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tqa | January 27, 2007Jim Lynch, in an apparent attempt to see if he could get my blood pressure to break new ground, just sent me a link to this discussion of Rush Limbaugh's latest bit of verbal flatulence. Rush appears to have some rather interesting views on women in the military, and he decided to express some of those views on his radio show yeaterday. Actually, I wasn't nearly as annoyed by The Big Fat Idiot's comments as I think Jim expected. The remarks are assinine, stupid, and reflect a perspecitve on society and gender that was obsolete a very long time ago, but they were also exactly the type of raw…
nisbetmc | January 27, 2007Things just went from bad to terrible for the image of the Association of American Publishers. Rick Weiss in today's WPost spotlights the Association's hiring of "PR Pit Bull" Eric Dezenhall to help in their fight against patient advocates and members of Congress who are trying to require free access at academic journals to the results of federally financed research. Two bills and appropriations language mandating public access to government-funded research are slated to be introduced in the new Congress.
Dezenhall, who's clients include Exxon Mobil, apparently advised the Association to…
clock | January 26, 2007
I am not surprised at all.
Read more on Splintered Mind and Cognitive Daily (check the comments on both)
tqa | January 26, 2007Yesterday's post on evolutionary speed limits and Haldane's Dilemma has sparked some interesting discussion, and some of the comments have already started to move beyond the very simple scenario that I outlined. Next week, I'll post a couple of more complex examples, and look at the effect of things like a lower frequency of mutants in the starting population, what can happen with two mutations being selected at the same time, and whether mutations need to be fixed to be evolutionarily meaningful. I'll also go over a couple of basic concepts that might help in understanding those scenarios.…
cmcclain | January 26, 2007
Yeah that's a mouthful of a name...so go with WAM-V. Got to say this is one of cooler designs I have seen, much better than the Flipper boat . Apparently WAM-V is modular and can host either a luxury cabin for two, simple cruising accommodations for up to six passengers, twelve passenger transport, scuba diving platform, lab for collection and on site analysis of specimen, oceanographic equipment deployer, emergency response unit, or a surveillance station
cmcclain | January 26, 2007
This pink gorgonian coral was photographed by ROV Tiburon at a depth of about 1,700 meters (5,600 feet) during an expedition to Davidson Seamount in 2002. Several small pink shrimp are climbing on the coral, perhaps eating small animals or bits of the coral itself. From MBARI.
tqa | January 25, 2007There's been a bit of talk about "Evolutionary Speed Limits" over at the Intelligent Design weblog Uncommon Descent. Most of the discussion involves "Haldane's Dilemma." This concept is rooted in an article written by the noted evolutionary geneticist J. B. S Haldane in 1957. There's a lot of math involved, and you can see it over at the Wikipedia page I linked above. The bottom line, for those not interested in the math, is this: according to Haldane's calculations, a species cannot reasonably fix beneficial mutations (a particular mutation becomes "fixed" when it is present in all of the…
purepedantry | January 25, 2007People can be really, really dumb sometimes:
Reports about a study that found microwave ovens can be used to sterilize kitchen sponges sent people hurrying to test the idea this week -- with sometimes disastrous results.
A team at the University of Florida found that two minutes in the microwave at full power could kill a range of bacteria, viruses and parasites on kitchen sponges.
They described how they soaked the sponges in wastewater and then zapped them.
But several experimenters evidently left out the crucial step of wetting the sponge.
"Just wanted you to know that your article on…
cmcclain | January 25, 2007One of my favorite artists and favorite subjects together. Johnny Cash + Squid = Tentacles Cash (via this website). Much better than a blending of two of my other favorites.
cmcclain | January 25, 2007Every time some bizarre animal washes ashore or is swimming around a bay, or a lagoon, there is a media hype about how it's from the deep sea, it's a voracious predator, and it doesn't belong here.
A monster from the deep! Get the women and children and run for the hills. Grab your pick axes and kill it's different and it doesn't belong here.
Okay, maybe I exaggerated the last part. However, every morning I check the news and inevitably find an article such as...
Deep Sea Fish Washes Up on Oregon Coast - Alive
Or
Rare shark of the deep snapped
So my first step after reading these is to do…
petnoyer | January 25, 2007Tomorrow (Jan 26) will see the public release of Charting the Course for Ocean Science in the United States for the Next Decade: An Ocean Research Priorities Plan and Implementation Strategy which outlines the national ocean research priorities for the United States for the next ten years. The public event will be held at 1pm at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, DC.
From the press release:
This document takes a fresh approach in considering the ocean as a dynamic system rather than attempting to identify research needs based on historical academic disciplines or…
cmcclain | January 25, 2007
Elpidia glacialis. Credit: Julian Gutt/Alfred Wegener Institute
Unless you live in a hole you know that the Larsen Ice Shelf collapsed a few years ago. A current expedition on the Polarstern to Antarctica is investigating marine ecosystems under the former Larsen ice shelf.
This "white spot" with regard to biodiversity research gave rise to the following questions: What kind of life actually existed under the former floating ice shelf which was up to several hundreds of meters thick? What are the prospects for the future after the collapse of the ice shelf?
Compared to the surrounding…
grrlscientist | January 24, 2007The 41st edition of I and the Bird is now available. I and the Bird is a blog carnival that focuses on wild birds in the blogosphere; ornithology, birding and bird photography.
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tags: birds, blog carnival
cmcclain | January 24, 2007
So the date and time are set for the Alvin to ISS chat. The pre-recorded conversation will air between 2:45 and 3:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Friday, January 26. It will be played immediately following the "ISS Expedition 14 Spacewalk Preview Briefing" scheduled for 2 p.m. ET, so the 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. air-time is approximate. The spot will be aired on NASA TV and on the web.
cmcclain | January 24, 2007The recent post over at Dynamics of Cats, Pensive on Penzim, discusses the hype about a new cod-based cure for avian flu.
So, what is the big deal? Well, probably nothing, there are no clinical trials or safety studies yet, but since the stakes are high, it is worth contemplating.
I should point out another issue about Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, they're tasty overfished in the Atlantic. Extremely overfished. From the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch.
Avoid Atlantic cod; it has been fished heavily for the past 50 years, resulting in massive population declines. Scientists agree that we…
cmcclain | January 24, 2007
Workers from the Japanese Aquarium captured video of deep-sea shark lurking about the shallows of Awashima Port. The species, Chlamydoselachus anguineus or frilled shark, is not unknown from shallow water but rare. The frilled shark as a global distribution as is found from 0-1570m (5151ft). It can reach 2m (6.5ft) in length and feeds on other sharks, squid and bony fish. Currently it is listed by IUCN as Near-Threatened. More here at fishbase.
cmcclain | January 24, 2007
"Industrialized fishing is the driving force in the depletion of biodiversity in our oceans...Oceans have been exempt from rules that are so natural to us on land." Because of the relative invisibility of life below the surface, most people never get to see it first hand, such as managers "who sit behind desks in Ottawa."
Powerful words from Boris Worm, from one of the co-authors of a controversial report that projected the collapse of all of the world's commercially fished stocks within 50 years. From November from the old DSN...
In case you didn't know or needed more concrete evidence,…
hrynyshyn | January 24, 2007Here's what George W. Bush had to say about climate change in his penultimate state of the union address: "...and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change." That's it. A parathetical afterthought for the most pressing issue of modern times. I suppose we should be happy that even that much made it through the editing process. Oh well.
climate
tqa | January 23, 2007Jake Young has a link up to a story about a family's recent misadventure on AirTran Airways. Apparently, they were removed from their flight because, after more than 15 minutes, their 3-year-old was still pitching a temper tantrum and refusing to stay seated:
The Kuleszas said they told a flight attendant they had paid for their daughter's seat, but asked whether she could sit in her mother's lap. The request was denied.
Which is what had to happen. It's not safe for older children to sit on laps during takeoff or landing. Actually, it's not safe for younger children, either, but that's…