“It was snap, crackle and pop in the early days of the universe. You would not want to live there. Astronomers said Tuesday that they had smashed the long-distance record in astronomy when they recorded an explosion, probably a massive early star, that lived and died 13 billion years ago, only about 600 million years after the Big Bang. The explosion was detected on April 23 as a burst of gamma-rays by NASA’s Swift satellite, which has been patrolling the skies for these powerful explosions for the last five years.” (New York Times )
Daily Archives: 2 May 09
Pipe Leak at New York Nuclear Plant Raises Concerns
“The discovery of water flowing across the floor of a building at the Indian Point 2 nuclear plant in Buchanan, N.Y., traced to a leak in a buried pipe, is stirring concern about the plant’s underground pipes and those of other aging reactors across the country.” (New York Times )
Related:
- Our Towns: Indian Point and a License to Disagree (nytimes.com)
- Go nuclear? (washingtonmonthly.com)
Blaming ‘Media Hype’ for Swine Flu Fears
“How loudly should a responsible person shout (or whisper) “Possible Fire!” in a crowded theater?” via The Lede – NYTimes.
In a Mexican Village With Swine Flu, Complaints About a Hog Farm Persist
“While public health officials are still trying to determine where the outbreak of the swine flu started, there has been a lot of speculation online this week about a possible, though as yet unsubstantiated, link to an industrial hog farm in Veracruz, Mexico.
As my colleague in Mexico, Marc Lacey, reported on Wednesday, “state health authorities looking for the initial source of the outbreak,” toured the “million-pig hog farm in Perote, in Veracruz State.” Mr. Lacey explained:
The plant is half-owned by Smithfield Foods, an American company and the world’s largest pork producer. Mexico’s first known swine flu case, which was later confirmed, was from Perote, according to Health Minister José Ángel Córdova. The case involved a 5-year-old boy who recovered.
Talent
This is the word tightrope. Now imagine
a man, inching across it in the space
between our thoughts. He holds our breath.
There is no word net.
You want him to fall, don’t you?
I guessed as much; he teeters but succeeds.
The word applause is written all over him.
— Carol Ann Duffy, the new poet laureate of Great Britain
Related:
- Carol Ann Duffy becomes poet laureate (guardian.co.uk)
- Britain Picks 1st Female Poet Laureate (nytimes.com)
- Premonitions by Carol Ann Duffy (guardian.co.uk)
- Carol Ann Duffy: Profile of the new Poet Laureate (telegraph.co.uk)
- Carol Ann Duffy becomes first female poet laureate (guardian.co.uk)
