Break time

It's Christmas Eve, and I am taking a well-deserved break... ok, just a break. I'll be back on the blogwagon in a week or so. In the meantime, I'll be checking Is it Christmas? in 11 mintues, just to confirm my suspicions.

Happy holidays!

Flags of Convenience

As a follow-up to the last post on Liberia and their disproportionately huge shipping fleet, I did a bit more digging on the subject of ship registration, and found some interesting things.

A ship registered in a country expressly for the purpose of taking advantage of weak or non-existent taxes, labour standards, etc. is said to be flying under a "flag of convenience". If Wikipedia is to be trusted, half of the world's shipping vessels are registered under these flags.

There are ships registered in just about every country you could think of, including 61 ships which sail under the flag of Mongolia (total shoreline: zero kilometres).


Fig. 1: A maritime paradise.

Now, you may be concerned that you're registering your ship with a country with no naval presence whatsoever, but that fear would be totally unfounded. Mongolia does indeed have a navy, which consists of (no joke) seven guys and a tugboat, which was hauled across the desert in pieces and assembled to patrol Mongolia's largest body of water, Lake Hovsgol... you know, just in case a neighbouring country decides to haul their own navy across the desert in pieces, and then assemble it, and then launch an attack on the other side of the lake.

The Daily Talk

Monrovia is an interesting place. As the capital of Liberia, it's the only non-US capital in the world named after a US president. Its biggest export is latex. It has no electricity distribution grid. It is the home port of approximately 15% of the global shipping fleet (giving it the second largest fleet in the world, behind Panama) despite the fact that almost none of those ships have ever been, or will ever be to Liberia. And, to top things off, its most widely read newspaper is a blackboard beside the highway.

The Daily Talk is an English-language news source run by Alfred J. Sirleaf on the side of Tubman Boulevard in Monrovia. Sirleaf started the board in an attempt to encourage a well-informed (and thus more democratically inclined) citizenry. Given the lack of daily print media, the Daily Talk is arguably the most important source of print news in the city, especially for the uneducated population that makes up the majority of Monrovia.



It's grassroots democracy in action, and you can be fairly sure the Daily Talk's voice is not being bought by corporate interests. He finances the entire thing on personal donations of cash and prepaid cellphone cards.



(details courtesy of the New York Times)

Showdown: Electric Cars vs. Internal Combustion

Electric car technology is arguably the best thing going right now in the effort to mitigate the environmental damage caused by personal vehicles... or is it? One common criticism of electric cars is that, given the fact that most of the world's energy comes from coal power plants, they're still technically relying on combustion. Which technology actually turns out to be better, with all environmental effects considered? Internal combustion or electric?

Slate has a neat article outlining the comparison of IC and electric cars, and they find that in pretty much every case, electric cars outperform conventional IC cars on the basis of pounds of CO2 emitted per mile. However, the margin by which the electric car wins depends significantly on where you live. In areas where hydroelectric, nuclear, solar, or wind power are significant parts of the mix, the electric car blows IC out of the water. If you live in a coal-powered region, not so much.


Fig. 1: Tesla Roadster. This car says "I care about the environment and also kick ass".

To put some numbers on it, the Slate article compares the Toyota Corolla and the Tesla Roadster, and finds that, per 100 miles, the Corolla emits 63.11 pounds of CO2, and the Roadster emits 48.05 pounds (based on average US power generation mix). That means that even when you take into account the emissions from the power plant, the Roadster only emits 75% as much CO2 as the Corolla (a relatively efficient IC car). While this may not sound paradigm-shifting, keep in mind that the Roadster itself also emits no exhaust whatsoever, which is pretty significant when you think about the kind of urban air quality issues that big cities are struggling with now as a result of IC cars.

Now, if only they could develop the technology to make all electric cars look as cool as the Roadster.


Fig. 2: This car says "I care about the environment, and wear rainbow suspenders."

Tree of Ténéré

The Sahara desert is the world's biggest desert, and it seems like it's getting bigger. Despite the fact that it's one of the most inhospitable places on earth, the Tuareg nomads have been roaming around in the Sahara for over two thousand years, running the trans-Saharan trade route with a lot of camels, and some really intimidating outfits.


Fig. 1: Do not mess with this guy.

The Tuareg's knowledge of the Sahara is so detailed that they don't actually consider it one desert, but rather Tinariwen, or "The Deserts". Of all the regions that make up the Sahara, the most desertified of all is the Ténéré. This is the Sahara people picture when they think desert. Hundred mile long sand dunes, scorching heat, and zero plant life.

Well, almost zero plant life. It turns out the Ténéré used to be lush, tropical forest a few million years ago. However, continents shift, climates change, and the next thing you know, you get demoted from jungle to desert. However, even in the wasteland of Ténéré, there was one plucky tree that wasn't willing to give in. The Tree of Ténéré was an acacia tree that was at one time held to be the world's most isolated tree, more than 400km from its closest neighbour. It managed to survive by sending roots down more than 100 feet to the water table. Now, if you're the Tuareg, and you're trying to run a trade caravan through more than 100,000 square kilometres of sand, a lone tree sitting out in the middle of nowhere is a pretty darn good landmark. The tree was so useful to the Tuareg that it was thought to be taboo to cut off any of its branches for firewood, despite the absence of any other wood for hundreds of miles.


Fig. 2: Tree.

You may have noticed me using the past tense for the Tree of Ténéré, and that is because it no longer exists. What befell this icon of perseverence in the face of adversity, this symbol of the indomitable spirit? It was hit by a drunk Libyan truck driver in 1973.

In his defense, he probably didn't have much room to avoid it.

To ensure the Tuareg could still use the location as a landmark for navigation, the tree was replaced with a metal sculpture, which probably now qualifies as the world's most isolated ugly sculpture.


Fig. 3: Blends right in.

Glow cats

Finally, science has found an answer to the question that has plagued mankind for centuries. Can cats be genetically altered to glow in the dark? Answer: yes!



...and not a moment too soon. Think of all the serious problems in the world - climate change, racial and religious conflict, the TV writers' strike... I'm pretty sure all of them could be solved with glowing cats. Thanks scientists!

Trebek Wisdom

In keeping with my secret candlelight vigil that I may or may not be holding for Alex Trebek, check out this great list of things Alex Trebek has come to realize over time. Here are some of my favourites, and I swear I made none of these up:

-You go to the Rockies and you stand there and you're looking up, saying, "Yep, that's impressive." And then you go to the Himalayas and you're like, "Oh, shit!"

-If you can't be in awe of Mother Nature, there's something wrong with you.

-Canada? Marvelous country.

-Give me a gun and put me near somebody who is just mean and I'll blow him away. No second thoughts about it.

-I don't gamble, because winning a hundred dollars doesn't give me great pleasure. But losing a hundred dollars pisses me off.

You can get anything on the internet, pt. 2

Today's installment of "Crazy Stuff You Shouldn't Be Able To Buy On The Internet, But Can" continues the theme of edible products that are probably not best purchased online.

Amazon currently has listings for fresh whole rabbit (fresh?), and Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl. oz.



The Tuscan Whole Milk seems to be getting some pretty good customer reviews though ("This whole milk is smooth and milky in consistency. Not at all gritty, chalky or sandy. An excellent purchase"), maybe I'll check it out after all.

An Open Letter

Dear Alex Trebek,

Please get better. I can envision a world without a Trebek-hosted Jeopardy!, and it's a cold, scary place.

Love,
Bryce

Traveller IQ

If you're anything like me, this world geography trivia thing will occupy at least the next hour of your day. I got stuck at level 10 a few times, mostly due to the fact that I consistently forget where the hell Andorra is. My current high score is 410,450. Bring it.

Droppin' beats... and knowledge

Our society has a long history of cartoon- and rock music-based education. If it weren't for Schoolhouse Rock, I'd still be largely in the dark about American History. Check out this take on the American Revolution. That George III is a real jerk!



A new company called Rhythm, Rhyme, Results is taking the Schoolhouse Rock idea into the 21st century with a series of educational raps. I was really hoping these would be hilariously bad, but I checked out "Demand, Supply", a hip hop synopsis of the 10 fundamental principles of economics, and I'll be damned if it isn't a little catchy.



The Freakonomics blog has the full lyrics posted, if you're interested in steppin' up yo education.

Absinthe

According to the New York Times, Absinthe is making a comeback.



Absinthe is a distilled liquor renowned for its booziness and supposed hallucinatory properties. The origin of its name is a variation on the Greek word for either "wormwood" or "undrinkable" depending, I suppose, on how much that particular linguist enjoys absinthe. It has been blamed for motivating many a crazy act, including Van Gogh cutting off his ear.

However, as with many nightmarish legends about alcohol, absinthe's psychoactive reputation can be traced back to prohibition. Or rather, the prohibition era belief that drunks were in the grip of some sort of otherworldly demon nectar that made them depraved, homicidal monsters with a craving for mayhem.

It turns out that there are no compounds in absinthe (including the oft-cited wormwood) that contain any psychoactive ingredients. The compound which has been blamed for wormwood's hallucinogenic properties, "thujone", was mistakenly deemed to be a hallucinogen in the 1970's as the result of some bad science.



So there you have it. If some dude drinks a bunch of absinthe, then claims to see dragons telling him to cut off his ear, he's probably just crazy. Hopefully once this knowledge becomes a little more commonplace, people will no longer feel curiously compelled to try absinthe, because seriously, it is some vile stuff.

Accordion Hero

Man, I wish this was real.

Win. At. Yelling.

In a somewhat disturbing case of life imitating art imitating life, December 15th marks the release of Brawndo, The Thirst Mutilator. If you haven't seen Idiocracy, this product bears some explaining.

Idiocracy is a "theoretical" take on a future 500 years from now in which dumb people take over the world. In this potential future, all water fountains are converted to dispense Brawndo, The Thirst Mutilator, on the basis of the fact that "It's Got Electrolytes". They also use it to water plants, because "It's what plants crave", except the salt kills all the plants. The whole point of that part of the movie is that energy drink marketing is all kind of dumb, and usually based on some questionable scientific claims.

And, of course, this is where the real world steps in and decides that there is a legitimate market for Brawndo... I feel like someone, somewhere has missed the point.

On the upside, their ad campaign seems to be pretty tongue-in-cheek, so maybe there is hope after all.