cedar sprig's blog

As global trade grows, so do container barges and shipping. The Panama Canal, which has been a vital link in international trade for almost a hundred years, is no longer big enough for all the ships trying to get through. The Panama Canal Authority was reported to have finalized a plan to enlarge the canal. A third lane would be added, large enough for the extra-big ships already built and used in shipping. (However, as comments below indicate, it is not a sure thing at all.)  Read More »

Truly avid bloggers probably already know about the existence of "blooks", the ever so charming moniker for blogs that have been converted to true book form (replete with paper!). Truly avid freelancers will probably have heard of the Lulu Blooker Prize, too, which has just made its debut. The first annual Blooker prize was awarded yesterday to an American blogger. Julia Powell spent a year working her way through all the recipes in Julia Child's book, Joy of Cooking, and writing about it online. The effort seems to have paid off in a literary fashion with "Julia & Julia".  Read More »

So I have begun that wonderful ritual of college independence, searching for an apartment. Only in this case, "independence" means endless discussions with future roommates, who always think the rent is too high and the building too far from campus. It means scheduling times to view houses, then holding your breath as parents decide whether or not you can borrow the car in time to meet the agent. It means wading through heaps of ads, only to find out that the affordable apartment is only affordable over summer. Finally, it means taking a good hard look at finances and wondering where in the world the money is going to come from.  Read More »

Near the center of Antarctica is Lake Vostok, only visible from above as an especially huge flat stretch of ice. Named for the Russian research station sitting on top of it, the lake wasn't discovered until satellite photos hinted at its existence, buried beneath 3600 meters of ice. It's about the same size as Lake Ontario. The researchers were already drilling into the ice sheet to take cores for studying climate change over the last 420,000 years (the ice has been there awhile), so finding a lake underneath it all was a stroke of luck for them. They stopped drilling as they neared the surface of the lake, to avoid contaminating the water, but the final core had lake water and sediment nonetheless.  Read More »

Movies and stories that end with happy couples are a staple of our culture. The protagonists go through all sorts of trials, but by the finale they have found each other and the implication is that now that they know they love each other, they are going to stay together. Of course, this all happens within the time frame of the movie or book, so we understand that some things might have been sped up a little.  Read More »

The private spaceflight industry still isn't ready for take-off. SpaceX, private spaceflight company started by Paypal founder Elon Musk, had a bit of a failure when they tried to launch one of their rockets a few days ago. Falcon 1, which was carrying a researc satellite, started up through the atmosphere in apparently perfect condition. But 25 seconds in, the main engine cut out and the rocket was lost. According to www.spacex.com , the malfunction was caused by an unexplained fuel leak, which burned up a system or two and ended in the engine shutting down. But no worries, they'll try again in a few months.  Read More »

Remember that ban on abortion passed in South Dakota? Pro-life groups hope that after it goes into effect in the state, someone will challenge the new law and the whole abortion issue will ascend to the US Supreme Court. Now pro-choice has made a countering move, filling out petitions to put the law on hold. If they waylay it before June 19, the voters of South Dakota get to decide how to deal with it. If not, then someone will surely challenge the law when it goes into effect in July.  Read More »

Back in 1998 a theory was posited that a computer built on quantum mechanics wouldn't have to run to work, thanks to the mysteries of superposition and Schrodinger's cat. Now the University of Illinois has built a system that proves the theory. Using mirrors and an undecided photon, they've gotten results even when the photon doesn't enter the system.

As New Scientist reports, Repeated measurements stop the photon from entering the actual program, but allow its quantum nature to flirt with the program's components - so it can become gradually altered even though it never actually passes through.  Read More »