Bouncy, Bouncy Water Drops.

Watch the bouncing droplet

Uploaded by strainoff on Jun 7, 2009

I saw this on the TV show Time Warp and thought that I could do that. Well it turns out that Noah and I could do it! I was a little surprised at how small the parameter space was to achieve a good series of bounces. Near the end of this clilp, you can see waves entering from the lower right. I think these are reflections of a low frequency sloshing modes set up by the initial droplet. The smallest droplet bounces off these waves and start moving off to the side. In any case it is pretty cool. The only issue is that there was some dust on the sensor (dark spots that don’t move). The camera is a Vision Research Phantom v7.3 high speed video camera.

It is fascinating (and beautiful) to see water behave this way in such detail and I thought you all might think that this is as cool as I do.

It seems bizarre as what is revealed goes against our innate impression of what water is, how it should act and what it can do.

Great food for thought, too. There are so many things in nature that happen all the time and right before our very eyes… all forever unnoticed due to size or speed or both. Although a poster on the forum claims to see this regularly with his unaided eyes and has called it the “Anti Bubble” effect. … hmmm.

Here is another video of the phenomena:

Cascade Coalescence

Uploaded by videoslmpt on May 31, 2010

High speed video of a droplet coalescence at the surface of deionized water. Filmed at the Laboratory of Porous Media and Thermophysical Properties.
www.lmpt.ufsc.br

And here is a great article that appears on the io9 site, with a hat-tip to this ATS article for providing the lead:

High speed video reveals the bizarre physics of an ordinary water droplet

The video is of an effect known in fluid dynamics as the coalescence cascade, which can be observed (provided you have access to a video camera with a sufficiently high frame rate) when a drop of liquid is deposited very gently onto the surface of a layer of the same liquid. Fuck Yeah Fluid Dynamics explains:

When a droplet impacts a pool at low speed, a layer of air trapped beneath the droplet can often prevent it from immediately coalescing into the pool. As that air layer drains away, surface tension pulls some of the droplet’s mass into the pool while a smaller droplet is ejected. When it bounces off the surface of the water, the process is repeated and the droplet grows smaller and smaller until surface tension is able to completely absorb it into the pool.

Pretty awesome, right? In the video shown up top, the effect manages to repeat itself four times (in what scientists who study fluid mechanics call “events”) before the viscous properties of the resting pool become too strong for the smallest drops to withstand coalescing completely.

And while the highest number of events I’ve been able to find anywhere else is five (see the video on the left), MIT’s John Bush claims to have observed as many as seven such events in a row. I just wish he’d included a video of it…[Spotted on Fuck Yeah Fluid Dynamics]

Enjoy Mother Nature. She’s a beautiful girl.

Peace.

EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration… Priceless.

From a post by a friend on Facebook this morning, we learn of this utter travesty of … what? Common sense? Intelligence? Something like that. No, just like that. I mean, seriously, you simply can’t make this stuff up.

At some point last night, I read a thought posted on ATS that rang true to me. The gist of it was that while many of us remain in our normal state of mind and being, there is something wrong with reality. Events such as this do not assist in alleviating that underlying and ominous sense of high strangeness in the cosmic background weirdness index.

You should read the full article, but just from the excerpts below you’ll find that it took an impressive 21 fully trained, professional educators three years to come up with this new standard for absurdity. And if that’s not an indicator that something is wrong with reality, then I am at a complete and total loss as to what one might be.

I think I might just have to award these wingnuts the WATT Upper Class Twit Of The Year Award. And I will, damn it! So there! I do indeed feel quite confident that no one, anywhere, could come up with something as batshit crazy as this. Who ARE these people? And just what are they smoking?

Here is a link to the source of this news at The Telegraph’s website in the UK. Read it and weep!

Here are a few excerpts…

Brussels bureaucrats were ridiculed yesterday after banning drink manufacturers from claiming that water can prevent dehydration.

NHS health guidelines state clearly that drinking water helps avoid dehydration, and that Britons should drink at least 1.2 litres per day
Photo: ALAMY

By Victoria Ward and Nick Collins

6:20AM GMT 18 Nov 2011

EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact.

Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.

Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: “This is stupidity writ large.”

“The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.”

Prioritize much? Think much? Get out much? Didn’t think so…

“If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it.”

NHS health guidelines state clearly that drinking water helps avoid dehydration, and that Britons should drink at least 1.2 litres per day.

The Department for Health disputed the wisdom of the new law. A spokesman said: “Of course water hydrates. While we support the EU in preventing false claims about products, we need to exercise common sense as far as possible.”

And, interestingly, in this next line a credentialed commentator echoes the sentiment raised above in that something is very seriously wrong… and it is followed by the revelation that this event cannot, with precision, be called a one-off slip of the grey-matter, either…!

Prof Hahn, from the Institute for Food Science and Human Nutrition at Hanover Leibniz University, said, “[…] We fear there is something wrong in the state of Europe.”

Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall said the ruling made the “bendy banana law” look “positively sane”.

He said: “I had to read this four or five times before I believed it. It is a perfect example of what Brussels does best. Spend three years, with 20 separate pieces of correspondence before summoning 21 professors to Parma where they decide with great solemnity that drinking water cannot be sold as a way to combat dehydration.

Rules banning bent bananas and curved cucumbers were scrapped in 2008 after causing international ridicule.

I was hoping to write more about this, but I just can’t seem to come up with things at the moment… like I said above  with that cliche, you can’t make this stuff up.

Peace and… umm… drink up!

Explain THIS! A Video by Lunar Explorer Italia

A sporty new video’s arrived from the boffins over at Lunar Explorer Italia − this one dealing with an interesting look at what is perhaps yet another fossil, a flat little round guy of a nice size this time, unfortunately broken. But, it’s “reconstructed” nicely… and shown to compare favorably with an Earthly organism called a Nummulite.

Nice little stream, too, or rather the remnant thereof… that looks, shall we say… recent!

Un flusso? Che cosa?

Sì, l’uomo!

Indeed, that got me going a bit more than the fossil did, as, well, there are tons of fossils. But rarely have I seen such close up, on the ground, positive indication of surface water. This is really great stuff.

Can’t you just see the water bubbling up from a spot under the Rover’s wheel… heading off down the slope… only to quickly get absorbed into the soil, all the while evaporating at the same time? Way cool, I say!

You know, having said that, the Rovers should really be giving us videos… maybe next time, as they’re so fond of saying. Yeah, right, that’ll happen.

Fantastico … godetevi lo spettacolo!

Following is the always interesting “description” that LEI attached to the video. Heady, these guys… :)

Subscribe

LunarExplorerItalia
March 23, 2010

What are we looking at? Will be the usual – wonderful! – Photomosaic in natural colors that shows us a piece of Mars?

No, this is more.

More.

Go and look at the EDM below …

We already know what they say and write in many :”… but what is it? E ‘a detail that you do not understand … is too small … … is undefined does not explain anything and does not prove anything. .. “.

Yes, certainly.
And you know why? Why the “people” (like the Anomaly Hunters Sunday …) wants to be surprised and, to believe, wants to see – or rather: MUST SEE! – Something big: a pyramid – or perhaps a group of Pyramids! -, An amphitheater, a Cosmodrome, a “face” that looks toward the sky or maybe a “parable” that points to nowhere …

Yes, it’s true: you try the “Big Test”, because it is “common thought” that only the “Big Test” AND ‘ “the smoking gun.”

It does not work that way.

Those seeking the “Cathedral” – and that we have already said and written until the nausea (more ours than your, believe it …) – in the end, does not want to see anything and even if he stumbles and falls on a simple but essential “Brick” … I do not see it!
Not consider.
I do not even understand.

LORD, that (in our humble but informed opinion) is the brick!

Look at him, Study him and if you’re really good, explain and spiegatecelo.

Confusion In The Sewers!

Ha! HaHa! Confusion reigns supreme as scientists scramble to explain the creatures in the Cameron Village sewer pipe video.

The video has now been confirmed as to it’s authenticity, but, in the tradition of current Western science, there are, to reuse that tired cliche, as many opinions as to what these critters are, it seems, as there are people looking at them.

I watched a video on YouTube of a small group in a bayou blowing away some bryozoan colonies with a rifle, and, although resembling our sewer pals on the surface (although much, much larger) they didn’t move in the slightest.

The hapless stars of the bayou video also didn’t sport the bizarre spiky appendage that the third critter wields menacingly at the camera… indeed, that third fella is the one… the one that gets me to thinking that these are not your typical assemblies of worms… it’s stranger than the first two… much stranger…

Naturally I could be wrong, but people who should, by their qualifications, be able to ID these dudes can’t seem to agree… and seem also to ignore the high strangeness of number three… so, yeah.

I wish I knew more about this stuff, but common sense is telling me that these are at the very least an unusual form of something or other, whether known or unknown. I wonder if the company that took this video might be persuaded to go back there and see how our little pals are progressing… that could well be rather revelatory.

We await the verdict.

For your enjoyment, here’s a wonderful article from Annalee Newitz at io9 revealing the phenomena of the cornered scientist… explanations, retractions, passing the buck, competition, butt covering… and I’m glad to say that Ms. Newitz is suitably amused by the lunacy gushing forth from these folks. They are pretty funny, after all… Hat tip to the Anomalist for the lead.

Public Utilities Group Confirms “Sewer Monster” Is Real, But Doesn’t Know What It Is

By Annalee Newitz, 12:56 PM on Wed Jul 1 2009, 20,131 views

If you’ve been following the ongoing sewer monster story from North Carolina, I’ve got some seriously crazy news for you. First of all, the video of the throbbing poop-esque creature has been confirmed as real. But what is it?

We’ve been tipped off by an anonymous source about how the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, is responding as the viral video of a seething blob in the city sewers made its way across the internet yesterday. Marti Gibson is the Environmental/EMS Coordinator for Public Utilities in the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, and she has been as confused as the rest of us. When she first looked at the video, she emailed our anonymous source to say it was a slime mold that was in the phase of its lifecycle where it looks like a throbbing, breathing animal (see io9’s report on slime molds from a few weeks ago where we talked about this exact thing).

She assured our tipster that any water passing by this slime would pass through a treatment plant and be thoroughly cleansed.

But then, a few hours later, Gibson retracted her statement in an email:

The video was taken in a private sewer system by a private contractor working for them. It does not belong to the City of Raleigh nor will it reach the Neuse River Wastewater Treatment Plant. This is the response from our director: “The video is of the private sanitary sewer in the Cameron Village and was taken by a private contractor working for them and not taken by our staff. The blob has been identified by others as worms.”

Worms? What kind of worms look like that?

Also I love how the privatization of the sewer system under this particular town has led to a terrible situation where the city’s public utilities commission has no ability to guarantee that the situation will be dealt with in a reasonable way.

Can some environmental scientist or worm expert please step up and tell us what this really is?

UPDATE:

According to the News & Observer:

Actually, the sewer monster is made up of thousands of tiny organisms called bryozoans, or moss animacules, said N.C. State University biologist Thomas Kwak. Invertebrates, they bunch together in colonies and feed with tiny tentacles.

But another scientist said no way to bryozoans. DeepSeaNews interviewed Dr. Timothy S. Wood, an expert on freshwater bryozoa and an officer with the International Bryozoology Association. He said:

No, these are not bryozoans! They are clumps of annelid worms, almost certainly tubificids (Naididae, probably genus Tubifex). Normally these occur in soil and sediment, especially at the bottom and edges of polluted streams. In the photo they have apparently entered a pipeline somehow, and in the absence of soil they are coiling around each other. The contractions you see are the result of a single worm contracting and then stimulating all the others to do the same almost simultaneously, so it looks like a single big muscle contracting.

An example of Tubifex is pictured above.

Cameron Village Infested! Unknown Life Form.

Discovered via ATS, these 2 minutes and 4 seconds are completely disgusting, or, as the chicks in the Valley once said, “Grotty to the max.” Not a video for the squeamish.

These creatures were found in a sewer line under Cameron Village in Raleigh, North Carolina. I don’t have knowledge of sewer-dwelling lifeforms, so I really can’t say, as it does in the description, that this is an unknown lifeform, but, it looks like it could qualify as such; and the operators of the camera certainly seem fascinated by it… and they’re down in there for a living, so, who knows. We await further information. I’d bet, though, that in true Fortean style, definitive data will never arrive. Some primates, according to warrenb at ATS, apparently feel that maybe they’re bryozoans, cnideria, slime molds or even shoggoth spawn! Maybe… don’t know… they seem much too animate for that, but, I vote for cute lil baby shoggoths!

Seriously, though, it’s interesting to note the way these creatures seem to react to the camera’s proximity… hmmm. That means they’re not only alive, but have reasonably good senses. The third creature is the most interesting. Or, disturbing, maybe. It has much more defined ‘tendrils’ holding on to the wall of the sewer pipe than the other two… and at 1:55 or so you’ll see a hard spike appendage protrude from it’s back end and then sink back down in there. Now, that’s pretty disturbing.

So… what are these things?

studiomacleod‘s YouTube video description:
Unknown Lifeform in North Carolina Sewer!
An unknown lifeform picked up by sewer snakecam in North Carolina. Believed to be of ET origin. Courtesy of http://www.UFORADAR.com

Ewww, eh? The video’s also available in ever so slightly better resolution, (if you just haven’t seen enough, um, detail.) at LiveLeak.com, where the description reads: “You know all that crap you flushed down the toilet? Well it’s back, and it’s pissed off.”

Indeed.

Nice Out Today… Not Too Chilly.

It was indeed… I think spring has finally sprung here… ooh, I can do the car… start on the yard… great… maybe more dudes’ll feel that warmth and find they need a web guy or an editor guy… anyway, Mars beckons, so…

I found a graph I was looking for… showing surface temps. It’s from the bolometer part of the USGS-operated TES instrument package on the Mars Global Surveyor way back in August of 2001.

Not too chilly, really, in spring, summer and fall. Much more than a bit nipply in winter, though, I admit… ha! In fact, instruments also reported in the same month that it can even be up to 30°C/86°F at the equator. Just like sunny California, eh? One can also see a thermal image here showing 0°C/32°F almost right down to the pole, which is itself very cold.

This mile-wide lake of snowmelt water would be a great place to fish, I think. It was found by Paul Mcleod on an MGS image of the south polar region in Martian spring. Probably catch some pretty odd stuff, eh? Hehe. Like that eel-looking critter that’s been popular of late, maybe. I think we should go up there and check it out… reels in hand. This isn’t my favorite lake, actually, (we’ll go there later), but it’s nice and was close at hand.

MGS info happily re-discovered via a long-overdue visit to Holger Isenberg’s site. He’s one of the original Mars investigators. Tons of cool stuff.

Water! Cool, Clear Water!

Well, well, well… what’s all this then, eh? The three pictures shown above were snapped by the Phoenix Lander on the surface of Mars, the planet they’ve been telling us is colder than a witch’s tit and dry as a bone…

Of course we Mars loonies have been spotting liquid standing water for ages now… in lakes even… and our august agency’s own instrumentation regularly records temperatures conducive to a nice day out. They leave that last bit out, of course. (Hopefully I can find the link for it)

I’ve never been too strong on the idea of NASA ever really disclosing anything striking to us in a timely fashion… if ever… considering the sums they’ve invested since day 1 in airbrushing photos of anything of interest, halting radio and television transmissions, making the Mars photos red (which really ticks me off) and such… fortunately things get missed… but… if this keeps up, maybe it’s a sign that they really will let it all out someday.

We can only hope. I’m of the opinion that we come from there, ’round about the time when things got nasty up there… could that be why? I kind of doubt it, but there are strange, archaic policies in place, so it might be a consideration.

Anyhow, I think this a most wonderful development and look forward to more! Hey, do ya think they’re aimin’ to live down the epithet Never A Straight Answer? Ha!

Pic and below lifted from National Geographic…

Liquid droplets seem to form and move on the leg of the Phoenix Mars lander, as seen in images taken on days 8, 31, and 44 (seen above from left to right) of the craft’s mission.

Scientists think the water could stay liquid even in the frigid Martian arctic because of its high concentration of perchlorates, salts that acts like antifreeze.

Images courtesy Image NASA/JPL-Caltech//University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute