• Conan O’Brien Says He Won’t Host ‘Tonight Show’ Following Leno | NYTimes.com
  His classy resignation protest letter to NBC shows why I’ve always stood up for Conan.
  (tags: culture article tv)
• Gödel’s Lost Letter and P=NP
  I love this blog and not just because I’m a (poser) nerd. Professor Lipton really makes mathematical and computational topics accessible.
  (tags: blog mathematics computing science research academics programming)
• My Katrina Diary | Michael Homan
  Michael Homan’s and Abdulrahman Zeitoun’s accounts of their ordeals during the Flood hit really close to home. Their stories come closest to what my father went through during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. People are awful. People are amazing. Such is humanity.
  (tags: NewOrleans HurricaneKatrina FederalFlood disaster history)
• Your pal, John K. | Letters of Note
  “In 1998, aged just 14, aspiring young cartoonist Amir Avni decided to get in touch with the creator of Ren & Stimpy, John Kricfalusi. Being a hardcore fan of Kricfalusi’s work, Amir sent him an introductory letter along with a few cartoons he’d drawn, some of which contained relatively unknown characters of John’s. To call Kricfalusi’s response ‘generous’ would be an understatement.”
  (tags: animation comics art cartoons education design blog writing)

• Post-Underwear-Bomber Airport Security | Schneier on Security
  "Additionally, the passengers on the airplane worked. For years I've said that exactly two things have made us safer since 9/11: reinforcing the cockpit door and convincing passengers that they need to fight back. It was the second of these that, on Christmas Day, quickly subdued Abdulmutallab after he set his pants on fire."
  (tags: security terrorism government)
• The Obscene Wastefulness of Homeland-Security Spending | Slate Magazine
  "Since their hurried and heavily politicized creation, the fact is that neither the priorities nor the spending patterns of the Department of Homeland Security and its junior partner, the Transportation Security Administration, has ever been subject to serious scrutiny. They have never been forced to make hard choices."
  (tags: government terrorism security rights)
• Obama to fix Security Flaws; but Could he Please Fix Stupid Racial Profiling? | Informed Comment
  "You can't catch terrorists by casting a broad net. You catch terrorists with good police work. You look at networks, suspicious behavior, clues. Ignoring the desperate plea of a father who goes to the CIA with information about his son being radicalized in Yemen, but then patting down 170 million Nigerians ever after, is brain dead."
  (tags: government terrorism security race rights)
• Would a Scan or a Pat-Down Have Detected the Underwear Bomb? | Reason Magazine
  "According to Ben Wallace, a Conservative M.P. who helped develop the scanners for airport use, they are good at revealing dense objects such as guns, knives, and C4 plastic explosive but miss low-density material such as the three ounces of PETN powder Abdulmutallab carried."
  (tags: government terrorism security)

• Anadarko, Helix get good news in GoM | OilOnline.com
  Lucius – 20,000 ft. Jake – 13,500 ft. Good news, but feasible given the completions link below?
  (tags: oil gas hydrocarbons energy GulfOfMexico)
• Completions: rock science | OilOnline.com
  "We are drilling wells now that we can't complete," said Kevin Lacy, VP of drilling and completion in the Gulf of Mexico for BP. Some of the wells are possible because of high-spec drilling equipment, he noted, but the completions equipment is not yet available. "We're starting to see (conditions) in excess of 15,000psi." Other looming challenges include wells beyond 30,000ft, bottomhole pressures exceeding 20,000psi, temperatures over 250° F, hard-to-reach bottomhole locations, complex sand face completions and complex intervention requirements, Lacy said.
  (tags: oil gas hydrocarbons energy GulfOfMexico)

• Secretary Napolitano Unveils “Virtual USA” Information-Sharing Initiative | DHS
  Integration, information sharing and interoperability across platforms for emergency services. All very important and good. Even if built on open-source, let's hope against technological lock-in.
  (tags: government GIS opensource interoperability technology information)
• White House Announces Open Government Directive | ExecutiveBiz
  What was up with federal CTO Aneesh Chopra nervously frat-giggling his way through the live video chat? It looked more like a PC vs Mac commercial than the announcement of, you know, an important government technology initiative.
  (tags: government technology opensource information security)
• The Role of Geological Modeling in a Web-based Collaborative Environment | GIS and Science
  "In 2001, during a conference sponsored by the European Science Foundation, four major impediments to the greater use of subsurface geological modeling by a broad spectrum of users were identified. These constraints were: (1) a lack of 3D/4D mathematical, cognitive, and statistical spatial tools, (2) a lack of cheap modeling tools designed for the shallow subsurface that can be operated without specialist personnel, (3) the inability of models to depict natural variability of geological systems, and (4) a shortage of case histories. By 2008, these constraints had been largely overcome with the use of new modeling software and techniques and, importantly, with an understanding of the needs of the client."
  (tags: geology GIS modeling mathematics statistics collaboration science)

• How Much Money You'd Save By Skipping Christmas | Forbes.com
  On the one hand, making a shopping list of gifts. On the other, being a grinch because my tree isn't up yet. (Yes, my tree, ha ha ha.)
  (tags: christmas finance)

• Love, Obama-Style: A Dating Service for Scientists and Teachers | True/Slant Network Activity
  I've signed up as a scientist. Have you? "It’s a 'nationwide initiative,' a collaboration between government and more than 200 public- and-private sector organizations that aims to connect students in grades 6-12 with project-based learning experiences." Wish I could help out this teacher: "One ambitious project looking for a scientist in the classroom is based in Coeur D Alene, Idaho. The description reads: 'I would like to build a working model of a river watershed in my classroom.'"
  (tags: science education community)
• 3D mash-up maps let you 'edit' the world | New Scientist
  A good round-up of current 3d mapping technology. Everyone jump on the 3D, high-level-of-detail bandwagon now when you wouldn't a year ago!
  (tags: maps mapping 3d geography visualization)

“As for your doctrines I am prepared to go to the Stake if requisite … I trust you will not allow yourself to be in any way disgusted or annoyed by the considerable abuse & misrepresentation which unless I greatly mistake is in store for you … And as to the curs which will bark and yelp – you must recollect that some of your friends at any rate are endowed with an amount of combativeness which (though you have often & justly rebuked it) may stand you in good stead – I am sharpening up my claws and beak in readiness.”
–Thomas Henry Huxley (in a letter to Darwin a few days after The Origin of Species dropped)

In honor of the sesquicentennial of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, here are my favorite science links of the day.

• Darwin’s “Origin” Anniversary: 24 Nov 1859 | The Sensuous Curmudgeon
  “Today’s the day. It was exactly 150 years ago that Darwin’s Origin of Species was published. Here are a few websites that are recognizing the anniversary.”
  (tags: science evolution history books)
• Those hacked climate e-mails: Good scientists, poor conspirators | Futurismic
  “Smart enough to hack, not sophisticated enough to appreciate the daily give-and-take of how science works – is that how we nonscientists are going to approach critical issues? Maybe we can do better than that.”
  (tags: climate science email globalwarming environment)
• Galileo’s missing fingers found in jar | CNN.com
  Was it the tip jar? (I’m horrible, yeah.)
  (tags: science news research history)

• GISUser.com | Maponics ZIP Code Boundaries Captures Record Number of U.S. Postal Service Branch Closings
  (tags: maps mapping GIS geography)
• Maponics Zip Code Boundaries
  Enter your zip code to see what geographic area it covers.
  (tags: maps mapping GIS geography)

• Applied Mechanics of Solids Example Problems by Allan Bower
  (tags: science physics engineering mechanics books)
• Introduction To Continuum Mechanics by Ray Bowen
  "This textbook is intended to introduce engineering graduate students to the essentials of
  modern Continuum Mechanics. This understanding should include an appreciation for the status of the classical theories as special cases of general nonlinear continuum models. The relationship of the classical theories to nonlinear models is essential in light of the increasing reliance, by engineering designers and researchers, on prepackaged computer codes. These codes are based upon models which have a specific and limited range of validity. Given the danger associated with the use of these computer codes in circumstances where the model is not valid, engineers have a need for an in depth understanding of continuum mechanics and the continuum models which can be formulated by use of continuum mechanics techniques."
  (tags: science engineering physics books mechanics)

• The Sensuous Curmudgeon | Barbara Forrest Exposes Louisiana Creationists
  "Don’t be misled into thinking that Louisiana is a small, hopelessly backward state, and what happens there is of no importance elsewhere. That state is being used as a testing ground for a nationwide theocratic effort to literally undo the Enlightenment. If the creationists’ schemes to reverse the progress of the last ten generations are successful in Louisiana, they’ll be deployed elsewhere. So pay attention."
  (tags: evolution news politics science creationism)