Oleg Zabluda's blog: September 09, 2012

Oleg Zabluda's blog

Sunday, September 09, 2012

PSA: if you do anaerobic exercise or Atkins diet, you can fall victim to Spontaneous Human Combustion!
PSA: if you do anaerobic exercise or Atkins diet, you can fall victim to Spontaneous Human Combustion!

http://www.brianjford.com/a-1208-NSci-SHC.pdf

Both cause Ketosis, then acetyl-CoA is converted in the liver into acetoacetate, which decarboxylates into acetone. Acetone is
highly flammable. Moreover, pork belly marinated in acetone for a week combusts (albeit, of course, not spontaneously, which is clearly nonsense). Pork marinated in ethanol doesn't, so boozing is safe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion

Lots of photos here:
http://www.mcri.org/CMSuploads/Brian%20J.%20Ford%20-%20Solving%20the%20Mystery%20of%20Spontaneous%20Human%20Combustion-85047.pdf

Legs remain, because there is less fat in them, and more of the slim legs remain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

Today at a Farmers Market we bought 4 baluts ($.65/ea) - fertilized duck eggs, where the embryo had died of natural...
Today at a Farmers Market we bought 4 baluts ($.65/ea) - fertilized duck eggs, where the embryo had died of natural causes [1]. One is supped to boil it, but, instead, we decided to crack it open, revealing bloody eggshells with blood vessels, a very cute duckling embryo, and the usual egg stuff.

Our cat Irene, got the embryo, I got the omelet, Marianna Dizik got terrified, as was Dennis. The embryo is supposed to be an aphrodisiac, we haven't seen the cat since, will ask her when she shows up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(egg)
"""
A balut is a fertilized duck embryo that is boiled and eaten in the shell. Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines, and countries in Southeast Asia, such as Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
"""

[1] must be true, because it was cheaper than the regular egg ($.85/ea)

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

In 1673 French astronomer Jean Richer established that pendulum clocks calibrated in Paris, lose 2 min 28 sec per...
In 1673 French astronomer Jean Richer established that pendulum clocks calibrated in Paris, lose 2 min 28 sec per day on the equator. The French were stumped, just like everybody else.

British scientist Issac Newton in 1697, in "Principia Mathematica" explained that gravity on the equator was effectively smaller due to rotation of the Earth, and together with Universal Attraction, this makes the Earth flattened at the poles by 1/230.

50 years earlier René Descartes (Latinized form Cartesius) published his theory of planetary vortices (alternative to Universal Attraction), from which later French scientists deduced that that the Earth is elongated at the poles, like a cigar, a contradiction to Newton's theory.

This difference was not only a clear prediction that could be measured, but could establish supremacy of the French scientists, so they launched a major expedition to the equator in South America to measure the length of 1 degree of latitude and a minor one to the Arctic circle to do the same.

At the equator, over a distance of 215 miles (tilted 14 deg from the meridian), difference between 2 geodesic teams was 58 meters.
The angle between 2 observatories, at the ends of this distance, was 3°7'1". Reduced (to sea level) distance between them was 176,940 toises [1]), making one degree of latitude at the equator equal to 56,767 toises [2], 38 meters larger than modern value.

Measurements at Paris was 57,060 toises/deg (3 meters larger than modern value).

Measurements taken at Arctic circle [3] was 57,437 toises/deg (430 meters larger than modern value),

This confirmed that Newton was right, and was one of the first major confirmations of his laws. I read somewhere that they did not have enough precision, and simply confirmed their bias. Clearly it's BS.

The story is surprisingly similar to the 1919 Arthur Eddington's expedition to South America to measure light deflection by the Sun, testing General Relativity. There were lots of accusations of confirmation bias there as well, but wikipedia says it was all kosher.

Modern value of one degree of latitude at the pole is 111.694 km, at the equator 110.574 km, for the difference of 1.120 km or 1%.

[1] 1 toise = 1.949 meters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toise
[2] The book says 56,753, the difference of 7 meters. Don't know why.
[3] At Gulf of Bothina, in Lapland, the site of today's Finnish-Swedish border.

http://books.google.com/books?id=G_xhdpclfRYC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Geodesic_Mission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latitude#The_length_of_a_degree_of_latitude
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Louis_Maupertuis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity#Deflection_of_light_by_the_Sun
http://books.google.com/books?id=G_xhdpclfRYC

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

Putin's guiding a group of young cranes on their long southern migration, invited ridicule:
Putin's guiding a group of young cranes on their long southern migration, invited ridicule:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/putins-latest-stunt-invites-ridicule/

Like this:
В.В. ПУТИН ведет корюшку на нерест
V.V. PUTIN leads smelt to spawning grounds
http://demotivation.me/j5a4ip9xemalpic.html

or this (Putin as Pelican): [1]
http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/6604/78716754.18/0_c3133_85a0f997_orig

I am with Putin. Leading birds to migration is routine now, first done by a Canadian Bill Lishman in Operation Migration (1993), which was an inspiration for French film by Jacques Perrin & Co. "Winged Migration" (2001), one of the most beautiful and breaking films ever made.

Compare to FAA crap we have to deal with in USA:

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/legal-snafu-grounds-a-bird-migration/
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/a-whooping-crane-migration-will-finish-by-truck/

http://www.operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Lishman

Also see: Oleg Zabluda vs Vladimir Putin (Horseback riding)
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/ipKd6428ZTX

[1] Compare to Marianna Dizik & Pelicans
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/7kLme36UFAP
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/putins-latest-stunt-invites-ridicule/

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

Marianna Dizik teaches preening clinic to the Pelicans

Marianna Dizik teaches preening clinic to the Pelicans
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112065430692128821190/albums/5656709860740595649/5656710298949602994

Вот такая рыба ушла! (The big one got away)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112065430692128821190/albums/5656709860740595649/5656710356060562530

Марианна прикидывается Пеликаном. Marianna goes undercover as a pelican.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112065430692128821190/albums/5656709860740595649/5656710305405666706
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112065430692128821190/albums/5656709860740595649/5656710315261129586
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112065430692128821190/albums/5656709860740595649/5656710364040284386
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112065430692128821190/albums/5656709860740595649/5656710369370248898

У нас длинные клювы (long reach of the beak). Marianna cowers (pelican modeling gone wrong). Probably want his money (fish) back for the preening lesson. Or was busted for not being a real Pelican
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112065430692128821190/albums/5656709860740595649/5656710355048391090

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

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