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mspringer | November 10, 2010There was some dissension in the comments of my post on solving the Schrodinger equation with a linear potential. What the post boiled down to was that the solution was Ai(u), where we found that u was:
The point of the post was to work through and get that coefficient that's in front of the (Fx + E). The point wasn't to actually solve a physics problem with that, so I glossed over the fact that in solving the physical problem we'll need to deal with boundary conditions, which means paying attention to both types of Airy function Ai(u) and Bi(u), as well as taking into account that only…
gregladen | November 10, 2010The evidence is starting to add up. First, we have the absence of evidence, which is always tricky but sometimes relevant: Nobody picked up a rocket on radar, aircraft pilots did not see a vertical high speed accelerating object, etc. etc. Then we have the alternative explanations, including the shape and nature of the contrail, curves in the contrail unlikely from a ballistic missile, and so on.
I'm betting on routine aircraft contrail. This will be an interesting one to pick apart later when all the conjectures are in.
gregladen | November 9, 2010Bottom line: If you make less than 250,000 a year (per person, not per family) you have no business even thinking about being a Republican.
gregladen | November 9, 2010I know, I know, everybody else has already seen this, but since Comcast, ironically, cut MSNBC from our cable menu, I get my Olberman and Maddow off the net, and there is a delay.
On the suspension:
And, one item on our own Michele Bachmann:
gregladen | November 9, 2010Donald Mackenzie has been visiting Mount Ararat in Turkey for several years, searching for Noah's Ark, which according to the Bible was deposited by god on this mountain after the Noachain Flood. Although it seems to not have made news, Mackenzie was reported missing on October 14th.
Mr Mackenzie became interested in searching for Noah's Ark in his early 40s, and did a variety of jobs to fund his travels.
His mother said he is a Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland member because he believes it sticks closest to the Bible.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We can confirm that a British…
gregladen | November 9, 2010How can there be a large mystery launch of a rocket?
More video:
MSNBC's coverage:
gregladen | November 9, 2010Today is indeed a momentous day in history. On this day, in 1927, the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) was discovered by Teh West. It, of course, had previously been known to all those people for tens of thousands of years who lived among, and eated them.
This is also Carl Sagan's birthday. He was born in 1934, which seems like billions of years ago.
Do you remember Cosmos, first broadcast in 1980? (I always think of it as a few years earlier, but it was not.)
Do you remember The Great Blackout of 1965? I do (barely). It was today, but back then. It looked like this:
It is not…
pharyngula | November 9, 2010This would be his birthday, if he hadn't died in 1996. We're just going to have to celebrate his life without him.
gregladen | November 9, 2010Decision Points is now available at your local bookstore. I'm not going to get a copy, but I do think that it is appropriate to repost this, in celebration of George's literary success:
gregladen | November 8, 2010Version A:
Version B:
(at 3 minutes)
The Colbert Report
Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Tip/Wag - All Wag Christmas Edition
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes
2010 Election
March to Keep Fear Alive
pronald | November 8, 2010The online debate at The Economist Magazine continues. Dont forget to vote.
My rebuttal is here:
I agree with Charles Benbrook that "Bt crops have helped reduce insect feeding damage and lessened the need for toxic, broad-spectrum insecticides, and as a result, helped build populations of beneficial insects and promote above-ground biodiversity, two key sustainable farm-management goals."
I also wholeheartedly agree with his statements that "Multiple-tactic systems composed of 'many little hammers' offer the best hope for sustained progress" and "Biotechnology can help create new hammers and…
gregladen | November 8, 2010Iowa's rejection of three state supreme court justices who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage underscored the growing electoral vulnerability of state judges as more and more are targeted by special interest groups, legal scholars and jurists said Thursday.
"It just illustrated something that has been troubling many of us for many, many years," California Chief Justice Ronald M. George said. "The election of judges is not necessarily the best way to select them."
Story here
cwilcox | November 8, 2010When I first read Brian Switek's blog, I had no idea he was going to write a book. It was long before PepsiGate and before I was even a scibling. Back then, his blog, Laelaps, was still on ScienceBlogs, which is how I happened to stumble across it. I loved it from the first post I read, and instantly added to my Google Reader. His posts were (are!) entertaining, intriguing and well researched. He was among a small handful of science bloggers that I decided I wanted to emulate.
So of course, when I found out he was writing a book, I couldn't help but be excited about it. When the package…
mikethemadbiologist | November 7, 2010A while ago, I snarked that ten percent U3 unemployment was the new normal. Well, Jamison Foser puts the new normal in historical context:
From 1948 through 2008, there were a total of 40 months in which the unemployment rate was 8 percent or higher. Forty months, total, in sixty years. The longest streak of 8+ percent unemployment was 27 consecutive months from November 1981 to January 1984.
Under the "rosier" long-term outlook CNN's economists forecast for the next two years, by Election Day 2012, the unemployment rate will have been at 8.0 or higher for 46 consecutive months. That's more…
dnayak | November 6, 2010A male fly walks into a bar and orders cornmeal-molasses- yeast. A pretty female fly comes and sits next to him. They look at each other, he starts to say hello, but then she orders some starch. He turns away. She looks at his glass of cornmeal- molasses -yeast and gets up to leave.
A recent study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that mating preference of fruit flies (the ones you see swarming near a piece of rotten fruit) is dependent on their diet because it changes the composition of bacteria that live in their gut (gut microbiota). This intriguing…
gregladen | November 5, 2010Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) shamed the cable station MSNBC for indefinitely suspending its liberal host Keith Olbermann for making political donations.
Sanders, an independent who aligns himself with Democrats, called MSNBC's decision to suspend Olbermann, who admitted to making donations to several Democratic candidates this cycle, "outrageous."
source
Olberman had been suspended after Politico, the blog, narked on him for making three donations to Democratic candidates. My source on that is politico but it is the policy of this blog to not link to other blogs that being with the letter "p…