Posts from — March 2011

3/14 is Albert’s birthday and

Π Day.

I assume you have all shopped for the perfect gift.

To get you started: Π ≅ 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419
716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211 70679…..

New tsunami alert for Japan, explosion at reactor site

A three-metre tsunami has reportedly been spotted by a helicopter off the Pacific coast of north-eastern Japan, local media is reporting.

A five-metre change in sea level has been reported off the coast and the tsunami is expected to hit land within minutes.

Residents have been told to evacuate to higher ground.

At the same time, there are reports of sounds of a fresh explosion and smoke billowing from one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plants.

The second reactor may have had a hydrogen explosion, like the first. They don’t seem to be able to cool the reactor, even with the sea water.

Update: The BBC confirms it was reactor 3 which was viewed as the second problem reactor at the complex, and the probable cause was hydrogen build up.

The tsunami is probably the result of an aftershock.

Update: If you look at the listing of the individual events on the USGS map for the last week, you will see over 400 ‘quakes. This cycle started with a 7.2 on 2011/03/09 at 02:45:20 UTC and ends with a 5.1 on 2011/03/14 at 01:57:54. There are more than 30 ‘quakes in the 6.0 to 6.9 range, and a 7.1 on 2011/03/11 at 06:25:50, 40 minutes after the 8.9. While the trend has been to less powerful shocks, looking at the list you can see occurrences of multiple 6+ shocks hitting in quick succession at random intervals.

One of the things that has always bothered me personally about earthquakes is that it is the one of the few threats that you cannot hide from. In almost every other case, you can “crawl into a cave”, but you don’t want to do that in an earthquake.

Do you need an antiseptic, acne medicine, a safe insecticide, something for rotting wood, an efficient lubricant? How about stopping a runaway nuclear reactor?

It’s time to go by your local drug store and pick up some H₃BO₃ [it will say boric acid on the jar of white crystals]. Leave it in the original container, because it looks a lot like sugar and salt.

Yes, boric acid does all that, and more. It is cheap and effective, and is the active ingredient in a lot of expensive products that add nothing more than fillers and fancy packaging.

The Japanese are pumping sea water and boric acid into at least two of the reactors to reduce the level of meltdown. They have already written the reactors off when they decided to use sea water for cooling, so things are worse than they have been telling people. No doubt the public statements were designed to “reduce the panic” that would be caused by the truth – a common government/industry excuse for lying.

John Baker starts his day still in the lead and with $2,500 in gold nuggets for the Gold Coast Award given to the first team to the Norton Sound.

Ramey seems to have a faster short distance team, but they take longer to recover, so his chance to win is dependent on luck as much as strategy.

DeeDee keeps getting mugged by the trail. She got bounced and rolled on the Steps, and then she found a hole in the ice entering the Yukon and was thoroughly soaked. The cold doesn’t make the bruises feel any better, and once you get wet, you need a complete immersion in a hot tub for about a week to get warm again. She’s hanging in there at 7th.

Ramey cut John’s lead to 41 minutes, but he did it by not resting his team. He might catch up, but I’m not sure that he can stay up with John’s team. It is 58 miles to Koyuk.

At Shaktoolik

1 John Baker (53)
2 Ramey Smyth (30) +0:41
3 Hans Gatt (23) +0:45

Beyond Unalakleet

4 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
5 Hugh Neff (35)
6 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
7 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)

At Unalakleet

8 Sonny Lindner (52)
9 Dallas Seavey (21)
10 Jessie Royer (58)
11 Lance Mackey (17) [Read more →]

You may have noticed problems getting to Pharyngula and other ScienceBlogs.com sites as they have been under a DDOS [distributed denial of service] attack for over a day.

It may take a while for the techs to sort out the problem.

Don’t forget to “Spring Ahead” as they steal an hour from your life by eliminating 2AM Sunday morning.

This really screws up the time keeping on the Iditarod, and makes the cats less than happy.

So shall ye reap.

CBS reports that AZ man who brought pitchfork to meeting acquitted

The Daily Miner reports Mervin Fried tried to bring the farm tool into the Feb. 16, 2010, meeting.

Mohave County Manager Ron Walker told Fried to leave his pitchfork outside. Fried was arrested when he refused and tried to enter the building anyway.
…

The judge said officials did have the authority to restrict access to the building. But because members of the public with holstered handguns are allowed inside, denying access to the defendant because he had a “holstered” pitchfork was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.

Hmmm … Isn’t “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable” pretty much the definition of elected officials in Arizona? There was no ruling on the status of torches.

From the CBC: Japanese town has 9,500 missing after twin disasters

The death toll in northeast Japan after a powerful earthquake and tsunami could rise dramatically, with news that about 9,500 people are unaccounted for in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture.

The Kyodo news agency reported that number Saturday, citing local officials, and said it represents more than half of the community’s population.
…

The official death toll more than 24 hours after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami stood at 586. About 215,000 people have gone to emergency shelters.

The quake struck 125 kilometres off Japan’s northeast coast. A majority of the victims drowned in the giant tsunami waves created by the powerful tremor, which swept 10 kilometres inland. Thousands of buildings and cars were washed away, along with four passengers trains.
…

Officials said the initial quake was the most powerful one to hit the region in 1,200 years. The USGS says the force of the quake was so strong that Honshu — Japan’s biggest island — was moved 2.5 metres to the east.

I think that most people know that the final death toll will be in the thousands just from the pictures of the devastation and the population density of Japan. The idea that an island the size of Honshu has shifted about 8 feet is mind boggling, since it occurred in seconds.

UPDATE: There are definitely two, and possibly three reactors that have lost cooling. They are pumping in sea water and boron to cool these suckers, but the pressure keeps building.

The BBC reports a Huge blast at Japan nuclear power plant

A huge explosion has rocked a Japanese nuclear power plant damaged by Friday’s devastating earthquake.

A pall of smoke was seen coming from the plant at Fukushima. Four workers were injured.

Japanese officials say the container housing the reactor was not damaged and that radiation levels have now fallen.

A huge relief operation is under way after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which are thought to have killed at least 1,000 people.
… [Read more →]

They are watching for effects of the tsunami in the Norton Sound, but the Aleutians probably disrupted it and minimized any effect on the coast of the Bering Sea. White Mountain is the only checkpoint after Kaltag that isn’t on the coast, and, as a result of climate change, the villages are closer to the water than ever before.

It is hard to know where James Bardoner (57) is. He finished his mandatory 24-hour stop at McGrath early this morning, but they are still showing him there. The people who input the standings have a habit of not updating the back of the pack. [Update: they finally noticed he left.]

Update: Judy Currier (29) has scratched at Anvik. She has only had to drop three dogs, but they were her three leaders. The remaining puppies would have probably been happy to pull for a few hundred more miles, but they wouldn’t necessarily end up in Nome.

Update: Newton Marshall (6) and the Jamaican Dog Sled team have scratched at Anvik. He waited out the 8-hour mandatory to see if the puppies would perk up, but they didn’t want to play.

Note: John Baker is not “officially” in Kaltag, but when everyone in the Alaska media is reporting on his arrival, I thought I would risk it.

Beyond Kaltag

1 John Baker (53)

At Kaltag

2 Ramey Smyth (30)
3 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
4 Hugh Neff (35)
5 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
6 Sonny Lindner (52)
7 DeeDee Jonrowe (2)
8 Jessie Royer (58) [Read more →]

The BBC reports that a Tsunami hits Japan after massive quake

The most powerful earthquake to hit Japan since records began has struck the country’s north-east and triggered a devastating tsunami.

Japanese TV showed cars, ships and buildings swept away by a vast wall of water after the 8.9-magnitude quake.

A state of emergency has been declared at a nuclear power plant but officials said there were no radiation leaks.

At least 60 people have been killed by the quake, which struck about 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.

The death toll is expected to rise significantly.

Some reports quote Japanese police as saying 200 to 300 bodies have been found in the port city of Sendai.

There is a passenger train that ran along the coast missing, so the death toll will definitely be higher. Shemya in the Aleutians and Hawaii have already detected the Tsunami, which registered at better than 5 feet at Midway.

I can’t even imagine the force of an 8.9 earthquake. They are having aftershocks above 7.

The ABC has a graphic on Earthquake comparisons. This one fits between Chile and Sumatra. It is at the convergence of the North American, Eurasian, Pacific, and Filipino plates.

Time to ask “What’s for lunch?” because the first team into Anvik wins the First Musher to the Yukon Award – a seven-course meal and $5,000 for dessert. Everyone gets to enjoy running into the wind coming down the Yukon River valley until they reach Kaltag. Teams have to take an 8-hour rest somewhere along the Yukon.

Update: Hugh is eating well.

Beyond Grayling

1 Hugh Neff (35)
2 John Baker (53)
3 Lance Mackey (17)
4 Ray Redington, Jr (3)
5 Sonny Lindner (52)
6 Jessie Royer (58)
7 Sebastian Schnuelle (31)
8 Sven Haltmann (45)
9 Ramey Smyth (30)
10 Hans Gatt (23) [Read more →]

March 11^th, 2004, Madrid

Nuestros profundos condolencias en vuestra perdida.

Todos somos Madrileños.

M-11

BBC In Depth

Fight or Flight

What are you up to?

[Editor: I saw Tip catching some rays on the pump house and pulled out the camera. Her reaction was very strange. She is a “friendly” feral, and yet she went into a crouch and was ready to flee. I have taken a number of pictures of her before, but she has never reacted like this.]

Friday Ark