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Day 382: Weekly Science News

Hurricane On The Bayou

A field trip to the aquarium!  Last afternoon, my co-workers and I watched Hurricane On The Bayou as a team.  The IMAX movie, underwritten by Chevron (no less), is narrated by Meryl Streep and stars Tab Benoit, Amanda Shaw, Alain Toussaint, Chubby Carrier and Marva Wright with their music.  The stiffness (and ultimate utter uselessness) of the acting and dialogue was in stark contrast to the power of the photography.  The camerapeople deserve an Oscar for capturing the majesty and fragility of our bayous … mist arising from the tepid brown waters reach towards the moss hanging from disappearing cypresses.  Watch it for footage of cute, little alligator babies, penguin waddling (in the aquarium, not the bayou) and great 3D CGI of the Superdome’s roof ripping apart and the Buras water tower crashing to the ground.  Also, if y’all get together and purchase me an airboat for Christmas, I’ll put you in my will.

Hail Discord!

Anne informs me that “[the International Astronomical Union] renamed the erstwhile “Xena” to something ostensibly less pop-culture-oriented.”  2003 UB313, the rock that kicked Pluto out of our planetary circle, is now officially Eris, the Greek goddess of chaos and strife.  Heh heh.

In mythology, Eris caused a quarrel among goddesses that sparked the Trojan War. In real life, Eris forced scientists to define a planet that eventually led to Pluto getting the boot … Eris’ moon also received a formal name: Dysnomia, the daughter of Eris known as the spirit of lawlessness … Eris, which measures about 70 miles wider than Pluto, is the farthest known object in the solar system at 9 billion miles away from sun. It is also the third brightest object located in the Kuiper belt, a disc of icy debris beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Little do these astronomers know that they named this “object” after one of Loki’s Siamese wonders, who has been known to generate entropy all by her royal self.

Speaking of the sassy Lokitties, little were you aware that the Cat 5 of the UPT have their own blog.

Monkey Blog

If kitties can blog, so can monkeys, by gum!  One of Britain’s littlest primates, SpongeBob the squirrel monkey, recently suffered quite the ordeal.  He was monkey-napped from his zoo, rejected by his peers (mostly the girls) when restored and transported to a new facility where his handlers have set him up with, what else, SpongeBlog.  What a great learning tool for kids … like me!

Learn more about Monkey Day.

5 comments… add one
  • Blair September 14, 2006, 10:42 AM

    Penguins in the bayou?

  • Maitri September 14, 2006, 10:44 AM

    Yes, tropical penguins. Actually, they filmed the penguin evacuation from the aquarium right before Katrina.

  • Mark September 14, 2006, 4:19 PM

    Tropical penguins?

  • Maitri September 14, 2006, 4:47 PM

    With the icecaps melting, the penguins figured they’d head to Louisiana.

    It’s a joke, Mark. The footage of waddling penguins was taken inside the aquarium and not the bayou.

  • Blair September 14, 2006, 6:32 PM

    I love when you explain your jokes.

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