Popular media coverage made this sound hair-raising: Cosmic Log - Solar blast heading our way, and the video is very cool, is it not? It led me to the video's home, Spaceweather.com's January 19 archive page. The "solar blast" might cause some impressive auroras this weekend.
Mostly, I was excited to find Spaceweather, which directed me to NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. It's there to check daily, the way I check NOAA National Weather Service forecast.
Sometimes I teach undergraduate college classes. As an adjunct faculty member, I don't pick the textbooks or write my own syllabus, so I'm painfully aware of how much textbooks cost, and how frequent production of new editions keeps the students buying new rather than used books. There's talk about how e-books will save students money, but in my experience, the e-books cost just as much as physical books. I was heartened to read this: Steinberg Proposal Slashes Textbook Costs for California College Students:
At a time when the affordability of higher education is at the forefront of national debate, this legislation would create Open Educational Resources (OER) in California, where undergraduate students would be able to have free access to the 50 core textbooks required for lower-division coursework via computer or mobile device through a digital open source library, with the option of buying a printed version for around $20. The legislation would also require publishers selling textbooks adopted by faculty for the most widely-taken lower division courses to provide at least three free copies of those books to be placed on reserve in California public college and university campus libraries.
If college textbook highway robbery were not aggravating enough, there's always the topic of K-12 textbooks in public schools. I enjoyed re-reading Judging Books by Their Covers:
In 1964 the eminent physicist Richard Feynman served on the State of California's Curriculum Commission and saw how the Commission chose math textbooks for use in California's public schools. In his acerbic memoir of that experience...Feynman analyzed the Commission's idiotic method of evaluating books, and he described some of the tactics employed by schoolbook salesmen who wanted the Commission to adopt their shoddy products. "Judging Books by Their Covers" appeared as a chapter in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman...(1985).
In case reading this makes you nostalgic for Dr. Feynman (as it did me), here are links to some fine Feynman videos: The Richard Feynman Trilogy: The Physicist Captured in Three Films | Open Culture.
In all the years I worked in science, microscopy was my very favorite thing, so I was excited to find this timely video on a collection of early photomicrographs: Winter Forecast: Art to Blanket Region.
When it comes to photography, a Wilson Bentley image can be described much like his favorite subject, the snowflake: Each is one of a kind. After all, the Vermont farmer was the first to ever photograph one....At the age of 19, "Snowflake" Bentley jury-rigged a microscope to a bulky bellows camera and took the first-ever photograph of a snowflake....Bentley saw his microphotographs as more than scientific contribution. In a 1910 article published in the journal Technical World, he wrote, "Here is a gem bestrewn realm of nature possessing the charm of mystery, of the unknown, sure richly to reward the investigator."
I don't know what the kids are calling them these days, but when I was a member of the American Microscopical Society, we called them "photomicrographs," not "microphotographs." I found this wonderful article via /.
The Onion surprised me with another tea-spilled-in-the-keyboard moment with Science Channel Refuses To Dumb Down Science Any Further.
SILVER SPRING, MD—Frustrated by continued demands from viewers for more awesome and extreme programming, Science Channel president Clark Bunting told reporters Tuesday that his cable network was "completely incapable" of watering down science any further than it already had.
"Look, we've tried, we really have, but it's simply not possible to set the bar any lower," said a visibly exhausted Bunting, adding that he "could not in good conscience" make science any more mindless or insultingly juvenile. "We already have a show called Really Big Things, which is just ridiculous if you think about it, and one called Heavy Metal Taskforce, which I guess deals with science on some distant level, though I don't know what it is. Plus, there's Punkin Chunkin." "Punkin Chunkin, for Christ's sake," added Bunting, referring to the popular program in which contestants launch oversized pumpkins into the air using catapults. "What more do you people want?"
It's just what I've been imagining all these years.
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel--This is chapter 3, "Schrodinger's Dog." It's wonderful.
I can't tell you exactly how I came upon this--I know I started at Sherry Chandler's blog, followed a link, and another link...and there I was, reading Orzel's bitter complaint about a New York Times movie reviewer who proudly displays his ignorance of physics. A physicist and college professor, Dr. Orzel is often irritated by The Innumeracy of Intellectuals. Sadly, indifference to math is not limited the the intelligentsia. Adult basic education students, school children, and college freshmen all use a smug tone to tell me they "are no good at math," meaning "Get out of my face with that stuff, I can't be bothered." In contrast, people who can't read well generally try to cover up and fake it. I don't get it, but the reason I often end up teaching math to the unwilling is the scarcity of teachers willing and able to take on those classes.
I'm looking forward to reading the whole canine physics course--we never got to quantum mechanics in my undergraduate physics class, because the physics department thought it was "too hard for biologists." I wish I'd had Dr. Orzel!
Last week, we tried to enter the twenty-first century. We hadn't wanted to rush into it, but it does look like it might take off. Because I'm teaching college courses in Beckley one day a week and driving home late at night on deserted roads, we decided to get a cell phone for emergencies. There's no cell service here on Droop, but people in Marlinton seem to use them, and every single shopper in the Lewisburg Wal-mart is talking to some ethereal presence, rather than watching where she's pushing that cart. Surely a prepaid cell phone (like the ones the hitmen are always using on the TV police dramas) would be a good idea.
We bought the recommended model in Marlinton, and brought it home, only to discover it had no battery. So we went back to the store and exchanged it. The second phone charged successfully, but it failed half-way through activation. We drove all over Marlinton, the south side of Droop Mountain, and all the way to Frankford, where we got a strong signal, but the phone still wouldn't activate. The nice young tech support man (in the Philippines, I think) was very apologetic, but unable to help. I'll be taking the phone back on Friday.
Today, I ordered the The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual, which, I am assured, is All you need to become an Amateur Radio Operator. Our neighbors are long-time ham radio operators, and keep one in their car for emergencies. The AARL (American Radio Relay League) was founded in 1914. Clearly, we are plunging headfirst into a new century. We're just a little confused about which one.
Another Recycling Idea: Our neighbor made a small gazebo out of an old satellite dish. It's just large enough to keep the rain off a small table and chairs. I've seen them used for bird baths and planters, too, but the readers of /. (slashdot) offered some Alternative Uses for an Old Satellite Dish that really fascinated me, including parabolic microphones, speakers, and antennas. Here are the links I've archived....
There's more than one reason I reacted strongly to the Hummer of a House guest essay on Via Negativa. For almost a hundred years, our house and its successive human occupants have prevailed in the twin battles against entropy and gravity. We always understood that gravity and entropy would eventually win out, but recent developments have left us suspecting that this was not such a distant reality as we had assumed.
Our thoughts have turned from "repair and remodel" to "build from scratch." Because the Internet hosts a wealth of "how-to" information on subjects ranging from Linux to knitting, I thought I'd check out "do-it-yourself" resources on home building. Most of what I found was advertising. Still, there are always a few interesting links.
These links are mostly "theory" as opposed to "practice" house building. They offer interesting reads, but limited practical advice.
Report from Middle School: Remember how it felt when you were a kid, watching the clock tick off the last half-hour of the school day? Those minutes were impossibly long. Adults told me then that time would pass faster for me as I got older. Years would go by in no time at all.
I believed them, until I started substitute teaching. That last half hour really does go on as if it will never end. If you want to make your days feel longer, by all means, go back to middle school.
I've been working my way through Soil Survey of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, a 300 page pdf file from the Soil Data Mart, a service of the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service. I've found this section, Physiography, Relief, and Drainage the most informative source yet on what biogeographical region Droop Mountain falls in.
Pocahontas County lies in both the Eastern Allegheny Plateau and Mountains and the Southern Appalachian Ridges and Valleys Major Land Resource Areas. The dividing line between these areas roughly follows the west side of the Greenbrier River.
The landforms of the county show the effects of orogenic movement coupled with erosional forces. Elevation, kind and position of rock, position of drainage courses, and climate are factors that also affect the type of topography in the county. The plateau and mountain area has nearly horizontal rocks that contain many resistant layers at the higher elevations with more weatherable rock below. This results in a dendritic drainage pattern. The ridge and valley area is slightly to strongly folded with resistant layers separated by large expanses of more weatherable rock. This results in a trellis drainage pattern.
The western part of the county, or plateau and mountain area, is generally higher in elevation and lower in temperature and has a greater amount of precipitation than that of the eastern part of the county, or ridge and valley area. As a result of these factors, a rugged and complicated relief exists. The highest and lowest elevations in the survey area are 4,842 feet at Bald Knob on Back Allegheny Mountain and 1,952 feet where the Greenbrier River flows out of the county.
While I know my way around a species inventory, my geological knowledge would fit in a teaspoon, so I'm always looking for rock and soil resources to help me understand Pocahontas County better. Here's a collection of links I've found relating to Pocahontas County geology, geography, paleontology, and soils. After all, if you look below my blog title bar, you'll see my "blog mission statement" includes "Get to know Pocahontas County: collect empirical data...."
Fossil Collecting in the Mid-Atlantic States: With Localities, Collecting Tips, and Illustrations of More than 450 Fossil Specimens by Jasper Burns. Google Books has some excerpts, including this:Locality 35: In Locust Creek near Hillsboro, Pocahontas County, WV: Greenbrier group, late Mississippian period. Locality fossils occur in chunks of chert in the stream gravel of Locust Creek, above and below the stone bridge on Locust Creek Road, 1.5 miles southeast of Rout 219. From Hillsboro, take Route 219 southwest for 2 miles, then turn left on Locust Creek Road. There is a wide parking area north of the bridge. Private farmland borders the stream, so limit collecting to the streambed itself, or ask for permission to explore elsewhere.
Nearly all of the fossils at this locality are examples of the colonial horn coral Acrocyanthus, preserved in pieces of green, tan, and especially blue chert. Many specimens are translucent, so the internal structure may be seen in small samples or in thin slices cut with a rock saw and polished. Many of the greenish chunks turn out to be sky blue inside when cut in this way.
The Glenray Limestone is the basal unit of the drillers¡Ç Little Lime (Reynolds-Glenray limestone couplet) in West Virginia. An outcrop of the Glenray was examined on Droop Mountain in Pocahontas County, WV. The 4.5m unit consists of a fining-upwards/ shallowing-upwards unit of mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sediment. The lower part of the unit is an ooid grainstone with a typical shallow marine assemblage of crinoids, bivalves, brachiopods, gastropods, and bryozoans. The ooid grainstone grades upward to an ooid-bearing, fossiliferous packstone to wackestone. The previously recorded components are admixed with quartz silt and terrigenous mud. The upper 3m is a pelletal wackestone with both carbonate and terrigenous mud. Bioclasts are predominantly ostracodes with a sparse, low diversity fauna of similar composition to the lower section. The percentage of terrigenous material is greater higher in the section and generally finer grained. Deposition of the Glenray Limestone was in a nearshore environment where, after an initial transgression, terrigenous sediment influx increased episodically at the expense of carbonate. Diagenesis of the Glenray Limestone includes cementation of the sediment by both sparry calcite and micrite, micritization, dissolution and subsequent infilling of porosity by granular to blocky spar, recrystallization of bioclasts, minor dolomitization and silicification, formation of stylolites and solution seams, and fracturing and subsequent infilling by carbonate.
Michael J. Ryan's wonderful Paleoblog points out that yesterday, November 14, was the birthday of Charles Lyell, prominent geologist and popularizer of the concept called "Uniformitarianism"--that the forces at work in the natural world today are the same forces at work in the past. While it strikes me as a reasonable working hypothesis, and one that has been widely used for a long time, many people, ranging from school boards to Ann Coulter, find it impossible to swallow. Dr. Ryan provides links to a brief Lyell biography and some of his books still in print, including the 1830-1833 page-turner, Principles of Geology in three volumes.
To this, I'd add Charles Lyell's online books courtesy of U Penn's Online Books Page. You can read his most seminal works for free.
I admire Lyell's writing. He always acknowledged that his ideas were developed and shared by other researchers, and he seemed to me to be clear and plain-spoken, in contrast to many writers of his time. Here's an excerpt from his essay "The Progress of Geology:"
If we reflect on the history of the progress of geology we perceive that there have been great fluctuations of opinion respecting the nature of the causes to which all former changes of the earth's surface are referable. The first observers conceived the monuments which the geologist endeavours to decipher to relate to an original state of the earth, or to a period when there were causes in activity, distinct, in a kind and degree, from those now constituting the economy of nature....Many appearances, which had for a long time been regarded as indicating mysterious and extraordinary agency, were finally recognised as the necessary result of the laws now governing the material world; and the discovery of this unlooked-for conformity has at length induced some philosophers to infer, that, during the ages contemplated in geology, there has never been any interruption to the agency of the same uniform laws of change. The same assemblage of general causes, they conceive, may have been sufficient to produce, by their various combinations, the endless diversity of effects, of which the shell of the earth has preserved the memorials; and, consistently with these principles, the recurrence of analogous changes is expected by them in time to come.
....By degrees, many of the enigmas of the moral and physical world are explained, and, instead of being due to extrinsic and irregular causes, they are found to depend on fixed and invariable laws. The philosopher at last becomes convinced of the undeviating uniformity of secondary causes; and, guided by his faith in this principle, he determines the probability of accounts transmitted to him of former occurrences, and often rejects the fabulous tales of former times, on the ground of their being irreconcilable with the experience of more enlightened ages.
I'd love to see these topo maps of Mars. The European Space Agency has produced Martian contour maps:
12 February 2007. Scientists using data from the HRSC experiment onboard ESA's Mars Express spacecraft have produced the first 'hiker's maps' of Mars....The maps are known as topographic maps because they use contour lines to show the heights of the landscape....
