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Sadly, this is not too far from the truth for my basic science colleagues...

It's times like these that I'm glad I'm a clinician-scientist: Or maybe not. The reason is that the same conversation in a clinician-scientist's review would be asking why he's only produced X number of RVUs last year and suggesting pointedly that he needs to double his RVU output. Oh, and, by the way, he needs to get grants, publish clinical trials, and teach residents and medical students, too, all while taking more call. And don't forget that it's the very rare clinician-scientist who can bring in more money to a department in indirect costs from federal grants than he or she could bring…

Freshman meet-and-greet...tonight!

In case any of our biology students read this wacky site, I'll remind you all that there is a meeting for all first-year biology majors this evening at 7:00, at my house (300 College Ave, west of the science building and across the street from LaFave House; we're the place with the lawn that looks like bulldozers and zombies had a war on it). The biology faculty will be there with sweet tasty desserts, and you can ask us anything about classes, careers, science. It's all going to be informal and fun. If you want, you can meet with other biology students at 6:45 in the bioclub room (1040…

The Downfall of HD-DVD

Only someone who's a bit of a tech geek who hasn't yet decided which format to purchase for HD video and is a World War II and Holocaust history buff could find this video as hilarious as I do. (Not to mention someone who, due to a confluence of craziness in professional and personal life, didn't have any time yesterday to do more substantive posts, as the output of brief and/or lighter weight fare today demonstrates.) I do have to admit that I struggled with whether the creators of this video must have had a visit from a certain undead Führer, who had taken a chomp out of their brains, but…

Lott's abrupt departure from the AEI

Ever since Lott started at the American Enterprise Institute there have been people there who have wanted to get rid of him. I was forwarded a copy of Lott's final email to AEI staff. It suggests that he was abruptly forced to leave: From: John Lott Sent: Sun 4/2/2006 4:00 AM To: Everyone Subject: Goodbye Dear Everyone: Friday was my last day at AEI. It has been great to get to know many of you over the past four-and-a-half years. If I can ever be of help or you just want to say hello, I can be reached at: johnrlott@aol.com. I wish you all every success. Thanks. Best, John No…

Essex and McKitrick lose at bingo

Eli Rabett has scored Essex and McKitrick's briefing for Taken By Storm at Global Warming Skeptic Bingo. Alas, they don't win. I reckon their book will do better. For example, they get another box at bingo with this passage (from page 134 of their book): There are enemies of T-Rex who think that the satellite average is the true one and the surgface average is so much crap. The Knights of the White Boxes respond that the satellite averages are very silly and no one should pay any attention to them. The Defenders of the Satellites went before the Grand Council of the American…

Bob Carter's cherry picking

Last year, global warming denialist Bob Carter wrote a Tech Central Station article where he claimed that satellite measurements show little or no long-term trend of temperature change. I emailed him to point that the satellites actually showed significant warming. He replied that this didn't count because: this trend is most likely produced by the single exceptionally warm 1998 El Nino year. This year, he has written a paper where he asserts (my emphasis): Four alternative predictions of near-future climate, based on empirical models drawn from the palaeoclimatological record, are…

Aussie astroturf, oi oi oi

A new organization Climatechangeissues.com has sprung into existence in Australia to support solutions to the unresolved issues of climate change which are based on sound science, use market mechanisms and trade liberalisation as a key driver of economic growth and poverty reduction. They are funded by organizations, individuals, companies and foundations who support a balanced approach to public policy debate and who encourage reliance on markets to improve public welfare, raise standards of living and achieve sustainable development. Their website contains the usual collection of…

One reason I don't do general surgery anymore

Two words: Necrotizing pancreatitis. There's nothing like repeated trips to the operating room to scoop out bits of dead pancreas, trips sometimes so frequent that we leave the abdomen open to facilitate repeat visits, in patients who are about as sick as any patient you'll ever see. There are few, if any, problems in general surgery more challenging, and saving such patients gives an enormous sense of accomplishment. It's also one area that distinguishes general surgeons from all other specialties. There's no other surgeon or internist who can handle these cases. When the pancreatitis…

Don't forget: The Skeptics' Circle is fast approaching

It's rapidly approaching once again: Our once in a fortnight festival of skepticism, our showcase for reason and critical thinking, our veritable carnival of anti-woo. Yes, the Skeptics' Circle will be appearing once again on Thursday, January 18. This time around, it will be hosted by someone who has what has to be one of the coolest blog names of all time: Frank the Financially Savvy Atheist (although I'm not sure what, if anything, atheism has to do with being financially savvy). So, if you're a skeptical blogger, fire up your keyboard and get an example of your best skeptical blogging…

Gideon's backlash (a.k.a. Darwin's revenge)

Here's a great idea: I was staying in a hotel in New York earlier this year, and I noticed that as well as the usual Gideon's bible, there was also a copy of the Quran. So that got me thinking - why limit the principle to religious books, why not get some science in there too? So, I've decided that from now on, whenever I stay in a hotel room, I'm going to leave behind a copy of ... The Origin of Species... And now ... I'd like to call on everyone who reads this to do the same thing - next time you stay in a hotel, leave behind a copy of this seminal work. After all - what's the cost of one…

Sloppy reporting in the National Geographic on DDT

Nick Matzke finds that Michael Finkel in the National Geographic is guilty of some sloppy reporting: The article, for once, actually sensitively discusses the issue of DDT use, and notes accurately (for once) that environmental groups and governmental agencies were not and are not opposed to intelligent use of DDT for malaria control. However, it still has one scientist repeating the anti-environmentalist propaganda that a (mythical) DDT ban killed tens of millions of children in malarious countries. This extremely serious claim is completely unsupported by any study as far as I know. See DDT…

Michael Shermer on Lott vs Levitt

Michael Shermer's September column in Scientific American is on Lott's lawsuit. He got some comments from both Lott and Levitt: I asked Levitt what he meant by "replicate." He replied: "I used the term in the same way that most scientists do--substantiate results." Substantiate, not duplicate. Did he mean to imply that Lott falsified his results? "No, I did not." In fact, others have accused Lott of falsifying his data, so I asked Lott why he is suing Levitt. "Having some virtually unheard-of people making allegations on the Internet is one thing," Lott declared. "Having claims made in a…

It would appear that I've gotten nerdier with age

With all the nerdy preening and bragging going on due to Janet's nerd-off, I couldn't resist adding my contribution to the festivities. However, a question has nagged at me since I posted about this early this morning. On January 10, 2005, my score on the Nerd Quiz was 92, making me a Supreme Nerd. Today, I had to find out whether that had changed; so I took the test again. My score this time? Check it out, baby: Nerd God, baby! With that score, plus all my other nerd attributes, now there should be no doubt that I can compete with any ScienceBlogger here, even Mark! And if that's not enough…

The Republican War on Science

I just got a review copy of the new and updated paperback edition of fellow ScienceBlogger Chris Mooney's book The Republican War on Science (website). I didn't get around to reading it last time, but I've already started the first chapter, even though I only received the book the other day. Thus, it would be premature of me to try to review it. However, it's worth pointing out that, although my politics lean more conservative than probably all of the ScienceBloggers with whose politics I am familiar save perhaps Razib (certainly my politics are far to the right of Bora, Mike, and PZ--which…

Child mortality declines

The New York Times reports: The number of children dying before their fifth birthdays each year has fallen below nine million for the first time on record, a significant milestone in the global effort to improve children's chances of survival, particularly in the developing world, according to data that Unicef will release on Thursday. The child mortality rate has declined by more than a quarter in the last two decades -- to 65 per 1,000 live births last year from 90 in 1990 -- in large part because of the widening distribution of relatively inexpensive technologies, like measles vaccines and…

Plimer chickens out

After George Monbiot panned Plimer's book for his grotesque scientific errors, Plimer challenged Monbiot to a face-to-face debate. Of course, Plimer would do his usual Gish gallop with such a format, so Monbiot agreed with just one condition: Last week I wrote to Professor Plimer accepting his challenge, on the condition that he accepts mine. I would take part in a face-to-face debate with him as long as he agreed to write precise and specific responses to his critics' points -- in the form of numbered questions that I would send him -- for publication on the Guardian's website. I also…

Pielke train wreck

If you haven't been watching the Roger Pielke Jr train come off the rails and the carriages smashing into each other and exploding, I suggest you look at this post from James Annan: Roger Pielke has been saying some truly bizarre and nonsensical things recently. The pick of the bunch IMO is this post. The underlying question is: Are the models consistent with the observations over the last 8 years? Hey, hypothesis testing. First year stats stuff. So Annan carefully explains how it's done. Marvel at Pielke Jr's response: All he does is draw some graphs and wave his hands around. Does he…

A forum for laundering pseudo-science

Remember EG Beck's dodgy CO2 graph? You really didn't have to know anything at all about the history and practice of measuring CO2 to deduce that something was wrong with Beck's theory that there were wild fluctuations in CO2 concentration that suddenly ended when the most accurate measurements started. But Energy and Environment published his paper. Eli Rabett has links to comments from experts Harro Meijer and Ralph Keeling (the son of Charles Keeling), who explain where Beck went wrong. Meijer concludes: It is shocking that this paper has been able to pass the journal's referee system. "…

Methinks the Hitler Zombie has a new theme song...

Whether they know it or not, Pharyngula and Mixing Memory may have provided our undead Führer with a catchy new theme song. Yes, I know. You might think the Hitler Zombie would be more partial to martial music with a Triumph des Willens sort of feel to it. The problem is, I don't think there is any such music that encompasses what our zombie is about as well as this does. The song is by Jonathan Coulton, and here he is doing a live folk version, complete with zombie audience participation: Pretty catchy, eh? Next, the audience will be heading out to label their political opponents Hitler.…

Jesus doesn't save--at least not this time

Here's a real example of religious insanity: LONDON, Kentucky (AP) - A woman died after being bitten by a snake during a serpent-handling service at church, police said. Linda Long, 48, of London, Ky, died Sunday at University of Kentucky Medical Center, said Brad Mitchell, a detective with the Laurel County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. Long died about four hours after the bite was reported, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. Officials said Long attended East London Holiness Church. Neighbours of the church told the newspaper the church practices serpent handling. Snake handling is based…

Fast approaching: The Skeptics' Circle

Don't forget, everyone, my favorite blog carnival (favorite, of course, because I happen to be the one coordinating it) the Skeptic's Circle is fast approaching and will appear at Left Brain/Right Brain on Thursday, October 26. Naturally, because of Kev's interest in debunking autism quackery, his decrying of the fall in vaccination rates resulting from the bogus MMR/autism scare, and his lampooning of the conspiracy theories popular among the "vaccines cause autism" crowd and the mercury militia. I naturally expect to see a lot of posts about autism and the dubious "therapies" used to treat…

John Mashey seminar live on web

Via Deep Climate, John Mashey's seminar on "The Machinery of Climate Anti-Science" is being streamed live here. It starts two hours from now, 7:30 PDT. The battle of truth versus disinformation is nowhere better demonstrated than in the distortion of climate science. More than 97 percent of practicing climate scientists support the fact that global warming is happening and caused by humans, yet the public often thinks that scientists are seriously divided on this issue. In this special public lecture, Silicon Valley computer scientist and technology expert Dr. John Mashey will expose the…

The war on the Bureau of Meteorology

When Willis Eschenbach was caught lying about temperature trends in Darwin, I pointed out that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology trends agreed with those from the NOAA and asked: I suppose the next argument is that the NOAA and the BOM are conspiring together to falsify the temperature record. And something like that has happened, of course. Joanne Nova writes: A team of skeptical scientists, citizens, and an Australian Senator have lodged a formal request with the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) to have the BOM and CSIRO audited. Now, the likely outcame of this will be similar…

Blue moon at the The Australian

Over at The Australian Cheryl Jones seems to be immune to the group think there, writing a straight news story on the debunking of a paper by by Stewart Franks et al, which purported to prove that global warming had no effect on the drought in the Murray-Darling Basin: In winter, the days are shorter the farther south you go. The Franks team's dataset started with stations in the southern basin, including ones near Canberra and Melbourne, and ended with stations as far north as Moree, near the NSW-Queensland border. By adding data from more northern stations later in the period, the analysis…

Tom Fuller

I recently left a comment on Tom Fuller's blog objecting to Fuller's claim to be on the middle ground. If Fuller is in the middle ground, then so is Inhofe -- they both think that climate scientists are a bunch of frauds. Fuller objected in a completely unrelated comment thread and derailed the discussion. I'm starting a new thread here for discussion with Fuller. Here, in his own words, are Fuller's beliefs about climate scientists: I believe that a generation of climate scientists have tried to make global warming a political football, and have exaggerated or distorted the truth to push…

In denial about Mary

Meanwhile, over in talk.politics.guns some folks are in denial about Mary Rosh. "The confession must be a forgery!" they said, prompting this exchange: Clayton Cramer: I asked Dr. Lott about it the other night, and he confirmed it. He also realizes now that using a pseudonym was probably not very wise. Morton Davis: Clayton, clarify please: Was Mary Rosh really John Lott? gzuckier: In tonight's episode of Star Trek, the evil gungrabbers from planet Liberal Democrat face the coldly brilliant intellect of the merciless Mortbot; at the last second, their captain saves them when he presents…

The Real Estate Downfall

Downfall was a great movie, arguably the greatest movie about Adolf Hitler's final days ever made. However, it contains one scene, one incredibly powerful scene, where aides bring Hitler news that the last defenses had fallen, that the divisions that Hitler thought he had no longer existed, and that the forces that were trying to reach Berlin to fight the Russians had been repulsed. It was at this point that Hitler finally realized that there was nothing left to stop the Soviet juggernaut from taking Berlin. At this point, Hitler finally realizes that the war is lost and that there is no hope…

One reason why I miss my dog...

Three months ago, our dog Echo died a mere three weeks after we discovered a tumor on her flank. That tumor turned out to be hemangiosarcoma and was already widely metastatic. It's hard to believe it's been that long, but amazingly it has. My wife and I still miss her--a lot. Now GruntDoc reminds me why, as he links to the return of an Air Force serviceman after 14 months away from home: Dammit. Where's my Kleenex®? I miss those greetings, particularly when Echo used to talk to me in that bizarre bark/howl that reminded me of a combination of Scooby-Doo and Chewbacca. It was almost as…

Spooky Saturday Fractal (LXIV)

It’s getting to be that time of year again, when I pull the severed heads and oversized rats from the crawlspace... a time to deck the halls with ultraviolet, spider webs and witches brooms. My passion for the night of fright even bleeds into my blogging. For instance, there’s the fractal in my banner. It is the exact same Julia set that is normally there, just with a slightly different set of colors. If I were to change the fractal itself, it might come out looking something like this: But... since I actually posted this fractal as my banner last year, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to come…

Friday Fractal XL

"It is what it is." This phrase has been bothering me lately, though I couldn't quite put my finger on the reason. It was enough that I was reluctant to post this fractal last week. Being an optical illusion, it contradicts the whole idea of "it is what it is". Of course, the more I thought about the phrase, the more I noticed people saying it. (Apparently, it was even voted the #1 cliche of 2004 by USA Today.) The more I heard it from people, the more I started thinking they might be wrong. "It is what it is" seems to deny the complex and dynamic aspects of nature. "Maybe it is something…

Marvin Wolfgang on Kleck's DGU survey

J. Neil Schulman writes: So this data has been peer-reviewed by a top criminologist in this country who was prejudiced in advance against its results, and even HE found the scientific evidence overwhelmingly convincing. This is untrue. Wolfgang writes: "The usual criticisms of survey research, such as that done by Kleck and Gertz, also apply to their research. The problems of small numbers and extrapolating from relatively small samples to the universe are common criticisms of all survey research, including theirs. I did not mention this specifically in my printed comments because I…

How to Give a Bad Science Presentation

We've all been to some *bad* science presentations over the years. Heck, I think I've given a few. No more! This 6 minute video (by 2 UM students) points out some common issues with Powerpointing and how to have your audience salivating for more of your data. From the author: I think there should be more of an acceptance of "walking out of talks" in science. I have been tempted so many times to get up and walk out in the middle of a presentation or even to heckle the presenter with "Did you actually prepare in any way for this talk? I take time out my day/experiments/writing to see this"…

Sunday Morning Funnies

Welcome to a new weekly feature here at Of Two Minds, the Sunday Morning Funny Pages - well more like the Sunday morning single comic. Shelley or I will have an exciting new comic here every Sunday morning that should, at the very least, make you roll your eyes - and maybe even chuckle once or twice. Hey! we're working with science here - the joke is only as funny as the source material. Perhaps one day we'll find something really really funny so you better be here to check! So without further blabbering... here's our first comic: -via Meningioma Mommas- Wasn't funny enough for you?…

Growing pains

In response to a few kind inquiries, several gentle nudges, and an overwhelming quantity of porn-related comment spam, I'm posting again. I'm not one hundred percent sure why I stopped. I think it has to do with my sneaking suspicion that my job may actually be just a job, and that really, not that many people care to hear about it. Feeling this way makes it easy to be lazy about chronicling the growing pains of becoming a real doctor, so lazy I have been. On the plus side, my apartment is really clean, and I've been eating lots of tasty food and learning a lot in my primary area of interest…

Lott's data-mining

ArchPundit has a thoughtful analysis of the latest from Reynolds and Lott. Shorter dsquared: If you use some data to construct a model, then to test it properly you need new data. Lott's approach is a little different. The model that was given greatest prominence in the original Lott and Mustard paper (the results of this model where given in the abstract and whenever Lott summarized his paper) showed that there was a 3.5% decline in the violent crime rate associated with the carry laws. In the second edition of More Guns, Less Crime Lott…

Clips: Attenborough on Theology

"I often get letters, quite frequently, from people who say how they like the programmes a lot, but I never give credit to the almighty power that created nature, to which I reply and say, 'Well, it's funny that the people, when they say that this is evidence of the almighty, always quote beautiful things, they always quote orchids and hummingbirds and butterflies and roses.' But I always have to think too of a little boy sitting on the banks of a river in west Africa who has a worm boring through his eyeball, turning him blind before he's five years old, and I reply and say, 'Well presumably…

Back to Normal

Things at TVG have been slow for the past couple of weeks. I have been DCed from the internets, on vacation in Western PA. We had the pleasure of visiting Ohiopyle State Park and dipping out feet in the freezing Yough on a hot day. A few miles north of Ohiopyle is Wright's Falling Water, and beyond that is Bear Run nature reserve, where we spent a cool, damp afternoon. It's truly a lovely area, beautiful place for camping. One of the campsites sits alongside a sizable stream surrounded by thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurel, shadowed by a stand of hemlock. So, things will be…

The Sympatric Panda Pals

Photo: mindrec We established that the giant and red panda co-inhabit the same habitat, but exploit very specific parts of that main habitat, different microhabitats. Giants stick to the low lands, feeding in sparse forest, while the reds alight the long branches of rhododenrons, stripping leaves from branches. They are said to have a sympatric relationship, meaning that both pandas became separate species (speciation) while existing in the same area. Allopatry is the opposite process; it describes speciation by environmental isolation. When ecologists and evolutionary biologists make…

Lott pretends Ayres and Donohue don't exist

This story in the Zanesville Times Recorder highlights the problems that Lott's behaviour has caused for advocates of concealed carry laws. They are now having to say things like: "Lott's research has little bearing on the state's need for responsible and fair concealed weapons legislation." Meanwhile, Lott said: "But this debate shouldn't be just about me. I suppose it's flattering. But there have been lots of papers published on this issue. All have them have shown a range from small benefits to large benefits." Lott is well aware of Ayres and Donahue,…

Gearing Up Again

Hello everyone, The ScienceBlogs Book Club is back! From October 1 through October 10, we'll be discussing Autism's False Prophets, by Dr. Paul Offit. Dr. Offit will be joined on the blog by a panel of experts, and we're inviting all of you to join in by reading the book at home, and contributing your thoughts, questions, and comments in the 'comments' section of the posts. Our panelists will be reading them and responding. More good news: Columbia University Press is giving away 50 copies of Autism's False Prophets free to ScienceBlogs Book Club readers. To get yours, submit your name here…

Brominated Vegetable Oil (Making orange soda look more like OJ)

When you mix bromine with another molecule that has a carbon-carbon double bond, the bromine can add across the double bond. The bromine atoms are very heavy - about 80 times as heavy as a hydrogen atom, or 7 times as heavy as a carbon atom. Bromination usually gives you a molecule that has higher density than the parent molecule. Vegetable oil - which has a density of about 0.9 grams per milliliter - can be made as dense as water (i.e., 1 gram per milliliter) by adding the right amount of bromine. Brominated vegetable oil can give an emulsion in water that is opaque and visually pleasing…

Cyanuric Acid (The flip side of melamine)

Last year, we were fretting about melamine contamination in foods from China. Again, this week, it's happening - melamine was put into milk by some unscrupulous vendors. The idea here is that melamine is high in nitrogen and cheap. An easy way to get an idea of how much protein is in something is to assay for nitrogen - by cutting milk with water and adding melamine, the unscrupulous can pass off watered down milk as full-strength. It's become enough of a concern that it's hit US shores again and WHO is working on a test kit. There's a very good chance it will involve cyanuric acid, which…

Aminopyralid (You got herbicide in my fertilizer!)

In the news this week: aminopyralid: Aminopyralid is an herbicide that may have made its way into some manure destined for home gardens and may have resulted in inferior produce. Interestingly, they think it's in manure not because of topical contamination, but via animals that ate contaminated silage: It appears that the contamination came from grass treated 12 months ago. Experts say the grass was probably made into silage, then fed to cattle during the winter months. The herbicide remained present in the silage, passed through the animal and into manure that was later sold. Horses fed on…

NanoKid (Yes, this got federal funding)

Friday's entry on safrole inspired a number of comments on what sort of animal it looked like. One person mentioned a chestnut from a few years back: NanoPutians! NanoPutians are molecules that look kind of like people. James M. Tour at Rice has a grant to use the little nanopeople in chemical education programs, which I think is actually a really neat idea. The jokes, however, are too easy to pass up. The above is "NanoKid," which, perversely, is the lone progenitor of a whole army of NanoPutians. The others are generated by microwaving NanoKid with decapitated NanoPutian heads. I have…

Fluoxetine (From Benadryl to Prozac)

Last night I mentioned that diphenhydramine is a somewhat promiscuous molecule, binding to a number of disparate receptors. One of its effects is some inhibition of serotonin reuptake. As you've probably read in countless pop science articles by now, this is one mechanism of action for antidepressants. Take a look at diphenhydramine again: And Fluoxetine/Prozac: Note the similarity in structure to diphenhydramine. Also note the trifluoromethyl group (-CF3). You don't really see organofluorine compounds in Nature (it's so reactive it's been caught up in rocks and ores for ages), but they are…

Geek Manifesto - go help

Mark Henderson of The Times is embarking on (what I think is) a great project - highlighting the contribution that the science savvy can have and are having on public discourse. The intersection of science and politics is a growing interest of mine, though I don't have nearly as much credibility as many others around the blogosphere (but give me a break - I'm still in grad school). Go help him out, he wants to know * What are the best examples of geek activism, what have they achieved and what can we learn from them? * What else can geeks do to hold politicians and civil servants to…

Don't doubt my scienceness!

I promised one more comic before getting back to more serious research, and here it is. Sluggy Freelance is usually a serialized comic, but one instance last week stood out on it’s own: "Don’t doubt my scienceness!"From Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams If you are curious about the story leading up to this scene (ie, why the storyline is titled "Little Bacon Bots" or why they are in an underground lab or who the dude in the helmet is or why they are debating the ultimate food) you could always go back to the beginning of the story. However, that might raise even more questions, like: why is…

Hey, is this thing still on?

Feedburner tells me that there are still more than 50 people waiting patiently for my next post here. Um. Hi? When I shifted from personal/political blogging to science blogging, and particularly when I started writing here at ScienceBlogs, I wanted to be a reliable source. Turns out that it's difficult for me to care about being reliable without dredging up a whole bunch of other issues about wanting to be seen as an AUTHORITAH! - Cartman voice and and all. So, that slowly got to be less fun. Turns out, I miss having a blog that was less about explaining things, and more about discussing…

Geopuzzle: Beach Detectives

Someone stole 500 truckloads of sand from a beach on the north shore of Jamaica. Police are using "forensic tests" on other beaches on the island to identify the thief; I'm guessing this involves a geologist looking at sand in a microscope. This page has better images of magnified sand grains than I was able to find on Flickr, and it's a nice overview of some of the things you can learn about a beach by examining the sand... but I wanted to do my own quiz anyway. Can you match the beaches to the sand? The beaches: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware Hollywood Beach, Florida Oneuli Beach,…

Devonian Fossil Gorge to Become... SIlurian Fossil Gorge?

I don't actually know what underlies the Middle Devonian brachiopods of my childhood, but I might get to find out soon. Iowa City is experiencing its second "500 year" flood in 15 years, and Coralville Lake has overtopped its dam... again. And the river hasn't crested yet. Fortunately, my family is on high ground, and playing host to some friends who've been evacuated from the flood zone. Buildings in Iowa City must have floors that are at least 1 foot (or 1.4 of your Earth football diameters) above a designated "100 year" flood elevation. These elevations are determined by FEMA; climate…