The Perfect Storm: Closed Sourced Testing for Profit

A blog pointing to an article. $Soft and Pear$son: what's wrong with this picture?

http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/05/microsoft-and-pearson-join-forces-are-you-surprised/

Note to Management: Phycodnaviruses infect phytoplankton, potentially affect geochemical cycling and weather patterns.

Stumbling around this morning, ran across this article about newly discovered giant viruses, the Pandora Viruses. On Earthweek, 36 July 2013.

http://www.earthweek.com/2013/ew130726/ew130726a.html

Further browsing, and I ran across this paper (pdf) identifying Pandora Viruses as Phycodnaviruses that infect phytoplankton.

N. Yutin and E. V. Koonin. Pandoraviruses are highly derived phycodnaviruses. DNA,
516302773:6, 2013.

Another paper provides a glimpse into Phycodnaviruses as tiny giants that rule the world.  

The Phycodnaviridae: The Story of How Tiny Giants Rule the World
Authors: W. H. Wilson, James L. Van Etten, M. J. Allen

[published on the Plant Pathology Commons.]

Noticing Journal Clubs; Circuses; Carnivals; Science Blogs

I wonder what happened to the excellent idea of Blog Carnivals.   Maybe I just haven't been noticing?  (Like the Circus of the Spineless).  Tonight I finallhy noticed there is a phenom called "Journal Clubs).  A quick google says to me that they are common in medicine; that graduate courses are focused on them in Biological Sciences; that there are some more informal journal clubs.   A few links.

 Examples and other objects:

• The Phylo-Eco-Geo-Evo Journal Club: http://pegejournalclub.wordpress.com/

• http://scienceblogs.com/

• A good edition of ScienceBlogs: Mystery Bird: Magnificent Frigatebird, Fregata magnificens: http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2010/07/20/todays-mystery-bird-for-you-to-644/

• ScienceBlogs seems to have morphed (evolved) into: http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist
•  http://www.kindofcurious.com/

• Evolutionary Biology Online Journal Club: https://evobiojournalclub.wordpress.com/
• The Science Teaching Journal Club.  Note what follows: 
• The Science Teacher Journal Club is a place where we hope science teachers, and anyone else with an interest, will gather together to discuss ideas about science science education published in journals, articles, books and else where. The idea is borrowed from the original Twitter Journal Club for doctors started by @fidouglas and @silv24 and also owes a debt to @markgfh for suggesting that teach­ers might benefit from such a club.
•  Reef Aquarium Blog: http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/reefkeeping-blog

•  

Just some links that caught my eye: 3D Printing research equipment

Pointers toward 3D printing science equipment.  William's teacher printed many iPod cases.   I see the next step as making a case for a Samsung Galaxy S4 with a thingamajig to slip in a microscope eyepiece or another lens.    For two reasons, the Open Source character of the Thingaverse movement (as I take liberty of calling it) is HOT:

1. They are freeliy available and can be improved.
2. People are collaborating to make them better.

Like Free Software.



I like these:

A Great Podcast:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6100/1303/suppl/DC1

Some optical (including microscope) gear 3D printing designs. 

http://www.thingiverse.com/jpearce/collections/open-source-optics

Links

http://www.appropedia.org/Building_research_equipment_with_free,_open-source_hardware

World Wetlands Day: February 2

http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-activities-/main/ramsar/1-63-78_4000_0__

Doom and Gloom for Echinoderms on the West Coast of North America

Echinoderms are gone from San Francisco Bay

Word on the street is there are no longer any Echinoderms in San Francisco Bay due to pollution.  Books could be written, and have been. 

Maps: Sea Star Wasting in W. North America

(from  pacificrockyintertidal.org )

Sea Star Wasting (Links)

• http://www.vanaqua.org/act/research/sea-stars
•  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_wasting_disease
•  http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/starfish-wasting-disease.html
•  http://losaltos.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/starfish-dieoff-whats-killing-sea-stars-along-the-california-coastline
•  http://www.seadocsociety.org/sea-star-wasting-disease/
•  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/is-sea-star-wasting-disease-just-natural-population-control-1.2488695
•  http://data.piscoweb.org/marine1/seastardisease.html
•  http://deepseanews.com/2013/12/three-reasons-why-fukushima-radiation-has-nothing-to-do-with-starfish-wasting-syndrome/
•  http://www.prpeak.com/articles/2014/01/28/community/doc52e858d101dfd157713215.txt
•  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/28/starfish-dying-wasting-disease-mystery/4208859/
•  http://www.eeb.ucsc.edu/pacificrockyintertidal/data-products/sea-star-wasting/updates.html
•  http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/sea-stars-are-wasting-away-in-larger-numbers-on-a-wider-scale-in-two-oceans/2013/11/22/05652194-4be1-11e3-be6b-d3d28122e6d4_story.html
•  http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2013/12/oregon_coast_isolated_from_mys.html
•  ww.cbsnews.com/news/mystery-disease-turning-starfish-into-goo/ (you will experience unsolicited multimedia output)
• http://www.livescience.com/41042-starfish-wasting-disease.html

   

Flooding in Butuan City due to Tropical Storm Lingling (Agaton)

[UPDATE: On monday evening, Fe received word from a relative in Butuan City, saying that the family are all well, and the floodwaters have subsided.]


As of Monday morning, 20 January (Pacific Standard Time), Fe's home town of Butuan City is experiencing serious flooding due largely, as far as I can tell, to the swelling of the Agusan River upstream closer to Davao.   Moderate to heavy rainfall continues to be predicted for Butuan, at least for now.  We have not been able to contact Fe's relatives in Butuan City, although two of her young relatives have posted on Facebook, somehow. 

I am trying to collect some background information here, since we cannot correspond directly to Butuan City.   I have used the Google search tools to limit my search to the last hour.  A number of photographs are to be found online by searching "Butuan Agaton" and at least one indistinct YouTube video.  The general impression is that a large number of Barangays (villages) are flooded, and a large number of people have been evacuated from their homes. 

It is extremely interesting that the only direct information we have received has been through FaceBook postings by very young relatives of Fe.  Doc Searles has discussed in the past the user of twitter during disasters. 

Butuan City is located ON the Agusan River delta, and it has been subject to flooding in the past.  When we were in Butuan City in 1997, I met with a programmer/specialist from the municipal government, and received a CD of electronic maps showing the regions that had been flooded in the past.  Drainage had been installed, and the sense was that what could be done was being done to protect Butuan City from the same kind of catastrophic flooding that had been experienced in the past. 

Climate (note from http://hnricbtn.tripod.com/Anorte.html)

Agusan del Norte is outside the typhoon belt. There is no definite dry season. Rainfall is pronounced throughout the year with maximum rainfall occuring from November to January.
Annual average rainfall is 91.5 inches, an annual total of 217 rainy days or a monthly average of 18,01 rainy days per month. The average annual temperature is 27.5 °C and annual humidity average 85%.