cossatot

63 ms·

541.
by cossatot 11y ago
Why not consider this an experiment in funding efficiency? This should be supported by scientists across the board, especially as it's such a tiny fraction of the NIH budget. It's a bit much to claim to fully know the outcome of
542.
by cossatot 11y ago
Great post. If you get all of this, you'll probably be able to navigate grad school just fine...
543.
by cossatot 11y ago
Of all of the surprises I had as a geology undergrad, I would rank the beauty and information content of looking at thin sections of rock under cross-polarized light in the top five or so. Really, really spectacular, especially mafic igneou
544.
by cossatot 11y ago
Are there architectural or other challenges to building processors for this? How compatible are unums with modern processors? Would LAPACK et al have to be re-written?
545.
by cossatot 11y ago
Keeping in mind that I don't know anything about Charon's orbit or gravitational effects, I think it's possible. It also doesn't have to be early in Pluto's formation, either; it can be a slow, continuous, ongoing p
546.
by cossatot 11y ago
Interestingly, they don't look like mountains formed by collisional or extensional tectonic processes to my eye (a geologist who studies mountain formation). They look sort of like diapirs (i.e. lower density material pushing up throug
547.
by cossatot 11y ago
Why is this downvoted? I'm just learning Racket and hoped that this was a good option. Is it not?
548.
by cossatot 11y ago
Excellent book by John McPhee on the general topic of your last paragraph: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77.The_Control_of_Nature
549.
by cossatot 11y ago
From a technical perspective, it's useful to keep in mind that the closest humanity has come to drilling to the appropriate depths offshore is... Deepwater Horizon.
550.
by cossatot 11y ago
It's something that most seismologists have thought of before. Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing how much stress has already been accumulated. We also don't know nearly enough about earthquake triggering to be able to do i
551.
by cossatot 11y ago
Earthquakes are, for now, impossible to predict so there is little forewarning (and not for the lack of people trying). However, there is a huge interest in the geological/hazards community in earthquake early warning systems in the US
552.
by cossatot 11y ago
As 3JPLW mentioned, the 2001 Nisqually event was in the subducting Juan de Fuca slab, not on the plate interface, and was quite deep (52 km). The Cascadia plate interface itself does have quite regular 'slow earthquakes'[1] at th
553.
by cossatot 11y ago
Fortunately, the tallest tsunami was from a rockfall in a fjord[1], not from a subduction zone earthquake. They are typically ~10 m, and it's really the wavelength, not the amplitude, that is a problem because there is so much water t
554.
by cossatot 11y ago
Though you do have a point, I think it's really not binary like that; you've given end-members. There are a good number of scientists (myself included) who spend at least part of the time making applications for other researchers;
555.
by cossatot 11y ago
Gasoline usage is pretty inelastic in the US: http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=19191
556.
by cossatot 11y ago
Sad to hear that trash is accumulating. I think maybe a small number of first-come, first-serve or lottery-type reservations would be preferable to a fee-based way of limiting access. Outdoor access is expensive enough in Washington as it
557.
Mount St. Helens’ Crater Glacier continues to grow while most are shrinking(seattletimes.com)
23 points by cossatot 11y ago|5 comments
558.
by cossatot 11y ago
Don't conflate academic publishing with research. It's a facet of research, and there are those working on 'disrupting' it in some form or another (academia.edu, Mendeley (now owned by Elsevier...), Authoria, etc.). Aca
559.
by cossatot 11y ago
This is an excellent book, very well reason, quantitative, and clearheaded. I do wish it was a little less UK focused (I have the same problem with many books that are US focused; it's a world problem and leaving out the BRICs is miss
560.
by cossatot 11y ago
There are two main issues with hydroelectric power (the power density of the two are not easily comparable as their is too much spatial variability in each): 1) Ecosystem disruption (inundation of land as well as blocking migratory aquatic
561.
by cossatot 11y ago
I think this is actually a big reason for the ascendance of big-box stores, esp. Lowes and Home Depot, and auto parts chains like O'Reilly. It's not particularly that they offer lower prices or more selection, it's that they
562.
by cossatot 11y ago
It's a question that lots of geophysicists have asked. Unfortunately, the answer is that we don't know much accumulated stress there is in the earth, especially in regions that are already at high seismic risk. So the risk is th
563.
by cossatot 11y ago
I'm pretty sure Muir would have been a BASE jumper. Ever read that part in The Mountains of California where he climbed 100 feet up and then strapped himself to the top of a Doug fir in a huge storm just to experience the storm's
564.
Jim Balsillie: Canadians can innovate, but we're not equipped to win(theglobeandmail.com)
1 points by cossatot 11y ago|0 comments
565.
by cossatot 11y ago
My field is earth science which is, at its best, highly empirical. The stages are a little different: 1) Learning to observe and learning the basics of the theory; 2) Learning the theory quite a bit more and getting more practiced about o
566.
by cossatot 12y ago
195 oz for all his things... Pretty impressive for a 2500 mi trek! I think my bag weighs something like that biking to work most days.
567.
by cossatot 12y ago
In general, natural hazards losses are measured in dollars in developed nations and lives in developing ones. But you're right, a 7.9 is huge. Even under southern California it would be devastating (see [1] for an idea based on the 1
568.
by cossatot 12y ago
Yay for geologic perspectives on humanity! The lack of anthropocentrism in geologic study can be pretty refreshing. A possibly-related, even more brain melting (to me) event is the Columbia River flood basalts[1]. The erupted material is ~5
569.
by cossatot 12y ago
I sympathize with a lot of these complaints, but the thing that really bothers me about a lot of these academia resignations, or complaints about the academic job market, is that there is definitely an expectation that a path (e.g., a job)
570.
How to Make Money Writing Poetry(fastcompany.com)
10 points by cossatot 12y ago|1 comments

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