"All dams are temporary"

Interesting engineering video - especially the demonstration of sediment deposition using colored sand.  Not really new info, but worth a browse because it's well illustrated and concisely narrated (14 minutes, plus a relevant advertisement at the end).

Powassan virus - another tick-borne disease

The photo is humorous, but the disease is real.  Info from the Minnesota Star Tribune:

While the Powassan virus is uncommon compared to other tick-borne diseases in the state, it is among the most serious, said Elizabeth Schiffman, epidemiologist supervisor at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). Carried by blacklegged ticks (more commonly known as deer ticks) the Powassan virus can cause neurological damage and, in rare cases, death.

Last year, there were 14 reported cases in Minnesota — the highest reported since recordkeeping on the disease started in 2008, according to MDH data. In 2011, the state recorded the first death caused by the virus after a woman in her 60s died of a brain infection...

About 10% of people who are clinically diagnosed with the virus die, Aliota said. Those who survive a severe bout of the virus may suffer long-term symptoms like headaches and memory problems...

In Minnesota, the risk of getting bitten by blacklegged ticks starts as the weather warms up in the spring, Schiffman said.  Because an adult blacklegged tick is about the size of a sesame seed and younger ones are even smaller, it can be hard to spot them before they bite...

Because there is no medicine to treat the virus, the best ways to protect against bites are pre-treating clothing and gear with permethrin-based repellents and using insect repellents on the skin, Schiffman said. It’s best to wear long-sleeved shirts and pants. Wearing light-colored clothing can help with spotting ticks...

“One of the reasons there are so few cases and that we don’t know as much about it as we do some of the other infections people get is because testing isn’t widely available for Powassan,” she said. “I think there’s probably a lot of people that could have it, especially in those mild cases, and they’re not ever getting it detected and reported.”

This is a black-legged tick (credit (James Gathany/CDC via AP):

Monastery of the Holy Trinity, Meteora - updated

I've always been fascinated by places like this.  The one in this image is the Monastery of the Holy Trinity at Meteora in Greece.  

Prior to the twentieth century, Holy Trinity had a very difficult approach, requiring crossing a valley and climbing through the rock outcrop to reach the building's entrance. Provisions were placed in baskets drawn up by rope-ladders (now with a winch). In present day, one can walk from Kalambaka for 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) along a foot track to reach the monastery, or use a winch-operated lift. There is a road from the back side of the cliff. It is currently reached via tunnels and 130 steps of stone. The grounds include a 2-acre (0.81 ha) garden at the summit.

When I first blogged Meteora fifteen years ago, I offered this observation:

Meaning ‘suspended in air’ the name Meteora includes the entire rock community of 24 monasteries. There were no steps and the main access to the monasteries was by means of a net that was hitched over a hook and hoisted up by rope and a hand cranked windlass to winch towers overhanging the chasm. Monks descended in the nets or on retractable wooden ladders up to 40m long to the fertile valleys below to grow grapes, corn and potatoes... the ropes were replaced, so the story goes, only "when the Lord let them break..."

In ancient times building materials would have been winched or hand-carried; perhaps nowadays they use helicopters.  I can guess how human waste was disposed of in the 14th century; not sure how that is managed now.

Photo credit Michael Probst / AP, via The Atlantic.

Reposted to insert this awesome 70-minute video about all six monasteries in Meteora, submitted by reader Aleksejs:

The Trump effect on the Canadian elections

(Note: in the Guardian graph embedded above, the liberals are in red, the conservatives in blue)

Justin Trudeau's liberal party was effectively "dead in the water" with a 20% public opinion poll favorable rating, impossibly behind the conservatives.  After Trump initiated his economic war on Canada, public opinion has shifted massively.  Trudeau stepped down, and the liberal party replaced him with Mark Carney, who has an ideal C.V. for managing economic turmoil:

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1988, then studied at the University of Oxford, where he earned a master's degree in 1993 and a doctorate in 1995. He held various roles at Goldman Sachs before joining the Bank of Canada as a deputy governor in 2003. In 2004, he was named as senior associate deputy minister for the Department of Finance Canada. In 2007, Carney was named Governor of the Bank of Canada, where he was responsible for Canadian monetary policy during the 2008 financial crisis. He led the Canadian central bank until 2013, when he was appointed as Governor of the Bank of England, where he led the British central bank's response to Brexit and the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Canadian election is coming up in a couple weeks.  Carney will be doing battle with a man who has taken four (or six) companies into bankruptcy.

This was Carney's address to the people of Canada:

He did an interview with Jon Stewart three months ago.

Meeting the parents

Chuckleworthy.  Found on the Oakville Chamber Orchestra Instagram account, with a tip of the blogging cap to Austin's Swamp Campground in Longville, MN. 

Addendum:  Readers old enough to decipher script have identified the cartoonist as Tony Husband (additional panels at this archive link).

How artificial intelligence views TYWKIWDBI

I asked the Google AI to give me information about this blog.  The embed above is the response.  Reasonably accurate, IMHO.

"Eyestalk ablation" explained

"Eyestalk ablation is the removal of one (unilateral) or both (bilateral) eyestalks from a crustacean. It is routinely practiced on female shrimps (or female prawns) in almost every marine shrimp maturation or reproduction facility in the world, both research and commercial. The aim of ablation under these circumstances is to stimulate the female shrimp to develop mature ovaries and spawn.

Most captive conditions for shrimp cause inhibitions in females that prevent them from developing mature ovaries. Even in conditions where a given species will develop ovaries and spawn in captivity, use of eyestalk ablation increases total egg production and increases the percentage of females in a given population that will participate in reproduction. Once females have been subjected to eyestalk ablation, complete ovarian development often ensues within as little as 3 to 10 days. The practice was a major development for the commercialisation of shrimp farming in the 1970s and 80s since it enabled reliable production..."

Image from the Interesting subreddit thread, where the discussion thread comments express surprise, dismay, and horror.

Amazing dishwasher

I particularly like the claim that it "cuts cycle time by over 4000%."  Via Neatorama.

An argument that birders and bikers should be more like hunters

Excerpts from an op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune:

In a few weeks, some 200 Minnesota birders will flock to the Salt Lake Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Lac qui Parle County near the South Dakota border... How much, you ask, will the birders pay to visit Salt Lake and similar important wildlife meccas?  Nothing. Nada. Zero.

Meanwhile, the wildlife photographer Bill Marchel of Brainerd — who is a birder by any definition — will need a virtual billfold full of licenses this fall to hunt on Salt Lake and nearby WMAs.  Required will be a $22 small game license, an $8.25 state duck stamp, a $25 federal duck stamp and an $8.25 pheasant stamp.  Salt Lake WMA’s 768 acres were, in fact, purchased by the Department of Natural Resources using money raised by hunting and fishing license sales... 

“Unfortunately,” Henderson said, “birders in Minnesota are so used to getting a free ride from habitat created by hunters that they’ve become accustomed to it. In every season other than fall, when hunters are on WMAs — which they’ve mostly paid for — birders are the biggest users of these areas."..

What does Johnson pay to ride on Minnesota’s more than 4,000 miles of paved bike trails?  Nothing. But, like a lot of bikers, he’d be glad to chip in.  “In fact, I believe I should help pay for the trails,” he said.

Minnesota bikers — like the state’s birders, and in fact hikers and others — can thank hunters and anglers for the nearly $700 million in Clean Water, Land and Legacy funds that have been spent building, improving and expanding the state’s parks and trails since 2010.

And birders can thank the same hunters and anglers for the $1.7 billion spent on Minnesota wildlife habitat and related projects in the same years...

As hunters and anglers continue to decline as a percentage of the state’s population, more Minnesotans of common interests are needed to join the conservation fight. 

This old post didn't age well...

Hat tip to Tom Thoresen.

Good vibes

The lyrics are Japanese tongue-twisters.  Discussion at the oddlysatisfying subreddit.  Original of the cover.

Geometry puzzle

I wasn't able to do it, but this is solvable using only simple geometry without trigonometry.  The answer is in this video.  Via the SmartPuzzles subreddit.

News from The Onion

Story here.

"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign..."

I think my favorite one (not shown in this photo from The Atlantic), was something to the effect that "You Know Things are Bad When the Introverts are Marching."

"The Residence"

I step away from the blog for 10 days and the world economy enters a tailspin that threatens a global recession.  It's time to stop doomscrolling and focus on other things, including this trailer for a series currently streaming on Netflix.  

The Residence is an 8-episode "mystery comedy drama" styled in the fashion of a classic English country-house murder with dozens of suspects and motives.  What struck me was the high quality of the acting by a large cast of dozens of characters - a reminder that the world is full of outstanding actors that are not famous-name Hollywood celebrities.  This is not something I would re-watch, but it did provide four evenings of pleasant entertainment.  Readers are welcome to leave reviews in the Comments.