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petnoyer | June 13, 2007Press release from Ocean Conservancy.....
San Francisco, CA -- Responding to concerns by scientists and conservation groups, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) affirmed protections for critically endangered leatherback sea turtles in California waters. NMFS denied a proposed exempted fishing permit application (EFP) that would have enabled the expansion of the drift gillnet fishery into current conservation areas.
Drift-gillnets are mile and a half long nets that target swordfish, tuna and thresher sharks. The drift-gillnet fishery has been subject to a seasonal area closure to…
tlambert | June 13, 2007Over at the denialism blog, Mark Hoofnagle catches the creationists at Uncommon Descent blaming Rachel Carson for millions of deaths. The funniest bit is in the comment at UD pointing out that they should blame God, not Carson:
All very pertinent to Michael Behe's new book 'The Edge of Evolution', in which he says "an intelligent agent deliberately made malaria" (p237), life on earth is "horrific", and "maybe the designer isn't all that beneficient" (p239). Doesn't this raise the specter of the designer planning to kill millions of people, including children, especially as Behe says that…
pharyngula | June 13, 2007We all knew him as Mr Wizard, of course. He was a great no-nonsense science teacher who influenced a whole generation of kids — he taught us that science was a very down-to-earth process that worked. He didn't have a lot of flash and pizazz, and the production values on his show were downright cheap, and he never seemed to get carried away; he was the exact opposite of the televangelists, who were all gaudy extravagance and no results.
True nerds loved Mr Wizard. Being undemonstrative nerds meant we never said it. We'll miss you, Mr Wizard.
cmcclain | June 12, 2007 Today Oceana published a report showing that three trawl fisheries, calico scallops, rock shrimp and royal red shrimp, pose an increased threat to South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico deep-sea habitat.
Calico scallops are smaller and less expensive than bay scallops. Because calico scallops are harvested in vast quantities they are not shucked by hand but are steamed to open their shells. Calico scallop meat can be identified by its whitened edges which have been partially cooked by the steaming. Because of their size, taste, and quality they are generally cheaper.
Rock and Red shrimp are…
mikethemadbiologist | June 12, 2007Political consultant and Edwards political adviser Dave "Mudcat" Saunders touched off a little firestorm today by criticizing the "Metropolitan Opera Wing" of the Democratic Party. Let's leave aside his willingness to engage in Republican agitprop (he doesn't even offer anecdotal evidence of the Dreaded M.O.W.). And try to forget the faint whiff of anti-Semitism and anti-gay sentiment wafting from that phrase. What exactly does Mudcat want? Because I don't look to political figures for validation of my 'lifestyle.'
Mudcat writes:
I have bitched and moaned for years about the lack of…
grrlscientist | June 11, 2007tags: poetry, block city, Robert Louis Stevenson
Today, I am having a lot of trouble accessing the internet. On Mondays, my wifi access is typically provided by a pub because the libraries with wifi are closed. But this pub was closed until after 5pm tonight, so I had to wait and wait and wait some more. I finally ran into the owner of the pub and he said this problem will continue until they hire someone who can start working at three. I told him that he should hire me, and he laughed in my face (gee, thanks). Whatever.
I am not sure what I will do to remedy my internet access problem, since…
tqa | June 11, 2007
It's been a quiet week or two (or three) on this blog, mostly because it's been a busy week or three in the house. We've been finishing off our moving process over the last few days. Since Wednesday, we've mostly been getting ready to clear quarters. Most of you probably don't know what "clearing quarters" really means (and those who do have my respect and sympathy). The short version is that you get to clean the house to within an inch of your life. The longer version is that the military really does take the old expression "leave it better than you got it" seriously.
Actually, clearing…
cmcclain | June 11, 2007
It is no secret that the U.S. military has used the ocean as trashcan for munitions in the past. Peter discussed at the Old DSN how federal lawmakers were pressing the US Army to reveal everything it knows about a massive international program to dump chemical weapons off homeland and foreign shores. "The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels."…
drorzel | June 11, 2007I need to disappear into a swamp of paper grading, exam writing, and committee meetings for a while, so here's a comment thread topic inspired by somebody else's typo:
Librarians or Libertarians?
I'm not entirely sure exactly what I'm asking for-- it could be "Which of these groups have done more good for humanity?" or "Which of these groups is a bigger threat to the American way of life?"
Whatever you think the question is after, pick one of those two, and leave your choice in the comments. For bonus points, state what question you're answering.
cmcclain | June 11, 2007 For those in the area, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute will hold its annual open house from noon to 5 p.m. June 30 at 7700 Sandholdt Road in Moss Landing.
We will all be there, staff, scientists, and engineers, explaining our deep-sea research and discoveries. You will be able to see deep-sea animals and oceanographic instruments, try hands-on science activities and learn about careers in the ocean sciences. Exhibits will include MBARI's robotic deep-sea vehicles: the remotely operated vehicles Ventana and Tiburon, autonomous underwater vehicles and a benthic rover, a bigger…
grrlscientist | June 10, 2007The most recent edition of the Carnival of Cats is being hosted by Feline Theocracy. They include a submission from me, so I am purring loudly.
pharyngula | June 9, 2007I really don't give a damn about Paris Hilton, but doesn't this just break your heart?
Friends said that she was not eating or sleeping in jail, and that she had been crying a lot. Some reports suggested that this was because she had not been allowed to wax or use moisturiser.
For Ms Hilton, here's a little song to cheer her up.
grrlscientist | June 8, 2007tags: blog awards, Koufax Awards
Wow, surprise, surprise!
I just discovered that Living the Scientific Life was nominated for one of the Koufax Awards, in the category "Most Deserving of Wider Recognition". This category is defined as being for writers who consistently deliver, yet don't receive the recognition they deserve.
Of course, I think my blog deserves this award, but there are a bazillion other very fine blogs nominated too, so chances are, it will merely be an electron blip across the screen of the blogosphere, as it always has been with the Koufax Awards. However, that said, if…
jjacquet | June 8, 2007I am looking forward to a World Oceans Day where I can kick back with a beer and relax, knowing that the oceans are in great shape. I sincerely hope this won't involve time travel or an inter-galactic voyage.
Anyone paying attention knows that the oceans are in serious trouble, and that overfishing - and use of destructive and indiscriminate fishing methods - is at the heart of the problem. Climate change is starting to make a run for the ocean enemy # 1 prize, but for now unsustainable fishing is safely in the lead. The good news, I suppose, is that in theory we should be able to do…
cmcclain | June 7, 2007
An undescribed species of Lamellibrachia, some with their red plumes extended out of their tubes. Image from NOAA Ocean Explorer and courtesy of AquaPix, Erik Cordes, Expedition to the Deep Slope 2006.
cmcclain | June 7, 2007
Welcome to our blog entry for the Carnival of the Blue on World Ocean Day, wherein we contemplate the question of the ocean as a glass half-empty or a glass half-full. Together, we see our modern culture as a blind man wandering down a forking path with a divining rod, flipping a Ying-Yang coin with a Devil on one shoulder and an Angel on the other. The blind man never knows what to do exactly, just to keep moving forward.
Deep Sea News looks forward before we step there, to examine two different paths through the ocean future. I will assume that mankind is basically evil, the ocean is…
petnoyer | June 7, 2007 I like to look at the bright side. Tell me 90% of sharks are gone from the ocean, and my mind will spin the problem like a puzzle until there's light at the end of the tunnel. If 90% of sharks are gone, then 10% of sharks are still swimming, right?
Take away 90% of the cats in my neighborhood and I guarantee the feline population (n = 100) will bounce back in two years, even with a low mean kitty litter (r1 =5) and high mortality (r2 =0.4). Why worry about ocean life? They live in 2/3 of the world. We live in just a little bit. Mako sharks have 12-14 pups. Whale sharks have hundreds. If we…
moleculeoftheday | June 7, 2007Dimethyl sulfide is another one of those small, volatile sulfur compounds:
Predictably, it lands on the malodorous side of the fence, but at low concentration, it purportedly smells pleasant. As Derek Lowe notes, it is the "smell of success" when the Swern Oxidation succeeds.
sb admin | June 7, 2007Right now, we're all painfully aware of attacks on science that come from the political Right. However, let us not forget that such attacks can and have in the past come from the political Left, and that indeed anybody with a political ax to grind, and with a strong identification with some political ideology, will turn on science when it seems that the process of science is not supporting that ideology.
Martin at Aardvarchaeology writes about historians struggling with the "truth be damned" legacy of post-modernism. It reminded me of when I was a naive young scientist, comfortable in the…
cmcclain | June 7, 2007Not exactly deep-sea or even marine but worth posting. Below is a picture of man picking through the rubbish in the Citarum, the most polluted river in the world, near Jakarta. More can be read here. In some places the oceans and shores are not any better.