science
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Does this mean we need to start worrying about Peak Dust?
Two amazing facts: The vast amount of mineral nutrients required to sustain the Amazon rainforest come from dust storms in the African Sahara, and We’ve known about this for six years (for some small values of we). And I really dig the estimate of the amount of dust that makes it across the Atlantic to… Read more
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Oh noes! It’s ‘sposed to go the other way!
Paleoclimatologists working in Lapland have some new and interesting findings: Professor Dr. Jan Esper’s group at the Institute of Geography at JGU used tree-ring density measurements from sub-fossil pine trees originating from Finnish Lapland to produce a reconstruction reaching back to 138 BC. In so doing, the researchers have been able for the first time… Read more
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Reproducible research
Great article in the NY Times about Keith Baggerly’s push for open data and reproducible analysis of results. Curiously enough, one of my students hit upon a tiny example of the problem this semester: …I decided to run my own descriptive statistics on their data sets to make sure their reports were all represented in… Read more
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Uh, oh!
Stupid old New England joke: A man and his son are out in their New England pasture, picking up rocks and stacking them along the fenceline. “Daddy,” asks the son, “where did all these rocks come from?” “From the glaciers, son,” Dad answers. “So where did the glaciers go?” asks the son. “Back for more… Read more
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Supernova!
It’s gonna be hard for anyone to top this on their college admission application. Way to go, KG! Read more
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Maybe they should have launched their space probe at night
A Japanese space probe intended to orbit the planet Venus has overshot its mark and been dragged into orbit around the Sun. Dang! Who put the Sun there? Read more
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It’s hip to be square
I’m not sure how many students it will attract, but who cares? I like having Science Cheerleaders. Tip from the Geek Press. Read more
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Get logical!
Everything you wanted to know about logical fallacies in one handy chart. Tip from the Corner. Read more
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Your most profound thoughts are often wrong
Ain’t THAT the truth. This and 9 other shrewd observations in "10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly." There are many reasons for writing a dissertation; documenting original research is just one of them. Tip from the Geek Press. Read more
The Random Texan 