Of Maps and Men

It's always nice when you find a gem. I just found out about a recent paper (pdf warning), published in Frontiers in Ecology, written to try and quantify what kind of human-created biomes exist, and where those biomes are found (A biome being a region characterized by distinct flora and fauna, as well as charactistic landforms, hydrology, and weather).

Figure 1: Small map of global anthropomorphic biomes. Click to see a larger, higher resolution version (*pdf warning) From Ellis, EC, Ramankutty, N. 2007. Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world. Front Ecol Environ 2008; 6, doi: 10.1890/070062



The authors emphasize the fact that human-affected land accounts for 90% of global net primary production (energy produced by plants, over and above metabolic needs) as well as 80% of all forested territory. I don't, however, think that this is the most interesting result from this paper. Pretty much anyone with a background in modern ecology would have found those numbers unsurprising, and would have been revealed in a much simpler analysis. What the real importance of this paper stems from is how they discovered the different biome types. Rather than arbitrarily assigning different categories, they used cluster analysis (a method from statistical ecology) to discover groupings of data that "hung together" for many different variables. This does a lot to remove observer bias or researcher preconception from the final map.

This report doesn't just provide a very pretty map of human effects and variance in cultivation and settlement patterns (for real fun: a Google Maps version!). The best part of this report is the fantastic data set it provides. Anyone with even a vague interest in geographic-economic interactions, settlement patterns, or land-use patterns could use this to test any number of mechanism-driven models.

I do have a couple complaints, however: they don't specify what clustering algorithm they are using, except that it is from SPSS. There are several ways to cluster data, and depending on the structure of the data set, this can make a difference. I suspect, however, that the data they are using is likely fairly straight-forward to analyze, so the exact details of the algorithm shouldn't change the overall picture. Also, they may have published supplemental data that I just didn't find.

An interesting hypothesis

I have made an important discovery, that I am sure is of gripping interest to all of you, my loyal readers:
John K. Samson, lead vocalist and writer for the Weakerthans

is, in fact, the Tenth Doctor:
Doctor, if you're reading this, sorry for blowing your cover, but the truth had to come out at some point.

A moment of silence please

It appears that Weekly World News will be closing its doors permanently soon. This is pretty crushing for me, considering the endless hours of amusement that paper provided me, as well as providing an excellent way to misspend canteen funds from cadets. It was also my only truly reliable news source, providing a vast cornucopia of information I could be absolutely certain as being wrong, unlike the rest of the media, which might be correct occasionally.

So, raise your glass to Bat-Boy! We barely knew you.



(seen via Pharyngula)

Fact 1: The government and everything else, save perhaps a single poorly run waffle hut in Wisconsin, are run by a power hungry Conspiracy That Wants To Control Our Minds

Fact 2: Tinfoil and aluminum foil protect against mind control.

Question: why hasn't the CTWTCOM just altered the makeup of foil?

I'm now tempted to try running a sample through the spectrometer, but I'm not building up too much hope that it'll reveal the truth, since they've clearly subverted the mass spec manufacturers by now.

That pretty much sums it up.


(From XKCD: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.)

Fun with numbers

I'm trying to avoid studying for a test, so here's some fun with economic stats:
Saskatoon population: 220000 est. (Wikipedia)
Saskatoon Population growth rate: 2.5% (www.sreda.com)
Canada's 2006 economic growth rate, minus it's population growth rate: ~2%* (CIA factbook)
Canada's 2006 per Capita income: 35,200 (Ibid)
Estimated cost of a Mars trip: One Trillion dollars (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

So: Calculated** year when Saskatoon can afford it's own Mars shot with one year's budget:
2114.


* This has to be done because population growth is a component of net growth rates. The adjusted rate is Canada's growth due to increases in labour productivity.
**Calculation used:
# of years until trip is affordable = ln(Trip cost/[current population size*current per capita income])/(economic growth rate + population growth rate)


Also: for those who don't want to wait on Saskatoon city council to decide to go to Mars, you personally will have the yearly income to do it around 2864.

At last! An excuse to wear more badges!

For those of a scientific bent, there's a new club in town: The Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique. As far as I can tell, it's primary goal is coming up with really awesome badges to compete for, which is a goal I am dead behind.

It is actually somewhat frightening realizing how many of these damned things I qualify for, especially for the more esoteric ones.

Here's the ones I figure I've achieved already:

Talking science: required for all members. Basically, you have to apt at annoying your friends and loved ones with science at any and all times.




I blog about science: Requires that at least a quarter of the blog be about science. This one might be iffy, but I figure if you count by post length, science still makes up a 1/4 of the stuff here.




"I'm pretty confident around an open flame": From flame-sterilizing aritificial insemination gear, to flaming bacterial smear equipment, to do lighting smokers to test hives, I think I've got this one cased.



"I may look like a scientist, but I'm actually a ninja": This might be true. How would you all know? Also, I have a set of Nun chucks around here somewhere, courtesy of one Mr. Shaw.




"Sexing Up Science": Controlled breeding experiments, AI'ing queen bees, breeding Drosophila, and semen extraction from drone bees. All in the name of Science. And no, I'm not ashamed of any of it.





"I can be a prick when it comes to science": It's so true. Just search the back-logs of this blog for proof of that.







"has frozen stuff just to see what happens" levels one and three: I've frozen things in both the freezer and in liquid nitrogen, because science demanded it.



"I will crush you with my math prowess": I know how to find out if a Hessian matrix is positive semi-definite, and am able to go on at lengths about the importance of the neutral equilibria that exists in two-species Lotka-Volterra predator-prey systems. I may not be an actual mathematician, but I'm not half bad at this stuff.


"inordinately fond of invertebrates": Bow to your hydrostatic/exo-skeletal betters, you damned spined, barely jumped up worms! Still not quite as awesome as lichen, though.





"knows how to collect semen from more than one (non-human) species": seriously, don't ask.






"I know what a tadpole is": kind of a freebee. Really, just for those who envy us elites who hold the semen badge.







"experienced with electric shock" level 1, 2, 3: For: being involved with shocking organisms with electricity (E. coli, to induce DNA to enter them), experience with the electrical shocking of humans, and being shocked myself. Really, the last two are somewhat cheats, since pretty much any farm kid who's lived around electric fencing can claim the same.

And that's the lot of them. Remind me never to try and upload this many pictures to blogger ever again.

You may all already be aware of this...

Apparently, the English language and I only touch at tangents at the best of times. Also, I am very happy that Firefox 2 now has in-form spell-checking, or more people would threaten to kill me on a regular basis.


ps: Paul, you might know this: is there any mathematical term for a pair of equations which only touch when they are tangent to each other, i.e.: for all x where f(x) = g(x), f'(x) = g'(x)?
I'm just trying to pump up my geek cred here by being able to refer to my speaking skills with math lingo.

An important, life changing notice:

While you may find the song "Candy Girl" catchy when it was played in Dogma, downloading a significant amount of The Jackson 5 will:
1. Annoy your roomates
2. Cause horrific music to assail your ears when you set Winamp to random.
3. Make you doubt the eternal wisdom of Kevin Smith, which would be blasphemy.

Horrific abuses of population biology

Because I'm bored, and since absolutely no one who reads this gives a damn about population ecology, I'm going to post about it (also, this makes a nice precursor to the ever-elusive post on the biology of Pirates and Ninja that I've been threatening to post).

First: something old: the ecology of Vampires in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (warning: pdf file). This is actually a remarkably nicely written primer to modelling predator-prey populations, all wrapped up in Weadon-y [or Whedon, appearently] goodness. It sets out to answer the age old question: how the hell do vampires in Sunnydale not either kill everyone or get entirely wiped out?

Second: something new: a post from a blog I regularly scan, I'm a chordata, Urochordata! (with a pun like that, who could resist?). The poster, a population ecologist, has created a statistical model linking sanity in grad students with increased productivity! For those who don't want to read the whole thing, even if it contains an awesome graph, the primary conclusions are:

"1) Your sanity and productivity are intimately linked.
2) Being involved in the community and taking breaks to enjoy all that Northern California has to offer may seem insignificant, but, really, it’s what holds everything together.
3) Caffeine is your lord. Your master. Your father, mother, secret lover."

That third one there I can heartily endorse. I'm still a bit sketchy about California being good for my mental health though....

A merry Darwinmas to all. A good time was had by all at the Yard (despite a slightly small turnout), and tommorow, I for one plan on celebrating by visiting the Burgess Shale exhibit at the Diefenbaker Center. Look for excited fan-boy-esque posting immediately following.

The best moment of my day:

Taken from the bathroom stall wall discussions:


"God is dead."
-Nietzsche

"But Zombie Nietzsche lives!"
-Zombie Nietzsche

An update on the festivities

Well, from the looks of things, the night of the Darwinian goodness will be Sunday (it's actually a day early, but we just all have to promise to stay up until midnight). I figure 8 seems like a good time to start the festivities, but I'll probably show up around 7:30ish to try and secure a table, so feel free to come early (Hah! other people being early... that seems likely... :^) ) and feel free to dress as your favourite Victorian naturalist. (If anyone can figure out a good Baron Von Humbolt costume, I'd love to see it!)

hopefully see everyone there!

A quick survey...

How many people in the Saskatoon area would be free/willing to attend the (now) traditional Darwin Day celebrations on either the 11th or the 12th? It would likely be at the Yard, unless new and interesting suggestions for a location are posited.


(Also: a reminder: Paul McGann)

taken from a discussion with Paul...

A time line of present and future human eras:
1400 - 1900: Early Modern Era
1900 - 1970ish: Modern Era
1970 - 1999:Post-Modern Era
1999 - 2021: Post-post Modern Era
.
.
.
.
.
.
2345 - 2345: post ^ 57.82 Modern Era
.
.
.
3000 - 3001: It's Probably still the Present Era
.
.
.
.
.
4500 - 4511: The Era Before the last Era, We Think
4511 - 4512: The Era After the Last Era
.
.
.
.
5000 - heat death of the universe: We Came to Our Senses and Stopped Trying to Title the Time We're Living in Some Synonym of "Current" So As Not To Piss Off Future Historians Era.

Paul Mcgann!

Paul Mcgann! That is all.