Art/Science. Science/Art.

A map of the tsunami waves generated by a massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan.  It also kind of looks like a painting of whitecapped waves (at least, it does to me).

organizational ergonomics

Study: Body posture affects confidence

The results show how our body posture can affect not only what others think about us, but also how we think about ourselves, said Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

"Most of us were taught that sitting up straight gives a good impression to other people," Petty said. "But it turns out that our posture can also affect how we think about ourselves. If you sit up straight, you end up convincing yourself by the posture you're in."

sexy economics

The Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women's Career and Marriage Decisions

by Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F Katz*

---- Abstract -----
The fraction of U.S. college graduate women entering professional programs increased substantially around 1970 and the age at first marriage among all U.S. college graduate women soared just after 1972. We explore the relationship between these two changes and how each was shaped by the diffusion of the birth control pill among young, single college educated women. Although the pill' was approved in 1960 by the FDA and diffused rapidly among married women, it did not diffuse among young single women until the late 1960s when a series of state law changes reduced the age of majority and extended mature minor decisions. We model the impact of the pill on women's careers as consisting of two effects. The pill had a direct positive effect on women's career investment by almost eliminating the chance of becoming pregnant and thus the cost of having sex. The pill also created a social multiplier effect by encouraging the delay of marriage generally and thus increasing a career woman's likelihood of finding an appropriate mate after professional school. We present a collage of evidence pointing to the power of the pill in lowering the costs of long-duration professional education for women. The evidence consists of the striking coincidences in the timing of changes in career investment, marriage age, state laws, and pill use among young single women. The connection between changes in the age at first marriage and the pill is further explored using state variation in laws affecting young single women's pill access. We also evaluate alternative explanations for the changes in career and marriage.

*Published: Goldin, Claudia and Lawrence F. Katz. "The Power Of The Pill: Contraceptives And Women's Career And Marriage Decisions," Journal of Political Economy, 2002, v110(4,Aug), 730-770.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research $5

do it for your health

introducing www.sempersucculent.blogspot.com

A Lithops (Living Stone) fruit capsule opens after being sprayed with water (time-lapse). In the wild, rain will open the Lithops capsule and then splash out the seeds. From www.youtube.com/user/CooleyBufo

happy halloween

surprise - it's autumn

"There is a harmony in autumn and a lustre in its sky..."

-Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Autumn Equinox: 9/21/08

it's a propagation party

how to propagate new succulents from cuttings

the task at hand

wheel of future

"Both the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) and the Space program are vital if the human race is not to stultify and eventually die out. Together they cost less than one tenth of a per cent of world GDP. If the human race can not afford this, then it doesn't deserve the epithet 'human'."

- Stephen Hawking, Sept 2008

summer staple

sometimes the world is a confusing place

"A March 2007 study in The Journal of Food Science looked at the effects of boiling, steaming, microwaving and pressure cooking on the nutrients in broccoli.
-Steaming and boiling caused a 22 percent to 34 percent loss of vitamin C.
-Microwaved and pressure-cooked vegetables retained 90 percent of their vitamin C."

-Finding the Best Way to Cook All Those Vegetables by Tara Parker-Pope
NY Times Online

Microwave Oven, patented Jan. 24, 1950 #2,495,429

major tom?

Port of Long Beach as seen from outer space.
NASA Earth Observatory





Orange sodium vapor lights illuminate the port facilities of Long Beach, California, supporting the round-the-clock operations of one of the world’s busiest commercial cargo ports. Image ISS016-E-27162 was taken on February 4, 2008, using the 400 mm lens, providing superior resolution

duck love

• Per Wikipedia:

Mallards also have rates of male-male sexual activity that are unusually high for birds. In some cases, as many as 19% of pairs in a Mallard population are male-male homosexual.

destroying everything in it's path from sea to shining sea

Study Finds Soil Bacteria Can Live on Antibiotic Diet
Morning Edition, April 4, 2008 · Antibiotics normally kill bacteria. But scientists have discovered that hundreds of bacteria living in dirt not only resist being killed by antibiotics — they use the antibiotics as food.

worth twice the admission price

philanthropic catalyst

“I always wanted to do the most important things, and what can be more important than science and religion? Science gives us knowledge, and religion gives us meaning. Both are prerequisites of the decent existence.”

-Michael Heller, 72

Priest, Professor & Scientist

2008 Winner of the $1.6mm Templeton Prize

hey, thanks nasa

David Palmer and Tim Kallmanfor the Ask an Astrophysicist team, http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Question: Why does the Moon sometimes come out during the day?

Answer: It might be useful to think of the Sun as a large light bulb, and the moon as a large mirror. There are situations where we can't see the light bulb, but we can see the light from the bulb reflected in the mirror. This is the situation when the moon is out at night. We can't see the Sun directly because the earth is blocking our view of it, but we can see its light reflected from the moon. However, there are also situations where we can see both the light bulb and the mirror, and this is what is happening when we see the moon during the day. You can explore this for yourself with a light and a hand mirror. Depending on which way you face (away from the light or sideways to the light) you can see either just the mirror, or both the light and the mirror.