The long exhale

Once again, my blog went defunct!  Let me give a quick explanation:

1.  I changed jobs.  I decided to get out of regulatory work and back into research.  There are a lot of reasons for this, which I would be happy to discuss in person if we ever meet.  The short version is:  I missed research.

2.  I'm now working for the U.S. government.  I'm not totally clear on how this affects my ability to post thoughts/opinions online.  However, I am totally sure that I don't have a lot of time to do that.

3.  And finally, I got stressed out.  Rather than write series of crappy posts, I decided to just watch three seasons of "Heroes" and then play with my kids for two months. 

So what am I going to do with this space now?

I might start posting more paper recaps.  I've read a lot of papers recently, so there's plenty of good material to re-distribute. 

I also will be adding descriptions of my research.  When I took the plunge back into research, I didn't take a permanent position, so I'm job hunting.  I'm going to post detailed explanations of my research ideas here (and permanently link to them) so that people will be able to see what I'm about. 

So expect a few changes in the coming days/weeks.

Notes for July 8th

• Happy Birthday Sis!
• This isn't exactly a wonderfully fun story.  
• Squirrels are actually pretty interesting.  Although we typically think of invasive species as annoying and frustrating, there's something sorta amazing about a species that can be this successful.
• Humans where in Europe a lot longer than previously thought.  Or maybe just a lot earlier?
• I'm just going to repeat the title of this article and then gasp in terror:  "Gallbladder removed through mouth in new-" (stops to vomit, deep breath).  Ok, so actually that's probably a good thing, but judas monkeys!

Notes for July 7th

• More about perennial grains.  I agree, it would be great if we could have them.  I don't know why we don't.  
• A fairly interesting look at the food preferences of man-eating lions (obviously, they don't only eat people).
• Ants with worms...broadly speaking ants with mind-control worms.
• Holy cow, I can't believe this is a problem.  Because of some unexpected storms, a hydro plan in the Pacific NW was making so much power that other facilities in the region had to shut down (gas and coal plants).  I'm not a huge fan of hydro because the impoundments associated with them are usually bad for streams, but some strategic use of hydro is certainly going to be helpful.  In this case, they have so much power being generated that they don't know what to do with it (literally).

Notes for July 1st

• 2.1 billion year old multicellular life.  At least, it looks mutlicellular, hard to tell really.  But wouldn't early multi-cellular life essentially just be unicellular organisms stuck together and liking it?
• Quantum effects at the macro scale.  Although very interesting, I was expecting a lot more 'macro' effects from the reddit headline "Dartmouth researchers describe one example of the microscopic quantum world influencing--even dominating, they say--the behavior of something in the macroscopic classical world."
• Fundamental differences between big and small animals mean that King Kong was probably a lot slower than depicted in that Peter Jackson movie.  Or here in reality, dinos were probably slow.
• Why warm your eggs with body heat when you can use thermal springs?

Notes for June 29th

• The evolution of cats is interesting, even if the image accompanying the article doesn't make any sense.
• Generalists go extinct too.  Not sure I really buy the idea that they might be less like to.
• Allen's rule is about the length of extremities in tropical and temperate animals.  Apparently there's now some evidence that temperate/cold weather animals have shorter limbs (or at least, shorter beaks).

Notes for June 28th

• Tet Zoo talking about turtles.  I ended up going through about 10 old Tet Zoo articles on turtles.
• Interesting bit of detective work to try and determine how the Stellar's Sea Cow went extinct.
• Genetically engineered salmon are on their way.  Take a look at the picture accompanying the article.  No wonder the industry is investigating this.
• Small mammals eating dinosaurs.  Presumably after they are dead.

Notes for June 25

• Yes.  Confirmation bias is real.  Or am I only seeing evidence for it because of...confirmation bias?  Uh...down that path lies madness.
• I'm not sure what to make of the absence or reduced abundance of sunspots.  Does this mean something?
• The strange and somewhat wonderful story of a man who woke up with a stroke, and without the ability to read.
• The world of information is a jungle.  I like that metaphor.  At least I'm not the only one who occasionally misses something amazing.