The Dangers of a Bigger Godzilla

Godzilla has grown larger over the years, as you can see in this graph. In 1954, the movie monster was only 50 meters (164 feet) tall (as if that isn’t tall enough). In the 2014 movie, opening later this month, Godzilla is estimated to be about 150 meters (492 feet) tall! Deep Sea News crunches the numbers to study this size change and speculate on its meaning.

So why is Godzilla obtaining ever larger sizes with time?  Skyscrapers.  Skyscraper height has increased dramatically over the last century.  For Godzilla to continue to plow through buildings in major metropolises, a more formidable size is needed.  Of course this size change can only be evolutionarily adaptive if it changes the fitness of Godzilla, i.e. in the simplest case the number of offspring passed to the next generation.  If Godzilla is able to topple buildings this might allow for greater acquisition of resources in this case food in the form of people. This would increase the lifespan of Godzilla allow for more reproduction or allow for greater amount of energy to be passed to the offspring increasing their rate of survival  Or perhaps toppling buildings is a sexual display that sexual partners cue on.  Sexual selection!

Which is all well and good for the species, I suppose, but then they get into the urine output of such a large creature, and that’s even scarier than the movies!

The science of ever-larger Godzillas

A 55,000-ton, city-destroying lizard beast could pee 151,436,928 gallons per day. They never show you all the people who died, drowned in Godzilla's urine.

Coming Tomorrow

Coming Tomorrow

• Putin's not Post-Communist, he's Post-Fascist
• USA: The world's newest third world nation
• The repugicans freak out as the FEC wants Faux News and wingnut media as PACs
• Corrupt judge tries to protect Scott Walker by ordering incriminating evidence destroyed

And more ...

These macaws are our Animal Picture, for today.

The Daily Drift

We could use a dozen or so of these around here - a couple of dozen, even ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 199 countries around the world daily.   

Queen for a Day ... !

Today is - Mother's Day

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our reader today have been in:

The Americas

Mountain View, Monte Sereno, Mount Gilead, Mount Pleasant, Pilot Mountain, Black Mountain, Montara, Green Mountain and Suwanee, United States

Pikangikum, L'ancienne-Lorette, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Britannia and Nunalla, Canada

Mexico City and Ecatepec, Mexico

Bogota and Medellin, Colombia

Luquillo, Puerto Rico

Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Santiago, Chile

Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil

Europe

Gornja Tuzla and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Salon-De-Provence, France

Ryazan, Vladivostok, Saint Petersburg and Velikiye Luki, Russia

Huddinge and Stockholm, Sweden

Merida and Madrid, Spain

Milan, Rome, Treviso, Novara, Padova and Genoa, Italy

Kent, London and Gosport, England

Dublin, Ireland

Lublin, Warsaw, Olsztyn and Chrzanow, Poland

Novi Sad, Serbia

Ruse, Bulgaria

Reykjavik, Iceland

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Espoo, Finland

Rothe Erde and Bonn, Germany

Oslo, Norway
Den Haag, Netherlands

Asia

Singapore, Singapore

Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Seri Kembangan, Malaysia

Kolkata, Bankura, Chetput, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Thiruvananthpuram, India

Jakarta, Indonesia

Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal

Tehran and Ahvaz, Iran

La Dagotiere, Mauritius

Cyberjaya, Malaysia

Sialkot, Pakistan

Ratchaburi, Thailand

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Amman, Jordan

Muscat, Oman

Africa 

Anaba and Algiers, Algeria

Rosebank, South Africa

The Pacific

Sydney, Australia

Quiapo and Simpaloc, Philippines

Today in History

1573		Henry of Anjou becomes the first elected king of Poland.
1689		French and English navies battle at Bantry Bay.
1690		In the first major engagement of King William's War, British troops from Massachusetts seize Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) from the French.
1745		French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army at Fontenoy.
1792		The Columbia River is discovered by Captain Robert Gray.
1812		British prime Minster Spencer Perceval is shot by a bankrupt banker in the lobby of the House of Commons.
1857		Indian mutineers seize Delhi.
1858		Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.
1860		Giuseppe Garibaldi lands at Marsala, Sicily.
1862		Confederates scuttle the CSS Virginia off Norfolk, Virginia.
1864		Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern.
1960		Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires.
1967		The siege of Khe Sanh ends, the base is still in American hands.

Non Sequitur

How ‘selfies’ create confidence

How ‘selfies’ create confidence

sel·fie /ˈselfē/ (noun)- a photograph that one has taken of […]

Playing outside could make kids more spiritual

Playing outside could make kids more spiritual

Children who spend significant time outdoors could have a stronger […]

In sickness and in health

In sickness and in health: How illness affects the risk of divorce

In the classic marriage vow, couples promise to stay together […]

Yawning to cool the brain

Yawning to cool the brain

Why do we yawn? We tend to yawn before sleep […]

Extreme sleep

Extreme sleep: Change in durations may affect brain health in later life

A new research study led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital […]

Out of shape?

Out of shape? Your memory may suffer

Here’s another reason to drop that doughnut and hit the […]

People with autistic tendencies vulnerable to alcohol problems

People with autistic tendencies vulnerable to alcohol problems 

Young adults with autistic tendencies don’t often engage in social […]

Acupuncture Helps Kids Manage Pain, Nausea

Acupuncture Helps Kids Manage Pain, Nausea

The pink plastic box thatCynthia Kim, MD, EdD, opens at […]

Vitamin D deficiency may be linked to aggressive prostate cancer

Vitamin D deficiency may be linked to aggressive prostate cancer

Vitamin D deficiency was an indicator of aggressive prostate cancer […]

Rare Polio-Like Disease in California

Rare Polio-Like Disease in California

UCSF and Stanford physicians and researchers report on five cases […]

Autoimmune Diseases May Succumb to New Drug Strategy

Autoimmune Diseases May Succumb to New Drug Strategy

New pharmaceuticals to fight autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, […]

Electronic nose sniffs out prostate cancer using urine samples

Electronic nose sniffs out prostate cancer using urine samples

Novel noninvasive technique successfully discriminates between prostate cancer and benign […]

Ziggy

Why Is It So Hard to Thread a Needle?

Why Is It So Hard to Thread a Needle?

Scientists are shedding light on why threading a needle can be such a challenge, even if you do have good eyesight and a steady hand.

Why did lighthouse keepers go mad?

It wasn't the solitude. The Old Salt Blog explains:

In the 19th century, lighthouse keepers had a high frequency of madness and suicide.  Many assumed that they went mad from solitude and the demands of the job. It turns out it was something simpler and more sinister.

Fresnel lenses were the great lighthouse innovation of the 19th century.  The lenses developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel greatly increased the intensity and range of the lighthouse beacon. For rotating lights, just as importance as the strength of the light, however, was maintaining a specific speed of rotation, so that if the chart said that the light flashed every twenty seconds, the light, in fact, rotated so that the light was visible every twenty seconds.  The best near zero-friction bearing of the day was created by floating the light and the lens on a circular track of liquid mercury.  When dust, dirt or other impurities built up in the mercury, part of the light house keeper’s job was to strain the mercury through a fine cloth.

For an exhaustive academic study of the subject, see Lighthouse Keeper's Madness: Folk Legend, or Something more Toxic? in the Proceedings of the 11th Annual History of Medicine Days at the University of Calgary.

The last operating lighthouse Fresnel lens in the United States is in the Split Rock Lighthouse near Two Harbors along Minnesota's famed North Shore of Lake Superior (top photo).

Their blog entry from 2009 describes the extreme precautions taken nowadays when the lens needs to be serviced:

Nearly two gallons of mercury was drained, and the mercury bowl and float cleaned, and the mercury replaced.  The very small surface area of mercury that is exposed to the air when the float is closed was covered with mineral oil to stop any mercury exposure to the air.

Neanderthals Weren't Stupid

Neanderthals Weren't Stupid: They Had Skills

Think Neanderthals were inferior to Homo sapiens? Think again.

Study questions Neanderthal inferiority to early modern humans

Study questions Neanderthal inferiority to early modern humans

Neanderthal demise may be the result of interbreeding, assimilation, not […]

Daily Comic Relief

Bacteria Could Stop Dangerous Gas Leaks

Bacteria Could Stop Dangerous Gas Leaks

Bacteria that chow down on methane gas could trap greenhouse gas before it contributes to global warming, reports a new study.

U.S. corn yields are increasingly vulnerable to hot, dry weather

U.S. corn yields are increasingly vulnerable to hot, dry weather

Corn yields in the central United States have become more […]

Citizen scientists provide clarity for lake researchers’ big questions

Citizen scientists provide clarity for lake researchers’ big questions

A massive new study of water clarity trends in Midwestern […]

Drought in West?

Drought in West? Tree rings reveal nightmares from past

If you think the 1930s drought that caused The Dust […]

How NASA Might Build Its Very First Warp Drive

A few months ago, physicist Harold White stunned the aeronautics world when he announced that he and his team at NASA had begun work on the development of a faster-than-light warp drive.

His proposed design, an ingenious re-imagining of an Alcubierre Drive, may eventually result in an engine that can transport a spacecraft to the nearest star in a matter of weeks - and all without violating Einstein's law of relativity.

Can We Grow Plants on Mars?

Can We Grow Plants on Mars?

Last year, NASA announced that they had found water on Mars. This posed a question to scientists: Could we grow plants in the soil of Mars? Trace explains what is necessary to grow crops on Earth, and if Mars is able to sustain life.

‘Wimpy’ dwarf fossil galaxy reveals new facts about early universe

‘Wimpy’ dwarf fossil galaxy reveals new facts about early universe

Faintest galaxy ever detected illuminates unusual aspects of the universe’s […]

Astronimical News

China's 'Great Wall of Dust' Seen From Space

Northern China is infamous for dust storms that can sometimes choke Beijing in a yellow haze. A new satellite image shows one of these storms from above.

X-Rated: Sun Erupts With Massive Flare, Again

The first few months of 2014 have certainly been active for our nearest star and last night the sun unleashed another X-class flare -- the most powerful type of solar flare.

SpaceX Falcon Rocket Flies Itself Back to Earth

For the first time, a Space Exploration Technologies’ Falcon 9 rocket successfully flew itself back to Earth for an experimental touchdown at sea, company chief executive Elon Musk told reporters.

DNews: Could Aliens Be Living on Exomoons?

Astronomers are fascinated by exoplanets and the possibility of life on these worlds. Should they also focus on exomoons? Ian O'Neill from Discovery News explores the possibility of alien life and oceans on the moons of other planets.

Curiosity Snaps First Ever Photo of Asteroids From Mars

By now we should be used to Curiosity's "firsts," but it doesn't make them any less spectacular.

Eta Aquarid Meteors: Passing Through Comet Halley's Tail

The Eta Aquarid shower is coming, but where do the meteors come from and how can we see them?

Top Secret Military Mini-Shuttle Marks 500 Days in Orbit

A robotic miniature space shuttle on a classified mission for the U.S. Air Force marked its 500th day in orbit on Friday, with no word about when and where the space plane will land.

Coming Tomorrow

Coming Tomorrow

• How a hospital contributed to the deaths of five children
• The brutal yet refined art of Boat Jousting
• LA's House of Davids de-tackified
• Good Samaritan turns trash into mobile homes for the homeless

And more ...

This bird is our Animal Picture, for today.

The Daily Drift

The truth can be funny ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 199 countries around the world daily.   

Windy ... !

Today is - Windmill Day

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our reader today have been in:

The Americas

Pikangikum, Britannia, L'ancienne-Lorette, Joliette, Sioux Lookout, Montreal, Thunder Bay, Lake Louise, Downsview and Ottawa, Canada

Catoosa, Lubbock, Detroit, Marietta, Fallon and Sparta, United States

Florencia and Armenia, Colombia

Caguas and Luquillo, Puerto Rico

Curitiba, Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Panama, Panama

Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Colegiales, Argentina

Lima, Peru

Mexico City, Mexico

Europe

Stenlille and Copenhagen, Denamrk

Vladivostok, Ryazan and Kazan,  Russia

Salon-De-Provence, Rouen and Cerny, France

Nuremberg, Frankfurt Am Main and Muenchen, Germany

Bratislava, Slovakia

Lublin and Gdansk, Poland

Merida, Algeciras, L'Olleria and Onda, Spain

Lycksele and Huddinge, Sweden

Oslo and Stavanger, Norway

Sofia, Bulgaria

London, Kent and Sheffield, England

Amsterdam and Bussum, Netherlands

Ivera, Treviso and Padova, Italy

Dublin and Limerick, Ireland

Athens, Greece

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Braga, Portugal

Espoo, Finland

Nis, Serbia

Asia

Ha Dong, Vietnam

Pokhara and Kathmandu, Nepal

Dar Kulayb, Bharain

Bangkok, Thailand

La Dagotiere, Mauritius

Ahvaz, Iran

New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bhubaneshwar, Thiruvananthpuram, Shillong, Bangalore, Delhi, Tiruppur, Kolata and Coimbatore, India

Tripoli, Lebanon

Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Muscat, Oman

Rangoon, Burma

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Doha, Qatar

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Africa 

Lagos, Nigeria

Shurugwi, Zimbabwe

Kampala, Uganda

Durban and Cape Town, South Africa

The Pacific

Surrey Hills, Sydney and Heidelberg, Australia

Today in History

1285		Philip III of Spain is succeeded by Philip IV ("the Fair").
1503		Christopher Columbus discovers the Cayman Islands.
1676		Bacon's Rebellion begins in the New World.
1773		To keep the troubled East India Company afloat, Parliament passes the Tea Act, taxing all tea in the American colonies.
1774		Louis XVI succeeds his father Louis XV as King of France.
1775		American troops capture Fort Ticonderoga from the British.
1794		Elizabeth, the sister of King Louis XVI, is beheaded.
1796		Napoleon Bonaparte wins a brilliant victory against the Austrians at Lodi bridge in Italy.
1840		Mormon leader Joseph Smith moves his band of followers to Illinois to escape the hostilities they experienced in Missouri.
1857		The Bengal Army in India revolts against the British.
1863		General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson succumbs to illness and wounds received during the Battle of Chancellorsville.
1865		Union cavalry troops capture Confederate President Jefferson Davis near Irvinville, Georgia.
1869		The Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah.
1859		French emperor Napoleon III leaves Paris to join his troops preparing to battle the Austrian army in Northern Italy.
1872		Victoria Woodhull becomes first woman nominated for U.S. president.
1917		Allied ships get destroyer escorts to fend off German attacks in the Atlantic.
1924		J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
1928		WGY-TV in Schenectady, New York, begins regular television programming.
1933		Nazis begin burning books by "unGerman" writers such as Heinrich Mann and Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front.
1940		German forces begin a blitzkrieg of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, skirting France's "impenetrable" Maginot Line.
1940		Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister.
1941		England's House of Commons is destroyed during the worst of the London Blitz: 550 German bombers drop 100,000 incendiary bombs.
1960		The USS Nautilus completes first circumnavigation of globe underwater.
1994		Nelson Mandela is sworn in as South Africa's first black president.

Non Sequitur

The Day the Beatles Ran a Relay Race

by Eddie Deezen

Cliveden House

It was May 11, 1965. The Beatles were on location, wrapping up filming their second movie Help! The Help! shoot had begun on February 23rd and this was the boys' 54th and final day of Help! filming. Director Richard Lester was to film a few atmosphere and scenery shots in London the next day, and after that, the 55th day of filming, Help! would officially wrap.

The Beatles' final scenes on this historic day were filmed at Cliveden House, a 19th century stately home in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Cliveden House was doubling as Buckingham Palace in these scenes.

Sometime during this day, the Beatles were officially "challenged" to a relay race by the crew of Help! Although world famous and universally popular as singers, musicians and composers, the Fab Four's athletic prowess left much to be desired. It was during the Help! shoot that all four Beatles openly admitted to smoking and indulging in marijuana use, frequently, if not daily. 
Besides the marijuana indulgence, the Beatles also liked their meals and enjoyed fine food. John Lennon was to call this his "fat Elvis" period and remember it as his "steak and whiskey" era. But being adventurous lads, the boys readily accepted the challenge.

The race was to be around Cliveden Gardens, outside of and around Cliveden House. There were four separate relay teams, each team consisting of six members. Besides the Beatles team, there were the electricians, the carpenters and the camera operators.

The Beatles team consisted of the Fab Four, plus their road manager Neil Aspinall and their chauffeur Alf Bicknell. John, Paul, George, Ringo, Neil, and Alf were to be the victors in the once-in-a-lifetime race.

Paul McCartney is the only Beatle to actually speak publicly about the Help! relay race. Many years later, Paul said he "vaguely remembered Ringo handing off a baton" to him.

How long was the race?  According to Paul (in an interview he gave that day): “Fifteen furlongs, I’d say" (one furlong is 1/8th of a mile). Paul also said the Beatles were "very proud" of their relay race victory.

There is no record of exactly when the race took place during the day, whether before the day's shoot was finished, during the lunch break, at the end of the day, or during a "wrap" celebration.

Interestingly, the relay race was filmed and captured by a home movie camera. It is footage any Beatle fan (like me) would love to view.

The Jumping Jack Is Named after Its Inventor, General “Black Jack” Pershing

 

John J. Pershing (1860-1948) was one of America’s greatest military leaders. He began in humble conditions in Missouri. Pershing was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1886 after graduating from West Point. His first commands were in the west in the final years of the Indian Wars. In 1896, he was given command of the Tenth Cavalry, an all-black unit in America’s racially segregated military. Pershing led that regiment into battle in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. He was unflinching in his praise and respect for his men. Some white officers nicknamed him “Black Jack” in reference to his defense of his black troops. Others used a somewhat different nickname that rhymes with “jigger.”

Pershing led the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. It was a monumental task, for Pershing had to organize, train, and equip an army of 4 million men almost from scratch, then lead it into battle on the other side of the planet.

Pershing was successful, for which was rightfully promoted to the rank of General of the Armies of the United States in 1919. This is an honor held by only one other person: George Washington.

(Photo: Troop A, Tenth Cavalry Regiment, c. 1902)

But “Black Jack” Pershing is not often remembered for one of his most practical, everyday innovations. While he was a senior cadet at West Point, he invented an exercise used by people around the world to this day: the jumping jack. It was a means that Pershing used to haze a cadet named Charles D. Rhodes. Frank Everson Vandiver writes about it in Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing:

Worst of all, Pershing invented an almost foolproof method of hazing, and Rhodes suffered directly. The scheme got the name “jumping Jack” for obvious reasons, and few treatments seem to have affected plebes more lastingly. Origins of the technique are obscure, but Pershing’s plan had simplicity and adaptability. He would line up a group of plebes, order them to count off to identify odds and evens, and when he pulled on an imaginary string, all the odds threw their arms stiffly out at right angles to their bodies; then Jack pulled the string in the opposite direction, and the odds dropped their arms and evens jumped their legs out to make a V. Back and forth went the string, arms flapped, legs splayed, while upperclassmen howled at the marionettes in action.

And since that time more than a century ago, gym teachers and trainers have hazed people with General Pershing’s invention.

So it is appropriate that on May 1, Pershing’s home state of Missouri declared the jumping jack the official state exercise

How Efficiency Killed the Department Store

Department stores went from elite shops for wealthy people to a more accessible design in the early 20th century, but they really took off after World War II with the meteoric rise of the middle class. Then in the ‘50s, the suburban indoor shopping mall concept gathered department stores into clusters to make shopping more efficient, which drew shoppers away from downtown. But the idea of shopping for pleasure didn’t last, no matter how much "science" went into managing the experience. What killed the department store? It wasn’t just online shopping, although that played a part. You can read the history of department stores, which is really a history of the way we shop, at Collectors Weekly.