See ya, Sandy.

Sandy roared ashore between Sea Isle City and Avalon, NJ at 8pm last night as a Category 1 storm (maximum sustained winds of 80 mph).  This is 5 miles south of Atlantic City (pictures below) and just a few towns south of Ocean City, NJ (pictures below).

We made it through!  We didn't even lose power (but we did lose internet until this afternoon).  I went out to see the Schuylkill River cresting and was surprised to see it was much lower than last year's Hurricane Irene.  Unfortunately, many many places were not so lucky.


Ocean City, NJ High School:

Long Beach Island, NJ:

Ocean City, NJ (10th St):

Atlantic City, NJ (that's a piece of the boardwalk floating there):

World Trade Center / Freedom Tower construction site in NYC:

Stay safe during the clean up.  Be patient.  Some people, especially those along the Jersey shore and the people affected by the fire in Queens, were impacted deeply by this storm.
 

More Sandy...

       Well, I fail as an arm-chair meteorologist.  I've been watching Sandy's wind speed and central pressure over the past day.  Her winds were down to 75 mph and pressure was climbing well into the 900s mb.  I figured that the cooler waters up here would decrease the storm's strength, dropping it to a tropical storm before making landfall.  Mother Nature ruined that plan.  The storm is 205 miles from Atlantic City and packing 90 mile an hour winds.  That's a strong category 1 storm!

Sandy at ~ 8am:

Sandy at ~ 11am:

Oh, Sandy.

The sun is barely peaking out from behind the thick white and gray clouds right now.  I know this is the last of it for awhile!  The wind is picking up, but nothing really to write home about yet.

Here's an updated picture.  Look how big this storm is.  We're still not sure what to expect, but don't worry - Sandy's path takes her directly through Philadelphia.  I'll be sure to find out.

Villanova University, University of Delaware, and The University of Pennsylvania have been declared closed Monday and Tuesday.  No, I haven't heard any plans to shut down our transportation system like NYC already announced.

EDIT: SEPTA (Philadelphia's public transportation system) has announced it will suspend all bus, trolley, subway, and rail service starting at 12:30am Monday.  It is expected to last at least the majority of Monday.

Hurricane Sandy

As a citizen in the City of Brotherly Love, apparently I'm also a target for Hurricane Sandy.  Her 5-day prediction cone is centered squarely on Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia.  The hospital I work at sent out a multi-page, power-point-esque document yesterday outlining their emergency preparedness.  They've never done that before, which made me wonder just how big this storm was (quite honestly, I'd barely heard a blip about Hurricane Sandy before 3pm yesterday).

I love the names that are coming out about it right now.  Superstorm!  Diane Sawyer broke into local news last night to light up Philadelphians' ears with that one.  Today, CNN is calling it "Frankenstorm."  Very clever - that whole hurricane merging with cold front right around Halloween angle.  "Perfect Storm" was also bandied about on CNN this morning - saying it was twenty years later than originally suspected.  I'm not sure I understand this reference?

Anyway, since I'm sitting in the bulls-eye, I'll be sure to pass along some fun pictures like I did for Hurricane Irene.

Until then, here's a snapshot of Sandy right now.

Sleepwalking

Have you ever sleepwalked?  I have.  It's also called somnambulism.  Yikes.

It's more common in children and thought to be due to lack of sleep, tiredness/fatigue and anxiety.

It's far less common in adults and is usually associated with alcohol, sedatives, sleep medication, seizures and mental disorders.

I can easily blame my child sleep walking on anxiety and the adult sleepwalking on alcohol (doh!).  What I find interesting is that scientists are currently finding links between migraines and sleepwalking.  Migraines are a neurological disorder (not just a bad headache).  Fascinating that it all could be linked together!

Info on sleepwalking: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001811/

Sleepwalking and migraines: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sleepwalking/DS01009/DSECTION=causes

Element 113

Let's be real, after plutonium (element #94) on the periodic table, the names of the elements get really weird.  Americium?  Einsteinium?  Nobelium?  Do you see a theme here?  They sound so silly (sorry, element namers of the world). 

It's hard work to identify a new element and it's even harder to gain the right to name it.  Japanese researchers recently made their third atom of element 113 (meaning an atom that has 113 protons in its nucleus).  They are not the first to make the element (Russians and Americans have already done it), but they are the first to do it three times.  This means that they might be able to name it!

Please let them pick a cooler name than ...Curium?  I'm all for honoring awesome scientists but these names are crazy.

Facebook Hugs

I was reading a message board thread this morning where the original poster was going through a hard time.  Lots of the responses were "hugs," which I feel is a little sad and empty in this internet age.  However, the folks at MIT (yes, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up with this gem), have invented a new coat that will give you a squeeze whenever someone on Facebook "likes" something you posted.  It's a merging of the virtual world and reality. 

No, it's not coming on the market any time soon, but you can read about this latest product here.  http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/like-a-hug-jacket-receive-a-hug-for-every-facebook-like-2012107/

Here's the coat.  Very puffy and impractical for summer, but perhaps good for those cold Bostonian autumns and winters!

Imagine if it "poked" you instead?  That would be really annoying.  Does Facebook still even have the "poke" option?

JoVE

I literally don't know what to make of this "journal."  I'm only putting it in quotes because the format is not focused on words but rather videos.  I'm not sure if this is entirely accurate, but the idea of the journal grew from a frustrated scientist who couldn't reproduce another lab's protocol.  He read and read what the laboratory had published, but eventually went to the lab to watch how they did it.  Apparently that made all the difference.

I have a lot of thoughts on how science and technology should be integrated, but I'll save that for another post on Amedeo.  Until then, check out this YouTubed-out journal that my institution is currently mulling over buying a subscription to.

http://www.jove.com/ <-- Link!

^^ Roman God Jove ^^

National Geographic Photography

More entries are posted on the website for National Geographic's Photography contest.

Here's my new favorite:

Water droplets on plants after the rain.  They look like champagne glasses.  Absolutely beautiful!

This reminds me that I've recently seen advertisements for Nikon's Small World Gallery.  It's nearing time to see more of the microscopic world through the eyes of scientists, beautiful colors, and fascinating lenses.  More info from Nikon here: http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/.