Search Content

Displaying results 67501 - 67550 of 87947

Mystery Bird: Clapper Rail, Rallus longirostris

tags: Clapper Rail, Rallus longirostris, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Clapper Rail, Rallus longirostris, photographed at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 26 May 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. How to distinguish Clapper Rails from other, similar species: King Rail is slightly larger than Clapper Rail, prefers freshwater marshes while…

Using Statistics to Create The Ultimate TEDTalk

tags: Using Statistics to Create The Ultimate TEDTalk, statistics, public speaking, Sebastian Wernicke, TEDTalks, streaming video In a brilliantly tongue-in-cheek analysis, Sebastian Wernicke turns the tools of statistical analysis on TEDTalks, to come up with a metric for creating "the optimum TEDTalk" based on user ratings. How do you rate it? "Jaw-dropping"? "Unconvincing"? Or just plain "Funny"? After making a splash in the field of bioinformatics, Sebastian Wernicke moved on to the corporate sphere where he motivates and manages multidimensional projects. You can get your copy of…

Ask A Biologist ReLaunch!

tags: education, public outreach, Ask A Biologist, www, announcement Dave Hone emailed to ask me to announce to you that his popular educational website, Ask a Biologist, has finally found several sponsors and has been relaunched! This site has been published continuously for 3 years and during that time, Dave's team of biologists have answered nearly 2500 questions and more importantly has served over 500,000 readers. But because this is done on a voluntary basis, Dave and his team have had trouble advertising and getting the site upgraded. Thanks to several grants, the new site is up and…

Sheril and Unscientific America at Quail Ridge Books

From Quail Ridge Books Quail Ridge Books & Music hosts author Sheril Kirshenbaum for a discussion of her book UNSCIENTIFIC AMERICA: HOW SCIENTIFIC ILLITERACY THREATENS OUR FUTURE Thursday, July 23 at 7:30 pm Climate change, the energy crisis, nuclear proliferation -- many of the most urgent problems of the twenty-first century require science-based solution. And yet Americans are paying less and less attention to scientists. Journalist and author Chris Mooney (The Republican War on Science) and Duke scientist Sheril Kirshenbaum explain how religious ideologues, a weak education system,…

Another vastly important event

Baseball. Baseball and god. What could be more important? An now a couple of baseball players are in a snit. The Cliff Notes version: After hitting a homer off Wilson in the 12th inning of the Giants' 7-5 13-inning victory, Blake was seen on television making the same well known gesture that Wilson makes after every save in tribute to both his Christian faith and his late father.  By the time Wilson returned to the clubhouse after securing the win in the 13th, some friends had sent images of Blake to his cell phone, sending him into an agitated state that his teammates instantly had to calm…

International Rock-Flipping Day

Yikes! How did I miss it this year?! It's TODAY! The International Rock-Flipping Day: International Rock-Flipping Day, September 2, 2007 It's International Rock-Flipping Day! If you haven't flipped yet, please review the guidelines. Be sure to replace all flipped rocks, and do so as carefully as possible: if rocks aren't returned to their exact footprint, some of the creatures underneath them may be crushed. We also advise wearing gloves as protection against poisonous snakes, spiders, and scorpions, if that's a concern in your area. If you don't have a blog (and even if you do), you can…

ClockQuotes

Wilt thou, then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked, more manifest than the body which surrounds thee? Wilt thou never enjoy an affectionate and contented disposition? Wilt thou never be full and without a want of any kind, longing for nothing more, nor desiring anything, either animate or inanimate, for the enjoyment of pleasures? Nor yet desiring time wherein thou shalt have longer enjoyment, or place, or pleasant climate, or society of men with whom thou mayest live in harmony? But wilt thou be satisfied with thy present condition, and pleased with all that is about thee,…

Survey on science blogging

Tamara Fletcher is currently studying science communication at the University of Queensland. As part of her course she is conducting a research project under the supervision of Dr Joan Leach from the School of English, Media Studies and Art History and she needs your help: The form of the project is a short survey and analysis of scientists' perceptions of scientific blogging. As your participation in science blogging suggests you are aware, it is important to explore as blogging has the potential to act as a medium for two-way dialogue between scientists and the public, without…

Publishing and Communicating Science

The W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology at North Carolina State University (which includes students, faculty and staff from Departments of Biology (formerly Zoology, my own Department), Genetics and Entomology) is a group I called home for a large chunk of my own graduate experience. Every year, on top of monthly discussion meetings for members, they organize other interesting events, including this one, coming up in two weeks: The W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology at North Carolina State University announces its 2008 Professional Development Workshop: Publishing and Communicating…

Analysis of Gene Regulatory Networks in the Mammalian Circadian Rhythm

In today's PLoS Computation Biology: Circadian rhythm is universally present from unicellular organisms to complex organisms and plays an important role in physiological processes such as the sleep-wake cycle in mammals. The mammalian circadian rhythm presents an excellent system for studying gene regulatory networks as a large number of genes are undergoing circadian oscillation in their expression levels. By integrating all available microarray experiments on circadian rhythm in different tissues and species in mammals, we identified a set of common circadian genes lying in the center of…

On Peer-Review

Michael Nielsen posted today the first part of his look at peer-review: Three myths about scientific peer review: What's the future of scientific peer review? The way science is communicated is currently changing rapidly, leading to speculation that the peer review system itself might change. For example, the wildly successful physics preprint arXiv is only very lightly moderated, which has led many people to wonder if the peer review process might perhaps die out, or otherwise change beyond recognition. I'm currently finishing up a post on the future of peer review, which I'll post in the…

Both Male-Male Competition and Mate Choice are parts of Sexual Selection

Beaked Whales' Tusks Evolved Through Sexual Selection Process: For years, scientists have wondered why only males of the rarely seen family of beaked whales have "tusks," since they are squid-eaters and in many of the species, these elaborately modified teeth seem to actually interfere with feeding. A newly published study help explain the evolutionary origin of these distinctive "tusks" in beaked whales, a rather mysterious family of whales that live in the deep oceans. Although the tusks are known to be used in competition between males, another purpose seems to be to attract female beaked…

Interview with Judge Jones

Those interested in the struggles against infusion of Intelligent Design Creationism into public schools, have followed, with great interest, the highly publicized trial in Dover, PA a couple of years ago. At the end of it, Judge Jones not just made the right decision, but also wrote one of the best and most scathing indictments of IDC in our legal history. So, you may be interested in the latest interview with Judge Jones, just published in PLoS Genetics: Taken to School: An Interview with the Honorable Judge John E. Jones, III: "My call to the Judge's chambers in request for an interview…

Clerical collar fails to instill goodness

But I thought religion helped people live a moral life! We're going to have to really struggle to find an ethical rationale for this pastor's monstrous behavior. A Baltimore pastor who worked with developmentally disabled people was charged Friday with befriending a blind and disabled man in his care, then paying a hit man $50,000 in church funds for an execution so he could collect life insurance money. Police say Kevin Jerome Pushia, 32, who worked for four months as an operations manager for the Arc of Baltimore before abruptly quitting in January, confessed to plotting to kill Lemuel…

Still gives me goosebumps!

I grew up listening to her songs. Back in the winter of 1984/1985 she decided to break her long leave away from the concert scene and did an European tour. Nervous about the come-back, how she'll perform, how she'll be received, she decided to start the tour at an unimportant place, somewhere where she can fix the last glitches, warm up her voice, etc. - she started the tour in Belgrade. The hall in Sava Centar houses about 4000 people in the audience. It was packed every night. She had to extend the visit. She was supposed to make us cry. Instead, we made her cry. Every song she sang,…

Science Foo Camp - Sunday

I will be on the airplane for North Carolina in a couple of hours, and will wrote more about scifoo once I get back (and get some sleep - yes, occasionally, I do sleep). But, for now, the last couple of pictures and some links for you to see what others are writing. Sunday morning I had lunch with Ed Boyden... ...and Jacqueline Floyd: If you attended the camp and want to keep networking with other attendees, please join the Science Foo Camp Facebook group. Check what other scifoo bloggers are writing at the official aggregator. Use the Technorati tag/search for scifoo to see what others…

Timing of duration of protein activity - a molecular clock or timer?

This article, of course, got my attention: Clocking In And Out Of Gene Expression Using steroid receptor coactivator-3 (SRC-3), they demonstrated that activation requires addition of a phosphate molecule to the protein at one spot and addition of an ubiquitin molecule at another point. Each time the message of the gene is transcribed into a protein, another ubiquitin molecule is chained on. Five ubiquitins in the chain and the protein is automatically destroyed. "It's built-in self destruction," said O'Malley. "It prevents you from activating a potent factor in the cells that just keeps the…

How would you like to work at PLoS Medicine?

If you are a doctor, or a post doctoral researcher in a relevant area, and you want to spend 6 months to a year working at a medical journal, this is a great opportunity for you - PLoS Medicine is looking for an intern: PLoS Medicine, the flagship medical journal of the Public Library of Science, is pleased to announce that it is accepting applications for its first editorial intern. We are looking for someone with a keen interest in medical publishing and open access who wants to join the PLoS Medicine editorial team. You'll need to be a medical graduate with a minimum of 3-4 years post…

Suada - Blue Orchestra

Plavi orkestar (Blue Orchestra) is one of the most popular bands from the territory of former Yugoslavia. Founded in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hezegovina in 1983. Plavi Orkestar / Blue Orchestra is described by music encyclopedias as one of the "cultural phenomenons of the 1980's and 1990s" (5 million copies sold). The band has remained popular to date, with 8 albums and more then 2500 concerts worldwide. The band was formed by Sasa Losic aka Losa who was the lead singer and songwriter of the group. Suada Ti si meni sve, ti mi dajes sve i kad tebe nema tesko mi je (2x) Ako te ikad budu pitali…

Last paper by Steve Irwin!

Just published about an hour ago (if it was in hardcopy, it would still be hot off the presses). And it is a wonderful paper! Australian crocs can and will travel much longer distances than was previously thought and their homing instinct is strong and navigational capacity excellent, even in a case where a large obstacle (Cape York Peninsula) needed to be navigated around: Satellite Tracking Reveals Long Distance Coastal Travel and Homing by Translocated Estuarine Crocodiles, Crocodylus porosus: Crocodiles are widely distributed and can usually be found in remote areas, however very little…

Richard Dawkins: banned in Oklahoma?

He's on his way to Oklahoma (no, that's not what rouses my envy), and an Oklahoma legislator has proposed a resolution to condemn him. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 1ST SESSION OF THE 52ND OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE: THAT the Oklahoma House of Representative strongly opposes the invitation to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma to Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published statements on the theory of evolution and opinion about those who do not believe in the theory are contrary and offensive to the views and opinions of most…

Back to North Carolina Blogworld

Earlier today I had coffee with Anton Zuiker so we could catch up on everything, e.g., my new job, his new job, scifoo, etc. So, the news to watch out for regarding local blogging events: On August 31st, we will start the new blogging year with a party, of course, so come and eat and blog about it. Then, on September 23-25th, the big three-day FoodBlogging series of yummy events (also see the write-up in the Independent) so come and eat and blog about it. The blogger meet-ups will, next year, move away from its exlusive Carrboro location and start alternating between Chapel Hill/Carrboro and…

Texas confuses me

I was premature in mentioning the good news from the Texas hearings: the situation is much messier than I thought. The 'strengths and weaknesses' amendment lost on points, but the creationists responded with a flurry of new amendments to various pieces of the science standards — most of them look like very nit-picky changes in wording that have deep meaning to creationists, I assume. Science wasn't murdered by the Texas board, but is only being wounded and made to suffer the torture of a thousand cuts. The Texas Freedom Network has released a summary statement. The word "weaknesses" no…

Arkansas might let atheists run for office, at last

It's an ugly little open secret that Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas have constitutions that explicitly forbid atheists from holding state office. These laws are archaic and unenforceable in principle — they were all ruled unconstitutional in 1961 — but of course they're still in effect across all 50 states in practice, since public opinion makes it almost impossible for an atheist to get elected to high office. Now, though, a representative in Arkansas has submitted a bill to amend the Arkansas constitution and remove the prohibition of…

MDs, Scientists Call For Elsevier Group Boycott

Physicians from around the world urged Elsevier Group PLC., the publisher of The Lancet medical journal and other scientific and medical journals, to cut its links to weapons sales, calling on the editors to find another publisher if Reed Elsevier refused to stop hosting arms fairs. "The Lancet is one of the most respected international medical journals and should not be linked to an industry involved in weapons designed to cause physical harm and death," wrote Dr. Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, and Dr. Michael Pelly, the association's international adviser.…

Robop to Scare Away Fat Pigeons

Liverpool, which will be celebrated as the European Capital of Culture in 2008, is apparently disgusted with the flocks of oversized pigeons that live throughout the city and has opted to use a robotic peregrine falcon to scare them away. Peregrine falcons are the natural predator of pigeons. The robotic peregrine falcon, known as a "robop", can move, flick its wings and squawk to scare away pigeons. Ten robotoc peregrines are being placed throughout the city center to scare the pigeons away and the public is being admonished not to feed the birds. "We need to get the message across that…

A Snake in The Hand ...

California mountain kingsnake, Lampropeltis zonata. June 2006, Southeast Skamania County, WA. This snake is from a small, disjunct population living on the Washington side of the Columbia River gorge near the river. The nearest conspecifics live in Southwest Oregon. This individual was caught, photographed, and released. Image: Conrad Frost, Fisheries Biologist, USGS. 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…

Peromyscus

Adult Peromyscus eremicus, one of the animals that Matt studies. The photo was taken near Palm Desert, California in 2006. Aside from being cute, these are interesting because they are one of the few monogamous mammals. Image: Matthew D. MacManes 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…

Malaria's Secrets Discovered

Malaria is one of the top three deadliest diseases in the developing world. It is resurging worldwide because of resistance to drugs and the lack of an effective vaccine. But now, Northwestern University researchers have discovered how malaria parasites persuade red blood cells to engulf them -- and how to block the invading parasites. The malaria marauders hack into the red cell's signaling system and steal the molecular equivalent of its password to spring open the door to the cell. But researchers have found that a common blood pressure medication -- propranolol -- jams the signal to…

Eagle

Adult Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, the only eagle species that is unique to North America. Image: Dharma Bums. The photographers, who live near my other beloved home, Seattle, wrote; I'm sure you heard we had an amazing snowfall last week. We've been taking walks along Chimacum Creek and checking out all the wildlife. It is beautiful in the winter with the snow and ice. We've been seeing eagles a lot lately. We know their favorite trees, so can pretty much find one most days. I particularly like this snag. It's right behind some houses that hug the cliffs above Port Townsend Bay…

Religious Wingnuts Attempt to Rewrite History

Darwin's Evolution of Man. . Richard Leakey, the famous paleoanthropologist, is battling with powerful evangelical church leaders in Kenya. These fundamentalist wingnuts are pressuring Kenya's national museum to hide its world-famous collection of hominid fossils that detail the evolution of humans' early ancestors. Leakey stated that the wingnuts' statements are "the most outrageous comments I have ever heard." "The National Museums of Kenya should be extremely strong in presenting a very forceful case for the evolutionary theory of the origins of mankind,"continued Leakey. "The…

A New and Useful Tax Break: College Tuition

Because I like to read about First Amendment Law and wish to write about this issue on my blog with a little more authority, I have fervently wished to take a class on First Amendment Law at Columbia University, where one of the foremost scholars of First Amendment Law teaches. But, as you might have guessed, this class is very expensive -- and who knows if they would even allow a scientist to take it (which I think they ought to do). However, if the Democrats have their way, it looks as though my wish -- and much more importantly, the dreams of thousands of kids nation-wide to simply…

Tax Disposable Items

Recycling has not been especially successful, even in Seattle, which seems to be the city that is most friendly to recycling in the country from my experience (although I might be wrong about this). So, in an effort to encourage recycling throughout the nation, what would you say about imposing extra taxes on disposable items, such as cameras, razors, and nonrechargable batteries? Below the fold is a story about how well this very program has been working in Europe, but I think they missed some very important items in their campaign; cell phones, ipods and computers, many of which are simply…

The Girls Who Went Away

Anna Quindlen, an extraordinary writer whom I met through her book, One True Thing, has a sad and eloquent editorial in Newsweek speculating on the likely social implications due to the loss of Sandra Day O'Connor from the Supreme Court. Quindlen writes; O'Connor, the first female Supreme Court Justice, was never known as a feminist firebrand. But she had what I think of as transformative experience, something that can't help but suffuse your life and your mind. She carried within her the memory of what it was like to be reflexively devalued despite being smart and capable. I think it's…

Tangled Bank #46 is Available!

It's here, everyone; the newest edition of Tangled Bank (TB) has been published at my sibling blog, Adventures in Ethics and Science, and I am proud to say that one of my pieces was included in this issue of TB. For those of you who are new to the blogosphere and especially to science blog writing, this is the first edition of TB that has been published on our new ScienceBlogs site. Tangled Bank is a blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing that has been published recently on a blog. As such, these written pieces can include essays, opinion pieces, stories,…

Visualizing educational data

A couple of days ago, I had a very pleasant conversation with Brian Bedrick whose Charlotte NC based Interactive Data Partners turns massive amounts of data into visualizations, particularly in education. They take all sorts of metrics, e.g., on educational outcomes, and make them instantly obvious through visualizations. Those kinds of things are important to administrators, but there are other potential uses. For example, instead of giving a student a single grade, the work can be divided into several categories and visualization can immediately show in which areas does a student show…

Central Park Raccoon Nose

tags: raccoon, Procyon lotor, Image of the Day "Ah, that's better. Zzzzzzzzzzzz." A raccoon, Procyon lotor, sleeps in the hollow of a tree in Central Park. Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [wallpaper size]. More about this image below the fold. The photographer writes: Hint: Enlarging the second image will enhance its effect and in truth may be necessary for the viewer "to get it," so to speak. So enlarge away. Confession: The images were not created on the same day but are from the same location. A single mom and her lone cub, the latter born rather late in the season, are the…

Birdbooker Report 21

tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, natural history books, ecology books "One cannot have too many good bird books" --Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927). Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, which lists ecology, environment, natural history and bird books that are (or will soon be) available for purchase. New and Recent Titles: Shubin, Neil. Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. 2008. Pantheon. Hardbound: 229 pages. Price: $24.00 U.S. [Amazon: $16.32]. SUMMARY: Details the discovery of…

Birds in the News 61 (v2n12)

Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis. Image: Bob Miller/Southwest Birders. People Hurting Birds Scottish scientists say global warming's first major British wildlife victim is the ring ouzel, Turdus torquatus (pictured) -- a close relative of the blackbird, Turdus merula. Researchers from the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, said the bird, which lives in cool mountain and moor areas, suffered a nearly 60 percent reduction in its population during the past decade, and this decline is linked to rising temperatures. Scientists said they fear higher temperatures in…

The Road Not Taken

Autumn Path through the Woods (1876) by Camille Pissarro. Click image for larger view in its own window. Not only do I love this poem (below the fold) and this painting, but I think they were made for each other. The Road not Taken By Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them…

Ken Ham commissions a scientific study

So right away, you know not to trust it. No details are given, we are simply told that "a major study he commissioned by a respected researcher unveils for the first time in a scientific fashion the startling reasons behind statistics that show two-thirds of young people in evangelical churches will leave when they move into their 20s". That's actually a nice result from my perspective…so it's too bad that I can't believe what he claims. Also, since it is Ken Ham, he knows exactly what the problem is and what we need to do to keep more kids in the faith. The book explores a number of reasons…

Delayed Brain Development Associated with Greater Intelligence

A new study will be published tomorrow revealing that, on average, human brains mature later in those people who have the greatest intelligence. This research was done using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to visualize the regions of children's brains as they matured (example of an MRI pictured, right. Source linked from image). The scientists' data show that the outer portion of the brain, the cortex -- or the thinking part of the brain -- thickens and then thins during early childhood years, when the children were approximately 6 years old. However, they found that kids with greater…

Spermatogenocide

Horrors! The Martian Landers, Spirit and Opportunity, are filming on the planet Mars RIGHT NOW with their electron microscope-cameras, but not sharing this important information with us. However, my army of spies found a classroom biology documentary from the future that you will enjoy (follow the link or view the embedded video above by clicking on the little arrow). Why? Because it is all about sex. SEX SEXX SEXXX. (There, that should increase my traffic, ha!) I must warn you, dear readers, there is some clay monster nudity, along with simulated stop-motion sex in this film. This film is…

How the Hidden Brain Controls Our Lives - new PRI The World Science Forum

Listen to the podcast, post comments, ask questions - the new forum is now live and will go on for the next week: How the Hidden Brain Controls Our Lives We like to think of ourselves as conscious, rational beings. But human behavior is largely driven by unconscious attitudes. These attitudes reside in the deep recesses of the brain, and we ignore them at our own peril. So says Washington Post journalist Shankar Vedantam. Vedantam is the author of a new book, The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives. Vedantam explores how the…

Aves 3D

Aves 3D is a 'three dimensional database of avian skeletal morphology' and it is awesome! This is an NSF-funded project led by Leon Claessens, Scott Edwards and Abby Drake. What they are doing is making surface scans of various bones of different bird species and placing the 3D scans on the website for everyone to see and use. With simple use of the mouse or arrow buttons, one can move, zoom and rotate each image any way one wants. The collection is growing steadily and already contains some very interesting bones from a number of species, both extinct and extant. You can see examples of…

Is Bush Really Science's Worst Enemy?

When you see Bush's bone-headed responses to cutting-edge scientific research, especially global warming and embryonic stem cell reasearch, it's easy to think that he is the worst thing to happen to science in the history of this nation. But other 19th and 20th century presidents have ignored science to further their own political and religious agendas, so is Bush really the worst enemy of scientific research? If you are the science advisor to the president, you would deny this allegation; According to John Marburger, Bush's science advisor, allegations that Bush is harder on science than…

Reverse Psychology to Get Kids to Read Books

What is a good way to get kids to read particular books? Ban those particular books and then place them on public display. Of course, if you are genuinely banning those books for being controversial, there are problems associated with this; "But I don't think we should tease kids into reading a book by trying to say, 'there might be something juicy or controversial in this book. Therefore, it would be a good one for you to sneak home and read."' [Cited story] Speaking as a former kid myself, I can say that banning particular books -- titles that you want kids to read -- is an especially…

Red Uniforms

Uh-oh! Things are not looking good for Team USA in World Cup action: first, they aren't wearing red uniforms. Second, the American team captain, Claudio Reyna, was carted away on a stretcher after losing the ball to a player on Ghana's team -- who immediately scored a goal. I am not sure if Reyna broke a leg or if he was suicidal, but either way, he's under observation. [A few minutes later] Okay, my peeps, Team USA is still not looking good. They are playing as if the entire team is suffering from a hangover. Considering this is a "do or die" game, you'd think Team USA would be hothothot.…

CU Virginis

There is a most curious paper out on CU Virginis CU Virginis is a magnetic chemically peculiar star about 250 light years away. By peculiar, we mean it has significant overabundance of some elements (factors of ten or more), and the surface composition is visibly inhomogenous and variable. It is rotating rapidly, period of just over half-a-day, and the rotation axis is approximately orthogonal to our line of sight, while the magnetic field is dipolar, off-center, and approximately orthogonal to the rotation axis. There is strong radio emission from the stellar magnetosphere, and as it…

unintended consequences pt 2

The humble 35mm film is rapidly vanishing, vanquished by ever improving digital cameras. But, in the process we're losing an invaluable resource: the humble film canister! These used to flood the world by the hundreds of millions each year, taken for granted, ever present. Now, they are a vanishing species. Selling for $0.05 EACH in large lots on eBay (I kid you not!) These things are useful! For everything from storing beads, to making alka seltzer rockets! K-12 outreach for the sciences could collapse. Hundreds of thousands of kids might become delinquent with boredom. There are…