The Southern Fried Scientist is matched in a battle of wits with a doll.
Tip o’ the Hat to @kzelnio
While a large percentage of the world’s shark fins pass through Hong Kong fish markets, most come from far-away countries and little attention has been paid to shark populations in adjacent waters. An important new paper, appropriately titled “The sharks of South East Asia – unknown, unmonitored and unmanaged” provides new insight into this problem.
The fantastic ocean-acidification documentary “A Sea Change” needs your help! They have just become a “saved film” on Netflix, which means that the DVD-rental website is waiting to see how many people add the movie to their queue before deciding whether or not to buy copies of it. If you or anyone you know has … Read More “Help “A Sea Change” get on Netflix!” »
Chapter 16 of Herman Melville’s classic – Moby Dick. Read along with us and discuss this chapter or the book as a whole in the comments. The Ship Pequod, the ship Ishmael has selected garnished in the bones of the whales she’s killed. A skeletal tent rises from her deck. And within, one third the … Read More “Finding Melville’s Whale: Chapter 16 – The Ship” »
Top posts (by page views) for the previous month: How to build a canoe from scratch on a graduate student stipend Anti-shark stereotypes in “River Monsters” Shark Science Monday: Aleks Maljkovic discusses whether shark feeding dives harm sharks Greenwashing – Is there really a sustainable Orange Roughy fishery? It’s an Ocean of Pseudoscience Week! The … Read More “Top Posts for September, 2010” »
The banjo is much, much worse.
I’ve written about the Shark Conservation Act several times. Though it passed the House of Representatives, it keeps stalling in the Senate, and bills need to be passed by both in order to become law. The SCA would close many existing loopholes in United States shark management policy, and is endorsed by many conservation organizations.
Read More “Democrats support shark conservation, Republicans do not” »
Rising tuition costs are a problem at institutions of higher learning around the country. When it is more expensive to go to college, fewer people can afford it. Various strategies have been tried to fix this problem, but the latest hits close to home for me. This week, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford proposed strict new spending rules for public colleges. From the Charleston Post and Courier article:
“The state’s Budget and Control Board could decide this week whether to place a moratorium on new building projects on public college and university campuses as a way to reduce the cost of tuition.”
Statewide, school administrators have greeted this announcement with strong resistance. Fundamentally, it all comes down to different philosophies of government. Conservatives like Mark Sanford support lower taxes and lower spending, while liberals favor a “tax and spend” strategy. Which is more appropriate for state-funded colleges?