When you enter the military your first health exam in basic training involves getting shots in both arms of all available vaccines for Americans. If you are going to deploy overseas, you get all available vaccines for your destination country. If you are Air Force Combat Air Crew with world-wide status you get all available vaccines in the world. I was on world-wide status as a Combat Air Crew member. There is no option to refuse, the vaccines are not a suggestion, they are an order and refusing is insubordination and a quick dishonorable discharge. If you are allergic to a vaccine, you will either lose your job and get some menial job until you are discharged ‘for the good of the service’ or possibly receive a medical discharge and pitiful pension.

On the night of September 9th this year’s winners of Ig® Nobel Prizes were announced:

BIOLOGY PRIZE [SWEDEN]:
Susanne Schötz for analyzing variations in purring, chirping, chattering, trilling, tweedling, murmuring, meowing, moaning, squeaking, hissing, yowling, howling, growling, and other modes of cat–human communication.
WHO TOOK PART IN THE CEREMONY: Susanne Schötz

ECOLOGY PRIZE [SPAIN. IRAN]:
Leila Satari, Alba Guillén, Àngela Vidal-Verdú, and Manuel Porcar, for using genetic analysis to identify the different species of bacteria that reside in wads of discarded chewing gum stuck on pavements in various countries.
WHO TOOK PART IN THE CEREMONY: Leila Satari, Alba Guillén, Àngela Vidal-Verdú, Manuel Porcar

CHEMISTRY PRIZE [GERMANY, UK, NEW ZEALAND, GREECE, CYPRUS, AUSTRIA]:
Jörg Wicker, Nicolas Krauter, Bettina Derstroff, Christof Stönner, Efstratios Bourtsoukidis, Achim Edtbauer, Jochen Wulf, Thomas Klüpfel, Stefan Kramer, and Jonathan Williams, for chemically analyzing the air inside movie theaters, to test whether the odors produced by an audience reliably indicate the levels of violence, sex, antisocial behavior, drug use, and bad language in the movie the audience is watching.
WHO TOOK PART IN THE CEREMONY: Jörg Wicker, Nicolas Krauter, Bettina Derstroff, Christof Stönner, Efstratios Bourtsoukidis, Achim Edtbauer, Jochen Wulf, Thomas Klüpfel, Stefan Kramer, Jonathan Williams
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I wrote too soon about oil spills caused by Ida. As the pictures of the oil-covered wildlife start to appear and the requests for old towels and Dawn ratchet up I read that the U.S. Coast Guard is investigating nearly 350 reported oil spills after Hurricane Ida:

The U.S. Coast Guard said it’s investigating reports of nearly 350 oil spill incidents in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. The Category 4 storm, which hit Louisiana last month, shut down nearly 95% of the region’s crude oil and gas production.

“Coast Guard crews from across the nation…have deployed throughout Southeastern Louisiana to conduct hazard assessments in order to identify and prioritize threats to the environment and navigable waterways,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. “These assessments are essential to ensuring waterways are safe for marine traffic and ensuring that potential pollution hazards are expeditiously identified and mitigated.”

The volunteers are jumping into boats and scouring the area to pick up critters covered in crude to take back to wildlife rehab centers in hopes that some can be saved.

Position: 46.8N 54.9W [10:00PM CDT 0300UTC].
Movement: North-Northeast [030°] near 47 mph [76 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 80 mph [130 kph].
Wind Gusts: 100 mph [160 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 255 miles [405 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 105 miles [165 km].
Minimum central pressure: 958 mb.

Currently about 85 miles [ 135 km] West of Cape Race, Newfoundland.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect from Arnold’s Cove to Jones Harbour, Newfoundland.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from Francois to west of Arnold’s Cove, and from north of Jones Harbour to Fogo Island, Newfoundland.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]