Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Daily 2 Cents: What's In My Apple Juice? -- 'Glowing' Sea Turtle -- Fukushima Moms Admit Fear of Radiation

'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES - Lon Strickler (Host)

What's In My Apple Juice!?

A disgusting alien-thing was found in a couple’s carton of apple juice on the weekend.

No one knows what the blob is, but it looks like a cross between a slug and a condom.

Lorna Fisher said she and her boyfriend drank the apple juice (!) before realising there was something wrong.

‘It looked a bit funny when we poured it out but my boyfriend reckoned it was just cloudy because we hadn’t shaken it,’ she said.

‘Then we drank it. It was completely horrible. It tasted rancid, like off cider.

‘Straight away I went and cut the box open and there was this thing that just looked like an alien at the bottom.’

But what IS this!?

While it looks like an alien, we think the disgusting blob is most likely to be mould.

When apple juice goes mouldy, it forms slimy globules.

… Ew.

After she complained to Tesco that she wanted to ‘kill it with fire’, they gave her a 65p refund.

A Tesco spokesman told Metro.co.uk: ‘The high quality and safety standards we set ourselves have not been met in this instance and we’ve apologised to Ms Fisher.

‘We have asked her to return the product so we can investigate with our supplier.’ - Woman finds alien-like creature inside Tesco apple juice

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Reluctant to speak, Fukushima moms admit fear of radiation, pressure from families

To stay or to flee. Mothers in Fukushima Prefecture had to make harsh decisions for their families after the nuclear disaster of March 2011. More than four years on, they still have to.

Those who remain there live in constant fear for their children’s health. But choosing to flee opened them to accusations of being bad wives who abandoned their relatives, community and husbands tied to jobs.

It is a no-win situation for those who face the decision to stay or go, because they may be unable to live up to the ideal of a ryosai kenbo (good wife, wise mother).

“Consciously or subconsciously, women are aware of the role we are expected to play in a family. After the earthquake and nuclear disaster, however, everything changed,” said Yukiko (not her real name), a mother and voluntary evacuee in her 30s. “I can’t live up to those expectations any more, and society judges me.”

All women interviewed for this story spoke on condition of anonymity.

As the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant began to play out, Tokyo Electric Power Co. established a 20-km no-go zone around the site, outside of which the government said conditions were safe. Many did not believe the assertion.

Yuriko, a woman in her 70s who lives in the city of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, believes the zone restrictions divided the community.

“Some people trusted the government’s word and continued to live here, but others couldn’t stand living every day in fear and moved out,” Yuriko said. “Nobody knew what to believe and communities have fallen apart.” Read more at Reluctant to speak, Fukushima moms admit fear of radiation, pressure from families

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'Glowing' Sea Turtle

Marine biologists made a shocking discovery while filming biofluorescence in small sharks and coral reefs around the Solomon Islands recently. Out of nowhere, a “glowing” sea turtle came swimming by.

The critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle, glowing in neon green and red, is the first reptile scientists have seen exhibiting biofluorescence, National Geographic reported Monday.

David Gruber of the City University of New York and his team made the discovery in late July, saying it looked like a big alien spaceship gliding into view. Details and video of the sea turtle were released for the first time Monday:

“I’ve been [studying turtles] for a long time and I don’t think anyone’s ever seen this,” Alexander Gaos, director of the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative, told National Geographic. “This is really quite amazing.”

More from National Geographic:

Biofluorescence is different from bioluminescence, in which animals either produce their own light through a series of chemical reactions, or host bacteria that give off light.

Corals fluoresce, and recent research has found the ability in a number of fish, sharks, rays, tiny crustaceans called copepods, and mantis shrimp. But researchers never expected to find it in a marine reptile…

The marine biologist captured the turtle sighting on a video camera system, whose only artificial illumination was a blue light that matched the blue light of the surrounding ocean. A yellow filter on the camera allowed the scientists to pick up fluorescing organisms.

After a few moments, Gruber stopped following the hawksbill sea turtle, saying he didn’t want to harass it. It swam off into deeper water.

The discovery has Gruber eager to explore a series of unknown questions, such as whether these sea turtles can see the biofluorescence, where do they get this unique ability of fluorescing, how are they using it, and do other sea turtle species possess a similar ability?

“It’d be fairly difficult to study this turtle because there are so few left and they’re so protected,” Gruber told National Geograhic, adding that studying the green sea turtle might be more feasible since they are closely related to the hawksbill sea turtle and slightly more common. - ‘Glowing’ sea turtle is first biofluorescent reptile ever recorded
Read more at http://www.grindtv.com/wildlife/glowing-sea-turtle-is-first-biofluorescent-reptile-ever-recorded/#G5IgWm9mvVJbTKhh.99

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A Headless Spectre

Saturday 12th March 1791, The Star:

The temporary residence of the Rector of Frodensham in Suffolk, being lately robbed by some person who got in during the night, a farmer who has the care of it, employed two stout men to sit up the night after with blunderbusses. It seems that not finding the business they expected, brought on a conversation about Witches and Ghosts, which was so heightened by the credulity of the relaters, that the thief, then concealed in a press just behind them, had the address to avail himself of their panic! accordingly throwing open the doors, and making at the same time the most uncommon noise he was capable of, with correspondent gestures &c. it had such an effect upon the heroes, that falling directly upon the floor, the supposed spectre got clear off by the way in entered; notwithstanding that they still persist in affirming that it had no head and was otherwise mortally frightful.

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Arcane Radio Live Show Archive 9.28.15: Stephen Ellis

Sean and Lon update on recent activities. Stephen Ellis joins us to discuss the afterlife.

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