I’m going to grad school! 4

Feb

12

2010

I got a “letter” (it was actually a pdf attached to an e-mail because this is the twenty first century, baby!) this morning from CU, and here’s the most important part: During your graduate program, you will be under the supervision of Dr. Mary Kraus. やった!!!!!!! Also, this: The Department of Geological Sciences has advanced ...
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grad school

A guy’s take on gender performance

Feb

10

2010

Jock Homo: How Gay is the Super Bowl? is an article that made me giggle. A lot. But it’s also an interesting look at the culture of masculinity and – the reference hit me like a sucker punch, since I hadn’t been expecting in an opinion piece about football, of all things – the “performative” ...
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feminism

Today in dead things.

Feb

10

2010

The little crocodile that could… provide a tasty meal for a snake. See, I think a 6-7 foot long crocodile still sounds pretty intimidating. I wouldn’t poke it with a spoon or try to wrestle it. But I guess if you’re a 45 foot long snake, it’s just a scaly Happy Meal. Yes, a 45-foot-long ...
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ancient critters

More volcanic lightning

Feb

10

2010

Check out today’s astronomy picture of the day. Very cool picture, and different from a lot of the other pictures of volcanic lightning I’ve seen since this one lacks the really striking, ash-filled plume.
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volcano

(Very belated) Volcano for Monday

Feb

9

2010

It’s Tuesday, and I just remembered that I forgot to find a deadly geological hazard for Monday. Mea culpa. The Soufriere Hills volcano in Montserrat has a minor explodey incident last Friday. For ignorant Americans like myself, Montserrat is a little island nation in the Caribbean, which we’ve been so recently and strongly reminded is ...
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volcano

Communication with the unconscious

Feb

8

2010

When I first saw the title of this article, “Giving the ‘unconscious’ a voice, I immediately wondered if it would be more depressing facilitated communication crap. But this looks really interesting: To find out whether a simple conversation was possible, the researchers selected one of the four – a 29-year-old man who had been in ...
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science-based medicine

Diamonds are interesting, but I have no desire to take them to the movies.

Feb

8

2010

Interesting post here about “The facts about diamonds.” The author of the post mostly focuses on the cultural/social aspects of diamonds, and for the most part I agree with him. I’ve always found jewelry commercials in general irritating, and even more so the ones that dig up the rotting corpse of “diamonds are a girl’s ...
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feminism · pet rock

Return of DeathCat 2

Feb

5

2010

Doctor casts new light on cat that can predict death. Oy. For the most part, it sounds like the doctor is trying to focus on the comfort that the cat can provide terminal patients. Which is good. I’m a big believer in the wonders of a fluffy, purring, shredding machine. But this? When Oscar was ...
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cats · earthquake

A big dam problem 1

Feb

3

2010

At its most basic, a river is just a conduit for the transportation of sediment via water. Rivers pick up sediment and put it back down further downstream. There’s a fascinating balance between the amount of sediment available for transport and how much the water is capable of carrying. More sediment than the river can ...
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rivers

A pox on both your houses

Feb

2

2010

If you’ve been hiding under your rock and playing Star Trek Online more than me over the weekend, you might have missed the fact that Amazon and Macmillan are having a little conflict. It reminds me of the heady days of high school, when pretty much everyone was just trying to get to class and ...
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books