Greenhouse gases are no laughing matter

I know that global warming is a serious problem. I know that the struggle to lessen greenhouse gas emissions creates a lot of tension among environmentalists, scientists, politicians and businessmen. But, pardon me, I still cracked up when I read this piece from the newsletter of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Saving the Climate, One Cow Belch at a Time

Anyone who's been on a farm knows livestock can be gassy. But did you know they're greenhouse-gassy? Cows, sheep, and other cud-chewers produce about 20 percent of the world's methane—a leading greenhouse gas—when they burp… and, uh… fart.

This is especially distressing for farmers in New Zealand, which aspires to be the first carbon-neutral nation (but also has a lot of livestock). Luckily, researchers in the country are figuring out the genetics behind cattle's methane problem, and they've almost come up with a vaccine against it. And just this week Japanese scientists announced that oil found in cashew shells, when mixed in livestock feed, could cut the animals' methane emissions by 90 percent.

The Center for Biological Diversity applauds these efforts. And we're so glad polar bears don't burp methane.

Hear more about the cashew-nut cure from Reuters UK and learn about New Zealand's pickle in the Los Angeles Times.

Moo!

Colliding galaxies

On April 24, 2008, the Hubble Space Telescope marked the 18th anniversary of its launch. In celebration of this event, the HubbleSite released 59 fantastic images of galaxies colliding. These three are just samples of the awe-inspiring photographs on the site. And as you're looking at the images, remember that all these collisions happened hundreds of millions of years ago because that's how long it took the light from them to reach us. Hie yourself over to the article Cosmic Collisions Galore! and get your mind blown away.


This peculiar, butterfly- or lobster-shaped galaxy consisting of two smaller merging galaxies lies in the constellation of Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder, some 400 million light-years away. It has two giant black holes—about 3,000 light-years apart—which are drifting towards each another and will eventually merge into a larger black hole. The merging process, which began about 30 million years ago, will be complete in some tens to hundreds of millions of years.

This is the staggering aftermath of an encounter between two galaxies, resulting in a ring-shaped galaxy and a long-tailed companion. It is located in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, approximately 500 million light-years away.

A remarkable collision between two spiral galaxies located in the constellation of Hercules. The galaxy cluster is part of the Great Wall of clusters and superclusters, the largest known structure in the universe. The two spiral galaxies are linked by their swirling arms, and is located some 450 million light-years away from Earth.


All text and images from the article Cosmic Collisions Galore!

Why couldn't it have been a whole number?

Today is leap year day. Here's a simplified explanation of why and when we have it.

• The Earth orbits the sun every 365.2425 days.

• To make up for that .2425 day, one day is added to our calendar every 4 years.

• But one-fourth of a day does not equal .2425.

• Therefore, years which are divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they are also divisible by 400, in which case they are leap years.

• 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not.

• 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500, 2600, 2700, 2900, and 3000 will not be leap years, but 2400 and 2800 will be.

Image from the Creation Museum