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Radioactive Basement

The bedrock under our neighbourhood contains small amounts of uranium. It's an unstable chemical element that is subject to radioactive decay. The amounts are small and it wouldn't be a problem but for the fact that one of the decay products is a gas at room temperature - a radioactive gas, radon. It seeps up through cracks in the rock and disperses into the atmosphere, unless it happens upon an enclosed space, such as a building, where it will accumulate. When radon decays it produces solid particles of radioactive polonium, bismuth and lead. These tend to cling to particles of dust and…

Stereotypical narratives don't fit reality

Does this story sound familiar? The narrative goes like this: The famous, brilliant scientist So-and-so hypothesized that X was true. X, forever after, became dogma among scientists, simply by virtue of the brilliance and fame of Dr. So-and-so. This dogmatic assent continues unchallenged until an intrepid, underdog scientist comes forward with a dramatic new theory, completely overturning X, in spite of sustained, hostile opposition by the dogmatic scientific establishment. Michael White summarizes a common trope in the media and elsewhere; there's often a misleading attempt to shoehorn…

Le Hansen nouveau est re-arrive

But it still tastes sour. Perhaps it needs more time to mature? Rushing half-fermented stuff out is not good. What's in, what's out? Well, who can possibly be bothered to read and compare them line by line? Certainly not me. Certainly not any of the commentators at Eli's. Prove me wrong if you like: new and old. If I'd actually bothered to review this I'd be p*ss*d off with the journal. For example, compare: we posit that ice sheet mass loss can be approximated by a doubling time up to sea level rise of at least several meters. Doubling times of 10, 20 or 40 years yield sea level rise of…

Content Volatility of Scientific Topics in Wikipedia: Plowshare Prates (anag.)

Yet another "academic" article about wikipedia (Content Volatility of Scientific Topics in Wikipedia: A Cautionary Tale; Adam M. Wilson, Gene E. Likens): Wikipedia has quickly become one of the most frequently accessed encyclopedic references, despite the ease with which content can be changed and the potential for ‘edit wars’ surrounding controversial topics. Little is known about how this potential for controversy affects the accuracy and stability of information on scientific topics, especially those with associated political controversy. Here we present an analysis of the Wikipedia edit…

Runaway tipping elements of no return

RC laid into tipping points a while back but now they are back in fashion, it seems: via Tim Lenton, reported at RC today. But they seem as vague and ill-defined as ever. I still retain my antipathy to the idea. TL has now switched from "tipping points" to "tipping elements" to describe the components of the Earth system that can be switched - under particular conditions - into a qualitatively different state by small perturbations. This is broad and vague, but he produces a longer but also very broad and vague definition later in his article. He wants to include slow changes "analogous to…

Many Arctic temperature trends

The egregious Soon has a paper, Variable solar irradiance as a plausible agent for multidecadal variations in the Arctic-wide surface air temperature record of the past 130 years which is a weasel-worded title if ever I saw one. But anyway: Soon is comparing the "Arctic" temperature record to the solar irradiance (via some proxy or another) and finding a wonderful match, which sends the Durkins of the world into a frenzy. Of course, this means that the solar *doesn't* match the global record; and of course given almost any shape of solar you could find some region of the world whose…

Neal Stephenson's Subterranean Orgy Computer

Neal Stephenson is an unusually inventive writer of historical and futuristic fiction. I have previously reviewed his 2008 novel Anathem here. And somehow I have now come to think of one of his weirdest ideas: the subterranean orgy computer in The Diamond Age. This 1995 book bursts with far-out motifs and ideas, to the extent that I can't say I really understood everything very well when reading it back then. I found the ending confusing and dissatisfying, possibly because I wasn't entirely clued in to what happened or what it meant. But I did get this about the subterranean Drummer…

Viking Period Drinking Bowl

My colleague Karl-Magnus Melin specialises in ancient and modern woodworking and has a major paper in Fornvännen's summer issue about well fittings made from hollowed-out tree trunks. He's kindly sent me some post-conservation pics of a Viking Period wooden drinking bowl. It's lathe-turned unless I'm very much mistaken. The bowl was found sitting in a back-filled well last autumn, during excavations directed by Anne Carlie for the National Heritage Board at Lindängelund near Malmö. Waterlogged wood is a bit like precious metal in that little really happens to it as the centuries pass.…

Was the 2003 European summer heat wave unusual in a global context?

Asks RP Sr's paper in GRL (or rather, ask Thomas N. Chase, Klaus Wolter, Roger A. Pielke Sr and Ichtiaque Rasool). Interestingly, they conclude "not really". This of course is contrary to what everyone knows, so their paper has been ignored, to RP's annoyance. And if I had demonstrasted conclusively that a well known thing was wrong, and everyone just steamed ahead and ignored this inconventient fact, I'd be annoyed too. But has he indeed demonstrated this? I thought I'd have a closer look at the data. Their main result is that the fraction of the globe (or rather, the fraction of 22N to 80N…

Carnivalesque 27

[More blog entries about history, carnival, ancient, classics, medieval, middleages; historia, antiken, medeltiden, klassisk.] Welcome, everyone, to Aardvarchaeology and the 27th Carnivalesque blog carnival! Aard is a blog about archaeology and skepticism and stuff, hosted here at ScienceBlogs among a bunch of natural-science blogs, most covering the life sciences. Carnivalesque deals in Ancient, Medieval and (in even-numbered instalments) Early Modern history, subjects in which I am interested but of which I am largely ignorant. Yes, I am a prehistorian. Let me classify your kitchen ware…

Freedom is a responsibility

The background for this post is The Great Global Warming Swindle and the recent judgement [PDF] by the British media regulator OFCOM regarding complaints of misleading the public and misrepresenting the science. Tim Lambert has a detailed look at the ruling here. All in all it looks like the ruling was a mixed bag and will provide fodder for both sides of the climate disruption PR battle. So on to the subject of the post. Roger Pielke Jr. over at Prometheus rather predictably rises to the defense of Martin Durkin's socially destructive and cleary deceitful propoganda. His point is all about…

Lack of Outcry over India: Hypocrisy?

Roger Pielke Jr is back at his own teapot, blogging up a tempest or two again. Whether you agree with his points or not, he usually makes for provocative reading and comment threads can be very entertaining and informing. I have not hung around there for quite a while but will pay more attention from now on I think. Anyway, this post is about his post from last Wednesday, titled "Climate Science and National Interests" - rather more general than its actual subject. His implicaion would seem to be there is some hypocrisy on the part of the usual climate change activists and the IPCC but not…

More on Kenya and Hominid Fossils

Wired has a report on the attempt by Kenyan Pentecostals to get an exhibit of hominid fossils removed from the national museum there. It contains this idiotic quote: "We are objecting to the message that the fossil exhibits represent the scientific evidence of human evolution," said Bishop Boniface Adoyo, chairman of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, which claims to represents churches of 35 denominations with 9 million members. "They do not. Human evolution is still a theory and this cannot be called as evidence." I swear, every time I hear that "still a theory" crap I want to strangle a…

Worldnutdaily, PZ Myers and the Darwin/Hitler Connection

The Worldnutdaily actually has an article up responding to PZ Myers' criticism of D. James Kennedy's ridiculous TV show claiming that Darwin led to Hitler. PZ had initially reacted to the involvement of Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project and a staunch defender of evolution (and a committed Christian), in the show. Kennedy has promoted Collins' involvement to gain credibility from his credentials. But Burt Humburg contacted Collins about it and Collins was furious at being misused. He stated that he had granted an interview with Kennedy's group, but he thought it was supposed to…

Vinx on Tour

I've written before about Vinx, an absolutely amazing musician and singer I've been fortunate enough to meet and interact with over the years. From the front page of his webpage comes another testimony to the magic of his live show: What Vinx Did for Me By Shawnn K. Shears July 22, 2006 I saw Vinx last night, felt his sweat and the weight of his arm on my back. I listened to his every word, every inflection uttered on stage and heard sounds that freed me from earthly bonds. For any who do not know his music, take heart. Your life is about to improve. Perhaps you have never heard creativity so…

Anti-Evolution Nonsense in the State News

This letter irritates me, not only because it recycles tired old creationist canards but because it appears in the Michigan State newspaper. The fact that it's written by someone studying chemical engineering, implying at least a modicum of understanding of science, is even worse. It's just one silly and unsubstantiated claim after another. But people need to understand there is a slowly increasing amount of evidence in support of intelligent design, and it won't be going away anytime soon. I don't think this is even hypothetically possible, because any and all evidence could be made…

Bad, Bad Anti-Separation Arguments

You probably remember Coach Dave Daubenmire (yes, he still calls himself coach although he was only a high school football coach and hasn't been for quite some time, since he stepped down to became a full time windbag for the religious right). Well he's back with one of the silliest arguments against separation of church and state one can possibly imagine. It's the sort of thing my high school football coach, who could draw up a decent coverage scheme but would probably fail miserably any aptitude test that is given to high school students, might have written. Take a look at arguments like…

NYU's Problem with the Danish Caricatures

It has been astonishing to me how so many member of the two American insitutions that should most vociferously speak out in favor of the free exchange of ideas - the universities and the media - have shrunk in the face of violent extremism and refused to show the infamous 12 Danish caricatures. It's one of the biggest stories in the world right now and it should be the subject of much discussion in both venues, yet most American news outlets have not bothered to show the caricatures so their readers or viewers can see what the controversy is about, and many universities have prohibited…

Ask a ScienceBlogger: No Time Like...

This week's Ask a ScienceBlogger question breaks a three-week string of topics I have no real opinion on: If you could have practiced science in any time and any place throughout history, which would it be, and why? I have two answers to this question: the true answer, and the answer they're looking for (below the fold). The true answer to this question is "Right now." There's never been a better time to be a scientist, and I'm not just talking about things like the availability of antibiotics to keep one from dying a miserable death from some sort of plague or another, which would be a real…

Clustering of Athletes

In the wake of academic scandals involving the Auburn football program, Inside Higher Ed reports on a study looking at the majors of athletes. The results will be shocking to, well basically no-one who has ever set foot on a college campus: While accusations of widespread abuse like that alleged at Auburn are unusual, "clustering" of athletes -- in which large numbers of athletes at an institution major in a particular program or department, out of proportion to other students at the college -- is common. A 2002-3 analysis by USA Today found that a large percentage of football players at…

Local training camp for fascist god-bots

The Minnesota Family Council is a spawn of Dobson (it's got "family" in the title, so you know it's got to be evil), and it's usually one of those organizations that lobbies to get legislative support for their hatred of women and gays. They are not nice people. If you're ever in this state and want to see some splendid examples of calcified brains, this is the group you want to track down. Anyway, they're starting a new training program: the Minnesota Worldview Leadership Project. It's the weirdest thing. Apparently, it's a seminar and discussion series that is supposed to turn you into an…

Methadone Basketball

In a previous post, I dissed the NBA as being a haven for ugly pseudo-basketball. It does serve a purpose, though, as a sort of methadone program to ease the way down from the hoops-jukie high of March to the Great Sports Desert between the end of the NBA and the start of the NFL. As I was feeling generally cruddy yesterday (side effects of some medication, I think, and we're going to be getting that dosage tweaked just as soon as the doctor's office opens), I wound up watching a little of the NBA playoffs, specifically, the Indiana Pacers playing the New Jersey Nets. Now, granted, these are…

Begin at the Beginning

Welcome to the new home of Uncertain Principles. If you've been reading the site over at Steelypips.org, that probably means something to you. If you're here for the first time, that might take a little explanation. I started a book log in August of 2001, and quickly got drawn into reading a lot of general web logs. In late June 2002, I decided to start a general-interest weblog, which I've been updating regularly for the last three and a half years. Recently, the nice folks at Seed were kind enough to invite me to join their ScienceBlogs project, leading to the site you're now reading. The…

An exception to the stereotype of denier blogs?

Oh, this is funny, but Curry isn't laughing. While poking around for more context on my previous post, I found ‘Denier’ blogs by JC, who quotes the "Society of Environmental Journalists" who say Judith Curry’s blog, Climate Etc., is an exception to the stereotype of denier blogs. Curry is a real climate scientist with strong credentials. Committed to reason, evidence, and open inquiry, she is willing to examine legitimate points the climate skeptics may be making — as well as the evidence and arguments from mainstream climate science. And I thought: oh, she's putting that up front because…

The height of anti-abortion logic

It's been yet another long, long day — I was one of many invited speakers at a conference on Networks and Neighborhoods in Cyberspace at the Twin Cities branch campus of the University of Minnesota Morris, and I got to make an early morning drive there and a late afternoon drive back. Drive, drive, drive. It gets old. Especially on those mornings when it is -15°F (around -25°C for those of you who insist on more civilized measurements.) If you've seen the movie Fargo you know what the scenery is like: endless snow-covered fields, endless rows of posts for barbed-wire fences, a succession of…

You couldn't make this stuff up

Conservapedia, as any fule kno, is The Trustworthy Encyclopedia. On matters of politics or "difficult" science like dinosaurs, perhaps one might expect a slight divergence from reality. But on well understood matters like relativity? All will be well, Shirley. But someone posted their E=mc2 article as a screenshot to facebook, so I checked up, and lo! It is true: they really are utterly nutso. We all knew that anyway really, so this is just for fun (if you want details, it looks like rationalwiki is useful). Quoting: E=mc² is Einstein's famous formula which asserts that the energy (E) which…

A Reconciled Estimate of Ice-Sheet Mass Balance

Shepherd et al.: Science 30 November 2012: Vol. 338 no. 6111 pp. 1183-1189 DOI: 10.1126/science.1228102: We combined an ensemble of satellite altimetry, interferometry, and gravimetry data sets using common geographical regions, time intervals, and models of surface mass balance and glacial isostatic adjustment to estimate the mass balance of Earth’s polar ice sheets. We find that there is good agreement between different satellite methods—especially in Greenland and West Antarctica—and that combining satellite data sets leads to greater certainty. Between 1992 and 2011, the ice sheets of…

Romm Echoes Groundless Cell Phone/Cancer Fears?

Keith Kloor is having fun being kwuooeeeel to poor Joe Romm, simply because Romm is being an anti-scientific bozo pushing groundless fears of cancer-from-mobile-phones. Keith has a nice collection of links to sane people pointing out that there is no evidence of a problem. One of whom is Orac, in a post entertainingly entitled The bride of the son of the revenge of cell phones and cancer rises from the grave...again. And the key quote is Still, despite my trying to keep an open mind on the matter, I also don't want my mind to be so open that my brains fall out, so to speak. Alas, Romm has…

Sea ice, briefly

I doubt I'll be running the ever-exciting competition again this year, due to a lack of people who strongly disagree with me (i.e., the decline will be on the long term-trend, plus some error margin). But While I'm here there appears to be some excitement from Romm over a Grauniad study about a GRL study about the role of wind forcing in sea ice loss, in particular in 2007. The paper says The unprecedented retreat of first-year ice during summer 2007 was enhanced by strong poleward drift over the western Arctic induced by anomalously high sea-level pressure (SLP) over the Beaufort Sea that…

The Upside to the Climatic Research Unit e-mail hacking incident?

Can we leave out the -gate trash? We had a big argument on wiki about this, and the wacko POV-pushers lost, hurrah. So none of that here, thanks. Keith "baby killer Kloor strokes my ego so outrageously that I can't find it in me to rage much that apparently I failed to use [my] influential corner of the climate blogosphere to foster a healthy discussion of the salient issues, be it the integrity of the peer review process, FOIA evasion, CRU data storage, or the "tribalism" that Curry notes. Connolley appears to be taking a nothing to see here, move along attitude. (don't miss comment #1, BTW…

Ice, again

But just for once not sea ice, at least not to start with. RMG provides a nice link to some of the Wordie "collapse" stuff. Although I find that a touch confusing, as the Wordie had essentially gone by 1992 - see [[Wordie Ice Shelf]] for example. Reuters is also noting it as news. Odd. Perhaps they are confusing it with that other well-known ice shelf that begins with a W, the Wilkins. That hasn't collapsed (warning: link to BAS PR, and BAS has a terrible habit of re-writing its website and breaking all the old links. If it still works for you, be grateful). It has however lost a bit of…

Adrakhonic Theorem

There is an Anathem wikia (inevitable I suppose and quite useful for my purpose) but unfortunately it doesn't have a picture of the proof of Pythagoras's theorem that the aliens put on the outside of their spaceship. So here it is: [Note: the colours are mine; and I have reconstructed the picture from memory of the book and working out what it is trying to prove; hopefully I've got it right.I mean, I know I've got the proof-picture right; I'm less sure that this is exactly whats in the book. The line that looks orthogonal inside the larger square, is.] The proof isn't critical to the story (…

Running from the Flames

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Late in the afternoon earlier this month Charles Worth was hiking with his dog, Brownie, down Deep Creek Trail in Montana, toward the Yellowstone River, when he noticed a churning column of smoke in front of him. Only a mile from the trailhead and his truck, he stopped to weigh his chances. The fire was heading toward him up the drainage. A thick stand of dry timber stood between him and the smoke. He retreated to a boulder field and watched. The fire moved fast. Suddenly it was burning in the close timber. Worth had to make a move. He decided to run for it, back up the trail…

Topalov Wins Again!

A dramatic turn of events in the big chess match. Topalov won game nine in convincing fashion, his second win in a row. Topalov now has a one point lead in the match (including the point he got when Kramnik forfeited game five). Three games remain, and Kramnik will have white in two of them. Topalov came up with a novelty against Kramnik's beloved Salv Defense. He played in his usual, risky, enterprising manner and quickly established an opening advantage. The middlegame was tense throughout. As one of the commentators on the Internet Chess Club pointed out, it was a battle of the world…

001/366: New Camera, Photo Blogging, Regal Dog

Today, I officially stopped being department chair, and started my sabbatical leave. I also acquired a new toy: My new camera, taken with the old camera. My old DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel XSi that I got mumble years ago, has been very good for over 20,000 pictures, but a few things about it were getting kind of flaky-- it's been bad at reading light levels for a while now, meaning I'm constantly having to monkey with the ISO setting manually, then forgetting to change it back when I move to a brighter location and taking a bunch of pictures where everything is all blown out. It also…

Thermal Thursday: How Good Is My Mug?

One of my favorite Christmas presents this year was a Seek Thermal camera to use with my Android phone. This allows for a lot of idle physics-y fun, taking pictures of things in thermal mode. One idea I had was to do a sort of follow-up to the test of my insulated mug that I did a couple of years ago with a PASCO thermocouple probe. That showed a really dramatic difference between my metal IQC water bottle and the insulated mug, in terms of the rate at which hot water placed in each cooled. So, how do these look in thermal imaging? Well, I took my insulated mug (actually a different one than…

If I Were Ted Chiang...

(That title doesn't quite scan as is, but if you stick an "a" in there, you can sing it to the tune of a song from "Fiddler on the Roof"... You're welcome.) The last time I taught my "Brief History of Timekeeping" seminar was in 2012, so I spent a bunch of time on the Mayan calendar. This time around, we've lost the obvious pop-culture hook, but it's still so weird and fascinating that I spent a class on it last week. One of the things we talked about was what this system (what we know of it) says about the Maya concept of time. There's a very obvious contrast between the interlocking…

Atheism is what you do when you grow up

Inside Higher Ed is reporting on a new sociological study that shows a greater frequency of rejection of religion by young people who don't attend college. We college professors aren't responsible! Percent of Young Adults Reporting Religious Declines, by Level of Education Educational Attainment Decline in Attending Services Decline in Importance of Religion Disaffiliation From Religion Didn’t attend college 76.2% 23.7% 20.3% Attended, but earned no degree 71.5% 16.3% 14.6% Earned associate degree 60.3% 15.1% 14.4% Earned at least a bachelor’s degree…

Weekend Diversion: The Bear Necessities

“Some days you go bear hunting and you get eaten. Some days you come home with a nice rug to roll around on, and bear steaks. What they don't tell you as a kid is that sometimes you get the rug and steaks, but you also get some nice scars to go with them. ...once you realize what can go wrong, it's a lot scarier to go hunting 'bears'.” -Laurell K. Hamilton Some of the most incredible stories in all of human experience come from struggles against nature. One of the greatest storytellers in all of music, Slaid Cleaves, sings an incredibly (and tragically, like all of his songs) memorable one…

Weekend Diversion: An 8-bit mashup, reimagined

"I don't understand how super mario can smash blocks with his head but dies when he touches a turtle." -Unknown The past few weekends have been far too serious around the internet, and it's time to kick back and enjoy something nice and simple. I'd like to introduce you to the little-known indie band The Mountain Goats, who, along with Kaki King, sing a delightful song about feeling trapped and being rescued, called Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle. Of course, those of you who remember your old nintendo cartridges will know exactly where the song title comes from. Image…

Who needs science when you've got delusions?

What if they had a debate about evolution, and didn't bother to invite any scientists? It would be unhinged and divorced from reality, and all the wheels would be spinning wildly, and they could come up with any ol' crazy crap they wanted. This must be why the American Enterprise Institute sponsored a debate on Darwin and conservatives moderated by Ronald Reagan's biographer, Steven Hayward, with John Derbyshire and Larry Arnhart defending evolution, and George Gilder and John West, two cranks from the Discovery Institute, criticizing it. Not one scientist in sight, and the account of the…

Guide to the Sharks of the World

I love field guides. One should own a lot of field guides, not just to things you might go out in the field to see and identified, but just to browse through. David Ebert, Sarah Fowler and Marc Dando have produced A Pocket Guide to Sharks of the World It is put out by Princeton, which does excellent guides (this is part of their Pocket Guide series). From the Princeton site, about the authors: David A. Ebert is the program director for the Pacific Shark Research Center and a research faculty member at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. Sarah Fowler cofounded the UK Shark Trust and the…

Global Surface Temperatures Continue To Rise

Global warming is typically measured at the surface, with data from thermometers all across the land areas and sea surface temperatures combined. That isn't the whole story, of course. Much of the added heat, an effect of human generated greenhouse gas pollution, goes into the upper 2,000 meters or so of the ocean. But we use the surface measurements to track global warming because we have the data for a long period of time, and those data in turn have been linked to longer running but less precise paleo data. Almost every month for way over a year now has been warm, and April 2015 is no…

Science Museums: Cut Ties to Big Carbon, Kick Out The Kochs!

There is a letter signed by top scientists demanding that science museums cut all their ties to Big Fossil, and where appropriate, kick the Koch Brothers off their boards. The letter says, in part, As members of the scientific community we devote our lives to understanding the world, and sharing this understanding with the public. We are deeply concerned by the links between museums of science and natural history with those who profit from fossil fuels or fund lobby groups that misrepresent climate science. Museums are trusted sources of scientific information, some of our most important…

Global Warming Negatively Impacts Wild Monkey Diets

Yes, yes, we hear it all the time: More CO2 is good because plants love CO2 That is a rather dumb thing to say for a number of reasons; nature is not simple. You don't change one variable and expect other variables to respond as though we were turning a garden hose up or down. For example, while plant growth might be enhanced with more CO2 in the atmosphere, there is no reason to think this would be linear, or similar across all plants. You have to dance with the one who brung ya. The plants we have are the plants that have been under Darwinian selection optimizing growth and maintenance…

Rare Birds of North America

Rare Birds of North America is the only extensive treatment I've see of the so called "vagrant birds" in the US and Canada. Most, or at least many, traditional bird books have a section in the back for rare birds, occasionals or accidentals, which one might see now and then. But when you think about it, how can five or even a dozen species in a bird book really do justice to the problem of spotting birds that are normally not supposed to be spotted? I'm reminded of one South African bird guide that has a half dozen penguin species listed in it. There is only one species of penguin in South…

Shawn Otto's New Book: The War On Science

I'm going to publish my full review of The War on Science: Who's Waging It, Why It Matters, What We Can Do About It by Shawn Otto closer to the publication date, which is June 7th. (I believe you can use the above link to pre-order the book.) But I just wanted to let you know the book exists, and is amazing, you will want to read it. You will definitely, absolutely, not want to not read it. It is a must read. This isn't just someone yammering about the lack of respect for science in America, or about the Republican Party's antiscienceosity, etc. Shawn's book is actually a history of…

Truth or Truthiness: How does a thoughtful skeptic distinguish?

Truth or Truthiness: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction by Learning to Think Like a Data Scientist is a new book by Howard Wainer that can serve as a manual for how to be a good skeptic. Wainer is a statistician, formerly with the famous Educational Testing Service, and a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is well known for his work in statistics and data presentation. You know what "truthiness" is. It is a term coined by Stephen Colbert in 2005 to refer to assertions that are clearly true because of how they look, feel, smell, but that are in fact, not…

Some porn is deemed salutary

A number of you wrote in to me to let me know that Hong Kong was considering labeling the Christian bible as indecent—it is full of violence and kinky-freaky sexual behavior, after all. It was also amusing how some people rationalized it. "If there is rape mentioned in the Bible, it doesn't mean it encourages those activities," said Reverend Wu Chi-wai. "It's just common sense ... I don't think that criticism will have strong support from the public," he added. How strange…hasn't the good Reverend read his bible? In Deuteronomy, for instance, some quite explicit instructions are given: As…

Hubble for the Holidays: Eta Carinae

"We find them smaller and fainter, in constantly increasing numbers, and we know that we are reaching into space, farther and farther, until, with the faintest nebulae that can be detected with the greatest telescopes, we arrive at the frontier of the known Universe." -Edwin Hubble There's really only one way to appreciate just how far we've come in our quest to learn about the Universe thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope. That is, to take a look at something before the Hubble Space Telescope came along, and then to look at it with Hubble. Preferably, we can look at it multiple times, as…