An Octosquid

This is pretty cool:

While the smallest of the rat-tail fish was still alive — until the octosquid made a meal of it — the other creatures were dead. War said the fish that come up the NELHA pipeline quickly die or are already dead because the change in atmospheric pressure expands and eventually ruptures a fish’s swim bladders.

But invertebrates — animals with no backbones — are seemingly unaffected by the pressure change. The light may have bothered the octosquid, though, since it is pitch black at the 3,000-foot depth. War said the exceptionally clear waters off Keahole Point allow light from the sun to penetrate to about 500 and 600 feet.

When we were diving in Kona last fall, we went down to the top of the pipeline, which is at a depth of about sixty feet. It’s kind of eerie to look down it, and then look at the outside of it, as it descends almost half a mile into the depths, down the undersea slope of Mauna Kea.

A Perpetual Motion Machine

It sounds great. There’s only one problem. It doesn’t work:

Despite apparently violating fundamental laws of physics, Steorn planned to demonstrate its machine to the public Wednesday at the Kinetica Museum gallery in London.

Steorn, however, ran into a minor problem — Orbo isn’t working.

Steorn posted a note on its Web site:

“We are experiencing some technical difficulties with the demo unit in London. Our initial assessment indicates that this is probably due to the intense heat from the camera lighting. We have commenced a technical assessment and will provide an update later today.”

Yes, of course. Camera lighting. I’m sure that’s it.

Bad News

One of the few policies that Bill Clinton pushed with which I agreed was free trade. Unfortunately, it sounds like his wife has abandoned it:

Mrs. Clinton’s decision to make Mr. Gephardt an official member of her economic team is a blunt repudiation of her husband’s strategy from 1992, when he won the White House in part by distancing himself from unions and protectionist elements in the Democratic base.

There’s always been a tension between the true Democrat liberals, and the forces of protection driven largely by their union constituencies. If support for free trade has collapsed among Dems, and they get into power, it will be very bad news for not just the US, but potentially devastating for the world economy, particularly in the most vulnerable and poorest countries, still struggling to develop.

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