Californium dreaming
TURKISH police raised eyebrows when they announced the seizure of 1.4 kilograms of the radioactive element californium last month. Four men were arrested, who had allegedly hoped to sell the material for $70 million. Almost non-existent in the wild, the most common isotope, californium-252, can be produced only in nuclear research laboratories, which currently churn out a meagre 35 milligrams per year.
That made the Turkish haul about 40,000 years鈥� worth of production 鈥� a tall order for an element with a half-life of less than three years.
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The Turkish Atomic Energy Authority soon declared that, on closer inspection, the substance was in fact a type of polystyrene, with no radioactive properties. Police are bound to be disappointed: with a street value of $27 million per gram, that much californium would have been worth $37.8 billion. Enough to afford a few Geiger counters?
Leader of the pack
YOU鈥橵E heard of tiger mums, but what about doggie dads? Researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands have investigated parenting styles for pet owners.
Writing in PLoS One, Ineke van Herwijnen and her colleagues note that 鈥減arenting styles are relevant because of their effects on the development and well-being of children鈥�, and a similar diagnostic could inform animal welfare.
鈥淢ore infant intuition: 鈥淎s a very small child I came down with chicken pox while on a farm holiday,鈥� writes Ben Crossley. 鈥淚 still believe I caught my pox off real chickens鈥濃��
Drawing from questionnaires that sort parenting style into one of four categories (authoritarian, authoritative, permissive and uninterested), the team created a new series of prompts such as 鈥淚 lure my dog with reward to solicit certain behaviour, even when it is misbehaving at that moment.鈥� A trick familiar to many parents, Feedback suspects.
The results from 518 dog-owning parents revealed that most opted for authoritative styles for both two- and four-legged babies, involving both corrective behaviours and consideration of the dog or child鈥檚 needs. However, adults were twice as likely to follow a rigid authoritarian style with dogs as they were with their own children.
The researchers note that 鈥渨e did not find a dog-directed parenting style of being permissive or uninvolved, which we attribute to a study population of devoted dog owners鈥�. It seems for dogs in the Netherlands, tough .
Dead man walking
A COURT in Romania has ruled that a man is dead 鈥� even though he was standing alive in front of them. Sixty-three-year-old Constantin Reliu brought the case after discovering he had been declared dead by his wife. This was somewhat understandable, as he had left for Turkey in 1999 and not contacted her since.
Now returned home, he protested the decision, but the court ruled that as the time for appeals had elapsed, he must remain dead. Still, a political career might be open to Reliu. In 2008, the residents of the Romanian village Voinesti elected Neculai Ivascu as their mayor, although he had passed away before the vote. A villager told reporters: 鈥淚 know he died, but I don鈥檛 want change.鈥�
Coal front
A COLD wind is blowing in the Welsh valleys, where Monmouth MP David Davies sees foul play afoot, reports Larry Stoter. He draws our attention to Davies鈥檚 regular column in the South Wales Argus, in which the MP says the recent cold weather serves as , which is under threat from an 鈥渦nholy coalition of environmentalists working with big business鈥�.
We are told the 鈥渁larmists鈥� at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have led the UK down a dark path of fossil fuel divestment. This in turn has led us to buying power from France, whose energy is far cheaper than ours 鈥渂ecause their generators do not levy carbon taxes鈥�.
What Davies neglects to mention is the reason for this: France鈥檚 energy portfolio contains far more nuclear power, which doesn鈥檛 produce carbon emissions and therefore doesn鈥檛 attract such taxes. Had the UK invested similarly in the 1970s, we might be enjoying the same cheap energy ourselves.
This may have been prudent given the UK鈥檚 reliance on imported fossil fuels from Russia, which is proving neither cheap nor reliable, and with whom the UK鈥檚 relations are currently a rather chilly -23.
Puffing along
THE recent crop of tobacco-based anecdotes suggests there is no more measured way to pass the time when travelling than with a smoke (31 March). The habit seems universal.
Anton Fletcher recalls 鈥渞eading of Australians in Papua New Guinea searching for some lost explorers. They obtained the help of indigenous tribespeople, who spoke pidgin English.鈥� Anton says that when the locals were questioned on the possible whereabouts of the missing men, a direction was indicated with a wave of the arm, 鈥渂ut the distance was, 鈥榟im longtime 2, 3, maybe 4 cigarette'鈥�.
Exactly how this related to a kilometre measure is not explained, says Anton. Feedback wonders how we measured distance before the advent of smoking.
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