Robo-Bees. Pollination. Wuuut?

I about fell out of my chair when I read this little blurb from Scientific American about Robo-Bees could aid insects with pollination duties. I guess I forgot how advanced drones really are now. I was first reminded at the super bowl this year when 300 of them were in perfect formation for the halftime show. Amazing.

While I think this is a very innovative solution to this problem, two things come to mind:

• Drones can literally become the flies on the walls. Pretty creepy. Pollination today, super spy technology tomorrow.
• Why don't we figure out how to save the bees, too? We're innovative enough to do that, as well.

Natural Disasters: Fires

The Santa Ana winds are assisting blazes in the destruction of homes in Los Angeles County (read AP story HERE). Back in May, I started a post about wildfires and the latest fire news coming out of Southern California made this a good time to revisit these hot natural disaster.

The first thing I wanted to look at was the Santa Ana winds. Those are dry drainage winds that develop from high air pressure in higher altitudes. In this case it's the area of the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. When upper level winds are favorable, these built up air masses spill out of the Great Basin and zip toward the southern California coastline. A lot of times the reason that the winds are dry is due to their descent from the higher desert elevations to the lower coastline elevations, not because they're coming from the desert per se.

These dry winds plus the cause of the fire (arson, lightening, etc.) are what essentially plagues the Los Angeles region on an annual basis. I found a couple of interesting resources.

• First, there's this active fire map PDF of California that you can check out. Be patient because it takes a while to load. This is a neat map because although it shows you the current fires, it also shows you areas where fires have burned in the past. I thought that was telling. Before seeing this map I never realized quite how many fires burn in northern California, too.
• There's also an active fires map from the Forest Service's Remote Sensing Applications Center. This is cool because it gives you updates on how big the fire is, how many acres it has destroyed and what percentage of it has been contained. It's updated every Friday.
• For the absolute latest news on wildfires all over the United States, check out the National Interagency Fire Center. They have the latest news, maps and images on wildfires all over the nation.
• Finally, there's a whole boatload of resources from ye ol' Resource Shelf. Looks like a lot of the stuff was from last years wildfire debacle.

Be safe out there!

West Nile Virus

Although autumn has descended upon the U.S., particularly the Midwest, I still heard about West Nile Virus. Thankfully, the number of cases have decreased because mosquitoes and their larvae couldn't outlive the long winter. I guess that's one really good reason to hope for a long winter.

Anyway, I was mentioning this to my boyfriend and he asked what West Nile Virus did to humans and whether it a serious threat. I looked it up and found that although it is tearing through bird populations, it is not really a human detriment.

According to an article about the virus in Clinical Reference Systems:

• It's seasonal, with peak times in Aug.-Sept.
• Most people that get it recover fairly quickly and only 1% of cases are serious.
• People over 70 are most likely to develop a serious case of the virus due to their weakened immunity systems.
• Symptoms of infection may include: fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, skin rash, swollen lymph glands.

If you're a bird, that's another story.

Natural Disasters: Tsunamis

Tsunamis (or 'Earthquakes' continued)

In December 2004, I was in Houston visiting with family. We were all gathered around the television after dinner and watching the breaking news coming out of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and surrounding places in the Indian Ocean. I remember being horrified at the site of the tsunami footage, but really didn't grasp the extent of the damage and devastation until we returned home after the holidays. The additional footage and developments were worse than anyone could have expected. In the end, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami took over 225,000 lives.

Definition

"A tsunami is an unusually large sea wave produced by an underwater earthquake, a landslide, or volcanic activity...Tsunamis are set in motion by the sudden shifting of the seafloor (a vertical or sliding movement), which in turn raises or lowers the water on the ocean surface above. Gravity immediately acts to level the surface water, setting up a wave that travels outwardly as an expanding circle in all directions. [The waves] can be 20 to 70 feet (6 to 21 meters) high, their lengths can be measured in hundreds of miles, and their speeds can reach 500 miles per hour (800 km per hour). Because they are similar to swells, they are not usually noticeable on the open sea and ships cross them unaware. On arrival at the shore, however, their effects can be devastating."

Source: Langbein, Walter B. "Tsunami." Encyclopedia Americana. 2008.

Check out this USGS Publication entitled, "Surviving a Tsunami—Lessons from Chile, Hawaii, and Japan." Lots of interesting information, maps and images.

Tsunamis in History

• Santorini, 1650-1600 B.C.
  Eruptions on the volcanic Greek island of Santorini caused a tsunami that, according to archaeologists, destroyed Minoan civilization on the island of Crete.
• Awa, Japan, 1703
  An earthquake caused a tsunami that killed more than 100,000 people.
• Lisbon, Portugal, November 1, 1755
  An earthquake caused a tsunami and subsequent fires that killed about 90,000 of Lisbon�s 275,000 people and destroyed much of the city.
• Krakatoa, Indonesia, August 27, 1883
  The volcanic island of Krakatoa erupted, causing land and seabed around it to collapse and generating a tsunami felt from the West Coast of the U.S. to the English Channel.
• Aleutian Islands, Alaska, April 1, 1946
  An earthquake caused a tsunami that killed 165 people in Hawaii and Alaska and spurred creation of the Pacific Tsunami Warning System.
• South Central Chilean Coast, May 22, 1960
  An estimated 490 to 2,290 people were killed by the largest recorded earthquake ever, and a subsequent tsunami that spread across the Pacific Ocean as far as Japan.
• Prince William Sound, Alaska, March 27, 1964
  The "Good Friday Earthquake" sent a tsunami that hit the Canadian province of British Columbia and the Pacific coast of the U.S., killing 122 people.
• Indian Ocean, 2004
  An earthquake off the coast of Indonesia�s Sumatra island caused the deadliest tsunami in history. It hit at least 13 countries and had killed an estimated 140,000 people as of December 31, 2004.

Source: "Accidents and Disasters: Major Tsunamis." Facts On File World News Digest 31 Dec. 2004. Facts On File World News Digest. Facts On File News Services. 28 May2008 http://www.2facts.com/.

I looked Facts on File World News Digest and found that following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, there was a mixed bag of events. Some were improvements, like the creation of a global warning system or that the Paris Club of 19 creditor nations to temporarily freeze debt payments due from some countries. It does make me wonder exactly how "temporarily" those freezes were and what kind of fees and penalties might have been accrued to those countries.

Then some pretty terrible things happened. The tsunami had left about 1,000 Sri Lankan children orphaned and those children were recruited to be child soldiers for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which the U.S., Britain and India list as a terrorist organization.

There were major agricultural losses reported. U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization senior officer Daniel Renault had said there was evidence that about 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of rice-paddy fields in Indonesia and 800 hectares of farmland in Thailand had been ruined by the tsunami. In Sri Lanka wetlands were contaminated by salt water, leaking fuel and other pollution from debris. Agricultural ecosystems in the region would never be the same again.

Finally, I was saddened, though not very surprised when I read that "because the areas hit by the earthquake and tsunami were relatively undeveloped economically, with no important industrial centers or ports destroyed, the financial cost of the disaster was expected to be relatively small given the enormity of the humanitarian catastrophe it represented.
Because the vast majority of victims of the tsunami were poor and uninsured, the cost to insurers was expected to be low compared with the $27 billion cost associated with summer hurricanes that hit the southeastern U.S. and destroyed many insured homes and businesses." The same article mentioned that the local economic burdens would be tremendous, but it just seems so ludicrous that monetarily speaking this natural disaster was considered fairly "cheap" even though the cost of human life was so high.

Natural Disasters: Earthquakes

The earth has been acting quite violently lately: earthquakes in China, Iran and the Midwest, volcano in Chile, cyclone in Myanmar and other stuff. My question: is the earth behaving normally or are these disasters coming more and more frequently? In the next few weeks, I'll be researching some common natural disasters to see if there's been a spike in activity or if it's just Mother Nature's regular routine of doom.

Earthquakes:

Are there more now than before?
As far as earthquakes go, it seems that there is a steady increase of quakes each year since 2000 (see TABLES.) There's a few good TABLES and GRAPHS at USGS' website, plus a boatload of information on quakes. I have a very strong sense that a lot of the information is skewed. I base this on the fact that earthquake detection methods and technology is improved and captures more events. Another reason that the numbers are skewed: humans' incessant breeding. Then, when we're done breeding, we go find a crowded, condensed city to live in. When Mother Nature gets the taste for blood, she's got some easy, centralized targets to work with.

Can we predict them yet?
Although the obvious answer is no, I wanted to know if there's any way to predict earthquakes or if we're getting closer to something like that. NPR has good material at "Seismologist Says Aftershocks Impossible to Predict."

I found that there was a 2005 article in Wired talking about new technologies that don't claim to predict earthquakes used by themselves, but they are certainly a step in the right direction. One of the new techniques actually predicted that something was brewing 4 months before the huge 2004 tsunami. Check out the whole article at "Quake Prediction Gets Shake-Up."

Then I found this Reuters article called "Japanese gadget can predict tremors before they hit." This was published in June 2007 and my first thought was: "You didn't think it'd be a good idea to share this with the rest of the world?" The device is said to not be completely accurate, but it does give a 20-second warning.

Can animals predict earthquakes?
Twenty seconds could be enough to get you moving toward safety, but do you really need a gadget? How about a pet? Or a panda? The idea that animals can predict earthquakes is not founded in science, but rather passed along over centuries through anecdotes.

Panda Video from National Geographic: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080515-tourists-video-ap.html

What's the current situation in China?
In a word: bad. There are dams, both natural and man-made that are giving way. Look at this satellite photograph of how the earthquake has caused a lake to form. And as if it couldn't get any worse, in the Anhui provice to the east about 24,000 people are infected with this child virus. The virus hasn't done nearly the damage that the quake has, but it just seems like when it rains it pours in China right now.

Here's additional quake facts from the Chinese Information office:

• The death toll has climbed over 68,000 people.
• Another 364,552 people were injured and 19,851 others were still listed as missing following the 8.0-magnitude quake that hit Sichuan Province.
• A total of 243 aftershocks were monitored in the quake zones during the 24 hours ended at Wednesday noon, according to the China Seismological Bureau.
• By Wednesday noon, 8,911 aftershocks had been detected in the quake-hit areas since May 12, according to the bureau.
• These aren't little tremors. They have ranged on the seismic scale from 3-6 points.

Here's a list of the worst 10 known earthquakes (issue date wasDecember 31, 2004, so 2004 numbers are not latest):

1. Shanxi, China, January 23, 1556: magnitude 8 (estimated); 830,000 deaths
2. Tangshan, China, July 27, 1976: magnitude 7.5; 255,000 deaths (official toll; actual deaths estimated up to 655,000)
3. Aleppo, Syria; August 9, 1138: 230,000 deaths
4. Near Xining, China, May 22, 1927: magnitude 7.9, 200,000 deaths
5. Damghan, Iran, December 22, 856: 200,000 deaths
6. Gansu, China, December 16, 1920: magnitude 8.6; 200,000 deaths
7. Ardabil, Iran, March 23, 893: 150,000 deaths
8. Kanto, Japan, September 1, 1923: magnitude 7.9; 143,000 deaths
9. Off coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, December 26, 2004: magnitude 9.0; at least 140,000 deaths
10. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, October 5, 1948: magnitude 7.3; 110,000 deaths

Source: "Accidents and Disasters: Ten Deadliest Earthquakes." Facts On File World News Digest 31 Dec. 2004. Facts On File World News Digest. Facts On File News Services. 28 May2008 http://www.2facts.com.

Map Quest

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than a map is worth a million. As I date a GIS guy, I have developed a deeper interest in maps and the information they provide. Over the past few weeks, I've been coming across all types. I've decided that for this blog, I will answer two questions for each: "What does it make me feel?" and "What does it teach me?"

Wildlife disease - http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov/wdinNewsDigestMap.jsp
This first map initially made me feel that Google is the greatest thing ever. Their maps are interactive, fun to use, spectacular and getting better all the time. This particular map is interesting because it maps stories and articles from the blog http://wdin.blogspot.com/. This map, however, has much more potential. I'd like to see more international wildlife disease news; most of the stories on this particular map are in the United States. This is a great start, nonetheless, and I look forward to seeing more maps like this. I learned that Bovine tuberculosis was discovered in a 5-year-old cow in Canada and that there's some kind of fish disease killing off carp in Ontario.

Refugee and Asylum Seekers Worldwide -http://www.resourceshelf.com/2008/05/02/maps-world-refugees-and-asylum-seekers-at-the-end-of-2007-other-maps/
The first place your eye wanders when you look at this map is the Middle East, clearly the region with the highest refugee count. Another interesting point on the map is that the United States has over a million refugees and about 30,000 people seeking asylum. I'm not sure why, but I was surprised to see that. I suppose the way that this map made me feel was upset. It's horrifying to see how many people around the world have left their home country.

Displaced People - http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullMaps_Wd.nsf/luFullMap/046DE177A97D9399C125743B0045F6D4/$File/lemonde_IDP_080430a.pdf?OpenElement
This map looks similar to the refugees and asylum seekers one posted above. It made me shake my head. First, you can see that the largest amount of people displaced within their own country are in those countries where there is civil unrest - Columbia and Sudan. I also found interesting that no information is coming out of China (or North Korea, for that matter). Not surprising, but interesting. China has been crushing its citizens and relentlessly displacing those who are poor by moving in industry, including coal mines as shown in this FRONTLINE video. Obviously, this map also made me upset.

Speed Traps - http://njection.com/speedtrap/default.aspx
It's always good to evade police interaction when possible. I thought this was a cool map to learn about a variety of speed traps, especially if you're visiting or moving to a city your unfamiliar with. It seems there would be more speed traps in the area, but them I'm like, "Oh yeah, Detroit cops have better things to do than sit around and clock people going fast." Although, I must say, Southfield freeway does turn into a different level of hell sometimes.

Top 50 Fortune 500 Companies - http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2008/maps/top50.html
Only three located in Michigan - two car companies and a lame chemical company. This made me sad, because we used to have lots of headquarters here. Michigan can do better.

Flooding - http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/?m=flood%2Cmap&r=us&w=real%2Cmap
This real-time water monitoring is part of a continuing effort by the USGS to assist the National Weather Service (NWS) in making accurate and timely flood forecasts. It's cool and also a good reason not to live by the Mississippi.

National Geographic Strikes Again

Photography at its very best.
view the pictures digg story

International Masters Cup Award Winners: Images Of Nature

Award-winning photographers here are "amateurs", but only through semantics. Beautiful, eclectic gallery of pics - from animals & wildlife to wilderness & landscapes. Some really nice stuff. Page loads kind of slow and it doesn't seem you can open them to bigger sizes, but the photos are beautiful nonetheless.

see the whole gallery | digg story

Midwest Earthquakes?

We here in Michigan generally are safe from all sorts of disasters that plague the rest of the nation. We don't get landslides, hurricanes, Britney Spears, forest fires, earthquakes...errrrr...wait - I guess we do get earthquakes. Well, tremors in any case.

Check out this Free Press article at 5.2 earthquake rocks Illinois.

Think tank: Climate affects security

Never quite thought of it this way, but it makes sense. As the climate gets unstable and certain resources become more scarce (water, farm land, etc), more conflict is inevitable.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands --Climate change could be one of the greatest national security challenges ever faced by U.S. policy makers, according to a new joint study by two U.S. think tanks.

The report, to be released Monday, raises the threat of dramatic population migrations, wars over water and resources, and a realignment of power among nations.

Read the entire article HERE.

Michigan articles in the New York Times

Check out these two Michigan stories in today's NY Times:

Good: Michigan’s Wine Country Grows Where the Cherry Is King

Bad: Michigan’s Summer Fishing Turns Less Carefree

Texas goes green - literally

After the wettest June on record, Texas isn't battling it's typical wildfires, but instead it's watching plentiful vegatation grow. Check out this photo from National Geographic