Tangled Bank #50 at Island of Doubt

Tangled Bank is a bi-weekly collection of online science writing. The fiftieth edition is hosted by Island of Doubt.

Tags: science, evolution, Tangled Bank, science writing, medical writing, natural history, organisms

Content Management conference

I hope you know, as I do, that science should ideally include clear transmission of information. I am taking three days to attend the STC Toronto Spring Conference with a theme, “The Tipping Point in Content Management.” The conference will cover aspects of analyzing information, information mapping, usability and re-use, tools and techniques for content management. The last speaker, Ann Rockley, literally wrote the book on content management.

I expect to return fortified against the questions I’ve been answering for twenty years and armed with new ways to provide value to clients.

Private space rocket blows up on launch

It’s a good thing that there was nothing wrong with it. And luckily there were no passengers. According to the article,

PayPal co-founder and billionaire Elon Musk, who helped develop and finance the rocket, said in a statement on the SpaceX site that “All vehicle systems, including the main engine, thrust vector control, structures, avionics, software, guidance algorithm, etc. were picture perfect.”

So why did it blow up?

Winter roads in the Arctic

A few years ago, I contributed a few boxes of books to be sent to communities in northwestern Ontario that have road transport only in the winter when lakes are solidly frozen over.

This morning, I caught a segment of “Frontiers of Construction” from Discovery Channel Canada. It described how winter roads are laid out in the Arctic. The roads go over lakes where possible for their level surface. But they are not as simple as a kids’ ice rink. The program followed the construction of a road north from Yellowknife in the North-west Territories.

The process starts with a helicopter slowly leading the way to look for faults in the ice. If the way appears to be safe, the helicopter is followed by the first ground vehicle, an amphibious tractor pulling ground-penetrating radar. A scientist watches the continuous report from the radar and records ice depths: 30 inches (80 cm) is good. Another special vehicle tackles the transitions from ice to land “portages,” where the ice tends to be weak. It is a light bulldozer with an attached crossbar to prevent the vehicle from plunging into the water if the ice breaks. People have died of heart failure just from hitting the cold water.

After that, a lead snowplow that marks the exact route of the road. It is followed by others that widen and level the road. All in all, the whole process is more of a science than I thought!

Here are some older images of winter roads; and here is a road conditions map for Ontario.

An open letter to Mike Huckabee

After reading that 80% of science teachers in Arkansas do not teach evolution adequately, I was inspired to write via his Web site to the governor, who supports equal time for Creationism:

First, congratulations on training for and running marathons. That’s a real, personal accomplishment.

Second, I want to thank you for your continued opposition to good science education in Arkansas. You are ensuring that knowledge workers in Canada, such as myself, will never have to worry about competitors from your state.
Regards,
-me-