Casual Friday — Here Comes Solar Maximum

Wondering what’s going on with the recent spate of solar flares? Courtesy of NASA Television, here’s an excellent explanation of the solar cycle, and where we are in it (direct link):

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Carnivalia — 4/18 – 4/24

The past week’s (somewhat thin) crop of science-related blog carnivals — still plenty of good reading here:

Carnival of Space #246

Friday Ark #381

Giant’s Shoulders #46

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The scientific tourist #219 — Desmatosuchus spurensis

Seen at the Petrified Forest National Park’s visitor’s center in Arizona, it’s Desmatosuchus spurensis — and like all Aetosaurs, it was an odd looking thing:

Desmatosuchus spurensis

Aetosaurs were an order of reptiles that lived in the Late Triassic, about 200 – 230 million years ago. Aetosaur comes from the Greek for “eagle lizard,” since their skulls somewhat resemble those of birds — but they had pig-like snouts (for rooting), a body much like those of crocodiles, and armored plates on their backs like those of modern-day armadillos. So picture an armored crocodile with a bird-like head and a pig-like snout, and you’ve got a good idea of what an odd sort of creature an aetosaur was.

Desmatosuchus was one of the largest aetosaurs, about 5 meters (16 feet) long, and standing about 1.5 meters (5 feet) high. It had the additional feature (unlike most other aetosaurs) of two rows of spikes along the sides of its back — one over each shoulder. The spikes grew some 45 centimeters (18 inches) long, definitely useful for discouraging predators.

BTW, aetosaurs star in an interesting bit of paleontological history — written up nicely here.

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Casual Friday: Space shuttle Discovery’s last flight

And this time, it was a passenger. As anybody that follows the U.S. space program is likely aware of, the space shuttle Discovery (the shuttle with the most missions under its… belt) was taken on the back of a 747 to its final home at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia (suburban Washington, D.C). On the way there, it made a historic flyover above the U.S. Capital.

National Geographic presents a nice 2 minute summary of the flyover (direct link):

Meanwhile, if you’d like to see more Discovery video (and if you’ve got some serious time on your hands), plenty more is available online. Here’s a 46 minute video of Enterprise rolling out of Udvar-Hazy to make way for Discovery (direct link):

And here’s a 71 minute (ahem…) video showing the formal transfer of Discovery to the NASM (direct link):

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Carnivalia — 4/11 – 4/17

The past week’s crop of (mostly) science-related blog carnivals for you:

Carnival of Space #245 | Vintage Space

Friday Ark #380

Health Wonk Review

Math Teachers At Play #49

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The scientific tourist #218 — glass fish

Formally known as Parambassis ranga, the glass fish (or Indian glassy fish) is a freshwater fish native to south Asia, and a popular species in the aquarium trade.

Glass fish

A shy little fish, Parambassis ranga unfairly gained a reputation for being a short-lived species. But this is largely due to some specimens being sold after being injected with dyes for a more colorful appearance.

This particular specimen was seen at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

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4/15/1912 – 4/15/2012 — a Titanic century

Given that today’s the 100th anniversary of the loss of the Titanic, I was originally planning on writing a blog post to mark the occasion. But of course the internet is already plastered with other material marking the anniversary — so I thought it’d make more sense to just link to some items of particular note. So here goes…

CyArk is heading up an effort to archive documentary images, video, and other data of the wreck — thanks in no small part to a donation of footage from James Cameron’s dive expeditions in 2001 and 2005. The project launch is described in Project Launch: Titanic Database Project CyArk, while the database itself can be viewed at Titanic Intro. On a semi-related note, YouTube has bits of video from a National Geographic channel special called Titanic: The Final Word With James Cameron — here’s New CGI of How Titanic Sank.

Mental Floss provides 11 Questionable Suggestions for Raising the Titanic, and How the Titanic Almost Sank Hershey. Time magazine, meanwhile, gives us What The Titanic Means Today.

The BBC has predictably good coverage of the anniversary — check out Titanic tragedy remembered in special events, Titanic: Faces of the crew, and Titanic: Unlikely friendship in lifeboat eight. And there’s plenty more on their Titanic 100 pages.

If you want to get really close to the source, check out the site for the new Titanic Belfast building (or go see it in person, should you be in the neighborhood).

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Casual Friday — the Transition ® to flying cars

Actually, it’s a driveable airplane, more than a flying car — but either way the Transition ® street-legal airplane is an interesting approach to everybody’s favorite why-can’t-I-buy-one-yet technology (direct link):

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Carnivalia — 4/04 – 4/10

The past week’s crop of (mostly) science-related blog carnivals for you:

Carnival of Space 244

Friday Ark #379

Math Teachers at Play #49

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The scientific tourist #217 — Mastigias papua

Otherwise known as the common lagoon jelly, or the spotted jelly — pretty little things, they eat zooplankton, but also get nutrition from tiny symbiotic algae in their tissues.

Mastigias papua

For the algae to photosynthesize, the jellies need to swim near the surface during daylight. They’re found throughout the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans (but primarily in the southern Pacific), as well as the Western Atlantic Ocean. These particular jellies, though, live in the California Academy of Sciences — in Golden Gate Park; San Francisco, California.

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