Caterpillar that takes over ant colonies - these guys aren't quite as creepy as the wasps that turn caterpillars in to zombies or botflies, but they're up there on the list.
Green "Volcano" to power UK town - it's not actually green in color, and it's not actually a volcano, but this is a pretty cool idea for an alternative energy power plant.
Study asks if mom and dad are the best match for children - This was something that just plagued the Prop 8 trial, this notion that it's a mommy and a daddy or else.
Another reason to love Mark Twain - he wrote a nasty, nasty letter to a snake oil peddler. Now he was a man that knew how to wed clever and nasty like chocolate and peanut butter.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Andrew Wakefield: Dishonest and Irresponsible
So sayeth the General Medical Council in the UK
In other news: Water still wet.
If you've been living under a rock and have no idea who Andrew Wakefield is or how he's been contributing to the mortality of children via vaccine-preventable diseases, a good summation here. Dr. Novella also has a concise summary of what a dangerous, irresponsible quack this guy is.
One might hope that among the sanctions the GMC will be mulling over is putting his medical license in an industrial shredder. And then possibly using the remains to line a hamster cage. Though I'm uncertain what effect, if any, that might have on his unwelcome presence in the United States. As pessimistic as it sounds, I also doubt it's going to have much of an effect on Jenny McCarthy and her ilk. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if getting verbally spanked by the GMC becomes a sort of badge of honor for him when all is said and done.
In other news: Water still wet.
If you've been living under a rock and have no idea who Andrew Wakefield is or how he's been contributing to the mortality of children via vaccine-preventable diseases, a good summation here. Dr. Novella also has a concise summary of what a dangerous, irresponsible quack this guy is.
One might hope that among the sanctions the GMC will be mulling over is putting his medical license in an industrial shredder. And then possibly using the remains to line a hamster cage. Though I'm uncertain what effect, if any, that might have on his unwelcome presence in the United States. As pessimistic as it sounds, I also doubt it's going to have much of an effect on Jenny McCarthy and her ilk. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if getting verbally spanked by the GMC becomes a sort of badge of honor for him when all is said and done.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The i...WHAT?
Okay, seriously. Was there no one in the Apple offices to let them know that their new device sounds like it was named after a feminine hygiene product?
I'm sure it's cool and stuff, but really. I feel like I should be sticking it in my underpants to hold the red menace at bay, not be reading books off of it.
On the other hand, I'm sure there are plenty of male geeks that want to stick it in their underpants, and for an entirely different reason.
I'm sure it's cool and stuff, but really. I feel like I should be sticking it in my underpants to hold the red menace at bay, not be reading books off of it.
On the other hand, I'm sure there are plenty of male geeks that want to stick it in their underpants, and for an entirely different reason.
Volcanic lightning
You can got a lot of extremely cool pictures out of a volcanic eruption. Giant Exploding Things That Could Kill You are always incredibly photogenic for some reason. But I think the coolest eruption pictures are the ones that involve lightning, such as this picture of the Chaitén Volcano erupting in Chilé.
Actually, I hadn't thought about it much until I saw this article, and this interesting observation:
That's just cool - lightning produced by the eruption was adding seismic noise with ground strikes.
Volcanic lightning would be a pretty interesting thing to study; the mechanism by which it forms is even less well understood than normal lightning. A possible model here at geology.com. Even more interesting is this article I found from last year, looking at the behavior of volcanic plumes.
So basically, if you don't get cooked by a pyroclastic flow or burned up by magma or simply nailed in the head by flying debris, don't start feeling too good about yourself. The atmosphere might just try to kill you anyway.
Gosh, I love volcanoes.
Actually, I hadn't thought about it much until I saw this article, and this interesting observation:
"The seismometers were actually picking up lightning strikes," said McNutt. "I knew that I had to reach out to the physicists studying lightning."
That's just cool - lightning produced by the eruption was adding seismic noise with ground strikes.
Volcanic lightning would be a pretty interesting thing to study; the mechanism by which it forms is even less well understood than normal lightning. A possible model here at geology.com. Even more interesting is this article I found from last year, looking at the behavior of volcanic plumes.
A volcanic plume consists of a vertical column of hot gases and dust topped by an umbrella-like structure. A volcanic mesocyclone sets the entire plume rotating, causing it to spawn waterspouts or dust devils and group together the electric charges in the plume to form a sheath of lightning.
So basically, if you don't get cooked by a pyroclastic flow or burned up by magma or simply nailed in the head by flying debris, don't start feeling too good about yourself. The atmosphere might just try to kill you anyway.
Gosh, I love volcanoes.
Why you're not going to get laid, mathematically
From io9: Mathematician Uses SETI Formula To Determine He Has A 0.00034% Chance Of Getting Laid
I actually found the paper highly amusing; to me it sounded like a joke that a dorky guy was having at his own expense. But I also find math jokes very funny.
Also funny, from io9's commentary on it:
There's enough arguing to be done about the Drake Equation to begin with, but I think it's a fair point to make that it's even iffier if you're taking it out of its context and trying to apply it to your dating life. That said, it's still pretty amusing.
I actually found the paper highly amusing; to me it sounded like a joke that a dorky guy was having at his own expense. But I also find math jokes very funny.
Also funny, from io9's commentary on it:
This aspiring economics researcher has made one of the most basic mistakes men make - especially men who are science fiction writers or scientists. He's confused women with extraterrestrials.
There's enough arguing to be done about the Drake Equation to begin with, but I think it's a fair point to make that it's even iffier if you're taking it out of its context and trying to apply it to your dating life. That said, it's still pretty amusing.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Volcano for Monday
Philippines' Mayon Volcano to explode 'within days' - alert status has been moved from three to four, which means that an eruption is imminent. Five is when the volcano is actually erupting. Expect to see some pretty pictures of the full fury of the Earth unleashed soon, I'd say.
Yikes. Mayon is a stratovolcano, like Mount St. Helens, which means it will tend to have eruptions of the explodey variety since its magma is viscous and doesn't allow gases to escape very effectively.
I'm kind of curious what the sulfur dioxide output it looking like for Mayon. The most recent PHIVOLCS report (from January 20) has it at 1051 tons per day. Sulfur dioxide often degasses out of magma, so a sudden jump in sulfur dioxide output is a sign that there's a lot of fresh magma coming in to the area. Apparently its previous output was around 350-500 tons per day which makes 1051 a pretty significant jump.
For comparison, the last time Mount Pinatubo blew up (in 1991), the sulfur dioxide output went from 500 tons per day to 5000 tons per day.
"Audible booming and rumbling sounds were first reported in the eastern flank of the volcano" Sunday afternoon, and 1,942 volcanic earthquakes were detected by the institute's seismic network in the 24 hours to 7 a.m. local time on Monday (6 p.m. ET on Sunday), the institute said.
Yikes. Mayon is a stratovolcano, like Mount St. Helens, which means it will tend to have eruptions of the explodey variety since its magma is viscous and doesn't allow gases to escape very effectively.
I'm kind of curious what the sulfur dioxide output it looking like for Mayon. The most recent PHIVOLCS report (from January 20) has it at 1051 tons per day. Sulfur dioxide often degasses out of magma, so a sudden jump in sulfur dioxide output is a sign that there's a lot of fresh magma coming in to the area. Apparently its previous output was around 350-500 tons per day which makes 1051 a pretty significant jump.
For comparison, the last time Mount Pinatubo blew up (in 1991), the sulfur dioxide output went from 500 tons per day to 5000 tons per day.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
My first science fair
As a judge, at least. I know I did at least one science fair when I was in elementary school, which involved an extremely lame experiment that had to do with getting mold to grow on bread. I wasn't all that excited about it. Now I can look back on my lack of enthusiasm as a wasted opportunity, but I think I turned out okay.
I was actually supposed to judge in a school science fair a couple of weeks ago. The night before was when the Stomach Virus Fairy visited me, however, and I was in no condition to go. So this was my first one.
The judging actually went differently then I expected. We were each assigned a grade, and then put in teams. I ended up being very grateful for this; a big part of judging a project is asking the kid questions about their project, and I didn't really know where to start. My partner, Shannon, is an old hand at science fairs and knew exactly what sorts of questions were appropriate to ask the kids. I ended up being assigned to the fourth grade projects.
Looking around the room, though, there were some pretty cool projects to be seen. You could tell a lot of these kids were seriously jazzed about their experiments and had put a lot of thought and work in to it.
My personal favorites:
- A project exploring whether cats have a color preference, which included photographs of the two adorable experiment subjects, Pirate and Lucy.
- A project about the power of suggestion (regarding things like pareidolia) where the hypothesis was (paraphrasing a little): "Using the force of my personality and their trust in me, I will cause people to give me the answers I suggest."
And then of course, the project that ultimately won first place for fourth grade. All of us noticed the project board right away because it looked super good and professional. After our first two kids, Shannon and I stopped and looked at the board a little closer and noticed that the experiment was about the way non-Newtonian fluids react to pressure. Both of us immediately thought, "We so hope we get to talk to this kid."
We did! We're so lucky. The kid, named Roger, that did the experiment has got to be the most well spoken fourth grader I've encountered in my life. Hell, he was more coherent and well-spoken than a lot of the kids I've met at college. Shannon quizzed him unmercifully about his experiment, and it became very apparent that he was deeply interested in what he'd done, and that he also really understood the subject matter. The part that really just blew me away was when he talked about the two non-Newtonian fluids he used - ketchup and water mixed with corn starch. We asked him why the two fluids had reacted so differently when he tried to stir them quickly, and he told us that he'd been confused about that at first, then had done more research and discovered that the ketchup must be a shear-thinning non-Newtonian fluid, while the water with corn starch was a shear-thickening non-Newtonian fluid. And then explained the basics of what shear force is.
Sometimes I really worry about the future, particularly seeing the hit science often takes in public schools. Meeting kids like Roger - and pretty much everyone who had made it to the district-wide fair - gives me hope for the future. There are still boys and girls out there that are really interested in science and excited about exploring the world around them.
One of the other incredibly cool things that I just have to share - at the beginning of his discussion, I asked Roger why he'd decided to do this experiment. He told me that he's a huge fan of the Myth Busters and had seen them run across the water/corn starch fluid in their episode about ninja. And that the third phase of his experiment, where he put the different liquids in to a speaker cone to see how they reacted to loud music, he'd seen on The Big Bang Theory and thought it looked really cool, so he wanted to try it himself.
I hope wherever they are, Adam and Jamie and Bill Prady are feeling a big warm fuzzy. There are amazing little kids like Roger out there watching and being inspired to try out the science. That's surely something to be proud of.
I was actually supposed to judge in a school science fair a couple of weeks ago. The night before was when the Stomach Virus Fairy visited me, however, and I was in no condition to go. So this was my first one.
The judging actually went differently then I expected. We were each assigned a grade, and then put in teams. I ended up being very grateful for this; a big part of judging a project is asking the kid questions about their project, and I didn't really know where to start. My partner, Shannon, is an old hand at science fairs and knew exactly what sorts of questions were appropriate to ask the kids. I ended up being assigned to the fourth grade projects.
Looking around the room, though, there were some pretty cool projects to be seen. You could tell a lot of these kids were seriously jazzed about their experiments and had put a lot of thought and work in to it.
My personal favorites:
- A project exploring whether cats have a color preference, which included photographs of the two adorable experiment subjects, Pirate and Lucy.
- A project about the power of suggestion (regarding things like pareidolia) where the hypothesis was (paraphrasing a little): "Using the force of my personality and their trust in me, I will cause people to give me the answers I suggest."
And then of course, the project that ultimately won first place for fourth grade. All of us noticed the project board right away because it looked super good and professional. After our first two kids, Shannon and I stopped and looked at the board a little closer and noticed that the experiment was about the way non-Newtonian fluids react to pressure. Both of us immediately thought, "We so hope we get to talk to this kid."
We did! We're so lucky. The kid, named Roger, that did the experiment has got to be the most well spoken fourth grader I've encountered in my life. Hell, he was more coherent and well-spoken than a lot of the kids I've met at college. Shannon quizzed him unmercifully about his experiment, and it became very apparent that he was deeply interested in what he'd done, and that he also really understood the subject matter. The part that really just blew me away was when he talked about the two non-Newtonian fluids he used - ketchup and water mixed with corn starch. We asked him why the two fluids had reacted so differently when he tried to stir them quickly, and he told us that he'd been confused about that at first, then had done more research and discovered that the ketchup must be a shear-thinning non-Newtonian fluid, while the water with corn starch was a shear-thickening non-Newtonian fluid. And then explained the basics of what shear force is.
Sometimes I really worry about the future, particularly seeing the hit science often takes in public schools. Meeting kids like Roger - and pretty much everyone who had made it to the district-wide fair - gives me hope for the future. There are still boys and girls out there that are really interested in science and excited about exploring the world around them.
One of the other incredibly cool things that I just have to share - at the beginning of his discussion, I asked Roger why he'd decided to do this experiment. He told me that he's a huge fan of the Myth Busters and had seen them run across the water/corn starch fluid in their episode about ninja. And that the third phase of his experiment, where he put the different liquids in to a speaker cone to see how they reacted to loud music, he'd seen on The Big Bang Theory and thought it looked really cool, so he wanted to try it himself.
I hope wherever they are, Adam and Jamie and Bill Prady are feeling a big warm fuzzy. There are amazing little kids like Roger out there watching and being inspired to try out the science. That's surely something to be proud of.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
More HAARP conspiracy nuttiness
Chavez says US 'weapon' caused Haiti quake
And:
The absolute breadth of the stupid leaves me almost speechless. Almost.
I'd love to know exactly how people think an atmospheric research facility - even if we're nice and allow the conspiracy nuts the notion that HAARP can somehow effect climate via it interaction with the atmosphere, which it can't - can manage to effect the Earth's crust, 10 km below the surface and almost a hemisphere away. You know, we think the atmosphere is pretty awesome, probably because we couldn't live without it. But let me break it to you - tectonic forces really don't give much of a shit what the atmosphere is doing. In fact, it's really the tectonics that get the final say on what the climate is doing, not the other way around.
Otherwise, what kind of tectonic "weapon" are we proposing? Secret injection well that's putting highly pressurized fluid in to the fault to lubricate it? Nah, too plausible. Underground atomic explosions? These are the sorts of things people would tend to notice.
It makes my brain hurt. But we also know that conspiracy nuttiness of this variety requires no plausible mechanism. And in this case, not even a vague understanding of geology.
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez Wednesday accused the United States of causing the destruction in Haiti by testing a 'tectonic weapon' to induce the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country last week.
And:
Venezuelan media have reported that the earthquake "may be associated with the project called HAARP, a system that can generate violent and unexpected changes in climate."
The absolute breadth of the stupid leaves me almost speechless. Almost.
I'd love to know exactly how people think an atmospheric research facility - even if we're nice and allow the conspiracy nuts the notion that HAARP can somehow effect climate via it interaction with the atmosphere, which it can't - can manage to effect the Earth's crust, 10 km below the surface and almost a hemisphere away. You know, we think the atmosphere is pretty awesome, probably because we couldn't live without it. But let me break it to you - tectonic forces really don't give much of a shit what the atmosphere is doing. In fact, it's really the tectonics that get the final say on what the climate is doing, not the other way around.
Otherwise, what kind of tectonic "weapon" are we proposing? Secret injection well that's putting highly pressurized fluid in to the fault to lubricate it? Nah, too plausible. Underground atomic explosions? These are the sorts of things people would tend to notice.
It makes my brain hurt. But we also know that conspiracy nuttiness of this variety requires no plausible mechanism. And in this case, not even a vague understanding of geology.
Taking a moment to geek out for a good cause
DriveThruRPG, my favorite source of non-paper tabletop RPG books, is running a donation fund for Haiti, aimed at Doctors Without Borders. They're matching all donations. Even better, if you donate a measly $20, you get an absolutely stunning number of PDFs as a thank you. The list of books is 12 pages long.
Now, most of the books on the list left me with a profound feeling of "meh" since I'm ridiculously picky about my RPGs. However, one of the books you get is the core book for the Serenity RPG, which is my second favorite game of all time to run. (The first being White Wolf's Werewolf in any of its "garou" rather than "forsaken" formats.) That alone is worth the price of admission, if you're selfish enough that you require more for your $20 than the warm, fuzzy feeling that you're helping out a good cause.
I'm looking forward to adding my Serenity PDF to my RPG book collection. It'll feel right at home since I also own two paper copies of the book as well. But you can never have too much Serenity.
Now, most of the books on the list left me with a profound feeling of "meh" since I'm ridiculously picky about my RPGs. However, one of the books you get is the core book for the Serenity RPG, which is my second favorite game of all time to run. (The first being White Wolf's Werewolf in any of its "garou" rather than "forsaken" formats.) That alone is worth the price of admission, if you're selfish enough that you require more for your $20 than the warm, fuzzy feeling that you're helping out a good cause.
I'm looking forward to adding my Serenity PDF to my RPG book collection. It'll feel right at home since I also own two paper copies of the book as well. But you can never have too much Serenity.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Diappointed that it's not the end of the world?
I know I've complained about this before. And I know it can't possibly be getting on my nerves as badly as it might get on the nerves of the scientists at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. But still, is it me, or does Time magazine's short article come across as just a little disappointed that we're not all in danger of imminent fiery death? I think the question mark at the end of the article's title ("Nothing to Fear?") is what does it.
Yellowstone is in a very tectonically active region, whether or not there's a giant magma monster lurking below the surface, ready to leap out and kill us all. From the YVO:
It's not a surprise to see things still shifting and re-shifting in the area. Admittedly, the whole thing could blow out in a massive steam explosion tomorrow and make life extremely unpleasant for anyone in the immediate area, but it is also important to note that tectonic activity in Yellowstone doesn't necessarily mean that something's going on in the magma chambers or even the hydrothermal system.
And while I'm spending my afternoon complaining about things, I'd just like to say: A balloon boy documentary? Please, no.
Yellowstone is in a very tectonically active region, whether or not there's a giant magma monster lurking below the surface, ready to leap out and kill us all. From the YVO:
Although some quakes are caused by rising magma and hot-ground-water movement, many emanate from regional faults related to crustal stretching and mountain building. For example, major faults along the Teton, Madison, and Gallatin Ranges pass through the park and likely existed long before the beginning of volcanism there. Movements along many of these faults are capable of producing significant earthquakes.
It's not a surprise to see things still shifting and re-shifting in the area. Admittedly, the whole thing could blow out in a massive steam explosion tomorrow and make life extremely unpleasant for anyone in the immediate area, but it is also important to note that tectonic activity in Yellowstone doesn't necessarily mean that something's going on in the magma chambers or even the hydrothermal system.
And while I'm spending my afternoon complaining about things, I'd just like to say: A balloon boy documentary? Please, no.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Because Joe McCarthy needs better press
Conservative Vision Ascendant In Latest TX History Textbooks Draft; Gingrich, Schlafly Back In; because what social studies text books need is more emphasis on the positive cultural contributions of the NRA. No, really. I'm not even making this up.
Of course, the best bit come from TPM's previous post on this topic:
Um... no. He really wasn't. McCarthy was a horrible human being on a witch hunt and ruined a lot of innocent lives. Unless by reading the latest, you mean by one of well-known historian1 Ann Coulter's vicious screeds, and in that case... still no. What planet is McLeroy living on anyway?
Oh. That planet.
Text books are important, and what's in them is important as well. If you've never read Lies My Teacher Told Me, I cannot recommend it enough. Whether or not you buy the author's political stance, his points regarding the presentation of history and how easily manipulated it is range from thought-provoking to terrifying.
1 - Yes, I was laughing as I typed this. Well, more like giggling. Possibly in a manner reminiscent of Joseph McCarthy.
Of course, the best bit come from TPM's previous post on this topic:
In a note to curriculum writers last fall, McLeroy encouraged them to "read the latest on McCarthy -- he was basically vindicated."
Um... no. He really wasn't. McCarthy was a horrible human being on a witch hunt and ruined a lot of innocent lives. Unless by reading the latest, you mean by one of well-known historian1 Ann Coulter's vicious screeds, and in that case... still no. What planet is McLeroy living on anyway?
"The secular humanists may argue that we are a secular nation. But we are a Christian nation founded on Christian principles. The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan--he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes."
Oh. That planet.
Text books are important, and what's in them is important as well. If you've never read Lies My Teacher Told Me, I cannot recommend it enough. Whether or not you buy the author's political stance, his points regarding the presentation of history and how easily manipulated it is range from thought-provoking to terrifying.
1 - Yes, I was laughing as I typed this. Well, more like giggling. Possibly in a manner reminiscent of Joseph McCarthy.
Monday, January 18, 2010
A handful of links
Abortion and breast cancer: The manufacturversy that won't die - Orac takes a look at this steaming pile of BS. I remember the last time the awful people with the giant mutilated fetus posters were making life miserable on campus, they were pushing this claim. And seemed very puzzled that I was angry they were actively lying to people.
Cruise ships still find Haitian berth - this is certainly one messy issue to think about. On the one hand, there's the utterly squeamish thought of people being on vacation (and eating their bbq) that close to a disaster site. On the other hand, there's the aide, the promised proceeds, and at least some money being put in to the Haitian economy. My brain's chasing itself in circles just thinking about this.
Science project prompts SD school evacuation - from the department of *facepalm*.
I know, right? Kid wants to play with science and engineering outside of school. There MUST be something wrong with him. Ugh.
Is Refusing Bed Rest a Crime? - This story made me so very, very angry. I understand that there is something of a public interest in babies being born healthy. That said, it's not your goddamn body, and being pregnant doesn't mean you give up your fundamental rights as an adult human being. Seeing women treated like public incubators with no rights really scares the crap out of me.
Haiti, HAARP, and conspiracy theorists - an excellent roundup from BoingBoing about the new nutty conspiracy theories about how HAARP somehow caused the earthquake in Haiti, since it's a death ray. Or something. Mmm, I love the smell of crazy in the morning.
Cruise ships still find Haitian berth - this is certainly one messy issue to think about. On the one hand, there's the utterly squeamish thought of people being on vacation (and eating their bbq) that close to a disaster site. On the other hand, there's the aide, the promised proceeds, and at least some money being put in to the Haitian economy. My brain's chasing itself in circles just thinking about this.
Science project prompts SD school evacuation - from the department of *facepalm*.
The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling, the spokesman said. The student violated school policies, but there was no criminal intent, Luque said.
I know, right? Kid wants to play with science and engineering outside of school. There MUST be something wrong with him. Ugh.
Is Refusing Bed Rest a Crime? - This story made me so very, very angry. I understand that there is something of a public interest in babies being born healthy. That said, it's not your goddamn body, and being pregnant doesn't mean you give up your fundamental rights as an adult human being. Seeing women treated like public incubators with no rights really scares the crap out of me.
Haiti, HAARP, and conspiracy theorists - an excellent roundup from BoingBoing about the new nutty conspiracy theories about how HAARP somehow caused the earthquake in Haiti, since it's a death ray. Or something. Mmm, I love the smell of crazy in the morning.
Your volcano for Monday
Sorry, like last week, it's a non-explodey one. Still, this makes me happy; the Valles Caldera is being considered for inclusion in the National Park System. I visited the Valles Caldera during my last field class, and it's a beautiful area. Making it in to a national park would certainly help maintain that beauty. I even took pictures.
USNS Comfort goes to Haiti
I checked this morning and was relieved to see that the Comfort has been ordered to Haiti and is expected to arrive on the 20th or 21st. I just wish that it could get there sooner. If you haven't heard of the Comfort before, here's some information, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Probably because I've been in Denver most of my life, I know very little about what sort of ships we've got. I only even heard of the Comfort because my Uncle Charles pointed it out to me the first time I went to Baltimore for Otakon, which involved me visiting my family there as well. We were driving past the shipyards and he pointed to what looked like a white building with a giant red cross on it jutting up between the cranes, and told me that was the Comfort, settled in at her home port. My Uncle was career navy (now retired) and did electrical work on the ship. I could tell he was proud of her when he pointed her out. I think he has every reason to be.
Also: Richard Dawkins has set up a donation fund to take yet another stab at the tired old lie that atheists are uncaring and don't give. He's covering up to $10,000 of the Paypal fees. The money will go to Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross.
Probably because I've been in Denver most of my life, I know very little about what sort of ships we've got. I only even heard of the Comfort because my Uncle Charles pointed it out to me the first time I went to Baltimore for Otakon, which involved me visiting my family there as well. We were driving past the shipyards and he pointed to what looked like a white building with a giant red cross on it jutting up between the cranes, and told me that was the Comfort, settled in at her home port. My Uncle was career navy (now retired) and did electrical work on the ship. I could tell he was proud of her when he pointed her out. I think he has every reason to be.
Also: Richard Dawkins has set up a donation fund to take yet another stab at the tired old lie that atheists are uncaring and don't give. He's covering up to $10,000 of the Paypal fees. The money will go to Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Thoughts on Haiti
The tragedy caused by the earthquake (a pretty shallow one, at about 13km depth per the USGS tracker) is just breaking my heart, over and over again. I've already donated some money to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, and I'm hoping to make a second donation after taking a look at our financial status tomorrow. (A good list of other relief agencies here.)
Looking at this from a scientific perspective, it highlights the destructive power of faulting within the Earth's crust. That the large quake and its aftershocks have all been shallow (10-13 km deep) means that there is less dissipation of the seismic waves when they hit the surface. So we end up with a high magnitude earthquake (of 7.0) that releases a lot of energy, and since it's so close to the surface - and so close to a populated area - the intensity of it is unimaginable. The British Geological Society has a simple fault map of the area; this quake occurred along a transform fault, similar to the San Andreas in the US. The BGS informational statement is also a good overview:
What strikes me here is that the fault has only been locked for 250 years - barely even the blink of an eye in geologic time - and that let it accumulate enough stress to blow out in a 7.0. The Caribbean Plate is much more active and under much more stress than I ever realized, though I suppose I should have. (I think the massive Pacific Plate tends to steal all the fame.)
The geology is honestly the only thing in this situation that isn't heart-breaking or rage-inducing. It's the only thing I can really be rational about. If I believed in Hell, I'd be reserving a special place in it for Rush Limbaugh, who is transforming himself from the fascist gasbag I idly hate when I don't have anything better to do with my time to someone that should simply have his membership in our species revoked. Pat Robertson has also come out to remind us that he's a giant douchebag, which leaves me unspeakably angry as well. BoingBoing's assessment of Haiti's real deal with the Devil, inspired by Pat "Douchebag" Robertson, has left me upset to the point that I cannot even coherently express my opinion on this bit of history.
At this point, there's really nothing left for people like me to do but give.
And hope.
Also: BoingBoing's link roundup for day two.
EDIT: Reponse by the Haitian ambassador to the US to Pat "Douchebag" Robertson.
Looking at this from a scientific perspective, it highlights the destructive power of faulting within the Earth's crust. That the large quake and its aftershocks have all been shallow (10-13 km deep) means that there is less dissipation of the seismic waves when they hit the surface. So we end up with a high magnitude earthquake (of 7.0) that releases a lot of energy, and since it's so close to the surface - and so close to a populated area - the intensity of it is unimaginable. The British Geological Society has a simple fault map of the area; this quake occurred along a transform fault, similar to the San Andreas in the US. The BGS informational statement is also a good overview:
The fault in this case is called the Enriquillo- Plantain Garden fault. This fault has been locked for the last 250 years gradually accumulating stress which has now been released in a single large earthquake.
What strikes me here is that the fault has only been locked for 250 years - barely even the blink of an eye in geologic time - and that let it accumulate enough stress to blow out in a 7.0. The Caribbean Plate is much more active and under much more stress than I ever realized, though I suppose I should have. (I think the massive Pacific Plate tends to steal all the fame.)
The geology is honestly the only thing in this situation that isn't heart-breaking or rage-inducing. It's the only thing I can really be rational about. If I believed in Hell, I'd be reserving a special place in it for Rush Limbaugh, who is transforming himself from the fascist gasbag I idly hate when I don't have anything better to do with my time to someone that should simply have his membership in our species revoked. Pat Robertson has also come out to remind us that he's a giant douchebag, which leaves me unspeakably angry as well. BoingBoing's assessment of Haiti's real deal with the Devil, inspired by Pat "Douchebag" Robertson, has left me upset to the point that I cannot even coherently express my opinion on this bit of history.
At this point, there's really nothing left for people like me to do but give.
And hope.
Also: BoingBoing's link roundup for day two.
EDIT: Reponse by the Haitian ambassador to the US to Pat "Douchebag" Robertson.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
In review
My application for grad school at CU is now officially "in review," which means it's ready for the faculty to look at it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Using Geochemistry to find Kimberlites
I found this article pretty interesting: The GOPE 25 Kimberlite Discovery, Botswana, Predicated on Four Mg-Ilmenite Grains from Reconnaissance Soil Samples: A Case History
Basically, some kimberlites were identified using indicator minerals that came from the soil above the pipes. One of the important indicator minerals was ilmenite (which I had in my own pet rock from Green Mountain). Even more interesting, the scientists used the chemical signatures of these ilmenites to infer if the kimberlites in question were likely to contain diamonds. That's some pretty cool stuff.
Basically, some kimberlites were identified using indicator minerals that came from the soil above the pipes. One of the important indicator minerals was ilmenite (which I had in my own pet rock from Green Mountain). Even more interesting, the scientists used the chemical signatures of these ilmenites to infer if the kimberlites in question were likely to contain diamonds. That's some pretty cool stuff.
Tracking the federal court case on Prop 8
There are honestly times I've been made to feel very uncomfortable about the fact that I'm going to be married in May. The biggest cause is the giant douchebags that defend their bigoted and outdated beliefs by claiming that they're somehow "defending" marriage. I don't think this particular journey Mike and I are planning to embark upon requires defending, thanks. And the more the secular institution that I'm interested in gets wrapped in pages from the Bible, the less welcome I feel, to be sure. I find few things more insulting than the idea that our love and our relationship should receive some sort of privileged status because I've got an innie and Mike's got an outie.
Needless to say, I'm very interested in the case against California's Proposition 8, which is currently being tried in Federal court. I think it's incredibly important that it's being made in to a Federal issue, and that it will no doubt end up in front of the Supreme Court. I'm both incredibly hopeful and incredibly worried.
If you're similarly interested, there are several good places to keep a close eye on the trial:
Prop 8 Trial Tracker
LGBT POV
Pam's House Blend
So far, so good, but it's only the third day.
Needless to say, I'm very interested in the case against California's Proposition 8, which is currently being tried in Federal court. I think it's incredibly important that it's being made in to a Federal issue, and that it will no doubt end up in front of the Supreme Court. I'm both incredibly hopeful and incredibly worried.
If you're similarly interested, there are several good places to keep a close eye on the trial:
Prop 8 Trial Tracker
LGBT POV
Pam's House Blend
So far, so good, but it's only the third day.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Art: Scarring Children for Life in Texas
I meant to post this link last week, but the horrifying detonation of my digestive tract on Wednesday kind of distracted me. My best friend Kat, who teaches first grade, sent this story to me: Museum Field Trip Deemed Too Revealing
The basic story seems to be that a teacher took her class on a field trip to the Art Museum, which is a place that's been approved by the school for kids to go. Kids saw (OH GOD NO) some art that involved nudes at some point along the tour. Teacher was subsequently fired.
I'd like to paint this as a head-shaking, "only in Texas" thing, but I can quite easily imagine this sort of situation cropping up in Colorado Springs or any other deeply conservative1 community. What freaked Kat out the most is that the teacher took the kids to an approved location, and still ended up on the block for it. What's freaking me out the most is that apparently nudity in art is so evil and offensive to someone that they went gunning for the teacher's job.
I understand not wanting children to be exposed to pornography, really I do. How some people can conflate pornography with simple nudity is, I think, more revealing of those doing the conflating than they'd really like. I also admit that I'm quite puzzled as to how children can spend their infancy presumably being exposed to boobies while being fed, and to the reality of being naked under their clothes throughout their childhood2, but a nude statue at an art museum is apparently going to warp their young minds beyond recognition. Maybe the statues in question were holding signs that said things like, "Santa Claus isn't real," "The Tooth Fairy doesn't exist," and "Metallica 4ever."
Yeesh.
1 - Here, "deeply conservative" read as "completely fucking insane."
2 - I took showers with my parents when I was a really little kid, so I even knew what naked grownups looked like. Though I suppose depending on your feelings about me as a person, that could work as an argument in either direction.
The basic story seems to be that a teacher took her class on a field trip to the Art Museum, which is a place that's been approved by the school for kids to go. Kids saw (OH GOD NO) some art that involved nudes at some point along the tour. Teacher was subsequently fired.
I'd like to paint this as a head-shaking, "only in Texas" thing, but I can quite easily imagine this sort of situation cropping up in Colorado Springs or any other deeply conservative1 community. What freaked Kat out the most is that the teacher took the kids to an approved location, and still ended up on the block for it. What's freaking me out the most is that apparently nudity in art is so evil and offensive to someone that they went gunning for the teacher's job.
I understand not wanting children to be exposed to pornography, really I do. How some people can conflate pornography with simple nudity is, I think, more revealing of those doing the conflating than they'd really like. I also admit that I'm quite puzzled as to how children can spend their infancy presumably being exposed to boobies while being fed, and to the reality of being naked under their clothes throughout their childhood2, but a nude statue at an art museum is apparently going to warp their young minds beyond recognition. Maybe the statues in question were holding signs that said things like, "Santa Claus isn't real," "The Tooth Fairy doesn't exist," and "Metallica 4ever."
Yeesh.
1 - Here, "deeply conservative" read as "completely fucking insane."
2 - I took showers with my parents when I was a really little kid, so I even knew what naked grownups looked like. Though I suppose depending on your feelings about me as a person, that could work as an argument in either direction.
Monday, January 11, 2010
The End of Time
Thanks to April, my big brother's wonderful girlfriend, I finally got to see the second part of The End of Time last night. For those of you who aren't giant Doctor Who geeks, move along, move along. Nothing to see here.
SPOILERS ABOUND. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I will start by saying that the first part really didn't impress me. It was loud, bombastic, needlessly explodey, and involved far too many shots of the Doctor either walking or running somewhere accompanied by rather overdone music, which really just made me feel like they were trying to add some filler to the episode to make it long enough. But at the end, I was still excited about the second part, because if nothing else, there were going to be Time Lords. Apparently lead by a very spitty Timothy Dalton. The general Time Lord culture was something I've really missed out of the new Who, and I was excited at the prospect of them making a comeback, since that would open up all sorts of new plot as well. Also, I was hoping that if the Time Lords did make a return, maybe we'd get to see a new incarnation of Romana, who was one of my favorite characters ever from old Who.
Sadly, I was disappointed, on many, many, many counts.
Before I get down to the real kvetching, there were certain things out of the second part that I really, really liked. There was a lovely scene between the Doctor and the Master, which involved them not shrieking at each other, and it was beautifully done and very dramatic. I liked spitty Timothy Dalton as Rassilon, and even though I'd already spoiled myself as to who he was, I still just about wet my pants when the Doctor used the name. Dalton makes a wonderful Rassilon; sure, he's the founder of the great and noble Time Lord civilization, but I think it adds some real dimension to the culture when we get to see that Rassilon was also a giant, scary bastard. And for all that the Time Lords did not in fact make a comeback like I'd been hoping, I think that some of the plot was very interesting. If nothing else, the revelation that the doctor destroyed the Time Lords not as collateral damage in the destruction of the Daleks, but on purpose because they'd become just as evil, just blew me away. It casts the Doctor in a whole new light and was very well done.
That said, the rest of it? I'm not going to claim it was awful and that Russel T. Davies and I are through (not that it matters at this point) but of all the big, explodey, bombastic, over the top season enders, this one was definitely the worst. It was a lot of sound and fury, and very little substance. The Doctor saving the Earth at the end just seemed a little too easy and clean. And I'm sorry, but whether it's the long pre-regeneration goodbye sequence, or just the intended-to-be-dramatic-but-not-really bit where the Doctor can't seem to decide if he should be pointing his gun at Rassilon1 or the Master, I spent a lot of time wanting to yell "GET ON WITH IT!" at April's TV. That's never a good sign.
As a good example of just what was wrong with the episode, take Donna. I was incredibly excited about Donna being in the episode, since she's by far my favorite of the companions. I cried, quite literally, when she had to have her memory erased at the end of last season, and it made the wonderfully poignant point clear that yes, thing really do go terribly, terribly wrong in the Doctor's life and there aren't always happy endings. And then in this episode... what? She gets surrounded by a bunch of Master copies and then her head sort of explodes and... that's it. She has basically no bearing on the plot at all, other than as a footnote. It's not that I wanted something bad to happen to Donna, goodness no. I love her to pieces. But after the frantic warnings from the Doctor about what will happen to her if she remembers, and then basically seeing her brain explode on screen, suddenly at the end she's all better and nothing seems to have happened. What? What was the point of the build up?
The Doctor's death also annoyed me, frankly. I do like that it wasn't Rassilon that did him in. I thought David Tennant did some amazing acting when it came to the sudden swing from high to low, as he goes from thinking that he's escaped fate to realizing that his death is inescapable. I can even go for him giving up his life to save Wilf, and the wonderfully nasty, egotistical things he said to go with it. But hinging all of that loveliness on a booth that apparently requires someone to be locked in it for no apparent reason really just takes all the steam out of the sacrifice. They had to find a way to kill the Doctor off, and that was the best they could do? Really?
And then of course, the Doctor gets irradiated and sort of killed and it's all quite heart-wrenching until he gets up and then spends the next fifteen minutes wandering around and exchanging significant looks with nearly everyone who has ever been in more than two episodes with him. The thing that was often so emotional about other Doctors regenerating was how abrupt it seemed. Take the Christopher Eccleston regeneration; it made me cry. He went from fine to basically dead and regenerated in in only a few minutes, and even though I'd been expecting it, it was still emotional and well executed. What they did with Tennant seems to me the equivalent of if Eccleston had paused, made himself some tea and sandwich, done some phone calls, answered all of his correspondence, and then finally kicked the bucket. Bleh.
Then the fact that the Doctor regenerating this time apparently made the Tardis catch on fire? Don't get me started.
Admittedly, The End of Time had a tough act to follow. Right before we watched the second part, April let us watch The Waters of Mars since we hadn't seen that yet. That episode is amazing. It was creepy, it was suspenseful, and the ending just blew me away. But what I find so frustrating is that it's obvious that this sort of tight scripting and emotional roller coaster is more than possible on the show, and then they get to the season finale and just sort of blow it all on the Master having a fake glow-in-the-dark skull for a head.
I think maybe the biggest problem is that every season finale of the new Doctor Who has been over the top and explodey. We can't seem to have a finale that doesn't involve the possible destruction of the Earth at best or the entire universe at worst. And I find that frustrating, because many of what I consider to be the best episodes of the new Who have been the very ones where the stakes were relatively small. The weeping Angels in Blink weren't threatening to destroy space and time. Midnight was just about a few people, on a single ship. The Girl in the Fireplace was about one woman's life. The problem is, every time you have to end a series by threatening to blow up the universe, you paint yourself a little further in to a corner, since next time you feel obligated to somehow ratchet the stakes up higher2. And frankly, after one or two threats to destroy the universe or space/time or whatever, it gets sort of boring, because you know they can't destroy the universe because there's going to be a season next year.
It just makes me sad to think what they could have done with this story, with this revelation of how awful and evil the Time Lords were at the end of the war, if they hadn't needed to put it hand in hand with the threat of total destruction. How much more interesting would it have been, if the Doctor had come face to face with Rassilon and had to reenact is final decision, not because he was worried about space and time getting destroyed, but because he was once again face with the ghost of his own people becoming just as monstrous as the Daleks.
It's obviously possible to have a lot of drama and tension and excitement without threatening to destroy the universe again. Hopefully the next round of Doctor Who scripts will keep that in mind.
1 - After seeing Rassilon being an all powerful giant bastard earlier, I was forced to wonder in this scene why, after the Doctor first pointed the gun at him, Rassilon didn't simply pop the Doctor's head off like he was a giant Pez dispenser.
2- My brother illustrated this point nicely last night. A not quite verbatim quote: "[Author whose name I have somehow spaced out] wrote a book where at the end he blew up the Earth. And then he wrote a sequel where at the end, he blew up the universe. And then he wrote a third book where at the end, he blew up all possible universes. After that there was nothing left to blow up, so he had to end the series."
SPOILERS ABOUND. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I will start by saying that the first part really didn't impress me. It was loud, bombastic, needlessly explodey, and involved far too many shots of the Doctor either walking or running somewhere accompanied by rather overdone music, which really just made me feel like they were trying to add some filler to the episode to make it long enough. But at the end, I was still excited about the second part, because if nothing else, there were going to be Time Lords. Apparently lead by a very spitty Timothy Dalton. The general Time Lord culture was something I've really missed out of the new Who, and I was excited at the prospect of them making a comeback, since that would open up all sorts of new plot as well. Also, I was hoping that if the Time Lords did make a return, maybe we'd get to see a new incarnation of Romana, who was one of my favorite characters ever from old Who.
Sadly, I was disappointed, on many, many, many counts.
Before I get down to the real kvetching, there were certain things out of the second part that I really, really liked. There was a lovely scene between the Doctor and the Master, which involved them not shrieking at each other, and it was beautifully done and very dramatic. I liked spitty Timothy Dalton as Rassilon, and even though I'd already spoiled myself as to who he was, I still just about wet my pants when the Doctor used the name. Dalton makes a wonderful Rassilon; sure, he's the founder of the great and noble Time Lord civilization, but I think it adds some real dimension to the culture when we get to see that Rassilon was also a giant, scary bastard. And for all that the Time Lords did not in fact make a comeback like I'd been hoping, I think that some of the plot was very interesting. If nothing else, the revelation that the doctor destroyed the Time Lords not as collateral damage in the destruction of the Daleks, but on purpose because they'd become just as evil, just blew me away. It casts the Doctor in a whole new light and was very well done.
That said, the rest of it? I'm not going to claim it was awful and that Russel T. Davies and I are through (not that it matters at this point) but of all the big, explodey, bombastic, over the top season enders, this one was definitely the worst. It was a lot of sound and fury, and very little substance. The Doctor saving the Earth at the end just seemed a little too easy and clean. And I'm sorry, but whether it's the long pre-regeneration goodbye sequence, or just the intended-to-be-dramatic-but-not-really bit where the Doctor can't seem to decide if he should be pointing his gun at Rassilon1 or the Master, I spent a lot of time wanting to yell "GET ON WITH IT!" at April's TV. That's never a good sign.
As a good example of just what was wrong with the episode, take Donna. I was incredibly excited about Donna being in the episode, since she's by far my favorite of the companions. I cried, quite literally, when she had to have her memory erased at the end of last season, and it made the wonderfully poignant point clear that yes, thing really do go terribly, terribly wrong in the Doctor's life and there aren't always happy endings. And then in this episode... what? She gets surrounded by a bunch of Master copies and then her head sort of explodes and... that's it. She has basically no bearing on the plot at all, other than as a footnote. It's not that I wanted something bad to happen to Donna, goodness no. I love her to pieces. But after the frantic warnings from the Doctor about what will happen to her if she remembers, and then basically seeing her brain explode on screen, suddenly at the end she's all better and nothing seems to have happened. What? What was the point of the build up?
The Doctor's death also annoyed me, frankly. I do like that it wasn't Rassilon that did him in. I thought David Tennant did some amazing acting when it came to the sudden swing from high to low, as he goes from thinking that he's escaped fate to realizing that his death is inescapable. I can even go for him giving up his life to save Wilf, and the wonderfully nasty, egotistical things he said to go with it. But hinging all of that loveliness on a booth that apparently requires someone to be locked in it for no apparent reason really just takes all the steam out of the sacrifice. They had to find a way to kill the Doctor off, and that was the best they could do? Really?
And then of course, the Doctor gets irradiated and sort of killed and it's all quite heart-wrenching until he gets up and then spends the next fifteen minutes wandering around and exchanging significant looks with nearly everyone who has ever been in more than two episodes with him. The thing that was often so emotional about other Doctors regenerating was how abrupt it seemed. Take the Christopher Eccleston regeneration; it made me cry. He went from fine to basically dead and regenerated in in only a few minutes, and even though I'd been expecting it, it was still emotional and well executed. What they did with Tennant seems to me the equivalent of if Eccleston had paused, made himself some tea and sandwich, done some phone calls, answered all of his correspondence, and then finally kicked the bucket. Bleh.
Then the fact that the Doctor regenerating this time apparently made the Tardis catch on fire? Don't get me started.
Admittedly, The End of Time had a tough act to follow. Right before we watched the second part, April let us watch The Waters of Mars since we hadn't seen that yet. That episode is amazing. It was creepy, it was suspenseful, and the ending just blew me away. But what I find so frustrating is that it's obvious that this sort of tight scripting and emotional roller coaster is more than possible on the show, and then they get to the season finale and just sort of blow it all on the Master having a fake glow-in-the-dark skull for a head.
I think maybe the biggest problem is that every season finale of the new Doctor Who has been over the top and explodey. We can't seem to have a finale that doesn't involve the possible destruction of the Earth at best or the entire universe at worst. And I find that frustrating, because many of what I consider to be the best episodes of the new Who have been the very ones where the stakes were relatively small. The weeping Angels in Blink weren't threatening to destroy space and time. Midnight was just about a few people, on a single ship. The Girl in the Fireplace was about one woman's life. The problem is, every time you have to end a series by threatening to blow up the universe, you paint yourself a little further in to a corner, since next time you feel obligated to somehow ratchet the stakes up higher2. And frankly, after one or two threats to destroy the universe or space/time or whatever, it gets sort of boring, because you know they can't destroy the universe because there's going to be a season next year.
It just makes me sad to think what they could have done with this story, with this revelation of how awful and evil the Time Lords were at the end of the war, if they hadn't needed to put it hand in hand with the threat of total destruction. How much more interesting would it have been, if the Doctor had come face to face with Rassilon and had to reenact is final decision, not because he was worried about space and time getting destroyed, but because he was once again face with the ghost of his own people becoming just as monstrous as the Daleks.
It's obviously possible to have a lot of drama and tension and excitement without threatening to destroy the universe again. Hopefully the next round of Doctor Who scripts will keep that in mind.
1 - After seeing Rassilon being an all powerful giant bastard earlier, I was forced to wonder in this scene why, after the Doctor first pointed the gun at him, Rassilon didn't simply pop the Doctor's head off like he was a giant Pez dispenser.
2- My brother illustrated this point nicely last night. A not quite verbatim quote: "[Author whose name I have somehow spaced out] wrote a book where at the end he blew up the Earth. And then he wrote a sequel where at the end, he blew up the universe. And then he wrote a third book where at the end, he blew up all possible universes. After that there was nothing left to blow up, so he had to end the series."
Your volcano for Monday
The Yellowstone caldera, where absolutely nothing of note is going on.
I swear, if I had a nickel for every time someone breathlessly told me about the apocalyptic disaster coming soon1 to the Western US when Yellowstone explodes, I'd... well, I'd have a lot of nickels, to start. I'd quite possibly be planning for an even fancier wedding too, presumably one where I could blow a giant box full of nickels on something as insipid as an ice sculpture.
1 - This is geology. Soon does not mean what you think it means.
I swear, if I had a nickel for every time someone breathlessly told me about the apocalyptic disaster coming soon1 to the Western US when Yellowstone explodes, I'd... well, I'd have a lot of nickels, to start. I'd quite possibly be planning for an even fancier wedding too, presumably one where I could blow a giant box full of nickels on something as insipid as an ice sculpture.
1 - This is geology. Soon does not mean what you think it means.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Science fiction makes you godless and evil
Well, I guess if you have a fundamental problem with science in general, science fiction becomes a sort of terrifying, wordy mass of horror. I'm waiting for this guy's next installment, when he attacks the fantasy genre for being polytheistic and glorifying witchcraft. And elves. Because everyone knows that elves are really just thinly disguised tree-worshipping hippies.
Um... Sagan as an astrophysicist, wasn't he? Asimov was a biochemist. Neither of them were biologists. Or maybe this is the bit where we conflate all science with evolution, because it's a buzzword for EVIL.
It kind of reminds me of the bit in Stuart's 2009 Colorado Skepticamp presentation, when he was showing some clips from everyone's favorite creationist blowhard Ken Ham. One of the clips referred to the "evolutionary science of comets," at which point I almost fell out of my chair. While one can talk about a comet's "evolution," it was pretty plain that they were in fact attaching the word "evolution" to anything they didn't like, to mark it as one of those evil things that doesn't support a literal interpretation of the Bible.
That aside, I totally want to read this guy's review of Twilight. It would be like two things I hate coming together and creating something mind-blowingly fantastic.
Science fiction is intimately associated with Darwinian evolution. Sagan and Asimov, for example, were prominent evolutionary scientists.
Um... Sagan as an astrophysicist, wasn't he? Asimov was a biochemist. Neither of them were biologists. Or maybe this is the bit where we conflate all science with evolution, because it's a buzzword for EVIL.
It kind of reminds me of the bit in Stuart's 2009 Colorado Skepticamp presentation, when he was showing some clips from everyone's favorite creationist blowhard Ken Ham. One of the clips referred to the "evolutionary science of comets," at which point I almost fell out of my chair. While one can talk about a comet's "evolution," it was pretty plain that they were in fact attaching the word "evolution" to anything they didn't like, to mark it as one of those evil things that doesn't support a literal interpretation of the Bible.
That aside, I totally want to read this guy's review of Twilight. It would be like two things I hate coming together and creating something mind-blowingly fantastic.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
More on rocks as carbon traps
Conveniently enough, there's a Scientific American article about the use of basalt as a CO2 sink, which was posted yesterday. I suppose that using basalt for its CO2 sponging abilities isn't a bad second option; if nothing else, there's a lot more basalt in the world than there is easily available ultramafic rocks. Basalt is being produced every day from volcanoes, while ultramafic melts would be very uncommon in this day and age. To get an ultramafic rock, you need a much higher degree of melting of the mantle peridotite than you'd normally get, now that the Earth has cooled off a bit.
Depending on the type of basalt, you'll also get olivine in it, which is what I talked about yesterday as the main constituent of ultramafic rocks, the thing which weathers so nicely once you add a little carbonic acid. I doubt that you could go much less mafic1 than basalt and still get much bang for your buck.
The reason for this comes down to Bowen's Reaction Series, the terror of all first year students of geology. The reaction series is really just a simplified description of how magmas crystallize, because different minerals are stable at different temperatures and pressures. We're most concerned with the left side of the series, in this case.
So let's pretend we've got some mafic (but not ultramafic) magma, which spews to the surface and becomes lava. The first thing that will crystallize in it as it starts to cool is olivine. As the lava continues to cool, some of the olivine (not very stable at these low pressures) will react with the remaining melt and begin forming pyroxene. More cooling, and the pyroxene starts converting over to amphibole. Melt composition also plays a big role, but that's getting a little too complicated for a Tuesday before I've had lunch, I think. By the time all your lava has cooled down, you're going to end up with a mixture of what's more stable at the surface, such as pyroxene and amphibole.
That's generally how the reaction series works. The important thing to keep in mind is that the higher you are in that reaction series, the less stable the mineral is at the surface. And the less stable it is, the easier it is for carbonic acid to come along and work its magic. Ultramafic rocks are ideal for this because they're mostly olivine. Depending on the type of basalt, there are still a lot of minerals that break down very easily, such as pyroxene - and some basalts do have significant amounts of olivine in them still.
This still has the same pitfalls and questions as using the ultramafic rocks, I think. The biggest being, of course, that if you think it takes a long time for an ultramafic rock to weather, it's going to take even longer for basalt.
I'm also really wondering about the one sort of throw-away statement at the end of the article:
Putting aside the the cringe-inducing phrase "an offshore sediment," I'm wondering what exactly the goal is, there. Are the sediments in question ones that they expect the CO2 to react with? Are they just hoping the sediments are going to hold on to the CO2 long enough that it'll be someone else's problem, which is often the goal when we're talking about injecting carbon down somewhere deep in the ocean? That's a little worrying.
1 - Just in case you didn't know, all this "mafic" business is just a reference to the major non-silica components of the rock. Mafic is shorthand for magnesium/ferric (ferric meaning iron) since there's a lot of those elements in this sort of rock. You'll also hear "felsic" which is shorthand for feldspar/silicate, which you find in abundance in rocks like granite.
Depending on the type of basalt, you'll also get olivine in it, which is what I talked about yesterday as the main constituent of ultramafic rocks, the thing which weathers so nicely once you add a little carbonic acid. I doubt that you could go much less mafic1 than basalt and still get much bang for your buck.
The reason for this comes down to Bowen's Reaction Series, the terror of all first year students of geology. The reaction series is really just a simplified description of how magmas crystallize, because different minerals are stable at different temperatures and pressures. We're most concerned with the left side of the series, in this case.
So let's pretend we've got some mafic (but not ultramafic) magma, which spews to the surface and becomes lava. The first thing that will crystallize in it as it starts to cool is olivine. As the lava continues to cool, some of the olivine (not very stable at these low pressures) will react with the remaining melt and begin forming pyroxene. More cooling, and the pyroxene starts converting over to amphibole. Melt composition also plays a big role, but that's getting a little too complicated for a Tuesday before I've had lunch, I think. By the time all your lava has cooled down, you're going to end up with a mixture of what's more stable at the surface, such as pyroxene and amphibole.
That's generally how the reaction series works. The important thing to keep in mind is that the higher you are in that reaction series, the less stable the mineral is at the surface. And the less stable it is, the easier it is for carbonic acid to come along and work its magic. Ultramafic rocks are ideal for this because they're mostly olivine. Depending on the type of basalt, there are still a lot of minerals that break down very easily, such as pyroxene - and some basalts do have significant amounts of olivine in them still.
This still has the same pitfalls and questions as using the ultramafic rocks, I think. The biggest being, of course, that if you think it takes a long time for an ultramafic rock to weather, it's going to take even longer for basalt.
I'm also really wondering about the one sort of throw-away statement at the end of the article:
Already, a proposed coal-fired power plant proposed in Linden, N.J. includes plans to pump captured CO2 emissions into an offshore sediment, albeit not a basalt one.
Putting aside the the cringe-inducing phrase "an offshore sediment," I'm wondering what exactly the goal is, there. Are the sediments in question ones that they expect the CO2 to react with? Are they just hoping the sediments are going to hold on to the CO2 long enough that it'll be someone else's problem, which is often the goal when we're talking about injecting carbon down somewhere deep in the ocean? That's a little worrying.
1 - Just in case you didn't know, all this "mafic" business is just a reference to the major non-silica components of the rock. Mafic is shorthand for magnesium/ferric (ferric meaning iron) since there's a lot of those elements in this sort of rock. You'll also hear "felsic" which is shorthand for feldspar/silicate, which you find in abundance in rocks like granite.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Your volcano for Monday
Nyamuragira in the Congo is erupting. As it's one of the most active volcanoes in Africa, this isn't exactly a surprise to anyone. Nyamuragira is a shield volcano, so it tends to have runny rather than explodey eruptions.
Scientific, I know.
Scientific, I know.
We're not excited about Peridotite?
Io9 did a post yesterday about peridotite and its ability to soak up carbon dioxide, and mentioned in the first paragraph that no one's talking about it. And another article that says we're not excited about it.
I imagine a lot of people haven't even heard of peridotite, or don't know what ultramafic rocks are, which is fair enough. Most people aren't geologists, and have a hard time getting excited about rocks. I actually hadn't heard of looking at ultramafic rocks for carbon sequestration until I took introduction to Geochemistry last year. After that, yes, I thought it was a pretty exciting concept.
Now, the reason we were talking about this in geochemistry is that the carbon sequestration comes down to a very basic chemical reaction that occurs every day - the chemical weathering of rocks. Most rocks in our lives are some form of silicate; their chemical formula is SiO2 plus some other junk, and the crystalline structure is usually the silica tetrahedra arranged in different ways around the other junk. Most chemical weathering of these silicates comes from CO2 dissolving in rain water to make carbonic acid, H2CO3. Rain is actually naturally a little acidic, since it's made up of water plus a little carbonic acid. It falls, runs over rocks, and then you end up with something like this:
Where the water and carbon dioxide are what make up the carbonic acid. In this particular equation, the rock in question is olivine, the main constituent of peridotite. So basically, it's:
So chemically, you can use this kind of reaction to get CO2 out of the air. And peridotite is certainly a good candidate for this kind of reaction. Olivine has a mineral structure that's basically individual silica tetrahedra jumbled together; it's not really stable at surface conditions, and it's easy for the tetrahedra to get picked off by whatever happens to come by. That's why olivine weathers away much faster than something like quartz, which has a very organized framework and doesn't allow a lot of room for party crashers. Once you've got the olivine broken down via this process, then you can separate out the ions and acid. The magnesium, you could make in to salts, or perhaps there's a good industrial use for it. The bicarbonate just needs some calcium, and then you end up with limestone, which is the end result we want for getting the carbon chemically locked away. The silicic acid could be precipitated in to amorphous silicate if nothing else.
Honestly, I can't say why people aren't excited about this possible solution to getting carbon out of the air. It's got its problems that need to be figured out for sure, though not necessarily more than any other proposed sequestration method. Off the top of my head:
And I'm sure there are more questions than that. But I also don't think these are more difficult questions than the ones that come with any proposed carbon sequestration scheme. It even has its advantages; once your carbon is chemically locked in to limestone and you toss that limestone down an old mine, you don't really have to worry about it again. The dissolution of limestone does release the carbon, but you're not going to have to worry about that until millions of years in the future, when there's been some uplift and the contents of the old mine are exposed to weathering. I'd say that's easier to deal with than figure out how to keep CO2 in gas form from escaping a reservoir you've injected it in to.
Most people I've explained this to have thought it was actually a very exciting idea, if one that's so far just on paper. The big thing is that very few people have even heard about it, as is pointed out in the articles I've linked to. Maybe it's because it's difficult to get most media excited about talking rocks, unless we're talking molten rocks that are poised to destroy a town, and then they're all over it. Of course, one might argue that it's more important to pump money in to research on finding energy sources that aren't going to produce so much carbon dioxide. Fair enough, but until we get there it really wouldn't hurt to figure out how to stuff at least some of that excess CO2 back under the global couch cushions, so to speak. Or I suppose there are some that might say that none of this is a matter of concern, but I think I've already established that I wouldn't want to sit next to them on the bus anyway.
I imagine a lot of people haven't even heard of peridotite, or don't know what ultramafic rocks are, which is fair enough. Most people aren't geologists, and have a hard time getting excited about rocks. I actually hadn't heard of looking at ultramafic rocks for carbon sequestration until I took introduction to Geochemistry last year. After that, yes, I thought it was a pretty exciting concept.
Now, the reason we were talking about this in geochemistry is that the carbon sequestration comes down to a very basic chemical reaction that occurs every day - the chemical weathering of rocks. Most rocks in our lives are some form of silicate; their chemical formula is SiO2 plus some other junk, and the crystalline structure is usually the silica tetrahedra arranged in different ways around the other junk. Most chemical weathering of these silicates comes from CO2 dissolving in rain water to make carbonic acid, H2CO3. Rain is actually naturally a little acidic, since it's made up of water plus a little carbonic acid. It falls, runs over rocks, and then you end up with something like this:
Mg2SiO4 + 4CO2 + 4H2O ⇌ 2Mg2+ + 4HCO3- + H4SiO4
Where the water and carbon dioxide are what make up the carbonic acid. In this particular equation, the rock in question is olivine, the main constituent of peridotite. So basically, it's:
Olivine + water + carbon dioxide ⇌ magnesium ions + bicarbonate + silicic acid
So chemically, you can use this kind of reaction to get CO2 out of the air. And peridotite is certainly a good candidate for this kind of reaction. Olivine has a mineral structure that's basically individual silica tetrahedra jumbled together; it's not really stable at surface conditions, and it's easy for the tetrahedra to get picked off by whatever happens to come by. That's why olivine weathers away much faster than something like quartz, which has a very organized framework and doesn't allow a lot of room for party crashers. Once you've got the olivine broken down via this process, then you can separate out the ions and acid. The magnesium, you could make in to salts, or perhaps there's a good industrial use for it. The bicarbonate just needs some calcium, and then you end up with limestone, which is the end result we want for getting the carbon chemically locked away. The silicic acid could be precipitated in to amorphous silicate if nothing else.
Honestly, I can't say why people aren't excited about this possible solution to getting carbon out of the air. It's got its problems that need to be figured out for sure, though not necessarily more than any other proposed sequestration method. Off the top of my head:
And I'm sure there are more questions than that. But I also don't think these are more difficult questions than the ones that come with any proposed carbon sequestration scheme. It even has its advantages; once your carbon is chemically locked in to limestone and you toss that limestone down an old mine, you don't really have to worry about it again. The dissolution of limestone does release the carbon, but you're not going to have to worry about that until millions of years in the future, when there's been some uplift and the contents of the old mine are exposed to weathering. I'd say that's easier to deal with than figure out how to keep CO2 in gas form from escaping a reservoir you've injected it in to.
Most people I've explained this to have thought it was actually a very exciting idea, if one that's so far just on paper. The big thing is that very few people have even heard about it, as is pointed out in the articles I've linked to. Maybe it's because it's difficult to get most media excited about talking rocks, unless we're talking molten rocks that are poised to destroy a town, and then they're all over it. Of course, one might argue that it's more important to pump money in to research on finding energy sources that aren't going to produce so much carbon dioxide. Fair enough, but until we get there it really wouldn't hurt to figure out how to stuff at least some of that excess CO2 back under the global couch cushions, so to speak. Or I suppose there are some that might say that none of this is a matter of concern, but I think I've already established that I wouldn't want to sit next to them on the bus anyway.
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