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“The next Cascadia earthquake has the potential to be the biggest natural disaster that the United States will have to come to terms with—far bigger than Sandy or even Katrina,” says Benjamin Horton, associate professor and director of the Sea Level Research Laboratory in the department of earth and environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tiny fossils offer clues to a 1700 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest that was strong enough to cause a tsunami as far away as Japan. Through radiocarbon dating and an analysis of different species’ positions with the cores over time, the researchers were able to piece together a historical picture of the changes in land and sea level along the coastline. The research revealed how much the coast suddenly subsided during the earthquake, which infers how much the tectonic plates moved during the earthquake.

The Cascadia subduction zone is of particular interest to geologists and coastal managers because geological evidence points to recurring seismic activity along the fault line, with intervals between 300 and 500 years. With the last major event occurring in 1700, another earthquake could be on the horizon. A better understanding of how such an event might unfold has the potential to save lives.

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: fickleandfreckled/Flickr

The African clawed frog, a species used around the world for biomedical research, is spreading an amphibian-killing fungus when they are released into the wild.

Researchers provide the first evidence that the frogs in California harbor a fungal infection that is decimating amphibian populations across the globe. Among 23 samples tested, the researchers identified three frogs, one found in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, that were carriers of the pathogen that has led to the decline or extinction of some 200 amphibian species worldwide.

The African clawed frog was first brought to the United States in the early 20th century for a somewhat unusual purpose: pregnancy testing. In the 1920s, it was discovered that injecting the frogs with urine from pregnant women would spur egg production in the animals. Hospitals then began routinely using the frogs to determine if female patients were pregnant.

The frogs, which Sherril Green, professor and chair of comparative medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine describes as “big, slimy, green, ugly things,” are predators and are carnivorous, devouring everything in their path, including their own species. They can grow as long as 7 inches and are extremely adaptable, often living a decade or more in the wild, where they have few local predators.

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: Brian Gratwicke/Flickr

There’s this parallel life running alongside yours.

“They usually don’t intersect, except every once in a great while. When your eyes won’t close late at night like someone is holding the lids open for you to look at something, but you’re not sure what, so you just keep looking and looking until you see that parallel life and go Oh My God, there I am, that’s me if I had gone there instead of here or said this instead of that, and then the longer your eyes stay unblinking, the farther back they see into the space before you were born. In that space, which is dark and wet and grey, your eyes notice things like your parents falling in love and laughing in a car, and you’re not even in the picture. You’re not even an idea yet. You’re not even a kiss.

You’re simply a pair of dry eyes who won’t close in the middle of the night. It’s like someone is holding your eyes open and saying, “Do you see?” And you say yes even though you have no idea what you are supposed to be looking for, and all you want to do is close your eyes and fall asleep.”

Those other lives? The what-ifs? Don’t let them steal your happy because they are not possible.

Are you spending time worrying about this parallel life that you don’t have or focusing on the life that you do have?

Full article Positively Positive

Need some more inspiration?

Photo credit Jenni Young of Simple Reminders.

Worried about cyber crime?

As GI Joe always said, “Knowing is half the battle…” and Go-Gulf.com is here to help with this infographic on cyber crime stats.

Via Go-Gulf.com.

Like infographics? So do we.

Need a feel good story to kick off your week?

Not long ago, we brought you the story of the Clairton High School Robotics team, who were struggling to raise the $4000 they needed to go to the national competition in Indianapolis.

We’re thrilled to say they met their goal and made it into the elite eight teams of the fifty-two that attended and raised an amazing $58,000 from donations!

The leftover funds will go to continued funding of the team and expansion to the middle school level to make Clairton a robotics threat for years to come.

The team’s sponsor, Dennis Beard, wants everyone to know how much their help is appreciated:

“They’ve already started to kick around designs and now they know they will have the money to pay for it,” he said. “We would really like to send out a thank-you to all who donated to our team.”

Full story at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Glimmers of hope for education.

You don’t have to be an alumni of Illinois’ Wheaton North High School to feel nostalgic about this school’s excitement for the end of the school year or the urge to end it on a high note.

The best part is that, for us old folks, they use the exact same songs we would have including Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer,” and Spice Girls’ “Wannabe.”

Here’s to the end of the year and the Class of 2013!

Full story at YouTube.

Time to celebrate.

Quick, how do you avoid being killed by a jellyfish?

In the time it took you to answer, you could have become the victim of a shark attack, too, but not with this handy-dandy survival guide by Liam Gooley, who covers major threats on land, sea and the netherworld certain major world religions call Hell but the rest of us call Arizona.

Full story at HellaWella via Neatorama.

Laughing at death.

There are many great books out there that help leaders determine their strengths and weaknesses, but the one that Entrepreneur’s Martin Zwilling strongly suggests for those starting out is John Mattone’s  Intelligent Leadership, which shows nine different traits every effective leader displays to one degree or another.

He points out that truly effective leaders not only know their strengths but their weaknesses so that the hiring process is about building a well-rounded company.

Here’s just a sampling of the types Mattone discusses and Zwilling summarizes:

1. Helpers. Mature helpers are considerate and genuinely the most sensitive and caring of all the leadership types. They are excellent mentors and coaches, but have a strong need to be admired and respected in return. Strengthen this trait by being more conscious of your need to be liked, and don’t be possessive or controlling.

2. Entertainers. Entertainers gain the respect of others with drive, determination, hard work and the ability to win people over. But they can become fixated with appearing successful, showing more style than substance, or undermine themselves by exaggeration, inflating their importance, or trying to win or one-up all the time.

(Incidentally, if you’re growing weary of reading about leadership in the non-fiction genre, check out Richard Adam’s classic Watership Down in which Hazel shows some impressive self-awareness of the kind Zwilling discusses. At the very least, though, take encouragement that if a bunch of bunnies can survive striking out on their own, so can you.)

Full story at Entrepreneur.

What makes a great leader.

Photo credit: Fotolia

Did you know that your brain releases oxytocin, “the feel-good” hormone in the brain when you pet your dog or cat?

What is Oxytocin?
“Oxytocin is a powerful hormone. When we hug or kiss a loved one, oxytocin levels drive up. It also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. In fact, the hormone plays a huge role in pair bonding.”

This wonderful feeling can come from dogs, cats, and even goldfish! A study showed that having a fish tank at a nursing home improved appetites.

“Watch a Lassie movie and spit into a cup. It doesn’t sound like it, but this is cutting-edge research. By analyzing saliva, researcher Cheryl Krause-Parello showed that merely watching a dog in a movie lowered people’s stress. Krause-Parello, assistant professor and director of the Center for Nursing Research at Kean University in Union, N.J., learned that people felt better after watching a Lassie flick because their levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, took a free fall.”

Do you have a pet? Have you had these great experiences with them?

Full article at Psychology Today

Find more great articles about pets or psychology on Alltop.

Photo credit RKleine