Monthly Archives: September 2005

A few years ago, researchers at NASA fried up several chunks of vat-grown fish meat in a little olive oil, garlic, lemon and pepper, and remarked on it’s striking to similarity to real fish (without going so far as tasting it). These scientists had successfully coaxed a few small chunks of fish muscle to grow inside a vat of nutrient-rich liquid, marking a scientific first.

Their aim was to develop a means for astronauts to produce edible meat for use on long voyages, such as a trip to Mars. Vat-grown meat offers a good source of protein, and would be a welcome change from the usual freeze-dried fare. But it isn’t very appetizing, particularly considering that meat developed in this way is essentially a cultured muscle tumor.

More recent efforts at the University of Maryland have led to some new methods which may prove useful on the road to Meatville, with the intent to bring “in vitro” meat to the masses. And they think they may be able to improve on nature’s recipe while they’re at it.

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Most of the internet savvy, it seems, are somewhat lacking in knowledge relating to the interesting topic of “bizarre domesticated animals that people breed for fun.” To help reduce this unfortunate trend, I introduce the fainting goat.

The small, domesticated goat carries the hereditary genetic disorder called myotonia congenita which causes the legs of this little critter to, when startled or excited, go rigidly stiff for about ten seconds.

As far as I can tell, most people breed these varmints mostly to snap open umbrellas at them, and watch as they scatter like bowling pins. In the past however, fainting goats were bred for circuses and menageries as food; the fainting goat would be placed in an enclosed location with an animal that needed to hunt, such as a lion. The chase didn’t last long once the goat was startled by the giant cat bearing down on it. The lion got to hunt, the animal’s keepers didn’t have to let it out of its cage–everybody wins. Except the goat.

The best part: The Video

September 26th, 1983 doesn’t stick out in the annals of history as a day to remember. It wasn’t the day of a great discovery. It wasn’t the beginning of a new era in science or art. For many years, the only thing of note that happened on this day was that the Australians beat the Americans in the Americas Cup. In reality, it became the day that the world was literally saved by the enemy.

1983 found the world in the middle of the Cold War. The Communist Soviets and the Capitalist Americans looked over the oceans at each other with propagandically driven distrust, fear, and hate. It was the beginning of the age of spy satellites, nuclear rockets and itchy trigger fingers. The world was still reeling from the aftermath of Korean Air Flight 007.

On Sept 1st of that year, the Soviets had shot down a straying Korean Air flight, killing all 269 passengers aboard, including a US Senator. The flight had strayed into an area usually targeted by US spy planes but hadn’t turned back as the spy flight usually did. The Soviets, thinking of this as a provocation, scrambled their jets and blew it out of the sky 55 km out to sea. The world was shocked. The US called it a “massacre”, an “act of barbarism”, and a “crime against humanity”. Political ties were strained to breaking and the Russian state airline Aeroflot was driven out of the United States. In a scene that could have been taken from “Crimson Tide”, “War Games”, or “Dr. StrangeLove”, unfolded one of the most frightening moments in history.

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On October 17, 1814, over 100 years before the Boston Molasses Flood, a very unfortunate beer-related incident occurred in London. A huge vat which held over 135,000 gallons of fermenting beer succumbed to the wounds of age, and let its bounty loose with explosive force. The impact caused several other vats in the same building to rupture, and almost instantly the combined 323,000+ gallons of ale crashed through the brick structure and poured into the London parish of St. Giles, a slum area.

The impact of this massive wave of beer was disastrous. Men and women were caught in the wave, tossed against walls and buried in debris. The beer completely destroyed two homes, and flooded many others. A wall at a nearby pub crumbled under the force, burying a barmaid there for several hours. Nine people were killed by the drink that day, all but one due to drowning. The ninth died of alcohol poisoning. Most of the victims were poor individuals who either lost their lives, or everything they owned.

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Ask any astronomer if she’d like a perfectly parabolic six-meter-diameter mirror at one-fiftieth the price, and she’ll be unable to answer for all the drooling. Yet, according to the journal Science, the folks at the Alberta Canada Large Zenith Telescope (LZT) have accomplished exactly that. The secret? The mirror is 30 liters of rotating mercury.

When the heavy liquid metal is rotated, the “centrifugal” (inertial) forces combine with gravity to form the liquid into a near-mathematically-perfect paraboliod. This shape is ideal for collecting the faint light from astronomical objects and focusing it into an image. The larger the mirror, the more light gathered, and the clearer pictures you get (within certain constraints).

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