Monthly Archives: February 2006

Ever come home from work and plain needed a good stiff drink? It seems a fairly common sentiment, but according to new research, the notion that alcohol can curb stress may be an axiom. Of course, alcohol itself might not be the notorious intoxicant that we think it is. It could all be a ruse created by advertising gone awry.

Stress is a powerful foe. It makes the body release catecholamine hormones, epinephrine and norepinephrine, and glucocorticoid hormones, cortisol and cortisone— I don’t know what they all mean, but they sound nasty. “Stress” is generally just a catch-all for such things as anxiety, antagonism, tiredness, frustration, distress, overwork, premenstrual tension, over-focusing, confusion, or mourning, and perhaps a strong drink could help with some of these stressors, but not likely. Where one would hope that a shot would help relieve over-focusing, for example, odds are that it will not. Instead of alcohol taking the edge off of stress, it turns out that stress will instead diminish the effects of alcohol.

But the effects of alcohol aren’t as profound as you think they are anyhow …

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Do you speak Votian?

Votian is the language spoken by the Votes. Votes are the people of Ingria, an area of Russia just Southwest of St. Petersburg close to the Estonian border.

The Votian language is also practically extinct with 50 speakers at most. There are no children currently speaking Votian. Experts generally consider a community’s language to be “endangered” when at least 30 per cent of its children no longer learn it.

Imminent extinction is also on the horizon for the Livonian, Krimchak and Yevanic languages. Norn and Polabian have already disappeared. In fact 50 to 90 percent of the world’s languages are predicted to disappear in the next century, many with little or no documentation. The UN says that least 3,000 tongues are endangered, seriously endangered, or dying in many parts of the world.

That’s where the Rosetta Project comes in.

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In regards to nuclear weaponry, a kiloton is equivalent to the explosive destructive power 1,000 metric tons of TNT. Most tactical nuclear weapons in operational deployment today have yields measured in tens or hundreds of kilotons, which tends to make them overkill for any kind of tactical use.

Consider, for example, the fact that Hiroshima was leveled by a 13 kiloton weapon, resulting in an estimated 80,000 deaths. By comparison, the modern W80 nuclear warhead– one of the most common in U.S. active deployment– has a maximum yield of about 150 kilotons. This weapon is so powerful that it can completely wipe out a typical medium-sized city, but at the flick of a switch, the warhead’s potency can be reduced to as little as five kilotons. This handy feature is called Dial-a-Yield, and it allows nuclear stockpiles to take advantage of the one-size-fits-all approach.

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If you talk to employees at one of the US Governments nuclear facilities long enough, you’re likely to hear a lot of interesting stories about the early days of dealing with nuclear materials. One, apparently originating in Oak Ridge, TN, involves an underground tank and a tree.

Apparently during a regular check of the site some radioactive contamination was found in the ground near one of the storage tanks. The area was promptly cleaned up, the soil carted away and replaced, but the people assigned to figure out how the ground became contaminated in the first place were stumped. They found no leaks, no spills, nothing that could have caused the radioactive material to escape. They checked over the spot for several months to see if the contamination recurred, which it did not, then finally shrugged and called it a mystery.

But a year later the contamination was back.

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Animals have often been used in battle throughout history, mostly as a means of transportation. But what happens when you use them as transportation for bombs? Though good for giving members of the SPCA apoplectic fits, the benefits of animals used in the military have an interesting history. What follows are two rather unique uses for animals during World War II.

Pigeons as Bomb Guidance Systems
During World War II, the U.S. air force developed a new type of bomb – a glide bomb. Instead of falling straight on a target, it would instead float at an angle towards its target, guided by a variety of tools (such as infrared, radar, or flare targets). Burrhus Frederic Skinner, a well-known behaviorist, thought of a brilliant new way to guide these missiles during World War II using pigeons. He’d already trained them to dance, do figure eights, or play tennis – why not guide bombs?

Starting in 1942, PROJECT PIGEON aimed to get specially trained birds to guide a bomb within six meters of its target. It worked thus: First, three pigeons would be informed of a glide bomb, each compartment containing a little lens to view its target. Via classical conditioning, the pigeons would peck the center of the screen if it saw the target – otherwise, it would peck towards the target. Successful pecking would be rewarded with grains of seed. (It turned out that if fed marijuana instead of normal grain, the pigeons would be less easily disturbed from their task). If two of the three pigeons “agreed” to re-aim the bomb, the bomb would change direction. Then, of course, the bomb would explode…

So, was Skinner able to train his pigeons to pull off one more feat?

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