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ddobbs | August 26, 2008 What's the world coming to? This irresistible news nugget comes from Al Tompkins at Poynter Online:
Beer Kegs Attract Thieves
USA Today said:
Across the country, crooks are snatching stainless steel kegs in alleyways behind bars and breweries or not returning them after keggers to sell for scrap metal.
The trend comes as the stainless scrap price has more than doubled in the last five years, making an empty 18-pound keg worth more than $13, according to price data for steel scrap sold in Chicago.
Hawaii actually passed legislation making beer-keg theft a crime. They may not have needed…
kevin z | August 26, 2008Finally the decider has made a decision I can agree with and get behind 100%! Angelo has the details of the recent media storm (or see all his posts related to the monument).
Here is Angelo in an local TV station interview. Doesn't he just look like a good poster boy for marine conservation? Keep up the good work Angelo!
cortex | August 26, 2008Once upon a time, back when the Human Genome Project threatened to unravel the mystery of human nature - every aspect of individuality would be reduced to a SNIP - the Nature/Nurture debate seemed like the most hotly contested question in science. Are personality traits inherited or learned? To what extent can we rebel against our nature? How free are we?
Those questions now seem rather obsolete. They were rooted, after all, in a false dichotomy. Here is how I summarized this new understanding in my book:
What makes us human, and what makes each of us our own human, is not simply the genes…
mspringer | August 26, 2008We all know what the formula for kinetic energy is. Take the mass, multiply by the velocity squared, divide by two. In 1905, Einstein raised his hand and said that we're not quite right. In fact the actual expression for kinetic energy is
where c is the speed of light and
That doesn't look much like our old formula:
Not a c in sight. Obviously this is going to make a big difference where v is close to c. When that happens, gamma gets huge. Arbitrarily huge - that's one of the things that makes it impossible to accelerate to the speed of light. You'd have to add infinite kinetic…
mixingmemory | August 25, 2008Back to real blogging soon, but before then, I wanted to post this. You probably saw a bit of this during NBC's Olympics coverage, but the whole thing has to be seen. It's one of the coolest things ever, though me being a huge Marvin Gaye fan might have something to do with me thinking that:
kevin z | August 25, 2008Graphic from The New York Times Company.
The New York Times has a well-written article about the new Alvin replacement. There is also a 15 minute Science Times podcast and several photos of the 7 foot wide, 3 inch thick titanium sphere being molded (must see) as well as the above graphic proposing a hybrid option to use the new sphere inside the old Alvin body during the interim period. Here is an excerpt:
" The United States used to have several submersibles -- tiny submarines that dive extraordinarily deep. Alvin is the only one left, and after more than four decades of probing the sea's…
mspringer | August 25, 2008This is one of those times when being a non-anonymous blogger is a little inconvenient. Nonetheless, I think I can make things a little vague and change a few names and I'll be ok.
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I'm taking two classes. I thought nothing of it when I signed up for them; they're the natural next classes I'm supposed to take. One of these classes is taught by a professor who has a reputation of being... well, we'll just say teaching is not his natural gift. But so what? I've had difficult classes with non-ideal professors before.
On the other hand, over the summer I'…
kevin z | August 24, 2008I think I may have put this up but just in case I haven't, well it make me laugh hysterically once again so maybe it will have the same on affect on you:
"Most Giant Squid remains have been found in the stomachs of Sperm Whales. This has led some of the stupider Marine Biologists to theorize that the belly of the Sperm Whale is in fact the natural habitat of the Giant Squid. Finally, today, we have proof that this isn't so.
This morning a Giant Squid swam up to a luxury cruise ship and yelled out "I'm over here"."
Read here to find out what happens next!
apalazzo | August 24, 2008I've been really busy of late. Over the summer I have been mentoring two students, Gloria who sadly left us for Danesh Moazed's lab (a great choice if you ask me) and Lesley who will be leaving next week to work in a lab at Duke. I have also been busy with the RNA Data Club - last week we had our first meeting outside of Harvard Med School, at the Whitehead Institute (thanks to Christina Mayr and other members of the Bartel lab). Next Month we'll be have over speakers from Pam Silver's group and our first Yalie, Navtej Toor from the Pyle Lab. Next week, Jenni and I are moving to a new…
grrlscientist | August 23, 2008
Well, today has been horrible. I ate some baby carrots yesterday while I was out birding and ended up with food poisoning. Oh, joy! So in addition to the pinched nerve in my right arm, I was vomiting most of the night, and my allergies decided to make an appearance, too. Since I couldn't keep anything down, I couldn't take pain relievers (even though they work poorly anyway) and antihistamines, so I was miserable in the extreme. And because I have neither medical insurance nor friends in NYC, I had the distinct displeasure of suffering without any relief in sight. Alone. I don't recommend…
rallain | August 23, 2008As you may or may not have noticed, I have been using RapidWeaver for my blogging posts. (if you don't know what that is, it doesn't matter) Anyway, I think my stuff was getting a little too big for that software. It was a great place to start, but it is time to move to something else (WordPress). My plan is to keep http://www.dotphys.net as it is so that if you linked to something there, it will still be linked. Also, I will use dotphys.net to post longer tutorial style things. I will likely move some of my favorite posts over to this, but that will take some time (but it will give me…
mspringer | August 23, 2008Don't think I've forgotten about the falling electron question from a while back. Short version: an accelerating charge radiates. So if you let an electron fall in a gravitational field, it should radiate. But a person (or detector) falling along beside it does not perceive the electron as accelerating and so the electron shouldn't radiate in their frame. How to reconcile the perspectives?
I didn't know. Still don't. I got back to the university and asked a few grad student friends of mine. One had an interesting argument involving vacuum polarizability that the electron will radiate…
petnoyer | August 22, 2008
100 m deep on Flower Garden Banks. Photo credit FGBNMS/NURC.
Like many marine protected areas around the world, most of the seafloor in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) is deeper than the depth limit for recreational and scientific diving (50 m). We call this the "twilight zone", a poorly known depth zone considered too deep for divers, and too shallow for manned submersibles. Some marine biologists call this a new frontier. So, four years ago, I asked myself...why not make a dissertation out of it?
Join the HRI Biodiversity and Conservation Laboratory as we embark…
nisbetmc | August 22, 2008That's the plan here in the nation's capital. From today's Washington Post:
Beginning in October, 3,000 students at 14 middle schools will be eligible to earn up to 50 points per month and be paid $2 per point for attending class regularly and on time, turning in homework, displaying manners and earning high marks. A maximum of $2.7 million has been set aside for the program, and the money students earn will be deposited every two weeks into bank accounts the system plans to open for them....
In justifying the program, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said the city has spent an inordinate amount on…
grrlscientist | August 22, 2008Here's a few blog carnivals to enjoy;
I and the Bird, issue 82. This blog carnival focuses on wild birds and birdwatching.
Finance Fiesta, 12 edition. This blog carnival focuses on (what else?) finance!
Carnival of Improving Life, issue 22. This carnival tries to coach people on how to improve the quality of their lives.
gregladen | August 22, 2008Chris Abani tells stories of people: People standing up to soldiers. People being compassionate. People being human and reclaiming their humanity. It's "ubuntu," he says: the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me.
...
Imprisoned three times by the Nigerian government, Chris Abani turned his experience into poems that Harold Pinter called "the most naked, harrowing expression of prison life and political torture
...
cmcclain | August 22, 2008
Have you wanted to meet me in person? Probably not! I really can't blame you. What about the doofuses who run Zooillogix? Yeah, neither do I.
Ahh, but do you want to drink Manhatten's, G&T's, and Martini's at trendy bar in San Francisco with like-minded scientific groupies. Well then...
It's long overdue. Time for a Zooillogix writers, friends, and lowly readers party. On Friday [September] 26th, we will be having our get together at Tonic, in San Francisco, starting at 9:00PM. We think it will be fun to see what weirdos (that's you!) come out of the woodwork. At worst, Ben and I…