Although I calculated the math that shows that the wavelength decreases in time when a raindrop falls, I didn't quite believe it. I had to find an image to see it.
This is in contrast to a deep-water wave created by wind (etc). Those waves have a wavelength that increases over time.
In a recent unpleasant encounter with the Vegetarian Society of Hawai'i, I was able to see why the country thinks of vegetarians as impractical and uppity. Along with the usual slogans about how it's bad to kill animals, the girl sitting behind the desk threw terms like "sustainability" and "organic" around with such flippancy, you could instantly tell she hadn't a clue what she was talking about.
A personal choice to be vegetarian started 15 years ago, and in its current form for me means eating fish as well on choice days of the week (usually before paddling or soccer practice). It was only after I went to school to line up my ethical side with my professional career did I realize how arbitrary, in a way, the decision is. My professional interests led me to aquaculture, where colleagues were quick to scoff at a choice of being veggie.
Vegetarianism can be based on religious and ethical arguments, or arguments related to industrial agriculture, or on health issues. I argue that the health issues ones that stand on the least ground - while it is possible to be a healthy vegetarian, I'm not convinced it is a routine thing. I spent years losing my hair and feeling tired as a result of not having the proper balance, and many friends gained a lot of weight. It is not appropriate for a teenager, from a health perspective, in my opinion.
The industrial agriculture arguments have some validity. The cruelty of those facilities, and the philosophical stance that animals, too, can feel pain, have social networks, and can be "happy", means that the idea of growing food in the form of meat thousands of miles away seems horrendous. Animals require feed that needs its own land to be produced, and ranchers need to use antibiotics to keep diseases at a minimum.
But should an animal hunted in the wild in Alaska, and then consumed by the hunter, be put into the same category? I don't think so. If part of the reason I feel uncomfortable with industrial agriculture facilities is that I think that animals, too, have a soul or spirit that is individual, then a hunter or rancher who actually considers his flock as an integral part of life rather than a commodity is approaching the issue from another angle.
Those who want to lump "sustainability", "organic" and "vegetarianism" into the same category, and, say that their vegetarianism is an environmental decision rather than a spiritual one, are misguided. In 2010 sustainability no longer carries any meaning at all - what kind, and for who? for what? How do organic practices have anything to do with choosing a non-violent path and not eating meat?
In Hawai'i, and on O'ahu, agricultural land is quickly disappearing. While corn is moving into our communities, people continue to eat meat raised far away. I fully support organic agriculture, but only with the understanding that the there is too much grey area surrounding what is or is not organic. I instead would rather put my energy towards a new local agriculture movement that doesn't discriminate based on organic, but rather on general agriculture practices. This is a lot harder to show on paper.
I was supposed to listen today to a lecture about the effects of ocean acidification on sound transmission in the water. I was sucked in at the last moment by a friend to listen to a lecture by a professor of Hawaiian studies on ahupua'a. For the non-Hawaiians out there, an ahupua'a is a concept of land division that, generally, creates township like units from the mountains to the sea. There is a huge movement in Hawai'i right now by the Dept Land Natural Resources, Hawaiian civic groups and water engineers to try and recreate these "sustainable" units.
See, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahupua'a or http://www.state.hi.us/dlnr/dofaw/puuwaawaa/draftplanv2.pdf.
Yet, in this talk, this educated professor repeatedly mentioned the notion that Hawai'i is an occupied state. Now, yes, in some ways this is true, and I sort of agree. But, he was talking to a diverse group of scientists and planners, most of whom did not have "ancestors" here. When talking about the issue of freshwater on the island, his main solution (which I have to say is ingenious, yet slightly flawed) was to let the fresh water flow - down the drain, through our toilets, etc - and avoid all conservation efforts. The purpose being to "get the foreigners to leave, and no new ones to show up". Finally, he specifically mentioned that if you are from NJ, you have no right to be in Hawaii. This argument is interesting, and worthwhile, but not to target a specific race, but the entire population in the islands.
I have dealt with racism in these islands for over three years, in various forms. But here was a professor whom I hoped would have something constructive to say. Instead, he was even more aggressive towards mainlanders (or more vocal about it) than anyone I've heard yet.
After the talk, a couple of points came to mind. Why aren't new waves of Thai, Laotian, Filipino immigrants hated in the same way? What about population growth, even amongst the population living here? What would this guy think was a "sufficient" amount of time for a person to be in Hawaii before they were from here?
So angry... and missing the openness of NYC society. Of course, immigrant groups are persecuted in their own way there, but the melting pot is also inherently valued.
A success! With all the hula, Tahitian dance, famous Hawaiian bands, a proper invocation, and lots of honey, John and Linda Dalire put on a great show. The Maui honey was great, and it was nice to see that there are still commercial beekeepers over there.
Better yet, we got a whole lot of people interested in forming a beekeeping club (for youth and adults).
Hope we get to do this again next year.
A few notes from an article, forwarded to me kindly by Dr. Yost, about how to start finding your topic. (Hamida and Sitter, "Statistical Research for Beginners," The American Statistician, May 2004.
A younger intern asked me the other day what my phd was going to be about, and it was the first time I had to try and complete some sentences. There are many days when I just want it to be about the varroa mite, or small hive beetle, or any of the pests harassing the bee population in Hawai'i. Dr. Ethel Villalobos is more like a cool aunt, than an advisor, but so what?
Yet, in an effort to remain practical and focus on the project I actually signed up for in oceanography, I am looking around.
My buzzwords have always been land-sea interactions, agricultural water use, fate and transport of nutrients in coastal waters. I know lots and lots about these things - but don't really know much about methods or the efforts by Science to investigate mechanisms. Being that Yost and Ruttenberg are both phosphorus folks, it makes a lot of sense to track a _single nutrient_, rather than vaguely looking at transport.
I was reading a paper about bioremediation this weekend, and it was more exciting than other things I've read recently. (I'll add the title in as an addendum later). While Dr. Ruttenberg is more focused on the microbial enzymes that allow phosphorus to be converted, I think I would rather study uptake by macroalgae and coral - and maybe I could be looking at the mechanisms that connect specific fertilizers or wastewater signals to uptake.
Either way, I hope to post more as I attempt to flesh out all this information coming my way.
School has started. Really, it started a month ago, but this is the first time I have had a second to catch my breath.
I am taking an ocean acidification class at HIMB, and was alerted to this great blog:
http://oceanacidification.wordpress.com/
Most of my efforts so far have been to try and orient myself, and figure out how to handle all the different things that I am doing. I am teaching 8 units, including the college physics lab, at KCC. I am working on weekends for Nalo Meli, managing hives and selling honey. And, I am going to school, taking 3 classes in physical oceanography, coastal geochemistry and the above OA class. Lastly, I am working in labs (note the plural here).
I am still struggling on a daily basis to develop a position of "science". I think if you were educated as a scientist from the beginning, most of the practices and ways of thinking are innate. Yet, I am an engineer by training, and can't grasp how the grad students and professors I meet are not at all interested in applications. What is the difference, then, between art and science? It seems like both exist simply for the sake of existing... of discovering new truths. I appreciate art, and wonder if I can appreciate science in the same way? The difference, I think, between the two is that scientists, if asked, will say that they are contributing to some greater good, while artists understand that the process is individual and done for the its own sake.
I am working on designing a new physics class for liberal arts majors entitled "The physics of paddling"... I really hope to work on a curriculum soon for this project. After another semester of lackluster test results, I am convinced something has to change, but really am unsure what that is. Should I remove all math from the course? The multiple choice questions are just as hard.
Since I haven't written in so long, I think a little explanation is necessary. The spring was so tumultuous, I just didn't have the heart to try and explain my decision in writing.
I ended up applying to three schools with the intention of exploring bio-physical interactions in coastal environments. The first was UC Davis, in the Hydrology department with Dr. John Largier. I love John. He is trying to redefine a new field called environmental oceanography. I visited Bodega Marine lab and the Davis campus in April. Twice. John is a dream. He is excited about aquaculture projects. The breadth of his papers - from larval transport to plume movement - and his focus on fieldwork and community development were inspiring. In my heart he is still my role model for this work. But. I wasn't ready to leave Hawai'i for reasons that will forever be unclear.
The second school was Stanford in the department of environmental engineering. I wasn't sure if I'd get in, but I thought that I connected well with Dr. Koseff, who I was looking to work with. In the end, it was for the best. Dr. Koseff does great modeling work with transport. The department is strong. I would have liked to end up in an engineering department, but they are so serious! I don't think I am that academically serious anymore (rather, I can't see being on the tier 1 research track).
Lastly, was University of Hawai'i, in the Oceanography department. I considered a bunch of advisors, and eventually chose to start with David Ho, who ostensibly runs an air-sea interaction lab. He uses tracers (SF6 and He) to find gas transfer properties of water. In some ways his work doesn't fall into any categories I'd ever heard of before - a strange combination of engineering (both freshwater and ocean), chemistry and oceanography. Lacking is any emphasis on biological processes, but I hope to add that angle for my own work. On the plus side, he works around the world and his focus is on field work.
I start taking classes in one week. In some ridiculous moment of weakness, I agreed to teach physics again this fall. I'm not sure that was the best move. I hope it won't be a disaster.
I just returned from a month long trek to the east coast. It's always amazing to me how much I can miss the mainland, and how much I love the coastal Atlantic. Things of interest this time - did you know the horseshoe crab is the official marine mammal of Delaware?
I spent about 10 days of my trip at the University of Delaware's Air-Sea interaction lab in Lewes, DE, actually within Cape Henlopen State Park. I was only assisting, and not actually in charge of any experiments, but I still became pretty closely acquainted with the 40-ft air and wind tank (and the smaller version of the tank). Perhaps the coolest thing was seeing how many people out there actually study bubbles for a living. Here I was thinking I was one of the few looking at the interactions of bubbles and microalgae (which still might be true), but to talk with bubble physicists was awesome.
The other interesting thing was that to make the rain, they are using hypodermic needles, just like I did to control the bubble size in my microalgae experiments. I chose to use needles because my father was a pharmacist, not because I saw precedent. Apparently its quite common. They used 6000 needles to create their rain tanks!
By chance, I also got to visit Lamont, Columbia's Earth and Oceans lab located along the gorgeous Palisade Parkway on the border of NY and NJ. What a dream. I know its not by the ocean, but the smell of all those old trees, and its location right along side the Hudson river are enchanting. The lab was awesome, and had this really out there feel, while also housing some amazing research scientists. I still just can't believe the place exists.
