It's good to keep a backup

Interesting article - NASA had a small experiment on three of the Apollo lunar landing mission experiment packages that measured the buildup of dust.  And they never looked at the data and thought they lost the data because the tapes were gone, but it turns out that the principal scientist kept a set of backup tapes.

Turns out, according to now-published analysis of the data, that the dust builds up incredibly slowly, but 10x faster than the incredibly slowly that was previously thought to be the rate of buildup.  The way it happens is that solar radiation knocks some electrons off some of the dust particles, so they build up a positive charge.  On the dark side of the moon, the solar wind puts some electrons on the dust particles, and they get a negative charge.   When the nightside meets the dayside, the charge attraction lofts the dust into the lunar sky.

Seriously.  At least that's what I think the article says.

Rediscovered Apollo data gives first measure of how lunar dust piles up

Can Gal Gadot really be the next Wonder Woman?

Movie news is that Gal Gadot will be Wonder Woman in the upcoming movie Batman vs. Superman.  To which one must immediately ask, "Is she qualified?"

Maybe.

Gal Gadot cast as Wonder Woman in "Batman vs. Superman"

Photosynthesis explained, cleverly

This is how photosynthesis works.  I recommend turning the volume down.

What a little effort can do

With a little effort and several images of Saturn's moon Dione, an enterprising individual put together a really big, really high resolution picture of the moon.  It's very impressive.  What's more impressive is that currently this moon and it's parent planet are about 1.6 billion (yes, billion) kilometers away from Earth.

Our satellites are GOOD. 


Pretty picture: newly processed high-res view of a fractured icy moon, Dione

Short-sighted

The World Bank won't provide funds to countries that need more energy for the construction of new nuclear power plants - which means they won't fund the only proven non-greenhouse-gas-emitting energy source that can provide large enough scale energy production for increasing energy demands of a growing economy.

That's short-sighted, folks.  To get to the future without catastrophic consequences, all of our energy production options need to be on the table.  ESPECIALLY the best ones.

World Bank says no money for nuclear power

"We don't do nuclear energy," said World Bank president Jim Yong Kim as he and UN leader Ban Ki-moon outlined efforts to make sure all people have access to electricity by 2030. 

Kim said $600-$800 billion a year will be needed to meet the campaign target of universal access to electricity, doubling energy efficiency and doubling the share of renewable energy by 2030. 

In some countries, only 10% of the population has electricity."

Without nuclear power, that status quo is not going to change very much.

Another critical meeting for bluefin (and other kinds of) tuna

Well, ICCAT may have done something good for Atlantic bluefin tuna last week, but now something has to be done about Pacific bluefin and several other species - and the problem there is that many countries, TOO many countries, are overfishing Pacific bluefin.  And there's a meeting this week, right now, addressing (or more likely ignoring) the eventual fate of the Pacific tunas.

Showdown looms for lucrative tuna industry

"A record 2.65 million tonnes of tuna was hauled from the Pacific last year, accounting for 60 percent of the global catch, with most of the fishing conducted by so-called "distant water" fleets from as far afield as Europe, the United States, China, Korea and Taiwan. 

Island nations, many of which rely on tuna for a significant portion of their income, fear stocks are becoming unsustainable and want action at the December 2-6 meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in Cairns. 

"If distant water nations support sustainability of the resource, then they need to commit to a 30 percent reduction in catches," Marshall Islands fisheries director Glen Joseph said. 

"It's not a question of should they do it or not -- they have to do it or face the consequences."

And the main consequence to be worried about is not being able to catch bluefin tuna at all, because there won't be enough of them to make it economically worthwhile to try to catch them.

The Hough vs. Menounos Thanksgiving dance wars

People magazine was all a-Twitter and a-Vined about the impromptu video dance war waged between the Menounos family and the Hough family.  Read about that here:

Epic Thanksgiving Dance Wars

Many of the videos are there, watch if you care.  As it is, watching them reminds me that there is something that I like about Maria Menounos.  Hmmm...

Now if I could just put a finger on that special something.  Or actually a hand.  Actually TWO hands...

Did I mention she also has unbelievably sculptured abs, too?