gregladen | September 14, 2011 With our oceans and coastal ecosystems, and the economies and jobs they support, facing constant and increasingly grave threats from a variety of sources, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators will meet next week to form a new Senate Oceans Caucus. The Caucus will work to increase awareness and find common ground in responding to issues facing the oceans, which support millions of jobs in America and contribute more to the country's GDP than the entire farm sector, grossing more than $230 billion in 2004.
Founding members will meet next Tuesday for the caucus's first meeting, during which…
gregladen | September 13, 2011Probably not, but they are cagily announcing a rather unusual press conference that has a certain familiar ring to it.
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA will host a news briefing at 11 a.m. PDT, Thursday, Sept. 15, to announce a new discovery by the Kepler mission. The briefing will be held in the Syvertson auditorium, building N-201, at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The event will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website...
The Kepler mission is focused on finding Earth-size planets in the Goldilocks Zone, where, say, alien life could live. But of…
gregladen | September 13, 2011Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The CDC's fact sheet is here.
gregladen | September 13, 2011The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth sounds like a cool book, though I've not read it yet. From Publisher's Weekly:
Until about 1834, the word "scientist" didn't exist. According to naturalist Conniff (Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time), it was likely at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science) where a member, following the model of "artist" and "atheist," coined a new term--"scientist" reflecting the transition of the nascent study of plants and animals from self-educated hobbyists to a new breed of professional. The…
gregladen | September 13, 2011Before life existed on Earth, there was just matter, inorganic dead "stuff." How improbable is it that life arose? And -- could it use a different type of chemistry? Using an elegant definition of life (anything that can evolve), chemist Lee Cronin is exploring this question by attempting to create a fully inorganic cell using a "Lego kit" of inorganic molecules -- no carbon -- that can assemble, replicate and compete.
gregladen | September 10, 2011CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:08 a.m. EDT (6:08 a.m. PDT) Saturday, Sept. 10, to study the moon in unprecedented detail.
GRAIL-A is scheduled to reach the moon on New Year's Eve 2011, while GRAIL-B will arrive New Year's Day 2012. The two solar-powered spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around the moon to measure its gravity field. GRAIL will answer longstanding questions about the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other…
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gregladen | September 9, 2011This is important, please have a look:
Dear Colleagues,
Climate researchers are in need of immediate legal assistance to prevent their private correspondence from being exposed to Chris Horner and the American Tradition Institute who are using Freedom of Information (FOI) to harass researchers. (For context please see: http://wapo.st/pQg0JC and http://wapo.st/oiua7V) The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has recently stated: "the sharing of research data is vastly different from unreasonable, excessive Freedom of Information Act requests for personal information…
gregladen | September 8, 2011Why is it so hard to understand a commonplace thing like orgasms?
I think I know why science does not understand the female orgasm. It is because science excels when it breaks free of context, history, human complexities and anthropology, but when a topic requires one to grasp context, history, human complexities and anthropology, then science, especially the hard sciences, can fall short. Also, the nature of the female orgasm is a comparative question, but human sexuality is highly (but not entirely) derived; It is difficult to make a sensible graph or table comparing aspects of sexuality…
gregladen | September 8, 2011Today all we have for you is Ana's feed, and only the first half. We have both been very busy with distracting things like work and other writing projects and so on. There are interesting things going on at Fukushima and in the Nuclear Power industry in general, as you'll see soon. In the mean time, here's what has been happening:
Fight Over Mining Near Grand Canyon, Other Riders Will Return After Recess -NYT, August 9
-Several lawmakers involved in the congressional debate over uranium mining around the Grand Canyon expect the war of words to reignite as soon as the House returns from…
gregladen | September 8, 2011One final Back To School item. Do you think students should be required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in US Public Schools every day? Increasingly, this is being required. Here are a number of reasons to NOT allow this, and a suggestion as to what to do about it: Demand that the Pledge of Allegiance Not Be Recited in Your Local School.
gregladen | September 8, 2011Let's begin with Tropical Storm Lee. There is actually quite a bit left of this no-longer named low pressure system, and it is sitting over the northern part of the East Coast producing a fair amount of rain. "So what?" you say! Good question. The thing is, that a hurricane in the Atlantic by the name of Katia (accent on the first syllable, long 'a', hard k, rhymes with onomatopoeia) is probably gong to restrain this low pressure to the region of the continent instead of letting it waft off into the North Atlantic. Likely, Katia will push ex-Lee west. So, the Eastern Great Lakes and the…
gregladen | September 7, 2011UNCLAS SARAJEVO 001879
SIPDIS
COMMERCE FOR 4232/ITA/MAC/EUR (BURGESS AND SAVICH)
DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO USTR (MORROW, YANG)
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SCE, EEB/IPE, EUR/PPD (HANNAN),
EUR/PPD-PA,IIP/S
TREASURY FOR LINDQUIST
COMMERCE PLEASE PASS TO MCCAFFREY AND SMITH AT USPTO
JUSTICE FOR CARL ALEXANDRE
MOSCOW FOR REGIONAL IPR ATTACHE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECIN KIPR BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA: MICROSOFT AND PM SPIRIC SIGN STRATEGIC
PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT
REF: SARAJEVO 1351
¶1. On December 18, the BiH Council of Ministers and Microsoft finally signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement for access to legal…
gregladen | September 7, 2011I like to pass books about science on to the teachers in my daughter's school for them to have in the classroom (or to pass on to the library, as they wish). Now that you've heard this idea, you will want to do it to!
Here's a few suggestions of recent titles that could be available used or cheap.
Galapagos Diary: A Complete Guide to the Archipelgo's Birdlife
... in our look at bird books to consider, I wanted to bring in the Galapagos Diary. I cannot tell you which is the best book for birding in the Galapagos, because, sadly, I've never done that myself. But my daughter, Julia, has,…
gregladen | September 7, 2011And if you have your own favorites, please add links to them in the comments.
Below the fold to not crash your flash.
First, this tear jerker:
gregladen | September 7, 2011A few essays. You are not alone. These are previously posted items, just follow the links to read them in their entirety.
Teachers Under Fire!!!
It is very common, across the U.S., for science teachers to dread the "evolution" unit that they teach during life science class.
As they approach the day, and start to prepare the students for what is coming, they begin to hear the sarcastic remarks from the creationist students. When the day to engage the evolution unit arrives, students may show up in the classroom with handouts from anti-science sites like Answers in Genesis, to give to their…