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Wednesday, April 3, 2013
No Beauty Without Water
Today is World Water Day, and this year the celebration focuses on The Year of International Water Cooperation. UN Water reminds us that rivers often flow through multiple countries, and actions by one country or community can affect their neighbors’ ability to meet their water needs.
World Water Day 2013
Significant Figures by Peter Gleick March 21, 2013
Some thoughts for today: the bad news and good news for World Water Day. [First, I think every day should be World Water Day, not just March 22nd, but hey, that’s just me.] Stop taking your tap water for granted. Go to your tap, draw a glass of water, and drink it. Then remember that…
Water is a theme that runs through all forms of popular culture, from books to myths to Hollywood and international films, with a growing number of shorter video pieces posted online at YouTube and similar sites. Having trouble keeping your Netflix list populated? Below are some classic (good and bad) movies – good and bad…
Channel Surfing
Life Science
You know those deep icy fields of methane hydrates Japan wants to tap for natural gas? (One of the worst ideas ever, by the way.) They’re inhabited, by polychaetes like Hesiocaeca methanicola. (via NatGeo, which is a bit too uncritical of the idea for my taste.)
I am sad to say I missed the American Atheists 2013 National Convention — it sounds like it was a blast, but I was booked up with a series of talks out in lovely warm sunny Seattle. Here’s what I’ve been up to. On Wednesday, I talked to Seattle Atheists on “Moving Atheism Beyond Science”.…
Earlier today, Maggie Koerth-Baker posted this tweet: I dig this graph, but I think it misses an outreach opportunity by ascribing common misconceptions to creationists only bouncingdodecahedrons.tumblr.com/post/17808416988 It links to a diagram showing evolution as a linear path rather than a branching tree, and it got me thinking about terribly popular misconceptions about evolution that…
Physical Science
“It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character.” -Dale Turner This April Fools’ day, even though the rest of the internet revels…
Why is the sky blue? It’s a classic question – probably the classic question of the genre of explanatory popular physics. The famous short version of the answer is that Rayleigh scattering by air molecules affects short-waveength light more than long-wavelength light, and so blue light tends to get scattered in random directions to create…
The department of Astronomy & Astrophysics is proud to announce a special colloquium by a distinguished visitor: TITLE: Emission Lines Accompanying Gamma-Ray Flares from the Tidal Disruption of Dyson Spheres by Binary Intermediate-Mass Black Holes at z ~ 10. Special Lunch Talk, Monday, April 1, 2013 by Professor Rajesh Koothrappali, Circumference Institute [Host: Hofstadter] ABSTRACT:…
Environment
The New York Times explores the plight of furniture workers disabled by exposure to a neurotoxicant glue. Why hasn’t OSHA put a stop to this?
denialism blog
Natural News’ Mike Adams Adds Global Warming Denialism to HIV/AIDS denial, Anti-vax, Altie-med, Anti-GMO, Birther Crankery
I still think that list is pretty incomplete, the RationalWiki has more, but it’s interesting to see a potential internal ideological conflict as Adams sides with big business and the fossil fuel industry to suggest CO2 is the best gas ever. While he doesn’t appear to directly deny CO2 is a greenhouse gas, he’s managed…
I haven’t called anyone a tosser recently, indeed I think that RP Jr is the first 2013 winner of this most prestigious of awards. I believe that Sr was the last winner, almost a year ago. And I bestow this award sadly, because despite my naughty words I still have a deal of respect for…
Humanities
The New York Times explores the plight of furniture workers disabled by exposure to a neurotoxicant glue. Why hasn’t OSHA put a stop to this?
Looks like I’ve just added Ian McEwan’s new novel to my reading list: During one of their Brighton rendezvouses, after a round of oysters and a second bottle of champagne, Tom Haley asks Serena Frome the question every mathematician longs for her lover to utter: I want you to tell me something…something interesting, no, counterintuitive,…
In 1975, Samuel Preston published a paper that changed the course of thought on the relationship between mortality and economic development.
Education
Alcatraz is even more exciting that I had previously thought! Early last year the National Park Service had baited rats on the island with a non-toxic fluorescent food dye so they could track the animals as they left behind fluorescent droppings. Volunteers from the UC Davis entomology club along with workers then searched the island using black lights to find evidence of the…
USA Science and Engineering Festival: The Blog
Role Models in Science and Engineering: Dr. Anita Roberts
Celebrating Women’s History Month with another STEM Role Model! Dr. Anita Roberts was one of the most cited scientists in history and she served as an inspiration to many cancer patients when journaled details of her own battle with cancer- a disease she spent 25 years researching. Read the full biography of Dr. Roberts here.
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” -Benjamin Franklin Recently, a number of people — of widely different ages and levels of education — have contacted me for advice on whether or not pursuing a PhD in astrophysics/physics/science-in-general is right for them. Of course, I can’t tell you whether a path is the right one…
Politics
More thread.
This is why we can’t have nice things, like immigration reform. From MSNBC: Amid a hot-button debate in Washington over how to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, Rep. Don Young, a 21-term lawmaker, referred to immigrant workers as “wetbacks” — a term that could threaten to inflame the debate about immigration reform. “My father had…
In California, a minimum wage worker has to work at least 98 hours in a week to afford a two-bedroom unit at fair market rental prices. In Texas, that worker would have to work between 81 and 97 hours in a week, and in North Carolina it’s upward of 80 hours per week.
Medicine
No. That is not who we are. Shame on those counting on us forgetting.
denialism blog
There Are Legitimate Criticisms of Obamacare – Hospitals Should not be Penalized for Readmissions
Crazy ranting about impending socialism/fascism aside, there are legitimate critiques to be made of Obamacare. One policy in particular that raises my ire is penalizing hospitals over performance metrics and penalizing readmissions in particular. The way it works is, patients are admitted to the hospital, treated, and eventually discharged, but a indicator of failure of…
Step 1– Wooer makes some ridiculous claim about vaccines. This claim has no science supporting it, but it gets *worse*. There is actually not even a theoretical scientific framework where the claim could work. Claim is antiscience right out the gates. Step 2– Repeat wooer claim ad nauseum online. Step 3– Scientists actually go to…
Brain & Behavior
Entomologist Dr. Coby Schal at North Carolina State University studies the chemicals involved in insect communication in an effort to more effectively manage pests. His big interest is in chemical communication using pheromones and how they impact mating and other behaviors. His research has aided the control of cockroaches, bed bugs, mosquitoes and other nuisance…
Registration has opened for the 15th European Skeptics Conference. Hie thee there and register NOW, because there’s only 400 tickets! Here’s the confirmed (still evolving) line-up: Anna Bäsén (Sweden): Undercover Health Journalism Chris French (UK): Psychological Perspectives on Paranormal Belief and Experience Maria Berglund (Sweden): Våra opålitliga hjärnor: hur fel vi uppfattar världen och hur…
Here’s to the physiology of drinking beer on St. Patrick’s Day: Cheers!!
Technology
The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 32 Table of Contents Chapter 34 Chapter 33 Jon Visits, January 27, 2056 On Sunday Jon called to say he would be dropping around to visit next week. The Senator was scheduled to hold a series of meetings with Provincial and First Nation leaders. He didn’t know when…
Look at all the amazing things Twitter has done: Twitter did revolutions. Twitter won gold medals. Twitter went into outer space. Twitter was elected President of the United States of America. Twice! …. or was it just the music that made me think twitter did all those things?
Entomologist Dr. Coby Schal at North Carolina State University studies the chemicals involved in insect communication in an effort to more effectively manage pests. His big interest is in chemical communication using pheromones and how they impact mating and other behaviors. His research has aided the control of cockroaches, bed bugs, mosquitoes and other nuisance…
Information Science
I have a son who’s currently a first year physics student. As you can imagine, I occasionally pass along a link or two to him pointing to stuff on the web I think he might find particularly interesting or useful. Thinking on that fact, I surmised that perhaps other science students might find those links…
Confessions of a Science Librarian
Journal of Library Administration editorial board resigns over author rights
The Journal of Library Administration is published by Taylor & Francis, a big publishing conglomerate. According to Brian Mathews, while he was in the middle of putting together a special issue on the future of libraries he received notice that the editorial board was resigning due to conflicts with the publisher around what kind of…
Confessions of a Science Librarian
Around the Web: What makes a librarian, Fending off university-attacking zombies and more
What makes one a librarian? Goodbye, Faculty Status Library employees protest changed title: New designation for incoming employee provokes heated debate why should librarians learn python? (a better answer) Why Not Grow Coders from the inside of Libraries? Alt-Ac: Breathing Life into Libraries or Eroding the Profession? Of Hybrarians, Scholar-Librarians, Academic Refugees, & Feral Professionals…
Jobs
In California, a minimum wage worker has to work at least 98 hours in a week to afford a two-bedroom unit at fair market rental prices. In Texas, that worker would have to work between 81 and 97 hours in a week, and in North Carolina it’s upward of 80 hours per week.
Texas construction workers who’ve lost their lives on unsafe worksites may be gone, but they certainly haven’t been forgotten. Earlier this week, hundreds of Texas workers and their supporters took to the streets to demand legislators do more to stop preventable injury and death on the job.
The Pump Handle
New study lifts the lid on unhealthy kitchen conditions in migrant farmworker housing
For many migrant farmworkers, the health risks don’t stop at the end of the workday. After long, arduous hours in the field, many will return to a home that also poses dangers to their well-being. And quite ironically for a group of workers that harvests our nation’s food, one of those housing risks is poor cooking and eating facilities.
