Fluid Flow

In the past week, I have had two strange and not pleasant encounters with our six-legged friends. But both were firsts for me.

The first happened while driving north on 101. I hit a bee swarm. Within a second my windshield was covered with the remains of 50 to 100 dead bees. Not much you can do except say, “sorry I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Then two nights ago, a gnat climbed down my ear canal and got stuck in the wax. You don’t want to experience a gnat trying to free itself from inside your ear.

Over the years, insects and I have gotten along well. This past week, not so well.

X-51A races to hypersonic record: “The Air Force’s experimental, scramjet-powered Waverider makes a short but historic flight in a test range over the Pacific Ocean.”

(Via CNET News.com.)

And yes, this needs a mention too. I am not even going to try to think of the equations involved here.

Gulf Disaster Is Now Worst U.S. Offshore Oil Spill:

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey say the flow rate from the blown-out well is at least twice as much and possibly five times as much as estimates cited by BP. The oil giant says engineers won’t know until at least Thursday afternoon whether the latest attempt to plug the leak is succeeding.

(Via NPR News: Top Stories.)

I have been remiss, any self respecting blog with a name like Fluid Flow should have a link to the oil (and now drilling mud) gushing out of the Gulf Coast seafloor. My apologies, you will have go to the NPR story to see/watch the feed.

Antidunes on the Toutle River, 1984

Geologists find a way to simulate the great Missoula floods: “Scientists use detailed computer simulations to get a play-by-play look at how the great floods unfolded thousands of years ago.”

(Via Oregon Local News.)

Supercritical flows seem likely across the scablands, at least until water backed up at the entrance of the Gorge. Similar conditions probably occurred at the Gorge outlet near Portland. There you had expanding flow that could have produced and preserved some very large antidunes. It all kind of depends on the sediment load of the flows.

I am trying to imagine my little beach experiments blown up a few thousand times. Impressive, to say the least.

The Big One is inevitable. Catastrophe is not.: “The message for Southern California from the horror in Haiti should be — but probably won’t be — to prepare for disaster.

(Via L.A. Times - California | Local News.)

I actually started this post before this LA Times article came out. But it is an easy post to work off of. While we don’t expect a natural disaster will turn our cities into third world countries, we must expect it.

There is a difference between a natural disaster and a man-made one. We make man-made disasters by being unprepared.

Should Earth Scientists Take a ‘Hippocratic Oath’?: “Earth scientists should take a do-no-harm oath like doctors do, suggest two researchers, in light of climate change and proposed massive geoengineering projects.

(Via Wired News.)

Wow, what a brilliantly stupid idea. After hundreds of years of helping plunder the planet for monetary gain, we all should step back and say “my bad! I’ll go climb under a rock now”.

To get to the position of where you can say to others “You will do no harm”, you have already done harm.

Lab worms are stunned by ‘phaser’: “Scientists show off an effect not unlike that of ‘phasers’ in Star Trek - but it only works on tiny worms called nematodes.”

(Via BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition.)

I really think I should have gotten a job writing headlines.

One night only: Leonid meteor shower: Thanks to a new moon, chances of being able to see this annual celestial show tonight are good.

The annual Leonid meteor shower will make its one-night appearance over North America tonight. Viewing conditions should be excellent because the peak will occur after midnight, when the lights of metropolitan areas will be at their dimmest.

(Via Los Angeles Times - Top News.)

Sounds like a reason to step outside if you wake up in the middle of the night. I have been disappointed with the last few in Monterey, when there was either a near fullmoon or fog.

Update:

I went out at about 1:30 and while the stars were nice and clear the meteors were a little  sparse. I saw two in about 10 minutes of watching.

Brown Pelican Flies Off The Endangered List:

After nearly 40 years on the brink of extinction, the brown pelican has made a substantial enough comeback that it will be removed Wednesday from the endangered species list, The Associated Press reports.

(Via NPR News: Top Stories.)

I have lived long enough to remember when it was rare to see these birds. Now I see them every time I go to the coast. Banning DDT was probably the key to their survival. Score one for the humans.

Welcome back pelicans.

Now let’s save the red-legged frog, checker-spot butterfly, and a myriad of others on the list.

See the Wildebeest Migration in the Mara Triangle… on Google Earth!: “

We’re in the process of installing tracking devices into our vehicles here at the Conservancy, and as our Land Cruiser arrived at Oloololo Gate I had a quick peek at its progress over on Google Earth.

Since I’ve last been on it seems that Google have updated the satellite image for the top of the Mara Triangle, and you can even see the new toilets that we’ve constructed over at Oloololo (in the top left hand corner).

I also noticed that our grader is parked outside of the rangers quarters, which means that it’s just after we had completed grading the roads inside the Triangle and were about to grade the roads towards all the camps and lodges that are on the outside, just at the beginning of August when the migration was in full swing.

You must at least be able to see some wildebeest, I thought.

Well, you can.

That’s quite a few thousand of the chaps swarming their way up towards the north of the Triangle.

I’m sure you’d quite like a look around yourself, and if you don’t have Google Earth installed you can have a look with Google Maps below:’

View Larger Map

(Via Mara Triangle.)

This is pretty cool. The updates don’t extend to the area of Ken’s Mara camp yet, but the coverage is getting better.