Mira Loma High School International Night 2023

Nice mural at Mira Loma High School.

Various Science Fair projects.  In my day, we never had a Neurobiology Club.

I started talking to one student about a Science Fair project using the conductivity of water as a proxy for water contamination.  As a demonstration, a solution of baking soda is used.  Not only does the solution conduct electricity, but gas bubbles are emitted, which supposedly shows the electrolysis of water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen.

Except I don't think I believe it.  Instead, I think the bubbles might be carbon dioxide from the more acidic solution around the cathode.

Yet, this electrolysis experiment is a common educational high-school science experiment with a big literature.  And I disagree with it.

I didn't think this high-school student knew very much.  Diffident and unsure of herself.  I hurried off.

Inspirational messages.

Various dances.

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Mexican dances.

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Alpacas Humming

In The Trenches with the Da Vinci Wolves

From Daily Kos:

The Honor Squad from Ukraine’s DaVinci Wolves battalion has filmed 11 minutes’ worth of a first-person experience in the trenches outside of Bakhmut. In this video, the members are trying to clear trenches and protect the area east of Khromove along what has been called alternately the “Road of Life” and the “Road of Death.” It’s the only paved road that can bring men and materiel in and out of the area of Bakhmut still in Ukrainian hands. However, it’s also under fire control from Russian forces to the north, making every run down the road a contest against a rain of artillery shells while dodging the burned-out hulks of vehicles that failed. 

Take a deep breath before watching this, because it’s intense. And here’s a big and serious warning: There is some very close-range exchange of fire in this video. People get shot. People get killed. Those people are sometimes up close and in daylight, not distant shapes on a thermal screen. Combat takes place at a shockingly short range. All of it is set on a nightmare landscape where not a leaf on a tree or a blade of grass has survived.

 

Local Drag Queen Story Time Runs Into Problems

This place is quite close to where I live. Still, I had no idea what they were up to. I should help out, if I could:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A protest forced police to close Franklin Boulevard in the area of 2nd Avenue Sunday, the Sacramento Police Department said in a post on Twitter. 

...On Sunday, what started out as a peaceful Drag Queen Story Time for children and families inside Poppy + Pot, ended up looking a lot different outside the business on Franklin Boulevard. 

A crowd outside was met with a group of people against the event. It led to someone being pepper sprayed, someone being arrested and a man going as far as to demonstrate the Nazi salute. 

"It's just very upsetting. Obviously, I got emotional because I can't believe it's 2023 and there's still people that think that's a value to uphold. And it's a thing that's written in the history books and then we're still going through and people are still being targeted," said Karina Salcedo, who was a parent attending Drag Queen Story Time with her family.

Lubricant Leaks From the Cascadia Subduction Zone

Friend Bruce wondered if this meant a major earthquake might result from lubricant loss. I explained this loss was small compared to the vast amount of lubricant that must exist. There must be many more such holes. The lubricant is squeezed from ocean-botton mud as the oceanic plate subducts and plunges under the North American plate. Still, this phenomenon is interesting:

A study led by the University of Washington discovered seeps of warm, chemically distinct liquid shooting up from the seafloor about 50 miles off Newport, Oregon. The paper, published Jan. 25 in Science Advances, describes the unique underwater spring the researchers named Pythia’s Oasis. Observations suggest the spring is sourced from water 2.5 miles beneath the seafloor at the plate boundary, regulating stress on the offshore fault.

The team made the discovery during a weather-related delay for a cruise aboard the RV Thomas G. Thompson. The ship’s sonar showed unexpected plumes of bubbles about three-quarters of a mile beneath the ocean’s surface. Further exploration using an underwater robot revealed the bubbles were just a minor component of warm, chemically distinct fluid gushing from the seafloor sediment.

“They explored in that direction and what they saw was not just methane bubbles, but water coming out of the seafloor like a firehose. That’s something that I’ve never seen, and to my knowledge has not been observed before,” said co-author Evan Solomon, a UW associate professor of oceanography who studies seafloor geology.

The feature was discovered by first author Brendan Philip, who did the work as a UW graduate student and now works as a White House policy advisor. 

Observations from later cruises show the fluid leaving the seafloor is 9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the surrounding seawater. Calculations suggest the fluid is coming straight from the Cascadia megathrust, where temperatures are an estimated 150 to 250 degrees Celsius (300 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit).

Passenger Ferry Runs Aground in Washington State

Hey, I recognize this ferry! Rode it (or one of the other similar boats) in October, 2021:

All passengers have safely disembarked a passenger ferry that ran aground on Saturday in Rich Passage near Bainbridge Island in Washington state.

A total of 596 passengers and 15 crew members were aboard the ship, according to a tweet from US Coast Guard Pacific Northwest, which responded to the scene. The last of the passengers had safely disembarked by 10 pm, Washington State Ferries said in an update.

The ferry Walla Walla ran aground at around 4:30 pm Saturday while making the trip from Bremerton to Seattle, Washington State Ferries wrote in a tweet. There were no injuries reported, said Washington State Ferries. 

The agency said that initial signs suggest the vessel suffered a “generator failure” and an official investigation is forthcoming.

"Freaky Friday" - Sheldon High School - April 14, 2023

I came to see this show, out in Vineyard east of Elk Grove, because I know the Choreographer, Katie Rogers, but I also know the Piano Player, Dave Williams (seated at far right).

There was a terrible car accident at Kingbridge and Calvine Rd. shortly before the show, so they held curtain for 15 minutes so theater goers could negotiate the necessary detour to get to the theater.

Nice show!  The two lead girls had strong voices and I liked the dancing of one of the boys (Lucas).

Here are bows:

Ask Alice

And if you go chasing felines 

And you know they take a stand 

Tell 'em a Walrus and a Carpenter 

Charm oysters on the sand 

Ask Alice 

If White Cat gets tanned

When You're Straight and Accidentally Drink a Bud Light

Stocking up for the weekend in Sacramento’s Lavender Heights.