Pacific Dead Zone Returns
From the ScienceNews Blog,
The AP reports that the Pacific Coasts' "dead zone" has returned. The dead zone was first discovered in 2002.
The oxygen-starved "dead zone" along the Pacific Coast that is causing massive crab and fish die-offs is worse than initially thought, scientists said.
Weather, not pollution, appears to be the culprit, scientists said, and no relief is in sight. However, some said there is no immediate sign of long-term damage to the crab fishery in the dead zone, a 70-mile stretch of water along the Continental Shelf between Florence and Lincoln City.
Oregon State University scientists looking for weather changes that could reverse the situation aren't finding them. They say levels of dissolved oxygen critical to marine life are the lowest since the first dead zone was identified in 2002. It has returned every year.
Strong upwelling winds pushed a low-oxygen pool of deep water toward shore, suffocating marine life, said Jane Lubchenco, a professor of marine biology at OSU.
The article says Oregon State University scientists saw a crab graveyard and thousands of dead sea creatures in the dead zone. Scientists are blaming low-oxygen water triggered by global warming for the dead zone. So far, the local commercial fishing industry has not been impacted.
Password-protected Bullets
Barry Fox over at the NewScientist Blogs writes,
The way to make firearms really safe, says Hebert Meyerle of Germany, is to password-protect the ammunition itself.
Meyerle is patenting a design for a modified cartridge that would be fired by a burst of high-frequency radio energy. But the energy would only ignite the charge if a solid-state switch within the cartridge had been activated. This would only happen if a password entered into the gun using a tiny keypad matched one stored in the cartridge.
When they are sold, cartridges could be programmed with a password that matches the purchaser's gun. An owner could set the gun to request the password when it is reloaded, or to perform a biometric check before firing. The gun could also automatically lock itself after a pre-set period of time has passed since the password was entered.
The system would undoubtedly cost more than a conventional gun, but many firearm enthusiasts would surely pay a premium for such added security.
Plenty of good comments posted,
This is a terrible idea. It will hinder those who may need the weapon for self defense long enough to become dead, and will do absolutely NOTHING to stop an accidental death or misuse by a thieving criminal.
Want safer guns? Kill the criminals.
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