gregladen | January 28, 2011Check out Berry Go Round #36. Click it, read it, blog it, facebook it, and the posts therein, please! Thanks.
gregladen | January 28, 2011Suddenly and for the first time I saw Amanda as a little child wide eyed with both awe and fear, among other children some sitting on the floor, some in chairs, some standing behind desks, eyes trained on a TV monitor and their teacher as the sudden realization dawned that the Space Shuttle Challenger had been consumed in a fiery, deadly explosion. The teacher on board was incinerated before their very eyes. As the explosion developed, shooting out huge arms of smoke and the voice-over began to acknowledge that something was wrong, NASA's space program was suddenly transformed, in the eyes…
gregladen | January 27, 2011Researcher and blogger Ash Donaldson joins us for a pre-recorded discussion on the fascinating field of Human Factors Engineering. This multi-disciplinary science draws on anatomy, physiology, physics, psychology and communications research, as it tries to improve the ways that humans interact with technology, and use technology to interact with each other. And health science journalist Paul Ingraham returns with a primer on the causes and treatment of repetitive strain injuries.
This week's Skeptically Speaking
gregladen | January 27, 2011Every year, at least once (for his birthday or for Christmas, depending) I give my father-in-law the same exact presents: A tape measure, a utility knife, and a pencil. This way, when we are working on something like sheet-rocking the kitchen, patching the bullet hole in the roof of the cabin, or installing the invisible surround sound system there will be a tape measure, a utility knife, and a pencil. The tape measure tells you where to cut, the pencil marks where you will cut, and the utility knife cuts it. There are lots of other tools involved in carrying out these tasks, but these…
gregladen | January 26, 2011Stardust, the NASA probe, has downloaded a snapshot of Tempel 1, a comet that the comet seeking craft will sidle up to on February 14th. Here is the picture:
On the night of encounter, the navigation camera will be used to acquire 72 high-resolution images of the comet's surface features. Stardust-NExT mission scientists will use these images to see how surface features on comet Tempel 1 have changed over the past five-and-a-half years. (Tempel 1 had previously been visited and imaged in July of 2005 by NASA's Deep Impact mission).
I don't know why they call it night. Perhaps because NASA…
gregladen | January 26, 2011A huge scar formed on Jupiter in July of 2009. It's shown here near the "bottom" of the planet:
It could have been formed by a comet like body, or by an asteroid (a rocky body).
Data from three infrared telescopes enabled scientists to observe the warm atmospheric temperatures and unique chemical conditions associated with the impact debris. By piecing together signatures of the gases and dark debris produced by the impact shockwaves, an international team of scientists was able to deduce that the object was more likely a rocky asteroid than an icy comet. Among the teams were those led by…
gregladen | January 26, 2011There are human universals. There, I said it. Now give me about a half hour to explain why this is both correct and a Falsehood. But first, some background and definition.
Most simply defined, a human universal is a trait, behavior or cultural feature that we find in all human societies. Men are always on average larger than women. All humans see the same exact range of colors because our eyes are the same. The range of emotions experienced by people is the same, and appears in facial expressions and other outward affect, in the same way across all humans.
The term "Human Universal"…
gregladen | January 26, 2011From the NCSE:
It's time to dust off your Darwin costume again: less than a month remains before Darwin Day 2011! Colleges and universities, schools, libraries, museums, churches, civic groups, and just plain folks across the country -- and the world -- are preparing to celebrate Darwin Day, on or around February 12, in honor of the life and work of Charles Darwin. These events provide a marvelous opportunity not only to celebrate Darwin's birthday but also to engage in public outreach about science, evolution, and the importance of evolution education -- which is especially needed with…
gregladen | January 25, 2011The BBC us cosing down Douglas Adams Hitchiker's Guide web site. But there is a plan to get off the planet before it's too late. So have a beer and read this.
gregladen | January 25, 2011And yes, Michele...
the Civil War was indeed fought to end slavery.
Your average teabagger probably thinks that the American Civil War was not fought to end slavery. I'm guessing that they subscribe to one of those revisionist versions of American History in which the Civil War was about something else and slavery had nothing to do with it. That idea always perplexed me until now. Now, because of comments made by Michele Bachmann last week I understand that they don't link the Civil War to slavery because they think that the institution of slavery was ended by the Founding Fathers.
Lat…
gregladen | January 24, 2011A question came up in the comments on the post Mars will pass behind sun, Rover operations affected, and the answer turns out to be very interesting.
The question was, to paraphrase, how often and when are the Earth based Mars rover operators out of radio contact with the Rovers? It turns out it is pretty complicated, so I'll reproduce the answer I got from Guy Webster, our man in NASA:
Opportunity (and Spirit when it's not hibernating), are out of contact most of the time every day. The rovers can communicate both directly with Earth and via relay through Mars Odyssey or Mars…
gregladen | January 24, 2011You may or may not have heard the news: There was a major explosion, or set of explosions, with suicide bombers and everything, 31 or more dead, at the Moscow Airport. The details are sketchy.
And in a totally unrelated story, but still with an explosion, then there's this:
God's Highway, I 35w, is famous for the fact that it winds back and forth through Minneapolis. There is one cruve that requires drivers to slow down to about 35 mph. This is a major interstate. On a different turn, which is not as tight, a semi truck fell over about 10 years ago and landed on a man and his young son…
gregladen | January 24, 2011And most of them are boys with their toys
Yesterday a few miles northeast of here, two dudes had a head-on collision in their snow machines. The snow machines burst into flames, one of the drivers died and the other is apparently in critical condition. Elsewhere in the state a man died of CO poisoning in his fish house, and as is often the case in these situations, a rescuer had some trouble as well and needed to be treated. If you heat your ice house with something that burns, remember that it will put out deadly carbon monoxide (and use up your oxygen as well, but those are two distinct…
gregladen | January 23, 2011The vikings are out of it, but it is still very important that the Packers lose. Because. Because they are cheese-heads, OK?
If you want more reasons than that, check this out:
Of course, when I lived in Milwaukee and had not yet even heard of Minnesota, it was like this (warning, gratuitous homophobia and stupidity):
Conclusion: People who make snarky sports videos SUCK!
gregladen | January 23, 2011Rumor has it that Apple is developing what is probably the worst idea ever. Now, I quickly add that when Apple yanked 3.5 inch floppies1 from all of their computer designs, I thought that was the worst idea ever, and it turned out to be the best idea ever. But this one, I don't know ... a mouse with a keyboard on it is not a good thing.
Apple has shown interest in adding a display to its multi-touch Magic Mouse, adding interactivity and functionality to the wireless mouse for its Mac line of computers.
Mice have had keyboard on them before. I've seen various Logitech devices with zillions of…
gregladen | January 22, 2011... or does it???
One day I was eating some chicken, outdoors, somewhere in Africa, with a colleague I had been living with for a few months and two brand new visitors, Dick and Jane1 from the US. After cleaning most, but not all, of the meat off a leg bone, I tossed it to Hozi the Cat, who eagerly grabbed it and took it behind my chair to munch it down.
Jane, lunging at the cat, "No, no. No!!!! She'll die, she'll choke to death!"
The cat moved behind a different chair, with half the bone, the other half already having been munched down.
"Oh, don't worry, I feed her all the chicken bones…