Episode #1: Kluge

The End of Fish

It seemed like not too long ago that bees were the canary in the coal mine (oh these metaphors will get even more mixed, you just wait). Now, as Mark Bittman writes in the NYT that canary is fish (I told you). That article contains this apocalyptic tidbit: 

"One study, in 2006, concluded that if current fishing practices continue, the world’s major commercial stocks will collapse by 2048."

A Seafood Snob Ponders the Future of Fish [NYT]

Breaking: World Doesn't End

No intergalactic dragons. No black holes that clear out our blip in the universe. Scientists at Fermilab, just outside of Chicago, flipped a very big switch yesterday and started the CERN particle accelerator half a world away in Geneva, Switzerland. Unfortunately these things take a while to get warmed up, and it will be months before any real testing can get underway. 

Scientists Activate Particle Accelerator [NY Times]

Start of Super Collider Renews Old Prophecies of the End of Everything [NY Times]

Animal Magnetism

It’s been documented that organisms like butterflies, birds and fish can detect magnetic fields and navigate by them, but researchers at the University of Duisburg-Essen were interested in identifying larger animals that also have a magnetic sense. Using satellite images from Google Earth, researches observed that cattle, whether resting or grazing, tend to orient their bodies in a north-south direction just like a compass needle. Out of 8,510 cattle from 308 herds from all around the world, two of every three animals were aligned with the north-south axis. Why exactly the cows do this, no one yet knows. But this story means that cows now join whales and red deer as the largest animals known to have a magnetic sense.

Cows Have Magnetic Sense, Google Earth Images Show [Los Angeles Times]

Cows Shown to Align North-South [BBC News]