A supermoon must lead to super-effects on the body, right? Right?

Just imagine a supermoon's effects on the body. Really. Just imagine. (Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times)

If a full moon affects the human body, then a supermoon surely would send those effects into overdrive, leading to even more pregnancies, epileptic seizures, surgery screw-ups, suicides, assaults and various other types of biological havoc. Surely, it would.

The operative word, of course, is "if." And the Skeptic's Dictionary begins a nice distillation of moon-related folklore this way:

"The full moon has been linked to crime, suicide, mental illness, disasters, accidents, birthrates, fertility, and werewolves, among other things. Some people even buy and sell stocks according to phases of the moon, a method probably as successful as many others. Numerous studies have tried to find lunar effects. So far, the studies have failed to establish much of interest."

RELATED: 'Supermoon' rising this weekend

The essay then offers highlights from research on the many purported links between the moon's phases and human behavior. Such a distillation is worth reading as we head into the much-heralded "supermoon" weekend.

This story from LiveScience takes a similar tack with similar results. Writer Robert Roy Britt notes:

"When strange things happen at full moon, people notice the "coincidental" big bright orb in the sky and wonder. When strange things happen during the rest of the month, well, they're just considered strange, and people don't tie them to celestial events."

Britt, however, does not debunk the werewolf connection. That must mean it's true.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

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Radiation from Fukushima plant detected in Sacramento, EPA says

A minuscule amount of radiation from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor in Japan was detected in Sacramento but at such a low level that it posed no threat to human health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday afternoon.

One station in Sacramento detected "minuscule quantities" of a radioactive isotope, xenon-133, that scientists said they believed came from the reactors at the stricken Fukushima plant.

Photos: In Japan, life amid crisis

But the level detected would result in a "dose rate approximately one-millionth of the dose rate that a person normally receives from rocks, bricks, the sun and other natural sources," according to an EPA statement.

Xenon-133 is a radioactive gas created during nuclear fission.

The detection of the xenon-133 came from a radiation monitoring system run by the U.S. Department of Energy able to "detect tiny quantities of radioisotopes that might indicate an underground nuclear test on the other side of the world," the statement said. "These detectors are extremely sensitive and can detect minute amounts of radioactive materials."

A separate detection system run by the EPA, known as RadNet, also has shown no harmful levels of radiation coming to the United States. The system was developed in the 1950s during the Cold War.

"As far as our monitors go, we have not detected any increases beyond what you'd expect historically," said Philip Fine, atmospheric-measurements manager of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the smog control agency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Experts have anticipated small amounts of radioactive isotopes from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant to blow over to California as soon as Friday but said they expected that the radiation to be well within safe limits.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has detectors in Anaheim, Fontana and Riverside monitoring airborne radiation; the California Department of Public Health operates a fourth detector in the downtown Los Angeles area.

Officials on Thursday said whatever radiation wafted into the atmosphere would be greatly diluted by the time it travels 5,000 miles to California.

"The basic physics and basic science really tells us that there can't be any risk or harm to anyone here in the United States, or Hawaii, or any of the other [U.S.] territories," Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Thursday.

There is no sign that harmful levels of radiation are drifting into Tokyo or other large cities in Japan, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization officials.

The EPA said U.S. air monitors detected trace amounts of radioactive particles in 1986, after the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. But the amounts detected were one-thousandth the level of what a typical person would absorb from natural sources in one year.

ron.lin@latimes.com

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No. 11 seed Marquette upsets Xavier Musketeers 66-55

Marquette turned out to be Xavier's worst nightmare.

The 11th-seeded Golden Eagles stymied the sixth-seeded Musketeers with a stingy defense that denied them offensive rhythm in a 66-55 NCAA Tournament second-round upset Friday at Quicken Loans Arena

The Mrly fouls, missed shots and turnovers and trailed by as many as 18 points.

The Golden Eagles ensured that Tu Holloway didn't score a point for the first 27:37 – not from the field, and not from his trademark place on the free-throw line.

When asked what they did to him defensively, the point guard said he didn't know.

"I can't really figure that out. I guess I was just missing shots today," Holloway said.

With Holloway smothered and Mark Lyons limited because of foul trouble, XU was forced to turn to the post. Kenny Frease rattled off eight first-half points, including a pair of jump shots, and Andrew Taylor scored six points in eight minutes.

Coach Chris Mack said Marquette's intent was to force Holloway to give up the ball. While XU has faced pressure teams before, usually Lyons is on the floor and defuses pressure.

Dante Jackson, Jeff Robinson and the rest of the perimeter personnel are good players, Mack said, but not necessarily the type that break down the defense with the basketball.

"So it gave us a tough way to go in the first half and I thought that was really the difference in the game – our inability to handle their pressure in the first half," Mack said. "I thought we did a better job in the second half, but certainly not one where we could overcome a 13-point deficit at halftime."

In the days leading to the game, Mack spoke at length about keeping the driving Golden Eagles out of the lane while avoiding fouling because the team led the Big East in made free throws.

Darius Johnson-Odom was at the stripe just 63 seconds into the game.

Holloway, meanwhile, averaged 7.5 made free throws entering the contest. He didn't get to the stripe until 3:12 remained.

Marquette never strayed from its relentless play and led 47-29 with 13:27 left in the game. A Johnson-Odom 3-pointer capped a 6-0 run.

XU briefly rallied. The team went on a 7-0 tear that included Holloway's first basket of the game, a 3-pointer with 12:12 left, and cut the deficit to 11. A Robinson tip narrowed it to eight points at the 8:42 mark.

But Marquette scored back-to-back baskets as part of a run that extended its lead, and XU was never able to jump ahead.

Taylor had a career performance in his final game. He went 7-for-8 from the field and 2-for-2 from the stripe for a career-high 16 points.

"I think they really focused on pressuring our guards and late in the game that really opened things up for Kenny and I," Taylor said. "I've got to give all the credit in the world to Marquette. They played hard. They deserved it."

Frease added 12 points and five rebounds, Jackson scored 10 points, and Jamel McLean had a team-high nine rebounds.

Holloway finished with five points.

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Hundreds flee as fighting rages around Libya's Benghazi

Fighting raged around Libya's rebel stronghold of Benghazi Saturday, with air strikes, shelling and anti-aircraft fire rocking the Mediterranean city as a war plane went down in flames.

Hundreds were seen fleeing the city eastwards amid unconfirmed reports that forces loyal to Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi had entered the western suburbs of the city of more than one million people.

Tank fire was also heard from the south of the city as rebel fighters ran through the streets flashing V for victory signs and crying "Allahu Akbar", or "God is greatest".

The southern edge of Benghazi early morning suffered at least two air strikes and sustained shelling, sending thick smoke into the sky, an AFP reporter said.

A warplane was seen coming came down in a residential area of Benghazi with flames emerging from the rear fuselage, triggering celebratory gunfire from the rebels.

The pilot ejected from the aircraft, which was identified as a Russian-built MiG-23 fighter as used by the Libyan air force. However a number of military units defected to the rebellion soon after the revolt broke out.

The two air strikes occurred within 20 minutes of each other, but the planes responsible could not be immediately identified.

A series of small explosions, possibly from Katyusha rockets, also produced at least seven smaller columns of black smoke south of the city.

Very heavy traffic clogged the road eastwards but rebel checkpoints were still manned and fighters screamed defiance against Kadhafi, as a large plume of smoke was seen rising from the city behind them.

A man with a green flag standing in the road shouted, "Kadhafi will die, Kadhafi will die."

Opposition media outlets said Benghazi was coming under attack from the west, as the

the government for its part said its armed forces were under attack west of Benghazi and had responded in self-defence.

"The gangs of Al-Qaeda attacked the units of the Libyan armed forces stationed to the west of Benghazi," a statement carried by the official Jana news agency said, using Tripoli's term for the insurgents.

The statement accused the rebels of using "a helicopter and a fighter jet to bomb the Libyan armed forces in blatant violation of the no-fly zone imposed by the UN Security Council."

On Friday evening, residents of Benghazi had braced for an imminent attack, after reports Kadhafi's troops were just 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the city and planning an evening assault.

In Tripoli, Libya's deputy foreign minister had responded by denying any plans to attack the rebel bastion and said the government forces would not breach the ceasefire.

"The armed forces are now located outside the city of Benghazi and we have no intention of entering Benghazi," Khaled Kaaim told reporters.

Kaaim also called for the immediate deployment of foreign observers, saying otherwise "the accusations and counter-accusations will not stop."

France was hosting Saturday what it said would be a "decisive" summit with the European Union, Arab League and African Union, as well as UN chief Ban Ki-moon, on taking UN-sanctioned military action in Libya.

France's ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud, said he expected military intervention within hours of the summit.

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