Diatribune - Book page - Comments

Thanks for sharing your

alexwierbinski — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:00:08 -0700

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience, let alone your love for the sea and the things in it. I will look forward to your postings.

I am tracking nature on the other side of the equation, the human affect.

Enviornment pages: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,

Sculling in fish is similar

Mark H — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 05:45:56 -0700

Sculling in fish is similar to rowing. Think of the dorsal and ventral fins as vertical oars.

The iodine discovery took years to figure out, but once a necropsy of a dying fish reported an enlarged goiter, then iodine was the likely suspect.

This is an especially good

Jacob Freeze — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:49:57 -0700

This is an especially good entry in a series that I always enjoy! It left me with all sorts of questions, which is a sure sign of the very best science writing.

How did you discover that Puffers use up iodine so fast? Is this tied in with other strange features of their metabolism?

Why is their swimming motion called "sculling?" It doesn't sound much like the motion of those skinny little boats I used to see whizzing up and down the Charles River!

Am I going to have nightmares about a little herd of Zombie Pigs waiting for a passing "bokor" to revive them in Captain Cook's steerage? I hope not!

Thanks again for this well-written and well-researched series.

i can't say enough...

fake consultant — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:55:44 -0600

...nice things about what you write; and reading about the crab's blue blod reminds me of the copper-based green blood of the lobsters i used to have to kill at the restaurant where i worked years and years ago.

which leads to my suggestion: i would love to see a "marine blood" diary one day.

of course, if you've already done it...well, to quote emily latella: "never mind".

Welcome back

kerry — Thu, 24 May 2007 17:58:59 -0600

Welcome back Mark. I thought that you might have abandoned us.

Be kind! It's late and

Teach313 — Sun, 06 May 2007 22:56:14 -0600

I'll proofread it again tomorrow after work Monday night.

Mainstream coverage

Mandevilla — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:40:13 -0600

Thanks, Betsy.

I figure the mainstream media will pick up on the story in four or five years, well past Bush's present reign and well past any chance we might have had to correct the problem in mid-stream. It's sad to have so little confidence in the major media, but their track record leaves so little to hold up in honor, and there's no blood or sex in a story about long-standing cronyism and graft. It takes more than three minutes to tell this story and -- look! there goes Britney Spears!

I appreciate your reading the series. Feel free to share the links with friends, and invite them to cut and paste liberally.

I thank you for this enlightening series.

Betsy L. Angert — Fri, 04 May 2007 12:30:16 -0600

Dear Mandevilla . . .

When Big Business becomes public education or the schools serve industrialist and not students, we all suffer.

I thank you for this enlightening series.

The reporting is dense and perhaps that is the purpose. I need time to review this material in its totality; we all do. Perchance, those in power are hoping none of us will notice or bother to invest our energies in educating ourselves.

Cross posted at

Teach313 — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 13:07:25 -0600

Blue House Diaries, MLW, dKos, and my humble blog, Travels with Teach313.

It's all about a dollar for today & a prayer for tomorrow...

keechi — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:51:53 -0600

I think they now call it, "The Bush Doctrine."

A bit off topic, but... They say we still have some ancient pristine (virgin) forests in the world - are there any virgin, pristine portions of ocean anymore - is it even possible - does the ocean have any natural pollution filtering capability, and are there studies over how air pollutants affect even the most secluded of our ocean's best hidden sanctuaries? (*ideas for future articles)

actually

Mark H — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:20:30 -0600

that's pretty spot-on observation. Like quahogers, in my area at least most lobster boats are owned by the person doing the fishing.

without knowing anything...

fake consultant — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 01:21:22 -0600

...about lobster versus other fisheries, i wonder if the issue related is to the size of investment required?

to put it another way, if, for example, lobstering is a small boat, owner-operator business, and tuna is a large boat, corporate business, it might explain the differences in cooperation, or the ability of the federal government to impose a solution.

This series

kerry — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:02:39 -0600

This series has always been one of my favorites. He does make everything interesting. I was horrible in all science classes in school particularly biology so this is a new world for me and it is a nice change from all the straight political stuff.

Fish Scales? You never know ...

Teach313 — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:15:39 -0600

what's going to be interesting. I'm not a scientist and my science background is fair at best, but you made fish scales interesting to me.
Enthusiasm can be infectious.

Thanks, epppie.

Teach313 — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 22:12:44 -0600

Good to hear from you again.