2007.02.20
CNN:
New Orleans marks 2nd Mardi Gras since Katrina.
"The crowds appeared larger than last year, when an estimated 700,000 people were in the city for the final weekend and Mardi Gras. The city's 30,000 hotel rooms were 95 percent occupied, according to Fred Sawyers, president of the Greater New Orleans Hotel & Lodging Association."
> I hope everyone is having a good one ...
2007.02.11
Slate:
It's time to stop reporting on the wind chill.
"Osczevski and Bluestein made a set of new assumptions to determine wind-chill-equivalent temperatures. Namely, they geared their calculations toward people who are 5 feet tall, somewhat portly, and walk at an even clip directly into the wind.... The wind chill equivalent temperature ... assumes that we're taking a stroll in the dead of night."
> I think it would only be fair if whenever a weatherman reports the "wind chill factor," he/she also reported the "heat index."
The real problem with Linux.
2007.02.08
Washington University in St. Louis:
3-D seismic model of vast water reservoir revealed.
"One of the most dramatic features in the Wysession et.
al global mantle shear-wave attenuation model is a very
high-attenuation anomaly at the top of the lower mantle
beneath eastern Asia. This anomaly is believed due to
water that has been pumped into the lower mantle via the
long history of the subduction of oceanic lithosphere --
crust and upper mantle -- in this region."
Fogonazos:
Sea Giants.
"Semi-submersible ships are the only vessels in the world which provide the capability to load, transport and offload extremely heavy cargo, such as oil drilling rigs, gas refineries or even warships."
2007.02.06
Houston Chronicle:
Astronaut arrested in romantic feud. Police say she had knife, wig as she attacked rival with pepper spray at Florida airport.
"The purpose of the pistol was ‘to entice Shipman to talk with her,’ police were told. When they asked her how squirting Shipman with pepper spray was going to aid the conversation, Nowak replied, ‘That was stupid.’"
Astronomy Picture of the Day:
Comet Between Fireworks and Lightning.
2007.02.05
NYT:
Science Panel Calls Global Warming 'Unequivocal'.
"In a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the
planet, the leading international network of climate
scientists has concluded for the first time that global
warming is ‘unequivocal’ and that human
activity is the main driver, ‘very likely’
causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950."
...
"The Bush administration, which until recently avoided
directly accepting that humans were warming the planet
in potentially harmful ways, embraced the findings,
which had been approved by representatives from the
United States and 112 other countries on Thursday
night."
2007.02.03
For those of us who always thought online dating was weird --
Scientific American:
The Truth about Online Dating.
"When eHarmony recommends someone as a compatible match,
there is a 1 in 500 chance that you'll marry this
person.... Given that eHarmony delivers about 1.5
matches a month, if you went on a date with all of them,
it would take 346 dates and 19 years to reach [a] 50%
chance of getting married."
> ... not that I've ever been in a position to know ...
> ... although, this article also mentions a study that found that 13% of men who participated were married...
