Brunswick ME February 4, 2012, 3:46 pm  29°F wind speed: 11 mph NNW |  Image: Fathom Information Design/Fathom.com The earth’s population recently passed the 7 billion mark. If that’s hard to picture, this map called Dencity, composed by Fathom Information Design, may help by depicting population density using circles of different color and size. It also highlights the 20 largest cities in the world, only one of which is in the U.S. See a full-size version of Dencity. Twitter was, well, atwitter with Bowdoin tweets in 2011 — everything from Polar Bear sightings and campus yearnings (the food really is that good) to a famous author’s kind words. Don’t be left out of the conversation, go to twitter.com/bowdoincollege and follow Bowdoin on Twitter. Also check out Bowdoin Social for links to other Twitter accounts and social media.
Charlie Largay ’78 has his head in the cloud — and that means good news for the community. He and his wife, Maureen, run Resilient Tier-V, a data security company at Brunswick Landing, the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. Resilient provides the infrastructure that supports “the cloud,” ensuring the security of data stored on the Web. “We have more fiber (optics) in here than probably, with the exception of a few government facilities, and maybe the NYSE, we have more fiber than probably 90 percent of the larger facilities on the East Coast, and more than most cities,” Largay tells The Times Record. The Largays say they’re committed to creating a world-class data center and are “ready to do a very big set of hires.” Resilient is working with the College and other schools to develop the work force Largay says he will need. Read the Times Record article.  It was a subtle joke in 1978's "Superman," when Christopher Reeve, as Clark Kent, offers a dismayed look at the then-modern iteration of the classic telephone booth. Now, as cellphones have become de rigueur even among elementary school students, the nearly anachronistic phone booth — if you can still find one with four walls — is nearly obsolete but for shedding one's clothes in favor of superhero tights on your way to foiling Lex Luthor. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures. If you’ve had to explain to your children that once upon a time, telephones were tethered to the wall with a curly cord, this one is for you. Forbes has compiled a list of 10 Things Our Kids Will Never Worry About Thanks to the Information Revolution.  Phil Camill
The degree to which thawing permafrost will accelerate global warming is explored in “As Permafrost Thaws, Scientists Study the Risks,” the New York Times article that references a recent study to which Phil Camill, Bowdoin’s Rusack Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Earth and Oceanographic Science, and director of the Environmental Studies Program, contributed. Camill is one of 41 scientists from around the globe forming the Permafrost Carbon Research Network, which met this summer. Their findings were published in the journal Nature and cited in media outlets across the country. “They estimated that if human fossil-fuel burning remained high and the planet warmed sharply, the gases from permafrost could eventually equal 35 percent of today’s annual human emissions,” reports the Times.
 Detail from extendny.com by Harold Cooper.
If you’re in a New York state of mind no matter where you live, you may be interested in the interactive grid conceived by Harold Cooper. Combining mapping technology and the Big Apple’s numbering system, it extends the Manhattan grid to every point on Earth. Scientists who have deconstructed temper tantrums can now report that they have a pattern and a rhythm. While it may not make it any easier to endure the tirade in the next seat during your flight, it does helps us better understand those little ones and their big fits. Last week, former U.S. Rep. Tom Allen ’67 gave the keynote address at the launch of The Reach Center, a new organization that will provide individual student mentor ships and foster innovative math and science programs around the state of Maine. Allen touted the program as a pathway to a stronger economy and key to Maine’s economic future. Massive amounts of greenhouse gases trapped under permafrost (frozen ground, in this case, an area that covers nearly half of Canada) will likely seep into the air over the next several years, accelerating global warming much more rapidly that previously thought, says a group of scientists that includes Phil Camill, Bowdoin’s Rusack Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Earth and Oceanographic Science, and director of the Environmental Studies Program. Camill is one of 41 scientists from around the globe forming the Permafrost Carbon Research Network, which met this summer, and whose findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Nature. (The article is available to those on campus here and to others here by subscription or one-time fee.) Findings have also been cited in many media outlets across the country, including The Washington Post, Bloomberg/Businessweek and Time. In a demonstrative video, Permafrost Carbon Research Network member Katey Walter Anthony shows us what lies beneath. |  | ||
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