gregladen | January 12, 2017He's trying, in the hearings, to not let it look this way, but the truth is that he and Exxon Mobile stand to benefit a great deal from a Tillerson SOC. Also, Russia will benefit a great deal.
Putting it a slightly different way, Tillerson's appointment makes the most sense of you replace "Trump" with "Putin" in sentences that refer to who the leader of the United States is.
The composite graphic above explains this. The context for those graphics is here:
gregladen | January 12, 2017A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos
This is a concept that has always fascinated me, ever since reading some stuff about the Periodic Table of Elements. Check it out:
Over the last forty years, scientists have uncovered evidence that if the Universe had been forged with even slightly different properties, life as we know it - and life as we can imagine it - would be impossible. Join us on a journey through how we understand the Universe, from its most basic particles and forces, to planets, stars and galaxies, and back through cosmic history to the birth of the cosmos.…
gregladen | January 12, 2017The term "Evangelical" is a bit of a moving goal post. But, there is a strong association between Evangelical and getting climate science totally wrong in a way that is actually materially damaging to our planet and to future generations. So, it is not hard to be angry at Evangelicals because they are ruining it for everyone.
But, within the "Evangelical" movement, there are people who are trying to change that. I wish them luck. One person is Katharine Hayhoe, and here she is talking about that:
Another is my friend Paul Douglas, famous meteorologist. He wrote Caring for Creation: The…
gregladen | January 12, 2017Probably not, but it is worth brief consideration.
Mainstream media is reporting that USMC General James Mad Dog Mattis's Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense is stalled because Mattis is a no show for a related hearing in the House. The reason for the cancellation of his appearance is at this writing a mystery, but it is known that it was the Trump transition team's word to the Senate, not the other way around, that underlies the delay.
Here is what I was originally going to suggest: Mad Dog Mattis, as I have previously written, is in the position of breaking his solemn…
gregladen | January 11, 2017Many bad things happened at the Trump news conference. Many bad things. Many many. Unbelievably bad things, I tell ya.
But one thing that happened, as bad as the rest of the things, and covered by the Washington Post, has not gotten sufficient attention.
President-elect Donald Trump twice suggested at his news conference that states that voted for him overwhelmingly during the election would get special attention from his White House, especially on the issue of jobs and trade.
... many states “did get it right” by voting for him and those states would have better jobs, security and…
gregladen | January 11, 2017It has been suggested that President Elect Trump has been compromised by Vladimir Putin and/or the Russian Intelligence agency. This allegation suggests that Putin and/or the FSB have information, including video of unsavory sexual activities of some sort (loosely defined) and documentation of inappropriate business activities, that could be used to blackmail the future United States President. Since this is something I have been saying for weeks that we would eventually learn, I'm compelled to make a few comments.
What did we sort of know and when did we sort of know it?
In the weeks…
gregladen | January 6, 2017You already know abut the North American Conveyor current. Briefly: The major ocean currents happen because the equatorial ocean is warmer, and since water (unlike land) can move (though not as fast as air) the dissipation of this heat across the surface of the Earth results in warm water moving, at the surface, north or south away from the Equator, where it loses its heat and finds it way back to the equatorial regions, usually as deeper, cooler water.
Conveniently, this process also involves increasing the salinity of the water far from the equator, as evaporating water becomes saltier.…
gregladen | January 6, 2017Donald Trump is meeting, this morning, with the editor of Vogue and the owners of Vogue's overarching publishing company.
This can only mean one thing. We will be seeing The Donald on the cover of the famous magazine sooner than later.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/817374875962769408
This revelation comes after a long night of sweaty drunken tweets by the Oligarch, in which he compared himself favorably too Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The good news: Trump's mind is on things other than how to run the United States government. That has to be a good thing.
gregladen | December 31, 2016A few days ago I posted this item asking if it was really true that more celebrities have died this year than usual. That post went viral, so of course, the famous Doug McIntyre (who is, by the way, originally from Minnetonka, Minnesota) asked me to join him on KABC, McIntyre in the Morning, an LA based drive time radio show, 790 on your dial.
We had an interesting conversation, along with Randy Wang, and here it is:
[audio mp3="http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/files/2016/12/MIM-790-KABC-12-30-16-G…"][/audio]
gregladen | December 31, 2016The Makeblock mBot Add-on Pack-Six-legged Robot V1.1 is an add on for the Makeblock DIY mBot 1.1 Kit (Bluetooth Version) - STEM Education - Arduino - Scratch 2.0 - Programmable Robot Kit for Kids to Learn Coding & Robotics - Pink or any of its variants.
The makeblock robot is an arduino technology robot. It can be controlled with a supplied controller, or operated from any of several different kinds of computing devices (such as your cell phone) using an app. It can be programmed using the Arduino interface (from a Mac, Windows or Linux computer), but the robot comes with built in…
gregladen | December 27, 2016Before we address this question, let us recognize that years do not really kill people. That's just a poetic way of putting it, in common use.
I believe that every year starting around September or October, there is a random spate (spats are generally random, as are small droughts) of celebrity deaths, which lead to conjecture that more celebs are dying off than usual. This idea is then reinforced every time yet another celebrity dies for the remainder of the year, until we finally get to late December, and then everyone is trying to have that year arrested for mass murder. Strangely, people…
gregladen | December 27, 2016You have already heard the sad news that Carrie Fisher had died, at a young age, after suffering one or more heart attacks.
To honor her, you are probably going to go watch some old Star Wars movies. But I have a different suggestion. The woman was a prolific and accomplished author (and more) and there is a good chance that she's written at least one book you've not read, if not several.
That's what I'm going to do. I'll make a list of her books, pick one, and read it. But, since I'm a blogger, I figure, why not let you benefit from my efforts and see the list? If I've left anything off or…
gregladen | December 21, 2016California's Amazing Geology by Don Prothero is an amazing book about -- wait for it -- California's geology!
California is one of the most geologically interesting and complex geopolitical units in the world. But so is Minnesota, and Minnesota is boring, geologically, for most people. Why? Because Minnesota is all eroded down and flattened out and covered with glacial till, so most of the interesting geology is buried, while California is actively engaged in its own geology in a spectacular and visually appealing way!
Lots of places have volcanoes. California has volcanoes that blow up, or…
gregladen | December 20, 2016What is sex?
Musings at 10,000 Birds:
This is a simple question with a complicated answer. Part of the answer is this: The biological identity of an individual that guides its choice of mate. So, in a simple version of the world of a bird, there are two sexes, male and female, and males chose females and females chose males as mates.
Assume for a moment that there is choice, and that the choice is based on a discernible feature. So, for example, males and females prefer to mate with a member of the opposite sex who has a blue and white pattern on its breast. So far so good, and so far simple…
gregladen | December 16, 2016Putin probably owns Trump. In the past, Trump has spent enough high profile time traveling in and out of Russia, that any smart intelligence agency would have long ago gotten the goods on such a sloppy self absorbed person. Assume there are movies. Young girls. Whatever. Putin probably owns Trump. The ex KGB officer probably owns a lot of people, a lot of foreign rich or influential individuals. That's how these things work.
Trump is a man that relies on the image of great personal wealth. But, if he has great personal wealth it is a mere couple of billion or so. Alternatively, he may…
gregladen | December 13, 2016There is really no better time to get a Raspberry Pi. The new Raspberry Pi 3 has features that make it much more useful and fun, including more speed, built in bluetooth, and built in wifi.
The Raspberry Pi is a small computer that, out of the box, lacks storage drive or device, a monitor, a screen, or a mouse, but is otherwise a fully functional computer that can run a normal operating system. It costs very little, so if you happen to have a TV or monitor that can use a component or HDMI hookup, a keyboard, a mouse, and an appropriate microSD card, then you have a computer for $39.99. If…
gregladen | December 13, 2016Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald (author of Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story, Serpent on the Rock, and a few other books) is reporting an interesting story this morning.
Here is the short version, as I understand it.
Turkey had a coup. The Turkish government, in particular, President Erdogan, blames naturalized US citizen Fethullah Gülen for that coup, and wants him extradited. The US won't do that.
President Erdogan and Presumed President Elect Trump had a conversation soon after the election, in which Trump mentioned a key player in the development of the Turkish version of Trump Towers. We…
gregladen | December 12, 2016UPDATE: The Department of Energy has reportedly refused Donald Trump's request for names of DOE employees and contractors who have been engaged in climate change research. That does not mean that Tump will never get those names. Once he is President, he can get the names. But for now, he'll have to sit it out.
The Donald Trump transition team circulated an eight page questionnaire to the US Department of Energy. Such questionnaires are not normal. This particular questionnaire is deeply disturbing.
There are seventy-four questions. They provide insight into likely Trump administration…
gregladen | December 11, 2016The White Rabbit Project is a Netflix project in which former MythBusters cast members Tory Belleci, Kari Byron, and Grant Imahara lead the viewer down various rabbit holes to explore a range of interesting and often strange things.
Before going any further in this review, I need to tell you two things. First, since this is a MythBusters related thing, and Mythbuster fans hate everything (especially myths, of course), you will probably see a lot of iffy reviews of this project. (This isn't just a MythBusters thing, it is a skeptics thing, a science-cheerleader thing, a geek thing. Just comes…