Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013
I Shot A Sheriff by Bob Marley - made with GarageBand
I Shot A Sheriff by Bob Marley - made with GarageBand
An amateur recording Under Progress_Ver 01
Using Apogee Jam for direct connection of the guitar to GarageBand.
Guitar: Fender Stratocaster (Clapton signature)
Guitar effects and amps from GarageBand
Using MacBook Air internal mic for voice recording (just for fun ...)
Using a backing track for the initial recording
Ισως ο καλυτερος τροπος να ξοδεψεις τον ελευθερο χρονο σου
Γ.Μ.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Σοβαρες ενδείξεις για ύπαρξη του μποζονίου Χιγκς
Το πιο διάσημο πείραμα στο CERN πέρυσι όντως φαίνεται πως «πιθανότατα» οδήγησε στον εντοπισμό του μποζονίου του Χιγκς.
Όπως ανακοίνωσε o οργανισμός την Πέμπτη, οι τελευταίες λεπτομερέστερες αναλύσεις δίνουν «ισχυρές ενδείξεις» ότι επρόκειτο για το μποζόνιο.
Ωστόσο, το CERN σημειώνει ότι παραμένει ανοικτό το ερώτημα αν πρόκειται για το μποζόνιο του Χιγκς του Καθιερωμένου Προτύπου Σωματιδιακής Φυσικής ή για το ελαφρύτερο των μποζονίων που περιγράφονται σε ορισμένες θεωρίες οι οποίες υπερβαίνουν το Πρότυπο.
Για να απαντηθεί αυτό, αναφέρει το CERN, χρειάζεται περισσότερος χρόνος.
Τι έιναι το μποζόνιο Higgs ?
Το μποζόνιο Higgs είναι ένα θεμελιώδες σωματίδιο που προβλέφθηκε θεωρητικά από τον Peter Higgs και ίσως να κρύβει το κλειδί στην ερώτηση γιατί τα στοιχειώδη σωματίδια έχουν μάζες.
Μία σπουδαία κατάκτηση της σύγχρονης Φυσικής, το κενό, κάθε άλλο παρά κενό είναι. Είναι κυριολεκτικά «θορυβώδες» και γεμάτο δυνητικά σωματίδια και πεδία δυνάμεων.
Η προέλευση της μάζας φαίνεται να είναι συνυφασμένη με αυτό το φαινόμενο.
Στην θεωρία της σχετικότητας, υπάρχει σημαντική διαφορά μεταξύ σωματιδίων με και χωρίς μάζα: "Κάθε άμαζο σωματίδιο ταξιδεύει με την ταχύτητα του φωτός, ενώ τα σωματίδια με μάζα δεν μπορούν να αγγίξουν ποτέ αυτό το όριο ταχύτητας."
Πως προκύπτει η μάζα στα υποατομικά σωματίδια;
Ο Higgs πρότεινε πως το κενό περιέχει ένα «πανταχού παρών» πεδίο που μπορεί να επιβραδύνει κάποια (ειδάλλως άμαζα) στοιχειώδη σωματίδια - όπως ένα δοχείο με μέλι επιβραδύνει μία σφαίρα μεγάλης ταχύτητας. Τέτοια σωματίδια θα συμπεριφέρονται σαν σωματίδια με μάζα, που ωστόσο ταξιδεύουν με ταχύτητες μικρότερες αυτής του φωτός. Άλλα σωματίδια - όπως τα φωτόνια - είναι απρόσβλητα στο πεδίο: δεν επιβραδύνονται και παραμένουν άμαζα.
Αν και το πεδίο Higgs δεν είναι καθεαυτό μετρήσιμο, επιταχυντές μπορούν να το διεγείρουν και να απελευθερώσουν ανιχνεύσιμα σωματίδια που ονομάζονται μποζόνια Higgs.
Μέχρι στιγμής, πειράματα με τους πιο ισχυρούς επιταχυντές στον κόσμο δεν είχαν παρατηρήσει κανένα μποζόνιο Higgs, αλλά τα τελευταια πειραματικά δεδομένα υποδεικνύουν πως οι φυσικοί των στοιχειωδών σωματιδίων είναι μπροστά σε μία μεγάλη ανακάλυψη.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Πως να κατασκευάστε το χαρταετό σας
Εδώ και χρόνια μαζί με τις κόρες μου κι από τότε που ήταν ακόμα πιτσιρίκια φτιάχναμε τους χαρταετούς μας που με υπερηφάνεια δηλώνω οτι "σταθηκαν παντα στο ύψος τους"
'Εχω ετοιμάσει ένα σχήμα για μια γρήγορη και εύκολη κατασκευή που δεν θα σας απογοητεύσει.
Σαν υλικό μπορείτε να χρησιμοποιήσετε χαρτί ή μουσαμά.
Φτιάξτε και λίγη ουρα παραπάνω και προσθέστε ή αφαιρέστε αναλογα με τη δύναμη του αέρα.
Καλό τριήμερο και καλή επιτυχία στις κατασκευές σας.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
BHMA FM Δημήτρης Γιαγτζόγλου και Γιάννης Μπαξεβάνης 07/03/2013
Με τον Δημήτρη ή @500rakias όπως είναι γνωστός στα social media γνωριστήκαμε στο twitter. Στο twitter βρίσκομαι απ' τις αρχές του 2010 και είχα την τύχη να γνωρίσω θαυμασιους ανθρώπους, διαφορετικούς μεταξύ τους αλλά παντα αξιόλογους και ενδιαφέροντες.
Με καποιους ανθρώπους απ' την πρωτη στιγμή αντιλαμβάνεσαι οτι ταιριάζεις και η συναναστροφή μαζι τους ειναι πάντα ευχαριστη. Ο Δημήτρης ειναι ένας απ' αυτους.
Τον άκουγα από τότε που ήταν στον ΣΚΑΙ και μου είχε κάνει εντύπωση η ειλικρίνεια και η ευθύτητα με την οποία αντιμετώπιζε την επικαιρότητα ενώ ήταν προφανές οτι ο τρόπος και ο αυθορμητισμός του δεν ήταν πάντα αρεστός στο δημοσιογραφικό κατεστημένο.
Ισως αυτό ειναι που τον κανει να ξεχωρίζει.
Το απόγευμα της περασμένης Τρίτης κάπου στο κέντρο της Αθήνας και αφου βρισκόμασταν ήδη στο τεταρτο ποτηρι κρασί μου ανακοινωσε οτι την Πεμπτη στις 6 παρα θα πρεπει να βρίσκομαι στο στουντιο του ΒΗΜΑ FM ... Oκ φιλε 500rakia τα λέμε on Air
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Ενας διαλογος οπως καταγραφηκε στο Finisterrο/ Galicia
Ισπανοί: Εδώ Α-835, για να αποφύγετε την σύγκρουση, παρακαλώ αλλάξτε την πορεία σας 15 μοίρες βόρεια. Αυτή τη στιγμή βρίσκεστε 25 ναυτικά μίλια μακριά και κατευθύνεστε ακριβώς κατά πάνω μας.
Αμερικανοί: Αλλάξτε εσείς την πορεία σας 15 μοίρες νότια.
Ισπανοί: Αρνητικόν! Επαναλαμβάνω, αλλάξτε πορεία 15 μοίρες, 15 μοίρες βόρεια.
Αμερικανοί: Σας ομιλεί ο πλοίαρχος σκάφους των ΗΠΑ, αλλάξτε πάραυτα την πορεία σας 15 μοίρες νότια.
Ισπανοί:Την υπόδειξή σας δεν την βρίσκουμε ούτε λογική, ούτε εφικτή.
Εάν δεν θέλετε να προσκρούσετε επάνω μας, αλλάξτε την πορεία σας 15 μοίρες βόρεια.
Αμερικανοί: (Με υψωμένη φωνή) Σας ομιλεί ο πλοίαρχος Richard James Howard του σκάφους, του δεύτερου σε μέγεθος αεροπλανοφόρου του στόλου των ΗΠΑ.Έχουμε μαζί μας δυο αντιτορπιλικά, καταδιωκτικό αεροσκάφος και τέσσερα υποβρύχια. Επιπλέον έχουμε την υποστήριξη καταδρομικών.
Δεν κάνω ΥΠΟΔΕΙΞΗ, αλλά σας ΔΙΑΤΑΣΣΩ!
Αλλάξτε πορεία 15 μοίρες νότια, σε αντίθετη περίπτωση θα προβούμε σε όλες τις απαραίτητες ενέργειες για την ασφάλεια του στόλου μας.
Πάραυτα τσακιστείτε και αλλάξτε πορεία!
Ισπανοί: Σας ομιλεί ο Juan Manuel Salas Alcantara, εδώ είμαστε δυο άτομα.
Έχουμε μαζί μας ένα σκύλο, το βραδινό μας φαγητό, δυο μπουκάλια μπύρα και ένα καναρίνι.
Το καναρίνι κοιμάται αυτήν την ώρα.
Επιπλέον μας υποστηρίζει ο ραδιοφωνικός σταθμός Cadena Dial de La Coruna.
Σας ομιλούμε από τον φάρο με αριθμό Α-835 των ισπανικών ακτών Finisterra Galicia και σας γνωστοποιούμε ότι δεν έχουμε πρόθεση να μετακινηθούμε.
Δεν έχουμε ιδέα αν είμαστε ο μεγαλύτερος ή ο μικρότερος φάρος των Ισπανικών ακτών. Μπορείτε να προβείτε σε όλες τις γ... απαραίτητες ενέργειες για την ασφάλεια του γ... σκάφους σας, που σας επαναλαμβάνω κατευθύνεται ολοταχώς προς τις βραχώδεις ακτές μας.
Αλλά και πάλι επιμένουμε και σας υποδεικνύουμε να αλλάξετε την πορεία σας 15 μοίρες βόρεια.
Αμερικανοί: ΟΚ, κατανοητόν, ευχαριστούμε...
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Απο το Νότο στον Βορρά κι απ την Ιθακη στον Φωκά
Το ελαβα σημερα το πρωι και μιας και δεν προκειται για φανταστικη ιστορια αλλα αφηγηση ενος Ελληνα ναυτικου σκεφτηκα να το μοιραστω μαζι σας
Ο Μανος ειναι καπετανιος εδω και χρονια σε tankers και ηταν απ' τους νεοτερους σε ηλικια οταν πρωτοκαπετανεψε.
Απο μενα πολλες ευχες για καλες θαλασσες
Ήταν πριν από ένα μήνα περίπου, τότε που βρισκόμουν στο Callao του Peru και είχα στείλει το τελευταίο μου μήνυμα. Έκτοτε ακολούθησα πορεία Βόρεια και κατέπλευσα στο Los Angeles όπου και ροκανίσαμε λίγο χρόνο στο αγκυροβόλιο. Ήλιος με δόντια και κρύο πολύ.
‘Ήρεμο αγκυροβόλιο. Ήμασταν τυχεροί. Όχι για πολύ όμως. Οι τελευταίες ημέρες ηλιόλουστες και τίποτε δεν προϊδέαζε αυτό που θα ακολουθούσε στην επόμενη αποστολή μας.
Λίγο πριν το πέρας της εκφόρτωσης ειδοποιήθηκα από τους ναυλωτές να πλεύσω για το Βανκούβερ του Καναδά. Δεν είχα πάει ποτέ ξανά. Άγνωστα νερά για μένα, αφιλόξενα από τις ιστορίες που είχα ακούσει. Βόρειος Ειρηνικός μέσα στην καρδιά του χειμώνα.
Είναι πανέμορφο το μέρος που θα πάς μου ανέφεραν από την εταιρεία. Την ώρα που το άκουγα το αριστερό αυτί μου ήταν προσηλωμένο σε αυτό που μου έλεγαν και το μυαλό είχε ήδη αρχίσει να βγάζει σχέδιο. Να ασφαλίσουμε καλά το πλοίο, να αδειάσουμε τις σεντίνες, να δοκιμάσουμε τους συναγερμούς, να ελέγξουμε όλες τις υδατοστεγείς ότι εφαρμόζουν καλά, να ασφαλίσουμε τις άγκυρες με διπλά συρματόσχοινα, να ξαναδούμε τα εφόδια των βαρκών, να ελέγξουμε συχνότητες εκπομπής και λήψης ασυρμάτων και δορυφορικών, να, να, να, να……….και από τα πολλά να και να, να σου κι ένα κόμπος στο στήθος ξέρετε τώρα σαν αυτόν που μας πιάνει όταν αγχωθούμε πολύ η σαν στεναχωρηθούμε. Μα ήταν ανάγκη να μας τύχει τέτοιο ταξίδι τώρα σκέφθηκα φουρκισμένος.
Κλείνω το τηλέφωνο και αρχίσω να δίνω τις πρώτες οδηγίες, να κάνουμε αυτό, να κάνουμε το άλλο. Πήγαιναν οι ναύτες και οι αξιωματικοί και κοίταζαν μία μια τις προετοιμασίες. Καλοί άνθρωποι, δεν βαριγγόμισαν καθόλου. Βέβαια με είδαν και κατάλαβαν.
« Μόλις αποβιβασθεί ο Πλοηγός βγαίνουμε στην ανοικτή θάλασσα. Δεν θα μας χαρισθεί τους είπα.
Πρέπει όλα να είναι έτοιμα. Δεν έχει ξεκούραση αν δεν τελειώσουν οι προετοιμασίες ». Γινόμουν στενόχωρος μα δεν είχα άλλη επιλογή. Πράγματι όλα έγιναν πριν ακόμη λύσουμε από την προβλήτα. Μια σχετική ανακούφιση ξεπρόβαλε στην πόρτα της αγωνίας μου. Πάμε τώρα για την άλλη έννοια μας, τον καιρό.
Τι γίνετε Παναγιώτη, τι μας λέει το δελτίο ? - «Βράζει ο Τόπος » αποκρίθηκε. Και η ψυχή μου μαζί του σκέφθηκα. «Όλα θα πάνε καλά, να δεις ότι δεν θα μας αγγίξει, θα περάσει » του απάντησα με αψυχολόγητο ύφος. Βέβαια ήξερα και ήξερε πως δεν θα ήταν έτσι τα πράγματα.
Και αφήσαμε τον πλοηγό να πάει στο καλό, και βγήκαμε στην ανοικτή θάλασσα. Οι πρώτες έξι ώρες ήταν χάρμα θεού, αφού έφτασα κι εγώ να πιστέψω πως είχε κάνει λάθος το δελτίο. Μετά όμως διαπίστωσα πως μάλλον ήταν ο πόθος μου. Και ξεκίνησε, καλή αρχή. Ήταν 17 Φεβρουαρίου του 2013.
Οι αρχικοί υπολογισμοί ήθελαν το πλοίο να φθάνει στο Βανκούβερ την 19η Φεβρουαρίου, βραδάκι περίπου. Με πήρε ο πράκτορας τηλέφωνο (στην αρχή γιατί στην συνέχεια δεν είχαμε ούτε τηλέφωνο) να μου ανακοινώσει ότι με περιμένει στις 19/2. Γέλασα και τον ρώτησα από πού καταγόταν. Από ένα ορεινό χωριό της Ρουμανίας μου αποκρίθηκε. Φίλε Ciobanescu μάλλον Θάλασσα πρωτοαντίκρισες στον Καναδά του είπα. Ναι μου αποκρίθηκε ξανά και γέλασα. Άκου του απάντησα, πες ότι θέλεις σε όποιον θέλεις εκεί στο Βανκούβερ μα μην κάνεις το τραπέζι γιατί μάλλον θα είναι πολύ κρύο το γεύμα όταν καταφέρω να φθάσω. Ούτε αυτό το κατάλαβε ο Ρουμάνος, κι έκλεισε το τηλέφωνο.
Ο καιρός γινόταν αγριότερος ώρα με την ώρα. Δεξιά μας η απόκρημνη ακτογραμμή της Αμερικάνικής Ηπείρου σε απόσταση 26 μιλίων . Ο Καιρός ήταν Αριστερά μας και δυνάμωνε. Όμως τίποτε δεν ήταν χειρότερο από την αποθαλασσία του Βόρειου Ειρηνικού. Κύματα σαν τείχη 6- 7 μέτρα να έρχονται με ορμή και να μας κτυπούν άλλοτε στην Πλώρη αριστερά και άλλοτε στην αριστερή πλευρά μας. Μειώσαμε στροφές και ταχύτητα.
Ϊσα – Ίσα να καβαλάει το κύμα τους είπα, (να πέφτει ομαλά στο διάκενο) όπως πέφτει το βρέφος στην αγκαλιά της μάνας του που το νανουρίζει τους έφερα σαν παράδειγμα. Εντάξει Καπετάνιε απάντησαν κοφτά λιτά και κατέβηκα να δω τι γίνετε παρακάτω. Βομβαρδισμένο τοπίο, τίποτε δεν ήταν στην θέση του, μόνο η τηλεόραση, ο υπολογιστής του πλοίου και η εικόνα του Άγιου Νικόλα. Την κοίταξα λίγο, σκέφθηκα τα δικά μου κι έφυγα από την βομβαρδισμένη και αφιλόξενη καμπίνα μου κατεβαίνοντας παρακάτω. Έφθασα στο Μαγειρειό. Μόλις είχαμε χάσει μία ντουζίνα πιάτα από το απότομο κούνημα του πλοίου. Ο μάγειρος στεναχωρημένος.
Μη στενοχωριέσαι του απαντώ, πες πως τα σπάσαμε σε μία νύκτα κραιπάλης σε κάποιο νυκτερινό κέντρο. Κι εκείνος χαμογέλασε. Μόνο πρόσεξε δύο πράγματα: Μην φτιάξεις σούπα και μην σερβίρεις αν δεν καθίσει στην θέση του ο καθένας. Εντάξει μου απαντά το έχω κατά νου.
Εσύ Καπτά Μάνο τι θα φας με ρώτησε. Δώσε μου τρία παξιμάδια, ένα κομμάτι κεφαλοτύρι, μια χούφτα ελιές και μισή κούπα χαμομήλι. Κι έτσι έφαγα κι εγώ, λες και άμα γευμάτιζα θα κατέβαινε στο στομάχι.
Το βράδυ έγιναν χειρότερα τα πράγματα. Δεν στεκόταν τίποτε όρθιο. Οι διατοιχίσεις γίνονταν με συχνότητα δευτερολέπτου. Μειώσαμε την ταχύτητα στο ελάχιστο εκεί που απλά κυβερνιέται το πλοίο και αλλάξαμε πορεία βάζοντας τον καιρό στην πλώρη. Και απλά πηγαίναμε. Πήγαμε να ξαπλώσουμε, έτσι απλά να κλείσουμε τα μάτια μας. Για ύπνο ούτε να το συζητάς. Οι μηχανικοί πήγαν στο control της μηχανής, εκεί δεν κουνάει πολύ. Οι υπόλοιποι στο καρέ αξιωματικών που βρίσκετε στο καθ’ ύψος μέσο του πλοίου. Εγώ στην γέφυρα καθισμένος στην καρέκλα να παρακολουθώ κάθε κύμα που τσακωνόταν με το χαλύβδινο κέλυφος του πλοίου.
Τρείς ημέρες και τρεις νύκτες κράτησε αυτή η ταλαιπωρία. Στην αρχή είναι όλα κάπως πιο ήρεμα, στην διάρκεια κόβεται η όρεξη, χαλάει η διάθεση και στο τέλος αποφεύγεις ακόμη και τις περιττές κουβέντες. Μιλάνε τα μάτια, οι εκφράσεις, οι κοφτές λέξεις. Απέναντι από το “Cape Disappointment” των ΗΠΑ ήρθαν τα χειρότερα κύματα του ειρηνικού που μας ταλαιπώρησαν μέχρι το τέλος.
Μόλις μπούμε στο « Juan De Fuca Channel » θα ηρεμήσουμε ξεστόμισε ο Δημήτρης από την Μηχανιώνα. Υπομονή Δημήτρη, αν γυρίσουμε τώρα θα μας χτυπήσει στα πλευρά ο καιρός και θα πάθουμε ζημιές. Άκου Δημήτρη, θα πλεύσουμε Βορειότερα 6 ώρες περί τα 32 Ναυτικά μίλια και πριν δύσει, γιατί θέλω να βλέπω τον καιρό όταν στρίβουμε, θα γυρίσουμε με πορεία για εκεί που είπες, αλήθεια πώς το είπες ?
« Juan De Fuca Channel » το είπα. Ξέρεις καπετάνιε το όνομα του είναι κυριολεκτικά Στενά του Ιωάννη Φωκά. Το βλέμμα μου αμφίβολο. Καλά, καλά του απαντώ, ας δούμε τον καιρό για τις επόμενες 6 ώρες και μετά θα φιλοσοφήσουμε.
Και οι ώρες κυλούσαν αργά μα σταθερά. «Κύμα το Κύμα» που αναφέρει και κάποιο όμορφο τραγούδι. Μία ώρα πριν ξεκινούμε τις διαδικασίες, έλεγχος πηδαλίου και χρόνου απόκρισης, επικοινωνία με το μηχανοστάσιο και τον Α’ μηχανικό. Βασίλη του λέω, άκου σε μία ώρα θα στρίψουμε. Όμως δεν έχουμε ταχύτητα και στην διάρκεια της στροφής θα μειωθεί περισσότερο και ίσως μας χτυπήσει άσχημα το κύμα. Άκου λοιπόν, θα ανεβάσω στροφές πάσει δυνάμει για να αποκτήσουμε ταχύτητα και να έχουμε σταθερή ροπή στρέψης. Ξέρω τι θα μου πεις τώρα. Θα ανεβάσει φορτία η μηχανή. Να είσαστε εκεί κάτω έτοιμοι να μειώσουμε αν απαιτηθεί, κατάλαβες Βασίλη, μόνο αν απαιτηθεί και τότε μόνο. Θα σου δώσω 10 λεπτά ειδοποίηση. Εντάξει καπετάνιε.
Έκλεισα το τηλέφωνο και σκέφθηκα, πλησιάζει η ώρα.
45 λεπτά ακόμη, μισή ώρα ακόμη, 15 λεπτά ακόμη (ειδοποιούμε τους μηχανικούς), Κάνουμε ανακοίνωση να προσέξουν όλοι διότι σε λίγο θα στρίψουμε, Πρόσω Ολοταχώς η μηχανή, 8 λεπτά ακόμη, Πηδάλιο Όλο Δεξιά – 35 μοίρες και όχι λιγότερο δίνετε η εντολή και ακολουθείται. Και τώρα τα μάτια στραμμένα στην Πλώρη μας. Αρχίζει να στρέφει και να διατοιχίζετε, η στροφή μας εξελίσσεται καλά μα κι ο καιρός είναι πεισματάρης, 25 μοίρες κλίση στα δεξιά και στα αριστερά. Το ένα αυτί να περιμένει τηλέφωνο από το μηχανοστάσιο και το άλλο να ακούει τους εξωτερικούς ήχους για οποιοδήποτε σημάδι που να υποδηλώνει πιθανή ζημιά. Τα λόγια είναι περιττά, επιχειρησιακή σιγή στην γέφυρα, μόνο παρακολούθηση, εκτίμηση και γρήγορος υπολογισμός με το μυαλό.
«Ελα τώρα μην με σταματάς, έλα βοήθα με λίγο » μονολόγησα έτσι σαν να περίμενα ένα από μηχανή θεό να επέμβει.
« Το Κύμα θα μας καβαλήσει » μου λένε. « Το βλέπω » τους απαντώ. Και καβαλάει το πλοίο από την μία πλευρά και φεύγει με φόρα από την άλλη. Οι σκάλες είναι ακόμα εκεί, ζημιά δεν φαίνεται πουθενά, ευτυχώς τα μάτια μου σαν Ραντάρ ελέγχουν το κατάστρωμα και φαίνονται όλα να είναι εντάξει. Τηλεφωνώ στην μηχανή: Βασίλη λίγο ακόμη θέλουμε κοίτα να λειτουργεί η μηχανή σου του λέω και το κλείνω χωρίς να περιμένω την καταφατική του απάντηση. Ο χρόνος είναι ζωτικός. Και στρέφουμε πλέον με περισσότερες από 35 μοίρες το λεπτό. 2 λεπτά ακόμη, 1 λεπτό, λίγο ακόμη. Και ξάφνου σαν να με άκουσε ο από μηχανής θεός μου, σαν να μην υπήρχε ποτέ κακοκαιρία όλα άλλαξαν. Γυρίσαμε και φέραμε τον καιρό από πρύμα. Βασίλη, θα μείνουμε σε Πρόσω Ολοταχώς πως είσαι με τα φορτία σου ? ρωτώ. Όλα Καλά μου απαντά. Βασίλη συγγνώμη που ήμουν απότομος νωρίτερα, λέω. Όλα Καλά μου απαντά ξανά.
Μαζέψαμε τα πράγματα από κάτω και βάλαμε ξανά τον Ναυτικό Χάρτη στην θέση του. Κοιτάω τον χάρτη και διαβάζω « Juan De Fuca Channel ». Παίρνω τα Pilot Books και διαβάζω ότι το στενό αυτό ανακαλύφθηκε από τον Ιωάννη Φωκά, Έλληνα θαλασσοπόρο στις αρχές του 15ου αιώνα. Ο Φωκάς που γεννήθηκε στην Κεφαλονιά ήταν απόγονος του Βυζαντινού Εμμανουήλ και Ανδρόνικου Φωκά, ευγενείς και υπερασπιστές του Βυζαντίου. Η Ονομασία των στενών δόθηκε από τον Βρετανό Captain Charles William Barkley προς τιμή του Ιωάννη Φωκά το 1787 όταν ο πρώτος έπλευσε εν μέσω μίας ισχυρής καταιγίδας στα στενά για να βρεί γαλήνη και ηρεμία με το ιστιοφόρο του S/Y IMPERIAL EAGLE. Επίσης η ευρύτερη περιοχή ονομάσθηκε Olympic Peninsula και το Υψηλότερο βουνό στην Αμερικανική περιοχή ονομάζεται ΌΛΥΜΠΟΣ.
Σταματά λίγο το μυαλό, σκέπτεται στιγμιαία κι αισθάνεσαι περήφανος για τους προγόνους σου. Τώρα που όλα ηρέμησαν, βγαίνεις έξω στο πτερό της γέφυρας, αναπνέεις καθαρό παγωμένο αέρα, κλείνεις τα μάτια και γυρνάς το ρολόϊ του χρόνου πίσω κάποιους αιώνες. Πόσο κινδύνεψε άραγε ο Βρετανός που έφθασε να τιμήσει την περιοχή με το όνομα ενός Έλληνα Θαλασσοπόρου ? Πώς να αισθάνθηκε άραγε όταν αντίκρισε την πρώτη βουνοκορφή και την ονόμασε Όλυμπο ? Πώς να αισθάνθηκε ο ταπεινός κι ευγενής Φωκάς όταν ανακάλυψε το στενό της σωτηρίας και της γαλήνης ? Πόσο ευγενής ήταν που δεν θέλησε να δώσει στα στενά το όνομα του μα άφησε την Ιστορία στο διάβα της να τον κρίνει και να τον δικαιώσει ? Πόσοι άλλοι άραγε ήρθαν στα στενά αυτά μέχρι να κοπάσουν αυτά τα λυσσασμένα υδάτινα τείχη ?
Ανοίγω τα μάτια μετά από τις γρήγορες αυτές σκέψεις και νιώθω το σούρουπο στην πλάτη. Συννεφιασμένος ουρανός με τα χρώματα του δειλινού να πέφτουν πάνω τους. Καπετάνιε, φάνηκε το φανάρι του Φωκά μου λένε. Κοιτώ και να σου ξεπροβάλλει στις 110 μοίρες διόπτευση. Σαν να μας υποδέχεται φιλικά και να μας δείχνει την γαλήνη.
Δημήτρη τι απόσταση έχουμε από τον Φωκά ?
Ένδεκα μίλια είναι η απόσταση.
Χαμογελώ και απαντώ « Τα καταφέραμε » - « Ναι » μου απαντούν χαμογελαστά.
« Πάρτε τηλέφωνο το μάγειρα και πείτε του να ετοιμάσει σούπα και πατσά μήπως και στρώσει λίγο το στομάχι μας. Κοντεύει να σπάσει αυτές τις ημέρες », είπα για να σπάσω το βαρύ κλίμα και να επαναφέρω το ηθικό σε καλύτερο επίπεδο..
Σε λίγες ημέρες, φορτωμένοι με αργό πετρέλαιο αυτή την φορά, σαλπάραμε απο Το Βανκούβερ με πορεία νότια, για το Σαν Φρανσίσκο (από όπου σαν στέλνω κι αυτό το μήνυμα).
Βγαίνοντας στο Ειρηνικό, είχα τις ίδιες έννοιες μα τώρα θα είχαμε την κακοκαιρία από πρύμα κι έτσι το κακό θα ήταν λιγότερο. Λίγο πριν την έξοδο μας στο Ειρηνικό, περπάτησα προς το αριστερό άκρο του πτερύγιο της γέφυρας γύρισα το βλέμμα μου στο Φανάρι του Φωκά και μονολόγησα:
«Γειά σου φίλε Φωκά, Σ’ ευχαριστώ » λες και ήταν εκεί ο ίδιος ο Φωκάς και να προϋπαντούσε τα πλοία. Κι ο Όλυμπος, γεμάτος χιόνια και ορατός πια, έστεκε επιβλητικά στο Βάθος.
Με την ευχή οι φάροι της γαλήνης, της αγάπης και της ευτυχίας σας να λάμπουν για εσάς και όλους γύρω σας τελειώνω το μήνυμα μου με μία Κυριακάτικη καλημέρα.
«Σαν βγεις στον πηγαιμό για τον Φωκά, εύχομαι το ταξίδι σου να είναι γαλήνιο»
Από το αγκυροβόλιο του Σαν Φρανσίσκο, με φόντο το Αλκατράζ,
Capt Μ. Κ.
02-03-2013
Ο Μανος ειναι καπετανιος εδω και χρονια σε tankers και ηταν απ' τους νεοτερους σε ηλικια οταν πρωτοκαπετανεψε.
Απο μενα πολλες ευχες για καλες θαλασσες
Ήταν πριν από ένα μήνα περίπου, τότε που βρισκόμουν στο Callao του Peru και είχα στείλει το τελευταίο μου μήνυμα. Έκτοτε ακολούθησα πορεία Βόρεια και κατέπλευσα στο Los Angeles όπου και ροκανίσαμε λίγο χρόνο στο αγκυροβόλιο. Ήλιος με δόντια και κρύο πολύ. ‘Ήρεμο αγκυροβόλιο. Ήμασταν τυχεροί. Όχι για πολύ όμως. Οι τελευταίες ημέρες ηλιόλουστες και τίποτε δεν προϊδέαζε αυτό που θα ακολουθούσε στην επόμενη αποστολή μας.
Λίγο πριν το πέρας της εκφόρτωσης ειδοποιήθηκα από τους ναυλωτές να πλεύσω για το Βανκούβερ του Καναδά. Δεν είχα πάει ποτέ ξανά. Άγνωστα νερά για μένα, αφιλόξενα από τις ιστορίες που είχα ακούσει. Βόρειος Ειρηνικός μέσα στην καρδιά του χειμώνα.
Είναι πανέμορφο το μέρος που θα πάς μου ανέφεραν από την εταιρεία. Την ώρα που το άκουγα το αριστερό αυτί μου ήταν προσηλωμένο σε αυτό που μου έλεγαν και το μυαλό είχε ήδη αρχίσει να βγάζει σχέδιο. Να ασφαλίσουμε καλά το πλοίο, να αδειάσουμε τις σεντίνες, να δοκιμάσουμε τους συναγερμούς, να ελέγξουμε όλες τις υδατοστεγείς ότι εφαρμόζουν καλά, να ασφαλίσουμε τις άγκυρες με διπλά συρματόσχοινα, να ξαναδούμε τα εφόδια των βαρκών, να ελέγξουμε συχνότητες εκπομπής και λήψης ασυρμάτων και δορυφορικών, να, να, να, να……….και από τα πολλά να και να, να σου κι ένα κόμπος στο στήθος ξέρετε τώρα σαν αυτόν που μας πιάνει όταν αγχωθούμε πολύ η σαν στεναχωρηθούμε. Μα ήταν ανάγκη να μας τύχει τέτοιο ταξίδι τώρα σκέφθηκα φουρκισμένος.
Κλείνω το τηλέφωνο και αρχίσω να δίνω τις πρώτες οδηγίες, να κάνουμε αυτό, να κάνουμε το άλλο. Πήγαιναν οι ναύτες και οι αξιωματικοί και κοίταζαν μία μια τις προετοιμασίες. Καλοί άνθρωποι, δεν βαριγγόμισαν καθόλου. Βέβαια με είδαν και κατάλαβαν.
« Μόλις αποβιβασθεί ο Πλοηγός βγαίνουμε στην ανοικτή θάλασσα. Δεν θα μας χαρισθεί τους είπα.
Πρέπει όλα να είναι έτοιμα. Δεν έχει ξεκούραση αν δεν τελειώσουν οι προετοιμασίες ». Γινόμουν στενόχωρος μα δεν είχα άλλη επιλογή. Πράγματι όλα έγιναν πριν ακόμη λύσουμε από την προβλήτα. Μια σχετική ανακούφιση ξεπρόβαλε στην πόρτα της αγωνίας μου. Πάμε τώρα για την άλλη έννοια μας, τον καιρό.
Τι γίνετε Παναγιώτη, τι μας λέει το δελτίο ? - «Βράζει ο Τόπος » αποκρίθηκε. Και η ψυχή μου μαζί του σκέφθηκα. «Όλα θα πάνε καλά, να δεις ότι δεν θα μας αγγίξει, θα περάσει » του απάντησα με αψυχολόγητο ύφος. Βέβαια ήξερα και ήξερε πως δεν θα ήταν έτσι τα πράγματα.
Και αφήσαμε τον πλοηγό να πάει στο καλό, και βγήκαμε στην ανοικτή θάλασσα. Οι πρώτες έξι ώρες ήταν χάρμα θεού, αφού έφτασα κι εγώ να πιστέψω πως είχε κάνει λάθος το δελτίο. Μετά όμως διαπίστωσα πως μάλλον ήταν ο πόθος μου. Και ξεκίνησε, καλή αρχή. Ήταν 17 Φεβρουαρίου του 2013.
Οι αρχικοί υπολογισμοί ήθελαν το πλοίο να φθάνει στο Βανκούβερ την 19η Φεβρουαρίου, βραδάκι περίπου. Με πήρε ο πράκτορας τηλέφωνο (στην αρχή γιατί στην συνέχεια δεν είχαμε ούτε τηλέφωνο) να μου ανακοινώσει ότι με περιμένει στις 19/2. Γέλασα και τον ρώτησα από πού καταγόταν. Από ένα ορεινό χωριό της Ρουμανίας μου αποκρίθηκε. Φίλε Ciobanescu μάλλον Θάλασσα πρωτοαντίκρισες στον Καναδά του είπα. Ναι μου αποκρίθηκε ξανά και γέλασα. Άκου του απάντησα, πες ότι θέλεις σε όποιον θέλεις εκεί στο Βανκούβερ μα μην κάνεις το τραπέζι γιατί μάλλον θα είναι πολύ κρύο το γεύμα όταν καταφέρω να φθάσω. Ούτε αυτό το κατάλαβε ο Ρουμάνος, κι έκλεισε το τηλέφωνο.
Ο καιρός γινόταν αγριότερος ώρα με την ώρα. Δεξιά μας η απόκρημνη ακτογραμμή της Αμερικάνικής Ηπείρου σε απόσταση 26 μιλίων . Ο Καιρός ήταν Αριστερά μας και δυνάμωνε. Όμως τίποτε δεν ήταν χειρότερο από την αποθαλασσία του Βόρειου Ειρηνικού. Κύματα σαν τείχη 6- 7 μέτρα να έρχονται με ορμή και να μας κτυπούν άλλοτε στην Πλώρη αριστερά και άλλοτε στην αριστερή πλευρά μας. Μειώσαμε στροφές και ταχύτητα.
Ϊσα – Ίσα να καβαλάει το κύμα τους είπα, (να πέφτει ομαλά στο διάκενο) όπως πέφτει το βρέφος στην αγκαλιά της μάνας του που το νανουρίζει τους έφερα σαν παράδειγμα. Εντάξει Καπετάνιε απάντησαν κοφτά λιτά και κατέβηκα να δω τι γίνετε παρακάτω. Βομβαρδισμένο τοπίο, τίποτε δεν ήταν στην θέση του, μόνο η τηλεόραση, ο υπολογιστής του πλοίου και η εικόνα του Άγιου Νικόλα. Την κοίταξα λίγο, σκέφθηκα τα δικά μου κι έφυγα από την βομβαρδισμένη και αφιλόξενη καμπίνα μου κατεβαίνοντας παρακάτω. Έφθασα στο Μαγειρειό. Μόλις είχαμε χάσει μία ντουζίνα πιάτα από το απότομο κούνημα του πλοίου. Ο μάγειρος στεναχωρημένος.
Μη στενοχωριέσαι του απαντώ, πες πως τα σπάσαμε σε μία νύκτα κραιπάλης σε κάποιο νυκτερινό κέντρο. Κι εκείνος χαμογέλασε. Μόνο πρόσεξε δύο πράγματα: Μην φτιάξεις σούπα και μην σερβίρεις αν δεν καθίσει στην θέση του ο καθένας. Εντάξει μου απαντά το έχω κατά νου.
Εσύ Καπτά Μάνο τι θα φας με ρώτησε. Δώσε μου τρία παξιμάδια, ένα κομμάτι κεφαλοτύρι, μια χούφτα ελιές και μισή κούπα χαμομήλι. Κι έτσι έφαγα κι εγώ, λες και άμα γευμάτιζα θα κατέβαινε στο στομάχι.
Το βράδυ έγιναν χειρότερα τα πράγματα. Δεν στεκόταν τίποτε όρθιο. Οι διατοιχίσεις γίνονταν με συχνότητα δευτερολέπτου. Μειώσαμε την ταχύτητα στο ελάχιστο εκεί που απλά κυβερνιέται το πλοίο και αλλάξαμε πορεία βάζοντας τον καιρό στην πλώρη. Και απλά πηγαίναμε. Πήγαμε να ξαπλώσουμε, έτσι απλά να κλείσουμε τα μάτια μας. Για ύπνο ούτε να το συζητάς. Οι μηχανικοί πήγαν στο control της μηχανής, εκεί δεν κουνάει πολύ. Οι υπόλοιποι στο καρέ αξιωματικών που βρίσκετε στο καθ’ ύψος μέσο του πλοίου. Εγώ στην γέφυρα καθισμένος στην καρέκλα να παρακολουθώ κάθε κύμα που τσακωνόταν με το χαλύβδινο κέλυφος του πλοίου.
Τρείς ημέρες και τρεις νύκτες κράτησε αυτή η ταλαιπωρία. Στην αρχή είναι όλα κάπως πιο ήρεμα, στην διάρκεια κόβεται η όρεξη, χαλάει η διάθεση και στο τέλος αποφεύγεις ακόμη και τις περιττές κουβέντες. Μιλάνε τα μάτια, οι εκφράσεις, οι κοφτές λέξεις. Απέναντι από το “Cape Disappointment” των ΗΠΑ ήρθαν τα χειρότερα κύματα του ειρηνικού που μας ταλαιπώρησαν μέχρι το τέλος.
Μόλις μπούμε στο « Juan De Fuca Channel » θα ηρεμήσουμε ξεστόμισε ο Δημήτρης από την Μηχανιώνα. Υπομονή Δημήτρη, αν γυρίσουμε τώρα θα μας χτυπήσει στα πλευρά ο καιρός και θα πάθουμε ζημιές. Άκου Δημήτρη, θα πλεύσουμε Βορειότερα 6 ώρες περί τα 32 Ναυτικά μίλια και πριν δύσει, γιατί θέλω να βλέπω τον καιρό όταν στρίβουμε, θα γυρίσουμε με πορεία για εκεί που είπες, αλήθεια πώς το είπες ?
« Juan De Fuca Channel » το είπα. Ξέρεις καπετάνιε το όνομα του είναι κυριολεκτικά Στενά του Ιωάννη Φωκά. Το βλέμμα μου αμφίβολο. Καλά, καλά του απαντώ, ας δούμε τον καιρό για τις επόμενες 6 ώρες και μετά θα φιλοσοφήσουμε.
Και οι ώρες κυλούσαν αργά μα σταθερά. «Κύμα το Κύμα» που αναφέρει και κάποιο όμορφο τραγούδι. Μία ώρα πριν ξεκινούμε τις διαδικασίες, έλεγχος πηδαλίου και χρόνου απόκρισης, επικοινωνία με το μηχανοστάσιο και τον Α’ μηχανικό. Βασίλη του λέω, άκου σε μία ώρα θα στρίψουμε. Όμως δεν έχουμε ταχύτητα και στην διάρκεια της στροφής θα μειωθεί περισσότερο και ίσως μας χτυπήσει άσχημα το κύμα. Άκου λοιπόν, θα ανεβάσω στροφές πάσει δυνάμει για να αποκτήσουμε ταχύτητα και να έχουμε σταθερή ροπή στρέψης. Ξέρω τι θα μου πεις τώρα. Θα ανεβάσει φορτία η μηχανή. Να είσαστε εκεί κάτω έτοιμοι να μειώσουμε αν απαιτηθεί, κατάλαβες Βασίλη, μόνο αν απαιτηθεί και τότε μόνο. Θα σου δώσω 10 λεπτά ειδοποίηση. Εντάξει καπετάνιε.
Έκλεισα το τηλέφωνο και σκέφθηκα, πλησιάζει η ώρα.
45 λεπτά ακόμη, μισή ώρα ακόμη, 15 λεπτά ακόμη (ειδοποιούμε τους μηχανικούς), Κάνουμε ανακοίνωση να προσέξουν όλοι διότι σε λίγο θα στρίψουμε, Πρόσω Ολοταχώς η μηχανή, 8 λεπτά ακόμη, Πηδάλιο Όλο Δεξιά – 35 μοίρες και όχι λιγότερο δίνετε η εντολή και ακολουθείται. Και τώρα τα μάτια στραμμένα στην Πλώρη μας. Αρχίζει να στρέφει και να διατοιχίζετε, η στροφή μας εξελίσσεται καλά μα κι ο καιρός είναι πεισματάρης, 25 μοίρες κλίση στα δεξιά και στα αριστερά. Το ένα αυτί να περιμένει τηλέφωνο από το μηχανοστάσιο και το άλλο να ακούει τους εξωτερικούς ήχους για οποιοδήποτε σημάδι που να υποδηλώνει πιθανή ζημιά. Τα λόγια είναι περιττά, επιχειρησιακή σιγή στην γέφυρα, μόνο παρακολούθηση, εκτίμηση και γρήγορος υπολογισμός με το μυαλό.
«Ελα τώρα μην με σταματάς, έλα βοήθα με λίγο » μονολόγησα έτσι σαν να περίμενα ένα από μηχανή θεό να επέμβει.
« Το Κύμα θα μας καβαλήσει » μου λένε. « Το βλέπω » τους απαντώ. Και καβαλάει το πλοίο από την μία πλευρά και φεύγει με φόρα από την άλλη. Οι σκάλες είναι ακόμα εκεί, ζημιά δεν φαίνεται πουθενά, ευτυχώς τα μάτια μου σαν Ραντάρ ελέγχουν το κατάστρωμα και φαίνονται όλα να είναι εντάξει. Τηλεφωνώ στην μηχανή: Βασίλη λίγο ακόμη θέλουμε κοίτα να λειτουργεί η μηχανή σου του λέω και το κλείνω χωρίς να περιμένω την καταφατική του απάντηση. Ο χρόνος είναι ζωτικός. Και στρέφουμε πλέον με περισσότερες από 35 μοίρες το λεπτό. 2 λεπτά ακόμη, 1 λεπτό, λίγο ακόμη. Και ξάφνου σαν να με άκουσε ο από μηχανής θεός μου, σαν να μην υπήρχε ποτέ κακοκαιρία όλα άλλαξαν. Γυρίσαμε και φέραμε τον καιρό από πρύμα. Βασίλη, θα μείνουμε σε Πρόσω Ολοταχώς πως είσαι με τα φορτία σου ? ρωτώ. Όλα Καλά μου απαντά. Βασίλη συγγνώμη που ήμουν απότομος νωρίτερα, λέω. Όλα Καλά μου απαντά ξανά.
Μαζέψαμε τα πράγματα από κάτω και βάλαμε ξανά τον Ναυτικό Χάρτη στην θέση του. Κοιτάω τον χάρτη και διαβάζω « Juan De Fuca Channel ». Παίρνω τα Pilot Books και διαβάζω ότι το στενό αυτό ανακαλύφθηκε από τον Ιωάννη Φωκά, Έλληνα θαλασσοπόρο στις αρχές του 15ου αιώνα. Ο Φωκάς που γεννήθηκε στην Κεφαλονιά ήταν απόγονος του Βυζαντινού Εμμανουήλ και Ανδρόνικου Φωκά, ευγενείς και υπερασπιστές του Βυζαντίου. Η Ονομασία των στενών δόθηκε από τον Βρετανό Captain Charles William Barkley προς τιμή του Ιωάννη Φωκά το 1787 όταν ο πρώτος έπλευσε εν μέσω μίας ισχυρής καταιγίδας στα στενά για να βρεί γαλήνη και ηρεμία με το ιστιοφόρο του S/Y IMPERIAL EAGLE. Επίσης η ευρύτερη περιοχή ονομάσθηκε Olympic Peninsula και το Υψηλότερο βουνό στην Αμερικανική περιοχή ονομάζεται ΌΛΥΜΠΟΣ.
Σταματά λίγο το μυαλό, σκέπτεται στιγμιαία κι αισθάνεσαι περήφανος για τους προγόνους σου. Τώρα που όλα ηρέμησαν, βγαίνεις έξω στο πτερό της γέφυρας, αναπνέεις καθαρό παγωμένο αέρα, κλείνεις τα μάτια και γυρνάς το ρολόϊ του χρόνου πίσω κάποιους αιώνες. Πόσο κινδύνεψε άραγε ο Βρετανός που έφθασε να τιμήσει την περιοχή με το όνομα ενός Έλληνα Θαλασσοπόρου ? Πώς να αισθάνθηκε άραγε όταν αντίκρισε την πρώτη βουνοκορφή και την ονόμασε Όλυμπο ? Πώς να αισθάνθηκε ο ταπεινός κι ευγενής Φωκάς όταν ανακάλυψε το στενό της σωτηρίας και της γαλήνης ? Πόσο ευγενής ήταν που δεν θέλησε να δώσει στα στενά το όνομα του μα άφησε την Ιστορία στο διάβα της να τον κρίνει και να τον δικαιώσει ? Πόσοι άλλοι άραγε ήρθαν στα στενά αυτά μέχρι να κοπάσουν αυτά τα λυσσασμένα υδάτινα τείχη ?
Ανοίγω τα μάτια μετά από τις γρήγορες αυτές σκέψεις και νιώθω το σούρουπο στην πλάτη. Συννεφιασμένος ουρανός με τα χρώματα του δειλινού να πέφτουν πάνω τους. Καπετάνιε, φάνηκε το φανάρι του Φωκά μου λένε. Κοιτώ και να σου ξεπροβάλλει στις 110 μοίρες διόπτευση. Σαν να μας υποδέχεται φιλικά και να μας δείχνει την γαλήνη.
Δημήτρη τι απόσταση έχουμε από τον Φωκά ?
Ένδεκα μίλια είναι η απόσταση.
Χαμογελώ και απαντώ « Τα καταφέραμε » - « Ναι » μου απαντούν χαμογελαστά.
« Πάρτε τηλέφωνο το μάγειρα και πείτε του να ετοιμάσει σούπα και πατσά μήπως και στρώσει λίγο το στομάχι μας. Κοντεύει να σπάσει αυτές τις ημέρες », είπα για να σπάσω το βαρύ κλίμα και να επαναφέρω το ηθικό σε καλύτερο επίπεδο..
Σε λίγες ημέρες, φορτωμένοι με αργό πετρέλαιο αυτή την φορά, σαλπάραμε απο Το Βανκούβερ με πορεία νότια, για το Σαν Φρανσίσκο (από όπου σαν στέλνω κι αυτό το μήνυμα).
Βγαίνοντας στο Ειρηνικό, είχα τις ίδιες έννοιες μα τώρα θα είχαμε την κακοκαιρία από πρύμα κι έτσι το κακό θα ήταν λιγότερο. Λίγο πριν την έξοδο μας στο Ειρηνικό, περπάτησα προς το αριστερό άκρο του πτερύγιο της γέφυρας γύρισα το βλέμμα μου στο Φανάρι του Φωκά και μονολόγησα:
«Γειά σου φίλε Φωκά, Σ’ ευχαριστώ » λες και ήταν εκεί ο ίδιος ο Φωκάς και να προϋπαντούσε τα πλοία. Κι ο Όλυμπος, γεμάτος χιόνια και ορατός πια, έστεκε επιβλητικά στο Βάθος.
Με την ευχή οι φάροι της γαλήνης, της αγάπης και της ευτυχίας σας να λάμπουν για εσάς και όλους γύρω σας τελειώνω το μήνυμα μου με μία Κυριακάτικη καλημέρα.
«Σαν βγεις στον πηγαιμό για τον Φωκά, εύχομαι το ταξίδι σου να είναι γαλήνιο»
Από το αγκυροβόλιο του Σαν Φρανσίσκο, με φόντο το Αλκατράζ,
Capt Μ. Κ.
02-03-2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Το συν απειρο
Της 17χρονης Δεσποινας Μπαξεβανη,
Δε μ' αρέσουν τα μαθηματικά. Κάποτε μ' άρεσαν. Όχι πια. Τώρα τα βλέπω σα σύμβολα, δίχως λογική° σα διαδικασία.
Δε μ' ενοχλεί το "δίχως λογική", πότε μου δε μ' ενόχλησε. Ψοφάω να μιλάω για κάτι αόριστο, κάτι αόριστο που είναι τόσο συγκεκριμένο όσο κάτι που δείχνεις με το δείκτη του δεξιού σου χεριού, του αριστερού, αν είσαι αριστερόχειρας. Ωστόσο είμαστε όλοι αρκετά εγωιστές, για να καταλαβαίνουμε ο,τι μπορούμε να καταλάβουμε, με βάση τα δικά μας μέτρα και σταθμά. Μ' αυτή την έννοια, πάντα μα πάντα μιλάω για κάτι γενικό.
Ίσως αυτή τη φορά ν' αποτελεί κομμάτι της δικής μου αμφιθυμίας, μα όλοι λίγο πολύ πάσχουμε από αυτήν. Κι ενώ από την πρώτη στιγμή το δήλωσα ξεκάθαρα πως δε μ' αρέσουν τα μαθηματικά, πες το αριθμητική ή άλγεβρα αν θες, υπάρχει κάτι που με συγκλονίζει στο συν άπειρο.
Μ' αρέσει το συν άπειρο, γιατί έχει κάτι το μυστηριώδες, κάτι το άγνωστο. Όλοι το ξέρουν μα κανείς πραγματικά. Κι ίσως αυτό που θες πραγματικά είναι αυτό που σου είναι αδύνατο να αποσυμβολοποιήσεις, σαν το συν άπειρο.
Ο,τι γνωρίζεις λίγο λίγο το βαριέσαι. Μα το συν άπειρο είν' αδύνατο να το γνωρίσεις κι ίσως επειδή πότε σου δεν το γνώρισες, γι' αυτό είν' ακόμη το συν άπειρο, γι' αυτό δεν ξεπεράστηκε ποτέ. Σαν ένα πρόβλημα που δεν κατάφερες να λύσεις κι ακόμα κι αν μπορείς να φέρεις εις πέρας δεκάδες άλλα, αυτα δεν αποτελούν πρόκληση ούτε για 'σένα, ούτε για 'μένα, ούτε για κανέναν που αναζητά ένα συν άπειρο.
Είναι χαοτικό να θες ένα συν άπειρο. Νόμιζα πως όλοι θελαν ένα μα προς μεγάλη μου απογοήτευση έκανα λάθος. Κι έτσι μένουν λίγοι αλλοπαρμένοι, σαν κι εμένα, να ψάχνουν να βρουν ένα δικό τους. Ωστόσο τους λυπάμαι αυτούς που διάλεξαν έναν κοινό αριθμό, σχεδόν όσο θαυμάζω εκείνους τους ευτυχισμένους που το βρήκαν. Κι αρνούμαι κατηγορηματικά να σταματήσω να το ψάχνω, όχι από εγωισμό, ούτε γιατί απαξιώνω όλους τους άλλους αριθμούς, αλλά από δέος σ' ο,τι με κάνει και το ψάχνω.
Ένα συν άπειρο θα σε κάνει πάντα δυστυχή. Κι ίσως ζηλέψεις, στην πορεία, όλους αυτούς που βλέπουν μονάχα ένα ξαπλωτό οκτώ. Σκέψου απλά. Σου φτάνουν μόλις δυο δεύτερα για να μετρήσεις ως το οκτώ μα ακόμα κι αν μπορούσες να μετράς απ' το πρώτο σου δευτερόλεπτο στον κόσμο, αυτή η ζωή δε φτάνει για ν' αγγίξεις το συν άπειρο.
Ωστόσο υπήρξαν κάποιοι που το θέλησαν πολύ. Κι ήρθαν και κούμπωσαν ο ένας πάνω στον άλλον και το κατάφεραν μαζί, σαν δυο μηδέν το ένα δίπλα στ' άλλο. Κι αν πράγματι μπορούσες να το δεις με λίγη παιδική φαντασία, θα βλεπες πως το συν άπειρο δεν είναι τίποτε άλλο απ' τη δική σου θέληση να κυνηγήσεις αυτό που πάντα ονειρευόσουν.
Στην τελική, δεν έχει σημασία "τί" είναι κατ' ουσίαν το συν άπειρο. Είναι άλλο για 'μένα κι άλλο για 'σένα, σαν φυσική υπόσταση, σαν επιδίωξη, σα στόχος. Αν υπάρχει κάτι που μετράει, για να μιλήσουμε κάπως πιο "μαθηματικά", αυτό είναι η άρνησή σου να συμβιβαστείς μ' ο,τι μεσολαβεί απ' το μηδέν ως το άπειρο και η επιδίωξη να κατορθώσεις το ακατόρθωτο.
Δε μ' αρέσουν τα μαθηματικά. Κάποτε μ' άρεσαν. Όχι πια. Τώρα τα βλέπω σα σύμβολα, δίχως λογική° σα διαδικασία.
Δε μ' ενοχλεί το "δίχως λογική", πότε μου δε μ' ενόχλησε. Ψοφάω να μιλάω για κάτι αόριστο, κάτι αόριστο που είναι τόσο συγκεκριμένο όσο κάτι που δείχνεις με το δείκτη του δεξιού σου χεριού, του αριστερού, αν είσαι αριστερόχειρας. Ωστόσο είμαστε όλοι αρκετά εγωιστές, για να καταλαβαίνουμε ο,τι μπορούμε να καταλάβουμε, με βάση τα δικά μας μέτρα και σταθμά. Μ' αυτή την έννοια, πάντα μα πάντα μιλάω για κάτι γενικό.
Ίσως αυτή τη φορά ν' αποτελεί κομμάτι της δικής μου αμφιθυμίας, μα όλοι λίγο πολύ πάσχουμε από αυτήν. Κι ενώ από την πρώτη στιγμή το δήλωσα ξεκάθαρα πως δε μ' αρέσουν τα μαθηματικά, πες το αριθμητική ή άλγεβρα αν θες, υπάρχει κάτι που με συγκλονίζει στο συν άπειρο.
Μ' αρέσει το συν άπειρο, γιατί έχει κάτι το μυστηριώδες, κάτι το άγνωστο. Όλοι το ξέρουν μα κανείς πραγματικά. Κι ίσως αυτό που θες πραγματικά είναι αυτό που σου είναι αδύνατο να αποσυμβολοποιήσεις, σαν το συν άπειρο.
Ο,τι γνωρίζεις λίγο λίγο το βαριέσαι. Μα το συν άπειρο είν' αδύνατο να το γνωρίσεις κι ίσως επειδή πότε σου δεν το γνώρισες, γι' αυτό είν' ακόμη το συν άπειρο, γι' αυτό δεν ξεπεράστηκε ποτέ. Σαν ένα πρόβλημα που δεν κατάφερες να λύσεις κι ακόμα κι αν μπορείς να φέρεις εις πέρας δεκάδες άλλα, αυτα δεν αποτελούν πρόκληση ούτε για 'σένα, ούτε για 'μένα, ούτε για κανέναν που αναζητά ένα συν άπειρο.
Είναι χαοτικό να θες ένα συν άπειρο. Νόμιζα πως όλοι θελαν ένα μα προς μεγάλη μου απογοήτευση έκανα λάθος. Κι έτσι μένουν λίγοι αλλοπαρμένοι, σαν κι εμένα, να ψάχνουν να βρουν ένα δικό τους. Ωστόσο τους λυπάμαι αυτούς που διάλεξαν έναν κοινό αριθμό, σχεδόν όσο θαυμάζω εκείνους τους ευτυχισμένους που το βρήκαν. Κι αρνούμαι κατηγορηματικά να σταματήσω να το ψάχνω, όχι από εγωισμό, ούτε γιατί απαξιώνω όλους τους άλλους αριθμούς, αλλά από δέος σ' ο,τι με κάνει και το ψάχνω.
Ένα συν άπειρο θα σε κάνει πάντα δυστυχή. Κι ίσως ζηλέψεις, στην πορεία, όλους αυτούς που βλέπουν μονάχα ένα ξαπλωτό οκτώ. Σκέψου απλά. Σου φτάνουν μόλις δυο δεύτερα για να μετρήσεις ως το οκτώ μα ακόμα κι αν μπορούσες να μετράς απ' το πρώτο σου δευτερόλεπτο στον κόσμο, αυτή η ζωή δε φτάνει για ν' αγγίξεις το συν άπειρο.
Ωστόσο υπήρξαν κάποιοι που το θέλησαν πολύ. Κι ήρθαν και κούμπωσαν ο ένας πάνω στον άλλον και το κατάφεραν μαζί, σαν δυο μηδέν το ένα δίπλα στ' άλλο. Κι αν πράγματι μπορούσες να το δεις με λίγη παιδική φαντασία, θα βλεπες πως το συν άπειρο δεν είναι τίποτε άλλο απ' τη δική σου θέληση να κυνηγήσεις αυτό που πάντα ονειρευόσουν.
Στην τελική, δεν έχει σημασία "τί" είναι κατ' ουσίαν το συν άπειρο. Είναι άλλο για 'μένα κι άλλο για 'σένα, σαν φυσική υπόσταση, σαν επιδίωξη, σα στόχος. Αν υπάρχει κάτι που μετράει, για να μιλήσουμε κάπως πιο "μαθηματικά", αυτό είναι η άρνησή σου να συμβιβαστείς μ' ο,τι μεσολαβεί απ' το μηδέν ως το άπειρο και η επιδίωξη να κατορθώσεις το ακατόρθωτο.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Plastic Bag Ban Legislation Introduced in California
Sonoma County Assemblyman Marc Levine has introduced legislation that would ban the use of single-use plastic bags in the state of California by the year 2015. The bill, known as AB 158, would target grocery stores with more than $2 million in annual sales, or retailers with more than 10,000 square feet of floor space. In place of plastic, the stores would have to make reusable bags available for purchase. A similar bill is moving through the senate for the County of Sonoma, California.
47 Japanese Nuclear Reactors Placed in “Long-Term Shutdown”
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has officially changed the status of 47 Japanese Nuclear Reactors to “Long-Term Shutdown,” or LTS, on its online database known as the Power Reactor Information System (PRIS). Japan’s loss brings the world total of operational nuclear reactors from 437 down to 390, making for the lowest levels since 1986. Still, many question the validity of the IAEA’s evaluations, as there seems to be no consistently clear set of rules used to determine activity status judging by the wide ranging characteristics of previously listed LTS sites. Nonetheless, the fact that only two nuclear reactors are currently functionally operating in Japan is testament to the country’s environmental progress in spite of a purportedly pro-nuclear Japanese administration.
Rail power generated by passing trains could save more than $10 million
A way to harvest energy from vibrations generated by passing trains could save more than $10 million in trackside power costs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3,000 tons in New York alone, says its inventor, Stony Brook University professor Lei Zuo.
The device converts the irregular up-and-down vibration of a train track to a unidirectional rotation of a generator. The concept is similar to other energy-harvesting devices such as the speed bump.
The device converts the irregular up-and-down vibration of a train track to a unidirectional rotation of a generator. The concept is similar to other energy-harvesting devices such as the speed bump.
Monday, February 11, 2013
We could refreeze the Arctic, should we?
By Bob Weber
A record loss of Arctic sea ice and faster-than-expected melting of Greenland’s ice cap made worldwide headlines in 2012, but research published in major science journals in the fall suggest warming in the North doesn’t have to continue.
We could refreeze the Arctic, proposed a paper in Nature Climate Change. It wouldn’t even cost that much, said an affiliated study in Environmental Research Letters.
The question is should we?
“In terms of pure technical capacity, any significant nation in the world could do it,” said David Keith, a Calgarian and professor of applied physics at Harvard University, one of the lead authors in both studies.
“The really hard questions here aren’t mostly technical. They’re questions about what kind of planet we want and who we are.”
In a world that seems unable to come to grips with carbon dioxide emissions driving climate change, manipulating the Earth’s climate to cool it down has some calling geoengineering a bad idea whose time has finally come.
Scientists have long theorized that injecting reflective particles of some kind into the high atmosphere could reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface and compensate for the greenhouse effect. High CO2 levels would continue to trap heat, but with less energy coming in to begin with, temperatures on the surface would go down.
Keith’s paper used climate models to cautiously suggest that the method could be adapted to engineer regional effects. The right amount of aerosols in the right place at the right time could restore the Arctic’s frozen glory.
“With an average solar reduction of only 0.5 per cent, it is possible to recover pre-industrial sea ice extent,” the paper says. “Decisions involving (solar radiation management) do not need to be reduced to a single ‘global thermostat.’”
A separate paper concluded that it could all be done with a few modified Gulfstream jets widely available on the used market. Annually, it could cost somewhat less than $8 billion — about the price of a major oil pipeline.
While Keith believes emissions should be cut, he doesn’t advocate such a plan, at least not yet.
He suggested geoengineering may be a viable response to a “climate emergency” — a sudden collapse of ice sheets or a killing drought.
“If your primary view is pragmatic, and you want to reduce the risk to Asian farmers who might get hit by high temperatures that make their crops not germinate, then the answer is you should do whatever is actually safe and controllable and produces the outcomes.”
Some environmentalists are starting to think there may be something to that.
“We all agree: mitigation, that’s the thing you should do,” said Steve Hamburg, chief scientist of the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund. “But everyone also recognizes that even if we did that, we may have climate surprises. We’d be irresponsible not to try and understand what our options are.
“It’s easy to dismiss this as too radical a solution, but that does a disservice to what we don’t know. We need to be prepared with information to understand what our options are or aren’t depending on how things play out.”
If we don’t at least understand the risks, a desperate situation may lead to a disastrous decision, Hamburg said.
Keith Allott, head of climate change for the World Wildlife Fund UK, agrees that research is needed.
“We do see the need for a grown-up conversation about the type of research that may be acceptable at this stage,” he said.
The United Nations, through its Convention on Biological Diversity, has ruled out open-air or large-scale geoengineering experiments. Current research, including some that Environment Canada is involved in, is restricted to using models to better understand how the Earth’s climate might respond to manipulation.
Hamburg said discussions on everything from how research is conducted to who gets to set the global thermostat are just beginning.
He’s part of the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative, a partnership between his group and several scientific academies from around the world.
“Everybody has to feel like their interests are represented,” he said.
“It can’t be about North American and European voices. It has to be about global voices and global communities being aware of it so that there is some kind of consensus that ignorance is our enemy.”
Peter Mooney of the Ottawa-based Etc Group, an environmental technology watchdog, is skeptical of anyone’s ability to manage geoengineering.
“There’s a marvellous naivete to it all,” he said. “We need to prepare for this horrible thing of Plan B because governments have proved themselves incapable of addressing the real problem. Therefore, we need to have governments go ahead and do Plan B.”
But that thinking is flawed, he suggested.
“The governments who screwed up in the first place can’t be expected to take something like planetary systems management and do a better job of it.”
Others hold that geoengineering is just more of the same kind of thinking that caused the problem — a reliance on technical fixes instead of looking at causes.
“They kind of like the fact the problem is hard to solve because it gives you a lever to say we have to make these deep reforms in consumer culture, which I personally would like to see,” said Keith.
But really, he asks, what is society but one technical fix after another? Sanitation, for example, is a technical fix for cities producing sewage.
Mooney feels it’s asking too much of governments to expect they’ll make science-based unbiased decisions.
“It’s naive to think that once Plan B becomes a political option that governments won’t just take it on and interpret it as they wish. They will always find scientists who will give them the spin that they want.
“(We shouldn’t be) opening up the back door for politicians to creep out of, claiming that, ‘Don’t worry folks. We don’t need to do anything because we have technological fixes that we can deploy on short notice.’”
Allott, too, is concerned that geoengineering could become a way to excuse the continued consumption of CO2-causing fossil fuels.
“There are some unfortunate overlaps between parts of the geoengineering community and parts of the fossil fuel lobby,” he said. “That’s not OK.”
He also points out that no plan to manage solar radiation does anything to address ocean acidification, another byproduct of CO2 emissions. The best way forward, he said, is to reduce the emissions in the first place.
“People talk about this as if (geoengineering) is an easy option. That ain’t true.”
Geoengineering isn’t likely to become a reality any time soon. There are no aerosol-laden planes on a tarmac waiting for clearance to take off.
But the debate is coming, predicted Hamburg.
“We’re not going to put the genie back in the bottle … (We need) a robust and broad conversation about how to govern research in this area with widely agreed-upon rules of the road.”
Even then, said Keith, we need to cut CO2 emissions.
“If we do this and we do not cut emissions, we just walk further and further off the cliff, like Wile E. Coyote.”
A record loss of Arctic sea ice and faster-than-expected melting of Greenland’s ice cap made worldwide headlines in 2012, but research published in major science journals in the fall suggest warming in the North doesn’t have to continue.
We could refreeze the Arctic, proposed a paper in Nature Climate Change. It wouldn’t even cost that much, said an affiliated study in Environmental Research Letters.
The question is should we?
“In terms of pure technical capacity, any significant nation in the world could do it,” said David Keith, a Calgarian and professor of applied physics at Harvard University, one of the lead authors in both studies.
“The really hard questions here aren’t mostly technical. They’re questions about what kind of planet we want and who we are.”
In a world that seems unable to come to grips with carbon dioxide emissions driving climate change, manipulating the Earth’s climate to cool it down has some calling geoengineering a bad idea whose time has finally come.
Scientists have long theorized that injecting reflective particles of some kind into the high atmosphere could reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface and compensate for the greenhouse effect. High CO2 levels would continue to trap heat, but with less energy coming in to begin with, temperatures on the surface would go down.
Keith’s paper used climate models to cautiously suggest that the method could be adapted to engineer regional effects. The right amount of aerosols in the right place at the right time could restore the Arctic’s frozen glory.
“With an average solar reduction of only 0.5 per cent, it is possible to recover pre-industrial sea ice extent,” the paper says. “Decisions involving (solar radiation management) do not need to be reduced to a single ‘global thermostat.’”
A separate paper concluded that it could all be done with a few modified Gulfstream jets widely available on the used market. Annually, it could cost somewhat less than $8 billion — about the price of a major oil pipeline.
While Keith believes emissions should be cut, he doesn’t advocate such a plan, at least not yet.
He suggested geoengineering may be a viable response to a “climate emergency” — a sudden collapse of ice sheets or a killing drought.
“If your primary view is pragmatic, and you want to reduce the risk to Asian farmers who might get hit by high temperatures that make their crops not germinate, then the answer is you should do whatever is actually safe and controllable and produces the outcomes.”
Some environmentalists are starting to think there may be something to that.
“We all agree: mitigation, that’s the thing you should do,” said Steve Hamburg, chief scientist of the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund. “But everyone also recognizes that even if we did that, we may have climate surprises. We’d be irresponsible not to try and understand what our options are.
“It’s easy to dismiss this as too radical a solution, but that does a disservice to what we don’t know. We need to be prepared with information to understand what our options are or aren’t depending on how things play out.”
If we don’t at least understand the risks, a desperate situation may lead to a disastrous decision, Hamburg said.
Keith Allott, head of climate change for the World Wildlife Fund UK, agrees that research is needed.
“We do see the need for a grown-up conversation about the type of research that may be acceptable at this stage,” he said.
The United Nations, through its Convention on Biological Diversity, has ruled out open-air or large-scale geoengineering experiments. Current research, including some that Environment Canada is involved in, is restricted to using models to better understand how the Earth’s climate might respond to manipulation.
Hamburg said discussions on everything from how research is conducted to who gets to set the global thermostat are just beginning.
He’s part of the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative, a partnership between his group and several scientific academies from around the world.
“Everybody has to feel like their interests are represented,” he said.
“It can’t be about North American and European voices. It has to be about global voices and global communities being aware of it so that there is some kind of consensus that ignorance is our enemy.”
Peter Mooney of the Ottawa-based Etc Group, an environmental technology watchdog, is skeptical of anyone’s ability to manage geoengineering.
“There’s a marvellous naivete to it all,” he said. “We need to prepare for this horrible thing of Plan B because governments have proved themselves incapable of addressing the real problem. Therefore, we need to have governments go ahead and do Plan B.”
But that thinking is flawed, he suggested.
“The governments who screwed up in the first place can’t be expected to take something like planetary systems management and do a better job of it.”
Others hold that geoengineering is just more of the same kind of thinking that caused the problem — a reliance on technical fixes instead of looking at causes.
“They kind of like the fact the problem is hard to solve because it gives you a lever to say we have to make these deep reforms in consumer culture, which I personally would like to see,” said Keith.
But really, he asks, what is society but one technical fix after another? Sanitation, for example, is a technical fix for cities producing sewage.
Mooney feels it’s asking too much of governments to expect they’ll make science-based unbiased decisions.
“It’s naive to think that once Plan B becomes a political option that governments won’t just take it on and interpret it as they wish. They will always find scientists who will give them the spin that they want.
“(We shouldn’t be) opening up the back door for politicians to creep out of, claiming that, ‘Don’t worry folks. We don’t need to do anything because we have technological fixes that we can deploy on short notice.’”
Allott, too, is concerned that geoengineering could become a way to excuse the continued consumption of CO2-causing fossil fuels.
“There are some unfortunate overlaps between parts of the geoengineering community and parts of the fossil fuel lobby,” he said. “That’s not OK.”
He also points out that no plan to manage solar radiation does anything to address ocean acidification, another byproduct of CO2 emissions. The best way forward, he said, is to reduce the emissions in the first place.
“People talk about this as if (geoengineering) is an easy option. That ain’t true.”
Geoengineering isn’t likely to become a reality any time soon. There are no aerosol-laden planes on a tarmac waiting for clearance to take off.
But the debate is coming, predicted Hamburg.
“We’re not going to put the genie back in the bottle … (We need) a robust and broad conversation about how to govern research in this area with widely agreed-upon rules of the road.”
Even then, said Keith, we need to cut CO2 emissions.
“If we do this and we do not cut emissions, we just walk further and further off the cliff, like Wile E. Coyote.”
Sunday, February 10, 2013
the Ants Are Talking
By Carrie Arnold
If you want to survive as an ant, you'd better get ready to make some noise. A new study shows that even ant pupae—a stage between larvae and adult—can communicate via sound, and that this communication can be crucial to their survival.
"What's very cool about this paper is that researchers have shown for the first time that pupae do, in fact, make some sort of a sound," says Phil DeVries, an entomologist at the University of New Orleans in Louisiana who was not involved in the study. "This was a very clever piece of natural history and science."
Scientists have known for decades that ants use a variety of small chemicals known as pheromones to communicate. Perhaps the most classic example is the trail of pheromones the insects place as they walk. Those behind them follow this trail, leading to long lines of ants marching one by one. However, the insects also use pheromones to identify which nest an ant is from and its social status in that nest. Because this chemical communication is so prevalent and complex, researchers long believed that this was the primary way ants shared information.
However, several years ago, researchers began to notice that adults in some ant genuses, such as Myrmica, which contains more than 200 diverse species found across Europe and Asia, made noise. These types of ants have a specialized spike along their abdomen that they stroke with one of their hind legs, similar to dragging the teeth of a comb along the edge of a table. Preliminary studies seemed to indicate that this noise served primarily as an emergency beacon, allowing the ants to shout for help when being threatened by a predator.
Larvae and young pupae have soft outer skeletons, which means their specialized spikes haven't yet formed and they can't make noise. However, as the pupae mature, their covering hardens into a tough exoskeleton like that found in adult ants. These older pupae do have fully functional spikes but were generally thought to be silent.
Karsten Schönrogge, an entomologist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, in the United Kingdom, thought it odd that mature pupae would have the capability to produce sound but remain silent. So he and his colleagues listened in to a group of Myrmica scabrinodis ants. These 4- to 5-millimeter-long, reddish-brown ants are commonly found in northern Europe, in low-lying areas like peat bogs.
Using an extra-sensitive microphone that would pick up on the faint acoustic signals, the researchers measured the sounds produced by 10 differentM. scabrinodis larvae, six immature pupae, and six mature pupae. Whereas the larvae and immature pupae were completely silent, the mature pupae produced brief pulses of sound, the team reports online today in Current Biology.
Further analysis of this noise showed that it was a simplified version of the more complex adult sound. It was as if the mature pupae were saying, "Help!" while the adults were saying "Hey, I'm over here! Please come help! It's your friend!"
To test the function of these noises in the mature pupae, the researchers first played back the sounds made by either the mature pupae or adult M. scabrinodis. Adult worker ants responded the same way to both recordings, such as walking over to the speaker, rubbing their antennae against it, and guarding it. They didn't show these responses when Schönrogge and colleagues played white noise. These behaviors, which represent a worker ant's attempts to protect its nestmates, indicate that acoustic communication served to bring assistance in both mature pupae and adult ants.
To see how the ants used this acoustic communication, the team removed the abdominal spike from some of the mature pupae in a nest. The researchers then disturbed the nest, spilling out larvae, pupae, and adult workers into an experimental arena. Normally, the adult ants rescue their nestmates in a specific order: mature pupae, immature pupae, and, finally, the larvae. In the experiments by Schönrogge and colleagues, the adult workers indeed rescued the unmuted mature pupae first. However, the adult ants completely ignored the muted ants. It was as if the mute mature pupae simply didn't exist.
"The sounds they make rescue them by signaling their social status," Schönrogge says. "There is complex information in these signals," that combine with chemical signals to provide an array of information about the individual. Researchers have yet to decode everything the ants are communicating by sound and how the ants interpret these signals. Acoustic communication may be especially important in mature pupae because they don't yet produce the full array of adult pheromones, but they also don't smell and behave like larvae, either.
DeVries cautions that the discovery doesn't mean that chemical communication in ants is less important. "Ants live in these enormously sophisticated societies," he says. "Acoustic signaling adds another gorgeous piece to what we know about how insect societies communicate."
If you want to survive as an ant, you'd better get ready to make some noise. A new study shows that even ant pupae—a stage between larvae and adult—can communicate via sound, and that this communication can be crucial to their survival.
"What's very cool about this paper is that researchers have shown for the first time that pupae do, in fact, make some sort of a sound," says Phil DeVries, an entomologist at the University of New Orleans in Louisiana who was not involved in the study. "This was a very clever piece of natural history and science."
Scientists have known for decades that ants use a variety of small chemicals known as pheromones to communicate. Perhaps the most classic example is the trail of pheromones the insects place as they walk. Those behind them follow this trail, leading to long lines of ants marching one by one. However, the insects also use pheromones to identify which nest an ant is from and its social status in that nest. Because this chemical communication is so prevalent and complex, researchers long believed that this was the primary way ants shared information.
However, several years ago, researchers began to notice that adults in some ant genuses, such as Myrmica, which contains more than 200 diverse species found across Europe and Asia, made noise. These types of ants have a specialized spike along their abdomen that they stroke with one of their hind legs, similar to dragging the teeth of a comb along the edge of a table. Preliminary studies seemed to indicate that this noise served primarily as an emergency beacon, allowing the ants to shout for help when being threatened by a predator.
Larvae and young pupae have soft outer skeletons, which means their specialized spikes haven't yet formed and they can't make noise. However, as the pupae mature, their covering hardens into a tough exoskeleton like that found in adult ants. These older pupae do have fully functional spikes but were generally thought to be silent.
Karsten Schönrogge, an entomologist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, in the United Kingdom, thought it odd that mature pupae would have the capability to produce sound but remain silent. So he and his colleagues listened in to a group of Myrmica scabrinodis ants. These 4- to 5-millimeter-long, reddish-brown ants are commonly found in northern Europe, in low-lying areas like peat bogs.
Using an extra-sensitive microphone that would pick up on the faint acoustic signals, the researchers measured the sounds produced by 10 differentM. scabrinodis larvae, six immature pupae, and six mature pupae. Whereas the larvae and immature pupae were completely silent, the mature pupae produced brief pulses of sound, the team reports online today in Current Biology.
Further analysis of this noise showed that it was a simplified version of the more complex adult sound. It was as if the mature pupae were saying, "Help!" while the adults were saying "Hey, I'm over here! Please come help! It's your friend!"
To test the function of these noises in the mature pupae, the researchers first played back the sounds made by either the mature pupae or adult M. scabrinodis. Adult worker ants responded the same way to both recordings, such as walking over to the speaker, rubbing their antennae against it, and guarding it. They didn't show these responses when Schönrogge and colleagues played white noise. These behaviors, which represent a worker ant's attempts to protect its nestmates, indicate that acoustic communication served to bring assistance in both mature pupae and adult ants.
To see how the ants used this acoustic communication, the team removed the abdominal spike from some of the mature pupae in a nest. The researchers then disturbed the nest, spilling out larvae, pupae, and adult workers into an experimental arena. Normally, the adult ants rescue their nestmates in a specific order: mature pupae, immature pupae, and, finally, the larvae. In the experiments by Schönrogge and colleagues, the adult workers indeed rescued the unmuted mature pupae first. However, the adult ants completely ignored the muted ants. It was as if the mute mature pupae simply didn't exist.
"The sounds they make rescue them by signaling their social status," Schönrogge says. "There is complex information in these signals," that combine with chemical signals to provide an array of information about the individual. Researchers have yet to decode everything the ants are communicating by sound and how the ants interpret these signals. Acoustic communication may be especially important in mature pupae because they don't yet produce the full array of adult pheromones, but they also don't smell and behave like larvae, either.
DeVries cautions that the discovery doesn't mean that chemical communication in ants is less important. "Ants live in these enormously sophisticated societies," he says. "Acoustic signaling adds another gorgeous piece to what we know about how insect societies communicate."
Friday, February 8, 2013
How the world’s oceans could be running out of fish
By Gaia Vince
a science writer and broadcaster who is particularly interested in how humans are transforming planet Earth and the impacts our changes are having on societies and on other species. She has visited people and places around the world in a quest to understand how we are adapting to environmental change.
It has been some time since most humans lived as hunter-gatherers – with one important exception. Fish are the last wild animal that we hunt in large numbers. And yet, we may be the last generation to do so.
Entire species of marine life will never be seen in the Anthropocene (the Age of Man), let alone tasted, if we do not curb our insatiable voracity for fish. Last year, global fish consumption hit a record high of 17 kg (37 pounds) per person per year, even though global fish stocks have continued to decline. On average, people eat four times as much fish now than they did in 1950.
Around 85% of global fish stocks are over-exploited, depleted, fully exploited or in recovery from exploitation. Only this week, a report suggested there may be fewer than 100 cod over the age of 13 years in the North Sea between the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. The figure is still under dispute, but it’s a worrying sign that we could be losing fish old enough to create offspring that replenish populations.
Large areas of seabed in the Mediterranean and North Sea now resemble a desert – the seas have been expunged of fish using increasingly efficient methods such as bottom trawling. And now, these heavily subsidised industrial fleets are cleaning up tropical oceans too. One-quarter of the EU catch is now made outside European waters, much of it in previously rich West African seas, where each trawler can scoop up hundreds of thousands of kilos of fish in a day. All West African fisheries are now over-exploited, coastal fisheries have declined 50% in the past 30 years, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Catches in the tropics are expected to decline a further 40% by 2050, and yet some 400 million people in Africa and Southeast Asia rely on fish caught (mainly through artisanal fishing) to provide their protein and minerals. With climate change expected to impact agricultural production, people are going to rely more than ever on fish for their nutritional needs.
The policy of subsidising vast fishing fleets to catch ever-diminishing stocks is unsustainable. In Spain, for example, one in three fish landed is paid for by subsidy. Governments, concerned with keeping jobs alive in the fishing industry in the short-term, are essentially paying people to extinguish their own long-term job prospects – not to mention the effect on the next generation of fishermen. Artisanal fishing catches half the world’s fish, yet it provides 90% of the sector’s jobs.
Protect depletion
Clearly, industrialised countries are not about to return to traditional methods. However, the disastrous management of the industry needs to be reformed if we are to restore fisheries to a sustainable level. In the EU alone, restoring stocks would result in greater catches of an estimated 3.5 million tonnes, worth £2.7 billion a year.
Rather than having a system in which the EU members each hustle for the biggest quotas – which are already set far beyond what is sustainable – fisheries experts suggest individual governments should set quotas based on stock levels in their surrounding waters. Fishermen should be given responsibility over the fish they hunt – they have a vested interest in seeing stocks improve, after all – and this could be in the form of individual tradable catch shares of the quotas. Such policies end the tragedy of the commons situation whereby everyone grabs as much as they can from the oceans before their rival nets the last fish, and it’s been used successfully in countries from Iceland to New Zealand to the US. Research shows that managing fisheries in this way means they are twice as likely to avoid collapse as open-access fisheries.
In severely depleted zones, the only way to restore stocks is by introducing protected reserves where all fishing is banned. In other areas, quota compliance needs to be properly monitored – fishing vessels could be licensed and fitted with tracking devices to ensure they don’t stray into illegal areas, spot-checks on fish could be carried out to ensure size and species, and fish could even be tagged, so that the authorities and consumers can ensure its sustainable source.
The other option is to take humanity's usual method of dealing with food shortages, and move from hunter-gathering to farming.
Already, more than half of the fish we eat comes from farms – in China, it’s as high as 80% – but doing this on an industrial scale has its problems. Farms are stocked with wild fish, which must then be fed – larger fish like salmon and tuna eat as much as 20 times their weight in smaller fish like anchovies and herring. This has led to overfishing of these smaller fish, but if farmed fish are fed a vegetarian diet, they lack the prized omega-3 oils that make them nutritious, and they do not look or taste like the wild varieties. Scientists are working to create an artificial version of omega-3 – current synthetic omega-3 versions are derived from fish oils.
Fish farms are also highly polluting. They produce a slurry of toxic run-off – manure – which fertilises algae in the oceans, reducing the oxygen available to other species and creates dead zones. Scotland's salmon-farming industry, for example, produces the same amount of nitrogen waste as the untreated sewage of 3.2 million people – over half the country's population. As a result, there are campaigns to ban aquaculture from coastal areas.
Farmed fish are also breeding grounds for infection and parasites that kill off large proportions of fish – escapees then frequently infect wild populations. Farmers try to control infestations with antibiotics, but usually only succeed in creating a bigger problem of antibiotic resistance.
Dangerous predator
Humanity is not limiting its impacts to fish most commonly found on menus. Exotic sea creatures from turtles to manta ray to marine mammals are being hunted to extinction. Shark numbers, for example, have declined by 80% worldwide, with one-third of shark species now at risk of extinction. The top marine predator is no longer the shark, it’s us.
A decline in shark numbers has a significant impact on the marine ecosystem: it can lead to an increase in fish numbers further down the food chain, which in turn can cause a crash in the population of very small marine life, such as plankton. Without the smallest creatures, the entire system is threatened.
One of the repercussions, which I have discussed before, is an increase in jellyfish numbers, but overfishing, pollution, climate change and acidification also affect the marine ecosystem. Warmer waters are pushing species into different habitats, causing some to die off and others to adapt by creating entirely new hybrid species. Meanwhile, trawlers are netting bycatch that include marine mammals and even seabirds – as many as 320,000 seabirds are being killed annually when they get caught in fishing lines, pushing populations of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters to the edge of extinction.
Some solutions are easier than you might think. Seabirds can be protected by using weighted lines and scaring off birds with lines that have flapping streamers attached – these methods alone have reduced seabird deaths by more than 85-99% where they are used.
Conservation plea
Strengthening and expanding protected marine reserves would also go a long way to conserving species. Currently, less than 1% of the ocean is protected, although by 2020, the international community has agreed to raise this to 10%. Reserves, when properly patrolled and monitored, do protect marine life, and nation after nation is stepping up to the plate. The tiny Pacific islands have banded together to create a giant protected area of 1.1 million square kilometres, for example. Not to be outdone, Australia has created the world’s biggest protected area, and countries around the world from Britain to New Zealand are joining the effort.
But useful as they are, marine reserves – often around points like coral reefs or rock islands – are only effective if governments have the resources to patrol and protect them. Also, many marine creatures, from whale sharks to whales, are migratory – they don’t stay in the protected areas, making them easy prey for fishermen. What’s needed, many argue, are mobile reserves that follow migratory animals, and those that shift habitat due to currents or climate phenomena like El Nino.
The zones need to be well-targeted and needn’t impact on fishermen’s livelihoods. For example, one study found that designating just 20 sites – 4% of the world’s oceans – as conservation zones could protect 108 species (84%) of the world’s marine mammals.
The rivers in many European cities were so overfished, polluted and dammed up by the mid 20th century that they emptied of fish, and many species went locally extinct. But thanks to clean-ups, riverbank restoration and fishing restrictions, fish are returning to waterways, even in inner cities. A decade ago, few people would have imagined that salmon would return to my local river, the Thames. If it is possible to bring back fish to 'dead' rivers, there is surely hope for the world's oceans.
a science writer and broadcaster who is particularly interested in how humans are transforming planet Earth and the impacts our changes are having on societies and on other species. She has visited people and places around the world in a quest to understand how we are adapting to environmental change.
It has been some time since most humans lived as hunter-gatherers – with one important exception. Fish are the last wild animal that we hunt in large numbers. And yet, we may be the last generation to do so.
Entire species of marine life will never be seen in the Anthropocene (the Age of Man), let alone tasted, if we do not curb our insatiable voracity for fish. Last year, global fish consumption hit a record high of 17 kg (37 pounds) per person per year, even though global fish stocks have continued to decline. On average, people eat four times as much fish now than they did in 1950.
Around 85% of global fish stocks are over-exploited, depleted, fully exploited or in recovery from exploitation. Only this week, a report suggested there may be fewer than 100 cod over the age of 13 years in the North Sea between the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. The figure is still under dispute, but it’s a worrying sign that we could be losing fish old enough to create offspring that replenish populations.
Large areas of seabed in the Mediterranean and North Sea now resemble a desert – the seas have been expunged of fish using increasingly efficient methods such as bottom trawling. And now, these heavily subsidised industrial fleets are cleaning up tropical oceans too. One-quarter of the EU catch is now made outside European waters, much of it in previously rich West African seas, where each trawler can scoop up hundreds of thousands of kilos of fish in a day. All West African fisheries are now over-exploited, coastal fisheries have declined 50% in the past 30 years, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Catches in the tropics are expected to decline a further 40% by 2050, and yet some 400 million people in Africa and Southeast Asia rely on fish caught (mainly through artisanal fishing) to provide their protein and minerals. With climate change expected to impact agricultural production, people are going to rely more than ever on fish for their nutritional needs.
The policy of subsidising vast fishing fleets to catch ever-diminishing stocks is unsustainable. In Spain, for example, one in three fish landed is paid for by subsidy. Governments, concerned with keeping jobs alive in the fishing industry in the short-term, are essentially paying people to extinguish their own long-term job prospects – not to mention the effect on the next generation of fishermen. Artisanal fishing catches half the world’s fish, yet it provides 90% of the sector’s jobs.
Protect depletion
Clearly, industrialised countries are not about to return to traditional methods. However, the disastrous management of the industry needs to be reformed if we are to restore fisheries to a sustainable level. In the EU alone, restoring stocks would result in greater catches of an estimated 3.5 million tonnes, worth £2.7 billion a year.
Rather than having a system in which the EU members each hustle for the biggest quotas – which are already set far beyond what is sustainable – fisheries experts suggest individual governments should set quotas based on stock levels in their surrounding waters. Fishermen should be given responsibility over the fish they hunt – they have a vested interest in seeing stocks improve, after all – and this could be in the form of individual tradable catch shares of the quotas. Such policies end the tragedy of the commons situation whereby everyone grabs as much as they can from the oceans before their rival nets the last fish, and it’s been used successfully in countries from Iceland to New Zealand to the US. Research shows that managing fisheries in this way means they are twice as likely to avoid collapse as open-access fisheries.
In severely depleted zones, the only way to restore stocks is by introducing protected reserves where all fishing is banned. In other areas, quota compliance needs to be properly monitored – fishing vessels could be licensed and fitted with tracking devices to ensure they don’t stray into illegal areas, spot-checks on fish could be carried out to ensure size and species, and fish could even be tagged, so that the authorities and consumers can ensure its sustainable source.
The other option is to take humanity's usual method of dealing with food shortages, and move from hunter-gathering to farming.
Already, more than half of the fish we eat comes from farms – in China, it’s as high as 80% – but doing this on an industrial scale has its problems. Farms are stocked with wild fish, which must then be fed – larger fish like salmon and tuna eat as much as 20 times their weight in smaller fish like anchovies and herring. This has led to overfishing of these smaller fish, but if farmed fish are fed a vegetarian diet, they lack the prized omega-3 oils that make them nutritious, and they do not look or taste like the wild varieties. Scientists are working to create an artificial version of omega-3 – current synthetic omega-3 versions are derived from fish oils.
Fish farms are also highly polluting. They produce a slurry of toxic run-off – manure – which fertilises algae in the oceans, reducing the oxygen available to other species and creates dead zones. Scotland's salmon-farming industry, for example, produces the same amount of nitrogen waste as the untreated sewage of 3.2 million people – over half the country's population. As a result, there are campaigns to ban aquaculture from coastal areas.
Farmed fish are also breeding grounds for infection and parasites that kill off large proportions of fish – escapees then frequently infect wild populations. Farmers try to control infestations with antibiotics, but usually only succeed in creating a bigger problem of antibiotic resistance.
Dangerous predator
Humanity is not limiting its impacts to fish most commonly found on menus. Exotic sea creatures from turtles to manta ray to marine mammals are being hunted to extinction. Shark numbers, for example, have declined by 80% worldwide, with one-third of shark species now at risk of extinction. The top marine predator is no longer the shark, it’s us.
A decline in shark numbers has a significant impact on the marine ecosystem: it can lead to an increase in fish numbers further down the food chain, which in turn can cause a crash in the population of very small marine life, such as plankton. Without the smallest creatures, the entire system is threatened.
One of the repercussions, which I have discussed before, is an increase in jellyfish numbers, but overfishing, pollution, climate change and acidification also affect the marine ecosystem. Warmer waters are pushing species into different habitats, causing some to die off and others to adapt by creating entirely new hybrid species. Meanwhile, trawlers are netting bycatch that include marine mammals and even seabirds – as many as 320,000 seabirds are being killed annually when they get caught in fishing lines, pushing populations of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters to the edge of extinction.
Some solutions are easier than you might think. Seabirds can be protected by using weighted lines and scaring off birds with lines that have flapping streamers attached – these methods alone have reduced seabird deaths by more than 85-99% where they are used.
Conservation plea
Strengthening and expanding protected marine reserves would also go a long way to conserving species. Currently, less than 1% of the ocean is protected, although by 2020, the international community has agreed to raise this to 10%. Reserves, when properly patrolled and monitored, do protect marine life, and nation after nation is stepping up to the plate. The tiny Pacific islands have banded together to create a giant protected area of 1.1 million square kilometres, for example. Not to be outdone, Australia has created the world’s biggest protected area, and countries around the world from Britain to New Zealand are joining the effort.
But useful as they are, marine reserves – often around points like coral reefs or rock islands – are only effective if governments have the resources to patrol and protect them. Also, many marine creatures, from whale sharks to whales, are migratory – they don’t stay in the protected areas, making them easy prey for fishermen. What’s needed, many argue, are mobile reserves that follow migratory animals, and those that shift habitat due to currents or climate phenomena like El Nino.
The zones need to be well-targeted and needn’t impact on fishermen’s livelihoods. For example, one study found that designating just 20 sites – 4% of the world’s oceans – as conservation zones could protect 108 species (84%) of the world’s marine mammals.
The rivers in many European cities were so overfished, polluted and dammed up by the mid 20th century that they emptied of fish, and many species went locally extinct. But thanks to clean-ups, riverbank restoration and fishing restrictions, fish are returning to waterways, even in inner cities. A decade ago, few people would have imagined that salmon would return to my local river, the Thames. If it is possible to bring back fish to 'dead' rivers, there is surely hope for the world's oceans.
Will we ever… travel faster than the speed of light?
By Jennifer Ouellette,
an award-winning science writer whose work has appeared in Discover, New Scientist, Nature, and Physics World, among other venues.
Einstein said it is impossible, but as Jennifer Ouellette explains some scientists are still trying to break the cosmic speed limit – even if it means bending the laws of physics.
Last summer, a small neutrino experiment in Europe called OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion tRacking Apparatus) stunned the world with a preliminary announcement that it had clocked neutrinos travelling just a few fractions of a second faster than the speed of light. The news even briefly overshadowed the far more recognizable Large Hadron Collider’s ongoing hunt for the Higgs boson.
Despite careful hedging by scientists, the popular imagination jumped right from neutrinos to a viable spacecraft for fast interstellar travel. After all, the prospect of faster-than-light (FTL) travel has been a science fiction staple for decades, from wormholes and Star Trek’s original warp drive, to the FTL “jumps” used to evade the Cylons in SyFy’s Battlestar Galactica reboot. It takes years, decades, centuries even to cross the vast expanses of space with our current propulsion technology – a realistic depiction of the tedium of space travel in entertainment would likely elicit the viewer equivalent of “Are we there yet?”
So the OPERA announcement was bound to generate excitement, even if the neutrinos in question were only moving nanoseconds faster than light – hardly sufficient to outrun the Cylons, but nevertheless faster than c, the cosmic speed limit set by Albert Einstein back in 1905.
Unfortunately, the euphoria was premature: the OPERA results were incorrect, thanks to a calibration error. The culprit: a faulty cable connection in the GPS system used to time the neutrinos along their journey. That killjoy Einstein wins again.
But if the OPERA saga did tell us anything, it’s that the idea of travelling faster than light continues to capture the imagination. As Hollywood screenwriter Zack Stentz (Thor, a.k.a. “Vikings in Space”) said recently at a Los Angeles panel on the science of superheroes, “Every science fiction writer who wants to get out of the solar system [within a human lifetime] gloms onto that. It’s the leap of faith that lets you tell stories on this bigger canvas.”
“You cannae change the laws of physics”
“Leap of faith” is a particularly relevant phrase to use here. The fact is we’ll never be able to travel beyond the speed of light, at least based on our current understanding of established physics.
As any object with mass accelerates – like a proton in the LHC – it gains energy, always needing just a little bit more energy to accelerate even further. The LHC, the largest and highest-energy particle accelerator we have, boosts protons as close to the speed of light as we can get, but they never quite hit the mark. If a proton did achieve that speed, it would need infinite energy to go any faster, and we don’t have an infinite supply of energy.
Equations don’t tend to lie, especially ones that have been tested and re-tested in countless experiments for over a century. For all practical intents and purposes, the speed of light is an insurmountable threshold.
But physicists would never make any progress at all if they threw in the towel quite that easily, and nobody thinks Einstein will have the final word in perpetuity. Many scientists are happy to consider the possibility of violations of relativistic principles, even if none have yet been experimentally confirmed.
One of the earliest proposed possibilities for FTL travel involved a hypothetical particle called a tachyon, capable of tunnelling past the speed of light barrier. This turned out to be more of a mathematical artifact rather than an actual physical particle.
However, another reason for all the OPERA-tic excitement was that back in 1985, physicists proposed that some high-energy neutrinos might really be tachyons, capable of interacting with an as-yet-known field, giving them just enough of an energy boost to break through the barrier. Such tachyon-like neutrinos would supersede photons as the fastest particles in the universe.
OPERA’s calibration error dashed those hopes, but there are still plenty of potential loopholes to be explored, such as the Star Trek-inspired warp drive mechanism first proposed by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994. In general relativity, spacetime is dynamic, not static, warping and bending in response to the presence of mass or energy. Alcubierre suggested that it might be possible to encase a spaceship within a “warp bubble”, whereby space contracted in front of the craft and expanded behind it, enabling it to travel faster than light. But within that bubble, spacetime would remain essentially flat and the craft would technically “obey” the cosmic speed limit.
Alas, once again we face an energy problem: achieving that degree of curvature would require enormous amounts of energy – and negative energy at that – equivalent to the mass of Jupiter. To propel a spacecraft across the Milky Way galaxy may require more energy than can be found in the mass of the entire universe. A more energy-efficient ring-shaped design for such a warp drive was described recently at a symposium on interstellar space flight, offering a meager shred of hope to diehard space acolytes that for future generations, warp drive will be a reality.
However, given what we know about general relativity and quantum field theory, “It almost certainly can’t be done,” says Ken Olum, a cosmologist at Tufts. “Of course, if we are talking about quantum gravity, it’s hard to know, because we don’t really know what that is.”
Former Nasa scientist Kevin Grazier, who was the technical consultant for Battlestar Galactica, says that a version of the Alcubierre warp drive inspired the “jump drive” used in that series. It was based on the assumption that, in this fictional world, the Colonials had merged theories of electromagnetism and gravity, such that if you could create a very intense electromagnetic field, it would be functionally equivalent to an intense gravitational field capable of warping spacetime. Turning that ingenious fiction into a viable reality is another matter altogether.
Brane gain
If we really want to get speculative, Olum suggests FTL travel would be possible if exotic concepts, like those that emerge from superstring theory, prove to be correct.
We inhabit four-dimensional spacetime, but various permutations of superstring theory suggest our universe is just one of many, co-existing within a bubble of five-dimensional spacetime called the “bulk.” Within that bulk, our universe lines up in parallel with all the others, just like the pages in a book. Olum explains that, hypothetically, one could take a shortcut through the bulk, thereby arriving at your destination sooner than if you had travelled along your four-dimensional surface, or brane (short for membrane) as it is known.
Even then, there is a catch. “In brane theories, only gravitons can travel through the bulk,” says Olum. So one would need to invent a machine that could scan an object and transmit the information in the form of gravitons to a second machine on the other end which would then reconstruct that object – shades of teleportation, only with gravitons.
Considering we have yet to observe gravitons in our most powerful accelerators, and the current record for teleporting small clouds of atoms is the relatively non-Cylon-troubling distance of 143 kilometres (88 miles), this scenario must also remain firmly in the realm of science fiction, at least for now. Science advances, but it does so slowly, at a pace nowhere near the speed of light.
an award-winning science writer whose work has appeared in Discover, New Scientist, Nature, and Physics World, among other venues.
Einstein said it is impossible, but as Jennifer Ouellette explains some scientists are still trying to break the cosmic speed limit – even if it means bending the laws of physics.
Last summer, a small neutrino experiment in Europe called OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion tRacking Apparatus) stunned the world with a preliminary announcement that it had clocked neutrinos travelling just a few fractions of a second faster than the speed of light. The news even briefly overshadowed the far more recognizable Large Hadron Collider’s ongoing hunt for the Higgs boson.
Despite careful hedging by scientists, the popular imagination jumped right from neutrinos to a viable spacecraft for fast interstellar travel. After all, the prospect of faster-than-light (FTL) travel has been a science fiction staple for decades, from wormholes and Star Trek’s original warp drive, to the FTL “jumps” used to evade the Cylons in SyFy’s Battlestar Galactica reboot. It takes years, decades, centuries even to cross the vast expanses of space with our current propulsion technology – a realistic depiction of the tedium of space travel in entertainment would likely elicit the viewer equivalent of “Are we there yet?”
So the OPERA announcement was bound to generate excitement, even if the neutrinos in question were only moving nanoseconds faster than light – hardly sufficient to outrun the Cylons, but nevertheless faster than c, the cosmic speed limit set by Albert Einstein back in 1905.
Unfortunately, the euphoria was premature: the OPERA results were incorrect, thanks to a calibration error. The culprit: a faulty cable connection in the GPS system used to time the neutrinos along their journey. That killjoy Einstein wins again.
But if the OPERA saga did tell us anything, it’s that the idea of travelling faster than light continues to capture the imagination. As Hollywood screenwriter Zack Stentz (Thor, a.k.a. “Vikings in Space”) said recently at a Los Angeles panel on the science of superheroes, “Every science fiction writer who wants to get out of the solar system [within a human lifetime] gloms onto that. It’s the leap of faith that lets you tell stories on this bigger canvas.”
“You cannae change the laws of physics”
“Leap of faith” is a particularly relevant phrase to use here. The fact is we’ll never be able to travel beyond the speed of light, at least based on our current understanding of established physics.
As any object with mass accelerates – like a proton in the LHC – it gains energy, always needing just a little bit more energy to accelerate even further. The LHC, the largest and highest-energy particle accelerator we have, boosts protons as close to the speed of light as we can get, but they never quite hit the mark. If a proton did achieve that speed, it would need infinite energy to go any faster, and we don’t have an infinite supply of energy.
Equations don’t tend to lie, especially ones that have been tested and re-tested in countless experiments for over a century. For all practical intents and purposes, the speed of light is an insurmountable threshold.
But physicists would never make any progress at all if they threw in the towel quite that easily, and nobody thinks Einstein will have the final word in perpetuity. Many scientists are happy to consider the possibility of violations of relativistic principles, even if none have yet been experimentally confirmed.
One of the earliest proposed possibilities for FTL travel involved a hypothetical particle called a tachyon, capable of tunnelling past the speed of light barrier. This turned out to be more of a mathematical artifact rather than an actual physical particle.
However, another reason for all the OPERA-tic excitement was that back in 1985, physicists proposed that some high-energy neutrinos might really be tachyons, capable of interacting with an as-yet-known field, giving them just enough of an energy boost to break through the barrier. Such tachyon-like neutrinos would supersede photons as the fastest particles in the universe.
OPERA’s calibration error dashed those hopes, but there are still plenty of potential loopholes to be explored, such as the Star Trek-inspired warp drive mechanism first proposed by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994. In general relativity, spacetime is dynamic, not static, warping and bending in response to the presence of mass or energy. Alcubierre suggested that it might be possible to encase a spaceship within a “warp bubble”, whereby space contracted in front of the craft and expanded behind it, enabling it to travel faster than light. But within that bubble, spacetime would remain essentially flat and the craft would technically “obey” the cosmic speed limit.
Alas, once again we face an energy problem: achieving that degree of curvature would require enormous amounts of energy – and negative energy at that – equivalent to the mass of Jupiter. To propel a spacecraft across the Milky Way galaxy may require more energy than can be found in the mass of the entire universe. A more energy-efficient ring-shaped design for such a warp drive was described recently at a symposium on interstellar space flight, offering a meager shred of hope to diehard space acolytes that for future generations, warp drive will be a reality.
However, given what we know about general relativity and quantum field theory, “It almost certainly can’t be done,” says Ken Olum, a cosmologist at Tufts. “Of course, if we are talking about quantum gravity, it’s hard to know, because we don’t really know what that is.”
Former Nasa scientist Kevin Grazier, who was the technical consultant for Battlestar Galactica, says that a version of the Alcubierre warp drive inspired the “jump drive” used in that series. It was based on the assumption that, in this fictional world, the Colonials had merged theories of electromagnetism and gravity, such that if you could create a very intense electromagnetic field, it would be functionally equivalent to an intense gravitational field capable of warping spacetime. Turning that ingenious fiction into a viable reality is another matter altogether.
Brane gain
If we really want to get speculative, Olum suggests FTL travel would be possible if exotic concepts, like those that emerge from superstring theory, prove to be correct.
We inhabit four-dimensional spacetime, but various permutations of superstring theory suggest our universe is just one of many, co-existing within a bubble of five-dimensional spacetime called the “bulk.” Within that bulk, our universe lines up in parallel with all the others, just like the pages in a book. Olum explains that, hypothetically, one could take a shortcut through the bulk, thereby arriving at your destination sooner than if you had travelled along your four-dimensional surface, or brane (short for membrane) as it is known.
Even then, there is a catch. “In brane theories, only gravitons can travel through the bulk,” says Olum. So one would need to invent a machine that could scan an object and transmit the information in the form of gravitons to a second machine on the other end which would then reconstruct that object – shades of teleportation, only with gravitons.
Considering we have yet to observe gravitons in our most powerful accelerators, and the current record for teleporting small clouds of atoms is the relatively non-Cylon-troubling distance of 143 kilometres (88 miles), this scenario must also remain firmly in the realm of science fiction, at least for now. Science advances, but it does so slowly, at a pace nowhere near the speed of light.
Will we ever… simulate the human brain?
By Ed Yong BBC
A billion dollar project claims it will recreate the most complex organ in the human body in just 10 years. But detractors say it is impossible. Who is right?
For years, Henry Markram has claimed that he can simulate the human brain in a computer within a decade. On 23 January 2013, the European Commission told him to prove it. His ambitious Human Brain Project (HBP) won one of two ceiling-shattering grants from the EC to the tune of a billion euros, ending a two-year contest against several other grandiose projects. Can he now deliver? Is it even possible to build a computer simulation of the most powerful computer in the world – the 1.4-kg (3 lb) cluster of 86 billion neurons that sits inside our skulls?
The very idea has many neuroscientists in an uproar, and the HBP’s substantial budget, awarded at a tumultuous time for research funding, is not helping. The common refrain is that the brain is just too complicated to simulate, and our understanding of it is at too primordial a stage.
Then, there’s Markram’s strategy. Neuroscientists have built computer simulations of neurons since the 1950s, but the vast majority treat these cells as single abstract points. Markram says he wants to build the cells as they are – gloriously detailed branching networks, full of active genes and electrical activity. He wants to simulate them down to their ion channels – the molecular gates that allow neurons to build up a voltage by shuttling charged particles in and out of their membrane borders. He wants to represent the genes that switch on and off inside them. He wants to simulate the 3,000 or so synapses that allow neurons to communicate with their neighbours.
Erin McKiernan, who builds computer models of single neurons, is a fan of this bottom-up approach. “Really understanding what’s happening at a fundamental level and building up – I generally agree with that,” she says. “But I tend to disagree with the time frame. [Markram] said that in 10 years, we could have a fully simulated brain, but I don’t think that’ll happen.”
Even building McKiernan’s single-neuron models is a fiendishly complicated task. “For many neurons, we don’t understand well the complement of ion channels within them, how they work together to produce electrical activity, how they change over development or injury,” she says. “At the next level, we have even less knowledge about how these cells connect, or how they’re constantly reaching out, retracting or changing their strength.” It’s ignorance all the way down.
“For sure, what we have is a tiny, tiny fraction of what we need,” says Markram. Worse still, experimentally mapping out every molecule, cell and connection is completely unfeasible in terms of cost, technical requirements and motivation. But he argues that building a unified model is the only way to unite our knowledge, and to start filling in the gaps in a focused way. By putting it all together, we can use what we know to predict what we don’t, and to refine everything on the fly as new insights come in.
Network construction
The crucial piece of information, and the one Markram’s team is devoting the most time towards, is a complete inventory of which genes are active in which neurons. Neurons aren’t all the same – they come in a variety of types that perform different roles and deploy different genes. Once Markram has the full list – the so-called “single-cell transcriptome” – he is confident that he can use it to deduce the blend of different neurons in various parts of the brain, recreate the electrical behaviour of each type of cell, or even simulate how a neuron’s branches would grow from scratch. “We’re discovering biological principles that are putting the brain together,” he says.
For over two decades, his team have teased out the basic details of a rat’s neurons, and produced a virtual set of cylindrical brain slices called cortical columns. The current simulation has 100 of these columns, and each has around 10,000 neurons – less than 2% of a rat’s brain and just over 0.001% of ours. “You have to practice this first with rodents so you’re confident that the rules apply, and do spot checks to show that these rules can transfer to humans,” he says.
Eugene Izhikevich from the Brain Corporation, who helped to build a model with 100 billion neurons, is convinced that we should be able to build a network with all the anatomy and connectivity of a real brain. An expert could slice through it and not tell the difference. “It’d be like a Turing test for how close the model would be to the human brain,” he says.
But that would be a fantastic simulation of a dead brain in an empty vat. A living one pulses with electrical activity – small-scale currents that travel along neurons, and large waves that pass across entire lobes. Real brains live inside bodies and interact with environments. If we could simulate this dynamism, what would emerge? Learning? Intelligence? Consciousness?
“People think I want to build this magical model that will eventually speak or do something interesting,” says Markram. “I know I’m partially to blame for it – in a TED lecture, you have to speak in a very general way. But what it will do is secondary. We’re not trying to make a machine behave like a human. We’re trying to organise the data.”
Function first
That worries neuroscientist Chris Eliasmith from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. “The project is impressive but might leave people baffled that someone would spend a lot of time and effort building something that doesn’t do anything,” he says. Markram’s isn’t the only project to do this. Last November, IBM presented a brain simulation called SyNAPSE, which includes 530 billion neurons with 100 trillion synapses connecting them, and does... not very much. It’s basically a big computer. It still needs to be programmed. “Markram would complain that those neurons aren’t realistic enough, but throwing a ton of neurons together and approximately wiring them according to biology isn’t going to bridge this gap,” says Eliasmith.
Eliasmith has taken a completely different approach. He is putting function first. Last November, he unveiled a model called Spaun, which simulates a relatively paltry 2.5 million neurons but shows behaviour. It still simulates the physiology and wiring of the individual neurons, but organises them according to what we know about the brain’s architecture. It’s a top-down model, as well as a bottom-up one, and sets the benchmark for brain simulations that actually do something. It can recognise and copy lists of numbers, carry out simple arithmetic, and solve basic reasoning problems. It even makes errors in the same way we do – for example, it’s more likely to remember items at the start and end of a list.
But the point of Spaun is not to build an artificial brain either. It’s a test-bed for neuroscience – a platform that we can use to understand how the brain works. Does Region X control Function Y? Build it and see if that’s true. If you knock out Region X, will Spaun’s mental abilities suffer in a predictable way? Try it.
This kind of experiment will be hard to do with the HBP’s bottom-up architecture. Even if that simulation shows properties like intelligence, it will be difficult to understand where those came from. It won’t be a simple matter of tweaking one part of the simulation and seeing what happens. If you are trying to understand the brain and you do a really good simulation, the problem is that you end up with... the brain. And the brain is very complicated.
Besides, Izhikevich points out that technology is quickly outpacing many of the abilities that our brains are good at. “I can do arithmetic better on a calculator. A computer can play chess better than you,” he says. By the time a brain simulation is sophisticated enough to reproduce brain’s full repertoire of behaviour, other technologies will be able to do the same things faster and better, and “the problem won’t be interesting anymore,” says Izhikevich.
So, simulating a brain isn’t a goal in itself. It’s an end to some means. It’s a way of organising tools, experts, and data. “Walking the path is the most important part,” says Izhikevich.
A billion dollar project claims it will recreate the most complex organ in the human body in just 10 years. But detractors say it is impossible. Who is right?
For years, Henry Markram has claimed that he can simulate the human brain in a computer within a decade. On 23 January 2013, the European Commission told him to prove it. His ambitious Human Brain Project (HBP) won one of two ceiling-shattering grants from the EC to the tune of a billion euros, ending a two-year contest against several other grandiose projects. Can he now deliver? Is it even possible to build a computer simulation of the most powerful computer in the world – the 1.4-kg (3 lb) cluster of 86 billion neurons that sits inside our skulls?
The very idea has many neuroscientists in an uproar, and the HBP’s substantial budget, awarded at a tumultuous time for research funding, is not helping. The common refrain is that the brain is just too complicated to simulate, and our understanding of it is at too primordial a stage.
Then, there’s Markram’s strategy. Neuroscientists have built computer simulations of neurons since the 1950s, but the vast majority treat these cells as single abstract points. Markram says he wants to build the cells as they are – gloriously detailed branching networks, full of active genes and electrical activity. He wants to simulate them down to their ion channels – the molecular gates that allow neurons to build up a voltage by shuttling charged particles in and out of their membrane borders. He wants to represent the genes that switch on and off inside them. He wants to simulate the 3,000 or so synapses that allow neurons to communicate with their neighbours.
Erin McKiernan, who builds computer models of single neurons, is a fan of this bottom-up approach. “Really understanding what’s happening at a fundamental level and building up – I generally agree with that,” she says. “But I tend to disagree with the time frame. [Markram] said that in 10 years, we could have a fully simulated brain, but I don’t think that’ll happen.”
Even building McKiernan’s single-neuron models is a fiendishly complicated task. “For many neurons, we don’t understand well the complement of ion channels within them, how they work together to produce electrical activity, how they change over development or injury,” she says. “At the next level, we have even less knowledge about how these cells connect, or how they’re constantly reaching out, retracting or changing their strength.” It’s ignorance all the way down.
“For sure, what we have is a tiny, tiny fraction of what we need,” says Markram. Worse still, experimentally mapping out every molecule, cell and connection is completely unfeasible in terms of cost, technical requirements and motivation. But he argues that building a unified model is the only way to unite our knowledge, and to start filling in the gaps in a focused way. By putting it all together, we can use what we know to predict what we don’t, and to refine everything on the fly as new insights come in.
Network construction
The crucial piece of information, and the one Markram’s team is devoting the most time towards, is a complete inventory of which genes are active in which neurons. Neurons aren’t all the same – they come in a variety of types that perform different roles and deploy different genes. Once Markram has the full list – the so-called “single-cell transcriptome” – he is confident that he can use it to deduce the blend of different neurons in various parts of the brain, recreate the electrical behaviour of each type of cell, or even simulate how a neuron’s branches would grow from scratch. “We’re discovering biological principles that are putting the brain together,” he says.
For over two decades, his team have teased out the basic details of a rat’s neurons, and produced a virtual set of cylindrical brain slices called cortical columns. The current simulation has 100 of these columns, and each has around 10,000 neurons – less than 2% of a rat’s brain and just over 0.001% of ours. “You have to practice this first with rodents so you’re confident that the rules apply, and do spot checks to show that these rules can transfer to humans,” he says.
Eugene Izhikevich from the Brain Corporation, who helped to build a model with 100 billion neurons, is convinced that we should be able to build a network with all the anatomy and connectivity of a real brain. An expert could slice through it and not tell the difference. “It’d be like a Turing test for how close the model would be to the human brain,” he says.
But that would be a fantastic simulation of a dead brain in an empty vat. A living one pulses with electrical activity – small-scale currents that travel along neurons, and large waves that pass across entire lobes. Real brains live inside bodies and interact with environments. If we could simulate this dynamism, what would emerge? Learning? Intelligence? Consciousness?
“People think I want to build this magical model that will eventually speak or do something interesting,” says Markram. “I know I’m partially to blame for it – in a TED lecture, you have to speak in a very general way. But what it will do is secondary. We’re not trying to make a machine behave like a human. We’re trying to organise the data.”
Function first
That worries neuroscientist Chris Eliasmith from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. “The project is impressive but might leave people baffled that someone would spend a lot of time and effort building something that doesn’t do anything,” he says. Markram’s isn’t the only project to do this. Last November, IBM presented a brain simulation called SyNAPSE, which includes 530 billion neurons with 100 trillion synapses connecting them, and does... not very much. It’s basically a big computer. It still needs to be programmed. “Markram would complain that those neurons aren’t realistic enough, but throwing a ton of neurons together and approximately wiring them according to biology isn’t going to bridge this gap,” says Eliasmith.
Eliasmith has taken a completely different approach. He is putting function first. Last November, he unveiled a model called Spaun, which simulates a relatively paltry 2.5 million neurons but shows behaviour. It still simulates the physiology and wiring of the individual neurons, but organises them according to what we know about the brain’s architecture. It’s a top-down model, as well as a bottom-up one, and sets the benchmark for brain simulations that actually do something. It can recognise and copy lists of numbers, carry out simple arithmetic, and solve basic reasoning problems. It even makes errors in the same way we do – for example, it’s more likely to remember items at the start and end of a list.
But the point of Spaun is not to build an artificial brain either. It’s a test-bed for neuroscience – a platform that we can use to understand how the brain works. Does Region X control Function Y? Build it and see if that’s true. If you knock out Region X, will Spaun’s mental abilities suffer in a predictable way? Try it.
This kind of experiment will be hard to do with the HBP’s bottom-up architecture. Even if that simulation shows properties like intelligence, it will be difficult to understand where those came from. It won’t be a simple matter of tweaking one part of the simulation and seeing what happens. If you are trying to understand the brain and you do a really good simulation, the problem is that you end up with... the brain. And the brain is very complicated.
Besides, Izhikevich points out that technology is quickly outpacing many of the abilities that our brains are good at. “I can do arithmetic better on a calculator. A computer can play chess better than you,” he says. By the time a brain simulation is sophisticated enough to reproduce brain’s full repertoire of behaviour, other technologies will be able to do the same things faster and better, and “the problem won’t be interesting anymore,” says Izhikevich.
So, simulating a brain isn’t a goal in itself. It’s an end to some means. It’s a way of organising tools, experts, and data. “Walking the path is the most important part,” says Izhikevich.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
E-commerce in Greece - The right side of the Styx?
JEFF BEZOS founded Amazon in 1994. Apostolos Apostolakis and his mates started e-shop.gr, Greece’s biggest online retailer, just four years later. The comparisons end there. The Seattle juggernaut’s annual sales grow at double-digit rates; e-shop’s have been savaged by Greece’s depression. Amazon made its name selling books. E-shop was stymied by regulated book prices and shifted early into electronics. The Americans have indulgent shareholders while the Greeks were nearly undone by skimpy equity.
Economic woes aside, Greece is tough terrain for online shopping. Less than half of Greeks are regular internet users compared with two-thirds of Europeans overall. More than 40% of Europeans shop online but fewer than 20% of Greeks do. Broadband connections are sparser and consumers are warier. Most refuse to submit credit-card details on line, preferring to pay cash on delivery. Islands make Greece an obstacle course for couriers.
E-shop found clever fixes. It has a fleet of 50 trucks to make deliveries and collect cash (Amazon relies mainly on outsiders for last-mile logistics). Unusually for an e-tailer, it has a network of 52 shops. These do not hold stock. They are another channel for accepting payment and avoid the cost of shipping to a customer’s house. They also serve to advertise the e-shop brand.
This ingenuity did not spare e-shop the ravages of Greece’s economic calamity, which struck just as the investment in the shop network was completed. Sales dropped from a peak of €128m ($169m) in 2009 to €46m in 2011. Unlike a typical Silicon Valley startup, e-shop was not nurtured by a venture-capital fund and passed up a chance to be bought when times were good. When the crisis hit, banks cut credit. Without the working capital needed to hold inventory, e-shop was forced to stretch out delivery times. Its sales dropped by more than those of competitors such as Kotsovolos, which is owned by Dixons, a British electronics merchant.
The worst may be over. E-shop filed for protection from its creditors, which has eased its working-capital squeeze. Now more than half of orders are delivered the next day. It has slashed costs, partly by paring back its bricks-and-mortar network. That is a prelude to a hoped-for debt reduction in 2013. Mr Apostolakis sees signs that Greeks are warming to internet shopping. Online air tickets are popular, and that is getting consumers used to using credit cards. Internet retailing is growing at double the European rate. In 2012 e-shop’s turnover recovered to €60m. Maybe someday the Amazon analogy will not seem far fetched.
Economic woes aside, Greece is tough terrain for online shopping. Less than half of Greeks are regular internet users compared with two-thirds of Europeans overall. More than 40% of Europeans shop online but fewer than 20% of Greeks do. Broadband connections are sparser and consumers are warier. Most refuse to submit credit-card details on line, preferring to pay cash on delivery. Islands make Greece an obstacle course for couriers.
E-shop found clever fixes. It has a fleet of 50 trucks to make deliveries and collect cash (Amazon relies mainly on outsiders for last-mile logistics). Unusually for an e-tailer, it has a network of 52 shops. These do not hold stock. They are another channel for accepting payment and avoid the cost of shipping to a customer’s house. They also serve to advertise the e-shop brand.
This ingenuity did not spare e-shop the ravages of Greece’s economic calamity, which struck just as the investment in the shop network was completed. Sales dropped from a peak of €128m ($169m) in 2009 to €46m in 2011. Unlike a typical Silicon Valley startup, e-shop was not nurtured by a venture-capital fund and passed up a chance to be bought when times were good. When the crisis hit, banks cut credit. Without the working capital needed to hold inventory, e-shop was forced to stretch out delivery times. Its sales dropped by more than those of competitors such as Kotsovolos, which is owned by Dixons, a British electronics merchant.
The worst may be over. E-shop filed for protection from its creditors, which has eased its working-capital squeeze. Now more than half of orders are delivered the next day. It has slashed costs, partly by paring back its bricks-and-mortar network. That is a prelude to a hoped-for debt reduction in 2013. Mr Apostolakis sees signs that Greeks are warming to internet shopping. Online air tickets are popular, and that is getting consumers used to using credit cards. Internet retailing is growing at double the European rate. In 2012 e-shop’s turnover recovered to €60m. Maybe someday the Amazon analogy will not seem far fetched.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Hackers hit U.S. Department of Energy
The U.S. Department of Energy has confirmed that its computer systems were hacked into last month. According to The New York Times, the federal agency sent around an internal e-mail on Friday telling its employees about the cyberattack.
"The Department of Energy has just confirmed a recent cyber incident that occurred in mid-January which targeted the Headquarters' network and resulted in the unauthorized disclosure of employee and contractor Personally Identifiable Information," the e-mail said.
The agency said that it is working to figure out the "nature and scope of the incident" but that so far it believes "no classified data was compromised." It's unclear which divisions within the Department of Energy were attacked or who was behind the hack.
The Department of Energy is in charge of much of the country's vital infrastructure, such as energy production, nuclear reactor production, and radioactive waste disposal. It has troves of classified and sensitive data that if leaked could be detrimental to the country's security. According to Reuters, the most highly classified information is stored on networks that aren't connected to the Internet.
The head of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano recently announced that she believes a wave of cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure is a serious possibility. Dubbing such an event a "cyber 9/11," Napolitano warned that cyberterrorists could take down the nation's power grid, water infrastructure, transportation networks, and financial networks.
While it doesn't seem like the January cyberattack on the Department of Energy compromised any data or infrastructure, it does show that hackers were able to breach the government's computer systems. In the e-mail, the agency said it is working to fortify itself against future attacks.
"Once the full nature and extent of this incident is known, the Department will implement a full remediation plan," the e-mail said. "The Department is also leading an aggressive effort to reduce the likelihood of these events occurring again. These efforts include leveraging the combined expertise and capabilities of the Department's Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center to address this incident, increasing monitoring across all of the Department's networks and deploying specialized defense tools to protect sensitive assets."
by Dara Kerr
"The Department of Energy has just confirmed a recent cyber incident that occurred in mid-January which targeted the Headquarters' network and resulted in the unauthorized disclosure of employee and contractor Personally Identifiable Information," the e-mail said.
The agency said that it is working to figure out the "nature and scope of the incident" but that so far it believes "no classified data was compromised." It's unclear which divisions within the Department of Energy were attacked or who was behind the hack.
The Department of Energy is in charge of much of the country's vital infrastructure, such as energy production, nuclear reactor production, and radioactive waste disposal. It has troves of classified and sensitive data that if leaked could be detrimental to the country's security. According to Reuters, the most highly classified information is stored on networks that aren't connected to the Internet.
The head of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano recently announced that she believes a wave of cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure is a serious possibility. Dubbing such an event a "cyber 9/11," Napolitano warned that cyberterrorists could take down the nation's power grid, water infrastructure, transportation networks, and financial networks.
While it doesn't seem like the January cyberattack on the Department of Energy compromised any data or infrastructure, it does show that hackers were able to breach the government's computer systems. In the e-mail, the agency said it is working to fortify itself against future attacks.
"Once the full nature and extent of this incident is known, the Department will implement a full remediation plan," the e-mail said. "The Department is also leading an aggressive effort to reduce the likelihood of these events occurring again. These efforts include leveraging the combined expertise and capabilities of the Department's Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center to address this incident, increasing monitoring across all of the Department's networks and deploying specialized defense tools to protect sensitive assets."
by Dara Kerr
Monday, February 4, 2013
iPad-NMControl - New product announcement by nuova marea ltd
iPad-NMControl for Yachting applications
Control your existing audio/visual system, lighting, blinders and more with your iPad.
Operate complicated systems with a simple and user friendly application.
No need to upgrade your installation.
With a series of low cost interfaces take control of your lighting and existing hardware.
Custom design for every boat.
for more contact sales@nuovamarea.com
Control your existing audio/visual system, lighting, blinders and more with your iPad.
Operate complicated systems with a simple and user friendly application.
No need to upgrade your installation.
With a series of low cost interfaces take control of your lighting and existing hardware.
Custom design for every boat.
for more contact sales@nuovamarea.com
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
New product announcment, NM-2C BNWAS Interface
The NM-2C is an interface intended for use between shipʼs GPS or heading or track control system and the BNWAS according to:
Paragraph 4.1.1.1 of Res. MSC. 128 (75)The BNWAS should incorporate the following operational modes:
Automatic (Automatically brought into operation whenever the heading or track control system (i.e. auto steering mode of steering control stand (Auto pilot)) is activated and inhibited when this system is not activated)
visit the product page for more
http://www.nuovamarea.com/product_info.php?cPath=292&products_id=414
Paragraph 4.1.1.1 of Res. MSC. 128 (75)The BNWAS should incorporate the following operational modes:
Automatic (Automatically brought into operation whenever the heading or track control system (i.e. auto steering mode of steering control stand (Auto pilot)) is activated and inhibited when this system is not activated)
visit the product page for more
http://www.nuovamarea.com/product_info.php?cPath=292&products_id=414
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Sea level rise overflowing estimates
Sea levels may swell much higher than previously predicted, thanks to feedback mechanisms that are speeding up ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica.
Climate simulations need to take such feedbacks into account, William Hay, a geologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, told the Geological Society of America meeting in Charlotte, N.C., on November 4. So far the models haven’t incorporated such information because “it just makes them much more complicated,” he says.
Many scientists share Hay’s concerns, says geologist Harold Wanless of the University of Miami. “The rate at which ice melt and sea level rise is happening is far faster than anything predicted,” he says.
Global sea levels rose an average of about 15 centimeters over the past century. Current data suggest they will rise another 1 meter by the year 2100, and some scientists predict far more. But the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected a rise of just 0.2–0.6 meters over the same time period. “The data weren’t available in 2007 to say Greenland and Antarctica were melting,” says earth scientist Benjamin Horton of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “Sea levels are going to be greater than the upper estimate of the 2007 IPCC, but the big question is, when?”
To help answer that question, Hay is looking at underappreciated feedbacks. For one thing, big infusions of freshwater in the Arctic — from melting sea ice and from northern rivers — are driving cold ocean currents away from the North Pole and bringing up warm ones. This process is helping melt Greenland’s ice sheet, which could cause sea level to change very quickly, Hay says. Also, Arctic melt is exposing large areas of dark water, which absorbs the sun’s heat instead of reflecting it like ice does. As a result, warmer temperatures are disrupting local weather. After a record melt in August, for example, the high-pressure weather system that keeps the Arctic in a deep freeze was seasonally replaced by a low-pressure system that sucked in warm air, causing even more melting. To top it all off, the Arctic Ocean and thawing permafrost are releasing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that traps atmospheric heat and raises temperatures still more.
The last time Earth’s climate was as balmy as today was about 120,000 years ago, when the planet was 2–3° Celsius warmer and sea levels were 4–6 meters higher. Much of the Greenland ice sheet was melted then. “Those sea level change rates are very, very large, and that was under natural conditions, not the human perturbation that’s going on now,” says Hay.
And Greenland isn’t the only concern — Antarctica contains a vast amount of ice that, if emptied entirely into the ocean, would cause 80 meters of sea level rise. For years scientists suspected the Antarctic ice was frozen to the ground, but evidence now suggests there is liquid water under many regions, lubricating the ice base like a skating rink. The only things stopping that ice from sliding into the sea are ice shelves, which act like corks in a bottle, Hay says. As these ice shelves break up — as some are already doing — “it’s like taking the cork out of the bottle.”
Even modest sea level rise can have far-reaching impacts. Higher sea levels make it easier for storm surges — like those produced by Hurricane Sandy — to reach further inland and inflict damage, Wanless says. “The future of our coastal cities is at stake.”
Climate simulations need to take such feedbacks into account, William Hay, a geologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, told the Geological Society of America meeting in Charlotte, N.C., on November 4. So far the models haven’t incorporated such information because “it just makes them much more complicated,” he says.
Many scientists share Hay’s concerns, says geologist Harold Wanless of the University of Miami. “The rate at which ice melt and sea level rise is happening is far faster than anything predicted,” he says.
Global sea levels rose an average of about 15 centimeters over the past century. Current data suggest they will rise another 1 meter by the year 2100, and some scientists predict far more. But the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected a rise of just 0.2–0.6 meters over the same time period. “The data weren’t available in 2007 to say Greenland and Antarctica were melting,” says earth scientist Benjamin Horton of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “Sea levels are going to be greater than the upper estimate of the 2007 IPCC, but the big question is, when?”
To help answer that question, Hay is looking at underappreciated feedbacks. For one thing, big infusions of freshwater in the Arctic — from melting sea ice and from northern rivers — are driving cold ocean currents away from the North Pole and bringing up warm ones. This process is helping melt Greenland’s ice sheet, which could cause sea level to change very quickly, Hay says. Also, Arctic melt is exposing large areas of dark water, which absorbs the sun’s heat instead of reflecting it like ice does. As a result, warmer temperatures are disrupting local weather. After a record melt in August, for example, the high-pressure weather system that keeps the Arctic in a deep freeze was seasonally replaced by a low-pressure system that sucked in warm air, causing even more melting. To top it all off, the Arctic Ocean and thawing permafrost are releasing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that traps atmospheric heat and raises temperatures still more.
The last time Earth’s climate was as balmy as today was about 120,000 years ago, when the planet was 2–3° Celsius warmer and sea levels were 4–6 meters higher. Much of the Greenland ice sheet was melted then. “Those sea level change rates are very, very large, and that was under natural conditions, not the human perturbation that’s going on now,” says Hay.
And Greenland isn’t the only concern — Antarctica contains a vast amount of ice that, if emptied entirely into the ocean, would cause 80 meters of sea level rise. For years scientists suspected the Antarctic ice was frozen to the ground, but evidence now suggests there is liquid water under many regions, lubricating the ice base like a skating rink. The only things stopping that ice from sliding into the sea are ice shelves, which act like corks in a bottle, Hay says. As these ice shelves break up — as some are already doing — “it’s like taking the cork out of the bottle.”
Even modest sea level rise can have far-reaching impacts. Higher sea levels make it easier for storm surges — like those produced by Hurricane Sandy — to reach further inland and inflict damage, Wanless says. “The future of our coastal cities is at stake.”
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