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cortex | August 17, 2008I really don't understand how Olympic athletes deal with the grief of losing by 1/100th of a second. That's an incomprehensible amount of time and yet it's the defining difference in the biggest event of their lives. I can only assume that, if I lost by a fraction of a second, I would have recurring nightmares for many years afterwards, dreaming of all the ways I could have reached the wall just a little bit faster.
In the post-race interviews, however, I'm always struck by the equanimity of the athletes. Dara Torres, who lost by 1/100th of a second in the 50 meter freestyle, just shrugged…
mspringer | August 16, 2008Greg Laden responds to the recent change in policy allowing teachers with concealed carry permits to carry in one particular public high school in north Texas should they so choose. If only the teachers had guns.... (Texans = Morons). Here's CNN's original story.
The school is a 30-minute drive from the nearest police station, and the board decided that it was better to have somebody armed than waiting so long for the police to respond. Greg does not think this is a good idea, to put it mildly. Neither do most of his commenters. I have another perspective.
Every public college in Utah…
grrlscientist | August 16, 2008Here's a brand-spanking-new blog carnival for you to read;
Carnival of the Future, the inaugural issue. This blog carnival dedicated to predictions by bloggers about the future. The focus is on politics, art and atheism, although I slipped one in about wildlife.
mspringer | August 16, 2008A quick Olympic question: How would a native of China pronounce the j in Beijing? All the commentators pronounce it like the J in the French je suis, but I've heard that in China the pronunciation would be closer to the J in jingle. I have no idea if this is true, and I'm not at the university now so I can't just ask one of my Chinese friends. Anyone know?
Now how about some short items from around the web, which I particularly enjoyed.
Here's Swans on Tea and our own Chad Orzel on the (lack of) menace of radioactive bananas and granite countertops.
Here's Cocktail Party Physics on the age…
kevin z | August 15, 2008Bora has the first edition of Praxis. I think this carnival will quickly become one of the most important monthly collection of blog posts, covering topics that is about science:
"If it is "Life in Academia", then pretty much everything on science blogs is eligible and the effect is diluted. If we narrow it down to one topic, e.g., Open Access publishing, then there will not be sufficient posts and sufficient interest to keep the carnival alive. We'll have to define a happy middle. We want people to find each other here - folks that write about the business of science, about publishing and…
kevin z | August 15, 2008
I was amazed while watching this video (hat tip to Sea Notes), hinging on his every word. I thought Chris Jordan was an interesting and passionate speaker. Together with his imagery and explanation, he wove a fascinating visual analysis of American culture. There are many analogies to what we have been talking about lately on Deep Sea News and on the environmental/science blogosphere as a whole. There are many symptoms to the problem and it is all too easy to get hung up on the details of each symptom. Craig's post on the hard hitting table of species declines really drove home a message.…
gregladen | August 15, 2008The much-anticipated Bigfoot press conference Friday afternoon in Palo Alto, Calif., revealed little more than two men -- introduced by a self-styled Sasquatch seeker -- claiming to possess the 7-foot "body" of a "bipedal creature" on ice in a secret location, awaiting an autopsy. *
Bigfoot finders Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer and bigfoot expert Tom Biscardi conducted this press conference. They indicated that they would not reveal any more information at this time, but would soon assemble a group of scientists.
I just realized my cell phone has been off for much of the afternoon, which…
grrlscientist | August 15, 2008
UN Millennium Hotel lobby flowers, NYC.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [larger view].
Now that I am recovering from a very painful pinched nerve in my neck (FINALLY!), I will tell you about the get-together that my colleagues and I enjoyed, thanks to Seed Media Group.
My colleagues who traveled to NYC stayed at the beautiful Millennium Hotel, where a lot of the visiting dignitaries stay when attending meetings at the United Nations, across the street. Unfortunately, I never saw the rooms, but I did take the opportunity to photograph the lobby, which was quite impressive to my eye;
UN…
gregladen | August 15, 2008
The 2nd Giants' Shoulders
Oekologie # 18
Carnivals of the Vanities
Carnival of Space #67: Planets, Rockets, Books and Olympic Torches
The Carnival of Cinema: Episode 87 - BVP: Bloggers Vs. Predator
Friday Ark #204
grrlscientist | August 15, 2008Okay, as promised, here is my weekly Open Thread where I celebrate you, my readers, by chatting about anything that's on your minds. For example, is there a current event that you wish would receive more news coverage? Is there a particular feature you'd like this blog to have? Have you read a book or watched a movie you want to recommend to us? Do you have a question that you wish to ask? Did you recently do something that, as a kid, you swore you'd never do? Did you just meet the love of your life? Did you go jogging at midnight with your underwear on your head? Are you a lurker who has…
cortex | August 15, 2008Over at the Times website, Harold McGee takes a question on salt and baking:
Q: Is there any truth to the old cook's adage that adding a pinch of salt brings out the sweetness in sugars? If so, can you please explain the science behind it?
Harold McGee replies: I'm not sure that salt makes sugar taste sweeter, but it fills out the flavor of foods, sweets included. It's an important component of taste in our foods, so if it's missing in a given dish, the dish will taste less complete or balanced. Salt also increase the volatility of some aromatic substances in food, and it enhances our…
mspringer | August 15, 2008What's the temperature inside a microwave oven?
I've seen some thermodynamics textbooks start off with a preliminary definition of temperature that amounts to "The temperature is what a thermometer says it is", since temperature is really a concept that fundamentally is derived from energy and entropy. So the books like to discuss those at length before talking about the real definition of temperature despite the fact that temperature is what people are accustomed to seeing.
So let's put a thermometer in the microwave. If it's a mercury thermometer it will probably rocket up to off-scale…
sb admin | August 15, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
A couple of days ago we discussed the murky questions surrounding the death of accused anthrax attacker Dr. Bruce Ivins. At the center of stipulating the cause and manner of death were the procedures for filling out the state of Maryland's death certificate by the medical examiner. Determining and recording the cause of death is important for many other things besides the circumstances surrounding the unexplained deaths of anthrax attackers. In the US you can't legally dispose of a body without a properly recorded death certificate and its a document…
grrlscientist | August 15, 2008Several more blog carnivals have been published for you to read;
Carnival of the Vanities, 14 August 2008 edition. This blog carnival links to the best writing in the blogosphere, regardless of topic.
Oekologie, issue 18. This blog carnival focuses on ecological blog writing.
The Boneyard, issue 22. Even though I've forgotten about this blog carnival, they haven't forgotten about me.
On Giants' Shoulders, the second issue of this new blog carnival that focuses on the formative years of scientific research, upon which many of our current scientific paradigms have been built.
Carnival Against…
sb admin | August 15, 2008MAJeff here, getting all gay and stuff. It's been a pretty big year for LGBT folks in the U.S. A couple weeks ago, the state in which I live repealed a law enacted during the height of anti-miscegination activity, and is now allowing same-sex couples from anywhere to marry here. Prior to that, California joined us in offering full equality to same-sex couples. That victory may be short-lived, though. There is an effort underway to take away the right to marry. Folks here can help out by contributing to Equality California who are leading the NO ON 8 campaign.
I had to chuckle the other…
cmcclain | August 14, 2008Instead of charging extra for pillows why don't they offer this as a service?
kevin z | August 14, 2008I came across these pictures from Fogonazos. Be sure to go over there for a great article about Mola Mola, the giant ocean sunfish, with about 2 dozen more pictures!
Now that's a whole lotta Mola! Read Fogonazos to see why you might not want to eat its flesh though.
kevin z | August 14, 2008NY Times reports
"In a study to be published Friday in the journal Science, researchers say the number of marine "dead zones" around the world has doubled about every 10 years since the 1960s. At the same time, the zones along many coastlines have been growing in size and intensity. About 400 coastal areas now have periodically or permanently oxygen-starved bottom waters. Combined, they constitute an area larger than the state of Oregon.
"What's happened in the last 40, 50 years is that human activity has made the water quality conditions worse," Robert J. Diaz, the study's lead author and a…
cmcclain | August 14, 2008"Not Having the Faintest Idea of What They Are Doing Award" Goes To...
GreenPeace!
I really I have no idea what they are thinking by placing 150 2-3 ton granite blocks on the seafloor. Mark at blogfish and Miriam at Oyster's Garter spell it all out so I don't have to. I guess I'm back to not liking GreenPeace again.
For an idea of how much 450 tons is:
33 Big Bens
2.5 blue whales
2.4 International Space Stations
God I love SensibleUnits.com