Earth
cevans | December 11, 2007HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY,ARTHUR C. CLARKE!
I'm personally indebted to Mr. Clarke for so many reasons: his profound optimism, particularly about our race as a unified system and our inevitable future contact with extraterrestrial life, has bolstered my ability to think globally; his unshakable commitment to the popularization of science and the dry elegance of his books have always left me echoing with dewy wonder. I pretty much consider the moment in 2001: A Space Odyssey when David Bowman proclaims, ""The thing's hollow -- it goes on forever -- and -- oh my God! -- it's full of stars!" to be a…
clock | December 8, 2007Indy has the entire issue devoted to the topic of Global Warming, with some excellent articles:
10 years after Kyoto: You're getting warmer by Bill McKibben
10 years after Kyoto: Winners and losers by Sena Christian
James Hansen won't be quiet by Lisa Sorg
Ryan Boyles, state climatologist by Matt Saldana
Energy interests fund Duke University's research on climate change policy by Matt Saldana
State senator parades dubious 'global warming experts' before commission by Mosi Secret
cevans | December 5, 2007
I'm surprised that I haven't come across this before: a Google-maps rendering of UFO sightings in the US, dynamically updated as-it-happens. Preliminary perusal seems to indicate that UFOs tend to stay away from the landlocked mountains, preferring to pop by the Pacific Northwest, the California coastline, and, in droves, the East Coast and the area immediately around the Great Lakes. For those of us who "believe" that even a fraction of these sightings may be the real deal, this map is an interesting asset and may tell us some valuable things about our visitors; for those of us who don't,…
clock | November 16, 2007Cyclone Sidr has hit Bangladesh. The number of casualties, though not as large as predicted, is still large and growing. More importantly, millions of people are displaced and have lost the sources of their livelihoods. The best way to help is to send money.
Red Cross/Red Crescent is probably in the best position to help fast. Or you may choose some other organization. Track the relief effort on the ReliefWeb. And donate today.
clock | November 14, 2007The cyclone Sidr looks ominous and scary. It will make landfall tomorrow. More than ten million people live in the river delta of Bangladesh where Sidr is headed. Shelters have a capacity for about half a million. Others are, I guess, evacuating on foot, if there even is a place to go and hide. Some may have decided to stay put beause they cannot travel or there is no place to go. The rains brought by the cyclone are likely to lead to flooding, endangering lives even more. All we can do right now is wait and hope that the cyclone and its aftermath do not kill as many people as some are…
clock | October 27, 2007Since I was gone to two meetings and nobody else can walk the dog as regularly as I can, the dog spent the week at Grandma's in Raleigh. Today I went to pick her up (the dog, that is) which placed me in the car at precisely the time of NPR's Talk of the Nation Science Friday (OK, I intentionally timed it that way). And lo and behold, there was Gavin Yamey on the radio! Hey, I thought, I know this guy! We had lunch together and we exchange at least a dozen e-mails every week.
Gavin is editor at PLoS Medicine and, as part of the Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development, he…
cevans | September 4, 2007
"We are one planet. We know who speaks for the nations, but who speaks for the human species? Who speaks for Earth?"
-- Carl Sagan
cevans | September 3, 2007Long-time readers of this blog will be familiar with my tenderness for the Unarians, a UFO cult-cum-Renaissance science foundation that has been based in El Cajon, California since the 1960s. In 2006 I made something of a pilgrimage to their compound and left with a profound sense of mystified pity, or pitiful mysticism, which was ultimately a kind of admiration for the pastel dreamscape of their cosmology.
In any case, I occasionally receive the "Unarius E-Flash," an enlightened e-mail newsletter. In its better moments it makes glowing pronouncements about the Unarius public-access…
clock | September 2, 2007After Fran and Floyd, hurricanes that start with F make me quite nervous. And now Felix, in less than a day since it formed, went from Category 2 to Category 3 to Category 4 to Category 5. It is a monster! Honduras is in for a bad thrashing soon!
clock | August 31, 2007Naomi Oreskes, the author of the 2004 paper in Science about the scientific consensus on global warming, recently had her work attacked by regressive denialists (including on Senator I-hate-science-Inhofe's blog). Her full response is now available on Stranger Fruit. Go and read it. Now.
cevans | August 31, 2007I once said that 2007 on Universe would include many new features, one being an occasional review of a work of science fiction. Hello!
The Black Cloud is a 1957 science-fiction novel written by British astronomer Fred Hoyle. Like the novels of Carl Sagan, and, often, Arthur C. Clarke, it's something of an extrapolation of the author's deeply-held scientific conceptions. Because it was written by a scientist, further, it's almost overwhelmingly dry at times; the narrative often gives way entirely to pages full of mathematical formulae, diagrams, and lengthy expository footnotes.
The…
clock | August 27, 2007Here is the time-table if you want to watch the eclipse in the Eastern time zone:
As you can see, it is very late at night, and much of the good stuff is happening after dawn. Perhaps in other time zones, the eclipse will look better, so check out the timelines here.
clock | July 24, 2007People have been cooking in Belgrade, Serbia, for weeks now. Last time I am aware of that the temperature was this high was when I was in pre-school. Today's pictures:
clock | July 18, 2007Apparently, Great Britain became an island due to a big flood (not gradual erosion). Don't let the Old Earth Creationists hear about this...
clock | July 18, 2007Mindy discovered a cool series of videos on YouTube, done by a physics teacher.
The first one is called The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See:
Then, to respond to questions and comments, he added Patching Holes #1, Patching Holes #2 and Patching Holes #3, also well worth watching. This is certainly no Al Gore!
clock | July 9, 2007I had a great pleasure recently to be able to interview Senator - and now Democratic Presidential candidate - John Edwards for my blog. The interview was conducted by e-mail last week.
As I am at work and unable to moderate comments, the comment section is closed on this post, but will be open on the previous post (here) where I hope you will remain civil and stay on topic. You are also welcome to comment on this interview at several other places (e.g,. DailyKos, MyDD, TPMCafe, Science And Politics, Liberal Coalition, the Edwards campaign blog as well as, hopefully, your own blogs).
I…
clock | July 8, 2007Unfortunately, I will still be out of town for this, but if you are in the area on July 12th, you should go to Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh (it is in Ridgewood Shopping Center, 3522 Wade Ave.) at 7pm and meet my SciBling Chris Mooney. He is touring the country reading from his new book Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming (website).
Last year, when he was touring with the "Republican War On Science" we had a grand time at his reading/signing and afterwards we, of course, had Miller Lite (at least he had, I chose something a little more beer-like). So, mark…