Category: SCIENCE

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

A bold vision from Joint Chiefs officers … Another look at LBJ … What Voyager 1 has discovered … The new iTunes … 100 facts for Machu Picchu.

Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. The Power Broker’s Other Voice
By Jason Sokol | Slate | June 13
“President Lyndon Johnson, domineering and manipulative, lives on in American memory as the classic power broker. … Yet this is not the Johnson who emerges from volumes seven and eight of The Presidential Recordings, a transcription of his phone conversations from June 1 to July 4 of 1964.”

2. The Y Article
By John Norris | Foreign Policy | April 13
“The piece was written by two senior members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a ‘personal’ capacity, but it is clear that it would not have seen the light of day without a measure of official approval. Its findings are revelatory, and they deserve to be read and appreciated not only by every lawmaker in Congress, but by every American citizen.”

3. Voyager 1 Reaches Surprisingly Calm Boundary of Interstellar Space
By Geoff Brumfiel | Nature and Scientific American | June 15
“The Voyager 1 spacecraft is at the limit of the ‘heliosheath’, where particles streaming from the Sun clash with the gases of the galaxy. Contrary to scientists’ expectation of a sharp, violent edge, the boundary seems to be a tepid place, where the solar wind mingles with extrasolar particles.”

4. Everything You Need to Know About the New iTunes
By Sam Grobart | Gadgetwise — The New York Times | June 13
“Last week, at the opening of its annual developers’ conference, Apple announced iCloud — its new online storage and syncing service for music, photos, files and software. Although not all of its features are available immediately, one part — “iTunes in the Cloud Beta” — is, if you’ve updated to iTunes 10.3.1. Here is a primer about what you need to know, right now, about it.”

5. Looking beyond Obama to ‘The Golden Age’
By Paul Rosenberg | Al Jazeera | June 11
“Obama has so far been a disappointment to many of his supporters, but he has awakened a worldwide need for real change.”

6. So Much More Than Plasma and Poison
By Natalie Angier | The New York Times | June 6
“Among nature’s grand inventory of multicellular creatures, jellyfish seem like the ultimate other, as alien from us as mobile beings can be while still remaining within the kingdom Animalia. Where is the head, the heart, the back, the front, the matched sets of parts and organs? Where is the bilateral symmetry?”

7. 100 facts for 100 years of Machu Picchu: Fact 59
By Catharine Hamm | The Los Angeles Times | June 12
“Hiram Bingham, a Yale professor, came upon the vine-covered ruins on July 24, 1911. Here, then, as we lead up to the century mark, are 100-plus facts about Machu Picchu, its country, its history and its players. We’ve been posting one each of the 100 days leading to the anniversary. Read from the bottom up.”

8. Why you’re wrong about who’s going to be elected president next year
By Tom Casciato | Need to Know | June 10
“It’s 2011, do you know who’s going to win the presidential election next year? The answer is no, you don’t. Even if you predict now that someone will win then, and that person ends up winning, it won’t be because you knew. You don’t know.”

9. The Balance of Melville
By David D. Robbins Jr. | The Fade Out | June 14
“His masterpiece, ‘Le Samouraï’ (1967), the story of a lone contract killer named Jef Costello, played by exquisitely by Alain Delon, seems to work in perfectly balanced pairs.”

10. How NASA Prepares for the Final Space Shuttle Launch
By Denise Chow | Space.com | June 14
“With just one more mission remaining before the end of NASA’s storied 30-year space shuttle, the agency has shifted its focus to the final launch of Atlantis on July 8. But exactly how does NASA get a space shuttle ready to fly?”

TUNES

Tonight I’m spending some time with the blues, specifically with the Texas Blues Café. Check out the line-up and then listen here.

1. The Insomniacs — Hoodoo Man
2. Carolyn Wonderland — Ain’t Nobody’s Business
3. Los Super Seven — Heard It On the X
4. Robbie King Band — Classic Case of the Blues
5. Jack County — Lonesome Radio
6. BB Chung King and the Budda Heads — Still the Rain
7. The Fabulous Thunderbirds — Painted On
8. Red Rooster Club — Fool for Your Stockings
9. Red Rooster Club — Lie to Me
10. Paul Rogers — Muddy Water Blues
11. Preachers Stone — Mother to Bed

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

History’s biggest volcanic explosions … Great gadgets for Father’s Day … Video of an asteroid … Revisiting McNamara’s War … Regrets of dying men and women.

Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. Regrets of the Dying
By Bronnie Ware | Inspiration and Chai
“For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. … When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five. …”

2. Arab revolutions mask economic status quo
By Mark LeVine | Al Jazeera | June 10
“Despite talk of a ‘new social contract’, financial powers seek to maintain their grip on the poor of the Middle East.”

3. Our Troops Abroad: What Does a Soldier Need to Read?
By Elizabeth D. Samet | The New Republic | June 11
“Few of us have been castaways, but we’ve all spun variations on the exercise of figuring out whatever is essential to the life of our minds.”

4. McNamara’s Non-War
By James Burnham | National Review | Sept. 19, 1967
“In the form of a statement, August 25, to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense McNamara offered the most elaborate apologia yet made by the Johnson Administration for, specifically, “our conduct of the air war in Vietnam,” and, by implication, for the Vietnam policy in general. … Before trying to pass judgment on his conclusions, it is advisable to make sure we understand what he is saying.”

5. NASA Spacecraft Captures Video of Asteroid Approach
Jet Propulsion Laboratory | June 13
“Scientists working with NASA’s Dawn spacecraft have created a new video showing the giant asteroid Vesta as the spacecraft approaches this unexplored world in the main asteroid belt.”

6. After 90 Years, a Dictionary of an Ancient World
By John Noble Wilford | The New York Times | June 6
“Ninety years in the making, the 21-volume dictionary of the language of ancient Mesopotamia and its Babylonian and Assyrian dialects, unspoken for 2,000 years but preserved on clay tablets and in stone inscriptions deciphered over the last two centuries, has finally been completed by scholars at the University of Chicago.”

7. Just back: the painted houses of Peru
By Jonathan Carr | The Telegraph | June 10
“Lurid red and orange paint had been daubed everywhere. Villagers throughout Cajamarca region, like everyone else in Peru, were facing a choice between two alleged evils. … To help in the decision-making process, the villagers’ shacks had been marked with giant crosses. But there were no pleas for God to show mercy. This was not that kind of plague. Rather, the names of politicians had been invoked: left-wing Ollanta in red, right-wing Keiko in orange. Soon, the people were to decide which of the two would become president. ”

8. Chekhov on Judgment
By David D. Robbins Jr. | The Fade Out | June 10
“Dover Koshashvili’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s short novella “The Duel”, a period drama about the residents of a seaside town in the Caucuses, correctly finds the tone set by the original. Take it from a Chekhov lover, the best thing about the Russian’s writing is his ability to arrive at a point of discovery without necessarily providing an apotheosis.”

9. The 10 Biggest Volcanic Eruptions in History
Our Amazing Planet | June 10
“June 15, 2011, marks the 20th anniversary of Mt. Pinatubo’s cataclysmic eruption. … On this anniversary, we countdown the largest volcanic eruptions in history as measured by the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), a classification system somewhat akin to the magnitude scale for earthquakes.”

10. 15 Fantastic Gadgets for Father’s Day
By Doug Aamoth and Chris Gayomali | Time | June 13
“Whether dad loves to grill, fish or take on projects around the house, any number of these geeky goodies are sure to be a hit.”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Opening a door for a woman … Learning how to be a Marine … Lessons from Cosmo … Peru’s new president … A poem from Rimbaud

Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. Mass Arrest: Jupiter’s Early Migration Could Explain Mars’s Small Size
By John Matson | Scientific American | June 6
“The wandering orbit of Jupiter at the dawn of the solar system may have had wide-ranging effects”

2. Orgasm Guaranteed
By Katherine Goldstein | Slate | June 6
“What I learned while freelancing at Cosmopolitan.”

3. Through the Ranks: Private First Class
By Colby Brown | Marines Blog | May 23
“On an average day, [Pfc. Clark Kirkley] wakes up between 4 to 6 a.m. He has an hour to eat, shave, shower and prepare his gear before standing post. After being relieved of his post, he has the afternoon to himself, which is usually comprised of a nap and food. After dinner, he has another post duty, after which he sleeps. Kirkley wakes a few hours later to start the process over again.”

4. Why Are There No Female Political Sex Scandals?
Guanabee | June 6
“The obvious answer here is that we live in a society with a double standard against women.”

5. The Adventures of Aladdin
The Brothers Grimm | The EServer Connection
“‘One day, as he was looking for wild figs in a grove some way from the town, Aladdin met a mysterious stranger. This smartly dressed dark-eyed man with a trim black beard and a splendid sapphire in his turban, asked Aladdin an unusual question: ‘Come here, boy,’ he ordered. ‘How would you like to earn a silver penny?’ ”

6. Humala won’t be a Chàvez — for now
By Andres Oppenheimer | Miami Herald | June 11
“There are many similarities between the two men, but also many differences. Let’s start with the resemblances: in addition to their personal histories, both started out sounding conciliatory and promising to serve just one term. … But there are also big differences in the circumstances that surrounded the two men’s climb to the presidency.”

7. After the Flood
By Arthur Rimbaud, translated by John Ashbery | The New York Review of Books | June 2011
“No sooner had the notion of the Flood regained its composure / Than a hare paused amid the gorse and trembling bellflowers and said its prayer to the rainbow through the spider’s web.”

8. The Ins And Outs Of Opening A Door For A Woman
By Brett and Kate McKay | Art Of Manliness | June 8
“Most men grasp basic etiquette but how do you cope with those tricky situations – revolving doors or doors that push in rather than pull out? Should you hold the door open for others after your date has exited?”

9. Probes Suggest Magnetic Bubbles at Solar System Edge
Jet Propulsion Laboratory | June 9
“Observations from NASA’s Voyager spacecraft, humanity’s farthest deep space sentinels, suggest the edge of our solar system may not be smooth, but filled with a turbulent sea of magnetic bubbles.”

10. ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ and its 25 contributions to pop culture lore
By Jen Chaney | Celebritology | June 10
“[A] writer for the Atlantic has suggested that we all need to ‘get over’ our Bueller obsession because, really, the beloved John Hughes comedy is just the story of an entitled kid who was nothing like any of us were in high school. … But this John Hughes movie — perhaps the best one the filmmaker ever made — has endured, rightfully, for a number of reasons.”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Lessons from a Turkish grandmother … the Churchill we thought we knew … the release of all Pentagon Papers … Anna Nicole Smith and her doomed life … what not to say to the editor that fired you …

Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. My ‘Confession’
By Fang Lizhi | The New York Review of Books | June 2011
“From reading Henry Kissinger’s new book On China,1 I have learned that Mr. Kissinger met with Deng Xiaoping at least eleven times—more than with any other Chinese leader—and that the topic of one of their chats was whether Fang Lizhi would confess and repent.”

2. Jessi Arrington: Wearing nothing new
By Jessi Arrington | TED Talks | June 2011
“Designer Jessi Arrington packed nothing for TED but 7 pairs of undies, buying the rest of her clothes in thrift stores around LA. It’s a meditation on conscious consumption — wrapped in a rainbow of color and creativity.”

3. Chile’s Puyehue Volcano: A slideshow
Time | June 6
“After laying dormant for nearly half a century, the Puyehue volcano in southern Chile erupted on Saturday, shooting a column of ash and gas six miles into the sky and prompting the evacuation of more than 3,500 residents. … Here’s some of the best images photographers captured in the past 24 hours.”

4. “I Would Have Loved To Piss on Your Shoes”
By Jack Shafer | Slate | June 6
“In honor of every journalist who flipped the boss off on the way out the door, I’ve collected a few of their best kiss-off notes and gestures from the recent past. If, after reading, you don’t turn in your badge and burn every bridge and causeway behind you and fill with sewage every tunnel and viaduct that connects you to your former place of employment, I’ve failed in my mission.”

5. After 40 Years, the Complete Pentagon Papers
By Michael Cooper and Sam Roberts | The New York Times | June 7
“It may be a first in the annals of government secrecy: Declassifying documents to mark the anniversary of their leak to the press. But that is what will happen Monday, when the federal government plans to finally release the secret government study of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers 40 years after it was first published by The New York Times.”

6. Paw Paw & Lady Love
By Dan. P. Lee | New York Magazine | June 5
“Has the Supreme Court ever heard such a peculiarly American story as that of Anna Nicole Smith? And they didn’t know the half of it.”

7. Film directors are embracing TV
By Nicole Sperling and Melissa Maerz | Los Angeles Times | June 5
“Let the major movie studios have their superheroes and pirates. Cable TV has become more innovative, and top moviemakers such as Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann and Gus Van Sant are taking advantage.”

8. The Forgotten Churchill
By George Watson | The American Scholar | June 6
“The man who stared down Hitler also helped create the modern welfare state.”

9. Marriage Lessons from My Turkish Grandmother
By Sevil Delin | Granta | June 7
“The stories my grandmother, my anneanne, told me when I was a child are anything but children’s stories. They are folktales that have a common theme – the triumph of wily wives over evil husbands (jealous, repressive skinflints) through crafty subterfuge.”

10. Clever Girl
By Tessa Hadley | The New Yorker: Fiction | June 6
“My stepfather wasn’t a big man, not much taller than my mother. He was lithe and light on his feet, handsome, with velvety dark brows, a sensual mouth, and jet-black hair in a crewcut as thick and soft as the pelt of an animal (not that I ever touched it, though sometimes, out of curiosity, I wanted to).”

TUNES

My soundtrack for today included:
1. MANDINGA (Live) Buena Vista Social Club
2. A LA LOMA DE BELEN El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico
3. LA NOCHE DE LA IGUANA Lucrecia
4. DOS GARDENIAS Ibrahim Ferrer
5. PATRIA QUERIDA Los Guaracheros De Oriente
6. SON FO Africando All Stars
7. LA LIBELULA Mariana Montalvo
8. GUAJIRA LINDA Celina Gonzalez
9. BOOM BOOM BOOM The Iguanas
10. LA ULTIMA COPA Felipe Rodriguez

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Recommended reading / viewing / listening, Part 1: China’s naval power … ‘Weinergate’ cartoons … the perfect Father’s Day present …Peru’s new president … what disasters can teach us.

Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. Apocalypse: What Disasters Reveal
By Junot Diaz | Boston Review | May/June 2011
“Apocalyptic catastrophes don’t just raze cities and drown coastlines; these events, in David Brooks’s words, “wash away the surface of society, the settled way things have been done. They expose the underlying power structures, the injustices, the patterns of corruption and the unacknowledged inequalities.” And, equally important, they allow us insight into the conditions that led to the catastrophe, whether we are talking about Haiti or Japan. ”

2. Damon Horowitz calls for a ‘moral operating system’
By Damon Horowitz | TED Talks | May 2011
“At TEDxSiliconValley, Damon Horowitz reviews the enormous new powers that technology gives us: to know more — and more about each other — than ever before. … Where’s the moral operating system that allows us to make sense of it?”

3. Book review: ‘State of Wonder’
By Carolyn Kellogg | Los Angeles Times | June 5
“In her new novel, Ann Patchett’s gives readers almost a feminized version of ‘Heart of Darkness,’ but without the savagery.”

4. What kind of leftist president for Peru?
By Frank Bajak | Associated Press | June 6
“In his first, failed run to be Peru’s president, Ollanta Humala projected the image of a radical leftist in Hugo Chavez’s mold. This time, he called the Venezuelan leader’s socialist-oriented economic model flawed, and sought moderate allies and courted Washington. Yet many Peruvians wonder if this 48-year-old political novice … is really a market-friendly populist. Many skeptics fear he will renege on his promises and spring revolutionary change on an unsuspecting nation.”

5. The Only Father’s Day Gift You Need: A Letter of Appreciation
By Andrew Snavely | Primer | June 6
“Man to man, especially with a dad can be impossible. Some fathers are gruff and won’t tolerate the awkwardness or the sentiment. Others put up walls to shield their emotions from others. These guys are from a different generation. A letter allows you to say everything you need to, just the way you want to.”

6. Death and Drugs in Colombia
By Daniel Wilkinson | The New York Review of Books | June 2011
“In February 2003, the mayor of a small town on Colombia’s Caribbean coast stood up at a nationally televised meeting with then President Álvaro Uribe and announced his own murder.”

7. Stargazer: A story
By Eliot Treichel | Narrative | June 6
“As the pickup truck approached, Walters raised his free hand and motioned for the vehicle to stop. In his other hand he clutched the stock of a lever-action Winchester, the gun barrel angled over his shoulder.”

8. Why China’s Growing Naval Presence Is To Be Expected
By Wesley Clark | Big Think | June 6
“We don’t know exactly what the aim of the Chinese shipbuilding program is, but they are building a Navy. And they do have commerce and it’s a very natural thing.”

9. The most eye-catching ‘Weinergate’ cartoons so far …
By Michael Cavna | Comic Riffs | The Washington Post | June 6
“Sure, the target might be like shooting kingfish in a barrel, but some satirists are hitting their marks with especial flair.”

10. Critics’ Picks Video: ‘Lawrence of Arabia’
Arts Beat | The New York Times | June 6
” ‘Revolution in the Arab world is inspiring, dramatic and confusing,’ says A.O. Scott, the co-chief film critic for the New York Times. ‘The Arab Spring of 2011 is not the first time that political upheaval in the Middle East has captured the imagination of the West. Mr. Scott is referring to the events that inspired the 1962 Academy Award-winning film, “Lawrence of Arabia,” a movie he calls “a remarkably sophisticated investigation into revolution itself.’ “

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Recommending reading: What happens when we sleep … remembering the Civil War … the ultimate Twitter archive … some Roman history … Peru’s impossible choice

1. How the Library of Congress is building the Twitter archive
By Audrey Watters | O’Reilly Radar | June 2
“In April 2010, Twitter announced it was donating its entire archive of public tweets to the Library of Congress. … That’s led to a flood of inquiries to the Library of Congress about how and when researchers will be able to gain access to the Twitter archive. These research requests were perhaps heightened by some of the changes that Twitter has made to its API and firehose access. But creating a Twitter archive is a major undertaking for the Library of Congress, and the process isn’t as simple as merely cracking open a file for researchers to peruse.”

2. The Mind after Midnight: Where Do You Go When You Go to Sleep?
Scientific American | June 3
“Based on new sleep research, there are tantalizing signposts. Join us in exploring this slumbering journey. We’ll delve into the one-eyed, half-brained sleep of some animals; eavesdrop on dreams to understand their cognitive significance; and investigate extreme and bizarre sleeping behaviors like “sleep sex” and “sleep violence.’ ”

3. Roman Ship Carried Live Fish Tank
By Rossella Lorenzi | Discovery News | June 3
“The ancient Romans might have traded live fish across the Mediterranean Sea by endowing their ships with an ingenious hydraulic system, a new investigation into a second century A.D. wreck suggests.”

4. Peruvians facing worst possible choices
By Andres Oppenheimer | The Miami Herald | June 3
“It’s hard to tell which of the presidential candidates running in Peru’s runoff elections Sunday — right-of-center Keiko Fujimori and left-of-center Ollanta Humana — would be worse for their country’s democratic institutions. Both have strong authoritarian backgrounds.”

5. Remembering the Civil War
To the Best of Our Knowledge | Feb. 20
“It’s the sesquicentennial of the Civil War — it’s been 150 years since that epic war began. Americans will commemorate and remember it from different points of view. … We’ll talk about soldiers’ experiences on the battlefield, and their reconciliation afterwards. We’ll debate the controversial legacy of the abolitionist, John Brown. And we’ll reflect on why the Civil War still has a living — and highly contested — history … even today.”

TUNES

My soundtrack for today included:
1. TEXAS FLOOD Stevie Ray Vaughan
2. STORMY WEATHER Etta James
3. THE JACKAL Ronny Jordan & Dana Bryant
4. THESE ARMS OF MINE Otis Redding
5. A SUNDAY KIND OF LOVE Etta James
6. SWEET SIXTEEN (Live) B.B. King
7. SOMETHING INSIDE ME Robert Bradley
8. I COVER THE WATERFRONT John Lee Hooker
9. THE PREACHER Nitin Sawhney
10. I JUST WANT TO MAKE LOVE TO YOU Etta James

1-2-5

Eclipsed by all my gleeful excitement over marking Civil War events from 150 years ago is another seminal event from only 50 years ago: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space.

Eclipsed by all my gleeful excitement over marking Civil War events from 150 years ago is another seminal event from only 50 years ago: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space.

The Associated Press recently moved a wonderful story about the man, the mission, and the race to the moon his achievement provoked (beautifully explored by one of my favorite miniseries). “Gagarin’s flight on the Vostok was entirely automated,” reporter Vladimir Isachenkov writes, “yet simply by having the courage to face the unknown, he taught his fellow humans a vital lesson: that they had a future in space.”

Keep an eye out for more stellar (pun intended) Gagarin coverage this week. As always, BBC News is a great place to start. (Photo: Associated Press file)

TUNES

My soundtrack for today included:
1. CAN’T YOU HEAR ME KNOCKING The Rolling Stones
2. DEEP DARK TRUTHFUL MIRROR (Unplugged) Elvis Costello
3. A STROKE OF LUCK Garbage
4. GIMME SHELTER The Rolling Stones
5. FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST Rod Stewart
6. HARD TO MAKE A STAND Sheryl Crow
7. MUSIC Madonna
8. AND I LOVE HER The Beatles
9. SHE’S WAITING Eric Clapton
10. HEY JOE Jimi Hendrix

Doomed astronauts and doomed Romans

I’m ending my night with this chilling gem from the November 2003 edition of Atlantic Monthly, “Columbia’s Last Flight” by William Langewiesche.

This was Langewiesche’s first piece after his multi-part report from the World Trade Center site, one of my favorite pieces from the magazine. Find more of his work here.

Also, check out one of my favorite shows, “Secrets of the Dead,” which took a closer look at what really happened at the Roman city of Herculaneum when Mount Vesuvius exploded, burying it and Pompeii for centuries. Later, the series explored the recent discovery of Roman cargo ships near the beautiful Italian island of Ventotene. Why they were there and why they sank has been a famous mystery, until now.

Following the Japan quake

My morning began with a flash of alarm when I awoke and found myself hours behind the breaking news of the terrible Japan earthquake. My phone brimmed with automated alerts from the U.S. Geological Survey, the BBC and the Associated Press. My email was packed with news updates. Twitter was aflame with bulletins, tsunami warnings, death toll updates and links to dramatic videos.

After a little breakfast and my usual double barrel of coffee, I moved to my office and settled into the first of a few hours spent comprehending the catastrophe as it affects the entire Pacific Rim, looking for scientific explanations for the quake, refreshing myself on tsunami science and then focusing on the scale of devastation confronting the Japanese people.

Here are a few links that I found interesting:

News coverage: I’m following the main Associated Press story on the disaster. BBC News collected some amazing video from the moment the quake struck, along with footage of a whirlpool and of the waves ravaging the Fukushima prefecture. Their special report on the quake is also impressively comprehensive. Time magazine collected photo essays of the disaster. The Associated Press offers a interactive overview of the situation in the region. The Department of Defense reported its readiness to assist Japan. The Wall Street Journal analyzes how the quake will further disrupt the weak Japanese economy. Via APM’s Marketplace, the BBC examines how prepared or unprepared Japan was for an earthquake of this destructive power.

Blogs: For the London Review of Books, R.T. Ashcroft writes from Ichikawa City, “It was strangely peaceful outside: people were moving around purposefully but calmly. … Although there is still chaos in other, worse-hit parts of the country, life here seems to have returned to normal surprisingly quickly.” FEMA’s blog offers advice on how to use a cell phone as more than just a phone during a disaster, especially when phone service is interrupted.

Twitter: The hashtags #tsunami and #earthquake follow the crisis moment by moment, with updates from the U.S. State Department, the United Nations, countless news agencies, and from people in Japan, Hawaii and on the West Coast.

Science: The Washington Post’s The Answer Sheet blog pulled together some useful educational links. I especially enjoyed the comparison of destructive effects from one magnitude to another. The BBC prepared a wave map charting the progression of the tsunami across the Pacifc region. This animation from the University of Alaska demonstrates how a tsunami is generated. Learn more about quakes from the experts at the National Earthquake Information Center.

Alerts: : Some of those alerts that awaited me this morning came from the U.S. Geological Survey, which is generally regarded in the U.S. as the leading authority on earthquake magnitude and location. Sign up for their alerts here. Wave alerts come from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

How to help: The Facebook page Global Disaster Relief offers links and email addresses for those trying to find and contact loved ones in Japan.

Computer attacks and giving the mind a break

Some science items that recently caught my eye …

Military Computer Attack Confirmed: The New York Times reports, “A top Pentagon official has confirmed a previously classified incident that he describes as ‘the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever,’ a 2008 episode in which a foreign intelligence agent used a flash drive to infect computers, including those used by the Central Command in overseeing combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Defending a New Domain: In the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III claims that “the Pentagon has built layered and robust defenses around military networks and inaugurated the new U.S. Cyber Command to integrate cyberdefense operations across the military.”

Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime: The New York Times reports, “Even though people feel entertained, even relaxed, when they multitask while exercising, or pass a moment at the bus stop by catching a quick video clip, they might be taxing their brains, scientists say.”

Behind The Wall

Tabletop Games

Rebecca Aguilar

#CallingAllJournalists Initiative | Reporter | Media Watchdog | Mentor | Latinas in Journalism

Anna Fonte's Paper Planes

Words, images & collages tossed from a window.

Postcards from Barton Springs

Gayle Brennan Spencer - sending random thoughts to and from South Austin

The Flask Half Full

Irreverent travelogues, good drinks, and the cultural stories they tell.

Government Book Talk

Talking about some of the best publications from the Federal Government, past and present.

Fighting Irish Wire

Cadillac Society

Cadillac News, Forums, Rumors, Reviews

Ob360media

Real News That Matters

Talking Pictures Audio Description

Pintar Discover

Space Navy

Mealtime Joy

bringing joy to family meals

Øl, Mad og Folk

Bloggen Øl, Mad og Folk

a joyous kitchen

fun, delicious food for everyone

A Perfect Feast

Modern Comfort Food

donnablackwrites

Art is a gift we give ourselves

Fridgelore

low waste living drawn from food lore through the ages

BeckiesKitchen.com

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North River Notes

Observations on the Hudson River as it passes through New York City. The section of the Hudson which passes through New York is historically known as the North River, called this by the Dutch to distinguish it from the Delaware River, which they knew as the South River. This stretch of the Hudson is still often referred to as the North River by local mariners today. All photos copyright Daniel Katzive unless otherwise attributed. For more frequent updates, please follow northriverblog on Facebook or Instagram.