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Google Books Ngram Viewer

Google Books Ngram Viewer

Dec 18 2010 | comment(s)

Google is claiming that it has scanned 10% of the books ever published.

Google Ngram Viewer is a tool to see how often the phrases have occurred in the world's books over the years.  Users can graph the occurrence of phrases up to five words in length from 1400 through the present day right in your browser.

Follow the link below and try your combinations..Kewl!! 

http://ngrams.googlelabs.com


Good samaritans rescue deer from river, get a fine

Good samaritans rescue deer from river, get a fine

Dec 18 2010 | comment(s)

In the 'government employees become so entrenched in their bureaucracy they lose common sense' department, a group of people who rescued a deer from an icy river were given tickets by a "natural resources" police officer, whatever that is - for not stopping to put on life preservers before doing getting in the boat.
“And he didn’t say anything,” Jim Hart said. “We went in and out of the water numerous times. He didn’t stop us at all.”
Reading level of science blogs - what Google thinks

Reading level of science blogs - what Google thinks

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

On his Reference Frame site, contrarian physicist Luboš Motl uses Google to determine the 'reading level' of some science blogs, with, he says, "Basic" being 1 star, "intermediate" 3 stars and "advanced"  counted by having 5 stars.
Scientists as the Spirits of Climates Past

Scientists as the Spirits of Climates Past

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

Although people may not feel particularly overheated after this week’s Midwestern snowstorm, data from NASA show that the 12-month period from November 2009 to November 2010 was the warmest on record since 1880.

Mount Toba - largest volcanic eruption in human history didn't cause a 1,000 year winter

Mount Toba - largest volcanic eruption in human history didn't cause a 1,000 year winter

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

The largest known volcanic eruption in human history, 74,000 years ago, was at Mount Toba in northern Sumatra.   Researchers believed this cloud of millions of metric tons of volcanic ash and sulfur set off a volcanic winter which included a thousand years of cold climate and perhaps a human genetic 'bottleneck' which may have reduced our species to just a few thousand mating pairs.

Other hypotheses have believed it may have been other volcanoes and they were even responsible for the demise of neanderthals.   
Calamari For Christmas

Calamari For Christmas

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

Sigh. I was going to write with lyric beauty about a dream I had last night, in which I was finally, finally successful in feeding baby squid. I watched them stuffing copepods into their mouths with deep satisfaction. But that will have to wait, because guess what?

CC attribution-noncommercial

In this case, it's an article called Santa loves Calamari. Well-intentioned, but wrong. The premise of the piece is that "squid is the new sustainable holiday seafood" based on information like:
Nature Has A Tendency To Reduce Complexity

Nature Has A Tendency To Reduce Complexity

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

There exists a tendency in nature to reduce complexity via modularization. This tendency grows when more modules become available. Finally this tendency enables nature to create intelligent and very sophisticated creatures. I encountered relations in several areas of physics and in human interactions. Physics is based on relations. Quantum logic is a set of axioms that restrict the relations that exist between quantum logical propositions. Via its isomorphism with Hilbert spaces quantum logic forms a fundament for quantum physics. However, quantum logic only describes static relations. Classical logic is a similar set of restrictions that define how we can communicate logically.
Atheist discrimination? Astronomer says he was denied a job because of religion

Atheist discrimination? Astronomer says he was denied a job because of religion

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

Martin Gaskell did not get a job as the director of a new student observatory at the University of Kentucky and says he thinks his religion is behind it.

So for all those who say academia is too politically correct, take heart - if this is true, academics can be bigots just like anyone else, at least as long as it's a Christian being denied rights.

One member of the hiring board described his qualifications as "breathtakingly above the other applicants" but there are lots of things that go into hiring so that can't be the only factor and if it turns out to be other issues, that is okay.  Yet it looks bad, since apparently others worried his being a Christian would conflict with his science.
Stranger Than Paradise

Stranger Than Paradise

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

I just returned from Environment and Climate Change Summit held at New Delhi. After 3 days of round table discussion and intensive brainstorming the final result was that every participating nation pledged to reduce its greenhouse emissions and carbon footprint, as already expected. Just lies and lies. Who cares about climate….it is changing, let it change, why you are getting the itch??…This could be seen in the eyes of all the VIPs there, except a few environment geeks like us who were there with PowerPoint presentations and statistics charts convincing the rich men to stop hurting nature and at the end they pretended that they listened to us and would take
necessary steps. CRAP!!
Synthetic Biology: Just This Once, Government Decided No New Regulations Are Needed

Synthetic Biology: Just This Once, Government Decided No New Regulations Are Needed

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

It's rare that a government commission won't take the opportunity to increase its authority and its importance.  It's good job security and makes people feel relevant, even if it's not only unnecessary but being resisted by virtually everyone outside the commission, like in the case of the FCC trying to take over the Internet.

Yet The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, created by executive order in 2009, released its report on synthetic biology yesterday and said, just this once, things are okay without more rules.
The Verdict: Smolin Vs Susskind Final Part 4

The Verdict: Smolin Vs Susskind Final Part 4

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

This is the last of the four part series about the Edge discussion between Lee Smolin and Leonard Susskind.

I previously discussed the physics and the philosophical issues. You will have by now understood who won the battle in my eyes. However, I would like to use this final opportunity to stress that we have yet again a clear showcasing of that it is, as so often, sufficient to merely analyze the style of argumentation in order to figure out who is not to be trusted.
Security of auto control systems

Security of auto control systems

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

While we’re on the joint subject of cars and security, I should dredge up this item that I’ve had hanging about for a few months. It’s from Ars Technica, and reports that researchers have hacked into the control systems of cars because those systems are often not secured:

The tire pressure monitors built into modern cars have been shown to be insecure by researchers from Rutgers University and the University of South Carolina.

New Genes As Essential As Old Ones

New Genes As Essential As Old Ones

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

A million years is a blink of an eye in evolution but that doesn't mean newer genes matter less in life itself.    
First Measurement Of Magnetic Field Inside Earth's Core

First Measurement Of Magnetic Field Inside Earth's Core

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

A geophysicist has made the first-ever measurement of the strength of the magnetic field 1,800 miles underground - inside Earth's core.

The magnetic field strength is 25 Gauss, they say, 50 times stronger than the magnetic field at the surface that makes compass needles align north-south, the middle range of what geophysicists predicted, but it puts constraints on the identity of the heat sources in the core that keep the internal dynamo running to maintain this magnetic field.
Perils Of Science Outreach

Perils Of Science Outreach

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

While you sit there, I am simultaneously providing this blog post, this podcast, and this AGU talk.  All on the same topic-- how can we get scientists to provide science for public consumption.

The podcast poses these problems for you, the readers of science:

  • Who writes the science on the web?

  • What is their agenda?

  • Why don't scientists write it?
From the other side, my AGU talk tries to solve it for scientists.  It's rooted in the way that science careers are made and lost.
More on CA Market Squid

More on CA Market Squid

Dec 17 2010 | comment(s)

News of the California market squid fishery closure is spreading.
"We have had a banner year for market squid this year," said Dale Sweetnam, a Fish and Game marine biologist who oversees the commercial squid market. "The colder-than-normal water conditions we have observed since February have provided optimal conditions for squid spawning."
ITER fusion: Governments taking a hard look at budget overruns and delays

ITER fusion: Governments taking a hard look at budget overruns and delays

Dec 16 2010 | comment(s)

It's become so commonplace for large science endeavors to be over budget and long-delayed that both budgets and time frames seem almost meaningless.   The James Webb Space Telescope might as well just be issued blank checks and, in Europe, the ITER nuclear fusion reactor project is making the overruns and delays of even the LHC look modest.
Like the Internet the way it is? Thank a Republican

Like the Internet the way it is? Thank a Republican

Dec 16 2010 | comment(s)

Science bloggers may regard Republicans as anti-science but it is hard not to see them as pro-technology.   While the FCC, with the support of the Obama administration, has repeatedly attempted to make Internet regulation the domain of government, Republican Senators are standing in the way of the one thing still working in the US economy.

In a letter they write
Another Worthless Study

Another Worthless Study

Dec 16 2010 | comment(s)

Today we find a study published which indicates that children that consume caffeine may sleep less.  Besides the fact that this is an obvious and expected finding, it is interesting to note that this is the result of parents being surveyed during routine visits to the doctor.

So, besides the fact that the sleep requirements may vary significantly over the age group studied (5-12 year olds), we are now accepting, as scientific, data on the correlation between caffeine consumption and hours of sleep based on the anecdotal evidence of parents during a doctor's visit.