Category: In the News

explaining Japan’s nuclear situation to children

Someone sent me a video of a cartoon character named Nuclear Boy, who explains the nuclear disaster in Japan, but in a format for children.  This video (below) has captioning translated to English.  Apparently it was designed by someone in Japan, so I don’t think it’s meant to make light of the situation, just putting it in terms children can relate to, like passing gas / farting, poo, and diarrhea.  Yeah, this video compares radiation emissions to gas, and a complete meltdown like Chernobyl is diarrhea.

Just to be clear, this is not to make fun of what’s happening in Japan right now.  My heart goes out to them.  I can’t imagine what they’re going through.

This video is a lighter take on it, for children — well, also for teenagers and adults who are still fascinated by flatulence and poop.  Not everyone understands nuclear meltdown, but everyone understands diarrhea.

The name of the video translated into English is: A Nuclear Reactor Explained by Poop and Farts: Nuclear Reactor Boy’s Tummy Ache.

I’ve wondered if this is an actual translation, so I looked at the comments on the original video, and someone there translated it very similar, so it appears legit, as far as I know.

Will the Supermoon destroy us all?

I saw an interesting headline in the news recently: Will March 19 “Supermoon” Trigger Natural Disasters? Uhh… What is this “Supermoon”?  Apparently it’s just that the moon will be closer to the Earth than it has in the past 18 years (“just” 221,567 miles away), and it will be a full moon.

Here’s what is amusing to me about the article:

“One astrologer believes it could inflict massive damage on the planet.”

Notice the first word of that quote.  The guy is Richard Nolle, who runs a website, and he termed this upcoming event an “extreme supermoon”.  He says when this happens, “chaos will ensue: Huge storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters can be expected to wreak havoc on Earth.”  If there’s truth to that, then we should be very concerned.   But the very next sentence of the article clarifies the situation:

(It should be noted that astrology is not a real science, but merely makes connections between astronomical and mystical events.)

Ahh…   Back in factual terms, a seismologist has said it does cause more “stress” to the Earth, but it’s a less-than-1-percent increase in earthquake activity and slightly higher in volcanoes.  He thinks there should be more of an effect, but the evidence just isn’t there.  The U.S. Geological Survey has done a lot of studies and haven’t found anything significant at all.

The article goes on to say, “Most natural disasters have nothing to do with the moon at all.”   Notice the first word again.  So the moon is to blame for some Earth destruction after all!  Well, as they say, you can’t be too careful — so obviously we should blow up the moon! (There are numerous discussions here at Buffet o’ Blog on why the moon should be destroyed.  Feel free to search the archives and join the discussion.)

boiling water, freezing air, & thundersnow

If you take boiling water and toss it into the air when it’s -22 degrees outside, it evaporates into steam before it hits the ground.  Here’s a video of it.  Looks neat. At first it looks like it’s instantly turning into snow, but it’s in fact steam.

I remember hearing that hot water can actually freeze faster than cold water.  Turns out that’s only sometimes true — according to science, water at 100 degrees C will freeze before water warmer than 60 degrees C but not before water cooler than 60 degrees C.  Although if you put hot water and cold water in the freezer at the same time, the hot water can freeze faster because the bottom part of the hot water can start freezing while the top is still warm (and no convection is occurring).  Further explanation is beyond the scope of this article, but you can read more here if you’re feeling particularly nerdy today.  (It’s actually called the Mpemba effect.)

Also on the page right now is a video of Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel getting surprised by “thundersnow“.  It’s basically just thunder and lightning, but it’s more rare in a snowstorm.  His reaction is interesting, which is why this video has been making the rounds on TV.

Grand Theft Bacon

In our weekly caption contests, when there’s something crazy going on, someone will occasionally say, “What would you do for bacon?”  It’s a valid question, because bacon is awesome. I can see someone doing stupid human tricks to get bacon.  But stealing bacon shouldn’t be one of them.

Last month in Little Rock, Arkansas, a man was arrested for trying to steal bacon from a grocery store.  He stuffed two packages of bacon in his pants and tried to leave the store.  An employee saw him trying to “abscond” with the merchandise and attempted to stop him.  The two got into a fight, before several customers helped restrain him.  (FYI, “abscond” is the word used in the newspaper article.  I wonder if they used a thesaurus for that one.)

Who would steal two packages of bacon?  Would you believe it was a 50-year-old man?   I would expect him to know better.  Also, he did this at 1:15 PM.  Was this a planned heist?  I’m guessing no.

Imagine this man in jail — a fellow inmate would ask, “What are you in for?”  His crime against society is stealing two packages of bacon — by stuffing them into his pants.  It’s not hard to imagine this guy getting beat up if he were to go to prison…