News Cut: November 29, 2007 Archive

Time to travel

Posted at 7:49 AM on November 29, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Scientists are watching a rerun this week, and it's not because of the writer's strike.

They've discovered the beginnings of galaxies 11 billion years ago. They're looking back in time. Time travel, with our eyes.

Cambridge University scientist Martin Haehnelt said his team used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and the Gemini Telescope in Chile, pointing both at the same spot in the sky for 92 hours. And they saw... the past. Because light takes time to travel across the universe, the telescopes were able to take this "long exposure," and they discovered the formation of galaxies from the past... live.... sort of.

Concepts like this are no big deal for scientists, but mere mortals often struggle with the concept. If we can point a telescope that way and see the past, why not point it in the other direction and see the future?

If we can look at 11 billion years ago, can't we point it somewhere earlier and solve the evolution vs. intelligent design debate?

If we can see 11 billion years ago in a galaxy far away, can we look a little more recently and find out how they turned out? "Out there" "Back there," it's 11 billion years later now. Perhaps they've even figured out how small-market teams can compete in Major League Baseball, which they probably call "soccer."

One wonders if they've got a telescope (probably called the Very Wicked Humungous Telescope) aimed at us. The earth is estimated to be only 4.5 billion years old. If "they" were quicker than we were in evolving (or in being designed), and they're 11 billion years away, are they right now looking at us 6.5 billion years from now?

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Oil jitters

Posted at 9:09 AM on November 29, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

The explosion of an oil pipeline in Minnesota showed us all just how fragile the world oil market is.

Oil prices soared when word got out about the explosion.

The quick run-up in prices -- it had jumped $5 a barrel -- eased when it was revealed that the pipeline where the explosion occurred was already shut down for "planned maintenance," so there's no disruption in the supply of oil. By midmorning, it was up only $2.63, $2.29 $1.74. Move along, there's nothing more to see here.

Or is there?

"This latest blow to supplies could create a tense situation for oil markets, especially if OPEC decides against a production increase and if the United States experiences an unexpectedly cold winter. According to Poole, if these two negative outcomes were combined with a protracted pipeline shutdown at Enbridge, oil could end up breaking the much-vaunted $100 barrier," according to an analysis on the Forbes Web site.

If nothing else, the situation refocused attention on the skyrocketing cost of oil. But something isn't adding up. Oil has reached record-high prices, but at least one oil company has reported lower profits. Why?

Chevron's CEO took a swing at that in a story posted on Fortune magazine's Web site today.

"At $90 a barrel, the cost of crude in a gallon of gasoline is about $2.25. In most states the federal and state taxes are 60 or 70 cents a gallon, so now you're up to at least $2.80 a gallon. Because the U.S. happened to be very well supplied with gasoline, that was the price it was selling for nationwide in most of the third quarter. Add the cost of transportation, refining, distributing, marketing - you're not going to make any money at that price. That's why our U.S. refining and marketing business did not make money in the last quarter."

Today (literally today) in Minnesota, gas prices are as low as $2.77 a gallon. The price of oil is well over $90 a gallon. Under this theory, Chevron would be losing more than 3 cents a gallon at these prices.

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Parents are watching: Alcohol on campus

Posted at 12:14 PM on November 29, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Sorry, kids, the jigger is up.

It turns out Mom and Dad know something about your liquor habits while you're off at school... at least if you're at the University of Minnesota.

According to the Minnesota Daily, a course, "Seminar for Parents: Alcohol Use on Campus," opened to all parents this semester after being limited to just parents of first-year students in previous years.

Does it work in this age of binge-drinking on campus?

"College kids are college kids, and there's nothing you're going to do about it," one student said.

To access the course, according to a U news release:

Step 1: Go to this Web site to begin the log-in process:

http://projects.education.umn.edu/parentseminar/

Step 2: Follow instructions on the Web page. When asked for an Internet ID and password, use the following:

Internet ID: mnparent

Password: AlcoholSeminar1

(the password is case sensitive, and the last character is number 1)

The course list should provide a link to Parent Program First Year Seminar for Parents - Alcohol Use on Campus .

Step 3: When the course screen comes up, link to "Getting Started" and proceed at your own pace.

* * *
Of particular interest is the section on parents' attitudes toward campus drinking:

"Some parents complain that University staff and law enforcement personnel are wasting time and harassing their children when they issue citations to students for alcohol use. After all, they say, 'All students drink. It's not a big deal.'"

Check out the discussion area, which dates back to 2005, on the subject of what parents did on the first day they could legally drink. Surprisingly, especially considering the introduction above, many of them just weren't drinkers, which makes me wonder if the right parents are taking the online course.

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Why it's called 'the graveyard shift'

Posted at 1:39 PM on November 29, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Research out today shows higher rates of breast and prostate cancer among women and men whose work day starts after dark.

Next month the World Health Organization will consider declaring shift work "a probable carcinogen."

What's already on that list?

* Art glass, glass containers and pressed ware (manufacture of)
* Cobalt metal with tungsten carbide
* Hairdresser or barber (occupational exposure as a)
* Petroleum refining (occupational exposures in)
* Sunlamps and sunbeds (use of)

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