Friday Core Dump: March 25, 2011
It has been a loooong week. If it’s been made longer due to emails from the conspiracy theorists in your life, look no further for some handy references.
- Why are there so many earthquakes recently? It’s gotta be the end times, right? Nope. In fact, there has actually been a slight decrease in the number of earthquakes above magnitude 7.0. However, we can detect more earthquakes than we could in the past, and global communications have improved. So we hear about more earthquakes on the morning news because we’re hearing about a higher percentage of them. (via KA.)
- Did Japan (or other countries) offer any aid to the U.S. after Hurricane Katrina? Here’s a list of donations by countries from governmental funds. Japan’s government gave between $500,000 and $1 million. Another $13 million came from Japanese firms and private citizens.
- I’m a big fan of the Science and Sensibility blog, which lives up to its name in promoting evidence-based advice for pregnancy, labor and delivery, and breastfeeding. (In particular, they promote the Six Healthy Birth Practices.) Of course, people are interested in natural birth for a wide variety of reasons, and there are many individuals who are interested in natural birth but are anti-vaccination. So I was thrilled to see a post from them on the safety of childhood vaccinations. Yes, I love the Bad Astronomer, but there are people who won’t listen to Phil Plaitt who will listen to Lamaze International.
Hope this dash of reason and rationality improves your Friday! Have a great weekend!