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tqa | May 29, 2007
Note: During my trip to the Big Island last weekend, I wrote several blog posts. I didn't have internet access, so I didn't post any of them at the time. I'm posting them now, as originally written.
The 50th State is a group of islands, and if you want to travel from one to another you're probably going to wind up flying. At the moment, there's no commercial ferry boat service between islands - one is planned, but the launch was just delayed again. Unless you're massively opposed to human flight, though, the air travel isn't that bad an experience. Our flight to Hilo was actually quite…
mementomori | May 29, 2007Summer is here, and everyone is getting into the swim. Before donning that stylish and flattering bathing suit, though, let us review some lessons on summer water safety from our friends up north:
A report from Canada reveals that 86 percent of parents believe that swimming lessons are enough to keep their kids from drowning. The organization "Safe Kids Canada" strongly disagrees with this and recommends establishing 'five layers of protection' to protect children from accidental drownings. The precautions are meant to be used simultaneously and the word is out to educate adults on the…
cmcclain | May 29, 2007
Yesterday in Part I, I noted that a Spanish newspaper published a picture allegedly from a port employee showing a coin with a bust of King Charles III, ruler of Spain in the 18th century, suggesting the Black Swan was indeed Spanish. Greg Stemm, co-founder of Odysssey Marine Exploration stated the coin featuring Charles pictured in the papers is not from the wreck. Yesterday Roy stated that the picture in the paper was from the Franklin Mint Website (above). The newly developed Merchant Royal Shipwreck Blog (interesting indeed) notes that the picture below is the picture from the…
goodmath | May 28, 2007Today is Memorial Day, and I feel compelled to say something about it.
We're in the middle of a horrible and pointless war. A war that we started, based on a bunch of lies. Since we did this, we have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, and thousands of American soldiers. And we did it for no reason.
As the situation has grown progressively worse, and more and more people have been maimed and killed, we've heard an endless drumbeat from Bush supporters: me must support the troops!
I support American soldiers. As the son of a WW2 veteran, I grew up with a lot of…
signout | May 28, 2007The other day, while I was carefully loosening a perfect oyster from its bearings, a good friend said to me, "Signout, your blog rocks my world. However, what is up with--if you'll excuse the expression--all the mental masturbation?" (Quite the wordsmith, this friend.) "You should use your blog to offer more than just discussion of interesting problems: you should offer concrete solutions."
I said, "Solve this," and pointed him toward the following post. Then, with great regret, I schlepped my bags to the airport and headed home…
pharyngula | May 28, 2007The DefCon Blog has announced a horrific event tonight: Lawrence Krauss — he's the good guy — is going to be on Fox, with Ken Ham and Bill O'Reilly.
Sweet jebus.
The only reason I'd be curious to see that spectacle is to find out which side O'Reilly chooses to suck up to; my bet would be that he'll try to set himself up as superior to both.
Fortunately, I am privileged to miss it. Skatje and I are going to attend the 7:00 showing of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which promises to be the kind of flamboyantly ridiculous goofy story that won't leave me gagging and nauseous.
cmcclain | May 28, 2007 Last week I reported on the potential $500 million dollar haul of coins pulled by Odyssey Marine Exploration of a wreck referred to the "Black Swan". Several papers are reporting on the possible identity of the wreck and the potential ownership of the wreck by Spain. Spain has claimed that the wreck is both in Spain's territorial waters and of Spanish origin. Current speculation places the wreck either 40 miles off the coast of Cornwall in southwestern England, opposite Spain's northwestern coastline, or in the Strait of Gibraltar.
A Spanish newspaper boldly stated the "Black Swan" was…
cmcclain | May 28, 2007 Kathleen Hardy from the Darling Marine Center will be blogging from sea aboard the R/V Thompson. The month long cruise will take place in the North Pacific and Kathleen provides an excellent mix of the at sea experience and science tales. The post titles are imaginative and should peak your interests enough to head over. You can even track the cruise progress here.
Cruise Log ~ May 17: Gatorade and Pepto, Whales, and the Queen Charlotte Islands
Cruise Log ~ May 23: FIRE! Never Trust a Scientist with a Flare Gun
Cruise Log ~ May 25: Dall's Porpoises; Charlie Trick, Superhero Scientist…
sb admin | May 28, 2007Today's the day that Answers In Genesis' museum of ignorance, their "looks like, acts like, smells like, and pretends to be, but decidedly is not a science museum," the Creation Museum opens.
I'm horrified about this on many levels. As a scientist, I'm horrified about it just like every other scientist who is writing about this. We've got a slickly presented museum that looks like a science museum presenting carefully crafted lies (there is no other word for it) designed to comfort people in their scientific ignorance, designed to deeply instill scientific ignorance in children of a certain…
grrlscientist | May 26, 2007"Wow! are you really reading that book, or is it just for show?"
I blinked and looked hard at a woman who, like me, was sitting at the bar. She sat several bar stools away, and was looking quizzically at my copy of Catch-22. This book had recently arrived in the mail, thanks to a devoted reader of mine who decided I needed to read it.
"No, it's not for show, I am really reading it," I replied uncertainly, wondering if she was making fun of me somehow.
The man sitting next to me looked interested in the book and asked me what I thought of it. I told him that I had just started the book, I…
tqa | May 25, 2007
The Island of Hawaii, that is. I'm already in the state. The last time I went over there, it was to do research. This time, I'm bringing the family and we're going to have a nice little vacation. I don't know if I'll have the opportunity to blog in the evenings or not, but I will try to keep and post a daily diary for this trip.
Right now, I'm sitting in the interisland terminal at Honolulu International, waiting for our flight to be called (Hawaiian 262, nonstop to Hilo). It's a short hop from Oahu to Hawaii - about 50 minutes there, 45 minutes back. Once we land, we're going to head…
petnoyer | May 25, 2007
There's a whole new revenue stream on the horizon. Livescience reports that Japanese scientists in the AMOEBA (Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin), project have learned to write on water.
The image above shows the letter S formed by standing waves in a custom engineered water tank designed to generate Japanese characters and letters from the Roman alphabet.
This in one of four marine oriented Weird Science Stories of the Year.
Check 'em out here
grrlscientist | May 24, 2007Well, ScienceBlogs is recovering from a system-wide crash, so some of your comments were lost and some of my colleagues' entries were lost, too. (I lucked out, because one of my entries published itself six times, instead of being lost). Sorry about that, but you'll be pleased to know that we all complained loudly about the situation behind the scenes.
So on to the court date story. I went to court yesterday evening as scheduled and sat on the bench, sweating, despite the fact that the courtroom was air conditioned to the point where it was as cold as a refrigerator. Anyway, after the first…
tqa | May 24, 2007
I just checked the Junk folder for the comments, and found that there were quite a few legitimate comments that came in over the last few days that had been labeled as spam. The IP address blacklist that Movable Type blogs had been using to check for spam shut down recently, and apparently there are a few bugs in the system. I'll be trying to check the junk folder more frequently until the problems are resolved.
denialism | May 24, 2007Given that the NYT piece on the Creation Museum was such fluff, I was gratified to read the LA Times' more rigid take.
HE CREATION MUSEUM, a $27-million tourist attraction promoting earth science theories that were popular when Columbus set sail, opens near Cincinnati on Memorial Day. So before the first visitor risks succumbing to the museum's animatronic balderdash -- dinosaurs and humans actually coexisted! the Grand Canyon was carved by the great flood described in Genesis! -- we'd like to clear up a few things: "The Flintstones" is a cartoon, not a documentary. Fred and Wilma? Those…
worldsfair | May 24, 2007"Most organic acids are weak acids. Examples include citric acid, acetic acid, ascorbic acid, malic acid, tartaric acid. This is important as weak acids can act as buffers absorbing hydrogen ions without change the pH. I'll write more on buffers later."
(Click here to go to post)
signout | May 24, 2007While I was knee-deep in frozen river water the other day, someone said to me, "Your blog is great, but you hate men too much."
Bollocks! I love men! It's the patriarchy I hate. Please regard this entry, one of my personal favorites. Does it not demonstrate my sensitivity to the position of the much-put-upon man?
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Today has been an unbelievably frustrating day in the hospital, but I don't want to bring anyone down. In an effort to promote peace, harmony, and blogular happiness, I'm going to instead write about something everyone can…