A massive earthquake hit central China today, at roughly 2:30 pm local time, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. This is a very dangerous earthquake and would cause substantial damage and loss of life even in developed nations with advanced building codes. I'm not familiar with this area of China or its architecture, but I've been told it has a great mix of structure types - simple stone buildings to wood frame buildings to modern high rises. The earthquake was felt 1,000 miles away in Bejing and Shanghai - an astonishing distance of the sort seen in the US for the New Madrid region, but unheard of in California.

The earthquake was in the foothils of the Himalayas, within 50 miles of a major city, Chengdu, located in the basin below. A school has collapsed, killing some children and trapping many more. Thousands are reported dead.

USGS has recently upgraded this earthquake from the original 7.5 to 7.9 magnitude. The USGS link includes maps and other data.

The LA Times has a travel story this week about Ten Great Observatories of the West. To be fair, this isn't really a list of great observatories for science, but great observatories for the public, institutions that allow people to visit and take a look through a live telescope. Their listings are California-centric, but include Mt Wilson, Griffth Park Observatory, and Big Bear Solar Observatory in southern California; Lick Observatory in Northern California;  Jack C. Davis Observatory in Nevada; Goldendale Observatory in Washington; Mt Graham, Lowell Observatory and Kitt Peak in Arizona; and McDonald Observatory in Texas.

(A tip, from friends of mine who have worked there: don't ask at Big Bear Solar Observatory, which only studies the sun, if they take observations at night. They don't. :-) )

In general, you won't be able to look through the flagship instruments at these observatories (those don't tend to have eyepieces at all any more), but there's still something quite special about looking through an enormous glass instrument and seeing a cluster of stars revealed, or Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn live and in person. The image you see won't look like the beautiful false-color images taken by Voyager - indeed, it's amazing to look through instruments far more powerful than anything Galileo ever had and wonder how he found all the moons that he did. It takes years of practice to be able to discern some of the faint details, such as the lines on Mars once thought to be signs of intelligent life. (I believe the telescope Percival Lowell used for those observations, as well as the discovery of Pluto, is one of the ones used today for public viewing.)

In California, parent organizations are doing everything they can to try to save teacher jobs, including attempts to raise extraordinary amounts of money. Ivanhoe Elementary, in the Los Angeles Unified School District, is attempting to raise $180,000 to save three teacher positions.

As Steve Lopez writes in the LA Times:

Get out your checkbooks, parents were told. All those wrapping-paper sales and pancake fundraisers wouldn't be enough. We could either pony up some hard cash, or see Ivanhoe's standing as one of L.A. Unified's best schools.

Pay $25, if that's all you can afford, Herman said. But he pointed up to a screen encouraging parents to dig a little deeper. Those three jobs can be saved, he said, if 80 parents contribute $250 apiece, 75 contribute $500, 50 fork over $1,000, 20 give $2,000 and six bust the bank with $5,000 contributions.

It's unconscionable. And of course, not every school has the resources to raise even $1800, let alone $180,000.

A Republican member of our school board was saying, gee, Gray Davis wasn't so bad after all. That's when you know things have gone mad.

We've talked a lot here about sleep, and here is a piece from 60 Minutes talking about just how critical sleep is, and how dangerous sleep deprivation can be:

One thing that's clear, says Walker, is that sleep is critical. In a series of studies done back in the 1980s, rats were kept awake indefinitely. After just five days, they started dying.

Walker says they started dying from sleep deprivation. "In fact, sleep is as essential as food because they will die just about as quick from food deprivation as sleep deprivation. So, it's that necessary," he says.

Sleep isn't just for the lazy: it's critical to proper body function. A study restricting sleep to four hours a night had dire effects:

The study's subjects were on the road to diabetes in just six days, and that’s not all - they were also hungry. Van Cauter has made a radical discovery: that lack of sleep may be contributing to the epidemic of obesity in this country through the work of a hormone called leptin that tells your brain when you’re full.

So, we feed our nation full of High Fructose Corn Syrup, have them work at sedentary jobs near a refrigerator, allow them breaks from work only to eat, and we don't give anyone time to exercise or sleep. The researchers feel that adding sleep deprivation to the list of key diabetes risk factors may be in order, and that it may even be a factor in many disorders we currently associate with old age.

It's not your imagination: Daylight Savings Time has come extra early this year. Enjoy the longer evenings and curse the shorter mornings along with me.

The internet is already abuzz with commentary about a recent case involving a homeschooling family, where a California judge,  Justice H. Walter Croskey, wrote, "Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children."

And so people have taken that one line and started lining up on either side of the issue, with homeschooling advocates threatening to take it "all the way to the Supreme Court" and homeschooling foes apparently declaring some sort of victory. The defendant himself declared he believes the ruling stems from hostility against Christians and vowed to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

But when you look at the details of this case in context (which even some media didn't report), it changes the debate entirely:

LA Times

The appellate court ruling stems from a case involving Lynwood parents Phillip and Mary Long, who were repeatedly referred to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services over various allegations, including claims of physical abuse, involving some of their eight children.

All of the children are currently or had been enrolled in Sunland Christian School, where they would occasionally take tests, but were educated in their home by their mother, Phillip Long said.

A lawyer appointed to represent two of the Long's young children requested that the court require them to physically attend a public or private school where adults could monitor their well-being. A trial court disagreed, but the children's lawyer appealed to the 2nd District Court of Appeal, which has jurisdiction over Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The appellate panel ruled that Sunland officials' occasional monitoring of the Longs' home schooling -- with the children taking some tests at the school -- is insufficient to qualify as being enrolled in a private school. Since Mary Long does not have a teaching credential, the family is violating state laws, the ruling said.

"Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children," wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey in a Feb. 28 opinion signed by the two other members of the district court. "Parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program."

A new study from the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation suggests that melamine-tainted pet foods may have been behind a large dieoff of pets in 2004 in asian countries. It was written off as coincidence ("Our popular dog foods are fed to a lot of old, sick animals"), or possible mycotoxin.

Hat tip to the Pet Connection Blog:

The Journal of Veterinary Investigative Diagnosis reported that the Asian cases were initially attributed to contamination with mycotoxin, and that “an estimated 6,000 dogs and a smaller number of cats developed nephrotoxic renal failure in 2004.” But their own research, working with tissue samples from animals from both years discovered characteristic crystals and kidney damage typical of melamine-associated renal failure (MARF) caused by the ingestion of melamine and cyanuric acid:

This study provides compelling evidence that the pet food–associated renal failure outbreaks in 2004 and 2007 share causation. In particular, the outbreaks share identical clinical, histologic, and toxicologic findings. Given the unique nature of the histologic features and the specificity of the toxicologic tests in this study, it is reasonable to conclude that both are examples of MARF. Although the source of melamine and cyanuric acid responsible for the 2007 MARF outbreak has been identified as vegetable protein concentrates imported from China, the source in the 2004 outbreak remains undetermined.

[….]

The addition of melamine, cyanuric acid, or both to enhance apparent protein content of vegetable concentrates is reportedly commonplace in some regions. Because chronic interstitial fibrosis is a self-perpetuating process and a common finding in animals with chronic kidney disease, sublethal MARF could represent an important, previously unrecognized cause of chronic kidney disease in dogs and cats. Interestingly, the contaminated wheat gluten in the 2007 outbreak was a human food–grade product. The potential effects of ingestion of similarly contaminated material by people are unknown.

This makes a lot of sense to me - there was no reason to think the practice was new - but it's also disturbing in how widespread it may have been, and leaves open the idea that a lot of animals have had their health subtly damaged by melamine for a very long time. Not to mention, of course, what's in our own food supply.

Time to get to work in the garden!

Admittedly, that's not the headline most media have chosen to go with.

(What is this, news for parrots?)

Still, I think it's valuable to remember that one can be a mother and still be other things. (Especially since we have talked often here about how unfriendly academia can be to mothers.)

Sossina Haile, a professor of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering at Caltech, was featured recently in Newsweek as one of the "Who's Next 2008." Her group has been working on fuel cells since the late '90s, and has an idea for solid acid fuel cells. Two of her grad students have created a company, Superprotonic, to commercialize the technology.

A fuel cell is a device for converting chemical energy into electricity - basically a battery that can be refueled (like a combustion engine) rather than only recharged. This is convenient because then you can build electric cars that can be quickly refilled with fuel, as we do now, rather than forcing a battery change-out or a long plug-in recharge. Current fuel cells work, but there are issues. They're expensive, among other reasons because of their use of platinum, and their temperature ranges are inconvenient - either too low, requiring cooling, or too high, requiring special and expensive high heat materials and engineering. Dr. Haile's solution uses Cesium Hydrogen Sulfate, and wants a temperature range right in line with an automobile's operating temperature.

Dr. Haile was a refugee from Ethiopia and attended MIT for her undergraduate and graduate study. She joined the faculty at Caltech in 1996 - I am sure in part because of their efforts to seek female and minority faculty members. I remember the days when there was an attitude when doing such was surely detrimental to the overall output of the Institute. I find it especially pleasing to see a young female professor with children becoming one of the faculty stars.

Stroke is uncommon in women, especially in younger women. But there's an alarming study out showing that women are experiencing strokes at an accelerated rate:

Nearly 2 percent of women ages 35 to 54 reported suffering a stroke in the most recent federal health survey, from 1999 to 2004. Only about half a percent did in the previous survey, from 1988 to 1994.

Men in the same survey did not show an increase. The risk factor that appears to be in play is increased obesity.

The increase makes stroke more common in middle aged women than in men, a significant reversal from the previous statistics, where men in this age range had twice the rate of strokes.

The article notes that these women were on medications to control blood pressure and cholesterol, which are supposed to limit the risk of stroke.

While they are showing that women are getting larger around the waist, I'm skeptical. Surely the men are putting on pounds at a similar rate, and yet their risk did not change in this survey. What could be going on?

"Everyone's a rail fan. Some people are just quieter about it than others."

That's what a gentleman said to me when I asked him if he was a railfan. Diehards are easily recognized by their casual identification of a location that is to the casual observer, nowhere.

But I loved the truth in it. Trains are special. A road trip, the classic American vacation is fine, but the train version is far better. A dining car, the chance to walk around, no sleepy drivers, easy bathroom access - all of the inconveniences of car travel are gone. Even a familiar path is different from the tracks.

He works for Burlington Northern, and he grew up in Wyoming. So, he comes by his knowledge from more than mere fandom. He tells me that the switch we've just passed is the path to Cheyenne.  We talk about Amtrak, and the perennial battle to keep it alive in Congress. The track we're on used to be on a regular route between Denver and Seattle, but it was dropped despite ample ridership because somebody in Washington had to make a budget cut. He tells me about the towns in Wyoming that used to rely on the train in winter, that are unaccessible by road when the train can still get through. Not many people can tough it out.

Amtrak doesn't suffer from lack of ridership. What vexes it is an upfront, obvious subsidy that has to be explicitly renewed each year. Highway funding does not require reauthorization, and the need for highways is obvious even to the dullest Congressman. Airlines are barely profitable even though they don't pay for their own airports or runways. Amtrak, forced to get by on crumbs, rents time on the tracks from the freight companies, which run their cargoes first, making Amtrak trains late and slow. The tracks are functional, but they're not the sleek, smooth tracks of Europe that permit bullet speeds. Even at 50 MPH, the train rolls and jerks from side to side as it travels.

Why are we the only industrialized country without a solid passenger rail system again?

There are several interesting health-related articles over at the Los Angeles Times at the moment, but this one in particular caught my eye:

Girl, you'll be a woman sooner than expected

Earlier breast development is now so typical that the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society urged changing the definition of "normal" development. Until 10 years ago, breast development at age 8 was considered an abnormal event that should be investigated by an endocrinologist. Then a landmark study in the April 1997 journal Pediatrics written by Marcia Herman-Giddens, adjunct professor at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, found that among 17,000 girls in North Carolina, almost half of African Americans and 15% of whites had begun breast development by age 8. Two years later, the society suggested changing what it considered medically normal.

The new "8" -- the medically suggested definition for abnormally early breast development -- is, the society says, 7 for white girls and 6 for African American girls.

Like some of the mom-scientists quoted in the article, this whole thing makes me twitchy. My daughter the second grader was upset because one of her classmates is getting breasts, and where are hers? What the heck is going on with this? No one knows, and no one is really even sure how we can do the experiment at this point. We're awash in all kinds of potential culprits - or maybe it's just a result of better nutrition? Mother Nature doesn't expect us to have such reliable access to food. But even then... it just doesn't seem like a good idea for the reproductive plumbing to mature so far ahead of the rest of the body structure.

I just wanted to alert y'all to this very funny recommended diary on DailyKos, where you'll be treated to a different angle on last night's Republican debate. Click here to enjoy a 9-year old rendition of a fight between Sarge, Wrinkles, Bunny Ears, Oily, Beagle Eyes and Carrot Face.

This reminds me of my own childhood and interest in politics. The earliest election I remember is Carter v. Ford, and I was actively interested in elections after that. I remember with some chagrin supporting Bush Sr in 1980, until some family members discussed with me why they supported Carter. My elementary school population was mostly very conservative, and naturally my opinions were shaped by my friends. Over time, I developed my own strength of conviction, and I remember being the only one in my Government class to vote against a law one of the kids proposed, to outlaw the clubbing of baby harp seals in Canada. It's not that I didn't like harp seals, but I didn't think we could pass a law that affected only Canadians. I recall my teacher was quietly proud of me but highly amused by the whole discussion and how it played out.

My seven-year-old says she'd vote for Duck for President (which is a very funny sequel to Click Clack Moo). Are your kids taking an interest in the election?