Mars picture is cool.

In other Geekish news a guest on NPR Science Friday said today "Pluto is a Planet the same way a Chihuahua is a dog. Just because it is small doesn't mean anything." For those of us who like Pluto that is a great way to think about it.

The prowess of local ecotypes of wild yeasts are well-known in brewing lore. I'm surprised no one's actually done a survey of wine yeasts before. I remember years ago when the EU was trying to implement food safety standards there was a huge hullabaloo over the lambic breweries in Belgium who hadn't swept the cobwebs out of their rafters in literally centuries. The environment of the building itself had evolved as a habitat for the microbes that gave a brewery its house flavor.

Surprised you neglected to mention this article in Nature reporting on a comprehensive study that concludes LSD helps treat alcoholism.

It is now clear why I did not sink into the oblivion of heavy drinking during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Doubtless I was rescued from this fate due to the heavy hallucinigenic effect gained from wastching Pee Wee Herman's Magic Playhouse episodes.

Wine Geeks! It's common wine-geek knowledge these days that indigenous and spontaneous yeasts are FAR superior to use than imported and cultured ones.

Earthquake design takes in to account the movers and the shakers, and building designs differ. Here is a familiar Boston landmark that happens to have transitioned to other owners, and is the current home of Bain Capital. The high finance that led to the demise of the quintessential American company named John Hancock Insurance is the larger telltale story for another day. Odd thing is that Boston is not well known for Earthquakes, so why this odd design?

Well is not well designed, and the whole building twists in the wind, swings back and forth, it was problem discovered, by corrected by taking a whole floor and using to house a massive oscillating damper.

Any flip-flop motion is countered by another flip-flop, and the building steadies itself.

Any relation between Bain Capital and Mitt Romney is purely in the form of earnings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock_Tower

Nauseating sway

The building's upper-floor occupants suffered from motion sickness when the building swayed in the wind. To stabilize the movement, contractors installed a device called a tuned mass damper on the 58th floor. As described by Robert Campbell, architecture critic for the Boston Globe:

Two 300-ton weights sit at opposite ends of the 58th floor of the Hancock. Each weight is a box of steel, filled with lead, 17 feet (5.2 m) square by 3 feet (0.9 m) high. Each weight rests on a steel plate. The plate is covered with lubricant so the weight is free to slide. But the weight is attached to the steel frame of the building by means of springs and shock absorbers. When the Hancock sways, the weight tends to remain still, allowing the floor to slide underneath it. Then, as the springs and shocks take hold, they begin to tug the building back. The effect is like that of a gyroscope, stabilizing the tower. The reason there are two weights, instead of one, is so they can tug in opposite directions when the building twists. The cost of the damper was $3 million. The dampers are free to move a few feet relative to the floor.

The John Hancock Tower seen from the Prudential Tower; on the left is Copley Square (and Trinity Church), to the upper left is the Boston Common, on the right is the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) and to the top right is Logan International Airport. According to Robert Campbell, it was discovered that—despite the mass damper—the building could have fallen over under a certain kind of wind loading. It was assessed as more unstable on its narrow sides than on the big flat sides. Some 1,500 tons of diagonal steel bracing, costing $5 million, were added to prevent such an event.

Wonder what the earthquake "sounds" like when not played 100 times faster?

After today, may have to delete Maddow blog from favorites - just missed an appointment after becoming enthralled by the fascination of it all including, of course, following up on things of interest at each click. Facial reconstruction of gun turret civil war sailors great, physics joke still not great, and all Romneys still dress alike. I love this site.