Scientific American reports: "An isolated population of Arctic foxes that dines only on marine animals seems to be slowly succumbing to mercury poisoning." Though a definitive causal link is difficult to establish, an isolated population of arctic foxes on Russia's Mednyi Island is believed to be collapsing due to mercury contamination as a result of its seafood-heavy diet.
Where does all that
mercury in the environment come from anyway? Why, it's another biproduct of burning fossil fuels, of course, and predictably, rates of mercury pollution
are only expected to increase. In some places in the US,
even rainwater is showing high levels of contamination.
[more inside]
posted by saulgoodman
on May 10, 2013 -
25 comments
Mercury is an experimental roguelike. How is it experimental? Let's have the creator, Jason Lantz, explain :
" all the game’s content is winner-generated. That means that the game starts out barren. One class for players to play, one monster to fight, and one item to use. But every round, the top two scoring players use a tool built into the game to make a monster, item or class and then that object is automatically inserted into everyone’s game, and players fight for new high scores in an entirely different game every round."
posted by boo_radley
on Aug 26, 2012 -
16 comments
Fifty years ago today,
John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. In an recent interview, he lamented the decline of the manned US space program: "It's unseemly to me that here we are, supposedly the world's greatest space-faring nation, and we don't even have a way to get back and forth to our own International Space Station."
[more inside]
posted by dsfan
on Feb 20, 2012 -
80 comments
Built as part of the fifth
/dev/fort developer retreat,
Spacelog.org allows you to explore early space missions via the original NASA transcripts. Currently live are
Mercury 6 which made John Glenn the first American in orbit, and the 'successful failure'
Apollo 13 (The transcribed
key moment and the
original). Alongside the transcripts are supporting materials from the NASA archives including
photography and descriptions of the
mission phases. The developers are
looking for help to digitise the Gemini 7, Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 missions.
posted by garrett
on Dec 1, 2010 -
11 comments
"I don't see any future for whale species except extinction." A
report (pdf) released Thursday by
Ocean Alliance noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years. Concentrations of chromium found in some whales was several times higher than the level required to kill healthy cells in a Petri dish. Mercury in some whales was 16 times higher than a typical shark or swordfish, both known for their high mercury levels.
Beyond whales, "You could make a fairly tight argument to say that it is the single greatest health threat that has ever faced the human species."
posted by stbalbach
on Jun 24, 2010 -
68 comments
Transit of Mercury again. here Transit of Mercury again. Today -- and not for another seven years or so -- Mercury passes between the Earth and the Sun, shwoing up a speck-like black circle. But don't look. Starting times, real-time visual, ways to see it and another caution are here. rotoman
posted by rotoman
on Nov 7, 2006 -
40 comments
Fox pussies out. Recently a bill passed in mexico
legalizing all drugs under certain specified quantities. The bill was promoted By Vincente Fox's party, and came from his offices. However he decided not to sign it under U.S. pressure.
There go my vacation plans.
posted by Paris Hilton
on May 4, 2006 -
57 comments
Aero Warriors: Battling at super speedways on Sunday to sell cars on Monday. In 1969 only showroom stock cars were permitted in NASCAR sanctioned events. This meant in order to compete a car had to be produced and available through dealers in minimum quantities. Only minor changes for racing were allowed. And in 1969 Ford and Chrysler were locked in a Battle Royale to win races. To this end both produced cars designed to dominate on the 1+ mile speedways. For Chrysler: the Dodge Charger 500, Dodge Charger Daytona, and Plymouth Road Runner Superbird. For Ford: the
Ford Torino Talladega and
Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II. Aero Warriors is the story and history of these street legal, 200mph (320kph) capable, wildly winged cars from the Chrysler side of the line.
posted by Mitheral
on Mar 19, 2006 -
16 comments
Poor old Abe. He had an
impressive medical history,
as previously discussed. Will we ever figure out all his ailments? As an explanation for "his especially clumsy gait," one theory claims that he had
Marfan's Syndrome (with
good company). But now researchers are leaning more toward a new theory, that a gene-linked disorder called
ataxia. But Lincoln also suffered from depression which could have been
heriditary, for which he took
"little blue pills" that gave him mercury poisoning, which could explain his insomnia, tremors and rage attacks, gait,
and more. Of course,
we also suspect that he was
in the closet.
Lincoln's DNA will continue to be a growth industry, at least until somebody can get hold of a sample of the old guy and figure him out for sure.
posted by beagle
on Jan 29, 2006 -
34 comments
The
MESSENGER spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral on August 3, 2004 and returned to Earth for its
first gravity boost on the way to Mercury a year later on August 2, 2005. MESSENGER took hundreds of high-res digital photos during its
Earth flyby and they've been sequenced into an amazing
movie of Earth rotating over 24 hours as the spacecraft swung past at thousands of miles per hour.
posted by driveler
on Aug 30, 2005 -
31 comments
A "stunning" link between an ingredient in childhood vaccines and autism leads to a cover-up conspiracy. "But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data. According to transcripts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, many at the meeting were concerned about how the damaging revelations about thimerosal would affect the vaccine industry's bottom line." An
earlier post (concerned only with fish) asked, "Got mercury?" Why,
yes you do - and fish is the least of your problems. Interestingly, hints of this story surfaced in the media in the
Spring/Summer of 2005. There may also be a link between thimerosal and Alzheimer's, A.D.D., and Asperger's Syndrome.
A thimerosal resource guide. Maybe we'll take notice this time around?
posted by spock
on Jun 16, 2005 -
137 comments
What a coincidence, huh? (wapo, reg reqd) For the third time, environmental advocates have discovered passages in the Bush administration's proposal for regulating mercury pollution from power plants that mirror almost word for word portions of memos written by a law firm representing coal-fired power plants.
The passages state that the Environmental Protection Agency is not required to regulate other hazardous toxins emitted by power plants, such as lead and arsenic. The actual proposals and study are
here.
posted by amberglow
on Sep 23, 2004 -
9 comments
Yesterday was the 13th Anniversary of Freddie Mercury's death, whilst [almost] coincidentally, tomorrow marks the occasion of the 13th
Mercury Music Prize, which he had
nothing to do with.
In that time, we've seen
classical-punk piano recitals nominated,
agit-prop rockers repeatedly snubbed and Radiohead routinely listed but falling short [though not this year.]. It's always a varied list, but are
you really interested in the obscure, the fusion, the orchestral and the jazz?
Listen to 'em all
here , and fill up the gaps
here. A complete list of past nominees and winners can be found
here , and the bookies seem to rate both
The Streets and
Franz Ferdinand worthy of the accolade, according to odds published
here.
Will ascullion again pick the winner? Listen on the web to find out tomorrow, midnight GMT, or watch on digital TV in the UK .
Previous years' threads here.
posted by dash_slot-
on Sep 6, 2004 -
14 comments
We've had plenty of posts about dogs. . .we've had some posts about mercury. . . .but
this has not been posted as yet, as far as my searches of the site can deduct. No compelling reason to post this, other than it's in my occupational field and it's interesting.
posted by Danf
on Dec 6, 2001 -
8 comments
