You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that it loses itself early and does not find itself any more. --Mark Twain
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is formerly a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas, in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not battling creationists or modeling species ranges, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.
The opinions expressed here are his own, do not reflect the official position of the NCSE. Indeed, older posts may no longer reflect his own official position.
A few weeks ago, the makers of water-rocket launcher the Aquapod sent me a review copy of their device. It's a plastic tripod with a bike pump nozzle and a pressure valve to prevent your pressurized water bottle from exploding on the launch pad. A string and simple latch hold the bottle in place, and a tug launches the bottle up to 100 feet into the air. One fine autumn afternoon, several of my NCSE colleagues and I headed out to test the Aquapod in a nearby park. There's nothing like people fussing around with strange equipment to draw...
Last night I didn't get to bed until 4 am. Along with a couple hundred other people, I hung out at the Chabot Observatory, watching the Earth slide in between the Sun and the Moon. One of the Observatory's telescopes was open, and several people brought their own 'scopes, some homemade. The viewpieces were big enough to allow me to take some pictures through the telescopes. The focus is a bit off there, but you can see the craters and plains of the Moon's surface, and at the lower right corner, you can see the surface starting to darken as...
At around 3:37 am, Pacific time, the moon will be entirely swathed in Earth's shadow. If you live in the right areas, and are prepared to stay up late, you can watch it happen. Oakland's Chabot Space and Science Center and Wichita's Lake Afton Observatory are both holding special events all night long. You can watch the eclipse through their telescopes, listen to presentations about what you're seeing, and stay up way too late (or get up way too early) with a bunch of other science nerds. What's not to like? Those of you not in Kansas or the Bay...
Reposted from the old TfK, while I Travel from Kansas. Everyone is answering Seed's Question of the Week: If you could shake the public and make them understand one scientific idea, what would it be? I'm down with this answer: I want people to understand that there is no law of averages. There are no laws of probability (at least not if you mean something like "Really improbable things don't happen"). You can't prove just anything with statistics.My inclination would actually have been phrased the exact opposite way, though getting at the same point....
Chad is bemoaning the increase of "stat-geekery" in sports: I'll admit that I'm somewhat torn about this. I am, after all, a professional nerd, and enjoy working with numbers, so I can see the appeal of quantitative data. And a lot of the regular statistics used in basketball are pretty crude measures, so I can understand trying to develop better statistics.Very, very crude. And that is where my beef comes from. Can you think of a sports' statistic that includes a measure of error?...
In your astounding brilliance, you've managed to make the coolest thing ever. Again. The iPhone has an 8 gig hard drive, a 2 megapixel camera, and OS X. It can play video, it can connect to WiFi networks and view normal websites. In my bag, I usually carry my laptop, a black and white Palm device, a lovely iPod, my cell phone, and my 4 megapixel Olympus 4040Z. I love all of them, and have no deep desire to part with any of them (though upgrades are always welcome). This new iPhone can do much of what each of those...
Little known fact: Kansas is (apparently) the world's leading producer of helium, accounting for 4 billion cubic feet per year out of the world's production of 6 billion cubic feet. Alas, production problems in Algeria and Qatar are leaving global shortages, as are problems with the helium pipeline leading from Bushton, KS to Amarillo, TX: Industry experts aren't sure exactly when the shortage will end. Balloon retailers, which use 8 percent of helium supply annually, are hoping normal production levels return in time for Valentine's Day, typically one of the busiest flower and balloon sales days of the year.Helium is...
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at 
