The Scientists and Engineers for America seem to think so.

What's wrong with this headline from NOAA? Could it be that the Bush Administration science spin doctors are at it again? The official headline for the summer temperature round-up report pictured above emphasizes that September was cooler than usual, while the color-coded map below clearly shows that temperatures ranged from above normal to record warmest in every mainland state in the nation. As the news release reveals in the less important second and third paragraphs, the summer overall was the second warmest on record and the "January-September 2006 combined temperature is the warmest on record." The previous January-September combined temperature record was set in 2000. The red and orange in the map above should be enough to dispel any notions that it's getting any cooler in the U.S., but someone apparently thinks September is more important, perhaps because it's just weeks before the elections and all.

After we polled a few geology bloggers, Chris at Highly Allocthonous bravely took on the challenge of proposing a possible tectonic explanation for Sunday's large earthquake in Hawaii. Chris noted (a) that the epicenter was northwest of the current volcanic source point that lies on the southeastern side of the Big Island, where most events associate with volcanism have been occurring on a regular (daily) basis; and (b) that the Molokai Fracture Zone (labeled OFZ in a slightly modified version of Chris' excellent map at right), happens to pass in the regional vicinity of the epicenter. Chris also pointed out that the newly revised depth for the earthquake by the USGS is 28 km, not 38.9 km as reported earlier. Twenty-eight kilometers is still deep considering that most oceanic crustal earthquakes are less then 10 km deep.

The USGS website has a good explanation of earthquake focal mechanisms represented by the red and white beachball. While OFZ in particular lies a bit northwest of the epicenter and trends west-southwest, the fracture zones do in fact roughly parallel the east-west trending nodel plane of the earthquake focal mechanism calculated by the USGS. Further, if you look closely, there is a more east-west trending fracture zone just south of OFZ that more closely parallels the east-west nodal plane. If the earthquake occurred on one of the fracture zones, it would've been a left-lateral strike-slip event. However, as most tectonics students learn, fracture zones aren't typically active away from the spreading center in a strike-slip sense. It could be that thermal weakening of the crust and mantle near the hotspot have permitted preexisting fracture zones to slip in response to intraplate stresses. (Thanks, Chris!)

A magnitude 6.6 strike-slip earthquake hit about 15 km (10 miles) north-northwest of the Big Island of Hawaii at 7:07 AM local time. The estimated hypocentral depth of the quake is 38.9 km (24.2 miles). That's VERY deep considering that the thickness of the oceanic crust is not more than 10 km, though it's thicker near the islands. The picture at right by konaboy shows the dust cloud that followed a large rockfall at Kealakekua Bay a few minutes after the quake. The fact that the fault motion was strike-slip explains why there wasn't a tsunami despite the large magnitude of the mainshock. But a strike-slip focal mechanism doesn't seem to make sense for this area since there aren't any obvious lateral faults - unless old transform faults count. Anyone have an idea about what caused the quake?

Flickr Photos of the Hawaii Earthquake

US Geological Survey Earthquake Information on the Hawaii Earthquake

USGS Earthquake map for Hawaii

Strike-Slip NEIC Moment Tensor Solution for the Hawaii Earthquake

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Information Statement

The National Science Foundation has ranked the top ten U.S. cities in university and college research spending in 2004 in a detailed report which you can view in PDF form here (dollars in thousands).[1] According to the report (p. 118), the total R&D expenditures for all academic institutions was just over $42 billion, with roughly $30 billion of that coming from state and federal sources, $2.1 billion from industry, and $7.8 billion from institutional funds.

1. Baltimore, MD--$1,750,904[2]

2. Los Angeles, CA--$1,527,602

3. Boston, MA--$1,521,001

4. New York, NY--$1,512,632

5. Philadelphia, PA--$1,475,536

6. San Francisco, CA--$1,388,218[3]

7. Chicago, IL--$1,105,317

8. Houston, TX--$1,099,652

9. Durham/Chapel Hill, NC--$937,598

10. Atlanta, GA--$784,330

Note:
1. Includes universities and colleges within a 20-mile radius of each city center.
2. Includes Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, which spent $670 million on R&D.
3. Not including Stanford University. If Stanford was included, the figure would be 2,059,264, which would place San Francisco at the top of the list.

Java mud volcano still erupting after four months [Nature] - Geologists studying the eastern Java mud volcano that was unleashed by drilling say that the volcano may never be stopped except by natural means. The most practical plan suggested so far may be to redirect the mud flow out to sea. (Before and after pictures shown at right.)

The Thin Pill [Wired] - If you're severely overweight, you might have metabolic syndrome. Big Pharma has the drugs to cure it if only the FDA would recognize it. But with 75 million people potentially afflicted, getting insurers to cover it is another story.

10 Emerging Technologies [MIT Technology Review] - The editors of Technology Review present their list of technologies that may have a huge impact on business, medicine, and culture. The list includes epigenetics, pervasive wireless, stretchable silicon, and more.

Global sludge ends in tragedy for Ivory Coast [NY Times] - An oil tanker is alleged to have illegally dumped smelly toxic waste left over from oil refining in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, releasing a sulfur compound and hydrogen sulfide among the urban population. So far eight people have died, dozens have been hospitalized and 85,000 have sought medical attention.

Voting has begun in the Union of Concerned Scientists editorial cartoon contest. The theme is "to help exposeoutrageous examples of politicalinterference infederal governmentscience." You can vote now for your favorite cartoon by following this link. There are only 12 cartoons to choose from, so it should be pretty easy to choose. The lucky winner will receive a 2007 Defending Science calendar from the UCS. You, however, will only receive a good laugh - or, you know, not.

X Prize Spaceblog. Ansari, a 40-year-old, Iranian-born entrepreneur from Dallas, Texas, paid $20 million for a 10 day journey to the ISS. In one of her entries about experiencing weightlessness, Ansari writes, "I guess the closest thing to moving in weightlessness is floating in water. But there is a major difference. In water when you move your arms and legs, you move… in here you can move your arms and legs all you want, but you are not going anywhere. The only thing that can help you move is the gentle air flow from the fans…The guys up here wanted to show me how this concept works so they put me in the middle of the Node, which is one of the American Modules, and I couldn’t reach anything to push myself… so I was just floating in the middle of the Node and no matter how much I moved myself I did not go anywhere. They were all laughing at me and finally the gentle breeze from the fan slowly got me close to a handle on the ceiling and I was able to free myself." Ansari left the International Space Station today and is returning home aboard the Soyuz TMA-8 spaceship, which will land in Kazakhstan this evening. The timeline for her return can be found here.

Benjamin Wardhaugh explains the connection between mathematics and music by way of Leibniz and Euclid in the September issue of Plus magazine: "A little while ago I was reading some letters written by the 17th century German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz to an obscure contemporary of his, Conrad Henfling. The letters were about music theory and the details of how to tune musical instruments. I was surprised to find that at one point Henfling started to use Euclid's algorithm to justify his musical reasoning. How useful could a mathematical technique from the third century BC be to a 17th-century musician? Very useful indeed, it turns out. Euclid's algorithm provides a way of dealing with equations of musical pitch, potentially helping musicians and instrument makers to tune musical instruments." Read on here.

Rainy days don't have to be a drag any more with the Pileus Umbrella and WebService system. With the Pileus System, you can take a picture with a camera mounted on top of the umbrella, which is then uploaded to Flickr or YouTube through the Pileus WebService with an image tag defined by your screen ID. Then, when you twist a grip on the umbrella, it will search for your images according to your screen ID and display the contents with a projector aimed at the underside of the umbrella. The system was presented at the Eighth International Conference on Ubiqitous Computing this year in Orange County, California by students from Keio University in Japan. (via We Make Money Not Art)

The Mars Face That Wasn't [Dotdotdot] - "[T]he European Space Agency's Mars Express has sent back some high resolution images of the area, giving us some great views of the Red Planet, albeit minus the intelligent aliens happily waving towards the camera."

Dating Advice for Med School Students [Ah Yes, Medical School] - "I was wondering if you could please elaborate onwhat it takes to date a medical school student.... I've quickly come to realize that your breed of human being is by far one of the most demanding, selfish, narcissistic, stressed out, and high strung samples there is. "

Peter Woit Reviews The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe Just Right For Life? [Not Even Wrong] - "Its not clear that a sufficient answer to the question Why is the universe just right for life? isnt simply: because otherwise we wouldnt be asking the question."

< ;br>Former President Bill Clinton kicked off his three-day Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York City this week with an interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. When Jon Stewart remarked that people are "crazy" about the Clinton Global Initiative, Clinton said, "I think they like it because we're actually doing something." In order to attend the meeting, participants had to commit to contributing something in one of four focus areas: global warming, alleviation of poverty, global health, and religious and racial reconciliation. In the interview held on September 19, Clinton alluded to the creation of a fund for biofuels. The clip here contains the entire ~10 minute interview. Two days later, the CGI announced that Sir Richard Branson is pledging an estimated $3 billion to support renewable energy initiatives from the profits of transportation businesses (airlines and trains) owned by the Virgin Group of companies over the next 10 years. The first step by Branson and the Virgin Group is the creation of Virgin Fuels, which will focus on biofuel development with an initial investment of $400 million over three years.

A new white shark caught off the coast of southern California arrived at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on August 31. From his new million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit, the 5-foot, 8-inch-long, 104 pound shark is getting to know his new environment behind a 13-inch thick acrylic window, through which visitors can watch the shark swim and eat. This is only the second white shark ever held at the aquarium. The first white shark was kept at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for a record 198 days before being returned to the wild after she began to attack other sharks in the exhibit. Previously, no aquarium had successfully exhibited a white shark for more than 16 days. The current exhibit is the result of years of research and planning to minimize the stresses of collection and transport on the shark. The Outer Bay exhibit is specifically designed to hold open ocean animals, including sea turtles, hammerhead sharks, and barracuda, among others. You can see the white shark on the live Outer Bay webcam from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific time. Pre-recorded videos are shown on off hours. The aquarium is careful not to call the shark a "great" white shark. According to the website, "We use ‘white shark,’ says curator Christina Slager, 'because that’s currently the taxonomically correct common name.' These days, she adds, the overall trend is to let certain effusive descriptions—such as “great,” “giant,” “killer”—go without saying." There are numerous videos of the white shark on the website and a daily blog of the white shark exhibit.

In 1950, an explosion rumbling through city sewers in the New York City neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn sent manhole covers flying into the air. The source of the explosion was traced vaguely to the site of a number of Greenpoint oil refineries and storage facilities owned by the 'children companies' of Standard Oil, which first set up shop there in the 1860s. More than fifty years since the explosion, new environmental test results released last week by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) show that the underground plume contains flammable methane gas and cancer-causing benzene. Since 1978, when the Coast Guard discovered an oil leak into Newtown Creek (shown in map above), it has been known that Greenpoint, Brooklyn is the site of the largest oil spill in North America at an estimated 17 million gallons covering 55 acres - more than that released by the Exxon Valdez, which released an estimated 11 million gallons off the coast of Alaska. According to the New York Daily News, this month's release of the test results marked the first acknowledgment by either the state or an oil company that gas from the spill could be a health threat to residents: "In an Aug. 23 letter, an environmental firm hired by ExxonMobil warned FDNY brass, the Office of Emergency Management, Con Edison, Verizon, an airplane fuel provider and local businesses about the gas vapors. 'We have identified an area in the vicinity of the intersection of Bridgewater St. and Norman Ave. where methane and other volatile organic compounds are present... at concentrations that could pose a potential hazard,' the letter warned." The letters, which can be found in the report here, go on to say that no readings indicate "any imminent or hazardous condition." (Why did the NY Daily News leave this part of the letter out?) Despite initial assurances that "combustible conditions" do not exist, the DEC announced this week that it is asking residents in the area to sign up for tests for methane gas in their homes. The DEC fact sheet on the Greenpoint Petroleum Remediation Project can be found here.

Efforts Needed to Remove Barriers Against Women in Science [National Academies] - The National Academies released a report Monday on the barriers that women scientists face in academia and suggested steps for eliminating gender bias that currently shrinks the pool of women at every step of the ladder from high school to college to tenure review. You can read the full report online for free from the National Academies Press.

Enlisting Science to Entice Shoppers [NY Times] - Multivariate statistical analysis, once devised to build a better nuclear bomb, is now being used to design better shopping experiences for consumers.

Princeton Researchers Hack a Diebold Electronic Voting Machine [CITP] - A group of Princeton researchers has shown just how easy it is to falsify voting results on Diebold voting machines with malicious computer code that can be virally spread through multiple voting machines. The CITP website hosts a video demonstrating how this is done. According to the research team, "Mitigating these threats will require changes to the voting machine's hardware and software and the adoption of more rigorous election procedures."