Monthly Archives: August 2005

Krakatoa

Four days ago, this sign appeared all over campus: REMEMBER KRAKATOA August 26, 1883 Today, this sign appeared beneath the original on a few lamp posts suspiciously close to the physics department: FORGET VESUVIUS

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The Big Storm hits The Big Easy

(image via NESDIS Satellite Services Division (NOAA))

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Arc-team

This site was just submitted to the Software section. It looks like an interesting discussion site for the use of open source software in Archaeology. It has forums and software pages (largely in German and Italian). I’m amazed how widely … Continue reading

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Odd Sign on Campus

A sign posted all over campus today: REMEMBER KRAKATOA August 26, 1883 That’s all the signs say! Is this a public service project from our civil engineering and geosciences department?

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Interesting Molecular Structures

Two cool (or hot) chemical structures today: Chavicine (I’m testing image uploads, and why not test with something interesting.) Everyone knows that Capsaicin is the hot stuff in chili peppers. Fewer people know that Chavicine is the hot stuff in … Continue reading

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Archaology and open source

The members of the Arc-Team (five archaeologists) run Debian and some other GNU/Linux distributions on three PCs and five notebooks (our whole system). We’ve installed Grass-GIS, different CADs, some applications for virtual reconstruction, statistics, GPS and survey data management, databases … Continue reading

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NYT series on Intelligent Design

I’ve tried to like the science reporting in the times on the ID controversy, but I just can’t. This third article was OK, but reading the first two was like listening to fingernails on a blackboard. I wish journalists didn’t … Continue reading

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Did the tin phase transition end the Scott expedition?

The Wikipedia entry on tin pest mentions the claim that the 1910 Scott expedition to the South Pole may have been doomed by Tin pest (just as Napoleon’s army was). The Scott party, returning from the pole after discovering that … Continue reading

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Edward Tufte and Napoleon’s Buttons

Edward Tufte describes this graphic drawn by Charles Joseph Minard as the “best statistical graphic ever drawn”. Beginning at the Polish-Russian border, the graphic depicts the size of Napoleon’s as the width of a line that shrinks from an initial … Continue reading

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Woo Hoo!

Yay! Our Nanoparticle vibrational dynamics paper is up on the J. Phys. Chem. B site. This paper really owes a lot to an anonymous reviewer who pointed something out in the review stage. We spent a long time figuring out … Continue reading

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