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My picks from ScienceDaily

Elephant Memories May Hold Key To Survival: A recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) suggests that old female elephants--and perhaps their memories of distant, life-sustaining sources of food and water--may be the key to survival during the worst of times. Fry Me Kangaroo Brown, Sport: Skippy could be on more menus following a report that expanding the kangaroo industry would significantly cut greenhouse gases. 'Lost Tribe' Of Clinician-scientists: Medical Doctors Who Do Research Could Be A Dying Breed: The road from disease research to…

Vote McCain?

Today I talked to a low-information voter who always voted Democratic, but it wavering right now, thinks "McCain is kinda cute" and "McCain is likely to pick a moderate for VP" and "if Obama picks Hillary for VP, he'll have me". Arrrgh! My responses: "He is worse than Bush. All Bush wanted was to have fun, go to parties and be able to say 'Hey guys, guess what - I am the President!' McCain is an unhinged, diabolical, sexist, violent nutcase" If you want to stay in Iraq for 100 years, vote McCain: If you want to bomb Iran, vote McCain: If you want a guy prone to senior moments, vote…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Distribution Of Creatures Great And Small Can Be Predicted Mathematically: In studying how animals change size as they evolve, biologists have unearthed several interesting patterns. For instance, most species are small, but the largest members of a taxonomic group -- such as the great white shark, the Komodo dragon, or the African elephant -- are often thousands or millions of times bigger than the typical species. Now for the first time two SFI researchers explain these patterns within an elegant statistical framework. Bees Go 'Off-color' When They Are Sickly: Bumble-bees go 'off colour'…

'Ecology' of human light exposure and circadian disruption

In the Journal of Circadian Rhythms: A new approach to understanding the impact of circadian disruption on human health (pdf): Background Light and dark patterns are the major synchronizer of circadian rhythms to the 24-hour solar day. Disruption of circadian rhythms has been associated with a variety of maladies. Ecological studies of human exposures to light are virtually nonexistent, however, making it difficult to determine if, in fact, light-induced circadian disruption directly affects human health. Methods A newly developed field measurement device recorded circadian light exposures…

Net Neutrality?

I am having difficulty understanding what this is about, who is who, what are the institutional affiliations and potential biases, etc. Can someone explain it to me: Net Neutrality: Undifferentiated Networks Would Require Significant Extra Capacity: Using computer models, the researchers compared the current "best-effort" approach with a tiered model that separates information into two simple classes -- one for most types of information and another for applications requiring service level assurance for high-bandwidth content like video games, telemedicine, and Voice over Internet Protocol (…

Obsolete Lab Skills

You may remember a few days ago I posted a link to the list of Obsolete skills (the links were to this post, this wiki and this wiki). The growing list is certainly fun to read and check off your own skills against it. Archy adds some more. But, what I really liked, especially since this is a science blog, was this comment by Barn Owl, suggesting we list our science-related and laboratory skills that are either useless outside of the lab or now obsolete even in a science lab. For instance, Anna has developed strength in in the muscles used in vial opening as well as the ability to eye-ball…

The Dangers of Blogging, or, the Quest for Male Contraception

"Why isn't there a birth control pill for men?" is the latest "Ask A ScienceBlogger" question. I am sure my SciBlings will rise to the occasion and explain both the biological and social barriers to the development, production and marketing of such a pill. I will be more light hearted, with a brief look at alternative methods proposed over the years intended to make guys temporarily infertile. Let's start with this delightful, funny, yet informative, movie: The movie can be found here, via Science of the Invisible (Thanks for the heads-up). Perhaps this quack had a point after all! Would…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (Healthcare)

There are 20 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list. The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (Freelance journalists/bloggers)

There are 22 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list. The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (Duke medical communications)

There are 22 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list. The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (NPR Science Friday)

There are 23 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list. The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (Publishing)

There are 25 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list. The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (Healthcare)

There are 25 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list. The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (Computing and Technology)

There are 26 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list. The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…

The Pharyngula mutating genre meme

I got tagged with this cool meme, demonstrating evolution in cyberspace: There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...". Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations: * You can leave them exactly as is. * You can delete any one question. * You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel…

My Picks from ScienceDaily

How 'Mother Of Thousands' Makes Baby Plants: New research shows how the houseplant "mother of thousands" (Kalanchoe diagremontiana) makes the tiny plantlets that drop from the edges of its leaves. Having lost the ability to make viable seeds, the plant has shifted some of the processes that make seeds to the leaves, said Neelima Sinha, professor of plant biology at UC Davis. Red Wine Ingredient -- Resveratrol -- Fights Diabetes In Mice: Even relatively low doses of resveratrol--a chemical found in the skins of red grapes and in red wine--can improve the sensitivity of mice to the hormone…

Cool Stuff on PLoS Today

In PLoS Biology: High-Resolution Genome-Wide Dissection of the Two Rules of Speciation in Drosophila: The evolution of reproductive isolation is a fundamental step in the origin of species. One kind of reproductive isolation, the sterility and inviability of species hybrids, is characterized by two of the strongest rules in evolutionary biology. The first is Haldane's rule: for species crosses in which just one hybrid sex is sterile or inviable, it tends to be the sex defined by having a pair of dissimilar sex chromosomes (e.g., the "XY" of males in humans). The second rule is the large X…

Do whales sleep?

It is Marine Megavertebrate Week right now, so why not take a look at one of the most Mega of the Megaverts - the grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus): Do whales sleep? You may have heard that dolphins do - one hemisphere at the time, while swimming, and not for very long periods at a time. A combined Russian/US team of researchers published a study in 2000 - to my knowledge the best to date - on sleep-wake and activity patterns of the grey whale: Rest and activity states in a gray whale (pdf) by Lyamin, Manger, Mukhametov, Siegel and Shpak. The whale in the experiment rested in two…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (UNC)

There are 28 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list. The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (Serbs are coming! Part 2)

There are 29 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list. The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (Project Exploration)

There are 30 days until the Science Blogging Conference. We have 200 registered participants and a few people on the waiting list. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. So, the registration is now officially closed and all future registrants will be placed on a waiting list. The anthology should be published in time for the event. Between now and the conference, I am…

Two very, very important deadlines coming very, very soon!

First, we have 199 people registered for the Science Blogging Conference. The Sigma Xi space accommodates 200 and we have ordered food for 200 (coffee for more, to make up for the coffee flop last year) and swag bags for 200. Apart from the public list, we also have a list with a couple of anonymous bloggers as well as about a dozen of students who will be coming with their teachers. Thus, we will be closing the registration most likely tonight or tomorrow, so hurry up and grab that last 200th spot! After that, we will probably have a waiting list, but that is no guarantee (and makes it…

Science Blogging Conference - who is coming? (SciBlings 4)

There are 78 days until the Science Blogging Conference. The wiki is looking good, the Program is shaping up nicely, and there is more and more blog and media coverage already. There are already 113 registered participants and if you do not register soon, it may be too late once you decide to do so (we'll cap at about 230). Between now and the conference, I am highlighting some of the people who will be there, for you to meet in person if you register in time. Janet D. Stemwedel is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at San Jose State University. Her blog is Adventures in Ethics and…

I'm alive, never fear

I had a harrowing morning. I got up at 5 to make the long drive to the airport, only to discover that last night, after several days of rain, it had frozen. And snowed. Uh-oh, you say…at least in my usual caution I had given myself 5 hours to make a 3 hour drive, so I figured I'd have no problem. It wasn't bad; little traffic, the roads were icy, but I was taking my time and coping like a real Minnesotan. Then, as I was leaving lovely Glenwood, I saw a truck stopped to make a left turn way ahead — like 4 or 5 blocks ahead. So I touched the brakes to slow down a little more. So I tried to slow…

Post-doc with a leading Sleep research group

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY in SLEEP MEDICINE Charles A. Czeisler, Steven W. Lockley, Christopher P. Landrigan, Laura K. Barger Harvard Work Hours, Health and Safety Group Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School The Harvard Work Hours Health and Safety Group focuses on understanding the consequences of extended work hours and disordered sleep schedules on health and safety across a range of professions and populations. We also develop and test countermeasures to prevent the increased risk of accidents and injury for both worker health and…

Maybe we'd get better answers if we polled ghosts

It's been a while since we had a pointless poll…so here's a light snack to nibble on. We are asked, "The best evidence for an afterlife is from…", and the answer so far is: Mediums 3% (20 votes) Near-death experiences 26% (147 votes) Reincarnation memories 15% (86 votes) Ghosts 5% (29 votes) EVP and similar 3% (19 votes) Crisis apparitions 2% (14 votes) All equal 11% (64 votes) Other 7% (41 votes) There is no evidence 27% (156 votes) I don't get the popularity of the NDE "evidence". I had a friend once who told me that he had the most awesome experience on 'shrooms — he'd melted into a purple…

My Picks From ScienceDaily

Want To Save Polar Bears? Follow The Ice: In the wake of the U.S. government's watershed decision to propose listing the polar bear as "Threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is launching a bold initiative to save the Earth's largest terrestrial predator, not by following the bears themselves, but the receding sea ice habitat that may drastically shrink as a result of global warming. In a project named "Warm Waters for Cool Bears," WCS will use both current and historical satellite imagery to predict where sea ice is likely to persist and where…

How to Effectively Teach New Concepts to Others?

Have you noticed how you tend to remember things better after you've figured them out for yourself rather than listening to someone else's explanation? Well, this phenomenon is typical for toddlers, too. According to a study published today, toddlers have an easier time learning new words when they figure out the meanings themselves. "There are two ways to learn as a child: you either learn because you figured it out yourself, or you learn because somebody told you, and lots of our school-based education is engaged in people telling us things," said Justin Halberda, assistant professor of…

The Kingfisher

River kingfisher, Alcedo atthis. Orphaned image. Contact me to receive proper credit. As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we decide to destroy these other life…

I get email

Man, I get some strange email. This one is just weird…maybe one of you can help this person out. This was sent to me by Jodi Haynes. Jason is an IT manager for a local tech support call centre. I now work at a vineyard, but the call centre was where we met. I was a noob techie and he approached me with one of the cheesiest lines in the book. It was the old 'Do I know you from somewhere?', and it worked. We started dating and have been nearly inseparable since, though it wasn't always smooth sailing. You see I was not nearly as rational and level headed then as I am now. At almost every turn…

13 Commandments According to Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin. Image: source. I admire Benjamin Franklin for many reasons. But I never knew that in 1726, at the age of 20, while on an 80-day ocean voyage from London back to Philadelphia, Franklin developed a "Plan" for regulating his future conduct. He was partially motivated by Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." He followed his Plan he "pretty faithfully" even to the age of 79 when he finally…

Animals in the Womb

elephant embryo at six months after conception (above) elephant embryo at 12 months of development. Using an array of technologies, a series of images reveal the secret of animal development in the wormb. Using a combination of three-dimensional ultrasound scans, computer graphics and tiny cameras, the research team followed the entire developmental process from conception to birth for a variety of animals, including an elephant (pictured). The team found some interesting behaviors along the way; a dolphin swimming in the womb, and an unborn dog (right) panting. "The images in the film…

Happy Birdday, PZ!

I broke all the etiquette rules, PZ, because I did not ask your wife or daughter before I got a virtual pet for you for your hatchday. However, this pet is a little different than most because it does not use a litter box, it doesn't have to be walked three or five times per day, nor can it starve to death! I know that you like animals and technological wizbangery, so my virtual gift to you, PZ, is the delightful roboraptor. The roboraptor stands 32 inches tall, has built-in touch and motion sensors that allow it to react to its environment and, best of all, it can either roam freely or it…

The PepsiGate linkfest

I will not be saying anything about PepsiCo thing myself yet. I do have opinions (and decisions that come from them), but I am not revealing anything until I am ready (and it may end up being one of those horribly long posts, who knows). But in the meantime I can put together this linkfest, so you can have a one-spot-shopping place for all the key posts about the event. I don't think this is a complete collection, and I could not order them in a chronological order (too much work, so the order is random) but close enough - the key posts/articles are here, and the comment sections are very…

Birdbooker Report 31

tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books "One cannot have too many good bird books" --Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927). The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that are or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle bird pals, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is published here for your enjoyment. Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by which lists ecology, environment, natural history and bird books that are (or will…

Why Write About Science on a Blog?

A reader of mine posed a series of questions to an earlier blog entry that I unfortunately neglected to respond to at the time. I am researching an article that I am freelance writing for a journal (deadline TODAY, YIKES!!) and ran across her original comment, which I reposted below the fold, and I am really interested to read your thoughts about this. A couple months ago, Chardyspal asked; I have a few questions for those who consider blogging to not be a good thing for scientists to do...hopefully the connections to blogging will not be difficult to make - What do they think of teaching (in…

Nickname That Bird Contest

Next week, I will publish my review of Pete Dunne's new book, Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion: A Comprehensive Resource for Identifying North American Birds (NYC: Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Because the good peeps at Houghton Mifflin accidentally sent an extra hardcover copy of this book to me (a $30 value), I decided to share my wealth: I will give this book to one of my readers. How will I decide who to give this book to? I am going to have a contest, the "Nickname that Bird" contest. Why did I choose this theme for a contest? Because throughout his book, Pete Dunne gives each…

Cockroaches: Group Thinkers?

As some of you know, I live with a large group of cockroaches that boldly infest my apartment, along with those of all my neighbors. Call me crazy, but it always seemed to me that the smaller, more numerous, German cockroaches, Blattella germanica, made decisions together, or they appeared to at least consult with each other before hauling off my refrigerator as a well-organized team. But several scientists confirmed my suspicions today when they published their research suggesting that cockroaches are democratic group thinkers. Cockroaches cannot communicate vocally, but it's known that they…

Kryon of Magnetic Service has all the answers

Just wait—I have an inside scoop on amazing insights into biology that will definitely win me a Nobel prize. I have to thank Eve for leading me to this incredible prophetic knowledge. Who among you has heard light lately? Many doubt me. Watch for this: Someday your science is going to show that DNA actually sings! Instruments will show that DNA sings [has vibrations of sound] and you're going to say, "Wow, this sounds like something Kryon told us." [Laughter] Why don't you save some energy and simply believe it now instead of waiting for your scientists to tell it to you? Is it because it's…

Naked Travel is Not Enough

As manufacturers of overprized disposable size toothpaste tubes rejoice, the rest of us contemplate the tantrums and boredom of travel with no water, juice, reading material or electronics... and that is without the kids. As usual, transport authorities are reacting and implementing meaningless nuisance measures in place of effective security. Maybe requiring no fluids and gels on-board planes will improve airline service again, I don't think trans-continental travel without drinking is sustainable, but if everyone goes the route of the brits and bans carry-ons then there will be an implosion…

ship slip by Navy

The Navy did some slight unscheduled aircraft carrier moves in recent weeks... The USS Stennis left harbour early to join the USS Eisenhower in the Persian Gulf/Arabian Sea. Shortly after, the USS Reagan scooted out, to cover for the USS Kitty Hawk in the western Pacific. The Kitty Hawk was going in for maintenance, she is old, but she had major maintenance last year, and is due to be decommissioned a year from now? Hm. Be unlike the US Navy to disguise ship movements by faking maintenance, eh? Now, the following appears in the Navy Times "...Military observers have said that stepped-up…

iPod iChing - Heated up about HST

Friday, and it is still freezing. Much has happened since last friday, so we humbly approach the mighty iPod and implore it respectfully to guide us... What, oh mighty iPod, is now going to happen with the Hubble Space Telescope? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh. The Covering: Atomic - Blondie The Crossing: Run through the jungle - Creedence Clearwater Revival The Crown: Aginst Th' Law - Billy Bragg & Wilco The Root: Maria - Tonight - Three Tenors The Past: Here Comes Santa Clause The Future: Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits The Questioner: Hrogning eru að Koma - Bubbi The House:…

iPod iChing - most Nobel

Traveling friday, and we ask a timely question: Oh Mighty Omniscient One - who will the Academy give the nod to next week for that most noble of all science prized? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh. The Covering: The Modern Things - Björk The Crossing: Waiting in Vain - Bob Marley and the Wailers The Crown: Gods' Comic - Elvis Costello The Root: California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys The Past: Colpito qui m'avete - Pavarotti The Future: J'ai Plus Fin - Henry Dés The Questioner: Shadow Play - Joy Division The House: Chinese Dance - Tchaikovsky The Inside: Clubland - Elvis Costello The…

Uses of Nobel Causes: the case for Obama

"...to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses..." I am in total awe of the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Storting. What I really want to know, is who took the phone call at the White House this morning? Also, just how long does it take them to get a press release out on whitehouse.gov? "For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the…

What Happens In The Zone?

Have you ever been in the Zone? Where you are totally Focused and just cranking it out? I want to know what is going on in the Zone. No, I don't mean Poisson noise while doing trivial kinematics with bouncy spheroids in bounded rectangular arenas! I mean The Zone. You find it when tackling very hard theoretical problems. Sometimes. When Focused on a deeply complex mathematics problem; or, thinking about very deep problems in physics; or, probably most commonly nowadays, when hacking a particularly elegant piece of code. Getting there can be hard, it requires the right problem, the right…

the space race is over

"My son and I stand beneath the great night sky And gaze up in wonder I tell him the tale of Apollo And he says "Why did they ever go?" It may look like some empty gesture To go all that way just to come back But don't offer me a place out in cyberspace Cos where in the hell's that at?" B.B. I had to look something up on nasa.gov earlier today, and was met with the grainy footage of an astronaut descending the ladder to the lunar surface, exactly 40 years ago today as I start typing this, thanks to the "flash" script that grabbed my browser as I entered the site. I hadn't forgotten, just not…

Hubble Progress

Good progress on the first four days of Hubble Servicing The Atlantis servicing mission to Hubble has really highlighted some uses of social media: the NASA twitter channel has provided near live and accurate updates, providing key points and pointers as things happen - first actual interesting use of twitter I have seen; facebook has also provided interesting information, mainly celebratory wall scribbles from instrument team members. So, four spacewalks are done, just in case you missed it all: The old WF/PC2 camera has been removed and replaced with the brand new WFC3 all purpose camera,…

two cultures

The Female Science Professor turns over the rocks and brings the real clash of cultures into the bright light of reason... are you blinkered and missing the big picture, or a jack-of-all-trades (but master of none) I know what I am... Seriously. The question of whether to focus narrowly on a single topic, possibly becoming The Expert in it; or, to dabble in a range of sub-topics, possibly related, is a major divisor in many academic fields. Narrow focus definitely enhances short to medium term productivity and can enhance tenure prospects, since a typical question posed is whether the…

Extreme Solar Systems V: the sacrifices we make

Did I mention that I have been here a week and not got to the beach yet... One of the penalties of being an organiser. Of course I slept that one free afternoon, but that was after trying to find the Olympic Airways office for 3 hours - they shut it, apparently people kept bothering them or something - did I mention it has been rather hot here? Then there are these mystery people who keep sending me lengthy snippets of text they claim to be "thesis chapters" or something. Strange behaviour. The Macs are nice, but the screen contrast is not good enough to read 20-40 pages of text in the…

A golden experience at the Klondike Gold rush National Park

On a quiet corner in Seattle's Pioneer Square, in the former Cadillac Hotel, sits the Klondike Gold Rush national park. Inside the park, are photographs and exhibits to help visitors learn about the Klondike gold rush of 1987 and the role Seattle played in outfitting the stampeders. Figure 1. One ton of gold. I've heard stories about the gold rush for many years and even visited the museum in Fairbanks. Still, there were new things to learn and today's current events give perspective to the happenings of 1897. Before visiting the park, I didn't know much anything about the panic of 1893…