Okay, yes, I’m late.  Sorry and all that.  Look, if you’d met my Muse, you’d understand.

She’s waving the whip in a rather menacing manner, so I’d best get straight to it.  Big hoo-haw o’ the week: a podunk pastor in Florida burns a Koran, a bunch of fanatical morons in the Middle East decide it’s death to the infidel time, and some lackwits think the actual murderers aren’t to blame.  Well, quite a lot of people with their moral compass pointing actual north had something to say about that.

Pharyngula: Shades of Gray.  If you read no other link this week, read this one.  And think.

Why Evolution is True: Hoffmann coddles Islam, calls for Pastor Jones’s arrest.

Choice in Dying: How did Joe Hoffmann lose the Plot? Also, The Twilight Zone.  Few people can weigh in on moral issues like Eric MacDonald.

Christopher Hitchens: Cynicism by the Book.

Outside the Interzone: Absolutely.  Tack this one to your wall, and ponder it when you’re tempted to think in absolutes.

Lauryn Oates: Opinion: Blood of murdered UN staff on the hands of Afghan zealots, not American bigots.

And we should never forget that.

Didn’t read much on Japan this week, but this was haunting: Tsunami-hit towns forgot warnings from ancestors.  Let’s try not to forget that if folks went through all the effort to chisel tsunami warnings on stone posts, we should probably pay attention.  That wisdom was dearly won, and in one instance, saved a lot of lives.

Evelyn’s continued her interviews with her dad.  The most recent one’s here.  The two of them have done an outstanding job, and my shot glass is heartily tipped to them both.

Time for Science! 

Mountain Beltway: Tillite in outwash.  In which I learn Callan Bentley is an evil barstard, waving that gorgeous, odd rock around in front of people who’ll never get to hold it…

Jake Archibald: Homeopathy vs Science – a Metaphor.  Cracked me up, but it’s so damned true… and a brilliant demonstration of principle.

Neurotic Physiology: Friday Weird Science GUEST POST: Extra nipples – They’re just a matter of timing.  In which you will learn why, when I meet Brian Switek in real life, I’m demanding he take his shirt off – and there’s nothing kinky about it.

The Loom: The Human Lake.  Brilliant and beautiful!

Denisonian.com: Geosciences professor ‘erupts’ in blogosphere, calling out media hype, rallying volcano fans.  In which Erik Klemetti gets some well-deserved recognition.

Glacial Till: Thoughts on the Intel NW Science Fair, and Meteorite Monday: Ordinary Chondrites.  Not that there’s anything ordinary about them!  It’s so good to see Glacial Till blogging again, have I told you?

Not Exactly Rocket Science: Disordered environments promote stereotypes and discrimination.  Comes to that, I should probably clean my house soon…

Quest: Geological Outings Around the Bay: Alum Rock Park.  In which we learn it’s not alum, but that’s okay, because it’s brilliant geology anyway!

Highly Allochthonous: Why does the Red River of the North have so many floods?  Anne explains it all.  Sandbags are key, people.

And on to Politics.  Bleh.

Politicususa: Running From the Law: Trouble in Wisconsin for Republicans.  The only happy thought is that some day, the piper shall demand payment.  Make it so, my friends, make it so.

Paul Krugman: Ludicrous and Cruel.  I love the fact that Paul Krugman tells the brutal truth with brutal honesty.

A couple of Writing links this week.

A Brain Scientist’s Take on Writing: An Experimental Psychologist’s Take on Beta Reading Part I: Subject Pools.  This is going to be fascinating.

Io9: 10 of the most embarrassing racial and ethnic stereotypes in science fiction.  Hi-larious.  And rather sad.  But still, hilarious.

And, finally, stuff that ended up in the miscellany, but still deserves a good read.

Haddayr: On the dangers of the charity/pity model of illness and disability.  You will never look at a charity event the same way ever again.

WWdN: In Exile: I don’t feel safe. I feel violated, humiliated, and angry.  Wil Wheaton on the TSA, being groped, and what’s wrong with giving up bodily integrity for security theatre.

Right, then.  There’s the lot.  I’m off to slave away now before I end up severely injured by a construct of my imagination.  Coming, mistress!

What with Aunty Flow and thus an enforced break from both fiction writing and mad Doctor Who watching, I got quite a bit of reading done this week.  Possibly too much.  This is gonna be a long Los Links.  I’m afraid I shall have to split things into groups.


A week on the Web wouldn’t be a proper week without a little controversy and/or a good pile-on.  This week, it was Simon Winchester’s turn.  Now, readers know I like Simon Winchester’s books quite a lot.  But when a writer indulges his inner alarmist, makes wild claims without backing them with evidence, and then refuses to make a course correction despite every geoblogger in existence pointing out the problem, well.  Reap what you sow and all that.

And so I give you The Simon Winchester Saga.

Writing Popular Science Books Doesn’t Make You a Scientist: Brian Romans must have borrowed the Smack-o-Matic.  Sample sentence: “Wow, you can almost hear the scary music building to a crescendo at the end of that last phrase. Effective writing for sure — if you’re writing fiction.” Ouch!

How to (and how not to) talk about earthquake hazards in the media: Chris Rowan shows science journalists how to do a proper job.  Take it to heart!

i write angry note to Simon Winchester. AGAIN.:  Geologist Christie Rowe wrote directly to the source of the nonsense.  Their exchange is enlightening.  Science journalist, meet actual scientist!

Earthquake triggering, and why we don’t know where the next big one will strike: Christie Rowe’s Scientific American piece – essential reading for those who want to understand why claiming California’s next in line are so very, very wrong.

 I liked his books… : Bryan at In Terra Veritas makes the crucial point: “If science was always intuitive, Aristotle and Plato would still be the top dogs as far as understanding the natural world go.” Yes!

Giant California Earthquakes and the Radiation Cloud; California Falls into the Sea: Geotripper Emerges from the Apocalypse… : Garry Hayes at Geotripper wrote quite possibly the funniest response to all of the gloom-and-doom nonsense ever.

And, for those who like their meta, Blogs as boundary layers: Brian Romans, Simon Winchester, Facebook and earthquakes together at last has got what you need.  Rather important points about linking, I should think.

The Simon Winchester Saga wasn’t the only topic that exploded this week.  The animal rights nutjobs also blew up all over the scene.  I like animals.  It’s a good idea to treat them decently.  But that doesn’t give animal rights activists carte blanche to commit murder, mayhem, and terrorism.

Animal rights terrorists target students as the “soft underbelly of the vivisection movement”: Truly insane and scary shit.  Orac gives it the not-so-respectful insolence it deserves.

Animal Rights Terrorists Are Coming After Your Students…: Dr. Isis has a few ideas on how to respond to the threat.

On the targeting of undergraduates by animal rights extremists (and the dangers of victim-blaming).: A nice piece by Janet D. Stemwedel on why criticizing victims of animal rights activist attacks is just as wrong as blaming rape victims for their own victimization.

Let’s not lose focus here, people.  The bastards to blame are the ones who believe it’s perfectly fine to destroy human lives to protect fucking fruit flies, okay?  These asshats are no better than the terrorists who murder abortion doctors and terrorize women over a bit of tissue.  They need to be faced down and stopped before they get completely out of hand.


Right?  Right.  Moving on, then.  The Japan earthquake and its aftermath are still in the news.  A few very good links here:

Ignoring tsunami records: a “cascade of stupid errors”: Michael Welland is pissed off, people, and is right to be so.  If you read nothing else about Japan this week, let it be this.

The Most Dangerous Illusion: Lockwood gives those who think the idea we can control nuclear energy is the “most dangerous illusion” a proper spanking, and shows them what the “most dangerous illusion” truly is.  After reading that one, treat yourself to some comic relief, and read Don’t Panic. Waitaminit…. No, Panic.  Trust me.  You’ve earned the belly-laugh.

And for those who want to know more about the unfolding nuclear disaster, Evelyn Mervine and her father have continued with their outstanding interviews. 

On to general science, then.  Ye gods, what a week!  Too much goodness.

The danger of appealing stories: anecdata, expectations, and skepticism: You’ve read Hannah Waters’s wonderful post, right?  Wait, what, you haven’t?!  Go now and read it forthwith!  Everyone needs to read this post.  It should be required.

The Trouble With Teens: Carl Zimmer demystifies the teenage brain.  Now you’ll know what they were thinking when they do something truly fucked-up.

Seeing Through Yourself: The Fundamental Reason For Binocular Vision: Mark Changizi explains why we don’t have an eye in the back of our heads.  Warning: Will cause you to do funny things with your eyeballs.

On Beards, Biology, and Being a Real American: Joe Hanson made me cry laughing with this one.  Talk about yer comic relief!

The Scientific Case Against Craterism: Want moar funnie?  This is so the post for you!  The Sensuous Curmudgeon really ca
ptures the essence of IDiots
in this one.

Drilling into the planet: Why we want to sample the mantle (and why we already have): I think this is quite possibly one of the best posts Erik Klemetti has ever written, and it’s not even about an eruption!  This is the only time you’ll hear me say this, so listen up: Drill baby drill!

A glacial delta complex in western Pennsylvania: Because I’m a sucker for glacial stuff and Callan Bentley’s gorgeously-illustrated posts, that’s why.  I freely admit to having a bit of a crush on him.  His photographs are hawt. ;-)

Forensic Geology: Geoff Manaugh did an outstanding job on this post.  It’s fascinating in its own right, but doubly so for a forensics nerd with a passion for geology.  Oh, and corporations?  Ur seekrits r nawt safe frum teh geealigists.

Meteorite Monday: Carbonaceous Chondrites: Glacial Till’s got a whole new series, and I’ve already learned something I never knew in the very first post!  Being a fan of Meteorite Men and all, I’m super excited about this series, and I hope it continues for a good long time!

A quintessence of dust: Oh, Roger Ebert.  This is why I love you so: “What we are left with are the cosmic shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave. Ultimately the images from Hubble will give us a glimpse of conditions that existed an infinitesimal instant after the Big Bang. There will never be an image of the Big Bang itself, because it had no image. There was Nothing, and then there was Something, and all we can hope is to see that Something as soon as possible after it became.”  A gorgeous ode to science.

You may, at this point, wonder why Elli Goeke’s amazing three-part series on metamorphic rocks isn’t featured here.  That’s because I’m going to give it a whole day to itself here soon, but feel free to peek ahead!


So how much does a segue?  A ha ha.  Let’s get to atheism and religion by way of a hybrid post, then, shall we?

Christianity gave birth to science – a myth?: Indeed.  And Ken Perrott explains why, which will come in useful the next time some smarmy Christian dipshit lords it over you with the whole “there wouldn’t be science without Christianity” bullshit.  (How do you recognize a smarmy Christian dipshit?  Why, by the fact they just spouted something so wildly stupid, of course.)

Ray Comfort is gonna die: And PZ Myers is there to tell him that when he does, he won’t be spouting a dozen pages of come-to-Jeebus schlock.  He’ll be alone, just as we all are.  This post is incredibly touching, personal, and insightful, with just a bit o’ the firebreathing godlessness we know and love.  It took courage to write this.  Good thing PZ’s a courageous kind of guy.

And, finally, we’re on about writing.  I haven’t thought of a clever transition, so we’ll just be on with it.

BOYCOTT DORCHESTER (with updates at bottom): Brian Keene and about a bajillion other authors got royally fucked by these assclowns.  Check the imprint on that book or ebook you’re about to purchase.  If it’s a Dorchester imprint, stay the fuck away.  Do not give your business to this group of amoral assholes.  That is all.

Walking the Line Between Good and Evil: The Common Thread of Heroes and Villains: If your magnum opus includes a hero or a villain, read this.  Immediately.

Special Topics in Calamity Novel Repair: Part 1: If you are writing/have written/might write a novel, you need to be reading The Intern’s series.  Seriously.  You totally do.  So go thou forth and do it.  Besides, she’s not only knowledgeable, but hilarious. 

The writing process: Speaking of hilarious but spot-bloody-on, Ed Yong’s illustration of the writing process should be printed and tacked to every writer’s wall for consolation, commiseration, and other reasons that may or may not begin with the letter C.  We’ve all been there, haven’t we just?

Right, then.  There’s that.  It’s enough, innit?  With thanks to the folks I follow on Twitter, without whom my life would not be filled with such goodness.

Reading’s still a bit sporadic.  Okay, a lot sporadic.  Creative juices flowing and all that – it’s been hard to focus on everything else.  But, thanks to the excellent folks I follow on Twitter, I got a few bits for ye.

Thurs-Demo: The one with the Earthquake Machine: “I named mine ‘El Temblor!’ I need to find some images of mexican wrestlers to paste on the sides and the brick to liven it up, I think. I designed mine to be easy to watch the brick, simple to construct, and cheap. Sort of a minimalist Earthquake Machine that I then loaded up with electronic sensors to graph some data (it’s not SCIENCE until you graph some of the data…).” (Research at a Snail’s Pace)

Reverberations of the Honshu tsunami: “Whatever the warning time, the sheer magnitude and force of the tsunami greatly exceeded anything the Japanese people had experienced since modern record keeping began. Approximately, 40% of the Japanese coast is lined with sea walls of varying heights, but as the New York Times describes, these sea walls provided little barrier to the March 11 tsunami. Worse, these seawalls may have lured coastal dwellers into a false sense of security and obscured their views of receding waters in advance of the oncoming tsunami. As a hydrologist, I was struck by the similarity of the problems with sea walls to the ones associated with levees along flood-prone rivers. The combination of under-engineering and complacency is a deadly combination when a major tsunami, flood, or hurricane strikes.” (Highly Allochthonous)

Ignoring tsunami records: hubris, complacency, or just human nature?: “The earthquake that struck Japan may have been the largest since historical records began (and the fourth largest ever recorded), but the tsunami had many precedents – bigger ones – in the historical and geological record. The size of a tsunami is related to the displacement of the seafloor, not necessarily the magnitude of the earthquake, and significantly smaller events than the one on March 11th have generated larger tsunamis. This raises two questions: given the size and devastation of past events, why should this have been a surprise and why were ‘defences’ so woefully inadequate? And, are there, realistically, such things as ‘tsunami defences’ at all? (Through the Sandglass)

How to (and how not to) talk about earthquake hazards in the media: “This isn’t to say a magnitude 8 earthquake isn’t a very serious future hazard for California. But to argue that it would be more ‘scary’ than what we witnessed a couple of weeks ago is pushing it a bit. To argue that this horror is imminent is borderline irresponsible – there is no scientific basis for stating the risk of a ‘Big One’ in California is any greater than it was a month ago. The same is true of the arguably much more scary Cascadia subduction zone to the north – which can potentially produce a magnitude 9 earthquake, and will produce a tsnuami when it does so. We know that both of these faults will rupture at some point in the future, and people need to be aware of that. But claiming we’re in some period of extra-special risk right now is, to put it bluntly, just making stuff up.” (Highly Allochthonous)

Will radiation hormesis protect us from exploding nuclear reactors?: “That reputable scientist, Ann Coulter, recently wrote a genuinely irresponsible and dishonest column on radiation hormesis. She claims we shouldn’t worry about the damaged Japanese reactors because they’ll make the locals healthier!” [There follows an epic scientific beating.  Pass the popcorn and enjoy!] (Pharyngula)

What A Disaster Really Means: “Disaster management on this scale is rather like being an invading army, minus most of the weaponry. To be successful, an invader has to assume that there will be nothing of use in whatever territory it conquers. The U.S. Army has a whole command dedicated to figuring out the logistics of such things, because, as they put it, prior planning prevents poor performance. They literally figure things down to how much to give a soldier to take with him each day. They have to.” (Slobber and Spittle)

A Message From Christchurch On The Value Of User-Generated Content: “In a disaster, UGC is not here for your entertainment. It is not competing with network news for ad dollars. It does not care whether you think it should be pitted against the professionals for a journalism award. It is a way for people experiencing the most significant event of their lives to bear witness, to cry out their pain and their suffering and their need, to connect with people close by who are sharing the experience and with people far away who, but for their voices, might mistake these events for a blockbuster movie filmed on a sound stage. No human can fail to be moved by the horrific tragedy of Japan, made so real by the user-generated content coming from that ravaged coastline — its very lack of professionalism making it so abundantly clear that there is no difference at all between us and them. In these turbulent times, we cannot afford to distance ourselves from the humanity at the other end of the camera, and from the reality that there but for the grace go we.” (Online Spin) 

Don’t forget Evelyn’s ongoing interview series with her father, a nuclear engineer, about the damaged nuclear plants causing so much trouble in Japan. 

Why Can’t I Ever Dream Up Scams Like This? “I received an email from a fundie crying that some commie-liberal puppy-raping Jesus-hating atheist doesn’t like the national motto (‘In God we trust’). He wants me to sign a petition to Congress to get them to vote yes on some unconstitutional legislation to waste tax dollars promoting his religion.” (Bay of Fundie)

Dressing the meat of tomorrow: “The first piece of in vitro meat grown for human consumption was not produced by science or industry, it was produced by art. More specifically, it was created by the artists Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr and Guy Ben Ary in 2003 as part of their ongoing Tissue Culture and Arts project. The meat was cultured from frog cells and was subsequently eaten by a group of invited guests at a gallery in France.” (SciAm Guest Blog)

The Physics of the Flower’s Bloom: “Not content to just watch flowers dance in the breeze, Harvard physicists have described for the first time how flowers generate the forces needed to curl open come springtime. In the asiatic lily (Lilium casablanca), this poetic blossoming is driven by skewed growth at the edges of petals, the team reports online March 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” (Wired Science)

Impacts and Geology: deep peace? “Metamorphic rocks typically come from deep in the earth and form slowly. Simple physics shows that transferring heat into large volumes of rock (a key driver of many types of metamorphism) takes millions of years. Rocks that form the deep crust of stable cratonic areas lead the most placid of lives. They are heated for so long that they become annealed; they have achieved complete chemical, textural and thermodynamic equilibrium, like some sort of silicate-based Buddhist monk.

“Some deep crustal rocks in South Africa were once in granulite nirvana and might still be there, if only they hadn’t been hit by the biggest impact known on earth. The slow and calm world of the deep crust was violently attacked from Outer Space and the shocking results are visible in the a thin-section.” (Earth Science Erratics)

Frivolous Research?: “In 1955, a $250,000 grant was awarded to researcher E.F. Knipling to study the sex life of the parasitic screwworm.  Senator William Proxmire (a Democrat) later awarded this study – The Sexual Behavior of the Screw-Worm Fly – his infamous ‘Golden Fleece’ award which was given to projects he believed were a ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars.  Proxmire, whose degree was in Business Administration, turned out to be rather poor judge of biological research projects since this project is estimated to have had a payback measured in the billions of dollars.” (Hudson Valley Geologist)

Soldier, Dad, Whistleblower: Atheist in a Foxhole Takes on Evangelistic Military Hierarchy: “The big stuff that’s coming down from the top, that’s different. There are existing rules in place that are being violated systematically. For instance, soldiers are very vulnerable when they come out of basic training, and evangelistic organizations take advantage of that to target them. Look at the picture of the five hundred soldiers being converted by the Billy Graham people. It’s 200 here, 150 there on stage in uniform. It’s epidemic, and I find it outrageous. The amount of money being spent by American citizens to support Evangelical proselytizing activities is substantial. The smokescreen about spiritual fitness having nothing to do with proselytizing is just that–smoke.” (Truthout)

Hugs From Libyans: “Doubts are reverberating across America about the military intervention in Libya. Those questions are legitimate, and the uncertainties are huge. But let’s not forget that a humanitarian catastrophe has been averted for now and that this intervention looks much less like the 2003 invasion of Iraq than the successful 1991 gulf war to rescue Kuwait from Iraqi military occupation.” (Nicholas Kristof, NYT)

News flash: creationists distort science: “What I’m going to do is put up an analysis by a professional systematist of how duplicitious this ICR article is.  Christian creationists won’t, of course, be swayed by scientific counterarguments, but perhaps it will be instructive to see how creationists distort data in a field that’s unfamiliar to most laypeople: systematics.” (Why Evolution is True) [And for bonus hilarity, you’ve absolutely got to watch this video of two corvids getting cats to fight.  This, my darlings, is why I laugh at the people who tell us we should imitate the harmony of nature.)

It’s been a week.  Top story, of course, was the earthquake in Japan, and the still-unfolding disaster as nuclear power plants failed.

A great many geobloggers have presented excellent posts.  For links to a vast array of information, try Looking for Detachment and Outside the Interzone, where Silver Fox and Lockwood have collected a wide range of sources.  Mountain Beltway was on top of things from the very first morning, and Chris Rowan did one of his typical brilliant assessments, along with a post on the SciAm guest blog.  Evelyn at Georneys has a series of interviews with her dad, a nuclear engineer.  All excellent stuff.

Dan McShane posted a brilliant assessment of how the Japan earthquake should impact policy considerations for those of us in Cascadia.  I think this needs to be thrust into the hands of every politician, city planner, and – oh, fuck it, absolutely everyone in the region.

Rachael Acks at 4.5 Billion Years of Wonder had something very important to say in the aftermath:

There is no meaning to the Sendai earthquake. There is no capricious god, no vast karmic wheel. It is simply a thing that has happened, that we as humans must struggle against, and fight to overcome, and mourn those who have died afterward. Because there is nothing more to it – it’s just the summation of physics and time – what we do is so very important. We have only this world, only this life, and only each other.

Truth.

And the NYT asks if we “get” tsunamis yet.  Judging by the fact that so many people ran to the water to have a look at one in this country, I’d say the answer is probably no.  This is an important artiicle, and gets bonus points for quoting Gandalf.  No, really, I mean it.  Go have a look.

Finally, if you missed Callan’s post on secondary effects, don’t miss it now.

In non-earthquake-and-tsunami news, Rep. Ed Markey went off on a glorious rant about science and the GOP attacks thereon, which is a thing of beauty and should not be missed by anyone.  Also on the political front, read Steve Benen’s very important post about power grabs.  There’s so much happening you may know nothing about, and if you care about the future of democratic rule in this country, this is stuff you should know:

You might be thinking, “C’mon, that can’t be right.” I’m afraid it is. Michigan’s new Republican governor is cutting funding to municipalities, and if they struggle financially as a consequence, he will have the power to simply take over those municipalities if he believes he should.

And once Snyder does take over these local governments, by virtue of his own whims, he can impose a local dictator — called an “Emergency Manager” — who will have the authority to undo collective bargaining agreements, scrap contracts, and even undo the results of elections.

And if that weren’t quite enough, the local dictator, at the behest of the new Republican governor or a designated corporate ally, can even “disincorporate or dissolve” an entire municipal government — effectively making a local government disappear — without any input from the public whatsoever.

I’m completely serious.

He completely is.  And so is the situation.  Pay attention, people.

No graceful segue is possible from that, so I won’t try.  Instead, enjoy the sensation of whiplash as I direct your attention to two posts for those interested in ebook publishing: Michael Stackpole’s 9 Must-Have Clauses for Digital Rights Contracts and Joseph Esposito’s The Terrible Price of Free.

I’m not sure about the science behind this article on the Large Hadron Collider, as I’m not very well-versed on particle physics, but it gets props from me for quoting one of the greatest Doctor Who lines ever.

And today, Mercury Messenger made it into orbit!  Two things: Lockwood ‘splains it all and Callan linked to one of the most remarkable videos I’ve ever seen.  There’s a little something uplifting for ye.

Right?  Right.  I probably missed a ton of stuff, but I’m still busy catching up on a great many lost years of Doctor Who fandom, which I’m back off to now, so adios for now.  Or (and only fans will really understand): Allons-y!

Share the Verdad:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Tumblr
• LinkedIn
• Reddit
• More

• Skype
• Pocket
• Email
• Print
• Pinterest

Still immersed in Doctor Who and the erupting volcano of inspiration, I’m afraid, which has left very little time for the intertoobz.  Haven’t been visiting my regular haunts, even.  But we’ve got a few wonderful items, and please do feel free to add anything you want noticed in the comments.


Right, then.  Without further ado: probably the biggest news is the drama going on in Wisconsin, where Cons have just as of last night fucked the unions over in a naked attempt to break their political and economic power.  We’ve got a couple of posts here that help clarify matters:

The Ambush in Madison: “Wisconsin Republicans had given their word that they would not move on Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) union-busting bill without Democrats’ participation. Wisconsin Republicans also assured the public that stripping workers of collective-bargaining rights was entirely about the state’s finances, not politics.

“Last night, however, those same GOP officials launched an ambush, reversing course on their previous promises and ramming through an unjust, unpopular anti-worker measure.” (Washington Monthly)

Wis. State Senate Passes Anti-Union Bill, In End-Run Around Dem Boycott: “In short, unions in Wisconsin are not just economic organizations made up of their respective workers — they are political institutions that are a major part of the state. As such, a change to the state’s union laws that would threaten the existence of organized labor would in turn threaten the existence of the Democratic Party itself in Wisconsin, as people have known it for over half a century — something that state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) may have accidentally alluded to earlier today.” (TPM)

And don’t forget to read all about Walker’s crusade against women.

One thing’s for sure: after watching what Cons have been up to for the past several weeks both locally and nationally, I’ll never vote for one again.  Ever.  I don’t care if s/he’s saved a trillion kittens and advocates universal health care.  I might have done in that rare circumstance before, but not now.  Can’t trust the little shits not to go batshit insane once they’ve got a taste of power.  Gah.

I just want to take this moment to state for the record that the Dems who left Wisconsin in an effort to prevent this madness are teh awesome, and so are the hundreds of thousands of protesters who dedicated the last few weeks of their lives to attempting to ensure the Cons understood there’d be consequences for what they’re doing.  They’re all incredible people.  Good luck on the recall efforts, the court challenges, and the next fight I’m sure Walker and his merry gang of fuckwits will force you in to. 


Right, then.  On with the rest…


Books about atheism: “I’ve been reading some books lately about atheism. Though I’ve been a functional atheist for many years, I’ve been paying more attention to it lately in light of religiously-inspired idiocy from around the globe. I’ve become convinced that religious belief does more harm than good, and my sense of incredulity has deepened at how far my fellow humans will go in their own self-deception. So I’ve been doing some reading on the topic, and reflecting on that reading. Here’s a quick digest of seven books that I’ve read over the past couple of months. I’ll conclude at the end with a few thoughts on what all this means for me, for you, and for us.” (Mountain Beltway) – This is the one post this week that made me actually spend more than a few minutes away from Doctor Who and writing.  It’s incredible, it’s courageous, and it’s really one you should read.  If you click no other link, make it this one.

Islam and science: cowed Muslim physicist cancels lecture on evolution: “They worry far more about an Alabama schoolchild accepting evolution than about an Afghan girl defaced with acid for daring to attend school at all.  For an atheist, that is a clear case of misplaced priorities, and it sickens me.” (Why Evolution is True)

ACCRETIONARY WEDGE# 32 -part 1: “It’s carnival time in the South and since the Accretionary Wedge is suppose to be a carnival of blogs, I feel it is only fitting that we should have parade of favorite geologic pictures as a post.  Thank you all for participating and making it such a wonderful parade.” (Ann’s Musings on Geology and Other Things)

Moses, an Epic Figure of 19th Century Washington: “A few years ago I came across a set of bronze medallions at the New York Metropolitan Art Museum. The medallions were of famous northwest First Nations peoples. It was a rare glimpse at art of the late 19th Century era depicting images associated with what is now Washington State. I came across the same set of medallions at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in December. Some of the individuals portrayed in the medallions were not only famous, but played a significant role in shaping what is now the landscape of Washington State. One medallion is of Chief Moses.” (Reading the Washington Landscape)

You can increase your intelligence: 5 ways to maximize your cognitive potential: “While Einstein was not a neuroscientist, he sure knew what he was talking about in regards to the human capacity to achieve. He knew intuitively what we can now show with data—what it takes to function at your cognitive best. In essence: What doesn’t kill you makes you smarter.” (SciAm Guest Blog)

New fissure eruption on Kilauea (with video): “Hawaii 24/7 has some great images and video of the new fissure (see below). The fissure appears to be continuing to propagate as some of the
images show – the ground is visibly cracked ahead/behind of the fissure and en echelon fissures are steaming as well. The lava itself is producing a 15-20 meter spatter fountains and small lava flows issuing from the fissure. It is clear in the pictures that this new fissure – located SW of Pu`u O`o – is in an area that hasn’t seen eruptive activity in quite some time as there are stands of trees and the ground surface is covered in a thin vegetated soil. Big Island News also has some video of the fissure released by HVO, much of it taken within minutes of the fissure opening, all in all very remarkable footage.” (Eruptions)

Attention Unchurched Military Personnel: They’re Coming For Your Children: “Hunting down the ‘unchurched’ children on our military bases to lead them to Jesus is not just the job of military ministries. It’s also the job of DoD contractors hired as religious education directors. I wrote in my previous post about one contract for a position on an Army base that actually required the contractor to target ‘locations and activities where youth live and spend time, such as neighborhood community centers, school and sports and recreational activities, etc.’ to draw in ‘youth that are not regularly affiliated with established chapel congregational youth programs.'” (Talk to Action)

The myth of choosing your own doctor: “Somehow this bureaucratic death-match is supposed to be more efficient than single-payer – and deliver better care in the bargain. But it doesn’t. We spend WAY more per person on health care but we get worse results from it. I would just dearly love to tell members of Congress that we won’t give them government health insurance, but we’ll give them an allowance to go buy it for themselves on their precious free market – if they can. Since the majority are older males, many of them would be in for a rude surprise. It might not change their minds, but it would make a damn good reality TV show.” (Decrepit Old Fool)

The Etiology of Rivers: “The idea that rivers have evolved over time, becoming more diverse and complex, is fascinating. At first glance, rivers might seem to be independent of life and other manifestly time-bound phenomena. But if we have learned only one thing in the last couple of decades, it is that the earth’s systems are much more intimately related than this, and that life leaves its fingerprint on everything on earth’s surface.” (Agile)

The Convergence Zone is a local northern Puget Sound weather phenomenon where air moving up from the south through the Puget lowlands encounters air wrapping around the Olympic Mountains from the north. The collision causes uplift and a band of rain, or if cold enough, snow. The CZ is a narrow band of cloudy weather and heavy precipitation well known to western Washington weather junkies. 

Due to ongoing cramps, elegant segues from local snowstorms to New Zealand’s hugely destructive earthquake are not in the offing. Boston.com’s The Big Picture has amazing images of the quake’s aftermath.  Chris Rowan’s been regularly updating his original post, and has a new one up about seismic lensing:

Even taking into account how close the rupture point of Tuesday’s earthquake was to Christchurch, the intensity of the shaking – and the amount of damage that the city suffered as a consequence – seems to be very high for a magnitude 6.3 earthquake. The fact that the city is built on soft sediments that amplify shaking is an obvious factor here, but an article in the New Zealand Herald raises the possibility that geological structures in the region may have acted as a ‘seismic lens’, focussing the seismic energy released in the earthquake towards Christchurch.

Poor Christchurch.  Seems like nothing was going her way last Tuesday. Evelyn at Georneys made the following observation:

With at least 75 people dead and extensive damage throughout the city of Christchurch, the toll of the recent New Zealand earthquake is already a heavy one. A number of factors contributed to make this earthquake so deadly– the magnitude, the closeness of the epicenter to Christchurch, the shallowness of the epicenter, the time of day, and the fact that much damage from the September 2010 Christchurch earthquake had yet to be repaired.  The death toll and damage caused by the recent earthquake in first world New Zealand is nothing like what occurs when large earthquakes hit third world countries, such as Haiti in January 2010, but for a first world country the destruction is fairly high. 

We’re all vulnerable.  Some more than others.


Now for our next choppy segue: on with los links.

Friday fold: Jefferson River Canyon: “Most of the view is taken up by a large overturned syncline, with an axial plane that dips steeply to the west. At the far left are the Mississippian-aged Madison Group limestones, topped with upper Mississippian Big Snowy Group (more limestones), then the Amsden Formation (orange siltstone and sandstone from the Pennsylvanian), the Quadrant Formation (a Pennsylvanian quartz sandstone), the Permian phosphatic Phosphoria Phormation

, and and youngest of all, the Morrison Formation, which is Jurassic. In the area of the Jefferson River Canyon, the strata are tightly folded around the Morrison. Finally, at the far right of the view, we see the abrupt appearance of the LaHood Conglomerate, part of the Mesoproterozoic Belt Supergroup. The contact here is a thrust fault.” (Mountain Beltway)

The GOP comes out of the closet: “But I actually think the GOP is doing us a favor. Instead of posturing and sending mixed message about caring for the people while passing laws that say otherwise, they are coming right out and wearing the fucking t-shirt. If you’re poor, female, care about your health or that of the land, or are in any way uninterested in making rich white dudes more rich, you can go to hell.” (The Spandrel Shop)

Sunday Photo(s): “Earlier this week Dana Hunter published some photos of Juanita Park in winter. I thought it would be fun to contrast those, plus a couple of mine, with what things look like there in Summer.” (Slobber and Spittle)

the evil of either/or : “When I turned off my shower water this morning I heard water running in the bathroom sink. I didn’t remember turning the water on, but it was on. There are only two possible explanations. The spirit of a dead human turned the water on (a ghost!), or the plumbing has come to life and has a will of its own.” (Dangblog)

How regulation came to be: Filling it up with Ethyl: “There was a small potential pitfall with using tetraethyl lead (TEL) to reduce knock — lead has been known since ancient times to be toxic to humans. It did not take long for this drawback to become manifest.” (dsteffen)

Death Valley Days: The First Day – Racing the Wind (and the torrential downpours): “First stop was in Neogene marine sediments at the south end of the Great Valley, which included an introduction to field geology and the idea of formations and environments of deposition (our students are mostly seeing geology in the field for the first time). How do you know a layer is marine? One clue is in the hand of the student above: fossils! Somehow, unsurprisingly, a place called Sharktooth Hill yielded up shark teeth (and a few fragments of seagoing mammals).” (Geotripper)

Ancestor Worship: “Despite the wonderful discoveries made in Africa over the past decade, there is still much we don’t know about the earliest humans. Even pinpointing what characteristics identify the earliest humans has become a challenge. All of the contenders for ‘earliest known human’ have been heavily criticized, and there has been little resolution as to what they actually are. (Laelaps)

The scientist-journalist divide: what can we learn from each other?: “Scientists can definitely learn a thing or two about communication from science journalists. I don’t want to transform my manuscripts into text that reads like journalism, because the two forms of writing serve very different purposes for very different audiences. But reading good science writing online and practicing my own writing here have immeasurably improved my consideration of word choices, sentence structure, the value of an engaging first paragraph (or lede), and sense of narrative arc. I think these skills are carrying over from blogging into my manuscript and grant writing, my interactions with graduate student writing, and even my teaching. Maybe I’ll start asking my students to read both primary papers and the accompanying feature stories, so that they might absorb some writing skills from their reading assignments. So my unsolicited advice to fellow scientists is: ‘If you want to write better, start by carefully reading good writing.’” (Highly Allochthonous)

GA Rep. Seeks to Criminalize Unauthorized Vaginal Bleeding: “The bill would also more or less suspend the presumption of innocence to women who lose pregnancies. If a woman failed to carry a pregnancy to term, in accordance with her divinely ordained role, the onus would be on her to satisfy the state that she didn’t deliberately kill it.” (Focal Point)

Meet Diania the walking cactus, an early cousin of life’s great winners: “Around 520 million years ago, a walking cactus roamed the Earth. Its body had nine segments, each bearing a pair of armour-plated legs, covered in thorns. It was an animal, but one that looked more like the concoction of a bad fantasy artist. Jianni Liu from Northwest University in Xi’an discovered this bundle of spines and named it Diania cactiformis – the ‘walking cactus from Yunnan’. And she thinks that it sits at the roots of the most successful group of animals on the planet. (Not Exactly Rocket Science)  And while you’re there, don’t miss Is crime a virus or a beast? How metaphors shape our thoughts and decisions.)

Spencer Hot Springs, Then and Now: “In 1981, two geologists from Northern Exploration Company — one contract geologist and one summer temp — wrote a poem commemorating the company, the mineral exploration we were doing, some of the key players, and the hot springs itself. They used nicknames when they referred to any of the head honchos, signed their names cryptically, and dated their contribution to the cabin wall. Within a few months to a year, the red-paint people had crossed out one of the NEC geologist’s nicknames, ‘Asshole,’ because it was on their list of bad words. I doubt
they knew, or would have cared, that it was an appropriate and self-chosen nickname: he wore a baseball cap and carried a coffee cup with that name, and lived up to his designation admirably. (Looking for Detachment)

The Saga of the Scientific Swindler! (1884-1891): “In the 1880s, a fascinating chain of letters appeared in the magazine Science and in other publications, including the New York Times.  The scientific community was being victimized by a clever confidence man, who was working his way into members’ trust and then stealing from them.   The exploits span at least 7 years and stretch over much of the United States.  Most surprising about it, however, is that the con artist was so successful because he was apparently trained as one of their own.” (Skulls in the Stars)

Anthropocentrism: All of God’s Special Little Snowflakes: “My little boy is far too young to understand this, so my response was a visit to the new Africa exhibit at the zoo.  My overly-cautious little one looked on as I stood inches away from a chimpanzee, separated only by a pane of glass.  The chimpanzee put his hand up to the glass.  I held mine up to meet his.  His eyes met mine and we considered one another.  In absolute awe (and yes, a little choked up), I looked back at my tiny son as if to say, ‘See.  Not so different.'” (Pharyngula) 

Prank call Embarrasses Wisconsin’s Walker: “Yep, the call everyone’s been talking about is, in fact, legit.” (The Washington Monthly)

Shock Doctrine, U.S.A.: “Here’s a thought: maybe Madison, Wis., isn’t Cairo after all. Maybe it’s Baghdad — specifically, Baghdad in 2003, when the Bush administration put Iraq under the rule of officials chosen for loyalty and political reliability rather than experience and competence.” (Paul Krugman)

Religious Grab Bag for a Thursday Morning — or: How to believe in the teeth of the evidence and have people think you really know: “The news never disappoints. Every morning when I wake up I tour a number of online newspapers. My internet homepage is aldaily.com, managed by the Chronicle of Higher Education. I start with the Globe and Mail and then work down, through the Guardian, Indpendent, Telegraph, National Post and New York Times. Life is short: I can’t do them all. Every morning, without fail, there is some religious madness or other.” (Choice in Dying)

Expanding ‘Justifiable Homicide’ Efforts: “For all the ridiculous paranoia on the right about creeping ‘sharia law,’ there are now multiple state proposals, published by Republicans, to make it legal to assassinate medical professionals as part of a larger culture war.” (The Washington Monthly)

Share the Verdad:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Tumblr
• LinkedIn
• Reddit
• More

• Skype
• Pocket
• Email
• Print
• Pinterest

Damn you, Twitter!  So much delicious stuff lately that I’ve been dedicating myself very nearly full time to reading all the wonderful stuff linked.  Even when I try to cut down on the number of links I click, I still end up opening too much.  I can no more resist the pull of an intriguing link than I can resist a good chicken tikka masala.  And if you’ve ever seen me in an Indian restaurant, then you know that’s about equivalent to anyone’s ability to resist a gravity well.


So yes, lots of Los Links, and as always, I got so busy opening links I forgot to note who tweeted them, and so a blanket “Thank you for these, all you folks I follow!”,  pathetic as it is, shall have to do.  I am Bad.


(And a special note to all those people whose emails are still sitting in my inbox unanswered: I still love you, and I will reply as soon as I can!)

That’ll learn me.  I didn’t build Los Links throughout the week, instead choosing to throw links into a scattered heap and sort them out later.  Wot a mess.  And I feel I’ve missed some important things, but I haven’t got the faintest idea what they are.  My wetware is nonfunctional, people.  I’m in the midst of reading three books, one of which is warping my brain severely, one which is stretching it, and one that is making me want to throttle Simon Winchester for his inordinate fondness for cliffhangers.  This is all by way of apology to those I’ve shamefully neglected this week.

We’re in need of a good guffaw, methinks.  Which is why we’re leading off with Neil & His Magnificent Oracular Journal. Seriously, people.  Click the link.  Read the warning.  Shake the Oracle.  It’s hysterical.

The Brewing Kristol, Beck Feud…: “In the case of U.S. policy towards Egypt, the dynamic is well beyond left vs. right. Instead we’re seeing (a) those in the U.S. who support the protesters, their calls for sweeping democratic reforms, and Mubarak’s ouster; (b) those who support Mubarak and fear his unknown replacement; and (c) those who believe caliphates run by zombie Islamists, the Illuminati, and the Loch Ness Monster are coming to steal your car.” (The Washington Monthly)

Mosses That Move and the Rocks They Reveal: “This further explains why geologists flock to newly blasted road cuts like flies to honey, and further why they carry around rock hammers* for splitting rocks to see what they truly look like. It also explains why I get nervous around them when they get that glimmer in their eyes suggesting that if they could napalm the countryside in their research area, they would.” (The Artful Amoeba)

An Abbreviated Numerical History of the Great New Madrid Earthquakes: “750,000,000: Years ago, approximately, when the supercontinent Rodinia began to break up, during which the New Madrid Seismic Zone is thought to have formed.  The NMSZ is a reactivated fault system that was initially formed when what is now North America began to split apart, or rift.  The rift failed, although the NMSZ provides a lasting reminder.” (+/- Science)

The myth buster: “In 1953, Evelyn Hooker, PhD, applied for a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grant to conduct research on ‘normal homosexuals.’ During this period of American history, Sen. Joseph McCarthy was seeking out communists wherever he suspected they might be lurking; homosexual acts were a crime; bomb shelters were springing up in backyards; and the term ‘normal’ homosexual was thought to be an oxymoron. A variety of medical and psychological treatments to “cure” homosexuality were employed, including ice pick lobotomies, electroshock, chemical castration with hormonal treatment or aversive conditioning. Gay parties were raided by the police, particularly in election years when a crackdown on ‘sexual perversion’ was seen as a positive step in the fight on crime.” (Monitor on Psychology)

Bullseye: “It is also clear to me that the so-called ‘skeptics’ are allowed to make up whatever they want at will without consequence, and create a large but ill-thought out laundry list, and that we must play this game or else we’re being ‘dogmatic.’ If a climate scientist make one mistake, or a date gets screwed up in the middle of a 1000 page document about glaciers, it will receive international attention. However, if ‘skeptics’ toss out 8 conspiracy theories, 10 logical fallacies, and 17 arguments with ZERO thought put into them, then it is a good thing that we get to hear all sides. Then, when one item on the bucket list is knocked down, they can just jump tot he next item. In the meantime, they are just as valid as everyone else’s idea, since the criteria for acceptance is 101% certaintly in everything.” (Open Mind)

Pondering Landscapes: A Chat with BLDGBLOG Author Geoff Manaugh: “A few years ago I stumbled upon the fantastic web site BLDGBLOG and have been following it closely ever since. BLDGBLOG is curated by writer Geoff Manaugh and is wonderfully difficult to describe. Geoff explores ideas of the interaction of our designed/built environments with landscapes and natural processes. Geoff kindly took time out of his schedule to sit down and ponder a few questions I had about his work. I hope you enjoy it.” (Clastic Detritus)

Best of the Ice Caves, Mt. Erebus, Antarctica: “Descending into and exploring the ice caves on Mount Erebus has to have been the most surreal experience of my entire trip to Antarctica this past field season. Now that I’m back from the ice, I’ve had time to sift through all of my photos and those of my colleagues, and I’ve picked out the very best of the ice cave photos from Erebus Expedition 2010-2011.” (Science Friday)

Of Bad Odors and Good Yarns: “I was sitting in on a class at Harvard the other day, taught somewhere in the ancient warrens of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, listening to a lecture on molecular evolution. The professor, a tenured Harvard biologist and museum curator, was talking about a particular group of genes in Drosophila. But first he said something surprising: he never liked biology as a kid. ‘It was always about Drosophila,’ he told the class. ‘I just couldn’t get excited about flies.’”  (Tooth & Claw)

The New Atheism: “But this, quite evidently, simply will not do. We still go back and  back, and when we get to the end of a chain of traditions, we find someone with a pen! A human being, just like you and me! So the church, just like the Muslim authorities, took some human writings, no matter how fenced round with sanctity, and then elevated these writings to a stature they simply do not and cannot possess.” (Choice in Dying)

Pakistan floods: Predictable or predicted, but a disaster nonetheless: “So the Pakistani government did forecast the flood – at least four days out – in plenty of time to get people in northern Pakistan’s valleys out of the way. The problem was not with the meteorological and hydrologic science either internationally or in Pakistan. Instead, disaster was ensured when flood warnings were not taken sufficiently seriously by regional authorities, media, and residents.” (Highly Allochthonous)

Friday Fault Photos: Fault Scarp at Fairview Peak, Nevada: “On that same gray day in early December that MOH and I found flow-banded rhyolite, brecciated rhyolite, tuff, fossils, and Earthscope, we made our way up the wide, gravelled, but unmarked road to the fault scarp on Fairview Peak.” (Looking for Detachment)

Stand Back! “Ah, rocks. How I love pounding on you.” (Outside the Interzone) 

A Look at the Marcus Landslide in the McDowell Mountains of Arizona: “For those aware of the special appeal in ‘seeing’ long-gone events and the power of geologic observation in resurrecting such events, the Marcus landslide is a truly wonderful story.” (Earthly Musings)

Ye gods, what a week.  The GOP’s dropping the “forcible” from in front of “rape” in front of its noxious little bill, but I’m posting the links I collected regarding that for two reasons: to remind people what these fucktards think about women, and to make sure everyone knows that what’s left of the bill is no better.  What they’ve left intact eviscerates Roe vs. Wade.  Everything we fought for, they’re trying to take away by force.  And I have to tell you something: I think far more highly of my rapist than I do of these misogynist asshats.  I’m not joking even a little.


So please, ladies and those who respect us, make sure your representatives know that attempts to take our choice away are unacceptable.  We’ll not give up the fight simply because they took out the most outrage-inducing bit.  The whole thing is an outrageous attack on women, and it’s not to be stood for.


Happier links follow.  There was a hell of a lot of great stuff this week.  Everybody at my regular haunts included, so do avail yourselves of the geoblogs in the Blog Roll! This week, I kept the focus (mostly) on folks I don’t link to as much.

Shorter GOP: Tax breaks for everyone, except those pregnant teenage rape victims, the dirty whores: “Functionally, there is no rape exception when there’s a ‘rape exception’.  If you’re raped, and abortion is restricted to people of your class, rape exceptions are meaningless.  You could define rape as broadly as you wanted, and still the number of women who’d get past the exception would be virtually none.  The only real result of narrowing the definition of ‘rape’ to exclude women who were asleep, drugged, cornered with little chance of escape, minor children, and basically anyone who didn’t fight within an inch of her life is mostly symbolic, and what it symbolizes is support for rape culture and hatred of women, particularly rape victims.  It’s the GOP (and some anti-choice Democrats) signing off on the idea that you asked for it.  And because you’re a bad girl who asks for it, you should be punished further with forced childbirth. Even if you’re a child.” (Pandagon)

House GOP: Not All Rape Victims Were Really Raped, So They Should Bear Their Rapist’s Child: “So merely being forced to have sex without your consent isn’t the same as being raped as far as access to health care is concerned? Can we stop hearing about the Deep Moral Principles of anti-abortion fanatics now? And even more so, can we please stop hearing about how criminalizing abortion is really about protecting women? Can anybody deny that opposition to legal abortion is deeply intertwined with sexism and reactionary beliefs about sexuality at this point?” (Lawyers, Guns and Money)

Redefining Rape–A list of resources related to the #DearJohn campaign: “Sady Doyle of Tiger Beatdown and #MooreandMe fame has begun another Twitter campaign to draw attention to this sick state of affairs. People are posting a lot of useful links, and I wanted to gather them together.” (Chunky Monkey Mind)

#DearJohn: More Links From the Trenches: “Meanwhile, at bill at least as heinous is H.R. 217, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, the brainchild of Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN). H.R. 217 prevents federal funding from going to any health care provider that provides abortion services, EVEN THOUGH those providers do not use federal funds to actually pay for abortion services or anything involved in them (like equipment or nurse’s salaries or what have you). Shakesville has a rundown of the bills.” (Smart Angry Women)