April 2010 Archives

does not experience these types of quakes.

The depth of this quake was around 5.0km, which suggests it was either geological or induced by oil production, which does happen. Never-the-less this is an interesting area to have a quake due to the fact the area has a large crack running north to south in Texas, discovered several years ago, origin being unknown.

Meanwhile, a smaller quake rattled Northeast Ohio the same weekend.While Ohio has seen a few small earthquakes before, "it's not clear what causes them."

Why the quakes in strange places? Some scientists have speculated, as we have reported before, that the Haiti earthquake in January forewarned increased seismic activity in the Americas. An Iranian cleric, though, offers an alternative explanation:

A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.

Iran is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric's unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate.

"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but many, especially the young, ignore some of the more strict codes and wear tight coats and scarves pulled back that show much of the hair. "What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?" Sedighi asked during a prayer sermon last week. "There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes." Seismologists have warned for at least two decades that it is likely the sprawling capital will be struck by a catastrophic quake in the near future. Some experts have even suggested Iran should move its capital to a less seismically active location. Tehran straddles scores of fault lines, including one more than 50 miles long, though it has not suffered a major quake since 1830.

There probably are more "immodest" women in Ohio and Texas, to be sure, but I can't help but feel that this explanation leaves something to be desired.

 The census estimated there were a mind-boggling "nonillion" -- or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (30 zeroes) -- individual microbial cells in the oceans, weighing as much as 240 billion African elephants, the biggest land animal.
[...]
The census said they carpeted an area the size of Greece -- about 130,000 sq km (50,000 sq miles) or the size of the U.S. state of Alabama. Toxic to humans, the bacteria are food for shrimp or worms and so underpin rich Pacific fish stocks.

More than two-thirds in a nationwide poll taken for the study said Americans "should be ashamed of the way elected officials acted" during the recent health care debate. Half said the tone of politics has declined since President Obama was elected; just 10% said it has improved.

Those surveyed were split over whether it was more important for a politician to be willing to stand firm in support of principles or be able to compromise to get things done.

When asked about seven specific issues, however, solid majorities said elected officials should find compromise solutions on all but one of them, abortion. About two-thirds thought compromises should be found on immigration and climate change legislation, two of the most contentious issues now being debated.

There were significant differences by ideology, however. Liberals by 59%-36% favored the ability to compromise. Conservatives' views were a reverse of that: By 60%-34%, they preferred a willingness to stand firm.

The telephone survey of 1,000 people, taken by Zogby International March 24-29, has a margin of error of +/-- 3.2 percentage points.

I find it particularly striking that liberals are significantly more likely to seek compromise than conservatives. You can read more here.

By downloading a free program, you and your laptop could help researchers pinpoint earthquakes and even sound an early warning to surrounding areas.

Newer models of laptops manufactured by companies like Apple and Lenovo contain accelerometers -- motion sensors meant to detect whether the computer has been dropped. If the computer falls, the hard drive will automatically switch off to protect the user's data.

"As soon as I knew there were these low-cost sensors inside these accelerometers, I thought it would be perfect to use them to network together and actually record earthquakes," geoscientist Elizabeth Cochran of the University of California at Riverside says.

The night has been unruly: where we lay,

Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say,

Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death;

And prophesying, with accents terrible,

Of dire combustion and confus'd events,

New hatch'd to the woeful time: the obscure bird

Clamour'd the live-long night; some say the earth

Was feverous, and did shake.