March Madness

March madness is in the air, and for a K-Stater like me, it means something all together different: it's March and I'm mad. And I'm mad because my Wildcats are, once again, watching the action from the comfort of their couches. I wouldn't say I'm disappointed as much as I am frustrated with what's become the status quo.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the tournament as much as the next person, and look forward to it each year. I enjoy the big wins, the amazing individual performances (I'm talking to you, Cole Aldrich), the upsets and all of the hoopla surrounding it. I also enjoy the quirky little stories that come out every year, like this one that was posted last week on 60-Second Science:

The NCAA men's basketball "March Madness" tournament may have just tipped off, but one academic is already thinking about the later rounds. Once the "Elite Eight" teams emerge, says Sheldon Jacobson, a professor of computer science and the director of the simulation and optimization laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, throw out a team's initial seeding—it's no better than flipping a coin to figure out their chances of winning.

So, statistically, once a team reaches the quarterfinals, each one has basically the same chance of winning it all. The basic idea here is that seeding matters when you're comparing 15 or 16 seeds to 1 or 2 seeds, but for the top three seeds in each region, there's not really a statistical difference in terms of who has the best chance to win it all. Other researchers, though, have devised models based on probability that attempt to make predictions with a remarkable amount of success:

The tournament's notorious unpredictability didn't stop Joel Sokol, a Georgia Tech operations research professor whose statistical model correctly selected last year's Final Four, championship game and overall tournament winner (the University of Kansas Jayhawks), from developing his own computer program. His picks? The University of North Carolina Tar Heels, University of Pittsburgh Panthers, University of Louisville Cardinals, and University of Memphis Tigers will make the Final Four [...](Michigan State and Oklahoma are ranked too high and due for an upset, statistically speaking, he added.)

So the good news (according to Jacobson) for all you Hawk fans is that KU, with one more win, has (statistically) as good a shot as anybody else to win it all (again) this year, and that Michigan State is (according to Sokol) evidently ripe for an upset. The bad news is Sokol's predicted national champion...the Tar Heels of North Carolina.

Mount Redoubt Erupts

Mount Redoubt, a 10,000 foot active volcano in Alaska, erupted late Sunday evening, sending a column of ash 50,000 feet into the air. Geologists have been predicting an eruption there for several months, and have been watching Redoubt very closely.

Redoubt is about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, which is Alaska's largest city and contains about 40% of the total population of the state. Besides the ash in the air, there doesn't seem to be a great risk posed to people by this eruption right now, although scientists are monitoring for the possibility of mudslides or flooding causes by melted glaciers.

Redoubt last erupted over a 5 month period between 1989 and 1990.

I have a confession to make...

I tried to resist. I really did. But somewhere in the middle of spring break I caved and bought it.

Two of my favorite people

Bruce Springsteen performing Working on a Dream last Thursday on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Bruce Springsteen - Working on a Dream
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things w/ Demetri Martin Political Humor

That's not TANG they're drinking

The crew of Space Shuttle Discovery has just finished their 8th day in orbit. The highlight of the day was a completion of the mission's 3rd spacewalk, which had two astronauts outside of the shuttle for 6.5 hours.

One of the snags that this mission to the International Space Station has encountered has to do with the station's Urine Processor Assembly:

Two hundred and fifty miles above the Earth puts you a long way from the nearest kitchen tap. And at $15,000 a pint, the cost of shipping fresh water aboard the space shuttle is, well, astronomical.

So astronauts on the International Space Station have to recapture every possible drop. That includes water evaporated from showers, shaving, tooth brushing and hand washing, plus perspiration and water vapor that collects within the astronauts' space suits. They even transfer water from the fuel cells that provide electric power to the space shuttle.

And, since last November, they are able to tap a previously unused source of water: the astronauts' own urine.

The Water Recovery System...can transform ordinary pee into water so pure it rivals the cleanest on Earth.
[...]
Under the new system, urine undergoes an initial distillation process and then joins the rest of the recovered fluids in the water processor. The processor filters out solids such as hair and lint and then sends the wastewater through a series of multifiltration beds, in which contaminants are removed through adsorption and ion exchange.

"What's left over in the water are a few non adsorbing organics and solvents, like nail polish remover, and they go into a reactor that breaks them all down to carbon dioxide, water and a few ions," said [David] Hand, a professor of civil and environmental engineering.

After a final check for microbes, the water is again clean and ready to drink.

According to a post from yesterday on NASA's shuttle mission blog:

International Space Station Commander Mike Fincke just replaced a filter assembly in the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA). Mission Control hopes this will increase the rate of urine flowing into the UPA, after a slower-than-expected rate was noted earlier today. This issue is not related to the newly-installed Distillation Assembly.

Fincke is filling the UPA with urine and, if all goes well, will begin to process a sample. It takes four to five hours to process a complete sample.

Apparently the processor was experiencing a slower-than-expected output a few days ago. Hopefully Mr. Fincke will get the thing filled (in whatever manner he and NASA deem is appropriate) and output levels will be better. And we can all marvel at the wonders of space age technology. Now let's just hope that the good folks at Dasani don't get ahold of this technology.

(And, for those of you keeping score, this is now the second time this blog has made reference to peeing astronauts...I think I might need counseling.)