Cats use gravity, inertia, gecko-like process to lap up cream - Ars Technica

The way cats drink water turns out to be a more complex process than we thought, according to a paper published in Science on Thursday. When a group of researchers used high-speed imaging to capture video of cats drinking water, they found that cats are, among other things, using only the tip of their tongue to pull water into their mouths from the surface. Once there, they exploit inertia and gravity to hold onto it, and maintain proportionate lapping and swallowing cycles.

It might seem that cats would take advantage of the grain of their tongue that serves them so well in grooming, but the imaging showed that the cats used only the smooth tip to drink. And, unlike dogs, which use their tongue to scoop water, cats' tongues don't even penetrate the surface.

Instead, they get water into their mouths using an almost gecko-like process: their tongue tips shoot out, contact the water surface, adhere to it, and pull up to draw the water into a column that moves into their mouths thanks to sheer inertia. Cats then take advantage of their head orientation and gravity to hold that water in a cavity in their palate, just behind their front teeth. They swallow after somewhere between three and 17 laps.

According to the researchers, it's the cats' lack of cheeks, and the resulting inability to create suction, that restricts them to lapping. Still, cats have managed to adapt pretty admirably, and the authors note that further study of their tongues could be helpful in developing robots with flexible parts and biomechanical models for understanding the behavior of soft tissues.

Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.1195421  (About DOIs).

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Matt Miller: Sorry, Alan and Erskine -- it's not nearly enough - Washington Post

I'm torn between cheering some of the "tough choices" (by Washington standards) that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson have usefully put on the table -- and running from the room screaming at how phony and inadequate so many of the steps they've laid out are, despite first-day commentary hailing them as "bold." Here's a two-minute Radical Centrists's guide to how to think about what they've floated (drafted at the airport while waiting for a flight, so forgive the short strokes).

21 versus 22. As I wrote in The Post a few months ago, the Bowles/Simpson plan to hold spending to 21 percent of GDP as the boomers age is a dangerous fantasy. All you need to know is that Ronald Reagan ran government at 22 percent of GDP when 76 million baby boomers weren't retiring. Today we're on the verge of doubling the number of folks on Social Security and Medicare. The Bowles/Simpson size of government goal is a fantasy -- it will not happen. Unfortunately, this wrongheaded goal undermines much of what they propose, since it's the organizing feature of their proposal.

2037. The co-chairs don't balance the budget until 2037! The outer limits of the ambition of a commission set up to get our fiscal house in order is thus a 27-year plan to balance the budget? Oy. The most you can say is that it's faster than the plan offered by that other falsely-hailed fiscal conservative, Paul Ryan, whose "Roadmap" wouldn't balance the budget until the 2050s!

Health-care dreaming. The long-run savings in health care are merely assumed -- they say growth rates after 2020 will slow to some rate closer to GDP growth than they are today. Everyone seeks such a result, but no one has any real idea how to achieve it, because it means taking on the Medical Industrial Complex in ways unthinkable today. But is it possible? You bet. Mighty Singapore spends 4 percent of GDP on health care versus our 17 percent, with as good or better health outcomes. We CAN do more with less. Whether we have the political gumption to get there is the multi-trillion dollar question.

Social Security. The co-chairs don't raise the retirement age to 68 until 2050, and to 69 until 2075 (a blow for today's newborns, but tough choices have to be made...). So we have a bold, 40- to 65-year plan to bring benefit eligibility ages in line with reality, when life spans are already 14 years higher than when the retirement age of 65 was set decades ago. Come to think of it, in 2075 people will probably be living to at least 100. A task for a future commission! Meanwhile, the co-chairs don't even phase in "progressive indexing" of benefits until 2050, when a more thrifty shift to "price indexing" much sooner would be justified (this is a longer, seemingly arcane, yet essential discussion for a future column on intergenerational equity).

Gas tax. On my reading, the co-chairs call for a bold new 15-cent a gallon gas tax. Ross Perot called for 50 cents twenty years ago. Our problems grow, our ambitions shrink.

Good news! The co-chairs do put tax expenditures (or subsidies) for things like employer provided health care and mortgages on the table for cuts. That's genuinely terrific and worthy of applause.

I know that within the conventional boundaries of debate, what Bowles and Simpon have offered is a step forward. But when the conventional boundaries of debate are utterly inadequate to our actual challenges, someone has to say so.

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Xi3 Launches Miniature Modular Computer - InformationWeek

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Taking a new approach to personal computing, Xi3 has unveiled its Xi3 Modular Computer, which resembles an aluminum cube, and targets home and office users.

The Xi3 Modular Computer's architecture divides the standard motherboard into three separate boards -- one that houses the processors and RAM and two additional I/O boards to handle all connectivity and input/output requirements, the Salt Lake City-based Xi3 said. All three of the boards can be removed, modified, and replaced.

The individual modules back each other up so that the computer has no single point of failure, the company said. Adding other modules for scalability is not a problem and a network-like environment can be easily created to increase the computer's processing capabilities as requirements change, according to Xi3. The modular design makes it easy for new external devices to be connected to the computer, Xi3 said.

The Xi3 Modular Computer measures less than 4 inches on each side and is powered by dual-core processors, but requires less than 20 watts to operate, the company said. The device's aluminum casing acts as a type of "heatsink," and the heat generated inside is lessened by its flow-through design and the way the processors have been placed, Xi3 said. Separate universal mount slides have been placed on three of the aluminum casing's external sides so that it is easy to mount it to almost anything, according to Xi3.

"We reject the concept that computers should have a useful life of only two to four years," said Jason A. Sullivan, president and CEO of Xi3, in a statement. "Instead we believe that computers should be upgradeable and updateable over and over and over again, and that's how we've designed the Xi3 Modular Computer, making it (potentially) the last computer you ever need to buy."

A companion product, the Z3RO (Zero) Module, connects to the Xi3 Modular Computer so that three additional workstations can be integrated.

The Xi3 Modular Computer will retail for under $1,000 and will be available in early 2011.

Are your star players about to bolt? You need to know before the job market warms up. That story and more in the new, all-digital issue of InformationWeek's Boardroom Journal. Download it now (registration required).

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Honor Flight brings veterans to WWII memorial - CNN International

Veteran Dick Coss hugs an enlisted family member who surprised him at the World War II memorial. WWII veterans get free travel to memorial in Washington through Honor Flight Less than 10 percent of WWII American veterans are still aliveTwelve veterans started the Honor Flight in 2005 with six small planesNow, Honor Flight charters Boeing jets to take veterans from all over the country

(CNN) -- Meet the "greatest generation" -- the 16 million servicemen and women who served in World War II.

Eighty-year-old Army veteran Chris Maurer couldn't wait to sign up. He lied his way into the army at the age of 15.

"I went to sign up and said 'I'm ready to go!' They told me, 'You look too young!' So I said, my mama said I could go. So she signed for me and that was it. I was gone," Maurer said.

Eighty-nine-year-old Hal Murray said he remembers navigating the skies of Europe like it was yesterday. "The farther we pushed Germany back after the Rhine crossing, the heavier the flack for our bombers," Murray said.

And 83-year-old Weyman Owens witnessed the destruction left behind from the nuclear strikes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"It was hell. At least a mile from where they dropped that thing, buildings made of rod iron were just twisted and torn to pieces: a church, torn all to pieces, everything just blown to pieces. Nothing I've ever seen compares to that."

Many veterans, including Maurer, Murray and Owens, didn't think they would get a chance to see the memorial.

Chris Maurer is greeted by military officials and volunteers at the Baltimore airport.

That is until they heard about Honor Flight, a program dedicated to getting veterans to the memorial in Washington. Twelve veterans started the program in 2005 with six small planes.

Today, it operates like a volunteer airline, with 98 hubs in 35 states. Now, instead of renting small planes, they charter Boeing jets, thanks to donations that keep the planes in the sky. The veterans don't pay a penny.

There is a sense of urgency at Honor Flight because less than 10 percent of those who served in the war are still alive.

At the memorial, Murray paused to remember the high price of freedom -- the more than 400,000 American soldiers who died in the war.

"To Paul McKinney and the 15 other men who died in my squadron, this honors them all," Murray said. "This is just a very beautiful place and they've done a very great job of making it meaningful for old jokers like me."

"I didn't go into service to have a memorial," fellow veteran Owens said.

"But it's beautiful, it's worthwhile, and it's something to be proud of."

World War II veterans are dying at a rate of about 1,000 per day, said Royce Ard, West Georgia's Honor Flight hub director.

"Some have even passed away while waiting to go on this trip. So it's imperative that we get as many of these flights done as quickly as possible," Ard said.

In the days and weeks before each Honor Flight, an army of ground volunteers coordinates every detail from the buses that pick them up to the meals they eat.

Everywhere they go, they are greeted by well-wishers -- people who have no connection to the veterans except a desire to thank them for their service.

In some cases, Ard said, this is the first time they have been thanked so directly.

"It's not because people ignored them. In 1945 everyone was in the service. So when they came home, they went back to work, back to the farm and back to school. They just came home and started to build up America again," Ard said.

"Thanking the World War II veteran took way to long."

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Carnival Splendor passengers disembark in San Diego - USA Today

Relieved passengers wheeled their suitcases down the gangplank of a disabled cruise ship Thursday, cheering as they finally touched land after three nightmarish days adrift with limited food, backed-up toilets and dark cabins. Pulled by six tug boats and escorted by Coast Guard cutters, nearly 1,000-foot Carnival Splendor reached the dock at about 8:30 a.m. PT. The first group of passengers walked down a ramp about an hour later, dragging rolling suitcases behind them and entering a tent on the dock. With the ship's elevators out of order, port officials estimated it would take about four hours for everyone to leave the ship.

"I love being back on land," said passenger Ken King, who turned 42 on Thursday.

King said he and his traveling companion were celebrating their birthdays on the cruise, so Carnival chose them to be in the first group off the ship.

"The staff was excellent. Only a few people on board were rude. The food was horrible. Starting at 5 a.m. on Monday, we didn't have toilets for 13 hours," King said.

Chris Harlen, a dental technician, offered a quick description of his experience after disembarking with his wife and two children, ages 10 and 8.

"It was gross when the toilets weren't working. What can you do?" Harlan said. "There were a lot of people getting smashed off warm beer."

About 100 people onshore cheered loudly as the ship reached shore, while all along the harbor, tourists, joggers and fishermen stopped to snap photos.

Among the crowd of onlookers waiting at the port are two sisters who flew in last night from Kansas City to sell T-shirts they printed for the occasion.

"I Survived the 2010 Carnival Cruise Spamcation" the blue shirts read.

Lissa Letts said she doesn't know anyone on board. She said she and her sister were stranded in Europe by the volcano earlier this year and had T shirts printed for themselves marking the event. "Everybody wanted to buy them, so we thought these folks would like some shirts too," Letts said. She was selling them for $20 each.

For the past three days, the giant cruise ship Carnival Splendor — with a small city of nearly 4,500 passengers and crewmembers aboard — has been without power 55 miles off the coast of Punta San Jacinto, disabled by an engine fire that has made the ship the focus of a military relief effort and worldwide attention.

As tugboats sent to rescue the Long Beach, Calif.-based vessel pulled it closer to shore and within cellphone range Wednesday, some of the 3,299 passengers aboard began calling family, friends and news outlets with firsthand accounts of increasingly miserable — and smelly — days without basic services such as hot food, air conditioning and, for a time, working toilets.

"It's nothing like anyone expected," said passenger David Zambrano, a technical operations employee of Denver's KUSA-TV, in a report filed to the station. "You stand in line for two hours just to get your food because everybody goes to the same place to pick up their food. Then once you get your food, you look for something to do. People are playing cards. People are standing around, just kind of talking. They're getting to socialize."

Instead of dining on lavish seafood buffets, passengers have been fed Spam, canned crabmeat and Pop-Tarts, which are being ferried to them by U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopters from the USS Ronald Reagan, an aircraft carrier that reached the ship after being diverted from training off Baja California.

Two Detroit-area women, Angela Evans and Natalie Martinez, said the ship still has no electricity, no air conditioning and no hot water, and their windowless inside cabin is pitch black, according to Greg Alexander, Evans' boyfriend, who finally talked with her on a crackling cellphone connection Wednesday afternoon.

"They're fine but worn out emotionally," he told the Detroit Free Press. "The first couple days were a nightmare."

Cruise Director John Heald says the thousands of guests on the ship "have risen to the obvious challenges and difficult conditions onboard." His comments were posted in a blog on Carnival's website.

He says he's been making a lot of announcements from the bridge to keep everyone informed of the situation.

Because of the lack of power, ship-to-shore phone service, cellphone and Internet service on the ship went down after the fire early Monday, leaving passengers unable to communicate with loved ones back on land. Carnival says it got limited phone service restored Wednesday, and allowed passengers to make outbound calls home on ship phones at no charge.

Phone service, cellphone and Internet service on cruise ships are done via satellites.

Until Wednesday, passengers also were unable to use their cellphones to call home because the ship was too far from shore-based cell towers. When the Carnival Splendor got closer to land, some passengers began receiving intermittent cell signals.

She says weather conditions are favorable for the operation, but the tugs will have to take special care because of the massive size of the ship and because it's completely without power.

As the Splendor is slowly pulled back to shore, there are many questions concerning what caused the fire and how it disabled the entire ship. And cruise industry analysts already are debating whether the stranding of one of the industry's newest, most modern vessels will have a long-term impact on what has been one of the fastest-growing segments of the travel business.

"When the Splendor arrives back in port, there's likely to be considerable media coverage of very unhappy, sometimes angry people whose vacation went awry," says Mike Driscoll, editor of Cruise Week, a leading industry publication. "The so-called Spam cruise may sound funny to some outsiders watching TV, but it's not funny to those who were on it."

'Any ship can burn'

The fire broke out early Monday in the ship's aft engine room and took about three hours to extinguish, according to a Coast Guard timeline. It left the ship dead in the water with limited power. Carnival says no one was injured in the incident, but the Splendor's main generators were disabled and efforts to restart them failed.

The ship was one day into a seven-night voyage from Long Beach that was to include stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Carnival says some shipboard programming, including children's programs and entertainment, have been provided since the fire. Some cabin toilets remain inoperable, but engineers have been able to restore toilet service in most cabins and all public bathrooms, the cruise line says. Because there was no power, the ship also had no propulsion system to help steady itself. The passengers who called to shore on Wednesday reported that the ship was rolling with the waves more than usual, leading some passengers to get sick.

Food provisions quickly became unusable because of the lack of refrigeration, prompting the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy to launch a relief effort. On Tuesday, the USS Ronald Reagan arrived nearby with 60,000 pounds of supplies it has been ferrying to the Splendor by helicopter.

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Greg Hicks tells USA TODAY that the supplies were purchased by Carnival Cruise Lines. Hicks says the aircraft carrier, which has a crew of 5,000 to 6,000 people, has an operational cost of $1 million a day. He says he doesn't know whether the Navy will seek reimbursement from Carnival.

The U.S. Coast Guard, which on Monday diverted the 378-foot cutter Morgenthau from a routine drug enforcement patrol to help the stranded cruise ship, won't be charging for its services, Coast Guard Lt. Patrick Montgomery says.

"We don't put a price tag on safety at sea," says Montgomery, who declined to provide a daily cost of the Coast Guard's relief effort. "The Coast Guard went out there to help a vessel in distress. We do not charge to assist a vessel in distress."

The Coast Guard says it landed a team on the Splendor on Monday, and that the team concluded the ship's passengers and crew were safe. The Morgenthau has remained with the crippled ship and is following it back to the USA. The ship is being towed by two tugboats Carnival hired out of Ensenada, Mexico.

Carnival president and CEO Gerry Cahill said the "very surprising" fire began in No. 5 of the ship's six generators. He said a "crankcase split, and that's what caused the fire. It was isolated to the aft generator room." He said technicians from the ship's builder, Carnival, the Lloyd's insurance firm and others will inspect the ship's damage, and that the vessel will be repaired in San Diego.

"This fire has occurred on one of the newest, most advanced and largest cruise ships in the world," notes longtime industry watcher Peter Knego of MaritimeMatters.com, adding that it also comes just weeks after the implementation of stringent new international fire safety laws that have forced a generation of older ships into retirement.

"It just shows that any ship can burn — or sink, for that matter — and underscores the importance of good maintenance, up-to-date alarm systems and proper safety protocol," Knego says. "By all accounts thus far, it appears the ship's officers and crew have done everything by the book."

A 'PR nightmare' for Carnival

Travel agent Carrie Finley-Bajak of Cruise Holidays in Mission Viejo, Calif., worries about the impact passengers getting off the ship with tales of woe will have on the line's image.

"Carnival has a potential PR nightmare to deal with," she says.

An even bigger issue for Finley-Bajak, who caters to the California market, is the impact the damage to the ship will have on cabin availability and pricing of cruises in the region, assuming the Splendor is out of commission for a significant period.

Cruise lines have been reducing the number of ships based along the West Coast for trips to Mexico as they expand operations in more lucrative areas such as Europe, and only a few operate regularly out of the Los Angeles area and San Diego.

"The Splendor is a major player in the seven-night Mexican Riviera (cruise) market," Finley-Bajak says. "With the removal of the Splendor's berths from the overall inventory base, demand for other products will be higher with less inventory, and thus higher prices."

Should repairs to the Splendor take more than a few weeks, the holiday vacation plans of thousands of people could be in jeopardy, she says.

Carnival has canceled the next voyage of the Splendor, which had been scheduled to begin on Nov. 14 in Long Beach. Passengers booked on that trip will receive a full refund plus a 25% discount on a future cruise, the line says.

Carnival has a history of improvising well in tough times.

The line's first ship, the Mardi Gras, famously got stuck on a sand bank off Miami during its maiden voyage in 1972. To appease passengers who included influential travel writers and agents whose support (or lack thereof) could make or break the start-up line, Carnival quickly opened up the bar for free drinks. Soon, all was well.

"The incident passed without much notice to anyone on board," Knego says. "Carnival went on to become the biggest cruise line in history."

For years afterward, the line even served a special drink commemorating the event, the Mardi Gras on the Rocks.

This time, an open bar was part of Carnival's damage-control strategy, too. The bars aboard the Splendor are serving free beer and wine, the cruise line says.

Carnival also announced that everyone on the stricken ship will receive a full refund of their cruise fare, reimbursement for additional travel costs such as airfare, and credit for a free future cruise — a level of restitution that is highly unusual in the business.

"We sincerely apologize to our guests for this unfortunate situation and offer our thanks for their patience and cooperation during this challenging time," Carnival's Cahill said in a statement. "The safety and comfort of our guests is our top priority, and we are doing everything we can to allow them to return home as quickly as possible.

"We know we've ruined their vacations," Cahill said, "so we thought the best thing to do was to give (passengers) their money back, make them whole, then give them their vacation back" with free tickets for another cruise.

Passenger fares on the Carnival Splendor vary according to cabin size, but generally range from $400 to $1,000 per person to for a week-long cruise that includes food and entertainment.

Veteran cruise seller Stewart Chiron of CruiseGuy.com says he doesn't expect a long-term impact on cruise bookings from the incident. If anything, he says, it should tell any nervous travelers that ships are well-equipped to deal with major events such as a fire.

"Passengers on board Carnival Splendor may be uncomfortable, but they're safe," Chiron says. "Based on available information, the fire was quickly contained."

Nightmarish events on cruise ships typically have not had a long-term impact on bookings.

Last year a Norwegian Cruise Line ship, the Norwegian Dawn, lost power in the Caribbean for more than a day in an incident that passengers reported quickly became unbearable. And in 2006 a fire on a Princess Cruises ship in the Caribbean left one passenger dead. Neither incident caused a measurable decline in bookings.

The Cruise Lines International Association forecasts the industry will carry a record 14.3 million passengers this year, up 6.4% from 2009. In 2006, the number was 12 million.

"These types of things do happen once in a while, and historically speaking, there's a blip, but that's all, sometimes not even a blip," Driscoll says. "Experienced cruisers understand this is extremely unlikely to happen to them."

Contributing: USA TODAY's Bill Welch in San Diego, Calif., The Associated Press

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