In Vacuo

Won't be blogging today. Have to get this data I've just received, analyzed and merged with other data my lab has already acquired/assembled/analyzed for a manuscript I'm in the process of writing. Until later, toodles.

Currently ...

Listening To

Hey, you got your spaceship in my video ...

... no, you got your video on my space ship! Go to their Multimedia link and select RocketCam^TM. There is some neat video in there.

Exiles: The Rocks!

Oh, if Victor Hugo only knew. The ocean floor is teeming with microbial life.

While seafloor microbes have been detected before, this is the first time they have been quantified. Using genetic analysis, Edwards and colleagues found thousands of times more bacteria on the seafloor than in the water above.

... and ...

The scientists also found higher microbial diversity on the rocks compared with other vibrant systems, such as those found at hydrothermal vents.

Even compared with the microbial diversity of farm soil--viewed by many as the richest--diversity on the basalt is statistically equivalent.

Microbial diversity, which is one of my fields of work. The article should prove to be very interesting, and I'll blog on it once I get a chance to read it. Maybe tomorrow.

Rachael Ray is a Terrorist

Which is why Dunkin Donuts pulled an ad featuring her wearing a black and white scarf.

Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, complained that the scarf looked similar to the black-and-white checkered kaffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf. Critics who fueled online complaints about the ad in blogs say such scarves have come to symbolize Muslim extremism and terrorism.

Here is a picture of the terrorist herself. What a bunch of damn fools, especially Bill O'Reilly's whore Michelle Malkin. The argument as presented by these fools: Something A "looks similar" to something B, and because something B is bad something A needs to go. Is beyond stupid. It's a friggin scarf for crying out loud. One of my favorite sweaters is a black/white/grey argyle sweater similar to the one seen below ... am I a terrorist? Am I giving a secret nod to Al-Qeada because I wear it?What total nonsense. I'm sure there are several items which Ms. Malkin herself probably reveres which could be linked back to something heinous. Almost sounds like a new game which we could call Six Degrees of Al-Qaeda. Let's try it out once.

1. Rachael Ray wore a black and white scarf in a Dunkin Donuts ad.
2. Some people in Palestine wear black and white scarves too.
3. Some of those people may be terrorists.
4. Some terrorists belong to Al-Qaeda.

So there you have it, we link Rachael Ray to Al-Qaeda in four steps. Now it's time to send her to Guantanamo, but not before she does another spread for FHM.

Paper or paper?

China sacks plastic bags. They use over 3 billion of them a day!

The Chinese government is banning production and distribution of the thinnest plastic bags in a bid to curb the white pollution that is taking over the countryside. The bags are also banned from all forms of public transportation and "scenic locations." The move may save as much as 37 million barrels of oil currently used to produce the plastic totes, according to China Trade News. Already, the nation's largest producer of such thin plastic bags, Huaqiang, has shut down its operations.

The effort comes amid growing environmental awareness among the Chinese people and mimics similar efforts in countries like Bangladesh and Ireland as well as the city of San Francisco, though efforts to replicate that ban in other U.S. municipalities have foundered in the face of opposition from plastic manufacturers.

I thought there might be a significant impact on petroleum, and there is ... to the tune of 37 million barrels. And why am I not surprised that US efforts have been curbed by plastic lobbyists. I don't want to see anyone lose their jobs, but surely you can redirect your efforts ... maybe biodegradeable plastics?

Here they come to snuff the rooster ...

... and the rooster is obviously pissed.

COPEMISH, Mich. — An 11-year-old boy has been injured when an eagle attacked him during a walk through the woods in Manistee County, Michigan.

I did it!

I biked into work today. Eight miles in a shade over 30 minutes. It wasn't too bad this morning, saw maybe a couple dozen cars on my ride in. I'm not sure what it's going to look like later this afternoon when I head home around 3:30 - 4:00. There are a couple of places where there is absolutely no shoulder whatsoever, so I have nowhere to go if someone doesn't give me enough room ... well, except down into a ditch. Hopefully drivers will be courteous and give me wide berth. Most of them did this morning, so here's to hoping the afternoon drivers are just as good.

I'd be doing somewhat better if I was feeling 100%. Spent part of the day at the beach on Monday and wound up with sunburn on the back of my knees, and then pulled my calf playing softball last night though it was a good night at the plate (3 for 5, 1 HR, 3 RBI) and in the field so I suppose I'll take it.

At any rate, I hope to keep this biking trend going. Not only does it help me reduce my carbon footprint, it allows me to give my wife my car which has better gas mileage than her beast. With gas hitting almost $4/gallon, we need to find a way to save some money ... and this is one of them. Of course, I guess I shouldn't complain. Watching the news this morning as I was eating breakfast ... diesel in England is (in US dollars) almost $9/gallon. Holy crap.

But does it come with batteries?

Something to think about when you're planning on buying that used hybrid. The battery might need replacement sooner than you might want.

Hanson says today's Prius batteries are designed to last "the life of the car," which Toyota defines as 180,000 miles.

... and ...

For those unlucky few who have to replace their own batteries, the cost is coming down. On June 1 Honda is slashing the cost of its batteries from $3,400 (excluding installation) to as low as $1,968 on an Insight or as high as $2,440 on an Accord hybrid. Toyota also plans to substantially cut battery prices, which now stand at $3,000 (excluding installation), down from $5,500 on the original Prius.

Installation runs around $900, so the total cost for the Honda will be about $4,500. Not insignificant.

This IS pretty cool

Best. Image. Ever.

My Metropolitans ...

... suck. Which makes Mr. Met sad. I don't like it when Mr. Met is sad.

Oops

I blogged a bit back on Le Grand Saut and Michel Fournier who planned on skydiving from 130,000 feet. There seems to have been a bit of a snag.

A French skydiver's hope to set a new free-fall record has been dealt another setback — his ride to the sky left without him.

The helium balloon Michel Fournier, 64, was going to use to soar to the stratosphere detached from the capsule he was going to use to jump from 130,000 feet (40,000 meters).

It happened as the balloon was being inflated on the ground at the airport in North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

The balloon drifted away into the sky without the capsule.

This Memorial Day

Prayer of a Soldier in France

My shoulders ache beneath my pack
(Lie easier, Cross, upon His back).

I march with feet that burn and smart
(Tread, Holy Feet, upon my heart).

Men shout at me who may not speak
(They scourged Thy back and smote Thy cheek).

I may not lift a hand to clear
My eyes of salty drops that sear.

(Then shall my fickle soul forget
Thy agony of Bloody Sweat?)

My rifle hand is stiff and numb
(From Thy pierced palm red rivers come).

Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me
Than all the hosts of land and sea.

So let me render back again
This millionth of Thy gift. Amen.

About Joyce Kilmer (1886 - 1918).

When the United States entered the war, Kilmer went to an officers' training camp, but he soon enlisted as a private in the 7th Regiment of the New York National Guard and later transferred to the 165th Regiment. (He began writing a historical account of his regiment in France, but it was unfinished when he was killed.) Unwilling to take time to undergo officer training, he was proud of his rise to the rank of sergeant. His letters show him to be an earnest and enthusiastic soldier, welcoming new experiences. There is sadness but also acceptance in the declamatory lines of "Rouge Bouquet":

There is on earth no worthier grave
To hold the bodies of the brave
Than this place of pain and pride
Where they nobly fought and nobly died.

His Catholicism and painful wartime experiences combined to produce some of his best verse in "Prayer of a Soldier in France," a poem through which the reader may painfully stagger with Kilmer and Christ along the via dolorosa of World War I:

My shoulders ache beneath my pack
(Lie easier, Cross, upon His back).
I march with feet that burn and smart
(Tread, Holy Feet, upon my heart).
Men shout at me who may not speak
(They scourged Thy back and smote Thy cheek).

Volunteering to take the place of a slain officer during an attack on the hills above the Ourcq, Kilmer went out to scout machine-gun nests. On 30 July 1918, he was found dead with an enemy bullet through his head. For his bravery he was buried beside officers, mentioned in dispatches, and posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre. He was survived by his wife, Aline (who became a minor poet), and four children.

For all those who have sacrificed their bodies, minds and souls for the ideals of this country, I thank you.

I thought you'd go to New Mexico ...

... to get away from your allergies. Guess that holds true only if you're not allergic to Wi-Fi.

A group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they're allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings.

I dunno ... maybe they're onto something.

President Bush ...

... is obviously a fan of Ashleigh Brilliant. Why, just look at one of Mr. Brilliants famous epigrams.

Cheer up! The worst effects of what we're doing won't be felt until after we're all dead.

Yes?

Probably, but ...

... what happens when they read about the shirt on my blog?



BTW: Despair dot com rocks.

Fold It!

It's a video game (seriously). I received the following brief in my email today.

Seattle, WA, May 8—Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at the University of Washington (UW) working in biochemist David Baker's laboratory launched a free online game called "foldit," in which players compete to design proteins. Scientists can then test the proteins to see if they could make viable candidate compounds for new drugs.

Because protein modeling requires trillions of calculations, over 200,000 volunteers have donated their computers' down-time to performing those calculations in a network, called Rosetta@home, developed by Baker's laboratory. The network uses the Monte Carlo technique to find the best fit for all of the parts of a given protein. The volunteers began to believe that if they could help guide their computers, the solutions could be expedited.

Click on the link to look at and/or play Foldit

Taken from their About Foldit page.

Foldit attempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans' puzzle-solving intuitions and having people play competitively to fold the best proteins.

Introducing the ...

... Telectroscope!


Ooooh. Ahhhh.



Note: It's a work of art.

101

101 Amazing Earth Facts

Seven Minutes of Terror ...

... no, not the seven, uncomfortable minutes you spend sitting with your parents-in-law when your spouse is getting something out of storage from their house. Rather, I'm talking about the landing of the Phoenix project on Mars this Sunday. A little over half (55%) of Mars missions have ended in disaster, so obviously the people at NASA are a bit on edge.

Well, here is to wishing them the best of luck and a successful mission (which includes the landing).

The Phoenix landing site is targeted for the far Northern plains of the Mars, near the northern polar ice cap. Data from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft indicate large quantities of ice in the area, likely in the form of permafrost, either on the surface or just barely underground.

Phoenix is equipped with a robotic arm that can dig down and scoop up some of that ice and dirt, to look for organic chemical evidence that life once existed there, or even still exists now.

"We are not going to be able to answer the final question of 'is there life on Mars,' " said Smith. "We will take the next important step. We'll find out if there's organic material associated with this ice in the polar regions. Ice is a preserver and if there ever were organics on Mars and they got into that ice they will still be there today."