Dave Almandsmith
4 November 2024
Hello again, friends of science,
When the United States Constitution was adopted in 1788, the only women allowed to vote were property owners in several New Jersey jurisdictions. That ‘oversight’ was corrected in 1790 when a New Jersey law specifically banned women and non-whites from voting. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 is considered to be the beginning of America’s Women’s Suffrage Movement. Internationally, the first country to extend voting rights to women was New Zealand in 1893. Women in America gained the right to vote 27 years later with the passing of the 19th Amendment.
It was not until 1960 that a woman became head of a modern country’s government. That was Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). As of today, 174 women have been heads of government for 87 different countries.
GEOLOGY
Popocatépetl continues to erupt. [ Video ] I’m hoping to see it out of the airplane window when we fly back to the Bay Area from Oaxaca, Mexico. I’m also hoping for a view of Citlaltépetl – the highest mountain i’ve climbed at 5,636 meters.
I joined the Bay Area Skeptics Hangout with geologist Steve Newton to explore the Hayward fault. Steve took us to several locations in the East Bay where curbs no longer lined up, pavements were cracked, and houses showed evidence of repairs. The west side of the fault is creeping northwest about 9mm per year faster than the east side. The fault extends about 25 km deep and is one of the few faults in the world that creeps. Regardless of which side of the fault you are standing on, the far side appears to have moved to the right. That makes it a “right-lateral strike-slip fault”. The fault is expected to lurch about 2 m at any moment creating a magnitude 6+ earthquake, as it did in 1868.
RAFFLE
We are offering a 1000 piece puzzle of the Solar System: 50 x 70 cm. Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith [at] gmail.com with your guess of an integer between 0 and 1,000. Last time, Ginger guessed closest to the randomly generated 645 to win a coffee mug disguised as a 480 ml laboratory beaker. (Ginger tells me these are banned in some workplaces since people might accidentally drink a noxious chemical from a real beaker.)
BIOLOGY
One way to keep track of California’s animal population densities and movements is to put out hundreds of microphones across the land and even into the Pacific Ocean to continuously listen for wildlife. ¿But whom do you get to listen to thousands of hours of daily recordings? The answer is A.I. Biologists have been training AI to recognize species of birds, whales, and forest creatures.
Learning where animal populations move is important to keeping them safe. Building animal crossings over or under highways is often critically necessary.
Previously, the SciSchmooze reported on a massive increase in human mortality in India linked to the inadvertent poisoning of vultures. Similarly, the white-nose syndrome that kills bats in the U.S. has led to economic problems and a thousand or more excess infant deaths. Unfortunately, the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, has been found in California for the first time.
Comb Jellies (Ctenophora) are not related to jellies (jellyfish [Cnidaria]) but you can look right through them just the same. Comb jellies are extensively studied to learn how they developed nervous systems separately from the rest of the animal kingdom, and other aspects of these fascinating creatures. Quite accidentally, researchers learned that comb jellies can merge with each other and coordinate their nervous systems. Amazing.
Millipedes and centipedes are kinda creepy – until you get to know them. Now imagine a millipede that grew to 3 meters long, Arthropleura. The last of these died out millions of years ago, but for the first time an Arthropleura fossil was found with a well preserved head. No doubt about it, this is our nightmare creature of the week.
From the very large to the very small: Brachycephalus dacnis. It’s a newly-found frog from the Amazon so tiny it fits comfortably on top of a pencil eraser. Its eggs hatch to reveal eensy-weensy frog babies – not tadpoles.
MY PICKS of the WEEK (Hint: save dates & times to your mobile phone)
Transforming Astrophysics with AI – Livestream Tues 2 pm
Flooding in California: A Paleo Perspective Wed 3:30, UC Berkeley
Intelligent Earthquake Monitoring Livestream or at Stanford, Thur Noon
Día de los Muertos Thur 6 – 10pm, ExplOratorium, S.F., $
Peculiar Slow-to-Fast Earthquakes, Northern Chile Fri Noon, UC Santa Cruz
Family Adventure: Arachnids Sat 10:30am – 2:30pm, Chabot Science Ctr, Oakland, $
Foothills Family Nature Walk Sat 11am – 12:30pm, Los Altos
City Public Star Party Sat 6 – 9pm, San Francisco
Coastal Walk: Scrub & Tide Pools Sun 10am – Noon, Moss Beach
Sausal Creek Salmon Stroll Sun 11am – Noon, Diamond Recreation Ctr, Oakland
If you’ve reached this far, you’d probably like to recommend the SciSchmooze to a friend. ¿No? Well, we would like you to recommend it. Send them this link along with an enthusiastic review: bayareascience.org/calendar/
FUN (?) NERDY VIDEOS
Existence Is Random, Not Deterministic – Big Think – Lee Cronin – 3 mins
Siberian Flying Squirrel – BBC Earth – David Attenborough – 3.5 mins
Dr. Kellogg, Masturbation, & Seinfeld – The Right Chemistry – Joe Schwarcz – 5.5 mins
Dark Matter Nightmare Inches Closer – Sabine Hossenfelder – 6.5 mins
Life in the Deep Underground – Kurzgesagt – 9.5 mins
When Our Ancestors Almost Went Extinct – SciShow – Hank Green – 11.5 mins
The Exoplanets Next Door – Nora’s Guide to the Galaxy – Nora Bailey – 15 mins
¿Do Neutron Stars Radiate Dark Matter? – PBS SpaceTime – Matt O’Dowd – 16 mins
Connecting another Billion to the Internet – The Future with Hannah Fry – 24 mins
In-Depth Review of the Europa Clipper Mission – Scott Manley – 26 mins
Solar System: Storm Worlds – PBS NOVA- 52 mins
Continuous video streams: Move the cursor to various places on the red line to experience earlier views.
ISS Earth Cam – NASA
Have a good week. Chat with a stranger, appreciate compassion & empathy, and join us again next week.
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
― Abraham Lincoln
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