Outside The Interzone: Jan 30, 2011

Monday, February 7, 2011

Gravel and Cobbles

There are days when it feels like there is an unusual amount of geology and earth science related stuff in my reader. Today was one one of those days.

Calamities of Nature

Introduction to Volcanolgy, G411, from Bug. (Click to enlarge)

So CSM, could you, say, qualify that a little more carefully? For example,"Apophis asteroid will likely probably almost certainly not smash into Earth, unless it does, but that's doubtful, say most scientists, at least those we talked to."

funny pictures history - Yes, but how do we get it on a ring?

see more Historic LOL. I really enjoy seeing people wearing rocks as decorations- that is, jewelry. I can't really wear it myself because I tend to smash things- not so much clumsy as forgetting that bumping into that wall may not hurt me, but it'll play havoc with the bracelet/watch/ring. And oversize jewelry can be a fun and attractive tongue-in-cheek joke. But this is a bit much.

We've seen this flick before: in rock Vs. car, rock wins. see more Very Demotivational

And there's some serious news, too!

Oobleck could've made all the difference. Why didn't the pin-heads in their ivory towers figure this out? Oh, that's right! They did! Saving BP all the tedious hassle of figuring out how to deal with deep water spills, and making sure the profits went to the right people.

The Earth... for Physicists. The BIG events in earth history, via Kottke.org.

Krugman is shrill again... crop failures and climate change? Followup- forgot I set this aside a couple of days ago: The Guardian paints an even gloomier and scarier picture than Krugman.

A bit behind the curve on this one, but it's mostly because I assumed those who might be interested had already seen it elsewhere; some conversations today and yesterday indicate I'm mistaken in that assumption. The Kepler orbital telescope has identified over 1200 candidate exoplanets- that is, each will need to be confirmed by further observations, but it's believed that most will be confirmed. This effectively triples the number of known exoplanets!

The sex life of anchovies. Isabella Rosselini was, half my life ago, what is known in the male biz as "hawt." (see, for example) And here's the thing: in my experience, once you've decided someone is beautiful, they always will be. Over the last few years, she has been getting quite a bit of acclaim for her work describing and popularizing the sex lives of various creatures. And this is relevant to earth science how? Sex and evolution are inextricable, and biological evolution is one of the major narratives (to some, the major narrative) in our planet's history. Plus, I have to applaud an iconic sex symbol using her fame to promote science education.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

National Anthem

As if I need one, here's another reason to take a miss on the stupor bowel:

Of course, as is often the case, Laurie Anderson put it best.

Sunday Funnies

Internet's being pissy again... I'm just going to post what I've got for now, and hopefully get back for the rest at some unspecified point in the future. Tired of the fighting.

AmazingSuperPowers

So Much Pun

Gonzoblair's Imgur site, via Alphaville (quite a number more at the link)

High Fin... Oh Wait... Sorry Bro Gif - High Fin... Oh Wait... Sorry Bro

see more Gifs

see more Monday Through Friday

Wil Wheaton's Tumblr

The High Definite

see more Political Pictures

funny dog pictures - Rare events in Dogdom Febuary 1, 9:34 a.m. pacific time Pepper is not barking

see more dog and puppy pictures

Sofa Pizza... "There will be a bloodbath of sugary refreshment."

Surviving the World

Sober in a Nightclub

funny celebrity pictures - PORTLAND The final frontier.

see more Lol Celebs

funny celebrity pictures - 7 of 9 has been upgraded

see more Lol Celebs

Hullabaloo

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Stand Back!

Inspired by a post at Geology Rocks; base photo from here. Ah, rocks. How I love pounding on you.

Ketchup

For all the wet dreams happening on the right side of our political "spectrum" (which seems to range from right to far right to extreme right) over Saint Ronnie's centennial, and the predictable eye rolling on the "left," I just wanted to give some credit where it's due. He improved the health and nutrition of millions of children by proposing to designate ketchup as a vegetable for the purposes of school lunch programs.

And to top it off, he reversed the Carter administration's policy of sanctions against P.W. Botha's Apartheid South African Government for something he called constructive engagement. Which basically meant not noticing what was happening to blacks in that country.

So let's give the man a break, okay? His efforts mean this is a healthy meal:

Saturd80's

Wall of Voodoo, Tomorrow:

Lloyd Cole, Perfect Skin:

The Call, The Walls Came Down:

I'm much too ignorant about the issues to say anything about the situation in Egypt, now in its twelfth day. But this last song, written during the reign of Prince Ronnie, and nominally about the cold war, makes me think of the rebellion there. This song has always given me goosebumps, but it's especially compelling now.

Coffee Kitteh

I'm impressed. As a rule, I drink straight coffee, and only rarely get the fancy drinks, so I don't get the artwork that often accompanies the latter. There are some baristas here who can pull off some some really pretty drinks, but I suspect the kitty above would be more than they'd try for. (EpicPonyz)

Friday, February 4, 2011

How Much is a Planet Worth?

Gliese 581 c: $160
Mars: $14,000
Earth: $Lotsa!

From BoingBoing:

Our planet's value emerged as nearly 5 quadrillion dollars. That's about 100 times Earth's yearly GDP, and perhaps, Laughlin thought, not a bad ballpark estimate for the total economic value of our world and the technological civilization it supports.

I find this kind of amazing, that one can simply plug in numbers regarding physical characteristics of a planet- quantities that don't, on the face of it, seem to have much to do with economic value- and get something that seems like a plausible estimation of the "worth" of the planet. $14,000 seems like a low value for Mars, to me, but I suspect that's at least in part because I think about its potential future value, not its value in terms of today's ability to utilize it.

The interview portion of the article goes into some detail of how the equation was pieced together, and helps clarify how this works. Still wondering about magnets and tides, though.

Sarah Palin®

According to Salon, Sarah Palin has applied to trademark her name, along with Bristol's.

The former Alaska governer and influential conservative leader has filed for a trademark on her name. So has her daughter Bristol. How come? Because they're worried someone might highjack the Palin brand.

No word on Todd, Trip, Track, Trig, Kumquat, Bratwurst, or the rest of the oddly-named family.

Sadly, Reuters follows up with this:

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's bid to trademark both her name and that of her daughter Bristol ran into trouble at the Patent and Trademark Office because the application forms were not signed, government records show.

Yeah, they probably forgot... their names, that is.

Aw nuts. Forgot I'm supposed to be ignoring Palin this week. That didn't last long. However, I can feel good about putting that "R in a circle" after Palin®'s name henceforth.

It's Full of Stars!

I tend to assume that many of the silly things that fly at me out of the innertubz are faked or photoshopped. Yesterday I posted an image of a "monolith action figure" about which I made that assumption... mistakenly. It's a real thing that's really for sale at ThinkGeek and Amazon.

Properly proportioned to those in the movies 2001 and 2010 (1:4:9 - the squares of the first 3 integers)
Made of semisynthetic, organic, amorphous, solid materials (AKA plastic)
Zero (0) points of articulation
May cause strange magnetic fields, action figure evolution, seeing things filled with stars, and/or more (or it might just sit on your desk doing nothing)

It's going for $12.99, which seems kind of spendy for what it is, but face it: it comes with that packaging, which is sort of priceless. (Hat tip to Rawley for letting me know this is an actual thing and where to find it.)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Thorsday: Baldr

Odin's Last Words to Balder (W. G. Collingwood, 1908) Picture and excerpt below from Wikipedia.

...Baldr is known primarily for the story of his death. His death is seen as the first in the chain of events which will ultimately lead to the destruction of the gods at Ragnarök. Baldr will be reborn in the new world, according to Völuspá.

Not Telling.

I need to just stop reading press releases. Seriously. They either piss me off or disappoint me. This one does both:

New model for how Nevada gold deposits formed may help in gold exploration

So silly ol' me, I kind of assumed this might tell me something about a new model for Nevada (Carlin-type) gold deposits, and how this might help in exploration for such deposits. HA! Here's the closest it gets:

The team relates formation of the gold deposits to a change in plate tectonics and a major magma event about 40 million years ago. It is the most complete explanation for Carlin-type gold deposits to date.

So after reading what is, to be fair, not a bad summary of what Carlin-type deposits are- though redundant for me- the press release ends with that. Five minutes wasted. Sigh. This is my theory, which is mine, and it is, as follows, mine: Brontosauruses were narrow at the end, much, much thicker in the middle, and then thinner again at the other end.

Thanks, perfesser.

Not My Fault

Predictable, really:

Rumsfeld accepts almost no blame for the mistakes in Iraq in his 800-page autobiography Known and Unknown, copies of which have been obtained and published in excerpt by the New York Times and the Washington Post. Instead, he fingers the US diplomat in charge of postwar Iraq, Paul Bremer, and criticises the former secretary of state, Colin Powell, and the former national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.

Yeah, it was all those known unknown unknown knowns that were the problem. And all those other guys. And the President and Vice President. And Senators and stuff. But Saddam is gone, so it's all good. Really. I just feel peachy about the whole thing.

800 pages of stuff I can get for free in any cow pasture. I enjoy books on politics- a surprise I wasn't expecting when I was younger- and frequently learn a lot from them. And, yes, that includes a number of books written from a conservative perspective, not just Michael Moore and Al Franken. But I won't be reading this one, I'm afraid.

Bring the Excitement Home!

Now you too can ignite consciousness! Trigger sentience in a primitive mind! Start a landslide of self-awareness! Fire the starting gun in the long, difficult race from the primordial ooze to intelligence!