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kevin z | April 22, 2008I want to apologize to Jason, Rick and Karen, as well everyone that expecting to hear me talk today on Earthcast 2008, for missing the program. I am quite embarrassed for missing the interview. I built it up all day with friends and family and was very much looking forward to the conversation with 3 people who I consider good friends as well as colleagues. BUT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHY!
Under the fold...
Yes, those are frikkin elephants in the road! I shit thee not! 10 to be exact, plus like 20 horses (including 2 miniature horses). Needless to say, the circus happened to be in town…
pharyngula | April 22, 2008Here's a generous idea: if you join the NCSE, this blogger will match your donation, up to a total of $500. If you aren't already a member, take this as further incentive.
grrlscientist | April 22, 2008tags: The Sun, Mary Oliver, poetry, National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to post one poem per day, every day this month (If you have a favorite poem that you'd like me to share, feel free to email it to me).
The image was kindly provided by my friend, Dave Rintoul, who snapped that picture when we were visiting the Platte River in Nebraska, watching the migrating sandhill cranes.
Sunset over a slough on the Platte River, Nebraska.
Image: Dave Rintoul, March 2008 [larger view].
Today's poem was one I chose for Earth Day, especially for these ending lines;
or…
cortex | April 22, 2008Crazy stuff, courtesy of John Tierney:
The natural impulse to stop holding your breath (typically within 30 seconds or a minute) is not because of an oxygen shortage but because of the painful buildup of carbon dioxide. Mr. Blaine said he began trying to overcome that urge when he was a child in Brooklyn and at age 11 managed to hold his breath for three and a half minutes.
In his current training, he said, he does exercises every morning in which he breathes for no more than 12 minutes over the course of an hour, and he sleeps in a hypoxic tent in his Manhattan apartment that simulates the…
cortex | April 22, 2008Is this chart surprising?
I was an Arts (English) and Psychology (Neuroscience) major, so I clearly didn't choose the most lucrative fields. (And I contemplated a philosophy minor...) For me, the most surprising aspect of the chart (and it's still not that surprising) was the payoff of practicality. The best paying sciences, like chemistry, computer science and engineering, are also the ones with the most direct applications to the real world. Clearly, the only reason to pursue the path of pure knowledge (aka basic science, comp lit and metaphysics) is for the sake of knowledge. Plus, it's…
angrytoxicologist | April 22, 2008What's wrong with Earth Day?
The name, for one. Earth day. Protecting mother earth. Saving the environment. What's wrong with these? They're all about the earth. No humans mentioned. For a day that's supposed to highlight the damage we are doing and to energize some action, it's woefully off the mark. The degredation of the environment is harmful for people, this is what matters. Doubtless, there are those who care about the environment for the environment's sake. You are entitled to your value but let me tell you that the majority of humanity does not share your outlook. They majority may,…
kevin z | April 22, 2008Happy Earth Day DSN Readers!
Just a reminder that I will be a guest along with Rick MacPherson of CORAL and the wonderful marine conservation blog Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice and Sunsets as well as the beautiful and talented Karen James of The Beagle Project and associated blog on Jason Robertshaw's special Earth Day Cephalopodcast as part of Earthcast 2008.
You can listen in live at the Edtechtalk website (audio stream upper right sidebar) and join the conversation live via a chat room where you can ask us a question. Our conversation will be on the "The other 71%", our oceans! Tune in at…
petnoyer | April 22, 2008Last year, DSN asked readers to remember the deep-sea on Earth Day by celebrating the goblin shark. This year's poster child is the gulper shark, pictured left.
Gulper sharks are a group of 15 species of squaliform sharks in the Family Centrophoridae. They occur globally in tropical to temperate marine waters. Gulper sharks are bathydemersal, living and feeding between 328 ft and 3937 ft (100 -1,200 meters). They are commonly observed along the outer continental shelves and upper slopes, usually on or near the bottom substrate.
Gulper sharks are harvested for food and pharmaceuticals,…
jlynch | April 21, 2008Steve Matheson (a Reformed Christian biologist at Calvin College and occasional commenter here) has this to say about the Darwin/Hitler meme that is popular with the Expelled set:
If you’re a Christian who thinks that the Nazis are a useful polemical tool against evolution, then maybe you should read about some of Hitler’s best-known influences. In my view, if you can read Luther’s words and still think there’s any moral high ground surrounding the Holocaust that can be claimed by Christendom, then you’re crazy. The Holocaust is an unspeakably abhorrent stain on the Church, if you ask me, and…
petnoyer | April 21, 2008Help me, somebody, please. I get the feeling from this press release that Walt Disney Co. made a deal with the Aliens. Earth inhabitants are now... just ...entertainment.
In a bid to cash in on the appetite for so-called green entertainment, Walt Disney Co. launched Disneynature, a new film label that will focus on live-action documentary films starring the Earth and its inhabitants...
petnoyer | April 21, 2008Gaelin Rosewaks was one of a dozen people who changed my ideas about what it means to live an inspired life when I dropped out of the film business after ten years in Hollywood, and enrolled in the summer session at Duke University Marine Lab looking for a way to turn my life around, get back to school, and become involved in things that really mattered.
Now, Gaelin's off to the Bering Sea probably for the third or fourth time, she's loving it, and she's blogging about it at Global Ocean Exploration. She's definitely one of my heroes. Everything seemed fascinating simply by virtue of the fact…
cortex | April 21, 2008Speaking of the senses, it's always fascinating what happens when that sensory spigot is turned off, so that the cortex is suddenly filled with silence. Jad Abumrad, the co-host of Radio Lab (download their new season!), recently spent some time in an anechoic chamber, or a room designed to stifle soundwaves and erase echoes. The brain, it turns out, can't stand the quiet. When confronted with utter silence, it starts to hallucinate:
Deep in the bowels of a nondescript 1950's era government building is Bell Lab's very own anechoic chamber, no longer in use. The nice folks at Bell Labs agreed…
cortex | April 21, 2008In honor of National Poetry Month, which always struck me as a very bizarre month (is poetry less essential in the other eleven months of the year? And why April?), I thought I'd post a selection of some poetry on brainy themes. Here, for instance, is the opening stanza of Franz Wright poem in the latest New Yorker, entitled "The World of the Senses":
What a day: I had some trouble
following the plotline; however,
the special effects were incredible.
I sometimes wonder if people have always had a sense of their senses being special effects, or if the modern age (and by modern I mean…
grrlscientist | April 21, 2008tags: The Blue Bird, Mary Coleridge, poetry, National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to post one poem per day, every day this month (If you have a favorite poem that you'd like me to share, feel free to email it to me).
Male mountain bluebird, Sialia currucoides.
This bird surprised birders in Washington state by visiting Bainbridge Island this past weekend.
Image: Eva Gerdts, April 2008 [larger view].
Today's poem was suggested by a reader who comments here as themadlolscientist. He writes; "That marvelous photo of the BLOOOOOOOObird reminded me of this [poem…
petnoyer | April 20, 2008Leighton Rolley, a systems technician on the "world's most advanced research ship" the RRS James Cook, used a remotely operated vehicle capable to 5000 m depth to plant the Welsh dragon flag in the waters of the Galapagos, in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, according to BBC News. The shipboard team unfurled the biodegradable Welsh flag at 3500m.
The ceremony was not specifically part of the mission, apparently. Cardiff University researchers were on board conducting marine seismic work (using air guns) and collecting rock samples using the ISIS rock drill. The RSS James Cook website hosts…
gregladen | April 20, 2008Not many people know this, but PZ Myers, when he was a little kid, made an appearance on Mr. Science (actually, PZ mentions this often in public lectures as a reason he got into science, but I've never noticed him say anything about this on his blog). This was the first episode ever made, but it was never shown for some reason. This episode was made with an actor who preceded the better known Mr. Science. Apparently the actor in this video made only this one episode, I'm not sure why. Anyway, enjoy!
Hat Tip: PZ Myers
gregladen | April 20, 2008Apparently there are only about 75 known individuals over 110 years of age.
Edna was born on April 20th, 1893 *.
In that year, US Marines invaded Hawaii and overthrew the Hawaiian Queen. Thomas Edison was just finishing off construction of the first movie studio. President of the United States Grover Cleveland underwent secret surgery in this year. Ulysses S. Grant was born in this year. The geologist, not the general/president!
The only important event listed on Wikipieda of this specific day in 1893 was ... wait for it.
The Birth of Edna Parker!!!!!
cortex | April 20, 2008I've got a cockatiel with an inverted beak - it's a pretty funny looking underbite, but doesn't interfere with his eating - and I've often wondered if animals ever get self-conscious about their appearance. Does my cockatiel have any clue that he looks a little ridiculous? Does the chinese crested hairless dog realize that it's a hairless dog? This probably strikes you as a silly question - vanity, after all, can seem like such a human preoccupation - but the logic of sexual selection would imply that creatures, especially males, are actually exquisitely aware of how they look. That's why my…
grrlscientist | April 20, 2008tags: I Sing of Olaf Glad and Big, E. E. Cummings, poetry, National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to post one poem per day, every day this month (If you have a favorite poem that you'd like me to share, feel free to email it to me).
Today's poem was suggested by a friend and long-time reader.
I Sing of Olaf Glad and Big
I sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or
his wellbelovéd colonel (trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but--though an host of overjoyed
noncoms(first knocking on the…