Geek Link! The Science of Social Networking

Apparently, a single new connection can dramatically increase the size of your social network. And here is why:

Beating the Competition: Scientists Discover how the Size of Social Networks can Skyrocket

Interesting little article, which explains how my facebook fan page can leap up in the numbers.

If you'll all just join it, that is...

Geek Link! Cool Cave in Spain

Tonight's Geek Link comes from Spain via the CBC, who have some great pictures of a cave containing the world's largest collection of helictites. Very impressive pictures.

Helictites, for those who don't know (which included me until I read this article), are eccentric crystallographic formations (yeah, I know, big help). This means that instead of forming vertically like stalactites and stalagmites, the crystals form in gravity-defying directions and shapes. They are very cool to look at:

(image taken from the CBC article)

So have a look. It's just plain neat, in a geological kind of way.

Geek Link!

Saturn's got another, enormous ring!

Courtesy of NASA, who always have the cool space pictures, by way of the CBC, who always put NASA's cool pictures where I can find them.

Geek Link!

Giant dinosaur posture is all wrong.

What did your mother tell you? Stand straight!

Geek Link!

Baby Mammoth!

Vey cool discovery. Amazing picture.

Unfortunately, the first page and the first paragraph of the second page is a writer's dramatic reconstruction of the baby mammoth's death.

But once you get past the fiction, there's some excellent stuff in here about the discovery, loss and rediscovery of this little mammoth, how it was preserved, and what they learned from it.

Really, really neat stuff.

Geek Link!

For all you archaeology buffs out there, possibly the coolest archaeology geek link I've come across in a long while:

The Archaeology Channel

This is a great website. All sorts of neat videos on all things archaeological. I watched a really interesting one on the relationship between early steel forging and the deforestation of part of India.

Very cool.

Geek Link!

'Oldest English Words' Identified.

Interesting little article on some lingusitic studies trying to determine which words in our language may be the oldest, and which are most likely to disappear in the near future.

Cool.

Geek Link!

At last! We can bring Neanderthals back to life!

We can! Really! Maybe. Or maybe not, depending whose opinion you ask.

Here's the article.

More importantly, they have just about recreated the neanderthal genome which will tell us a great deal about the evolution of humankind as we know it.

H/T to Kat, who told me about it (and put stuff like this on your blog, will ya?)

Geek Link!

Because science is fun:

Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos

The videos range from hilarious to strange to all out informative. Check out the "Large Hadron Collider Rap."

H/T to Sara, my lovely wife, who spotted these.

Geek Link!

Been a while since I've done one of these, which is sad, really, because my inner geek wants to spread its geekiness to any who come near. So here's two cool archaeology articles from ScienceDaily.

Virtual Archaeologist' Solves Ancient Puzzles


Stone Age Graveyard Reveals 'Green Sahara'

Neat stuff, eh?

Now must go. Applying for yet more work, and I'd love to get some writing in tonight.

Geek Link!

By way of Dymaxion World.

Harvesting the Sun's Energy with Antennas

If they can find a way to transmit the energy they collect, these little guys could could literally solve almost all of our energy problems.

Cool, eh?

Geek Link!

Quick lunch time blogging, especially for a certain friend of mine who shall remain nameless until she writes in to yell at me.

It's a giant, prehistoric bug!


(image from the BBC)

Hey, at least it wasn't a spider.

Heh, heh.

I am in such trouble.

Geek Link!

A comet blew up and is now the biggest thing in our solar system.

Check it out!

(check their Nov. 15 archive if viewing after today)

Also on the same page, some cool satellite photography of earth.

Geek Link!

Still working madly, if sporadically on the website. How can you tell you're dating a novelist? He neverr finishes anything on tiime!

Anyhow, I saw this story and thought I'd share. It's about dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs Killed by Indian Volcanoes, not meteor: paleontologists

Of course, if one thinks about it, a giant meteor slamming into the planet could cause enough plate shift to result in the massive volcanic activity.

It doesn't have to be one or the other...

Geek Link!

Okay, this is cool. Gigapixel-sized panaoramic photos available on the web. You can upload your own, and you can look at other people's work. And it's free. Neat.

gigapan.org

Geek Link!

Haven't done one of these in a while.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/

For the science geek in all of us. Here's just three of their stories today:

Extra Gene Copies Were Enough toMake EarlyHumans' Mouths Water

Exoplanet Offers Clues to Earth's Future

Predation Linked to Evolution, Study Suggests

Interesting stuff, eh?

Almost enough to make Ontarioans forget there's an election coming.

By the way, vote for MMP.

Think I'll go write something

Geek Link!

Solar wind may owe its speed to helium: study

And so folks know, I'm on vacation this week. Sleep (if I can convince my body to do it), time to exercise, time to watch a movie, and househunting.

I'll be blogging still, but look for the posts to be much more relaxed.

Geek Link!

Today, I have two geek links.

For Science Geeks:

Swiss solar-powered boat completes fuel-free Atlantic voyage

Which is very cool. And while it will be a long time before solar power cargo carriers ply the oceans, it is a step in the right direction. Who knows, if solar energy becomes efficient enough, how much less gunk (fuel, oil, exhaust) we could be putting in our oceans?


For Theatrical Geeks:

Get out your ponchos: bloody "Evil Dead" musical opens in Toronto

And I got to say, who could resist "Evil Dead?" It's a Sam Rainey classic, brought to the stage with with hilarity, a ton of blood, and they give free ponchos for the first row or two.

I so want to go see it.


And a Comic Geek Note:

I am currently reading Buffy Season 8. Very good. Lots of fun, good art and very well written.

And now, I have 4 minutes before work starts. Time to fill up the water and start typing.

Well, I'm All Annoyed Now

And on several fronts. First, because of the Conservatives newly introduced rules for campaign financing, which were written, as near as I can tell, to ensure that only the rich or those supported by the banks can afford to run for office.

Thanks, Stevie, for taking another chunk out of our democracy. And why haven't you disclosed who gave you money for your 2002 leadership campaign?

Second, because I missed posting the ultimate geek post this Friday past. That's right, last Friday was Darth Vader Day and I missed it (two points to the first one to figure out why it was Darth Vader Day).

To be fair, I was exhausted and fell into bed early. And can you believe it? The kid slept until 8 AM. I got 10 hours sleep. It was glorious.

Third, I also on Friday came across a ton of Geek Links to put in, but can I remember any of them now? Sigh. no.

Now, onto happy things. The last reading of the galley proofs proceeds apace. I'm on page 215 and at this rate will be done well before May 15, which is the deadline I set myself. Then they go back to Dragon Moon, off to the printer and soon we'll all be holding books in our grubby little hands.

After that (more happy thoughts) I can start writing again! Cold Magics is pining for me like a Norwegian Blue pining for the fjords, and vice-versa. I am looking forward to getting back to it and getting it done. Not to mention the other two projects I've got on my mind.

Get in shape month proceeds apace. Got five of the six workouts in that I wanted, will shoot to get all six in this week. No swordfighting, but hopefully next week. And I don't know what it is about my workout, but my hamstrings are burnt. Running up that last hill this morning nearly killed me.

And that's all for the moment. More editing to do before bed.

Meanwhile, did you see that they think they've discovered Herod's tomb?

Back to work.

Geek Link!

Anyone want to go on a little trip?

European astronomers find potentially habitable planet outside solar system

I'll never get there, but wouldn't it be cool to go?

Hat tip to Lyda Morehouse over at Wyrdsmiths