What Caught My Eye Today - Boston, Arizona, Morocco, China, Lasers, Mars

Fred's Note:  I had originally intended today's posting to highlight the occasional wackiness associated with road running events. Alas, recent events force me to start off on a far more somber note.

Boston - Two bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon just before the finish line. The bombs went off within 550 feet  of each other, killing 3 people and injuring at least 176. Video from the finish line shows about 12 seconds passed between the two blasts. The winners had crossed the finish line about two hours earlier; other runners were still coming across.  Law enforcement officials said that they believe the explosions were caused by homemade bombs. There had been no prior indications of an imminent attack. No official suspects have been named, and no arrests or claims of responsibility for the attack have been announced. Another sobering reminder of evil that humans are capable of unleashing on each other. Thankfully, this sort of thing also tends to highlight the resiliency of those who come out such experiences as stronger, yet more compassionate people.  

No doubt there will be a great deal of follow up to this tragedy, which is why we will return to our originally scheduled news items of the day.

Arizona - The inaugural Scottsdale Beat The Heat race this summer, billed as the hottest sporting event on the planet, is being deliberately staged at the warmest time of year and during the most oppressive part of the day, all to maximize the discomfort and enhance the challenge of those either courageous or deranged enough to sign up. Let me see if I've got this straight.  Some genius has decided to stage a race in an urban desert at the hottest time of day during the hottest time of the year...on purpose?   Temperatures are expected to tip the thermometer at upwards of 110 Fahrenheit on June 22, with participants set to complete a seven-mile course beginning at 2:47 p.m., the specific time when the heat is predicted to be at its fiercest. The concept was dreamed up at a tourism workshop among Scottsdale business leaders that sought to combat the challenges posed by the extreme weather conditions in the middle of summer, when visitor numbers routinely plummet.  And staging a road race was the best they could come up with.  Wow, the gene pool is in bigger trouble than I thought. Race organizers are taking strong precautions to ensure racers do not endanger their health by taking part. There will be water stations every half mile, instead of every two miles as would be normal. The fire department will be on hand, and potential participants are encouraged to seek their doctor's permission before they enter the race. For those of you who have decided to run this race and somehow managed to get your physician's blessing to subject your body to this, might I offer you a bit of advice...GET YOURSELF A NEW DOCTOR!

Now mind you, this race is Arizona is just a 10K, which is little more than a warm up lap for what our friends in Africa have come up with.

Morocco - The Marathon des Sables or Sahara Marathon is a six-day, 156 mile ultra marathon, which is the equivalent of six regular marathons. This multi day race is held every year in southern Morocco, in the Sahara desert. It is considered the toughest foot race on Earth. It is run in 6 stages, the longest stage being around 80 plus kilometer when many of the competitors will run through the night to complete it. For some context, this is the equivalent of running the Beat The Heat race in Arizona, eight times in a single day, then doing it all over again for the next 5 days. Entrants are self-sufficient, carrying all of their provisions for the full 6 days on their backs; sleeping bag, first aid kit including an anti-venom pump for snake bites, food, cooking stove and clothes.  So not only do I get to run across a desert, but I get to carry all my food and water with me for the duration, and, just to keep things interesting, I can pass the time trying to avoid getting bitten by a venomous snake.  Where do I sign up? Rationed water is provided throughout the race at check-points along each stage, and again at the camp at the end of each day. Water rationing? Well, you are in the middle of a desert, so I guess it is in keeping with the overall theme.  At the end of each stage a camp is set up for the competitors, with traditional Moroccan bivouacs sleeping 8 people. Here the competitors will cook their own dinner and visit the medics to have their blisters lanced and dressed. One can only imagine the dinner table conversation that must go on during this race.

China - A new strain of avian flu that has killed at least nine people in the past five weeks is causing panic in eastern China. For those of you keeping track, the last bird flu scare also came from China.  Maybe it is something in the water. Some officials said a traditional herb, indigo woad root, could protect against the virus while an army colonel posted a theory on social media that the virus, H7N9, was actually a U.S. biological weapon meant to destabilize China. Forget for a moment that this "theory" came from a member of the military. Here's my question.  Let's just say for argument sake, that the U.S. was capable of such a thing.  Why would we waste this on China, when there is a whack job in North Korea that we could unleash this on? Authorities have slaughter tens of thousands of birds and closed several large markets in an effort to contain the outbreak.So far, the virus does not appear to have made the leap to human-to-human transmission. Not to worry, I hear these viruses are rather resourceful in adapting to their environments.  I'm sure it is just a matter of time.

Lasers - The U.S. Navy is going to sea for the first time with a laser attack weapon that has been shown in tests to disable patrol boats and blind or destroy surveillance drones. Dude, is the U.S. Navy the man, or what? Lasers. Damn. A prototype shipboard laser will be deployed on a converted amphibious transport and docking ship in the Persian Gulf, where Iranian fast-attack boats have harassed American warships and where the government in Tehran is building remotely piloted aircraft carrying surveillance pods and, someday potentially, rockets. You don't poke the bear without some reprisal, something the Iranian regime will so discover. Bring on the pain, Navy! The laser is designed to carry out a graduated scale of missions, from burning through a fast-attack boat or a drone to producing a nonlethal burst to “dazzle” an adversary’s sensors and render them useless without causing any other physical damage. Say what? These lasers don't kill, they just "dazzle"?  Well, I have to say that's a little disappointing. Still, we got lasers! The Pentagon has a long history of grossly inflating claims for its experimental weapons, but a nonpartisan study for Congress said the weapon offered the Navy historic opportunities. The law of averages suggests that even the Pentagon, on rare occasions, will get something right. Among the advantages cited in the study for Congress was the low cost — less than $1 per sustained pulse — of using a high-energy laser against certain targets. By comparison, current short-range air-defense interceptor missiles cost up to $1.4 million each. Deadly -- I mean dazzling -- and cheap.  Could this get any better? However, several limitations have been cited, such as the lasers are not effective in bad weather because the beam can be disturbed or scattered by water vapor, as well as by smoke, sand and dust. Come again? It is also a “line of sight” weapon, meaning that the target has to be visible, so it cannot handle threats over the horizon. Seriously? And enemies can take countermeasures like coating vessels and drones with reflective surfaces. So to summarize, a cloudy day, some dust, a sand dune or a mirror could render our dazzling lasers useless. Pity. Still, we got lasers!

Mars - Scientists say nuclear fusion, the energy source that fuels the sun and other active stars, could one day propel rockets that allow humans to go to Mars and back in 30 days. You know, I say a lot of things too. Alas, everything I say doesn't always happen. Previous estimates have found that a round trip manned mission to Mars would require about 500 days of space travel. NASA studies have centered on Mars flights that would take two years to complete, and could cost $12 billion just to launch the fuel needed for the mission. A substantial cost, to be sure, but bear in mind we spent the same amount in just 12 days funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. At least with a trip to Mars that $12 billion gets you 500 days of space travel. Nuclear fusion occurs when the nuclei of two or more atoms combine, resulting in a release of energy and could occur by compressing a specially developed type of plasma to high pressure with a magnetic field. To get this fuel to propel a rocket to Mars, a powerful magnetic field could be used to cause large metal rings (likely made of lithium) to collapse around the plasma material, compressing it to a fusion state, but only for a few microseconds. Energy from these quick fusion reactions would heat up and ionize the shell of metal formed by the crushed rings. The hot, ionized metal would be shot out of the rocket nozzle at a high speed. Repeating this process roughly every minute would propel the spacecraft.I find it curious that for a group of people that place such a high standard on fact, scientists sure are a speculative lot.