilometer-wide 7482, passes at half the distance, 5.2 LD. At least it won't be as close as when your grandparents didn't notice it sneaking by less than 3 LD away in 1933.

    These should sell lots more copy than this week's pebble.
     
    #1567 fuzzy1, Dec 8, 2021
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2021
  8. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    So many fast-moving rocks incoming! So little praise for all this thing knowing!

    (Er Um) so little concern for other rocks coming from the (invisible) sun side. A fella might say we need another satellite looking from L4 or L5.
     
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  9. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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  10. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    How does a broth ever get made with that many cooks?
     
  11. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Wikipedia:

    "In 1981, he and his team of researchers began looking for a vaccine or treatment for this novel virus, though they would meet a number of obstacles."

    Working treatments subsequently found, let's hope a working vaccine is found too.
     
  12. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    I dun know what that means @ChapmanF

    mRNA vaccines were in development against SARS or MERS (I forgot which) but withered. Against COVID they look pretty sharp, and are rapidly re configurable with sufficient funding. mRNA vaccine-makers will seek to monetize all future responses to all future novel human - heath threats. Doubt that at your own risk.

    Because they know how mRNA works, and you don't, and JUST TRY to enter the factories and take some photos.
     
  13. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I saw your comment about the authors, so I went and looked at the authors list.

    Rather than trying to count the authors, I just counted the thirty-five commas and added one.

    I think the longest list of authors I appear on anywhere is, maybe, nine?

    Even that felt like a lot of cooks.
     
  14. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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  15. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Hmm, 4,205 commas, by my count (or my computer's, credit where it's due). But some of those are between multiple footnote numbers, or in parenthesized affiliations. Complicates the counting.

    Only 3,664 "AU" lines in the RIS export.

    Weirdly, 50 of those are blank ("AU - "). Literal ghostwriters?
     
  16. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    I don't know the record for maximum author count, but @fuzzy1 may have selected it for that reason. Anyway it is amusing that 'multi-messenger' is part of the title.

    In my experience the longest authors' lists do not give the worst trouble. That happens when one author is, oh, a particular sort of person, but cannot simply be 'written out'.
     
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  17. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    I just downloaded an ecology article with 729 authors, which may be a record for that publishing field. Did not even have to count them, the journal included it. I think they are proud :)

    If you're curious, it describes a database of plant traits hosted at Max Planck.
     
  18. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    As you have all probably read, US has had a very severe tornado outbreak. December is not a common month for any such, but this was big.

    Appeals for blood and financial donations could be linked by someone closer by.
     
  19. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    The latest Blue Origin 60-mile ride was actually delayed for a few days until that weather system exited eastward.
     
  20. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I don't know it to be a record, just clearly remember the author list being called out as exceptionally long in news stories the day this discovery was publicly announced.