Look!

You can take a portable hot tub with you when you go camping—just like those old people in the Cialis commercial, but you know, they took two cast-iron bathtubs with them for their sexy time. I think we should get one for the Mercury conference room. We can commission an inflatable teabag so our hot tubbin' looks classy and British. Who wants to kick in a couple bucks for the Mercury Tempest in a Teacup Hot Tub?

H/T to RT (Who sent this to me after seeing me spill a sandwich all over myself.)

Now we're getting somewhere:

A poll due for release on Wednesday shows that a large majority of Americans believe that this year’s unusually warm winter, last year’s blistering summer and some other weather disasters were probably made worse by global warming. And by a 2-to-1 margin, the public says the weather has been getting worse, rather than better, in recent years.

• Potatoes taste great, kids! EAT THEM ALL.

Okay, so the whole "evil Monsanto" conversation is old (albeit accurate) and so are the company's attempts to silence it. But nothing says "turning over a new leaf" like a fun kids activity book about bioengineering, right?

Monsanto and six other major bioengineering companies recently released a book for kids about the wonders of genetically modified food, deeming them safe, environmentally sound and generally better than natural agriculture. I'm hooked!

A lot of folks aren't though, especially because this booklet will be distributed to agriculture and science classrooms across the states.

The book opens with a dandy "Hey Kids!" welcome, and reminds me how much I hate the adjective "neat": "This is an activity book for young people like you about biotechnology — a really neat topic. Why is it such a neat topic? Because biotechnology is helping to improve the health of the Earth and the people who call it home."

It goes on to explain that GMOs are great for the world because they don't require pesticides—but it doesn't really explain why. It's because it's already in the leaves, children! Also, cotton is fantastic because it makes t-shirts. And look how much fun being a scientist is! To learn about these facts and more, check out the handy handbook yourself (PDF).

According to NASA (which, who knows, could be making it all up) the sun ejected two immense solar flares yesterday. While this sounds like the beginning of Meltdown 2012: Sun vs Earth, there really isn't any need to be worried. So it seems.

Check out this crazy video of the solar storm that started it all:

The flares, slated to hit home around 10:25 am PST tomorrow, are expected to briefly mess with the earth's magnetic field. This means that your trusty GPS or other electronic gadgets may wonk out temporarily. The horror!

On the more interesting side, these flares give us Northwesterns a good chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis tonight.

With the city's compost program well underway, some folks still remain bitter about the idea (and leave grumpy messages on Sam Adam's voicemail). But! Thanks to science, we may have found a new selling point besides simply bettering the environment: compost can get you high.

• Sarah Mirk
• Hey, you wanna get high?

Behold M. vaccae, the mind-altering bacteria found in your innocent compost bucket, bin or backyard pile. Turns out this bug triggers a boost in the brain's serotonin levels, acting as a natural — albeit unfortunately fragrant — antidepressant.

Like most interesting drugs, M. vaccae was discovered by accident, after a doctor created a serum from the bacteria in hopes of creating an immune booster for caner patients. While it did little in aiding the immune system, her patients' moods skyrocketed.

Therapy with with drugs based on M. vaccae's molecular components might someday be used to treat depression, according to Graham Rook, an immunologist who spoke with Discover Magazine. “It’s not clear to me whether the way ahead will be drugs that circumvent the use of these bugs,” Rook said, “or whether it will be easier to say, ‘The hell with it, let’s use the bugs.’”

So, feeling blue about the new compost system? Just flip open the lid of your handy compost bucket and take a whiff. It could do you good.

Last spring, cartoonist Jack Pollock and I attended the 25th annual Northwest Creationist Conference and were surprised to discover that our regional band of creationists are planning to build the nation's largest Bible-based science museum right here in the northwest! Woohoo!

The museum, if you recall, will be a life size replica of Noah's Ark (visible from the Interstate!) with a dinosaur skeleton on the front. They need $25 million to build the museum in Treasure Valley, Idaho. As I was nostalgically reminiscing about the best stories of the year, I checked out their website and hey! They have a new promotional video.

NASA may have found another Earth.

Although it's 600 light years away and considerably larger than our own planet, Kepler-22b (we win with the catchier name) maintains a 72-degree climate, marking it as a "habitable planet." The NASA scientists behind the discovery remain vague about the distant planet, suggesting a lot more research and investigation is needed. Nonetheless, I'm interested.

Okay, so maybe NASA's cried wolf over similar planets before, but Kepler-22b scientists say that this time, it may be different.

Previous research hinted at the existence of near-Earth-size planets in habitable zones, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Two other small planets orbiting stars smaller and cooler than our sun recently were confirmed on the very edges of the habitable zone, with orbits more closely resembling those of Venus and Mars. - NASA news release

Prepare yourself, earthlings.

This article about the sex lives of deep sea squid gets crazier and crazier the more of it you read:

Squid sex facts revealed!
• The squid, Octopoteuthis deletron, don't discriminate between squid-sexes when mating. Because they live solitary lives in the dark, the male squid take their chances by shooting their rocket sperm at passing squids.

• Ahem:

Little is known about the details but it seems that the male ejaculates a packet of sperm at the mating partner, and the packet turns inside out, essentially shooting the sperm contained in a membrane into the flesh of the partner, where they stay embedded until the female (if the shooter has been lucky) is ready to fertilize its eggs. If males are the recipient of these rocket sperm, they are just stuck with them. It is the kind of mating that would make a good video game.

• The caption accompanying this squid photo reads, "The white dots on this female Octopoteuthis deletron are embedded sperm."