This post chronicles two firsts: my first trip to San Francisco and my first iPhone-written post!
I’m in town to attend Photonics West and meet with colleagues; today the wife and I were wandering around to see the sights.
I’ll post some pics and a travelogue, though it may take a couple of days – my $200/night hotel only has wired Internet, which they charge $12/day for. They also provide only a 2 ft Internet cable.
I have yet to be really disappointed by the works of Richard Marsh (1857-1915)! Over the Christmas holiday, I spent some time reading A Spoiler of Men (1905) , which has recently been reprinted by the always great Valancourt Books, complete with a scholarly introduction and a facsimile of the original cover:
Marsh was a quite versatile writer: his books range from supernatural horror, to murder mystery, to comedy, to adventure, to the genuinely unclassifiable. Marsh continues the trend in A Spoiler of Men, where the primary character is in fact an anti-hero, and the story is a bizarre thriller involving, among other things, chemical zombification!
Back from ScienceOnline 2010, I’m currently suffering from a nasty cold and pretty much comatose. Partly from both of these factors, I’ve been remiss in noting a few bits of scienceblogging-related news:
I’m not sure when the compilation will be out, but you can keep an eye on Bora’s blog for news of it!
Cash prizes will be awarded for the “best” blogging in a variety of categories. Anyone can nominate a blog for the awards, including their own, provided that the blog has been involved in peer-reviewed research blogging according to the ResearchBlogging guidelines. Nominations are due by February 11, 2010; click here to nominate your favorites!
Check back again next week for more “miscellaneous” highlights!
ScienceOnline 2010 had a variety of “lab tours” to attend on Friday afternoon. With all the options available, I chose to return to the Duke Lemur Center that I visited last year! I wanted to show my wife the lemurs, and I simply wanted to seem them again myself!
Winter is not the best time to see the lemurs, because the staff construct an additional winter shelter around the enclosures and keep the lemurs indoors. However, the nocturnal house never changes, and I managed to get a decent video of the movement of the slender loris:
The slender loris comes from the rainforests of southern India and Sri Lanka. Though they are not classified as lemurs, they are prosimians like lemurs. Sadly, like lemurs, they are quite endangered.
I love the almost unearthly way they move through the branches; the slender loris would make a good model for a creepy alien monster!
Well, I’m back home from ScienceOnline 2010! I only stayed for the first day of the conference this year, but I enjoyed all of the sessions that I attended and collected a lot of food for thought.
It was especially nice to catch up with blogging friends that I met last year, meet in person for the first time plenty of people I’ve only interacted with on the internet, and meet lots of new folks as well! It was a fun time, and I hope to run into all of you again soon!
P.S. Things went by so fast, Blake, we didn’t get a chance to watch The Prisoner or MST3k! Next time, hopefully?
The nineteenth edition of The Giant’s Shoulders is up at The Renaissance Mathematicus! Many thanks to Thony C. for assembling a great edition!
The deadline for the next edition is February 15th, and it will be held at The Lay Scientist. Entries can be submitted through blogcarnival.com or directly to the host blog, as usual!
Incidentally, we’re running low on future hosts for the carnival; if you’re interested in hosting in the next few months, please leave a comment or send me an email.
After work this evening, the wife and I will head off to ScienceOnline 2010. We’ll probably be arriving around 9:00, too late to make the ‘early bird’ event, but I plan to pop by the hotel bar soon after to see if anyone is around.
Hope to see some of you there!
Check back next Monday for more “miscellaneous” suggestions!
During my first evening in San Antonio, I sequestered myself in my hotel room to polish up my presentation. Fortunately, there was a Mythbusters marathon on the Discovery Channel at that time, so I was able to keep myself marginally sane by watching the ‘Busters abuse places, things, and themselves for the cause of science.
One of the episodes that played during the marathon contained the “finger in the barrel” myth — the idea that a person can stick a finger in the barrel of a rifle or shotgun as it fires, causing the barrel to split like a banana peel without harm to the finger! The initial investigation of the ‘busters clearly demonstrated that a finger would certainly be lost in the attempt, and that a barrel would not split in the manner suggested. An updated investigation two years later, however, demonstrated that a rifle barrel could be split if sufficiently weakened by use.
In a remarkable case of serendipity, the next evening I was browsing the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and came across an article with the title, “On the bursting of firearms when the muzzle is closed by snow, earth, grease, &c.”! The article, by Professor George Forbes, is a theoretical explanation of the bursting of firearms and was published in the 1878-1879 session of the Royal Society, meaning that Forbes’ investigation was some 130 years before the Mythbusters! The calculation and explanation are short and entertaining, and I thought it would be fun to take a look at them.
The author of Skulls in the Stars is a professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. 
Skulls in the Stars 