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The Social Event of the Season...

...if you're a first-grader in Niskayuna, anyway. We've got 10-15 elementary school kids who are supposed to descend upon our house a bit before lunchtime. Morituri te salutamus... SteelyKid's birthday party invitation. Kidding aside, it's worth it, because SteelyKid is awesome, and she's super excited to have a whole mob of her friends over. I just hope the rain holds off, because I don't know where we'll put everybody if it doesn't... (The photo is SteelyKid after taekwondo practice a month or so ago. She was demonstrating one of the forms, I think Taegeuk Il Jang, and I shot some…

Graduation 2013

The other big event of the weekend was Commencement at Union. I didn't make it in time for the academic procession and all that, but I did hear John Lewis's speech, which was great. More importantly, though, I was there to see our students graduate, and congratulate them in person. As I told my thesis student, I'm not always the best about praise and positive reinforcement-- I tend to react to progress in the lab with "That's great. Now, the next thing to do is.." But this year's class was a good bunch of students, and it's been a pleasure to work with them over the last four years. So,…

How Many of These Describe You?

I am currently working my way through the book The Evolution Controversy in America, written by historian George Webb and published in 1994. I got a kick out of the following quote. It will help to know that the Reverend Ben M. Bogard was the pastor of a church in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 1920's. He was not too fond of evolution. To assist in the initiative drive, Bogard organized the American Antievolution Association. This group solicited membership from all individuals except, “Negroes and persons of African descent, Atheists, Infidels, Agnostics, such persons as hold the theory…

Stolen Question: Who's Coming to Dinner?

I'm running way behind this morning for a variety of reasons, so I'm going to swipe another easy question and throw it back to the audience. this one's from Eric Lund, who asked: If you could attend a dinner with any major political figure in the world, who would it be, and why? The answer that makes this an easy question is "Barack Obama," who is currently the most major of world political figures, and comes off as almost too good to be true on tv. So I'd like to have dinner with him (after playing hoops for a while to work up an appetite), just to see if he's really that good. But that's…

Uranium in Drinking Water?

A former student asks about water contamination: My mother went and had our water tested and discovered that we have high uranium and radon levels. Radon is not a big deal, its a gas, and as I have read you would need to take a shower for somewhere around 4 hours to suffer damage from it. The Uranium is a different story. They are no government set minimums set for Uranium, what is an appropriate amount of radiation for a year? Also wouldn't Uranium pass through our bodies before it decayed? Also how would I calculate how much Uranium would be dangerous, in a how many parts per water? I…

This is no prehistoric fish

I was sent this story of Russian workers in Chelyabinsk discovering a 5-foot long monster prehistoric fish that attacked them and that they had to kill with their equipment. Does this look like a horrible monster to you? Does it even look like a fish? I could tell at a glance that neither was the case. I got a quick confirmation from our expert invertebrate taxonomist down the hall, Tracey Anderson, and I can assure you that it is a branchiopod crustacean, a poor abused tadpole shrimp. Even the photography tells you that this was a little guy, with a length measured in, at best, inches not…

Links for 2010-10-16

Scale of Universe - Interactive Scale of the Universe Tool A spiffy interactive guide to the scale of things. (tags: science astronomy physics biology measurement computing internet) slacktivist: Hold on to the good "Test everything. Hold on to the good. That's from the Apostle Paul, actually. It's a bona fide biblical commandment. Both parts of it. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Note the difference between the first part and the second. "Test everything" is unconditional. What should we test? Everything. But the second part is conditional. We're not told to hold on to everything…

Nobel Prize Betting Pool

It's that time of year again-- the Swedes will be handing out money to famous scientists, with the announcements of who's getting what starting one week from today. Thus, the traditional Uncertain Principles Nobel Prize Picking Contest: Leave a comment on this post predicting the winner(s) of one of this year's Nobel Prizes. Anyone who correctly picks both the field and the laureate will win a guest-post spot on this blog. The usual terms and conditions apply. If you don't have anything you'd like to guest-post about, you can exchange your guest post for a signed copy of How to Teach Physics…

That holy flail

Guilt-ridden Christian: If I don't obey God, he's going to make me suffer for all eternity. Evil-angelical Christian: I don't make you obey God, I'll be responsible for your eternal suffering. That link will take you to a despicably manipulative video on GodTube — a dramatized letter from Hell in which a young fellow about to be thrown into the Lake of Fire screams at his still living, Christian friend for not doing enough to save him. It is genuinely vile. It is an attempt to turn a positive social value, friendship, into a rationale for browbeating people into abandoning reason and…

Quantum Zeno Effect: The Movie

It's exactly one week to the release date for How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, and to celebrate, I'm setting off on an expedition to the local mall(s) in search of Christmas presents. May God have mercy on my soul... Anyway, I wouldn't want you to be without entertainment while I'm off helping the economy, so here's another little video to mark the one-week anniversary. This one is the dog dialogue from Chapter 5, on the quantum Zeno effect, and while it doesn't have puppets, it does feature some happy dog video, before settling down into still pictures and graphics: We're at the point, now…

Brain food and eye candy for evolutionists

So that's what Carl Buell has been up to…Donald Prothero and Carl have been working on a new book, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), containing descriptions of important transitional fossils, and as you can tell from the title, directly countering some of the silly claims of the creationists. This is going to be one of those books everyone must have. To whet your appetite, Carl sent along one of the many color plates that will be in the book—this is Sinodelphys, a 125 million year old marsupial. You're already drooling, aren't you? You want this book…

Happy 200th Birthday...

...Abraham Lincoln. Yeah, most of ScienceBlogs is celebrating Darwin's birthday, but I don't have anything interesting to say about that. Actually, I don't have anything all that interesting to say about Lincoln, either, but given that he's unquestionably one of the two greatest Presidents (neck and neck with Washington, both ahead of FDR), I wouldn't want his birthday to pass without comment. So take a moment from the celebratory contemplation of finches and tortoises, and give a thought to one of the most important figures of American history. Without Lincoln, the world we live in would be…

Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

I'm off to the 39th meeting of DAMOP, the division of the American Physical Society for people who do the really cool stuff involving whole atoms and lasers. I've queued up a few things so that the site won't go dark, and the hotel web page promises high-speed Internet, so I may even do a bit of on-site blogging. Or I may not. The program looks like it will keep me fairly busy. We'll see how things play out. Whether I blog it or not, the meeting is always a kick, and will be a lovely break from intro E&M. Anyway, you all behave while I'm gone. Walk the dog, water the plants, and don't try…

Toliet Paper Expert

The Detroit Free Press has a brief href="http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006609230319">article on a book, href="http://www.amazon.com/Weird-Michigan-Mark-Moran/dp/1402739079/ref=sr_11_1/102-1767958-2700922?ie=UTF8">Wierd Michigan, by Linda Godfrey.  One choice selection: Bill Jarrett, 81, of Wyoming, a self-described authority on toilet paper who's out to solve a great debate: Should the loose end of a toilet paper roll hang next to the wall or away from it? Check out his Web site, href="http://thegreatamericantoiletpaperdebate.com/">…

Ask a ScienceBlogger about...movies?

We were asked to identify a film that did something positive for science.  I was not able to come up with anything, not being much of a film aficionado.  So I asked one of my contacts for ideas. My contact suggested the film, href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/">Contact, with Jodie Foster, based on a book by href="http://imdb.com/name/nm0755981/" rel="tag">Carl Sagan.   Ms. Foster portrayed a scientist, Dr. Ellie Arroway.  She comes across as a regular scientist, not a token female; she is a scientist who happens to be a woman.  Plus, it deals with the old science vs.…

Answer to the Monday Night Mystery

The magical mystery lump from last night? As many astute readers noted, they are insects in the enigmatic order Strepsiptera.  They live as parasites in the bodies of other insects. Considering the host species (Isodontia mexicana, a sphecid wasp), the streps are probably in the genus Paraxenos.  Here are a couple more shots: Assuming my math is correct, here's your point breakdown: Ted McRae: 20 macromite: 20 Joshua King: 20 Gordon Snelling: 10 Scot Waring: 10 Invictacidal: 10 Chris: 10 tuckerlancaster: 5 I gave ten points for identifying the mystery as a Strepsiptera, five for picking…

Sticky feet!

A video from Cambridge University highlights an infectiously enthusiastic Chris Clemente as he figures out how ants stick to smooth surfaces: Wow. Two things strike me about the video. First, they simplified the science for a lay audience without fundamentally changing it. That's something of a rarity, as any scientist who has seen their work covered in the media can attest. Second, they did this while retaining a sense of humor and the strong sense of humanity in the scientific process. Most scientists I know have a similarly intense fascination with their subjects- that's a rich vein for…

Survivor: Invasive Ants

from an interview with Survivor contestant Kelly Sharbaugh: When your name showed up, you looked flabbergasted, shocked, dumbfounded. All of the above. I had no idea that Russell had the idol. When [host Jeff Probst] said my name, I was like. âWhat just happened? What did I do?â I was so emotional because I was so unprepared. I didnât even wear my favorite boots to tribal because the thought that I could go never crossed my mind. Did you ever get them back? No, fire ants nested in them so I left them in Samoa and after the tsunami Iâm pretty sure they got washed away. Good for Kelly, I say,…

Answers...

...to the quiz. 1. Myrmica fracticornis undescribed species 2. Tetramorium "sp. E." (formerly, T. caespitum) 3. Lasius neoniger 4. Tapinoma sessile 5. Myrmecina americana 6. Pheidole pilifera Most of these were straightforward, but the Myrmica and the Lasius required as much luck as skill to pick correctly given what was visible in the photographs.  The Lasius is indeed covered with the fine hairs that distinguish L. neoniger from L. alienus, but these are nearly impossible to see against the white backdrop. Identifying Myrmica to species requires examining the shape of the base of the…

Here, read these instead

Not much posting this week.  I've been busy getting genetic data from a new batch of specimens for the Beetle Tree of Life project, a process that's always slower than I expect. Fortunately it turns out that the internet has sites other than mine, and some of those even have interesting things to read and pretty pictures to look at.  Here's what I recommend: Christopher Taylor discusses the follicle mites that live in your skin. Ajay Narendra has added some new Meranoplus photos to his ant gallery. Aydin Ãrstan writes that the Nautilus is still evolving. Mike Kaspari asks about books that…

Otherworldly Ants (part 1)

If you've been paying attention to cinematography or photography the last few years, you'll undoubtedly have noticed the popularity of a particular grainy, desaturated, slightly surrealistic style. This look was popularized in films like 300 and Saving Private Ryan, and has become commonplace in glamour photography and advertisements for everything from perfume to shoes. Inexplicably, this high-fashion style has yet to penetrate the ever trendy world of Ant Photography. So last night I conducted some ground-breaking photoshop experimentation and created the above image. I'm pleased with…

Sunday meeting with myself: hey, I got stuff done!

I just had my 2nd "Sunday meeting with myself." I looked back at my list from last week, and was thrilled to be able to cross almost everything off. It helped to map tasks onto my available schedule, although I completely underestimated how much time I needed for class prep this week. I'll get better on that (both in decreasing the time, and more accurately estimating), I think. It felt very satisfying to cross off all those things, and see a full but completed list. Yay for me. Priorities this week: Revisions on a paper due Tuesday Page proofs on a paper due Wednesday Reading over a…

Why would there still be lead in kids' products?

EPA agrees to cut lead in kids' products The lawsuit also followed the death of 4-year-old Jarnell Brown of Minneapolis, who died last year from acute lead poisoning by swallowing part of a heart-shaped charm bracelet distributed by Reebok International Ltd. The child's death was ruled accidental, but Reebok recalled 300,000 of the silver-colored, Chinese-made bracelets found to be 90 percent lead that the company had given away with its shoes. In December, the commission began taking steps to ban, rather than recall as it has been doing, children's jewelry containing more than 0.06 percent…

Climate change dropped from The Weather Channel

For the most past few months I've been making brief posts at The Weather Channel's Forecast Earth website, as part of a team of bloggers concerned with climate change and our relationship to the planet in general. Looks like I won't be doing that for much longer, given the news that NBC, which bought TWC earlier this year, just fired the entire Forecast Earth team and killed the show. It was the only weekly program on TV devoted to the climate. And right in the middle of NBC's Green Week. Oh well. I've got a contract that sees my TWC relationship through the end of the year, but I'm not…

Haven't they learned how bad science and bogus tradition is a tool of oppression?

Oh, no. This is the first I hear of the Black Atheists of Atlanta, and what do I discover: they're pushing the same bigoted, homophobic nonsense that I'd expect to hear from a white Republican teabagger. It's a choice, it's unnatural, science has something called the "law of reproduction" that means homosexuality is unscientific, it is justified by tradition to exclude homosexuals. They do have one difference: they claim homosexuality is a wicked Greco-Roman nastiness that afflicts Western civilization, but isn't part of good African culture. Oh, and gay people in modern Africa are a product…

CERN Physicist Arrested

A physicist at CERN has been arrested for suspicions of ties to Al Qaeda. Don't worry I already checked www.hasthelhcdestoryedtheearth.com and www.hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com and both assured me that, so far, Al Qaeda has not managed to generate black holes that would consume the planet. But what a great opportunity to muse along with a New York Times article.. "His work did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism," said the statement from the center, whose formal name is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Like, what…

Picking on the Quantum Physicists

From this Sunday's New York Times in an article entitled Wall Street, R.I.P.: In search of ever-higher returns -- and larger yachts, faster cars and pricier art collections for their top executives -- Wall Street firms bulked up their trading desks and hired pointy-headed quantum physicists to develop foolproof programs. Quantum physicists? Come on media get it right. I'm pretty sure those were string theorists who ruined America ;) Personally I think we should use the association of Ph.D. physicists as the cause of the Wall Street mess to lobby for higher science funding. "Sure you could…

The Looming Danger

The physics blogosphere is abuzz about the start up of the large hadron collider. There is a hole in Texas which is very jealous. And of course, everyone is happy that the Earth was not destroyed or a bubble universe wasn't created. But if I remember my science fiction correctly, I don't believe that one can conclude from our continued existence that the LHC isn't making black holes. Indeed if the plot is followed, which is the prophecy equivalent of the derivation being sound, then we will discover that the LHC has produced a trillion mini black holes at the center of the Earth. And of…

AP Computer Science AB Cut

The very first AP class I took in high school was the Computer Science AB test. Today, I learn from the Washington Post, that the Computer Science AB test is on the chopping block (along with Italian, Latin literature, and French literature.) The AP Computer Science AB test is a superset of the AP Computer Science A test, yet I cannot help but thinking that this is a sad day for computer science education. Among the topics which are (or were) in the AB test but not in the A test are (or were) Two-dimensional arrays Linked lists (singly, doubly, circular) Stacks Queues Trees Heaps Priority…

Scirate.com Trackbacks

Some of you know (and use) the website I created a year ago, Scirate.com, a place where arXiv papers can be voted for digg style and comments can be left on the papers. After a while of not tinkering much with the website I'm beginning to add more features that I've been thinking about for a while now. The first feature is just a small one: the ability for the website to send trackbacks to the arXiv when someone comments on a paper. After some false starts I think I've got this feature up and running, and indeed the first trackback now appears for arXiv:0802.3351. Now, of course, the…

Ski Lift Conversations

The man on the lift chair at Stephen's Pass asks me my occupation. Professor, I tell him, at the University of Washington. Oh, he offers, My daughter is a fourth generation Husky. I was in the class of 1972. Or, well I would have been if I'd graduated, but I knew what I wanted to do didn't need a degree. If I'd wanted to work for IBM or Honeywell or something, then I guess it would matter. Seattle, he continues scratching some snow from his mustache, used to be such a great city. But now, the traffic is crazy. My wife and I went on a trip and couldn't find a city more messed up than…

Why Can't They All be Sunports?

Speaking of airports, why can't there be more airports like Albuquerque's Sunport: free wireless and even nice places to plug in and lay out your laptop: Actually this brings up a point I've often pondered while sitting in an airport refusing to pay the $9.99 to connect to the Internet. Seattle is quite the software city (Microsoft, Amazon, etc.) I would expect that a large number of employees from these software companies and their customers pass through the Seattle airport. And yet, when I go to the airport, there is no free wireless connection. :( You would think that it would be to…

NIH Sponsored Discussion of Inherit the Wind at AFI Theater

At the AFI Silver Theater on July 29 watch Spencer Tracy argue in defense of evolution. For readers in the DC area, on July 29 at 7pm, the NIH Office of Science Education and the American Film Institute are teaming up to sponsor a screening of Inherit the Wind as part of their summer film series "Science in the Cinema." Following the film, I have been invited to make a few remarks on the evolution debate as it plays out in contemporary culture and the enduring themes from the classic movie. The event and film series is designed to facilitate active audience participation and debate, so I…

Dead Air: The Reason McCain Will Debate

The TV networks are still a very powerful constituency and it's doubtful McCain will be a no-show unless the political advantages are absolutely clear. Even Fox News is going to be pissed about this one. From the LA Times: The prospect of postponing Friday's debate rankled network executives, who have invested substantial resources in the infrastructure needed to carry the event live. Finding another block of TV time would be difficult. The coming month is crowded with fall television premiers, National Football League games and Major League Baseball playoffs. "Every network in America has…

Have a happy Zombie Weekend

Y'all remember what many of our neightors are commemorating this weekend: the first Zombie Uprising of 33AD. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. It's funny how this amazing awesome story didn't make it into any other historical accounts. Somebody ought to turn it into a novel — you'll have both the evangelical…

California Still Within Reach for Obama

Collectively, the polls show a double digit lead for Clinton over Obama in California. Yet a recent Gallup survey goes beyond the standard numbers and offers estimates based on a high versus low turnout and more importantly, based on the certainty of respondents as to their vote preference. The results show that there is still time for Obama to make up the difference on Clinton among undecideds. From the Gallup survey: Clinton leads Barack Obama by 12 points to 18 points, depending on turnout assumptions. John Edwards languishes much further behind. About a fifth to a quarter of Democratic…

Hello Londoners: Science Uncovered at London's Natural History Museum tonight.

Just a quick note for you Brits out there (and specifically Londoners I guess). Tonight (Sept 24th), the Natural History Museum is hosting a "Science Uncovered" evening, whereby scientists and staff from various departments will be on hand. As well, there will be a place where cocktails can be purchased, which will probably make all the sciencegeek talk all the more lively than usual. Plus, if you have some biodiversity or fossil flavoured artifact you want looking at, this is also a good time to pop by and show the item off to a panel of experts (they will be manning a sort of "Antique (…

Some numbers of interest - bail outs, foreign aid, saving wall street, saving the world

700,000,000,000 - approximate number of US dollars proposed in the bail out bill (link). 0.7 - percentage of GDP agreed upon in 1970 to be set aside for foreign aid. Often sited as an appropriate funding goal to help meet the UN's Millenium Development Goals. (link) 0.16: actual GDP percentage of aid given by the US in 2007. (link) 7.5: approximate number of years of possible US aid at the full 0.7% benchmark if the one time $700 billion bail out was used for this purpose. (link) 2015: the end of which will be roughly seven and a half years from now, and also the target year for the…

Dave Ng is a scientist, not a political scientist, and doesn't actually know too much about the candidates, but decides to review them anyway (Third: Elizabeth May)

ELIZABETH MAY: Ooh oh - I know this one: Something to do with the colour green. That's right. Wasn't she in Anne of Green Gables? "Oh Elizabeth May, I do believe that your frock is on backwards, which is not the impression of civility one wants to make in Cape Breton." (or something like that). This is important, because I can't remember if she was one of the nice ones in the show, or the girl who was basically a real bitch. That would make a big difference in whether I'd support her or not. Anyway, I'm a big fan of historical dramas which is great because at least someone will talk…

Likely and unlikely things that Sir Isaac Newton stood on during his lifetime (aka the return of the SCQ)

The Science Creative Quarterly is back in action today after a few months of only publishing students' works from our symposia program, as well as a few months where essentially the site was not showing off any new material. More or less to say that we haven't had our normal variety of pieces for about four months. So this is just to say hello again, and to note that today's piece is a little list humour by me (called "LIKELY AND UNLIKELY THINGS THAT SIR ISAAC NEWTON STOOD ON DURING HIS LIFETIME" and reprinted below). Likely: Grass. A stage of some sort. Guard. Tippy toes. Unlikely Astroturf…

"Rice"

A poem by Mary Oliver (1992). Please make of it what you will. And please, for World's Fair regulars, connect it to prior posts as you will: Rice [1992] It grew in the black mud. It grew under the tiger's orange paws. Its stems thinner than candles, and as straight. Its leaves like feathers of egrets, but green. Its grains cresting, wanting to burst. Oh, blood of the tiger. I don't want you just to sit down at the table. I don't want you just to eat, and be content. I want you to walk out into the fields where the water is shining, and the rice has risen. I want you to stand there, far from…

When Readers Comment (1/22/08)

kevin had this to say on my post about cosmologists speculating that floating brains could appear in empty space: A good scientific principle: if you theory yields results that are patently ridiculous... I disagree with the way you wrote this. "patently rediculous" according to what standard? The creationists would say that us evolving from monkeys is "patently rediculous". And I'd say that quantum mechanics is too -- it is an affront to common sense. So drop that first clause: A good scientific principle: if your theory yields results that are in clear contradiction with the observable…

Friday Poem (0314)

A Cow Mourning For Her Calf Oft at some consecrated altar-side,Where fragrant incense burns, a calf lies slain,And from his breast breathes out the warm life-tide:But the lone mother, o’er the grassy landFar ranging, sees his cloven hoof-prints plain,And leaves with roving eyes no spot unscannedFor her lost young, and fills with lowings wildThe shady wood; then tireless turns againTo the bare stall, sore stricken for her child.Naught can the dewy grass, or tender leaf,Or brimming river-bank, once fondly known,Avail to bannish that o’er-mastering grief;Nor by the sight of other calves,…

Beckwith Quits Discovery

Peter Irons has made it known that Frank Beckwith (Baylor) resigned as a fellow of the Discovery Institute in July.The event went without notice from either Beckwith or the DI. Beckwith’s has in the past stated that he "has never been much of fan [of] design arguments, ever. My interest in the debate focuses on the jurisprudential questions involving the First Amendment and what could be permissibly taught in public schools under that amendment." Obviously one can speculate as to Beckwith’s reasons - was it related to his recent conversion to Catholicism, or perhaps to the asinine activities…

Today in Science

Organic life beneath the shoreless waves Was born and nurs'd in ocean's pearly caves; First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass, Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; These, as successive generations bloom, New powers acquire and larger limbs assume; Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing. Births 1838 - Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French scientist 1905 - George H. Hitchings, American scientist, Nobel laureate 1940 - Joseph L. Goldstein, American scientist, Nobel laureate Deaths 1674 - John Graunt, English statistician 1796…

Today in Science

March 2nd 1729 - Death of Francesco Bianchini, Italian philosopher and scientist 1779 - Birth of Joel Roberts Poinsett, American statesman and botanist 1791 - Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris 1830 - Death of Samuel Thomas von Sömmering, German physician 1840 - Death of Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers, German astronomer 1862 - Birth of Boris Borisovich Galitzine, Russian physicist 1962 - Death of Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, Belgian mathematician 1969 - The first test flight of the Concorde is conducted. 1972 - The Pioneer 10…

Discover's 25 Greatest Science Books

From here. The top ten are: 1. and 2. The Voyage of the Beagle (1845) and The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin [tie] 3. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) by Isaac Newton (1687) 4. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei (1632) 5. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus (1543) 6. Physica (Physics) by Aristotle (circa 330 B.C.) 7. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius (1543) 8. Relativity: The…

They're fighting back

A fisherman who speared a protected species of grouper while diving off Florida has been killed after the fish swam into a hole and entangled him in the line attached to the speargun. < A 42-year-old Florida man, who has not been named, was free-diving in 7.6m/25' of water off the lower Florida Keys this weekend when he speared a Goliath grouper, Epinephalus itajara. According to a report from Reuters, Detective Mark Coleman said that police divers had found the speared fish tightly wedged in a hole with the man's body entangled in the spear line: "It looks like the fish wrapped the…

OK, now where was I?

After spending time with my DSL provider yesterday, it looks like my line came back automagically over the night. I'm having it checked out this afternoon nonetheless, but I'm hoping I can stay connected until then at least. While I Was gone, plenty happened here. Two quick posts worth highlighting: Ed outlines a legendary poker game (and highlights the genius that is Phil Ivey) while David over at The World's Fair has been choosing articles from The Science Creative Quarterly for each of us SB-ers. Check them out here, here and here and introduce yourself to the wonderful world of SCQ.…

Mandatory Website of the Day: What's That Bug?

Ever find a bug, hideously ugly and strange, that you wanted to identify? Is it poisonous? Should you kill it, watch it, keep it as a pet? Well, next time, snap a picture of that bug and send it to Whats That Bug! People from all over the world send in pictures of crazy creepy crawlies to the entomologists who made the website their hobby. So, you can see what people have sent in, not to mention a lot of beautiful and interesting pictures of insects. The responses are friendly, informative, and filled with tips to help you learn to live with and appreciate bugs. Or perhaps, you want to jump…