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cmcclain | July 15, 2008Admittedly, before reading the actual paper I was a little uneasy about the latest paper in PNAS by Goldberg et al. The paper describes a deep-sea basalt formation that would allow for storage of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. The area is the Juan de Fuca plate of the Oregon and Washington Coasts. The authors suggest that the area
provides unique and significant advantages over other potential geological storage options, including (i) vast reservoir capacities sufficient to accommodate centuries-long U.S. production of fossil fuel CO2 at locations within pipeline distances to populated…
cortex | July 15, 2008What you need is a distraction from the drip of bad economic news. (Just remember: the stock market is a random walk that, over the long-term, has an upward slope. Besides, investors who do nothing to their stock portfolio - they don't buy or sell a single stock - outperform the average "active" investor by nearly 10 percent.) So, instead of trying to get your broker on the phone, browse through these exquisite satellite photos, courtesy of NASA:
via kottke
cortex | July 15, 2008Hit songs are getting wordier:
Average word count of top-ten songs during the 1960s: 176
Average last year: 436
That's from the latest Harper's Index, via Marginal Revolution. I think this trend is pretty clearly a result of hip-hop and rap. Compare some Phil Spector Wall of Sound single - say, "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes - to some recent smash hit, like Umbrella or Lollipop, and it's easy to hear all those extra words. These new songs are not only faster but much, much wordier. (The slow decay of top 40 radio also means that songs can cross the three minute rubicon. Both Umbrella and…
cmcclain | July 15, 2008
Dear readers,
I am very excited to announce that we have exceeded 1000 posts here at Sb. This was supposed to be the 1000th post but Kevin and Peter screwed everything up. But of course since we've added Kevin, DSN has come one step closer to an aquatic Three Stooges.
I wrote the first post here at Sb on December 13th of 2006. In the short time here our traffic, regular readers, and content have increased. While still focusing on deep sea discoveries, we have expanded our coverage to often include shallow water issues of conservation, general marine invertebrate zoology, charismatic…
grrlscientist | July 14, 2008tags: Sizzle, global warming, climate change, documentary, polar bears, hurricane Katrina, Randy Olson, film review
The new film, Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy by Randy Olson that will be released in a few days, explores a topic that concerns me greatly, so when asked if I would review it, I was pleased to do so. Sizzle is advertized as a combination of a documentary, mockumentary and reality about global warming, and therein lies its problem : it has no idea what it is supposed to be, and as a result, the audience (me, in this case), doesn't either.
I wanted to like this film, really, I…
kevin z | July 14, 2008"Like we really really want to make this film and we feel really passionate about global warming and feel really upset by it. We just don't know why."
The tone of that opening statement resonates throughout the film. Randy Olson, of the Shifting Baselines blog and Flock of Dodos fame, set to create a "global warming comedy". He wanted to understand the debate raging on between scientists and global warming skeptics. Is it a failure of scientists to communicate on the level of your everyday individual? If that statement speaks for the general non-scientific audience of the United States, then…
cmcclain | July 14, 2008This Saturday July 19, 2008 from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. is the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's Open House. If you are in central California come on out and see our shiny oceanographic toys. Yours truly will be delivering a couple of talks during the day on seamounts. If my big shiny head doesn't draw you in thing come for the giant inflatable squid. You can get more information here.
kevin z | July 14, 2008Tonight on the National Geographic Channel at 10pm EST/PST Earth the Biography: Oceans. An episode on Atmospheres is before it at 9pm. "Explore how half of Earth's water originated from the planet's inception and how the other half was deposited by comets."
cortex | July 14, 2008Why do poor people spend so much money on brand-name items and flashy status symbols? The answer is power. Those Calvin Klein boxers are a desperate attempt at compensation. Here's Kevin Lewis of the Globe Ideas section:
If people low on the socioeconomic ladder sometimes buy things beyond their means, it may be because of a psychological mechanism that we all share. At Northwestern University, several experiments with students tested the idea that people who feel relatively powerless have a greater desire for high-status goods. The participants were primed to feel either powerful or…
sb admin | July 14, 2008When was the last time the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO agreed on a matter related to workers' health and safety? That's exactly what has happened since the formal announcement about CDC Director Julie Gerberding's decision not to reappoint NIOSH Director John Howard. Members of Congress are demanding meetings, stakeholders are sending letters, and the NYTimes Editorial Board called it "A Pointless Departure". In fact, I've been searching to find anyone who agrees with Gerberding's decision.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Marc Freedman said:
"Frankly we would have…
cortex | July 14, 2008I loved WALL-E. In my opinion, it's the best Pixar movie yet, and I was a huge fan of Ratatouille. While the movie has an obvious environmental subtext - we are destroying the earth with our love of disposable things - I was most taken with its subtle endorsement of Darwin. And no, I'm not talking about evolution or natural selection. As I watched WALL-E , I couldn't help but think about Darwin's last major work, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals.
The Origin gets all the attention, but The Expression is Darwin at his most inventive and audacious. The title only hints at its…
gregladen | July 14, 2008The Giant's Shoulders is a web carnival highlighting classic papers in science. Or people or concepts. Go here to get the details.
THe first deadline is Midnight EDT on July 15th (tomorrow)
The first edition will be hosted at A Blog Around the Clock. Send your entries to Coturnix!!!
As for me, I may submit this:
"Vanya on 42nd street", the movie by Louis Malle, was a blast. Such a long time since I have watched a group of actors performing a text with so much intensity. Saw it on Sunday, but on Monday night I was still excited, and couldn't take it from my mind. Simple shots, no cutting…
cmcclain | July 14, 2008From CNN...
President Bush will announce Monday he is lifting an executive order banning offshore oil drilling, the White House said.
If President Bush can persuade Congress, more oil rigs like this one off Canada could appear off U.S. shores.
If President Bush can persuade Congress, more oil rigs like this one off Canada could appear off U.S. shores.
The move is largely symbolic because there is also a federal law banning offshore drilling.
Bush has been pushing Congress to repeal the law passed in 1981.
kevin z | July 14, 2008Show your support for the destruction of whales! T-shirt design is officially sanctioned by the governments of Japan, Norway and Iceland. Get yours now at Busted Tees.
kevin z | July 13, 2008We should be decimating whales right now! They are obviously vicious killing machines, bent on doing evil and destruction.
kevin z | July 13, 2008Basking sharks are heavily exploited from the shark-finning industry. The damage is compounded by the fact we know so little about their distribution in the sea. As a copepod mass-consuming filter-feeder, they follow and seek out their preferred prey. Previously, only 11 basking sharks have been tagged. None of which ventured passed the continental shelf into deep water. Mauvis Gore and colleagues provide the first evidence of the longest distance and deepest dives of a transatlantic migrating basking shark.
Image copyright Chris Gotschalk, Wikipedia Commons.
Using satellite tags, Gore and…
gregladen | July 13, 2008
Louis Pasteur's research led to the advancement of the still accepted Germ Theory. He created the first vaccine for rabies. One of the key figures in the development of the field of microbiology, Pasteur invented the technique of food processing known today as pasteurization, whereby liquids such as milk are thermally processed to reduce or remove pathogens.
Photo from Wikipeda.
U CAN HAZ MORE LOL
sciencetolife | July 13, 2008
Here are some interesting posts from bloggers in my Blogroll:
1. Counter Minds tackles the question "why do people have different blood types?"
2. Bio Job Blog writes about being involved in the creation of a new science-oriented social networking site called "The BioCrowd".
3. The Gist writes about scientists' efforts to study the melting of Greenland's massive ice cap.
4. Bio-Typing discusses about the portrayal of leprosy in the film "The Motorcycle Diaries"
(Image: Sarah Das/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
pharyngula | July 13, 2008I'm going to be tied up in work and meetings most of today, yet there are all these new people still flooding the site, begging for entertainment and objects to rage against. Since many of them can't seem to get beyond the first article at the top of the page, and since, judging by my most recent email (come on, people…do you have to stoop to insulting my mother?) we're getting down to the dregs, I think we need some more distractions for them. So here's a little collection of past articles that will serve to infuriate and enlighten. Have fun!
Idiot America
Planet of the Hats
The proper…
pharyngula | July 13, 2008Tune in to Atheists Talk radio this morning at 9am Central — the ever-entertaining Robert Price will be on to talk about pop mysticism. If you will it, it will be so.