Poland looking toward the nuclear direction

Poland is forward-looking, and looking at getting $25 billion Euros in investments in nuclear power capabilities. They want to have electricity from nuclear power flowing by 2020, partly to reduce dependence on Russia.

Poland eyes EUR25 bln investments as it goes nuclear

Nuclear power for Poland, but at what price?

Is this a real result about the Greenland ice sheet?

A new study purports to show that summer temperatures exert less of an influence on Greenland ice sheet melting that previously believed. This result is based on measurements of ice flow for six outlet glaciers. I think that this is a small subset, and I also think that overall ice loss has to be evaluated via satellite or aircraft survey in addition to changing any general view of the threat to the ice sheet from warming.

Greenland ice sheet a complex mystery

Shepherd and his team used satellite observations of six landlocked glaciers in south-west Greenland, acquired by the European Space Agency, to study how ice flow developes in years of markedly different melting.

Despite the fact that the initial speed up of ice melting was similar in all years, slowdown occurred soonest in years which were warmer than others, suggesting that these years of abundance triggers an early switch in the plumbing at the base of the ice, causing a pressure drop that slows down the ice speeds, behaviour that is similar to mountain glaciers, which sees summertime speed up of ice reduce once the melt-water from the glaciers can drain efficiently.

My question: what about glaciers that drain to the sea, like the huge Jakobshavn?

Murray on the verge?

I commented via tweet that an Andy Murray victory at the Australian Open would really set up Wimbledon anticipation. It could happen, with both Federer and Nadal ousted, even though Djokovic is not going to be an easy final. Murray staved off a set point in the second set to get to the final.

This made me wonder; when was the last tennis grand slam final without either Nadal or Federer in it?

Actually, it wasn't real long ago; it was the 2008 Australian Open final, where Djokovic defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. I'd forgotten about that. Before that it was the 2005 Aussie, with Marat Safin over Lleyton Hewitt, and before that it was the 2004 French, with Gaston Gaudio over Guillermo Coria.

So since the beginning of 2004, there have been 3 finals without either Nadal or Federer in contention. Geeze. 3 out of 29.

Nice to have a bit of variety down under, eh mate?

Andy Murray beats David Ferrer in Australian Open semi-final

New plans for biofuel

Though I'm obviously a nuclear advocate, I know that there is a place for biofuels in a mixed-energy economy, which is where the U.S. and the world at large will have to be headed, eventually. While nuclear could provide much of the power for low-weight transportation, i.e.,
electric cars, nothing other than something with a high energy output in comparison to its weight and volume would work for things like trucks, trains, and planes. That's where I think biofuels and biodiesel come in.

Previously I've noted that food waste should be recycled; food waste is an excellent feedstock for biodiesel. I also think that farm waste (i.e. animal poop) can work in the same regard. So also for human poop. So that's a lot of feedstocks for biodiesel. The other liquid biofuel of note is biomass ethanol, notably cellulosic, which might work for trucks (reserving the diesel for trains and potentially airplanes, if they can make bio-kerosene -- I'll have to look that up).

This article describes plans to make both. Let's keep the good news coming.

Energy department backs biofuel plant

Yes, there is biokerosene. I should have remembered that. It needs to be made from plant oils; can those be grown and harvested sustainably, enough for the all the planes flying in the
world?

KLM fuels Boeing 747 with biokerosene

Airbus and TAM Airlines to support jatropha-based bio-kerosene jet fuel processing plant project in Brazil

Rim shot

Opportunity rover won't be roving for a few days, but I thought this particular shot of the rim of Santa Maria crater was worth a second look. If you go the link, there are 3D (red-blue) and false color pictures, too.

Santa Maria crater rim

Pleistocene Park?

It's been talked about before, but apparently a team of researchers led by a Japanese scientist have a plan to create a baby woolly mammoth using cloned-cell technology, and DNA from a frozen Siberian mammoth carcass

A mammoth in 4 years?

They plan on taking nuclei from the mammoth cells and inserting them into an elephant's egg cells from which the nuclei have been removed. This will create an embryo that contains the mammoth's genes. The embryo will then be inserted into the elephant's womb, and the animal will, hopefully, give birth to a mammoth. According to The Daily Tech, [Dr. Akira] Iritani said:

"The success rate in the cloning of cattle was poor until recently, but now stands at about 30 percent. I think we have a reasonable chance of success and a healthy mammoth could be born in four or five years."

After they study it, then they'll probably eat it. This is Japan, after all. Eating species on the verge of extinction is their specialty, so why not dine on a species that actually IS extinct?



"I thought we were done with this nonsense 10,000 years ago!"

Bilateral symmetry

Brooklyn Decker demonstrates the virtues of having two of everything (with the exception of nose and navel), in the right place and in the right proportion.