Stephen Colbert on Nuclear Explosions

~Nuclear blasts can cause horribly destructive devastation...but we Americans do like things that go boom, as the always-entertaining Mr. Colbert clearly demonstrates below during his discussion with an anti-nuke activist:



While the video is amusing, in some ways Colbert has a point about "making it ugly". Splitting the atom (and fusing it, in the case of hydrogen bombs) is a tremendous scientific achievement, tapping into the fundamental building blocks of the universe that fuel stars. Like most technology, it can be twisted to do horrible things, but that doesn't make it any less interesting.

Hopefully, we can one day enjoy a world in which nuclear weapons are gone, or at least exist in far fewer numbers. A upcoming nuclear arms treaty between the U.S. and Russia may help reduce the vast stockpiles that still exist in both nations.

Ant Megalopolis

~In this amazing investigation, liquid concrete was poured into a vast underground ant colony, which was then excavated:



The video clip is from the documentary "ANTS: Nature's Secret Power". It makes me ponder what other wonders (and horrors) may lie beneath our feet, out of sight and out of mind. It also makes me want to play SimAnt again...

(Interesting Fact of the Day: A entomologist who specializes in the study of ants is a "myrmecologist".)