Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing.
Historic milk powder not dissimilar to today’s
This is a rather nice tale with a bit of history involved, as well as a splattering of science. In the early 2000s a can of milk powder from Antarctic adventurer, Ernest Shackleton’s 1907 expedition was found in a hut in Antartica. Over 100 years ago, Shackleton’s crew were outfitted with 450kg of Kiwi made milk powder and recently scientists at Fronterra studied samples of the powder for analysis.
“Fonterra Research and Development Centre lead investigator and principal research scientist Dr Skelte Anema told Nights it had been an exciting time for his team.
‘It takes a lot to get a scientist excited but once we heard this powder existed, we were absolutely thrilled… it was the fact that it was 100 years old, it was made in New Zealand… it was made only about 20km down the road from where we are in Bunnythorpe. It was effectively coming back home.'” (Source: “100-year-old milk powder found at Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctica hut,” 10th June, www.rnz.co.nz).
Not only were the scientists able to trace the location of production, they were also able to establish that the milk had come from Friesian cows. The real question however, was how did the sample stack up compared to today’s milk powder?
“‘When we got down to the detail, milk hasn’t really changed a lot. The protein levels are much the same, the fat composition was much the same, amino acid composition was the same and so we were actually pleasantly surprised that our milk, despite all the changes in the way that we farm, hadn’t changed very much at all.'” (Source: “100-year-old milk powder found at Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctica hut,” 10th June, www.rnz.co.nz).
5 stars – as a huge fan of Shackleton I found this rather fascinating. History and science, great combo!
Balloon warfare better alternative to bombs and missiles
With all the pointless death and destruction around the world, this story appealed to my sense of the absurd. North and South Koreans have struggled to get along for a long while and recently the two sides have found a new and novel way of antagonising each other.
“A group of North Korean defectors called the Free North Korea Movement on Thursday said it had sent 10 large balloons filled with 200,000 leaflets critical of the regime of North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, as well as US dollar bills and flash drives loaded with K-pop, according to South Korean media.
“Cross-border tensions rose last week after North Korea released almost 1,000 balloons containing rubbish, cigarette butts and what appeared to be excrement in protest at groups in the South that use similar means to spread information critical of the Kim regime and positive messages about life in the South.” (Source: “Activists fly K-pop USB sticks into North Korea as ‘poo balloon’ row intensifies,” by Justin McCurry, 6th June, www.guardian.com).
Now, obviously this is childish and unfortunate and still part of conflict designed to agitate – however – in the scheme of things isn’t it better than bombing and shooting? Personally I think so.
4 stars – perhaps juvenile antics are a better way of disagreeing, rather than fighting.
Necklace stops bullet and saves life
Sometimes you just can’t fathom the lengths that luck will go to prevent tragedy. Recently a gentleman in Colorado, United States was shot and the only thing that prevented calamity was the silver chain around his neck.
After an argument, the assailant’s .22 calibre bullet was stopped by a necklace, leaving only a small puncture wound in the victim’s neck.
“Officers in Commerce City, near Denver, released photos of the bloodied chain and said in a Facebook post: ‘We’d say he really dodged a bullet – but in reality, he LODGED a bullet. This silver chain – approximately 10mm in width – is likely the only reason the victim of a shooting we responded to yesterday is still alive.’
“The suspected gunman, who was also not identified, was arrested at the scene and charged with attempted murder.” (Source: “Necklace ‘saves man’s life’ after stopping bullet going into his neck, police say,” 3rd June, www.news.sky.com).
5 stars – I couldn’t really give this story anything less.
