The Arizona Shootings

I've been gathering my thoughts to put a post on this up, but Instapundit put my thoughts into bytes before I succeeded.  It's hard to find a part to quote, it's all so germane, but...

To be clear, if you're using this event to criticize the "rhetoric" of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you're either: (a) asserting a connection between the "rhetoric" and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you're not, in which case you're just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. Which is it?

 is the most pungent line.  As he says so often, "read the whole thing."

I'd Like to Believe it...

... But I don't.

BOSTON (AP) - For the first time in at least a century, U.S. fishermen won't take too much of any species from the sea, one of the nation's top fishery scientists says.

The projected end of overfishing comes during a turbulent fishing year that's seen New England fishermen switch to a radically new management system. But scientist Steve Murawski said that for the first time in written fishing history, which goes back to 1900, "As far as we know, we've hit the right levels, which is a milestone."

"And this isn't just a decadal milestone, this is a century phenomenon," said Murawski, who retired last week as chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service.

 Any species?  I seriously doubt that.  I think we're probably taking too many striped bass on the east coast, and I've heard fisheries scientists agree with me.

Regulators say 37 stocks nationwide last year were being overfished (counting only those that live exclusively in U.S. waters); New England had the most with 10. But Murawski said management systems that emphasize strict catch limits have made a big difference, and New England just made the switch.

Fishermen there now work in groups called sectors to divide an annual quota of groundfish, which include cod, haddock and flounder. If they exceed their limits on one species, they're forced to stop fishing on all species.

About two-thirds into the current fishing year, which ends April 30, federal data indicated New England fishermen were on pace to catch fewer than their allotted fish in all but one stock, Georges Bank winter flounder. But Murawski said he didn't expect fishermen would exceed their quota on any stock.

 So we're supposed to believe we're going from 37 over fished stocks to zero in one year?  I have some bridges for sale...

The science is far from perfect, Marciano said. Regulators believed fishermen were overfishing pollock until new data last year indicated scientists had badly underestimated its population, he said. And some stocks, such as Gulf of Maine cod, have recovered even when fishermen were technically overfishing them.

 Ah, so we have an out,  the science was wrong, and now it's right.  But what's right this year is likely to be wrong  next year.

Hat tip to Bill Curry

"You Guys Coming, or What?"

That ice you see in the background formed overnight.  It dropped to about 18 F last night, and the wind was 20-30 out of the north.  The ice is not firm, it's large flakes that form in shallow water, blown in by the wind, and stranded on the beach by the tide.

More beach pics below the jump.  Click pic to embiggen:

Don't Know Much About a Science Book

College students lack scientific literacy, study finds

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Most college students in the United States do not grasp the scientific basis of the carbon cycle – an essential skill in understanding the causes and consequences of climate change, according to research published in the January issue of BioScience.

The study, whose authors include several current and former researchers from Michigan State University, calls for a new way of teaching – and, ultimately, comprehending – fundamental scientific principles such as the conservation of matter.

If I had five bucks for everytime I've seen someone think they could break one of the three laws of thermodynamics, I'd be a wealthy con man...

Most students did not truly understand the processes that transform carbon. They failed to apply principles such as the conservation of matter, which holds that when something changes chemically or physically, the amount of matter at the end of the process needs to equal the amount at the beginning. (Matter doesn’t magically appear or disappear.)

Students trying to explain weight loss, for example, could not trace matter once it leaves the body; instead they used informal reasoning based on their personal experiences (such as the fat “melted away” or was “burned off”). In reality, the atoms in fat molecules leave the body (mostly through breathing) and enter the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and water.

Most students also incorrectly believe plants obtain their mass from the soil rather than primarily from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. “When you see a tree growing,” Anderson said, “it’s a lot easier to believe that tree is somehow coming out of the soil rather than the scientific reality that it’s coming out of the air.”

 In the modern world, science is really important to all of us, and in a democracy, where people actually get some input on the process, having an informed electorate is even more important.  High school science teaching has become a joke, and the majority of college students are exposed to bare minimum, in classes which are largely left-wing propaganda in any case.



A charming song, but really bad policy

Behind Blue Eyes...

...Lies a single gene 6000-10000 years old.

People with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor, according to new research.

A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. The mutation occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Before then, there were no blue eyes.

"Originally, we all had brown eyes," said Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.

"What they were able to show is that the people who have blue eyes in Denmark, as far as Jordan, these people all have this same haplotype, they all have exactly the same gene changes that are all linked to this one mutation that makes eyes blue," Hawks said in a telephone interview.

That genetic switch somehow spread throughout Europe and now other parts of the world.

"The question really is, 'Why did we go from having nobody on Earth with blue eyes 10,000 years ago to having 20 or 40 percent of Europeans having blue eyes now?" Hawks said. "This gene does something good for people. It makes them have more kids."

What could that be?  Chicks with blue eyes are cute...



You knew that was coming, didn't you?

Seen at the Feeder

As usual, click to embiggen.

All hail the All Squirrel!

Snowy Barge, with Duck

The beach was quiet and cold today, and the tide was up, so fossil hunting was poor. Skye had a lot of ya-yas to run off after 5 days of rest.

I saw this barge a long way off. I wasn't really sure if it had a white cargo (what that would be, I don't know), or just a cargo covered with snow. Seeing the blown up picture, I'm inclined toward snow (we had a dusting last night, but they got more farther north, where that barge is coming from). I never saw the duck until I looked at the photo.

Incidentally, you can follow ship traffic online here.

Am I Parent One or Parent Two?

'Mother,' 'Father' Changing to 'Parent One,' 'Parent Two' on Passport Applications

But what at about parent three four and so on?  The Feds are trying to make the passport application process more parent partner neutral by changing the application form so that second mommy or second daddy doesn't feel slighted by the form. 

But we all know plural marriage is coming.  Historically speaking, polygamy (primarily, but not exclusively polygyny) has a far stronger role in human affairs than pairwise same sex marriage.  At this point, I suspect the only effective opposition to polygamy in the US comes from liberals who don't want to yield to Mormon fundamentalists.  They could care less if Muslims keep families of five parents, and Inuit swap wives (or husbands, depending on your perspective) or had "extended co-families", or polyandry (multiple men one wife) among immigrant Tibetans or Chinese.  After all, that's their culture, and all cultures are equal (never mind calling Mormon a culture; cultures were something created in the distant past, and do not evolve as times change, right?).

It should be perfectly simple to add provision for multiple parents of either (or no) sex on the form.  Leave a space on back for additional entries and to explain the relationships, if needed.  Databases are wonderfully adaptable, and it should be simple to alter it to allow as many parents as required for any passport.

Lousy Study Reveals 170,000 Year Old Fashions

Lice DNA Study Shows Humans First Wore Clothes 170,000 Years Ago

A new University of Florida study following the evolution of lice shows modern humans started wearing clothes about 170,000 years ago, a technology which enabled them to successfully migrate out of Africa.

Principal investigator David Reed, associate curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus, studies lice in modern humans to better understand human evolution and migration patterns. His latest five-year study used DNA sequencing to calculate when clothing lice first began to diverge genetically from human head lice.

 Yeah, it was was a lousy pun, too...

The data shows modern humans started wearing clothes about 70,000 years before migrating into colder climates and higher latitudes, which began about 100,000 years ago. This date would be virtually impossible to determine using archaeological data because early clothing would not survive in archaeological sites.

The study also shows humans started wearing clothes well after they lost body hair, which genetic skin-coloration research pinpoints at about 1 million years ago, meaning humans spent a considerable amount of time without body hair and without clothing, Reed said.

"It's interesting to think humans were able to survive in Africa for hundreds of thousands of years without clothing and without body hair, and that it wasn't until they had clothing that modern humans were then moving out of Africa into other parts of the world," Reed said.

They needed clothes so they could rush up to Siberia and domesticate wolves.

"The new result from this lice study is an unexpectedly early date for clothing, much older than the earliest solid archaeological evidence, but it makes sense," said Ian Gilligan, lecturer in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at The Australian National University. "It means modern humans probably started wearing clothes on a regular basis to keep warm when they were first exposed to Ice Age conditions."

The last Ice Age occurred about 120,000 years ago, but the study's date suggests humans started wearing clothes in the preceding Ice Age 180,000 years ago, according to temperature estimates from ice core studies, Gilligan said. Modern humans first appeared about 200,000 years ago.

Because archaic hominins did not leave descendants of clothing lice for sampling, the study does not explore the possibility archaic hominins outside of Africa were clothed in some fashion 800,000 years ago. But while archaic humans were able to survive for many generations outside Africa, only modern humans persisted there until the present.

"The things that may have made us much more successful in that endeavor hundreds of thousands of years later were technologies like the controlled use of fire, the ability to use clothing, new hunting strategies and new stone tools," Reed said.

 And dogs; don't forget dogs (like they'll let yout)!

Cavemen had Good Taste in Dogs

The oldest skeletal remains of probable domestic wolf-dogs were excavated from the Upper Paleolithic site of Eliseyevichi in western Russia, close to the Ukrainian border, and date as far back as 19,000 years. Two skulls resembled those of Siberian huskies in their general shape, according to Serpell.

(Click quote to go to link).  Maybe they were smarter than average modern people after all.  The article rehashes various studies of how dogs came to be dogs:

There are many theories on how dogs evolved as a species, including the view that they are mixed descendants of two or more wild species, such as wolves, dingoes and jackals. But newer evidence hasn't supported that theory.

"Nowadays, based on a growing body of anatomical, genetic, and behavioral evidence, most experts believe that the dog originated exclusively from a single species: the gray wolf, Canis lupus," Serpell told Life's Little Mysteries.

As my friend Joel (a dog professional dog trainer, and author of several books on dog training), often says, wolves first befriended man (can you do that without Facebook?), because man had good garbage.  Inevitably, a few such camp scavengers were taken as pets, and having found to have some useful traits (like defending the home or hunting), the process of evolution took hold, and as they say, " the rest is history", or rather in this case, mostly pre-history.

So, all you owners of other breeds, you know I'm just joshing don't you?  While I love my Siberian, they aren't for everyone.

"You guys having breakfast, yet?

Does your Barber (or Hair Stylist) Have a Ph.D.?

And if not, why not? There must be a Ph.D. available to do it out there somewhere:

Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) has had a theme going for several months on the "Education Bubble".  Given low cost student loans, colleges everywhere, public and private, have swelled their staffs to capture the loose money.  Using easy student loans to pay for this education has had much the same effect as "liar" loans had on the real estate market; the price of the product has sky rocketed as people used someone else's money (at least it seems that way at the time) to bid up the price.


Of course, the downside of student loans is that some day you either graduate, or quit school, and don't have house to show for it. But the loans live on. And, increasingly, graduates often find it difficult to get a job in the field they studied for:

Looking at BLS data for 2008, over 10,500 persons with Ph.D. or professional degrees were employed as “cashiers” (excluding gaming); over 27,400 were retail salespersons; and well over 4,700 were hairdressers, hairstylists, or cosmetologists. My sidekick Chris Matgouranis found 10 occupations like these: the ones listed above plus waiters and waitresses, landscaping workers, amusement and recreation attendants, receptionists and information clerks, secretaries (except legal, medical, and executive), truck drivers (heavy and tractor-trailer) and electricians. Collectively, these occupations had well over 74,000 with doctorates or such professional degrees as a J.D.

This is nothing new. The skills to be a student are often quite different from those required in the profession. As a scientist, I would have done better to take a few accounting and management classes, rather than some of the "core courses" in my major. A significant number of people have always "failed to thrive" upongraduation and end up doing something else and others take a lateral arabesque into another field later in their careers.  That is how the economy actually serves better than the education system; people move into areas where competition is less intense, and the prospects for success greater.  As a grad student, a post-doc I worked for went back to school to become a medical doctor.  As a Senior Scientist, another colleague quit to become a cabinet maker.

A close friend of my sons, a boy (now a man) who was smart as shit, and just a hair stubborn, went to college at the local "hippie college", Saint Johns, where they only have one major "Liberal Art", which they study by reading "The Great Books".  Now, he read a lot of great books, but when he finished he had $85,000 in student loans, and no immediate job prospects.  So, he went abroad for an advanced degree in Marine Biology.  At present, he and a partner are starting an oyster hatchery in a marsh in South Carolina.  I feel a little guilty I didn't talk him out of it.  Maybe the internship he had in my lab in high school ruined him...

The Birchers Must Have Captured HHS

US says too much fluoride...
...causing splotchy teeth

Remember when opposition to fluoridation of water was vehemently opposed by the John Birch Society, and opposition to fluoridation was considered a mark of right wing lunacy (Yes, I know this dates me)?  Well, it turns out you can have too much of a good thing:

About 2 out of 5 adolescents have tooth streaking or spottiness because of too much fluoride, a government study found recently. In extreme cases, teeth can be pitted by the mineral — though many cases are so mild only dentists notice it. The problem is generally considered cosmetic and not a reason for serious concern.

The splotchy tooth condition, fluorosis, is unexpectedly common in youngsters ages 12 through 15 and appears to have grown more common since the 1980s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But there are also growing worries about more serious dangers from fluoride.

The Environmental Protection Agency released two new reviews of research on fluoride Friday. One of the studies found that prolonged, high intake of fluoride can increase the risk of brittle bones, fractures and crippling bone abnormalities.

I knew of the problem of tooth discoloration since at least a course in trace element nutrition in graduate school, but we didn't see it as a serious problems.  It's a natural occurrence in areas where well water has high fluoride levels, where people were first observed to have fewer cavities.

A Severe Case of Dental Fluorosis

Our water is unfluoridated, simply because it is beyond the ability (or legal capacity) of our small town water system to add fluoride.  Fluoride is a deadly toxin at fairly low levels; the lethal dose for an adult is on the order of 1-10 g and much lower doses cause brittle bones, and gastric disorders.  You wouldn't want to make a mistake with the dosers...

Musical Interlude

The "New" Allman Brothers, with Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes instead of Duane Allman and Dicky Betts.

Emu Update!

Farmer kills giant bird!

I recently reported on the emu loose in Calvert County.  It seems some vigilante farmer decided to take the matter into his own hands and shot it.

I am amused that the Examiner chose the same wacky Emu picture off the internet that I used.  No message on my phone or e-mail saying they saved a drumstick for me.

UPDATE:  Now with video:

How Women's Tears Unman a Man

They lower the concentration of testosterone

It's widely held that a woman's tears will turn a man to mush. And many think that sympathetic response is a sign of sensitivity, a psychological shift away from baser male impulses.

But new research suggests that much of the response may be involuntary and that men are unable to help themselves. The smell of a woman's tears, the study found, is associated with a dip in testosterone, the principal male hormone, and a general decline in sexual arousal. 

Not only is a decline in testosterone  associated with a decline in sexual arousal, but, probably more importantly, it is associated with a decrease in aggressive behavior.  This, more than a decrease in sexual arousal, is likely the evolutionary driver for this phenomenon.  A decrease in aggression towards women is likely to prevent some woman's deaths in the long run, a powerful force for evolution.

"Emotional tears" are considered by many biologists to be uniquely human. They're known to have a different chemical composition than tears shed when the eye is simply irritated. The few studies of tears' psychological effects suggest they have a help-soliciting function.

Read the article; how they did the study is quite interesting, but more than I wish to quote. Just this hint:

To conduct the study, the research team posted an ad on the Weizmann Institute campus seeking volunteers who could cry easily. About 60 women and one man responded. They were screened to see how easily they cried and to determine the volume of tears they produced.

"We reached this core group of six women criers who could come back to the lab every other day and cry a full" milliliter, Sobel said.

Each woman chose a movie to elicit crying, watching it in private and collecting tears. By far the most successful tear-inducer was the death scene in "The Champ," a 1979 film starring Jon Voight about an over-the-hill boxer making a comeback to provide a better future for his son, whom he is raising on his own.

"Bomb" Attacks in Annapolis

Two Maryland State employees hurt by mailed packages

Two packages mailed to Maryland state office buildings — one of which was addressed to Gov. Martin O'Malley — detonated Thursday, emitting smoke, a foul odor and sparking a sprawling multiagency investigation aimed at identifying the culprit.

Two state employees suffered minor burns when they opened the packages, requiring minor medical attention.

Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley said the two incidents did not cause any significant damage, but did force 300 state employees to evacuate their offices for about two hours...

 The bomber is either very incompetent, or designed the "bombs" as warnings.

The package addressed to Mr. O'Malley was described by authorities as about the size of a book and arrived in an envelope with no return address and five holiday-themed postage stamps.

When an employee opened the package, according to police, it emitted smoke and a sulfurlike smell. The employee singed a finger when opening the package, but refused treatment.

 Afterwards, two suspicious packages where found, which turned out to be a toner cartridge and a laptop computer.

I predict sending packages to state agencies just got a whole lot more complicated.

Science "Proves" Precognition

People sense porn before it happens?

One of psychology’s most respected journals has agreed to publish a paper presenting what its author describes as strong evidence for extrasensory perception, the ability to sense future events.

The decision may delight believers in so-called paranormal events, but it is already mortifying scientists. Advance copies of the paper, to be published this year in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, have circulated widely among psychological researchers in recent weeks and have generated a mixture of amusement and scorn.

But it takes something important for people to be able to sense it ahead of time...

Dr. Bem had subjects choose which of two curtains on a computer screen hid a photograph; the other curtain hid nothing but a blank screen.

A software program randomly posted a picture behind one curtain or the other — but only after the participant made a choice. Still, the participants beat chance, by 53 percent to 50 percent, at least when the photos being posted were erotic ones. They did not do better than chance on negative or neutral photos.

“What I showed was that unselected subjects could sense the erotic photos,” Dr. Bem said, “but my guess is that if you use more talented people, who are better at this, they could find any of the photos.”

But, then, they were college students. So how did this get published?

Some scientists say the report deserves to be published, in the name of open inquiry; others insist that its acceptance only accentuates fundamental flaws in the evaluation and peer review of research in the social sciences.

“It’s craziness, pure craziness. I can’t believe a major journal is allowing this work in,” Ray Hyman, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University Oregon and longtime critic of ESP research, said. “I think it’s just an embarrassment for the entire field.”

The editor of the journal, Charles Judd, a psychologist at the University of Colorado, said the paper went through the journal’s regular review process. “Four reviewers made comments on the manuscript,” he said, “and these are very trusted people.”

All four decided that the paper met the journal’s editorial standards, Dr. Judd added, even though “there was no mechanism by which we could understand the results.”

But many experts say that is precisely the problem. Claims that defy almost every law of science are by definition extraordinary and thus require extraordinary evidence. Neglecting to take this into account — as conventional social science analyses do — makes many findings look far more significant than they really are, these experts say.

As I've noted before, peer review is broken, let's do away with it and have an open market of ideas.

Everybody Wants to Save the Bay...

...But Nobody Wants to Pay For It:

It is appalling, though not surprising, that the Environmental Protection Agency provided no cost estimate for its plan to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. Improving the health of the Bay is desirable, and we have long urged Virginia and the other states in the watershed to take additional steps toward reducing pollution. But every government policy has diminishing marginal returns, and the lack of even a rough estimate for the EPA's program makes a fair accounting of its costs and benefits markedly more difficult.

The cost to Virginia could run the neighborhood of $7 billion over the 15-year life of the plan. A 2006 study found Pennsylvania would need to shell out $2 billion for some of the changes the EPA wants to make there. West Virginia anticipates a bill of more than $130 million just to upgrade its sewage-treatment plants...

As Everett Dirksen  once said "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money."

Little wonder, then, that discussion of which states should pay for cleaning up the Bay sounds like the debate over which countries should most reduce their carbon emissions to combat global warming. "We don't feel that we're contributing a tremendous amount [of pollution] to the Bay," says a West Virginia official. A Pennsylvania official says his state is meeting targets for nitrogen and sediment runoff reduction and has already added new stormwater regulations. The president of the Maryland State Builders Association contends that "Maryland has the tougher set of regulations and has had them in place longer than most other Bay states. . . . We don't want to have further imposition of requirements just because the other states are lagging."

 This thread needs a picture, so we know what we're spending the money on:

The Atkins Diet

Oh, yeah, I lost a few lbs, too.

You Only Need One Guitar...

But it's nice to have a few spares to give away:

Speaking of Alien Invaders...

Save me a drumstick.

Residents Beware: Emu Running Loose in Calvert:

The Calvert County Sheriff’s Office Animal Control Unit wishes to notify the public that an emu has been seen running loose recently in the Huntingtown area.

The Emu is similar to an Ostrich and can stand up to six and one half feet tall and run at speeds up to 30 MPH. The Sheriff’s Office began receiving calls for this loose bird around the Thanksgiving holiday and at that time, it was reported to be in the Dunkirk area. Animal Control Officers (ACOs) have responded to these calls and have either lost sight of the bird or it was already gone upon their arrival. At this time, the owner of the emu has not been identified.

If you spot the emu, please do not try to approach it as it uses its feet to defend itself. The feet have toenails that are like a knife and combined with its powerful legs, can cause severe injury.

Always good to be careful of six foot birds with claws like knives. Right?

























Hat tip to 'Becca.

Autism-Vaccine Link Study Found Fraudulent

The 1998 study published in Lancet which linked autism with the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine has been judged fraudulent:

An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.

"It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors," Fiona Godlee, BMJ's editor-in-chief, told CNN. "But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a link by falsifying the data."

Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May. "Meanwhile, the damage to public health continues, fueled by unbalanced media reporting and an ineffective response from government, researchers, journals and the medical profession," BMJ states in an editorial accompanying the work.

And this particular fraud had significant consequences for public health:

The now-discredited paper panicked many parents and led to a sharp drop in the number of children getting the vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella. Vaccination rates dropped sharply in Britain after its publication, falling as low as 80% by 2004. Measles cases have gone up sharply in the ensuing years.

In the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than in any other year since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90% of those infected had not been vaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown, the CDC reported.

"But perhaps as important as the scare's effect on infectious disease is the energy, emotion and money that have been diverted away from efforts to understand the real causes of autism and how to help children and families who live with it," the BMJ editorial states.

People who's children have autism have been grasping for years to come up with a rationale that would explain autism, and give some hope of  prevention, at least for the future.  This paper came along at just the right time to provide that explanation, and convince far too many people to withhold vaccinations from their kids.  Measles is still a potentially fatal disease, causing an estimated 383,000-731,000 deaths world wide in 2003.   I hope this "scientist" is prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.

Ain't No Sunspots...

Well, not none exactly, but Solar Cycle 24 continues to under perform on sunspots and solar radio flux:

Why does this matter?  Periods of low sunspots abundance and solar activity have been linked to cold weather (See Maunder and Dalton minimums).  Will the sun slip into a long period of reduced activity and producea  new miny Ice Age?  We don't know.  But historically, periods of cold climate have been worse for the human race than warm ones...

Crazy 'Bout an Automobile

One of the great under appreciated guitarists.

Massive Fish Kill on Chesapeake Bay: Seen Here First!

I first reported at large number of dead Spot on the beach in this post on Dec. 27.  A few days later, a large kill of Spot was reported farther up the Bay on this fishing forum on Dec 31:





















The Associated Press has picked it up from a MD DNR press release, and today it was in a number around newspapers and news outlets in the region:

Large fish kill reported in Chesapeake Bay

The Associated Press

http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=6207361

'Very large' fish kill reported in bay

The Baltimore Sun

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-01-04/features/bs-gr-fish-kill-bay-20110104_1_dead-fish-mde-spokeswoman-upper-bay

MDE: Fish Kill Caused By Cold Stress

WBAL (Md.) Television

http://www.wbaltv.com/r/26357581/detail.html

Blog: Giant fish kill in Chesapeake Bay

The Washington Post

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/giant-fish-kill-in-chesapeake.html

Remember, you heard it here first! 

Study: Internet surpasses TV as main news source for young adults

Illumination in the News

Cost of CFLs to triple in Europe

The cost of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in Europe is skyrocketing because the EU is withdrawing the subsidy they used to encourage their adoption, as the incandescent lamp (Thomas Alva Edison's familiar glowing filaments) are being phased out (banned).   The CFL is a more efficient way to produce light than the incandescent bulb, using approximately 1/3 the energy for equivalent light.  However, many people do not like the color of CFLs, the fact that they take more time to warm up (especially in the cold), and the flicker.

However, there's always a loophole.  A German firm is re-branding incandescent lamps as space heaters.  Almost all the energy that an incandescent lamp wastes producing light goes to making heat, and they are remarkably efficient space heaters.    I expect this may happen in the US as incandescent lamps become unavailable when they are banned in the US in 2012.

One use that incandescent lamps are used for is to keep the bilge of a boat from freezing in cold weather.  A single small lamp on an extension cord placed in a bilge can keep the bilge pump from freezing solid, and allowing the boat to take on water and sink during a thaw or rain. I've been tempted, but never resorted to it.

We use many CFLs here at home.  The color doesn't bother me, and I've never noticed the flicker.  However, they are slow to warm when used in cold places (the garage and outdoor fixtures).  I don't see the need for a ban.  Lighting is usually a trivial part of a houses energy budget; water heating, refrigerators, and space heating consume far more.  And in general, I'm just opposed to mandatory bans of useful items just on the principle of personal freedom and free markets.

If you got it, #&@* it!

Otherwise, stick to video games:

January 4, 2011: After nearly two decades of effort to ban sex in the combat zone, an American commander has admitted defeat and issued orders de-criminalizing fornication in Afghanistan. Thus the latest version of General Order No. 1 issued in Afghanistan warns against heterosexual sex between troops, but no longer prohibits it. Since the 1990s, when American peacekeepers were sent to the Balkans, American commanders have been enforcing General Order Number 1. That means imposing a "no booze, no sex" rule on troops in a combat zone. The alcohol prohibitions apply on or off base, as do the prohibitions on sex, marrying locals or even gambling. Troops are encouraged to spend more time in the gym, or with their video games. Troops having sex with each other was generally tolerated, unofficially of course...

Save the Planet, Eat an Alien

A Diet for an Invaded Planet: Invasive Species

There’s a new shift in the politics of food, not quite a movement yet, more of an eco-culinary frisson. But it may have staying power; the signs and portents are there. Vegans, freegans, locavores — meet the invasivores.

Some divers in the Florida Keys recently held a lionfish derby, the idea being to kill and eat lionfish, an invasive species. Local chefs cooperated by promoting the lionfish as a tasty entree. The idea drew editorial support from Andrew Revkin in a post on The Times’s Dot Earth blog in which he also mentioned an attempt by some fisheries biologists to rename the invading Asian carp “Kentucky tuna” to make it more appealing to diners. And the Utne Reader recently ran an article about Chicago chefs turning their attention to the same invasive fish...

If you can't beat 'em, eat em. 

Of course, we've been eating invasive species for a long time, and helping them invade so we could do so.  The list of animals that we have introduced to North America deliberately and accidentally is huge and growing.   Wild goats, cows, a variety of birds including pheasants, horses (at least some people eat them).  The Smithsonian Institution has a large laboratory group devoted to studying the many marine animals that have invaded the western hemisphere via ballast water and other means of transport.  In San Francisco Bay, most the the current species are thought to be invaders.  There even have been serious proposals to transplant a foreign species of oyster, Crassostrea ariakensis, to replace the moribund populations of Chesapeake Bay's native Crassostrea virginica.  They taste the same to me.

...The movement will, of course, need the support of cooks and eaters as well as hunters and environmentalists, but I see that happening already. Witness the request for a good python recipe on Chowhound. Among the comments, some downright disrespectful, was this, which I take to be a sign that Mr. Landers and Ms. Kesel are on the right track: “We usually cook alligator and snake in an étouffée.”

 I recall eating rattlesnake in my youth, and it was kind of like chicken on a fishy skeleton.  It would take a big one to replace a good steak. But I hear the Burmese pythons in Florida get pretty big.

Will North Dakota Become the New Alaska?

Continuing the question theme.  Go north, young man!

One of my father's proposed solutions to government bloat that I've always favored is to move the nation's capital to Fargo, North Dakota.  It's so  unpleasant there, particularly in winter, that climate avoidance alone would shrink the government at least 50%.  Plus, it would put the Capital much closer to the geographic center of the country (especially after we "incorporate" Canada...).  And think of the jobs created by moving all that marble.

But, now that Nodak seems to be looking towards becoming a rich state, maybe that's not such a good idea after all.

Other states may be grappling with massive budget deficits, but North Dakota is sitting pretty, thanks to the Bakken-Three Forks shale oil deposit.

Can you imagine, actually producing a useful product and selling it to other people is a way to become wealthy?

Like California during the Gold Rush of 1849 and Alaska during the go-go 1970s, North Dakota is suddenly the place to be.

Of course, later California became the land of lotus eaters (Hey, I was there!), and it's economy has steadily declined as a result.

Giant Pussy Eater Captured in England

Continuing the theme of giant canides

Cat-killer trapped by vet

Weighing almost two stone and measuring four feet from his nose to the tip of his tail, this is thought to be the biggest fox ever found in Britain.

Twice the normal size of the species, it was trapped and killed in a garden in the South East after apparently devouring a pet cat.

The discovery has fuelled fears that urban foxes are hunting new prey after getting bigger and bolder as they gorge themselves on leftovers, including treats put out for them by animal lovers.

And look, a Ginger Kid, too.  How much cuteness can you stand?

Sorry for the title.  I just couldn't help myself.

Are You Smarter Than a Caveman?

Not really sure, but our brains are shrinking

When it comes to brain size, bigger doesn't always mean better. As humans continue to evolve, scientists say our brains are actually getting smaller.

The downsizing of human brains is an evolutionary fact that took science writer Kathleen McAuliffe by surprise.

"I said, 'What?  I thought it was getting bigger!'" she tells NPR's Jacki Lyden. That was the story up to 20,000 years ago, she learned. Then, the brains of our ancestors reversed course and started getting smaller — and they've been shrinking ever since.

Cro-Magnon man, who lived in Europe 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, had the biggest brains of any human species.  In comparison, today's human brain is about 10 percent smaller. It's a chunk of brain matter "roughly equivalent to a tennis ball in size," McAuliffe says.

So we don't really know if intelligence is tightly coupled to brain size.  Clearly, some intelligent people have smaller brains.  Women, in general have smaller brains than men (they are also generally smaller in stature), but just try to argue that women are less intelligent as a result.  I like the domestication angle:

"A smaller brain is the signature of selection against aggression," Hare tells Lyden.  "Another way to say that is an increase in tolerance."

Hare says when a population selects against aggression, they can be considered to be domesticated.  And for a variety of domesticated animals like apes, dogs or turkeys, you can see certain physical characteristics emerge. Among these traits are a lighter and more slender skeleton, a flattened forehead — and decreased brain size.

 Which explains the difference between Vikings and Metrosexuals...

Why Do We Get Fat?

We don't know...

But it's a great article, pointing out how closely our bodies regulate weight even when we do gain weight.

That's my third post in a row starting with a question.  I guess I'm back to 4 years old, tonight.

Why did 4000-5000 Blackbirds Die in Arkansas?

"They realized they were in Arkansas" (Stolen from a friend)

The comments at MSNBC are hysterical.

Why Should I Pay for Someone Else's $#!*?

Flush fee paying for local sewage upgrades
Fee increase could be on the horizon

Anne Arundel residents and businesses have been paying the state's "flush fee" since 2005, and now the money is starting to flow back into the county.

The Cox Creek sewage plant in Pasadena is getting a flush fee-funded upgrade to cut down on pollution. And in 2011, the Annapolis, Broadneck, Patuxent and Maryland City plants will start construction. Broadwater and Mayo will come later.

"There's a lot of work going on right now. The progress is going very well," said Bob Summers, acting state secretary of the environment.
Statewide, 16 plants have been upgraded, 15 are under construction and 29 are in design or planning stages.

The sewage plant upgrades will cut down the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in the treated water that flows from the plants into rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.

A bit of background for non-Maryland (or even ignorant Maryland) readers.  The state of Maryland collects a Flush Tax of $30 a year for all water users in Maryland (they say sewer, but the tax applies to water systems that supply water to communities with septic systems).  The money ends up in the states hands, and the state is supposed to dole it back out to municipalities to upgrade their septic systems in an effort to protect the Bay.

Why can't cities pay for their own shit?  There are a lot of advantages to living in cities.  Jobs, schools, shopping, and lots of entertainment are close by.  Someone one picks up your garbage at the curb.  Someone pipes away your shit.   People choose to live in cities for those reasons and pay extra for many of those amenities.

Some of us choose not to live in cities, for other reasons.  Housing may be cheaper, the living simpler, with room to take the dog off the leash on the beach,  but you might have to go further to jobs, schools, shopping and entertainment.  We haul our own garbage to the transfer station.  And we pay for, and maintain our own mini-septic systems to take care of our shit.  Why should we help pay for the cities shit too?

They will argue that our turn will come, that eventually, after all the ancient municipalities have their systems finished with gold pipe (it's inert, you know, and won't rust away), there might be some left over to upgrade ours.  I don't believe that for a minute.  By the time the cities have all had their shot at the funds, it will be time to start again on the worst new offenders in the bigger cities.  The state will never use Flush Tax money to build a sewer system in Long Beach. 

The Clock Says it's Time to Go Now

Back to the "grind".  It's been a nice week and a half, burning "use or lose" vacation, but the bills have to be paid, so it's time to meet the carpool and head up the road.  Skye will resent not going to the beach every day, but huskies are good at sleeping when there's no excitement to be had.  "Beach" blogging will go back to being a weekend affair, but science news will pick up again after the New Years lull, so I shouldn't lack for topics to post, just time.

Now, just because, have a Chesapeake sunrise:

Going Bionic, at Home

Transcending the Human, DIY Style

Lepht Anonym wants everyone to know the door to transcending normal human capabilities is no farther away than your own kitchen. It’s just going to hurt like a sonofabitch.

Anonym is a biohacker, a woman who has spent the last several years learning how to extend her own senses by putting tiny magnets and other electronic devices under her own skin, allowing her to feel electromagnetic fields, or — if her latest project works — even magnetic north.

Since doctors won’t help her, she does it in her own apartment, sterilizing her equipment (needles, scalpels, vegetable peelers) with vodka. Good anesthetic is largely impossible to buy, so she screams a little, and sometimes passes out. But it’s worth it, for what’s on the other side.

Kind of a neat idea, but I don't think I could do it. I did cut a wart off myself once.  That was enough.

For decades, transhumanists have argued that science and technology are approaching (or have approached) the point at which humans can take evolution into their own hands. They can transcend limitations of sensation or movement or even lifespan that are purely the accident of evolution. Some thinkers focus strictly on the “post-human” physical body, while others write of evolved social systems, as well.

Can I get X-ray vision, you know, like in the back of the old comics?

An American body-modification artist of a similar mindset has created small metal discs of neodymium metal, coated in gold and silicon, which give off mild electric current when in a electromagnetic field. When inserted under the fingertips, this current stimulates the fingers’ nerve endings, allowing the bearer to literally feel the shape and strength of electromagnetic fields around power cords or electronic devices.

 OK, now that might come in handy for doing electrical work, but it's not as cool as X-ray vision would be.

But it isn’t for everybody, this cutting yourself up in your own kitchen. She’s the first to warn people that it hurts. A lot. Every time, you don’t get used to it. Afterward, people may not be inclined to understand, to put it mildly. (“Avoid normal people,” she warns. “They’re stupid.”)

Well, maybe not stupid, just normal, and content to stay that way.

Seen at the Beach

Fog!

Justice Italian Style

Seen at Volokh's (normally a staid legal site):

A TOPLESS sunbather is being investigated by police after being accused of sensuously rubbing sun cream on herself on a public beach. Police were called to a beach at Anzio south of Rome by a furious mother who said the way the “attractive” sunbather was rubbing lotion on her body had “troubled her sons aged 14 and 12.” ...

“She is amazed that she is being condemned for simply sunbathing topless,” [the woman’s] lawyer Gianluca Arrighi said.

“Let’s be clear my client is tall, brunette and has an ample breast and is therefore going to naturally be sensuous when she applies cream to her chest....” ...

 Well, the verdict is in:

Now, reader Belkys Guerrero writes that “the claimant mother has been condemned for ‘calumnie’ ... (a false accusation leading to the beginning of a criminal trial) and ordered to pay 25k to the young woman.” He points to an Italian video on the story, but since I can’t speak Italian I can’t understand it, except to note that the word for “topless” in Italian is apparently “topless.”

and offers two links to Italian papers (Google translate appears to bear out the result).

I Hope the Bear Gets Him and Not the Kids

The incredible story of how BBC cameraman filmed world's deadliest bears - and ended up introducing them to his children

Really, I hope the bear doesn't get any of them. Nevertheless, the black bear is one of the most unpredictable animals in the Western Hemisphere, and encouraging them to think of people as a source of food is the classic way to get in trouble with a bear.


Woman Survives Vicious Bear Attack - Watch more Funny Videos

I Miss All the Fun

Shopper Gets Naked, Sexually Harasses Customers

Police in Maryland say a 22-year-old woman caused a major inconvenience in a convenience store when she stripped naked, made obscene comments to customers and sprawled out on the floor in front of the doughnut rack.

Deputies in Hebron cuffed Jennifer Marie Riegler on Dec. 18 after employees at a Royal Farms store called cops about a nude woman who had been harassing shoppers.

Store employees told police the suspect entered the store just before 9 a.m., took off all of her clothing, made lewd remarks to customers and workers, behaved in a sexually suggestive manner, then got on the floor at the foot of the doughnut display, according to WBOC.com.

  Actually, it's kind of funny and sad at the same time.  The insane often are.

Riegler was subdued, placed in restraints and taken to the Peninsula Regional Hospital in Salisbury before being arrested and charged on Dec. 23.

 I hope they find something treatable.

 Hit tip to Bill

Best Wishes to Brian

Brian, a friend, and sometimes reader and commenter who provided the basis of this post, was struck by blood clot in his lung on New Years Eve.  Characteristically, the clot became apparent as he was returning from a duck hunt.  He was rushed to the hospital, diagnosed and treated.  He's back out of the hospital, and resting, I hope.

His description of the onset:

My buddy and I had just got off the water and I was towing the boat up the road when it hit like a knife through my side (behind the lowest point of my left ribcage). I couldn't breathe with out the stabbing. I pulled over and let my buddy drive and I NEVER do that. I avoid hospitals but knew something was seriously wrong and had my buddy take me there duck boat and all. I am very grateful I was driving with someone or I doubt I would have made it. BTW, he did a real good NASCAR job while towing the boat and I feel bad for scaring the hell out of him. I will admit, I was scared shitless and thought I was checking out. I tried to choke out some one liners to keep myself going but came to the realization how much my checking out would hurt my kids and {wife} and I didn't want to win the MOO death pool either so I concentrated on breathing. I remember lamenting how I was going to quit smoking tomorrow but it was intent on killing me today.

and his treatment:

Pulmanry Embolism (blood clot in left lung). Don't know where it came from. Ultrasounded my legs and all was well. ECG, BP, cholesterol all great. Doctor said my lungs sounded great for a smoker and said I am strong as a bull internally. They think the clot may have come from all the kneeling I do when duck hunting or 3 days ago when I sat cross legged for 8 hours on the livingroom floor doing my frame bag inventory. Other than that, they don't know.

For now, I am on lovenox at $500 every 2 days (will need for 3-10 days) and cuomadin for 3, 6 or 12 months. This was and is going to be an expensive weekend without insurance. I'll just pay several hundred dollars or so each month until it's paid off.

BTW, the lovenox shots in the stomach twice a day suck.

 and the ducks?

Maybe Thomas Jefferson Should Have Used Smaller Words

Ezra Klein (WAPO, MSNBC) on the Republicans plan to read the Constitution at the aloud at the opening of the new Congress:



I agree that it is a gimmick, but even gimmicks have their place; in this case to remind Congress what their job should be and what it shouldn't be.

Others have trashed this statement. Don Surber did a particularly fine job:

...Ezra Klein made the biggest mistake that can be made by a liberal — progressive — socialist — communist — no labelist — whatever the heck they call themselves on the 31st of the month.

He was being honest.

He does not believe in the Constitution.

He is cynical about it and he projects that same cynicism onto those who disagree with him.

That shocked the left’s system. Being honest does that to them. They use euphemisms to hide their true beliefs. The reason, for example, that they see “illegal immigrant” as racist is that they cannot imagine anyone other than a Mexican  as being an illegal immigrant. They use “undocumented worker” because they want to promote poor Jose coming here to make a grub stake. They do not see the criminals or the relatives from Ireland or the Asian student who overstayed a visa. It’s always  this stereotype...

and Iowahawk did one of his wonderfully funny parodies:

...Please explain, in your own words, "What the Constitution Means to Me." Use footnotes where necessary, specifying relevant sources. Your essay should be 500 to 1000 words, not including footnotes.

The Constitution is very important. It is very important because the Constitution is an important part of the American government, which is as we all know very important also. It can be juxtaposed with other important books and journalism writings which can be found in various history studies.

According to Wikipedia¹, the Constitution was discovered over 100 years ago, but is still going strong today. It was discovered by the "Founding Fathers" such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and so forth. Although we often call them the "Founding Fathers" there were many women who were also important in this process who have been far too overlooked. Although these people are now mostly passed away, we still remember them for their importance...

and adds this:

Anne Althouse split the difference, agreeing it's a gimmick (while acknowledging the value of a gimmick with a video of strippers...), but gently trashing Ezra too:

He'd said something utterly banal. It's what everyone around him has been saying for years. He must have expected that people would either ignore him or shrug him off as a man with no original or interesting ideas. And suddenly he's getting derided, called an idiot or worse. How can that happen?!

The banal thing was that reading the text of the Constitution doesn't get you to the answers to the difficult questions that arise today. The text must be interpreted, and political preferences will tend to pull people along toward the interpretation they want.

Remember when they were all trashing Bush (and quite erroneously) for allegedly  saying that the Constitution is "just a piece of paper".  Don't expect the Post or MSNBC to show a lot of interest in pillorying him for this.

UPDATE: Ted writes to comment that he thought Madison was generally given credit for writing the bulk of the text of the Constitution. The point still stands.

Who Says Kids Don't Appreciate the Classics Anymore?

Pachelbel's Canon in D:

A kid and a guitar. This one has been around the block a few times...

A girl and a pole:

Both beautiful in their own way. Pole dancers are trying to make pole dancing an official Olympic sport as early as 2012. I think she makes a pretty good case.

Aw, Mother and Daughter Share...

... an underage boyfriend and criminal charges.

(Chandler, Arizona) Two months ago, Susan Brock, 48, was arrested for engaging in a years-long sexual relationship with a boy and now her daughter, Rachel Katherine Brock, 21, has been arrested for doing the same things as mom for about the same period of time. Both are being held without bond.

 Father and husband less than thrilled.

"I have filed to divorce my wife," he said. "I cannot divorce my daughter. She is my blood. I will always be her dad. And she needs one now more than ever. Nothing can ever make this situation right other than raising awareness so other families can avoid such sorrow. As a person of faith I ask for your continued prayers."

 Mugshots:

Mother

Daughter

 

 The daughter looks positively happy. Girls will be girls.

We Went to a Movie Last Night...

...Care to guess which one?

And a Good Start

The beach was very still today; no winds to speak of and lots of other folk, including some serious shark tooth hunters.  Hunting was good today.  We found 36 teeth in all, including a cow shark, a drum's tooth, and this fine mako that Georgia discovered in the last few minutes of the walk.

It would make a nice necklace, if she didn't already have one about twice as large.

Stale Link Dump

Over the past couple of weeks, I've stashed away a few articles in the digital fridge that I had hoped to comment on.  Since these things get stale and stink after a while, I thought I would get rid of them and start looking for fresher material.  You may have run into some, or many of these, elsewhere by now:

Beware drunken, violent Finns.  Or drunken violent anyone for than matter.

Polar bears not endangered.  Obama administration decides not to use a false assertion as an excuse for carbon controls.  Good on them.

Red meat has a calming effect.  A good steak always makes me more contented.

If the FCC had regulated the Internet.  Jack Shafer at Slate imagines how the internet would have grown with the FCC in charge.

Is gravity a mechanism for conservation of information?  This is beyond my pay grade.

Man blames Tabasco spill for lewd acts on airplane.  Yeah, sure...

Nine major stories nearly everyone got wrong. See #8 particularly.

94 Year old man claims to be world oldest father.  Uh huh.  Great beard, though.  I can see why he's a chick magnet.

Kudzu and the Federal government.  A lesson in unintended consequences.  Like we need more.

Eight botched environmental predictions.  You can't tell these guys they've been wrong before too often.  If it can't be falsified, it's not science.  If it is, it's wrong.

Is Irritable Bowel Syndrome an infectious disease?  It came as quite a shock when ulcers turned out to be largely a bacterial disease as well.  This could be a wonderful finding for millions of people.

Lunchbox mix-up leads to charges for Sanford student.  If only zero tolerance policies were enforced on politicians.  This one is still ongoing, and the politicians are becoming uncomfortable.  Good.

Well, that should keep the mess in there down for a while.

Women Cheat More...

... and Forgive Less

One in five said they would "definitely" have an affair if they fell for another bloke

In contrast, just nine per cent of fellas were certain they would betray their partner.

 and

But while 15 per cent of men would forgive a cheating wife or girlfriend, just 12 per cent of women would take back a partner who strayed.

It's seems to me, as long as people continue to do it two at a time (and I think that's still conventional, despite Hustler), that to achieve these kinds of results, you need more women who cheat with a small number of men, and a lesser number of men who cheat with more women.  Some sort of "conservation of sex" principle.

Stolen from Fisk

My Wishes for You in 2011

May peace break into your home and may thieves come to steal your debts.



May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills.



May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!



May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy



May the problems you had, forget your home address!



In simple words ............



May 2011 be the best year of your life!!

Comedian to go Celibate

Russel Brand, married to Katy Perry, tweeted a picture of her sans makeup.