…and I feel fine.

September 9th, 2008

That’s great, it starts with an earthquake…

For those of you who are in the dark (that’s a pun), jeff has been keeping tabs on the black-hole machine known as the Large Haldron Collider being built out at CERN in Switzerland.  It goes live tomorrow for its first complete tests and you could, if you choose, be very excited or fearful of this idea.

Or you could shrug it off like a fatalist and say,  “whatever.”

A number of people have, with varying levels of seriousness and science, warned about the possibility that this thing could create a black hole that sucks us all in.  They’ve crowed about it to such an extent extent that CERN has felt compelled to publish published a LHC risk assessment (a fifteen-page .pdf, none of most of which goes well over my head) which states, in conclusion:

Having reviewed the theoretical and experimental developments since the previous safety report was published, we confirm its findings. There is no basis for any concerns about the consequences of new particles or forms of matter that could possibly be produced by the LHC.

Not concerned about the consequences of new particles or forms of matter?  So why did you just spend six billion dollars to build it in the first place?  Until proven otherwise, I’m firmly on the side of those cheering for this thing to wink out all existence in a subatomic instant.  poof.

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Bookmooch

September 8th, 2008

I have a lot fewer books than I did before my last bit of moving around, but even still some of the books I’ve kept (and added to my collection) are unnecessary or are collecting dust.  The last time I paired down the collection I did so by dropping off a box of dusty books to a charity who was, I am sure, something less than enormously thrilled to have more dusy, old books.

A couple of weeks ago Bookmooch was mentioned in passing and I checked it out, intreigued.  Since then I’ve listed a couple of stacks of books and had a good chunk of those spoken for.   All I have to do is mail them out and I know (or at least I choose to believe) that they are going to someone who will appreciate them.  By sending them, I am credited with points which I can redeem by having other people send me books that I want.

At least next time I move my load will be lighter.

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I ain’t wastin’ no more time…

September 5th, 2008

Update:   Driving through DuPont Circle with six people stuffed into my Mini, with heads poking out the sunroof, blasting this song and everyone singing this song at the top of his/her lungs will be one of the definitive memories of summer 2008.

This takes me back … and takes me forward.

…and makes me do this:

Read the rest of this entry »

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SECORE update

August 23rd, 2008

elkhorn coral sperm

It seems that things are going well for Mike and the team down in the Puerto Rico. The tropical storm largely missed them, just gave them some overcasty days.  They are reporting 1.5 million coral babies and that the spawning and diving part of the trip is over for this year.

Check out the SECORE weblog for more information and photos and even a little quicktime movie of what spawning elkhorn look like.  As an aside, I’d just like you to ponder what the egg collectors are doing: SCUBA diving is quite an adventure.  Doing it at night you can lose spatial perception easily.  Diving near coral, especially in the shallows, requires care that you don’t get scraped against the reef.  Now, while doing all that, hold the camera still and take video.  Nice.

Now that they’ve collected all this, the real fun work begins.

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Red v. Blue

August 21st, 2008

To quote Ludacris:

Hawaii to D.C. it’s plenty women to see, so if
Yo ass don’t show up it’s more women for me, Heyy!

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SeCoRe

August 12th, 2008

So the problem, essentially, is genetic diversity and the solution is get ‘em while you can.  Mike is being a go-getter.

The planet’s coral reef’s are under an immense amount of stress at the moment and much of them are collapsing and bleaching for various reasons, not the least of which is pollution.  [Note: I should come back and update this paragraph with links and figures so you don't think I'm just blathering.  For now just believe it, Earth Is Going Nova]

Key to building a reef are the large, hard corals that create the foundation that support the soft corals and build a permiable shelter for reef animals that current and waves can flow through.  One of the primary species of these large, hard corals is the Elkhorn.  Only, these guys are retreating with a quickness.  They’re dying off and collapsing all over the place and that’s bad for them, the other corals they support, the animals that they support, and the animals that they support.  Follow this far enough it leads back to you, bucko.

So, in the event of  a thourough collapse what are you going to do?  Propagate what is growing in the tanks of aquariums and zoos worldwide and re-start this population.  Sure.  Only, reef-heads are some of the most conservative (in the environmental sense of the word) people out there, so they don’t go grabbing chunks from the seafloor very often.  They typically propagate corals from chunks broken off in friends’ tanks (or stores’ tanks).  That’s great, but that means that what’s floating around in the hobby and trade has very little genetic diversity.  So how to you increase genetic diversity without breaking off chunks of the small percentage of remaining elkhorn?  Besides, elkhorn is a challenge to species to manage in captivity. Adult fragments — in addition to not wanting to disturb an already stressed ecosystem — also have a dismal survival record.  Most fragments die shortly after arrival to the aquarium.  So, establishing a captive population with adult frags really is impractical.

Easy, you gather fertilized Elkhorn coral eggs and raise them to adulthood.  Wait, easy?  Not quite.

Elkhorn spawn just once a year.  At night.  In the water (duh).  So collecting eggs is slightly more difficult than climbing up a tree and stealing them from a nest.  And once you’ve collected them you’ve got a whale of a problem with keeping them alive until they decide to settle out and start growing.

So Mike is participating in the SECORE project again this year, going down to Puerto Rico to do all that.  You can follow the action on the SECORE blog and read about the science behind all this in much more detail over on their website.  Go get ‘em Mike!

edit:  misspelled propagate; expanded on the difficulty of managing adult elkhorn. Thanks, Mike!

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Let’s talk about meh, maybe

July 31st, 2008

Meh.

It’s a word.  It’s a sound.  It’s an expression of near-apathy.

Definition of meh :.

(mÄ“’)

1. (n.) A multi-purpose response, primarily used to imply a degree of indifference. Tone of voice and circumstance often implies a meaning. Can be used when you don’t want to answer an awkward or embarrassing question, or if you just plain have nothing else to say, and you want the other person to interpret the “meh” however he/she chooses. As in: Q: “What do you think of my new dress?” A: “Meh.” or Q: “What do you want to do tonight?” A: “Meh.”

Thanks for pointing out this definition go to Cruel Dave who would be thrilled to know that I’m still tricking my friends into playing more than half-and-half of the games he taught me.

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Tryst off

July 26th, 2008

Hey Tryst: screw you

One of the features of my job is that one week of every month I am on-call around the clock. At any time during that week I could potentially be called to address a situation and doing so requires access to . Normally I just stay home and watch movies that night. Last night that just didn’t seem right. I figured I could find a place to stay connected and caffeinated and maybe get some work and some people-watching done. Tryst, I thought, would be perfect. They have Internet access, caffeine, couches, and people watching aplenty. I told .jeff. and he said he’d meet me down there around 9:30. I arrived about 8:50 and grabbed a couch, popped open my lappy, and got connected. I sent some work-email and some gmail, and looked over the menu that the waitperson had brought me. I decided on some kind of froo-froo coffee and put the menu down and resumed doing “stuff” on/to/with/for .

But then it stopped. My SSH session wasn’t connecting. My gTalk client was reporting “technical difficulties”. I refreshed a web page and felt a moment of relief when my browser showed that a page was loading, but the relief was short-lived because I saw this page, which explained that…

Wireless access at Tryst is turned off at 9pm on Fridays and comes back on at 6:30am Monday mornings.

Take some time off from your work! Enjoy Tryst on the weekends as a place away from both home and office.

Try a coffee or a cocktail…sit back and relax.

But … I need my Internets! I’m not sitting here updating my myspace page! I’m working and, yes, it is night. And, yes, Tryst will probably make more money from pairs of lovers rotating through here for 30 minutes to drop $40 on some fancy coffee cocktails and dessert than they would profit from me filling up the same space all night with two cups of coffee. I get it. What pisses me off, however, is that they don’t bother to mention on their public website that they turn off Internet access. I’m glad I had not yet placed my order, or I would have had a dilemma. Instead I guess I did what Tryst probably sees as the second-best option. I put my laptop in my bag, put my bag on my shoulder, and walked out … just as .jeff. was coming through the door. ugh. So we took our business elsewhere.

Make no mistake, Tryst is still a cool place, but getting cut off unexpectedly kinda sucks. So you can be sure I’m going to trash them on Yelp for it.

My dad would say: if that’s all you’ve got to complain about, you’re not doing too bad. I suppose that’s true.

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These Come From Trees

June 25th, 2008

Sticker seen on a paper towel dispenser. Mine are on order.

http://thesecomefromtrees.blogspot.com/

When I worked for the Post Office I saw a sticker that looked like it had been on a paper towel dispenser for 20 years.  It read “Why use TWO when ONE will do?”

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