jtoney

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March 25, 2011
This map shows a heatmap of 175,000 4.5+ magnitude earthquakes since 1973 based on data from the USGS (United States Geological Survey). And worldwide locations of nuclear power stations using information from the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). An alarming number of nuclear power…
March 25, 2011
Ozone levels over the Arctic as detected by satellite on March 16. Credit: NOAA This is the ozone hole like you've never seen it before. Is the ozone hole related to climate change or the "greenhouse effect"? In a word, no. What about Global Weirding (Thomas Friedman's phrase for increasingly…
March 24, 2011
This is a glimpse into the future of 3D technology, utterly fascinating. From PopSci: A new, truly 360-degree 3-D display has been developed by researchers at Osaka University. The fog display is created by three projectors each beaming a different image into a column of thin fog, making the…
March 24, 2011
Enthralled by the power of online social networking and search engines to advance my research projects and feed my insatiable appetite for information, I was under the impression that things were more or less under control. I was wrong. It began innocently, with tentative explorations into…
March 23, 2011
Consider the realm of influence of Twitter itself, as a Twitterer - if there is such a term. Twitter just celebrated its "5th birthday." Who is the CMO? In just over five years, @Twitter has sent 1,056 Tweets, has 4,675,494 followers, and follows 436 (if you measure "Klout," that's a lot of Klout…
March 23, 2011
This article was co-authored with Dr. Rama Hoetzlein, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Media Technology at the Aalborg University at Copenhagen. Dr. Hoetzlein prepared the graphic. With increasing concern about radiation exposure in Japan and beyond, you might wonder: How much…
March 22, 2011
Scholars at Risk calls for letters on behalf of Bahraini mechanical engineering professor, who "was taken forcibly from his home on March 17th and imprisoned without charge." About Scholars at Risk: Mission Around the world today, scholars are attacked because of their words, their ideas and…
March 21, 2011
Crowd sourcing is now being used to report, in real time, reliable data of Japan's radiation levels. According to the developers: We too have been watching events unfold in Japan. We have created this site in an effort to display the reliable data readings as they become available. While we are…
March 21, 2011
In honor of Twitter's 5th birthday today! Sentence Lengths of British Public Speakers 1598-1940 Notice a trend here? It appears that the "sound bite" was emerging more than 70 years ago. Since the average word has about 5 characters, Francis Bacon's sentence length needed at least 360 characters…
March 20, 2011
The cover of Time magazine heralds "Target Gaddafi." Haven't read it yet? Read on. This Time magazine cover is from April 21, 1986, approaching 25 years ago. What are the implications for "Operation Odyssey Dawn," launched March 19? Comments? Here's a sample of Time's 1986 article: By Sunday…
March 19, 2011
Source. Casualties in time and space. The seasonal rhythms and shifting battlefields of the war emerge in this view of the 8131 Afghan civilians killed or injured over the past 2 years, recorded in a military database called CIVCAS. (No data were available for the first 5 months of 2010 in the…
March 19, 2011
Source. Local produce, such as milk and spinach, are beginning to show potentially alarming signs of radiation up to 90 miles away from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plants, according to Japanese officials. Will this be temporary or of long range concern? According to an article in The New…
March 18, 2011
Find out how to invest in energy stocks at EnergyAndCapital.com. The ongoing human tragedy in Japan, now centered on the Fukushima nuclear power plants, highlights the need for innovative approaches to meeting our energy needs. This "peak oil clock" could provide some perspective into how…
March 18, 2011
Source. Engaged in the tragedy in Japan unfolding since March 11, getting reliable, consistent information can seem to be an impossible task. Do you ever feel like this hapless character trying to absorb information coming in so fast and furious, it's like trying to drink from a fire hose?…
March 17, 2011
Source. The days of "free clicks" to access news media articles could be ending soon. But don't worry. Newspapers need to reinvent themselves for the new media and The New York Times will be launching a "newsonomics" model that makes sense - at least to a news junky like me. The Neiman Journalism…
March 17, 2011
Source. In a matter of hours, it will be exactly one week since the devastating earthquake struck Japan (Friday, March 11, 2011 at 12:46:23 AM (EST)). In honor of the victims and their families, let's think Japanese and offer whatever we can to help them through this tragedy so that they can…
March 16, 2011
Radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have been reported to significantly increase on Tuesday during a fire near reactor No. 4. Fortunately, these levels dropped rapidly after the fire was extinguished. The measured unit, in millisieverts, is difficult to put into perspective…
March 16, 2011
Photograph of the Chornobyl environment in the former "Red Forest" region, taken in June 1998, some 700 meters west of Reactor 4 in an area remediated by removal and burial of top soil and dead pine trees. Radiation in this region today is 2-4 millirems per hour at a height of 1 meter. Decades…
March 15, 2011
Following the news about the damage and explosions at the Fukushima nuclear power plants has been distressing and confusing. Major news media outlets report high levels of released radiation, while nuclear engineers have a different opinion. Who's right? According to The New York Times report (…
March 15, 2011
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March 14, 2011
Magnitude of earthquakes (M5-6=small yellow circles, M6-7 orange circles, M7+ large red circles) off the coast of Honshu, 9-14 March. Geologist Chris Rowan's Scientific American article, "Japan earthquake: The explainer" clarifies some very important points about Japan's earthquakes {highly…
March 14, 2011
I've been thinking a lot about how to support victims and their families in Japan since the earthquake and tsunami struck last Friday. Ben Parr at Mashable gives us some simple, concrete ways we can help in his article, "Japan Earthquake & Tsunami: 7 Simple Ways to Help." Please do what you…
March 12, 2011
Lady Gaga just announced to her close to 9 million Twitter followers that she has designed a "Prayer bracelet" to raise funds for Japan. What a brilliant way for a celebrity to raise funds for an important humanitarian project. Go "little monsters"! You can order one, or more, here. Why the…
March 12, 2011
Google has launched a Person Finder for anyone looking for someone affected by Japan's 2011 Tsunami, or anyone with information about someone there. As of this moment, this site is tracking close to 60,000 records. Importantly, you can find at a single website emergency telephone numbers and…
March 11, 2011
Uploaded by NOAAPMEL on Mar 11, 2011 Propagation of the March 11, 2011 Honshu tsunami was computed with the NOAA forecast method using MOST model with the tsunami source inferred from DART® data. From the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research, located at NOAA PMEL in Seattle, WA. See http://nctr.pmel…
March 11, 2011
NOAA just released this graphic displaying their best estimates of how far and high high the tsunami waves will travel after Japan's devastating earthquake yesterday. How far, how high will it go? Tsunami Wave Height Model Shows Pacific-Wide Impact Model runs from the Center for Tsunami Research…
March 11, 2011
Photo source (MSNBC). With the terrible news of an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan this morning, my thoughts are with the victims and their families. Is this more evidence of "Global Weirding? TOKYO -- A magnitude 8.9 earthquake slammed Japan's northeastern coast Friday, unleashing a…
March 10, 2011
If you're interested in the complexities of our brain, a glimpse into the incredible complexity and beauty of how connections between our neurons can lead to ultimately what makes us human, this video is a must. Take five minutes, and prepare yourself to be awestruck. On a personal note, I am not…
March 10, 2011
Photo source. Teaching kids science has always been a challenge, but why? Isn't a child's nature to explore and discover new things everyday? Every child has this capacity and somewhere along the way many of them lose the spark, the joy of discovery. A survey by the recently launched laboratory…
March 10, 2011
Forbes magazine announced yesterday their list of the world's billionaires - a record number at 1,210 individuals. The top ten are.... A billion, or 1,000,000,000 is such a large number that it is difficult to comprehend its scale relative to amounts that we mortals deal with on a daily basis.…