Scientists have discovered the part of the brain that tracks the position of our limbs as we move through space.
When a mosquito lands on your hand, you can rapidly and effortlessly make a movement of the other hand to brush it away, even in darkness. But performing this seemingly simple action involves a surprisingly complex coordination of different types of sensory information in order for your brain to construct a constantly updated 'map' of the body in space.
...
But "Lemmings" in a metaphorical sense do exist, and they vote
conservative.Why are people so willing to swallow complete bullshit and fabrications, and to abandon common sense? Every single conservative government runs the deficit up. And this deficit started well before things went south, globally.
Despite all evidence to the contrary they vote for the worst policies
for a country and a society. They do it even when they can see that it
has caused millions of bodies to wash up on the shores of economic
destruction.
...
Read the link for the full post
While it's true that there are methane bubbles (and methane ice) beneath the ocean floor, they are not about to erupt from Gulf and destroy all life on Earth. This morning I spoke with two Earth scientists, Dave Valentine of UC Santa Barbara and Chris Reddy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, who study methane and oil seeps from the sea floor. Valentine has just been out to the Gulf to study the methane levels there, and told io9:
During our recent cruise to the Gulf we observed significantly elevated levels of methane at water depth greater than 2500 feet, in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon spill site. While the total quantity of methane and other hydrocarbons is enough to cause problems with the regional ecosystem, there is no plausible scenario by which this event alone will cause global-scale extinctions.
So yes, there is a methane seep. No, it will not cause tidal waves or explode.
Another fishy fact in the methane bubble doomsday story is Aym's description of how methane bubbles are what caused the End Permian mass extinction event 250 million years ago - a mass extinction that I wrote about recently, here. Many scientists do believe that atmospheric changes and ocean anoxia (de-oxygenization) were to blame for that extinction - but even Gregory Ryskin, the scientist whose highly speculative work is cited in the article, doesn't try to claim this as the sole cause, nor does he believe that one bubble of methane could bring down the biosphere instantly. The End Permian extinction took millennia to happen.
So the BP oil spill isn't going to end the world - it's just going to kill a lot of ocean life. And already-existing methane seeps may be doing slow, deadly damage to our climate. All this makes it even more obvious that we need to invest in alternate forms of energy. But who wants to hear difficult, complicated pieces of information, when we could just be screaming about doomsday? ...
As a forceful reminder of the potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in the Gulf, according to government data.
There's ample reason for worry about all permanently and temporarily abandoned wells -- history shows that at least on land, they often leak. Wells are sealed underwater much as they are on land. And wells on land and in water face similar risk of failure. Plus, records reviewed by the AP show that some offshore wells have failed.
Experts say such wells can repressurize, much like a dormant volcano can awaken. And years of exposure to sea water and underground pressure can cause cementing and piping to corrode and weaken.
"You can have changing geological conditions where a well could be repressurized," said Andy Radford, a petroleum engineer for the American Petroleum Institute trade group.
Whether a well is permanently or temporarily abandoned, improperly applied or aging cement can crack or shrink, independent petroleum engineers say. "It ages, just like it does on buildings and highways," said Roger Anderson, a Columbia University petroleum geophysicist who has conducted research on commercial wells.
Despite the likelihood of leaks large and small, though, abandoned wells are typically not inspected by industry or government.
Last year, the TTC began screening potential contractors to set up
cell service across the system. But lack of resources and other
priorities forced it to whittle the project down to just the platforms
for now, according to a staff report. The list of possible proponents is
down to three: Bell Mobility, Extenet Systems, which is partnering with
Telus, and Broadcast Australia, which is partnering with Rogers.
With the TTC now providing next vehicle information updates via text
messaging, staff urged the commission to move ahead with the cell
network. A staff report to the commission says that the winning bid will
pay for all costs, including installation work done by TTC workers.
“Lyme disease exists anywhere songbirds fly,” says Jim Wilson of the
CLF, noting that ticks attach to migrating birds and fall off when the
birds alight. In Canada, ticks that most commonly spread Lyme are the
blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer
tick) and the western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus).
In Ontario, ticks are most likely found in Long Point, Point Pelee
National Park, Rondeau Provincial Park, Turkey Point, Prince Edward
Point National Wildlife Area and in the Thousand Island region of
eastern Ontario, according to the PHAC. “However, we are starting to see
them in urban areas,” says Dr. Robbin Lindsay. Ticks are also found in
southern Quebec, according to a 2010 study in Environmental Health
Perspectives, an area previously not thought to be a concern. They
are also in parts of the Maritimes, southeast Manitoba and in B.C.,
especially in the lower mainland, Vancouver Island and the Fraser
Valley. “There were 69 confirmed cases in Ontario in 2007, 108 in 2008
and 79 in 2009,” says Dr. David Williams, the associate chief medical
officer of health for the Ontario Ministry of Health.
In the U.S., where the Center for Disease Control estimates there
are about 29,000 confirmed Lyme cases and about 7,000 unconfirmed ones,
the ticks are most common in the northeastern and Midwestern states and
northeastern California. Internationally, it has been found on all
continents except Antarctica.
“It is an emerging disease and is on the move,” says Lindsay. But
it’s not an epidemic in the sense that Canadians are at great risk of
being infected.
“You have a greater chance of being killed by a car on your way to
cottage country than of getting Lyme disease there,” says Mount Sinai’s
Dr. McGeer, director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital in
Toronto.
Prevention and detection
The best way to avoid being bitten by a tick is to wear shoes and
long, light-coloured pants in any grassy areas. Tuck the bottoms of the
pants into socks or footwear. Spray uncovered skin with a citronella- or
DEET-based repellent. Don’t apply it to the hands or face of children
and not at all to young infants.
Ticks are also believed to dislike pine scents, bamboo, eucalyptus,
and tea tree oil.
Since covering children at the cottage or while camping is likely
not an option, daily tick detection is recommended for both children and
adults. Ticks especially like the groin area, the head and behind the
ears.
Look for a rash on the body, especially one that resembles a
bull’s-eye. It occurs in about 80 per cent of those bitten by an
infected tick.
“Check every nook and cranny of their body [and] their hair as if
you’re looking for head lice,” says Dr. Maureen McShane, a Montreal
resident who has a Lyme practice in Plattsburgh, N.Y. She was bitten by a
tick eight years ago. Before being treated with antibiotics (after a
long period of misdiagnoses) she compared the pain in her bones and
muscles to having been shot.
If you find a tick, you can try to remove it with tweezers,
grabbing the tick’s body as close to the person’s skin as possible. Pull
upwards slowly. This can be tricky. If you squeeze or twist the wrong
way it can increase the possibility the tick will disgorge bacterium
into the victim.
If possible, go to an emergency department and have a medical
professional remove the tick. This also makes it easier to have the tick
sent out for analysis.
Not all ticks carry the spirochete, so unless the bitten
person becomes ill or develops a rash, chances are the tick wasn’t
infected.
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