August 5, 2012
A newly-published paper reveals how highly-reactive Fluorine Gas has been found in nature, due do a process which takes place within fluorite.
August 5, 2012
Left: Efe (Pygmy) man. Right: White guy.
Some of the people who live in the rain forest of Central Africa are known widely as "Pgymies." That word...Pygmy...is considered problematic for a few different reasons. It refers to a person's physical appearance, because it means "small." The word…
August 5, 2012
This just in:
Curiosity Closes in on its New 'Home'
Sat, 04 Aug 2012 06:20:24 PM CDT
With Mars looming ever larger in front of it, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and its Curiosity rover are in the final stages of preparing for entry, descent and landing on the Red Planet at 10:31 p.m.…
August 4, 2012
Researcher and science writer Jesse Bering delights in being provocative. From the description of his new book, Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?: And Other Reflections on Being Human:
Why do testicles hang the way they do? Is there an adaptive function to the female orgasm? What does it feel like…
August 4, 2012
I'd like to give you a very small selection of references and discussions about the link between global warming and drought.
Global warming probably has two major effects. First, more moisture gets into the atmosphere because warmer air passing over the oceans can take in more water. This can…
August 4, 2012
Caption from NASA: "This artist's scoreboard displays a fictional game between Mars and Earth, with Mars in the lead. It refers to the success rate of sending missions to Mars, both as orbiters and landers. Of the previous 39 missions targeted for Mars from around the world, 15 have been successes…
August 4, 2012
It seems like everybody in the Old Testament is either married, about to get married, or was recently married but something went terribly wrong. This may be becasue the bible is about marriage. The Old Testament is a history, it is a set of laws, and it is an enthnography, and the themes themes…
August 3, 2012
There is a novel strain of swine flu of the H3N2 type with a lot of infections in humans over a short period of time but over a large geographic area.
The CDC reports 12 cases this week, 1 in Hawaii, 10 in Ohio, and one in Indiana. Seventeen more cases were reported since about one year ago.…
August 3, 2012
The Mars Science Laboratory Mission has piles of cool equipment on board Curiosity Rover, which is closing in on Mars as we speak. The landing is expected to be next Sunday/Monday, 10:31 p.m. Aug. 5 PDT (1:31 a.m. Aug. 6 EDT, 05:31 Aug. 6 Universal Time) plus or minus a minute.. But not really,…
August 2, 2012
One in three or four women in the United States will have been raped or seriously assaulted sexually by the time they reach a few decades in age. That will have been done by one or more men. Most people who are killed by another person are killed by a man. This is true whether the killing is…
August 2, 2012
I am skeptical. Which is perfect because The Disappearing Spoon byKean and The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code author Sam Kean will be the guest on the next Skeptically Speaking. Details of that show, which will be recorded live…
August 2, 2012
First, Kudos to Twin Cites Kare 11 News for having a weekly spot called "Simply Science." For the last few years media outlest have been dropping science spots, features, sections, or segments. It is nice to see one added.
And now on to the flies. A Minnesota company called Ecolab, features on…
August 2, 2012
The worst drought in a long time, which is a result of anthropogenic global warming, has caused barges to run aground in Arkansas and Wisconsin shutting down barge traffic at those two points along the enormous inland waterway.
As reported:
It was unclear when the key shipping waterway might be…
August 2, 2012
This is what I posted on the second anniversary. Yesterday was the fifth.
Two years ago today, on a weekday afternoon during rush our, the Interstate 35W bridge, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed into the Mississippi river. Thirteen people died and about 145 people suffered injuries.
At…
August 2, 2012
I have been telling people for several months now that if you want to have an intelligent conversation about energy and especially the power grid, smart grids, electric cars, and electricity production you need to stop talking for a while and read my friend Maggie Koerth Baker's book, Before the…
August 1, 2012
Seven Minutes of Terror is right around the corner. 5:24 UTC on August 6th. Nature has just come out with a short but nice overview including some very interesting graphics that I know you'll want to see. Click Here.
July 31, 2012
This post has been moved HERE.
July 31, 2012
Do you know what I'm talking about? They are everywhere. Here are a few places you can find them:
In recent Wordpress installs, in the comment management section, the menu that gives you "save, edit, spam" etc choices is invisible until you move your cursor near it.
In Unity, all the menus are…
July 31, 2012
What is probably the worst power outage India's history had has taken out electricity for fully half the country; This is apparently the "second outage" in two days. I'm not entirely sure how they count outages, however. I'm thinking it is more like a big giant outage that then got much smaller…
July 30, 2012
In just a few days, NASA will land one of the more amazing pieces of equipment ever sent into outer space on the Angry Red Planet. On August 5th, at about 10:31 Pacific Time, Curiosity will land on the surface of mars in one of the more spectacularly complex space engineering feats ever attempted…
July 30, 2012
American Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney says they are. (Which is funny because he's Mexican, but whatever...)
Speaking of the accomplishments of Israeli Jews in the middle east, Romney said
"... I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things" including ... business climate…
July 30, 2012
The Drought of 2012 rivals the Great Dust Bowl years of the 30s and is coming at a time of melting arctic ice, shrinking ice sheets, and extreme events across the planet, matching the projections of Climate models for global warming.
July 29, 2012
Sarah Moglia and a toad at Camp Quest Michigan.
Camp Quest is a summer camp for "freethinking" children (or, more accurately, children of "freethinking" parents). Depending on where in the US you live, summer camps for children may be very secular, very religious, in betweeen, or more or less…
July 28, 2012
This video looks at the scientific research to answer three basic questions: 1) Was the Medieval Warm Period global? 2) Was it warmer than today? 3) And what does this all mean anyway? I examine the internet feud over the hockey stick and the various myths and misinterpretations about the Medieval…
July 28, 2012
It is my understanding that brucellosis, a disease that affects humans, bison, cattle, and elk, is transmitted from Bison to other Bison or to other animals such as cattle via contact with fresh afterbirth. This makes it quite possible for Bison with the disease to infect cattle, but only under…
July 28, 2012
Skeptically Speaking #175:
This week, it’s part one of a two-week focus on genetics. For our first installment, we’re looking at the ways that evolution might influence our modern lives, from obesity to overpopulation to heavy metal music. We spend the hour with Rob Brooks, Professor of Evolution…
July 28, 2012
Science Debate founder Shawn Lawrence Otto, author of Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, David Gergen, and Michael Lubell spoke on Talk of the Nation Science Friday with Ira Flatow. The focus was on climate change.
In the face of a massive drought and climbing sea levels,…
July 27, 2012
It's over. The whole climate deinalism thing, that is. We can now get to the business of addressing climate change with well informed scientifically sound policy.
My friend Ronald Bailey reports:
Stress - this is a rumor. However, the rumor says that next week Richard Muller will release the…
July 27, 2012
Especailly if it is actually frozen to the ice, I would imagine.
Check out this new book:
Winter-Over is a seriocomic, slightly obscene novel that tells the story of a year at Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole, including Cooper Gosling’s eponymous “winter-over” (very few people stay at the…
July 26, 2012
I think my "weblogue" series (here) is getting long enough (though it will get much longer) that it is worth listing out the posts thus far. These posts originally appeared on quichemorain.com or greg laden's blog; I've rewritten or updated them and put them in a special order.
Thump is about a…
