Google Maps of the Oil Spill

Google is tracking the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Check out this weblink to their map as well as some KML files for Google Earth

Two Must-Have Mac Tools to Manage Hard Disk Space and Time Machine

So earlier today I had a bit of a freak-out! Inexplicably, the remaining 25 GB or so of free disk space on my Mac disappeared. I got a little pop-up warning telling me my disk was full, and sure enough when I checked I only had about 150 MB left. I immediately assumed the worst, that my drive was corrupted, my computer was going to die, all my work would be lost, I would subsequently fail out of my PhD, and that I would end up working at McDonald's. OK, this might be a stretch, and in any case, I have yesterday's Time Machine backup, but I was still freaked out. How do you suddenly lose 25 GB of free space? I noticed it after plugging in my Time Machine disk and letting a backup start. I checked my drive but saw nothing out of the ordinary. On my boyfriend's advice, I let Time Machine finish the backup. This way I could hopefully do a diff between two backups and find out what was eating up the hard disk space.

During the backup, I deleted some small files to help make space and emptied my trash. Then suddenly, viola! My free space came back. My trash had been emptied before, so that was not the cause. Perhaps my Entourage address book had become corrupted? This was one of the files I deleted to help create space since I do not use Entourage at all. My boyfriend thinks perhaps Time Machine itself created some weird temp file that got out of control and that it disappeared as Time Machine finished doing its thing. I do not know what happened, but in the process my boyfriend and I found two great FREE tools that we have now decided everyone should have.


1) Disk Inventory X

This awesome program will show all attached drives, the space used and available, and gives you a really nifty graphical interface so you can immediately see which files are space-hoggers. It takes a little time to get going if you decide to view your entire computer, but trust me, it is worth it!



2) TimeTracker

This utility will list all your Time Machine backups, the space they are using, and a complete breakdown of what has changed since the previous backup.

New CCOM-er, New Blogger

Jonathan Beaudoin, from the University of New Brunswick, just recently joined us at CCOM. His work on looking at the uncertainty of 4-dimensional sound speed in the water column is pretty fascinating!

Jonathan is also a blogger and Mac user, so I thought I would give his blog a shout-out. You can find it here: Jonathan's Blog.

I must admit though, I am not sure how I feel about him now that I saw his knock on EMACS. I use Aquamacs on my Mac and I love it!

Can Toads Be Used to Predict Earthquakes?

There is a long history of animals acting strangely prior to an earthquake. The Japanese believe that the catfish may be used as a predictor of seismic activity. Dogs, cats, chickens, and horses are also believed by some to be able to detect p-wave energy well before humans can. Now it appears that toads may be added to that list:

Can Toads Be Used to Predict Earthquakes?

Want to go to the Arctic? Just donate 25K to the La Jolla Symphony

Check out this article: http://www.lajollalight.com/life/266876-one-cool-gift-bassoonist-hopes-to-thank-benefactors-with-trip-to-arctic

Dr. James Swift, from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, is offering up the chance to go on the Coast Guard icebreaker, the Healy, for a research cruise up in the Arctic. All you have to do is donate 25,000 smackaroos or more to the La Jolla Symphony, and you get entered in to the drawing.

Sure glad I study the ocean; I got to go for free :)

R.I.P. ABE

This past Friday, March 5, 2010, the AUV ABE was lost during a dive off the coast of Chile. Here is the formal WHOI obituary, I mean announcement, and here is an nice exert highlighting some of ABE's many accomplishments during his life:

Built as a prototype, ABE quickly became a workhorse. It was the first autonomous robot to make detailed maps of mid-ocean ridges, the 40,000-mile undersea volcanic mountain chain at the boundaries of Earth’s tectonic plates where new seafloor crust is created. It was also the first AUV to locate hydrothermal vents, where hot chemical-rich fluids spew from the seafloor and sustain lush communities of deep-sea life. ABE explored seamounts, undersea volcanoes, and other areas with harsh, rugged terrain. In addition to researchers and students from the United States, ABE advanced research for scientists and engineers from Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Italy, Ecuador, and most recently Chile.

Chilean Earthquake Shortens Earth Days

Scientists now estimate that our Earth days are ~ 1.26 millionth of a second shorter. Here is a nifty blog post explaining why.