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gregladen | February 18, 2008Science Debate 2008 always was a liberal, Democratic Party leaning effort, but it might be the case that it has now become a perfectly partisan past time with no further relevance. I hope not, but I fear this may be true.
Science debate 2008 is an effort by a number of scientists and friends of scientists to get the presidential candidates to engage i a meaningful debate about science. This came to partial realization at the AAAS meetings in Boston, when a representative of the Clinton and Obama campaigns agreed to engage in a joint presentation and Q&A about science issues. Of course…
kevin z | February 17, 2008There a couple really cool pieces going around the intertubes recently. Basically, some people out there actually beat us to some stories but did such a great job I'd like to point you their way.
Grrlscientist at the blog Living the Scientific Life has an excellent post about the Oregon dead zone. Once a recurrent event, it looks like its here to stay. Forever! Go there to learn more about this recent paper published in Science that has some evidence to link the dead to global warming. Mark Powell at Blogfish has this story as well. Read the comment thread for a thriving discussion on the…
grrlscientist | February 17, 2008
Peering out of the windows of my new hang-out, a coffee shop that
just opened in my neighborhood. Guess who is going to get ALL of
my disposable income from now on?
GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
I think I mentioned to you a few months ago (in November to be precise) that three banks opened in my neighborhood within one week of each other -- the first banks I've seen within 10 blocks of my apartment. This was really good, since one of those bank branches is mine (not that I have any money to speak of, except for the minimum necessary to allow me to cash checks written by my pet care…
cmcclain | February 17, 2008
Did you send your letter and email last week? Did you get your friends to? This weeks is tougher still and will hit the old pocket book. Not all of them are going to be easy.
The request: When you buy your groceries this week, if the option presents itself buy organic. Looking at the canned pintos, splurge and buy the organic pintos for 50 cents more. Some of you will no doubt quaff at this week's request. You will say, as I would, but what about the extra money. I only ask you to do this week. Find out exactly how much it raises your grocery bill this week. Post that amount below…
grrlscientist | February 16, 2008tags: blog carnivals, Oekologie
The 14th edition of the Oekologie is now available for you to read and enjoy. This blog carnival mainly focuses on the science of ecology.
grrlscientist | February 16, 2008tags: blog carnivals, Friday Ark
The 178th edition of the Friday Ark is now available for you to read and enjoy. This blog carnival presents pictures of animals for you to enjoy, so get on over there!
gregladen | February 16, 2008For the Tangled Bank Web Carnival, by Wednesday, please. You can send it here.
kevin z | February 16, 2008Eminent marine biologist John Stuart Gray passed away last October, which I posted on at that time. He was a professor of marine biology at University of Oslo, Norway, studying the ecology of the meiobenthos and the effects of pollution on marine communities. The meiobenthos is the community of small animals ranging in size from roughly 0.05 to 2 mm in practice. I never knew him personally, but his and his colleague's research formed part of the foundation of experimental benthic ecology read by every deep sea (and hopefully shallow) biologist. In addition to his general ecology work and that…
kevin z | February 15, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
grrlscientist | February 15, 2008As some of you know, I am hosting the next edition of I and the Bird blog carnival on 21 February, and I need BIRD SUBMISSIONS FROM YOU!!! I am interested in anything about ornithology, birds, and bird watching (unfortunately, I am not allowed to accept submissions that deal with captive birds). So send me your birding reports, stories, images, video and song files as soon as you can so I can promote them widely throughout the intertubes!
petnoyer | February 15, 2008Yesterday, February 14, the House passed HR 1834, the National Ocean Exploration Program Act (amended), by a vote of 352-49. The bill would authorize the National Ocean Exploration Program and the National Undersea Research Program, two extramural research programs within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The amended bill differs very little from the bill that was reported out of the House Science and Technology and the House Natural Resources committees a few months ago. The bill would charge the NOAA Administrator with developing, in coordination with NSF, a…
cortex | February 15, 2008There are so many reasons to despair about human diversity. There's Iraq, Kenya, the immigration debate, the research of Robert Putnam. It seems that, in tragic example after tragic example, humans react to diversity by splintering into tribalisms, regressing to an Us vs. Them mentality.
So that's why The Difference, a new science book by Scott Page, is so uplifting. The basic premise of the book is simple: when it comes to group achievement, diversity often trumps ability. To prove his point, Page draws on a variety of data, from the anecdotal to the experimental. But much of the book is…
laelaps | February 15, 2008There has been another tragic school shooting, this time at Northern Illinois University. I don't know what to say about such senseless violence, and although many universities have updated safety protocols in the wake of Virginia Tech. it is still all-too-easy for a disturbed person to walk into a lecture hall and kill whoever happens to be there.
As John Lynch reflects at Stranger Fruit, it is sobering to learn of such events, the news making me think about escape routes & what I would do if the unthinkable happened during the course of what would have started as any other normal day. I…
kevin z | February 14, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
kevin z | February 14, 2008Sometimes the sub just can't carry enough or you want to get more work done than you really have time to. Thats why some brilliant deep-sea scientist invented the elevator!
The yellow balls at the top are for floatation, which keeps the elevator neutrally bouyant. You can put all sorts of things on the basket of the elevator, including thermal insulated boxes for keeping animals cold on the ride up.
How does the elevator work? Well, we put weights on the bottom and hoist it overboard with a transponder. It sinks, hopefully close to where we want it to end up. When we arrive in the sub to do…
gregladen | February 14, 2008Four Stone Hearth Blog Carnival Number 34 is here, at Our Cultural World. It's a good one.