Search Content

Displaying results 56401 - 56450 of 87947

Announcing the new PLoS Journal: Neglected Tropical Diseases!

These last couple of days were very exciting here at PLoS. After months of preparation and hard work, PLoS presents the latest addition to its collection of top-notch scientific journals. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases went live yesterday at 6:42pm EDT. This journal will be ...the first open-access journal devoted to the world's most neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), such as elephantiasis, river blindness, leprosy, hookworm, schistosomiasis, and African sleeping sickness. The journal publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed research on all scientific, medical, and public-health aspects…

The heathen are raging again

More than five years ago, I was griping about the pretense of compatibility between science and religion, prompted by an otherwise good site at the University of California Berkeley that offered the usual pablum: Science and religion deal with different things. Science tries to figure out how things work and religion teaches about morality and spirituality. There doesn't need to be a conflict. Complete bullshit. I'd rather get my morality from reason and real world experience, from science, and religion teaches nothing about morality. Religion is about obedience to arbitrary rules. As for…

Vivien, Patron Saint of Pigeons

Today, I had to take care of some cats for a vacationing NYCer, so this meant that I had to brave the snow, slush and Lake Erie-sized mud-puddles in the process. Because today is the Saint Patrick's Day parade, I had to get out early, before all the streets were blocked off on the east side of town where my client lives. After I had returned to the west side of town, I decided to reward myself for having beaten all the traffic chaos and went to Starbux for a coffee and cookie. While I was there, I met a German woman who was also having a coffee. She told me that she had a pigeon with a…

Latest entries in the accommodationist fracas

I've been away all day, shuttling family about, so I've been trying to catch up the ongoing drama in the conflict between those simpering accommodationists and us mean new atheists. If you've got a little time — there is a bit of tl;dr about it all — read Sam Harris's exchanges with Philip Ball. Sam Harris we all know; Ball is a very reputable science writer who is also very much one of those "I'm an atheist, but…" fellows. It's an infuriating conversation because, as usual, rather than talking about what us "New Atheists" actually think, Harris has to constantly go back and address the…

on the spontaneous appearance of minor deities

Last year Sean wrote a marvelous short on Boltzmann's Brains A Boltzmann Brain is a self-aware entity that spontaneously appears from a low probability statistical fluctuation to a low entropy state. A very low probability fluctuation. We're talking something like a potted plant appearing spontaneously high above a planet's surface, thinking "oh no, not again" and then plummeting to its more probable, energy conserving, high entropy disassembly. No violation of physical law or cherished symmetries, just a low probability rapid assembly of ordered mass, followed by return to normalcy. The…

NRC Rankings: method in the madness

We are now just 12 hours from the release of the National Research Council Data Based Assessment of Graduate Programs. The tension is just overwhelming... An interesting thing about the 2010 NRC rankings is the methodology, and a final version seems to have been settled upon. As you know, Bob, the primary purpose of the new methodology is to make sure Princeton wins, and Harvard is suitably humbled provide a robust and objective ranking of US graduate programs, for the ages, which is not a subjective grossly lagging metric. The complaints about the methodology have already started to bubble…

Beyond Beyond Einstein

Ok, I read the BEPAC full report, all 201 pages. Interesting stuff, lots to glean from it. First, Con-X community letter on Exploding Galaxies and other Catastrophysics, with some interesting comments from Prof Superwinds. NASA HQ has still not responded to the BEPAC report. Way back when, my understanding was that HQ would issue a decision based on the report at a high level, that they have not done so is worrying. Now the BEPAC report: the committee upped the cost estimates on all the projects. SNAP claims TRL (Technology Readiness Level) 9 on the telescope...! TRL 9 is "has flown…

NASA: nuthin' new

I haven't spent much time in that den of iniquity, DC, lately but... third hand rumours percolate back to me, and if I can't sleep, neither should you a few weeks ago, a commenter said something to the effect that "NASA would do nothing until JWST was out of the way" - I thought at the time it was over pessimistic, but now I'm not so sure, maybe he knew something I did not... I hear there was a little to-do at a Big Center, and basically there will be a handful of SMEX and maybe one MIDEX or Discovery class mission for astrophysics (aka "universe"), but no more Big Missions. Ever. So no…

don't dis' the elves

PZ mocks the elves - he has doomed himself. The elves will not be mocked. Elf festival for summer solstice Ok folks, so Iceland adopted christianity from Europe, peacfully, by democratic vote, intellectual debate, possibly a touch of bribery, and the threat of invasion and conversion by force; we took on the monetarist deregulation superstition from the US, and paid the price; we even let our children watch Disney's corruption of the classic myths. Through it all we've been remarkably tolerant, pluralistic, forbearing and understanding. But now PZ, in his zeal, has challenged the essence…

A lesson in atheist philosophy

Hang on; Klinghoffer is bad, but you haven't read the clever reasonings of Nancy Greenwood of Red Deer, Alberta yet. She doesn't like those atheists one bit — she's got a list of 5 horrible facts about atheists (although it could be longer, if she hadn't kindly left off the bits about baby-eating). Being the hot topic of the day, any discussion of atheism, should include these 'difficult to admit' points: Firstly, atheists claim that they themselves are god. They claim they have superior knowledge then the rest of us by trying to say that they have better knowledge because of their own…

The Race to Save the World's Rarest Bird: The Discovery and Death of the Po'ouli

tags: po'ouli, Melamprosops phaeosoma, endangered species, endangered species act, conservation, extinction, birds, island species, Hawai'i, book review For scientists, naturalists and birders, islands are the most amazing places on earth because their evolutionary legacy has provided them with their own fascinating flora and fauna that are found nowhere else in the world. But because humans also like to live on islands, along with their pets and crop plants, islands are a conservation nightmare, and certainly, the Hawai'ian islands are no exception. In Alvin Powell's book, The Race to Save…

Seattle Visit: University of Washington's GreenHouse, Part One

tags: Seattle Washington, Biology Department Greenhouse, University of Washington, flowers Passiflora laurifolia blossom. Image: GrrlScientist 29 September 2008 [larger view]. I ran into another Seattle pal on my way back from the Montlake Fill to the Zoology department (now subsumed into Biology), where I earned my PhD. As a result, we spent half an hour talking, so I was late, so the office was locked up (as was my laptop). But the day was gorgeous, the weather perfect, so I took the opportunity to do more photography. Outside the main entrance to the University of Washington's…

New Hummingbird Species Discovered

tags: hummingbird, Gorgeted Puffleg, Eriocnemis Isabellaea, endangered species, ornithology, birds A new species of hummingbird, the Gorgeted Puffleg, Eriocnemis Isabellaea, has been discovered in the Serrania del Pinche mountains of southwest Colombia. [much larger image] According to ornithologists, the Gorgeted Puffleg has been discovered living in the cloud forests of southwestern Colombia. Despite its recent discovery, this stunning rare hummingbird that has violet blue plumage and iridescent green on its throat, is already endangered by the environmentally damaging illegal drugs…

Chosen By A Horse

tags: book review, Susan Richards, Chosen By a Horse This wonderful book is the poignant memoir of a woman who rescues a maltreated horse, and discovers that this amazing horse ends up rescuing her. Chosen By a Horse: How a Broken Horse Fixed a Broken Heart by Susan Richards (NYC: Harvest; 2006) is the amusing and touching true story about the author's decision to take in a starved and abused standardbred broodmare that was part of a group of 42 racehorses rescued by the local SPCA. At first, Richards chose a horse from a list based on her name but then, when she and the animal control…

The year in worker health & safety: action (and not) on the federal scene

As Liz Borkowski noted on Tuesday, we started a new tradition this year to mark Labor Day in the U.S.  We published The Year in U.S. Occupational Health & Safety: Fall 2011 - Summer 2012.  The 42-page report highlights some of the key research and activities in the U.S. on worker health and safety topics. We know that many advocates, reporters and researchers look forward  every April to the AFL-CIO’s Death on the Job report with its compilation of data on work-related injuries reported, number of federal and state inspections, violations cited, and penalties assessed.  We set out to…

Washington State adopts rule to protect healthcare workers from hazardous medications

Washington State becomes the first in the nation to adopt specific workplace safety rules to protect healthcare workers who are potentially exposed to anti-neoplastic drugs and other hazardous medications. The new rule, issued earlier this month by the State's Department of Labor & Industries, stems from legislation passed in April 2011 and signed into law by Governor Chris Gregoire. The rule applies to healthcare facilities in which employees are "reasonably anticipated" to have "occupational exposure to one or more hazardous drugs." The CDC's National Institute for Occupational…

Worker fatality in my hometown, the story before the story

Earlier this week, I reported on the death of Margarito Guardado Resinos, 34, at a construction project in my hometown of San Marcos, TX. Mr. Resinos employer, Jetka Steel Erectors, had been inspected by OSHA in December 2010, at a different construction site, and received citations in May 2011 for four serious violations of safety standards. I noticed however that the $12,000 penalty proposed by OSHA for the violations had been reduced to $6,100 through a settlement agreement with the company. Moreover, two of the four serious violations were reclassified with the label "other-than-…

The Perfect vs. the Good: Tackling Maternal Mortality in Mozambique

NPR's Melissa Block traveled to Mozambique, where poverty and a shortage of both healthcare providers and facilities contribute to a high maternal mortality rate, for the first segment of the "Beginnings" series that will air throughout the summer on All Things Considered. She starts off with some grim statistics: In Mozambique in southeastern Africa, the rates of maternal and infant mortality are among the highest in the world. In her lifetime, a Mozambican woman has a 1 in 37 chance of dying during pregnancy or within a short time after a pregnancy has ended. One in 10 children won't live…

Will China's Smoking Ban Succeed?

Tobacco use is one of the top risk factors for the non-communicable diseases the World Health Organization is targeting, and WHO has already done a lot of anti-smoking work over the past few years. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control entered into force in 2005, and its core demands include both price and non-price measures to be taken by signatory countries. Price measures include taxes to increase the per-pack cost of tobacco products, and non-price measures include protection from exposure to tobacco smoke and regulation of tobacco product content, labeling, and advertising.…

Elon Musk questioned by Tesla stockholders about worker safety

Tesla held its annual stockholder meeting this month, and co-founder/CEO Elon Musk was asked to speak about worker safety problems at their plants. He briefly mentioned the topic in his prepared remarks, but was probed later about it by a stockholder. The question came from @sunabeepdeep who asked: "What changes are being made to address worker safety?" Public attention on working conditions at Tesla’s manufacturing plant in Fremont, CA was prompted most recently by a May 18 story in The Guardian. Reporter Julia Carrie Wong spoke to current and former employees who described intense…

High temps, no water, no breaks for workers in FL, GA, TX construction booms

The southern U.S.’s construction boom is not translating into better wages and working conditions for construction workers.  Those are the results of a survey of 1,435 construction workers from six southern U.S. cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Miami, and Nashville. The survey, which was administered during July and August 2016, was a collaboration between the Texas-based Workers Defense Project, the Partnership for Working Families, and Nik Theodore, PhD with the University of Chicago's Department of Urban Planning and Policy. Their report, Build a Better South, was released…

More soda tax success: Study finds Mexico’s tax reduced sugary beverage buys two years in a row

Another day, another study that shows soda taxes work to reduce the consumption of beverages associated with costly chronic diseases in children and adults. This time it’s a study on Mexico’s sugar-sweetened beverage tax, which went into effect at the start of 2014 and tacked on 1 peso per liter of sugary drink. Published this month in the journal Health Affairs, the study found that purchases of sugary drinks subject to the new tax went down more than 5 percent in 2014 and nearly 10 percent in 2015. At the same time, purchases of untaxed drinks went up by slightly more than 2 percent. The…

Immigrant rights are under attack, what public health should do to fight back

By Jonathan Heller President Trump’s 100 day plan includes deporting 2 million undocumented residents from the US. The plan represents a massive increase in scale and speed of deportations. Trump says he will focus on deporting undocumented people with criminal records. With fewer of them in the US now as a result of President Obama’s policies, Trump has already expanded the definition of who is a ‘criminal’ to include people who are merely charged or suspected of committing crimes. Being in the US without documents may become a ‘criminal’ act. Sensitive locations, like schools and clinics,…

Study: Preterm birth price tag related to air pollution tops $5 billion

In debates over air pollution control, it’s always a tug-of-war between the cost to business and the cost to public health. Late last month, a study emerged with new data for the public health column: the cost of the nation’s nearly 16,000 annual preterm births linked to air pollution is more than a whopping $5 billion. Published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the study estimated the burden of U.S. preterm births and related costs associated with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) — a pollutant from motor vehicles and the burning of fuels such as wood and coal. While preterm birth is a…

Occupational Health News Roundup

As world leaders are gathered in Paris to discuss international efforts to combat climate change, Michelle Chen writes that workers in the Global South will “need to build livelihoods that can mitigate ecological crisis — and leap ahead of the dominant fossil-fuel based economies, which historically have both controlled and stifled their development.” Reporting for The Nation, Chen starts her article with a report from the New Delhi-based Just Jobs Network, which notes that climate-driven migration has the potential to drive down wages and working conditions in urban areas. Chen writes: But…

Scientists find high prevalence of Chagas disease in Texas kissing bugs

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers it one of five neglected parasitic infections in need of targeted public health action. And while its transmission is still considered rare in the U.S., it seems residents of Texas may be at greater risk than scientists previously thought. The disease is American Trypanosomiasis, more commonly known as Chagas disease. Chagas is a vector-borne disease in which the parasite is transmitted to animals and people by blood-sucking insects known as “assassin bugs” or “kissing bugs” (here’s what the bugs look like). However, the parasite isn’t…

New report: No evidence that the Affordable Care Act is a ‘job killer’

One of the big criticisms that opponents of the Affordable Care Act love to trot out is its impact on the economy — one phrase you often hear is “job killer.” In fact, in 2011, Republicans in the House actually introduced legislation officially titled “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.” That bill didn’t make it far. However, a new report finds that “job-killing” isn’t just hyperbole; it’s just plain wrong. Earlier this month, the Urban Institute released a new report on the ACA and employment, asking “Has the ACA been a job killer?” Authors Bowen Garrett and Robert Kaestner noted…

Important changes since Upper Big Branch disaster, but coal miner deaths continue

April 5, 2015 will mark the fifth anniversary of the coal dust explosion that killed 29 miners at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine (UBB). It was the worst disaster in 40 years in the US coal industry. Since then, some things have changed in coal mine safety. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in particular, has focused much of its attention on ways to address failures identified by the UBB disaster. Browse through the agency’s press releases dating back to May 2010 and you’ll see quite a few with some connection to UBB. You’ll notice, for example, recaps of the agency’s “…

A vessel normally dedicated to science should not be enabling tourism in an area like the Arctic, acknowledged by many to be one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change?

Oh dear oh dear. But this one is almost about sea ice, so I get a free hand to rant about yet more faux-greenie drivel. The news: a giant floating gin palace is going to visit the Arctic so that giant floating gin-drinkers can drink giant gins while surrounded by ice and, occasionally, poor people. And they've chartered a UK "icebreaker"1 to kinda hang around and look red, in case they need rescuing or something. Or perhaps just to look good in pictures, the red really stands out. I have a gorgeous picture of the Bransfield (RIP) with a floating-in-cloud pure ice peak above her, above my…

In dramatic statement, European leaders call for ‘immediate’ open access to all scientific papers by 2020?

Or so say Science and various others; you can read the EU PR directly. And of course, mixed into the tenor of the times, this becomes "another reason to stay in the EU" (and we'll quietly forget about an apparently insane new car hire rule). Anyway, what immeadiately strikes me about this "new" thing is that it is what the US has had forever, so why is it being touted as so exciting? Even Science, who are USAnians, don't mention that aspect, so perhaps I'm wrong. Also, I shouldn't forget to snark how pathetic it is that in EU-world (or perhaps just snail-like-government-in-general-world) "…

Yet more T/CO2 lags

Guest posting by (or rather, ripped from) Eric Wolff. It is indeed a very fundamental question about whether the CO2 leads or lags the temperature. If there was somewhere in the ice core record where CO2 increases and temperature does not, then our understanding of the greenhouse effect must be faulty. However, so far we don't find such a place. [*] [*] Eric is a scientist, not a lawyer. His words, whilst essentially still valid, were not carefully enough framed. He writes (2012/4): I should have carefully included the words "all othe things being equal" and "significantly" as in: "If there…

More of Yoo's Hypocrisy

Man, Orin Kerr is working John Yoo like a speedbag right now. In his latest post at Volokh, he finds yet more evidence of Yoo's utter hypocrisy in defending the Bush administration's attempts to expand executive power. He provides this transcript of a portion of a talk Yoo gave at the Cato Institute in 2000: First, I think, in order to achieve their foreign policy goals, the Clinton Adminisitration has undermined the balance of powers that exist in foreign affairs, and have undermined principles of democratic accountability that executive branches have agreed upon well to the Nixon…

Producer Defends Darwin/Hitler Special

Like the Worldnutdaily, Agape Press has been frantically trying to defend D. James Kennedy's absurd documentary claiming that Darwin led directly to Hitler. Their latest attempt has the producer of the documentary, Jerry Newcombe, trying to defend it. Predictably, he falls flat on his face in the attempt. The documentary's producer, Jerry Newcombe, says it is important for Christians in particular to understand the social impact of Darwin's theory. ""Ideas have consequences," he explains, "and evolution lays at the root of so many different factors of our culture. We deal with some of those…

Jack Krebs Stands up to Calvert's Demagoguery

One of the tried and true tactics of creationists of all stripes has long been to equate evolution with atheism, and thus those who accept evolution become atheists. In a society where surveys show that atheists are, for some bizarre reason, among the most distrusted people, this is good political strategy; it's also false. It is simply a scare tactic, designed (intelligently, perhaps, but also unethically) to exploit the public's fear and distrust of atheists. Such fears are utterly irrational, of course, but that is precisely why they can be exploited so effectively by demagogues. Those…

ID Legislation in Michigan

We've got a sudden rash of ID activity here in Michigan. The MCFS board got word yesterday that the House Education Committee in Michigan was going to hold a hearing this morning on HB 5251, a bill that would require the teaching of all the major ID arguments in public school science classes. We had thought this bill was dead in light of HB 5606, which was signed into law in April. But the pro-ID language had been taken out of that bill, so the sponsors of 5251 have revived it. The language of the bill is as follows: 10) Not later than August 1, 2006, the state board shall revise the…

More on George Sim Johnston

Christopher O'Brien, an anthropologist from Cal State-Chico, picks up on my fisking of George Sim Johnston's very bad article about the Darwin exhibit at the AMNH and adds a bit more detail specifically concerning Johnston's claims about human evolution. I also came across an old post of his that contains a really great passage that I want to quote in full. I'll put the long quote below the fold and urge you to read it: As Brown points out in response: "teach the controversy" is nothing more than "verbal ju-jitsu", playing on the sensibility of fairness. But science is not "fair" as Brown has…

All Scottish coal plants to use carbon capture by 2025?

Or so says reuters and a whole host of others repeating the same story. The source is draft ELECTRICITY GENERATION POLICY STATEMENT from the shouty Scottish government. You won't be surprised to hear that I don't believe a word of it (I've been pretty sniffy before), but lets read on. Oh, but first, why so sniffy? Because, its not economic (if it was, we'd all be doing it, der). Nor do I see any sign of it becoming economic in the next 10-15-20 years. But who knows, I could be wrong. Lets read on... They say: The Scottish Government's policy on electricity generation [nd: this is indeed about…

Currygate, part 3: the key papers exposed

Oh well, everyone else has a gate, perhaps I can have one too. Incidentally the picture is there for two reasons: firstly I have far too many pix of Darling Daugther and no-one looks at them. If Jules can put up huts, I can do children. And second, it is a cunning attempt to make me a human bean rather than just a face on the internet, so my enemies will find it harder to attack me. Clever eh? So, the story so far (pay attention at the back!): I wondered about the list of 3 "key" papers that Curry was proposing should have been considered by the Oxburgh inquiry. Or perhaps by the…

Nierenberg

[This is my 600th post!] Oreskes says: So Reagan commissioned a third report [this appears to be false: see below -W] about global warming from Bill Nierenberg, who had made his name working on the Manhattan Project developing America's atom bomb. He went on to run the Scripps Institution of Oceanography where he had built up the Climate Research Division. And he was a Jason. Nierenberg's report was unusual in that individual chapters were written by different authors. Many of these chapters recorded mainstream scientific thinking similar to the Charney and Jason reports. But the key chapter…

No excuse for inaction when times get tough

Or so says Gordy. The grauniad has a special supplement on Climate Change. I guess they aren't taking it too seriously, because I spent quite a time digging through their web site before I found it. I rather liked Monbiot Porrit's piece but for the moment I'm going to look at what Broon said. First off, there is quite a bit of Under our Climate Change Bill, the first in the world... - my bolding. Ie, he just can't stop politicking. Well, he's a politican, I guess I should just learn to strip out the goo and dribble and see what he actually has to say. Which is... Under our Climate Change Bill…

Kuo on Hardball

David Kuo, author of the new book Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, appeared on the MSNBC show Hardball last night. It was a strange interview. I've not yet read Kuo's book, but his main point seems to be that the Bush administration simply uses evangelical voters as a ready source of votes, but does not really care about their issues. In public he professes great fondness for evangelical leaders, but in private his staff refers to them as nuts and goofy. It's pretty damning stuff considering the extent to which Bush relies on evangelical voters. At the start of…

Weekend Diversion: The Best (and Easiest) Charity Ever!

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving individuals. We all must work for our own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity." -Marie Curie Most of us remember the importance of being charitable on a few rare occasions throughout the year, most commonly around the year's end. But what about the rest of the year? Obviously, we don't have an unlimited amount of resources, so for most of us, it's not a viable option to do as Magnolia Electric Company suggests, and Give Something Else Away Every Day.But what if I told you there was a way…

“Explore Evolution”—displacing good science with 'dumbed-down' creationism

The various ID blogs are all atwitter over the new textbook the Discovery Institute is going to be peddling, Explore Evolution. I've seen a copy, but I'm not going to give an extensive review just yet. I will say that it's taking a slightly different tack to avoid the court challenges. It does not mention gods anywhere, of course, but it goes further: it doesn't mention Intelligent Design, either. The book is entirely about finding fault with evolution, under the pretext of presenting the position of evolutionary biology (sort of) together with a critique. The biology part is shallow, useless…

This is the greatest idea ever: Water Bar

One of the Great Crises we face in today's world is the stability and security of the water supply. In America, most people don't have any problems getting water, to the extent that we tend to waste it, and few people even know where there water comes from. Every now and then there emerges a startling and troubling problem with water. A river catches fire, a plume of visible pollution observable from space spreads across a lake, or an entire city worth of children are poisoned with the contents of the city water supply. Works Progress Studio has been engaged for a while in a project called…

How Dogs Won The World

Years ago I proposed a theory (not anywhere in print, just in seminars and talks) that went roughly like this. Humans hunt. Dogs hunt. Prey animals get hunted. Each species (or set of species) has a number of characteristics such as the ability to stalk, track, kill, run away, form herds, etc. Now imagine a landscape with humans, wolves, and game animals all carrying out these behaviors, facilitated with various physical traits. Then, go back to the drawing board and redesign the system. The hunting abilities of humans and dogs, the tendency of game animals to herd up or take other…

Weekend Diversion: Not for Kids Only

"In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults." -Thomas Szasz Some of the email I get, periodically, asks me if there are any science books or TV shows that I recommend. (When a particularly good one comes across my radar, I let you know.) But a more unusual request I recently received was if there were any books or TV shows that I recommended for kids. For me -- personally…

Why the Moon Turns Red During an Eclipse!

"With hue like that when some great painter dips His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse." -Percy Bysshe Shelley There may be no greater sight for the naked-eye astronomer than a total lunar eclipse. Normally, we get one or two of these a year, and the same wonderful thing happens at each one. Image credit: Amateur Astronomical Society of Rhode Island. If you were standing on the Moon, you'd start to see the Earth begin to cover part of the Sun. As the Earth blocks more and more of the Sun, there would be less sunlight landing on the Moon, and one side of it appears to darken…

How far away are you?

"It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time." -Winston Churchill And yet, when you look out, you can't help but wonder how far away these points of light in the sky are. Some things are easy. Our Solar System, for instance. Just by knowing Newton's Laws of gravity and observing the positions of the planets over time, we can determine the distances to any of the planets, our Moon, or our Sun to incredible (better than 99.999%) accuracy. But what about the stars? They're much, much farther away than anything in our Solar System, and…

But it moves! How we know the Earth rotates.

"I feel the earth move under my feet I feel the sky tumbling down I feel my heart start to trembling Whenever you're around" -Carole King I had so much fun earlier this week telling you about how we know that the heliocentric model is better than the geocentric one, that I thought I'd go a little farther down that rabbit-hole. You see, the first astronomical thing that any living creature likely notices is that, as seen from Earth, the Sun rises in the East each day and sets in the West. (I don't want to hear it from you kids at the poles, either!) The Sun, as it were, appears to move in…

The American Auto Industry Moves South: West Wing vs. Donald Trump

The West Wing Version: Josh, Toby, Leo, and Donna are in Leo's office. They have just gotten word that a major auto manufacturer plans to build a plant in Mexico, and will likely close a corresponding plant in Michigan. Josh is pacing, Leo is behind his desk, Donna is standing near the door, and Toby is sitting in a chair smoking an unlit cigar. All four had just come from a poker game with the President and others. Josh Leyman: Screw the auto industry. If they decide to move another plant to Mexico, we just slap a 35% tariff on them! Leo Mcgarry: That won't go well, Josh, and you know it.…