Archives for March, 2011
Ripples in Planetary Rings Are Traces of Decades-Old Cometary Collisions
Posted by Greg Laden on March 31, 2011 Information gleaned form Cassini, Galileo and New Horizons missions seems to indicate that ripples seen in the rings of Saturn and Jupiter were caused by comets. Shoemaker-Levy 9 (famous for a multiplicity of impacts on Jupiter in 1994) left one set of ripples. Saturn’s cometary clues date to a cloud of icy debris passing through…
Huxley loves his dihydrogen oxide cocktail!
Posted by Greg Laden on March 31, 2011 Cracking Stuxnet, a 21st-century cyber weapon
Posted by Greg Laden on March 31, 2011 Ralph Langner: When first discovered in 2010, the Stuxnet computer worm posed a baffling puzzle. Beyond its unusually high level of sophistication loomed a more troubling mystery: its purpose. Ralph Langner and team helped crack the code that revealed this digital warhead’s final target — and its covert origins. In a fascinating look inside cyber-forensics,…
Claron McFadden: Singing the primal mystery
Posted by Greg Laden on March 31, 2011 “The human voice: mysterious, spontaneous, primal.” With these words, soprano Claron McFadden invites us to explore the mysteries of breathing and singing, as she performs the challenging “Aria,” by John Cage.
The video the Republicans don’t want you to see
Posted by Greg Laden on March 30, 2011 Watch it now before it gets pulled:
Anti-evolution bills suffer diverse fates
Posted by Greg Laden on March 30, 2011 The Anti-Evolution Bills in Tennessee have advanced. Tennessee’s House Bill 368 was passed by the House Education Committee on March 29, 2011, and referred to the House Calendar and Rules Committee, while its counterpart, Senate Bill 893, is scheduled to be discussed by the Senate Education Committee on March 30, 2011. These bills, if enacted,…
Ark Park Makes Mark with Darwinian Snark!
Posted by Greg Laden on March 30, 2011 For that special organization or person that makes you throw up a little in your mouth when you hear about their latest aggravating attack on our children’s education, by way of making fun of something that is not really all that funny, DontDissDarwn Central annually awards the highly alliterated angs-ridden accolade: The Upchucky. And this…
The genius puppetry behind War Horse
Posted by Greg Laden on March 30, 2011 “Puppets always have to try to be alive,” says Adrian Kohler of the Handspring Puppet Company, a gloriously ambitious troupe of human and wooden actors. Beginning with the tale of a hyena’s subtle paw, puppeteers Kohler and Basil Jones build to the story of their latest astonishment: the wonderfully life-like Joey, the War Horse, who…
Japan quake, tsunami, nuke news 13: When in doubt, throw a towel on it.
Posted by Greg Laden on March 30, 2011 As I tune in to NHK live TV, and see the piece on using Twitter to aid in disaster relief being shown for the 20th time over the last 48 hours, I wonder about what appears to be a sudden and dramatic drop in the level of coverage of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.…
Has Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2 Core Melted Down?
Posted by Greg Laden on March 29, 2011 It is said that it is physically impossible for the nuclear material in any of the Fukushima reactors to melt through the containment vessels. Despite a rumor of a crack in one of the vessels, nuclear power experts have maintained that it is impossible that there could be such a crack. Nonetheless, a US based…
Interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson
Posted by Greg Laden on March 29, 2011 I am going to interview Neil deGrasse Tyson this coming Sunday on Minnesota Atheist Talk. Details of the timing and how you can listen to the interview live can be found here. Unlike my recent interview with PZ Myers, in which I literally asked him the very questions you posted on my blog, I’ve got…
Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
Posted by Greg Laden on March 29, 2011 Yes, yes, I know … Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson did not just come out, and it is not part of any current news story, so I’m not supposed to mention it in a blog post, because blog posts are only about things that happened during the last…
Vesta
Posted by Greg Laden on March 29, 2011 This is the picture of Vesta, which is an object in our solar system: That’s the picture that Wikipedia uses as of this writing, and it was taken by the Hubble. The key thing to note is that Vesta, which lies in the asteroid belt and has been thought of as a big asteroid, is…
Lester Park Stromatolites
Posted by Greg Laden on March 29, 2011 Some years ago, I was asked by a friend to accompany him on a visit to a site in Saratoga Springs, New York, where we were to witness the activities of a gen-u-wine geomancer. I had never heard of a geomancer before. If you don’t know what one is, be happy. If you do, you…
Japan quake, tsunami, nuke news 12: Engineers discover giant trench filled with radioactive water; Plutonium in nearby soil?
Posted by Greg Laden on March 28, 2011 The most interesting and important current news, interesting if confirmed, is that plutonium has been discovered in soil near Fukushima. With all this talk about radiation, it is easy to forget that some of these elements are extremely poisonous in their own right. Plutonium is a very nasty poison. I’ve not seen the news reports…
Health Reform Matters
Posted by Greg Laden on March 27, 2011 below the fold
Japan quake, tsunami, nuke news 11 … overnight spike was false reading?
Posted by Greg Laden on March 27, 2011 Sea water has now been replaced with fresh water for cooling reactors, and, apparently, spent fuel storage pools. Work continues on restoring power and repairing cooling systems, but the cooling systems remain unrepaired. An interesting development overnight (overday in Japan): A very high radiation reading in Reactor 2 showed what apparently was high enough radiation…
The Crack at Fukushima Reactor 3, and other matters
Posted by Greg Laden on March 26, 2011 A crack in the containment vessel of Fukashima Reactor 3 has been mentioned by MSNBC and ABC news, citing the New York Times. The New York Times has an article in which the crack is mentioned in a side bar, attributed to an anonymous person. An anonymous source is not particularly impressive, but the New…
Geraldine Ferraro, the First Woman to Run for VP, has Died
Posted by Greg Laden on March 26, 2011 Ferraro was from Newburgh, New York and served in the US House. She was a progressive Democrat. She ran for Vice President with Walter Mondale. She was the first woman, and the first Italian American (which in those days meant more than it does today) to do so. The fact that she was a woman…
Japan quake, tsunami, nuke news 10 … Tickling the Dragon’s Tail?
Posted by Greg Laden on March 26, 2011 This is a particularly important update. An anonymous source in Japan has told reporters connected to the New York Times that there is a visible crack in the Fukushima Reactor 3. This is the reactor that showed isotopic evidence of a leak of some kind. Arguments had been made that a hole in the reactor…
Stardust Ends Its Mission
Posted by Greg Laden on March 25, 2011 This just in from NASA: PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Stardust spacecraft sent its last transmission to Earth at 4:33 .m. PDT (7:33 p.m. EDT) Thursday, March 24, shortly after depleting fuel and ceasing operations. During a 12-year period, the venerable spacecraft collected and returned comet material to Earth and was reused after the end of…
There is now little doubt that Fukushima Reactor 3 experienced post-tsunami fission but it is leaking
Posted by Greg Laden on March 25, 2011 The water within Reactor Number 3 (where three workers were exposed to high levels of radiation yesterday) is 10,000 times more radioactive than the average water inside a nuclear reactor and contains radioactive iodine that is generated during fission and has a half-life of 8 days. Japanese engineers are pretty sure that this means that…
Japan quake, tsunami, nuke news 09
Posted by Greg Laden on March 25, 2011 Ana’s Feed starting at about 2PM Thursday 24 March: Finally found some info on that simulation mentioned earlier: “…the model showed that areas where cumulative exposure over 12 days reached 100 millisieverts–the government’s maximum for infants–extended beyond the evacuation zone. A map based on data from the center showed areas that received a cumulative 100…
Japan quake, tsunami, nuke news 08
Posted by Greg Laden on March 24, 2011 Ana’s Feed starting just after midnight 24 March: “…estimates that 57,000 pounds of salt have accumulated in Reactor No. 1 and 99,000 pounds apiece in Reactors No. 2 and 3, which are larger.” (Editor’s note: This is what I had independently calculated, so it looks right to me) Ban Ki-moon and IAEA and various governments…
If animals wore clothing, we would not have to stuff them.
Posted by Greg Laden on March 23, 2011 You know that movie that came out a few years ago about the horse that lived during the depression and everybody was happy when it won the triple crown? Well that horse, or a horse just like it (fast, famous, dead) was stuffed and on display in a racing museum I visited when I was…
Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine
Posted by Greg Laden on March 23, 2011 What was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution? Hans Rosling makes the case for the washing machine. With newly designed graphics from Gapminder, Rosling shows us the magic that pops up when economic growth and electricity turn a boring wash day into an intellectual day of reading.
Apple Pulls Anti-Gay App
Posted by Greg Laden on March 23, 2011 Following an online petition and a wave of complaints, Apple has removed a so-called “gay cure” app from its App Store. Launched last month by Exodus International, a ministry that encourages gay people to seek “cures” for their homosexuality, the app triggered a huge outcry from Two Wins Out, a nonprofit group with the stated…
Is this for real or is this a scam?
Posted by Greg Laden on March 23, 2011 Please do not send money (as is requested) unless this is verified. What do you know about this?
Why don’t zoo animals die in front of visitors all the time?
Posted by Greg Laden on March 23, 2011 Zoos are open to the public about half of the hours on a given day (or more) and for about half the time there are easily enough people in a zoo to be observing about half the animals. (If you don’t like these estimates substitute your own!)
Elizabeth Taylor has Died
Posted by Greg Laden on March 23, 2011 She was a major film (and stage) actress of my parent’s generation. She was the ultimate “leading lady” and as such often played across her sometimes husband, classic “leading man” Richard Burton. She is famous for having been married and divorced more times than anyone else ever (an exaggeration), but more importantly she’s famous for…
, which is now available for the 
