Subject: Science and Technology

• Backing or Backpedaling?

  Governor Schwarzenegger took a stand on cutting greenhouse gases yesterday. His stand? Going on the commonly held theory that most readers never get beyond the headline and first paragraph of a newspaper story, unless they have some compelling interest in the story, his stand depends on what city you live in. The Los Angeles Times story has the headline, Gov. Calls for Curbs on Emissions, and begins: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday threw his political weight behind a drive to curb green

  April 12, 2006

• Can you hear me... Arrgghhh!

  Cell phones, as you know, can kill you. While there is still some controversy over whether your cell phone is capable of killing you slowly (e.g. brain tumors), there's no doubt about the cell phone's ability to facilitate a quick death (e.g. the idiot behind the wheel of a car whose phone conversion makes him oblivious to what's happening on the road). And now the British Medical Journal has discovered another way for cell phones to finish you off quickly: lightning. Talking on a cell phone dur

  June 23, 2006

• Cognitive Overload as a Motorsport

  There's good news if you're one of those people infuriated by the sight of some idiot behind the steering wheel with a cell phone pressed to his head talking and not paying attention while driving-- that idiot's days are numbered. Come Summer 2008, that idiot will be replace by the new and improved idiot behind the steering wheel with a cell phone headset welded to his head talking and not paying attention while driving. Governor Schwarzenegger is scheduled to sign SB1613 into law today. The

  September 15, 2006

• Night of the Living Election

  Tonight we're going to be blogging like it's 1984! Check back here and check back often for new blog posts as we'll have reporters out in the field, in front of the tube and under wherever it is upskirt camera shots are taken. Consider yourself duly warned.

  November 7, 2006

• See, the Iraq War IS worth it

  Thousands of dead Americans, tens of thousands of dead Iraqis, an unstable region, everyone hates us, no end in sight . . . sure, when you put it that way, the Iraq war doesn't sound so good. But what about the unforseen benefits, as extolled in this press release that just rolled into the Clockwork Tower? War Wound Project to Reduce Battlefield Scars Now Used to Tighten Skin, Prevent Wrinkles New York, N.Y. - February, 21, 2006 - A war wound project that developed a tissue regeneration and sc

  February 21, 2006

• Rohrabacher, Big Oil: a Match Made in Hell

  Ah, Huntington Beach with its smelly smokestacks, oily bathtub-ring-like shoreline and human waste bobbing in the ocean. What's not to love? Your congressman, the esteemed Dana Rohrabacher (R-Abramoff), certainly showed he's got your back, Surf City-zens, as he voted just last night to let those poor, starving, raggamuffin oil companies drill for natural gas off the California coastline. Unfortunately for you hicks, a higher slice of the rest of the House--including scores of members of Dana's o

  May 19, 2006

• Weirdest Thing EVER!

  We're flipping through this morning's Los Angeles Times, waiting for Who Killed the Electric Car? director Chris Paine to call. He does, and we have a nice chat, as he's still flying high from a well-received Los Angeles Film Festival screening two nights previous. After hanging up, we go to the Weekly HQ's posh kitchen, heat up leftover chicken and vegan pasta lunch and bring it back to our desk, where we notice that the whole time we'd been talking with Paine, the paper had been open to page C

  June 26, 2006

• Rock on to Electric Car Avenue

  In yesterday's thrilling Clockwork, we shared the weirdness that ensued after we interviewed Who Killed the Electric Car? writer-director Chris Paine, when we discovered during the entire chat our Los Angeles Times was open, unbeknownst to lil' ol' us, to an Associated Press story with the headline: "Silicon Valley Races to Develop Electric Cars." The story even mentioned Paine's film. Well, the hits keep coming. The film's PR company sent out links to two other stories on recent electric-car d

  June 27, 2006

• Offshore Oil Drilling Deja Vu All Over Again

  We swear we already warned you about a congressional vote to drill off our coast, and then rejoiced with you when it was defeated. Yeah, wasn't it like two weeks ago? Never underestimate the power of Big Oil lobbyshits. Congress, obviously in need of a diversion from far more grave national matters like flag-burning amendments (really, has anyone ever seen a flag burning? In the U.S.? In person? No, your annual family vacation to Tehran does not count!), once again has put despoiling our coastli

  June 28, 2006

• Shake n' Bake

  It's been funny--not funny ha-ha--sitting here on the sidelines watching the changing global-warming debate. While the international scientific community for years has piled voluminous report atop voluminous report detailing that global warming is real, producing all sorts of climatic problems and either is or most probably is human caused, those who originally pooh-poohed the eggheads have gone from saying it's a myth, to it's a normal cyclical weather pattern, to okay, so it's happening, whadd

  July 5, 2006

• Beach Break: Killing Nemo

  Cut off from the powerful, cleansing waves of the Pacific ocean by a massive concrete breakwater, the gentle swells that lap the Long Beach coastline are so dirty that they were recently ranked the most polluted beach water in California by the Santa Monica-based environmental group Heal The Bay. Although Mayor Bob Foster and a majority of the city council favors studying the possibility of tearing down at least part of the breakwater, such action could be years away. But city residents might b

  August 2, 2007

• Saving Trestles: Game On!

  The on-again, off-again hearing on the 241 Foothill South toll road extension by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce is back on, from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 22, and in an old/new home, O'Brien Hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, or the same place the California Coastal Commission met, took testimony and ultimately voted 8-2 against paving Lexus lanes over state park land. The hearing was to go off last month in the Bren Events Center until fears about the expected crowd size, coupled with a sl

  August 26, 2008

• Wildfires Just a Sneak Preview?

  Ted Soqui shot this in Yorba Linda the weekend past. See his amazing slideshow here. Now that the fires have been contained, heroes have been identified, firefighting techniques have been blasted, causes have been zeroed in on, and our Last Action Hero Governor has likened the disaster to one of the crappiest action movies ever (Armageddon, which he didn’t even star in), some sobering news: Worse wildfires are likely a-comin’. So says a report released last week by UC Berkeley researchers

  November 19, 2008

• UCI Scientist Helps Add More Culprits to the Global Warming List

  Anyone worth Al Gore's salt knows that cars, factories and farting cows contribute to global warming, but an international study that includes the research of a UC Irvine scientist has found drought and deforestation can also help fuel the pesky phenomenon and should be included in future climate pacts. ScienceDaily.com reports today:The study, analyzing six years of climate and fire observations from satellites, shows that in dry years, the practice of using fire to clear forests and remove org

  December 9, 2008

• UC Irvine Eggheads on the March

  Twenty UC Irvine science and engineering researchers were named last week as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, representing the largest class this year of any American university or institution. Eighty-five current and former UCI faculty members have previously earned the honor from AAAS, the world's largest general scientific society. The 2008 UCI AAAS fellows are:* Pierre Baldi, Chancellor's Professor and Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics director* Jam

  December 22, 2008

• Superhero Science is Finally, Shockingly Revealed--For Free!

  If you've ever wondered if Superman really could fly, UC Irvine physics professor Michael Dennin has the free online course for you. (Full disclosure: That is NOT Dr. Michael Dennin shown here.) "Science from Superheroes to Global Warming," which is available here, mirrors the curriculum of UCI's Department of Physics and Astronomy undergraduate course and freshman seminar developed by Dennin, a leading researcher in the area of non-equilibrium dynamics. The online descripti

  January 14, 2009

• Dana Rohrabacher Praised for Saying the Sky is Falling

  Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), shown here possibly pointing to a dangerous object in the sky, is being commended by the no doubt august Institute for Human Continuity for his "Planet X forsight" and belief that Earth's preparedness for dealing with cosmic debris hurtling toward it is "key for the survival of the human race." What the Star Surfin' Congressman did specifically was introduce House Resolution 4917, the "Near Earth Objec

  February 10, 2009

• Drunken, Disgruntled Plastic Surgeon Picks On Reporters

  A supporter or two of Brian West--the plastic surgeon whose ups and (mostly) downs, involving his drinking problem and former patients, I've covered in these pages--has now taken to trying to sully mine and Sacramento CBS television reporter Kurtis Ming's names with a comical new blog experiment. Ming has covered the story involving West since it began to unfold in Sacramento several years ago, and before West moved down south and began practicing in Long Beach, Huntington Beach and LA.The new b

  March 2, 2009

• Obama's Expected Lift on Stem-Cell Ban Cheered at UCI

  President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order on Monday rolling back restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, fulfilling a campaign promise and repealing one of the most bone-headed stances taken by his predecessor, George W. Bush.News of Obama's expected order, which is tentatively scheduled to be signed at 11 a.m. Monday at the White House, is quite welcomed at UC Irvine, which is one of the foremost medical and scientific research institutions in

  March 6, 2009

• Toll-Road Dissing NOAA Now Fights to Protect Local Steelhead

  Perhaps environmentally sensitive locals should withhold sending support to the Sierra Club, the Surfrider Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council and instead cut checks to the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was, after all, the NOAA that dealt what many believe to be the final death blow to extension of the 241 Foothill South toll road through a state park and perilously close to Trestles. Now the NOAA is sticking up for local steel

  March 11, 2009

• Get your FREE Coachella App for your iPhone [Correction]

  Correction: Before you read further, the video and description of the Coachella iPhone App below is NOT THE FREE ONE. This program is not affiliated with the festival. The FREE App, written by Dave Bullock has a few specific differences:1) The official Coachella App is FREE, the program below costs money :(2) The FREE app allows you to download photos to www.coachella.com before and after the festival3) The free app has a friend finder that allows you to see your friends locations on a map aroun

  April 8, 2009

• Junior Oceanographer

  Ocean Institute

  April 9, 2009

• Monday Night Football

  December 4, 2008

• Spacing Out

  October 23, 2008

• Ooh Ooh Ah Ah

  July 3, 2008

• The Fire of the Century . . . of the Year

  Hellish fires now, Sahara Desert later, says UCI doom prophet Mike Davis

  November 1, 2007

• Rocket Men

  Reliving the glory of America’s giant leap for mankind

  September 13, 2007

• Handymanity

  August 10, 2006

• Baby, You Can Still Drive My Electric Car

  May 18, 2006

• Corn Power

  How to Make and Use Biodiesel

  July 5, 2007

• Newfangled Contraptions

  iPod Sundays at the Pike

  June 28, 2007

• Royalty Pains and Net Prophets

  As online radio faces possible financial doom, Pandora thinks outside the box

  June 21, 2007

• Outgrowing Tom

  Bugged by MySpaces clutter and limitations, some musicians are turning to smaller, artist-friendly alternatives

  May 24, 2007

• An Inconvenient Slope

  Big Bears ski resorts are covered in snow despite a chronic lack of natural snowfall. So where are the crowds? Dont blame global warmingblame the media

  February 15, 2007

• Diary of a Mad County

  Jan. 31-Feb. 6
  

  February 8, 2007

• Bad News With Al

  OnDVD: An Inconvenient Truth

  November 23, 2006

• Sounds Bad

  September 7, 2006

• All Charged Up

  June 29, 2006

• Funeral March

  June 22, 2006

• June Gloom Boom

  June 22, 2006

• Commie Girl

  June 15, 2006

• Science Friction

  February 23, 2006

• Astronomy Night

  May 21, 2009

• iPod Sunday

  September 24, 2009

• The Archaeology of Possession, Inheritance, and Value

  October 8, 2009

• Clothes Lines: a Green Solution That's Been Clotheslined

  ​They are an old-fashioned device that could save household energy as well as machine-damaed and worn-out clothing. Unfortunately, they are also banned in several U.S. communities. Just try installing a clothes line in Irvine or any Orange County gated community and see what happens. Torture is allowed and encouraged for even thinking such a thing.

  October 22, 2009

• As FCC Weighs Net Neutrality, McCain Tosses in Monkey Wrench

  ​As the Federal Communications Commission meets today to develop some "rules of the road" for the Internet, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Sarah Palin) has thrown up a roadblock.The bitter, defeated presidential nominee today introduced legislation that would block the FCC from creating new "net neutrality" rules.

  October 22, 2009

• Astronomy at the Library

  October 22, 2009

• Fire Up the Vanagon, They're Talking Nukes at San Onofre Again

  Pretty!​The serious reconsideration of expanded nuclear power amid our uncertain energy future can mean only one thing: the resumption of serious protests against expanded nuclear power. With the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS) so close, and a public workshop and hearing about the plant's operations coming up tomorrow, someone had better get Jackson Browne, Martin Sheen and Harry Dean Stanton on the horn again.

  November 4, 2009

• What Astronauts Do With Taco Sauce In The Space Shuttle

  ​I had to share this recent story with my fellow science geeks out there.  It's all about stuff you never knew to ask about food in NASA's space shuttle.  According to the article, here are some fun tidbits: - "Salt and pepper are available but only in a liquid form because astronauts can't sprinkle salt and pepper on their food in space - it would simply float away." - "In 2007, an astronaut was trying to make a pretend sushi meal with bag-packaged salmon and accidentally squi

  November 18, 2009