Open Science Thread

Over half a billion¹ years ago, the super continent Rodinia began to come apart at the seams. Gigantic underground cracks formed in the tectonic plate on which the ancient continent rode like a granite raft floating in a sea of denser molten rock. Three cracks radiated away, star-like, each individual fault probing the path of least resistance through the rocky subterranean matrix. Finally, two faults prevailed, defining the jagged rift where Rodinia split in two. And the other crack? With the tension relieved, it stopped spreading, and lay buried and dormant. Paleo-geologists call these ancient scars Aulacogens.

But eons later, if pressure builds anew, deep underground in an otherwise fairly homogeneous stretch of strata, any such flaw that happens to be nearby serves as an ideal place for patches of strained earth to slip past each other. At times with a resounding jolt carried far and wide in waves born on a seismic superconductor. This failed fault theory, one of many possibilities, sounds delightfully geeky: unless you happened to be near the Wabash Valley Fault System running throughout the upper Midwest early yesterday morning. Then you called it a friggin earthquake!

• Thanks to BushCo, neocon clowns have taken over the  Environmental Industrial Protection Agency, so it's no surprise the EPA is employing neocon tactics like ignoring lawful subpoenas, followed by the obligatory nonsense that complying would 'confuse the public.'
• For what it's worth, I think Tristero is absolutely right. We've tried ignoring right-wing stupidity and hoping things like creationism go extinct. It doesn't work. Better to take the lies head on. Here's one way you can add your voice of reason, and win fabulous prizes!
• The man who saw a subtle anomaly in a few lines of data produced by a primitive computer generated climate model has passed away, but his profound insight lives forever: Etched into the very fabric of domains both natural and abstract, simple rules can give rise to infinitely complex behavior. Edward Lorenz's observation would be midwife to a new branch of mathematics/physics called Chaos Theory and the related, fascinating topology hidden in the geometry of Fractals.

Coming Up on Sunday Kos ...

• Glenn Greenwald will be here for the liveblogging that had to be postponed from last weekend. He'll talk about his new book, Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics, which mcjoan reviewed last week.
• MissLaura will wonder why there are no women bloggers why the traditional media appears to be incapable of seeing that there are in fact women bloggers.
• DHinMI will review Senate Historian Donald Ritchie's Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932.
• brownsox will report on the abundance of credible Democratic House candidates running in overwhelmingly Republican districts.
• Hunter will write about ... something. He's not sure yet. But it will be good, we promise.
• Devilstower Devilstower will look at the relationship between Aesop's Fables, globalization, and why we might be all just-in-time to see the collapse of the world food market in a post entitled "Grasshopper Planet."