A Few Things...

Here are a few things from the news today:

1. The Yangtze River dolphin is now extinct. I just read Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and this dolphin was discussed in the book. At the time when Adams went to China to find the dolphin, the outlook for its survival was already very bleak. It would have been a monumental undertaking by the Chinese government to save this creature, since the Yangtze River is so heavily used and completely unregulated.


2. Intelligent children are more likely to become vegetarians later in life. On average, the I.Q. of a vegetarian is 5 points higher than a non-vegetarian.


3. This is a shock wave seen last week in the photosphere of the Sun that was caused by a flare that erupted from a sunspot.

Cool.

I saw this on the BBC News website. The caption reads,

Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity near the rim of Victoria Crater. Victoria is an impact crater about 800m (half a mile) in diameter at Meridiani Planum near the equator of Mars. Opportunity is the dot at the centre of the zoomed image. (Nasa/JPL/UA)

This is the view from the rover.



UPDATE:

Check out the astronomy picture of the day. Careful, it's a big picture.