Flowerpots in full flame
Courtesy GatheringZeroIn my continuing quest to keep the public informed about exploding household objects, I bring you the case of the exploding......FLOWERPOT house fire?! I’m sorry but of all the things that could explode, a flowerpot falls pretty low on my list of potential hazards. The St. Paul Fire Department investigator, James Novak, agrees, “It’s not like everybody has to worry that their house is going to burn down...halogen lights, smoking, candles and Pop-Tarts in a toaster--there are a lot of things higher on the priority list than a potted plant fire.” Nevertheless, the combination of fertilizer, heat and oxygen within the pot can lead to potentially unorthodox flower pot behavior. Consider yourselves warned. As for me, I think a conversation with my fern about fire safety is long overdue.
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I need a lift: Click the link in the text to learn about the unusual travel predicament of a Koala bear in Australia.
Courtesy DiliffI guess it should come as now surprise, but it appears koala bears are poor hitch hikers, at least the one that's mentioned in this video. The sad thing, the last sentence of this video says koalas could be extinct in 10 years.
Geoscience in the middle
Courtesy eigenFACTOR Eigenfactor is a search engine for scientific journals. They have an interesting interactive way to browse through the various branches of science based on citations in these journals.
Static map
Courtesy eigenFACTORThey've taken some of the richest connections between the different disciplines and produced a static map that shows these connections weighted by citation. It shows some interesting flows of information between, Medicine, Cell Biology, Ecology, and Crop Science for example. Now I just need to figure out what "Control Theory" is.
Tick, tick, tick....how to ground an airplane for six hours without involving terrorists
Things keep getting crazier in the airlline industry these days. I saw the headline of this news item thinking it was about "sounds" of ticks on an airplane. But no, it was grounded due to a different kind of tick. Click and read to learn more.
It's the story that just keeps going and going. One of the displaced panda's from the China earthquake has given birth to two cubs. There's tons of cute panda footage on this video for all you panda groupies out there. And here's the latest video, showing the actual birth of the panda.
Tornado damage: Garage doors may be a key to how severely a house collapses
It's still at the observational stage, but investigators are looking at the link between strength of garage doors and the amount of damage a home incurs from a passing tornado. After reading this Star-Tribune story, it sounds like a case of the general public connecting the dots before the scientific community.
Two-ton, 500 million-year-old fossil of stromatolite discovered In Virginia, U.S.
Here is a link to info about a huge stromatolite fossil:
Virginia Museum of Natural History scientists have confirmed that an approximately 500 million-year-old stromatolite was recently discovered at the Boxley Blue Ridge Quarry near Roanoke, Virginia. This specimen is the first-ever intact stromatolite head found in Virginia, and is one of the largest complete “heads” (of algae) in the world, at over 5 feet in diameter and weighing over 2 tons.
The oldest stromatolites have been dated at 3.46 billion years old.
fireworks
Courtesy ®oberto Scientists are working to create more environmentally sensitive pyrotechnics . Their research may have far reaching applications. Many military missiles and flares share a similar chemical make-up to fireworks. By adjusting the formula, scientists hope to reduce the amount of perchlorate involved in each reaction.
Monkey math: Bonzo doesn't find numbers boring or intimdating
We've had our share of controversial math posts here on the Buzz lately. But here's news that rhesus macaques are quicker than humans at doing computer-based math. They must not find it boring like many members of the homo sapien species. And we've documented in the past that chimps have better memories than most people.
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