In which Milan Lucic makes another appearance...

The Red Sox may be done for the year, but the Bruins are just beginning. Second year winger, Milan Lucic, is fast becoming a fan favorite here. Here's yet another reason why...(and once again, more intelligent, and less violent, blogging will resume shortly)

UPDATE: As if on cue, Lucic scored his first career hat trick in a win over Atlanta this weekend just hours after I mentioned to my brothers that it would be great if he could combine his hard hits (and fists) with more goals, a la Cam Neely.

Symposium on Marine Renewable Energy

Here's an interesting event taking place on campus this week (that I just found out about) - the 7th Marine Law Symposium on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 23 and 24, will focus on developing a framework for off-shore renewable energy.

This month, developing that framework will be the focal point when domestic and international scientists, business leaders and policymakers – including U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri and a host of others – converge at Roger Williams University on Oct. 23-24 to find real-world solutions for tackling the legal, economic and policy challenges of the nascent marine renewable energy industry.

At the law school’s 7th Marine Law Symposium, this cross-disciplinary gathering of experts will grapple with the “how” of developing offshore energy resources, addressing concrete ways to support the burgeoning marine renewable energy business market, while attempting to reconcile a tangle of local, state, federal and public interest needs related to the protection, conservation and management of valuable marine resources.

Although registration for the event is closed, it is going to be streamed live at mms://streamer.rwu.edu/marinelaw and apparently there is going to be some live blogging of the event.

Perhaps I'm not in the loop as much as I would like to be, but I'm amazed that I didn't hear about this event until today. In fact, the only reason I heard of it at all is because an email went out to everyone concerning the parking ban in effect for the event! In any case, this is an important topic, especially for coastal areas, so hopefully something good comes of the symposium.

Oldest flying insect...

...found about 10 minutes from my house! How cool is that?

Friday Dial Stopper - ALCS edition

In honor of that improbable Game 5 win...

(see here for the background on this song)

It's all woo to me

I got an email today via the "All-Faculty" listserv inviting everyone to the Fall Faculty Lecture. The lecture's title is "Eggtopia". Here's the complete description that came in the email:

The transformation of energy into animate matter seems to occur generally within a container of some sort, a membrane, a pouch, a seed, or a shell. An egg is arguably the most pristine archetypal form among all receptacles within which life is engendered. Created at the inception of life, this completely sealed form vibrates with a latency manifest in its aura of impeccable silence. Even when an egg is broken and deserted by the life it once hosted, its inner depths seem to continue to ring with the memory of the transformative miracle, which took place within.

I think I'll skip this one.

Fall Beachcombing

The beach isn't only for the summer!

(click on image for larger version)

I love this photo

courtesy of the Natural History Museum in London's upcoming exhibit (via Karen at the Beagle Project)

Data don't lie

More proof that we really are animals.

from Miller G, Tybur J, Jordan, B. 2007. Ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by lap dancers: economic evidence for human estrus? Evol. Hum. Behav. 28(6): 375-381.

Chocolate Molluscs

What do you get the molluscophile in your life? Chocolate oysters from the Wellfleet Candy Company, of course! Molded from a real Wellfleet oyster, these gourmet chocolates are the latest rage in invertebrate haute cuisine.

I haven't had one of these yet, but the Boathouse, Mayo Beach, and West Side varieties sound delicious.

Math problem help

Looking for some general help on a math/probability problem. At one point I probably knew how to figure this out. Perhaps I should still know, but I can't seem to get it. I'm looking for a general way to figure out the following type of problem...

Given an infinitely (sufficiently) large population of marbles of which 10% are green and 90% are blue, what is the probability of picking 10 marbles of which exactly 3 are green?

I know the chance of picking one green marble is 0.1, and I know that the chance of picking 3 green marbles in a row is 0.001 (0.1 x 0.1 x 0.1). But I'm confused when it comes to figuring in that order is unimportant and that a finite number of marbles is being picked - clearly the chance of picking exactly 3 green marbles in 10 tries is different from picking exactly 3 green marbles in 100 tries. Any help? In the end I'd like to generalize the process - given a population of which X% are a given kind, what is the chance of subsampling exactly Y individuals in Z tries.

Thanks in advance...

SEA

As Rick made perfectly clear in my last post, I am unable to embed this nice little video from Sea Education Association. So instead, go check it out on their own site and see what a cool program it is.

Damn West Coast

I need a nap.

Generation K

It seems that parents who had girls born in 1990 were fascinated with the letter K. My roster for introductory biology this year includes:

Krysten
Katelyn (#1)
Katelyn (#2)
Kathryn (#1)
Kathryn (#2)
Kelsey
Kelilah
Kellie
Kasey

That's over 50% of the women in the class. 'K' isn't supposed to be a popular letter. In fact, it's the 21st most frequent letter in the English language (only ahead of 'J', 'X', 'Q', and 'Z'). It's worth 5 points in Scrabble! How am I supposed to learn who's who?