DINOSHARK

A little while ago, I remembered that I had recorded Dinoshark on my DVR after Ms. Meyer told us about it and decided to watch it. If you're looking for something hilarious passed off as a serious movie, then I highly recommend it. Even if you aren't, it's still highly entertaining. The general plot is that there is a string of disappearances of people at a resort in Mexico. The main character (played by Eric Balfour) is out on the ocean and notices a creature (dinoshark) that is killing people (with great special effects). He and his friends go on a mission to kill it so that the people can enjoy their vacation in peace. After a few entertaining scenes, one of which involving a chopper being eaten, they have a final confrontation with dinoshark. I won't give away the ending, but it's pretty amazing. see this movie and look out for the next installment in the series, which is going to be called Dinocroc vs. Supergator.

New Species Discovered In Borneo

123 new species have been discovered in the great rainforest known as Borneo. The project to find them has been going since 2007, in an effort to help conserve the rainforest. The project was known as "Heart Of Borneo", and was sponsored by the WWF. Some of the more interesting species are totally unique. One was a bright orange snake which can turn shades of blue when threatened. Another is a flat looking frog that breathes through its skin because it has no lungs. Another is a slug with its tail almost 3 times the size of its head. Borneo is home to thousands of species found nowhere else.

Trouble Waters Video, test

If you guys don't remember the Troubled Waters Video, it's the video with the goofy guy.

Hermaphroditic Frogs: Caused from Atrazine which produced Estrogen within male frogs.

Beluga Whales: Cancer found within them.

Plants and Mercury: Scientists genetically modifying plants to absorb mercury making fish less likely to eat mercury.

Crown of Thorns: Massive outbreak of sea-stars in tropic reefs, believed to be linked to pollution in water. They destroy reefs.

Global Warming Creating More Frequent and Violent?

With Iceland's volcano Eyjafjallajokull erupting, melting the glacier around it, scientists are now wondering if the melting of ice caps due to global warming might create more frequent and more violent volcan eruptions. However, they don't believe that Eyjafjallajokull's eruption is due to global warming. Hugh Tuffen of Lancaster University believes that it's not long before global warming causes the icecaps on volcanoes all over the world to melt, relieving pressure from supercharged magma chambers to increase the frequency and violence of the volcano eruptions. He also thinks that it won't take long for this to happen, with activity possibly increasing significantly by 2100.

Scientists don't entirely know what will happen when the icecaps melt since that hasn't happened since before the last ice age. They've been studying long-term trends since the last ice age, which show that volcanic activity has been increasing. But they don't know what this means for us yet. The writer of the article thinks that we should just try to stop global warming before we find out what happens when the icecaps melt.

Original Article

Water Pollution Unit Review Post - Oil Spills

Oil Spill: When oil gets into the water, usually due to human activity.

Ways the Oil Gets There:

- Natural Seepage

- Oil Tanker

- Seepage from offshore drilling

- Runoff from roads

- Seepage from boats

What does it affect:

- The oil creates a film over the water that sunlight cannot penetrate, so the producers cannot photosynthesize.

- It sticks to the feathers of sea birds stopping them from flying and stopping the feathers from insulating the birds.

- It gets in the fur of sea mammals (especially otters) and stops the fur from insulating them.

- Animals can digest the oil, which is bad for them.

- The oil will eventually sink to the bottom of the ocean, which will hurt the animals on the sea floor.

How can we clean it up:

- Bioremediation: The use of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, etc.) to break down and remove the oil.

- Booms: Contains the oil to stop it from spreading and lifts it off the water.

- Skimmers: Usually used with booms to skim up the oil.

- Sorbents: Absorb the oil

- Burning the Oil: Bad because it just sends the oil into the air to be brought right back with the next rain.

The Exxon Valdez:

On March 24, 1989, it spilled its cargo of oil in the Prince William Sound off of Alaska when it went off course and crashed into the Bligh Reef. The ship's crew had worked too hard due to job cuts in the company and the 3rd mate (who isn't allowed to navigate the ship) was put in charge while under the effects of alcohol. It took a while for the first clean up crews to arrive, and after Exxon went bankrupt it was up to the volunteers to clean up the oil. Thousands of animals died: around 250,000 sea birds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 247 bald eagles and 22 orcas, alonf with the destruction of salmon and herring eggs. Some species still haven't recovered and the impacts of this spill can still be seen today.

OiL Spills! -

Major Sources of Oil Spills:

- tanker spills or sinks

- runoff from boats

- oil in waste (sewage)

- offshore drilling/ runoff from roads or pipelines

- natural sepage from land or ocean floor

Short Term Effects:

- reduction of light transmission: by reducing the amount of sunlight that can penetrate through to plants in the sea, photosynthesis is reduced and plant growth is affected

- reduction in DO (dissolved oxygen)- hinders the rate of oxygen uptake by water

- damage to marine wildlife- because oil can collect in feathers or fur and can be ingested, many birds, mammals, and invertebrates can die (drown, can't fly, freeze, stave, etc.)

Long Term Effects:

- oil interferes with chemical messengers in organisms so have trouble finding food, mates, shelter, etc. because their stimuli can get "blocked" by the oil compounds.

- oil serves as a concentration medium for poisons like pesticides reach organisms in higher levels than usual, causing more damage

A Planet Without Methane

Recently, NASA's Spitzer Telescope found that there is no methane on a distant planet. Methane, which is present on Earth, is created by microbes that live in cows and, surprisingly, rice fields. It can also be found in dead stars, or "brown dwarfs." This planet, called GJ436b, is about the size of Neptune which not only makes it the smallest planet (it is 33 light years away) to be analyzed from such a distance but also lacks the one element that the planets in the solar system have: methane. Scientists expected to find methane because, according the principle investigator of the search, the type of planet that it is made the production of the chemical likely. Though scientists are thoroughly puzzled, they are glad to know what is going on in the atmosphere of planets in far away constellations.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-137&cid=release_2010-137