Bad Winter

I know some of you will wholeheartedly disagree with me on this one, but the winter so far this year has sucked!  If memory serves, we've gotten roughly two-and-a-half inches of snow so far this winter and we've only had a handful of below-freezing days.  And all this with department stores starting to roll out their spring clothing lines.  I suffered through the hot, hot heat of summer with the expectation that I would feel sweet relief in the form of cold, snowy days on which to drink big, scary beers and make pots of soup.  And an unseasonably warm, dry winter has ruined everything.  It's a goddam travesty is what it is.

As it turns out, there are a couple of meteorological phenomena that have compounded to produce the horrific winter that we're currently experiencing.  I ran across a good article describing the reasons for our crappy winter at Discovery News, via Pharyngula.  The first reason is La Nina, which has pushed the jet stream north - interestingly, La Nina was partially responsible for last year's harsh winter weather - and La Nina has combined with Arctic Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation, which have matched their phases, pulling the few weather systems that form over North America out into the Atlantic. I don't claim to be well versed in meteorology, so I won't even attempt any sort of in-depth discussion of this process.  But according to the article, we may return to some semblance of a real winter later this month.  I suppose time will tell.

All I know is that this has been a really lame winter so far.

Social Media and Scientific Journals

There have been rumblings of major changes in the way scientific journals peer review submissions.  Criticism of the current system has been growing for quite some time, particularly with respect to the lag time between when a manuscript is submitted and when it is published.  In the fast-paced world of modern research, by the time a paper is published - which can be many months after submission - it is often already out-of-date.  Some publishers have also faced criticism of favoritism, with lower quality papers being chosen over higher quality papers solely due to the name or affiliation of the author(s).

The first step towards a major paradigm shift in peer review has already occurred:  a social media network has been created by a group in Finland that is dedicated to reviewing manuscripts for publication in a Wiley journal.  Science Insider has a pretty good description of how the network functions and why it will be better than the current system, so I won't dwell on it.  But I will say that I'm still on the fence about this.  I think it's good that they're doing some cautious beta testing on one scientific journal, rather than instituting it widely right out of the gate, as it will allow Wiley to gather some valuable data, test the waters, and optimize the network before moving forward.  I'll definitely be keeping a close watch on this, because it represents a substantial change in the way peer reviewed journals select papers for publication.  And who knows?  It just might work.

I'll Drink to That

Most of us who care about such matters are probably quite familiar with the idea that moderate alcohol consumption can be a healthy and life-extending activity.  But I still couldn't help my giddiness when I came across an article on the Yahoo! featured news feed that describes the health benefits associated specifically with beer.  Some of the 10 health benefits the author describes are common to all alcoholic beverages, but are greater for beer than for other alcoholic drinks like wine and spirits.  And some of the benefits truly are specific to beer alone.

So the next time you raise a pint to your lips, take comfort in the fact that you're drinking that pale ale for recreational AND medicinal purposes!

My Phone Just Got Way Cooler

This is awesome.  A computer scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a smartphone app that allows users to see images from the latest download link of the Mars rover Opportunity as soon as they're available.

If you're interested, the app is called Mars Images and it is developed by PowellWare.

Yes, I've already downloaded and tried out the app.  Yes, it is wicked cool.