Notes for March 1st

• Wait...What? The Mozart Effect is a load of crap? Ah, man, that was so easy. Actually playing the instruments is just way more work.
• Nothing to do with science, but I thought this slideshow of cool places to visit had some amazing pictures.
• A very conservative Supreme Court has, over the past ten years, cut a lot of the teeth out of the Clean Water Act. Big surprise: Now more polluters are getting away with dumping hazardous materials into streams and rivers.
• Trimble and Van Aarde (2010; DOI 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01453.x; discussed here) have quantified the extent to which scientists have focused their attention on particular species. Not surprisingly, 98% of scientific efforts have focused on just 22% of the species. What gets studied more? Large mammals and reptiles. What's left out? Small mammals, birds and amphibians. That seems intuitively off to me, since I've only met 2 people who work on large mammals and I've known something like 2,000 who've worked on birds and amphibians. Of course, this study is in southern Africa. Maybe people are just more interested in hippos and elephants than they are in...ok...not sure I actually know of any African amphibians off the top of my head.
• People sometimes question why I'm interested in elemental cycles. I don't really try to explain that, because honestly, most people who ask don't really want to know. However, now I'll start bringing up the link between nutrient enrichment and human health. "Human health" is always a convenient and easy way to say 'this is important.'