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krandall | July 23, 2010By Dr. Mark R. Showalter
Planetary Astronomer at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
In 1609, Galileo introduced to the world his new invention, the astronomical telescope. It opened up new opportunities to explore a territory that all prior generations had regarded as familiar--the night sky. In short order, he was making major discoveries. But the sky is very big and Galileo's telescope was very small. He had to choose his targets carefully.
In that context, Saturn was nothing special, the least of the known planets, just a bright point in a black…
gregladen | July 23, 2010And that time may be now.
There is a beer (a Belgian ale to be exact) which costs over US$700 a bottle. It is 55 proof and looks like this:
Yes folks, that is a bottle of beer embedded in an actual taxidermied squirrel.
Seems funny, certainly strange to look at, but when I think about it, this is really one of the most demented things I've seen in a long time. A bottle of beer should never cost hundreds of dollars, and it should never be bottled in a taxidermied rodent. The people who have done this are sick and need to be rounded up and institutionalized before they have any more…
cwilcox | July 23, 2010So I've spent almost a day now on the H'i'ialakai, and I've learned a couple things.
1. I do not have my sea legs yet, Have you ever seen that episode of Family Guy where the whole family, including Brian is in the back of a van, and everyone is making fun of Brian because he can't seem to stand up without sliding around and falling over? Yeah, that's me.
2. While the rocking might be difficult for walking, it's fantastic for sleeping. I was gently rolled to sleep like a baby in my mother's arms.
Today we arrive at our first stop, Nihoa. Nihoa is an interesting island because while it's…
gregladen | July 22, 2010The story of Bora and Sci, two bloggers you may have heard of.
OMG, bugs AND cool graphs in the same post.
And, for something quit serious: Exercise and Peripheral Artery Disease
gregladen | July 22, 2010"Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity...And I'm not afraid to say it. " ... so THAT's why they hate Mel Gibson? Follow the bouncing logic here.
When I was a kid, I collected stamp. I loved it. Then, one day, my uncle sent me a box of ash from a volcano that had destroyed his village in Costa Rica. That was cool. Now, these two cool things are combined into one: Iceland issues stamps made with Eyjafjallajökull ash
A report from the field: Out in the Oil with Captain Dave
gregladen | July 22, 2010Recently I witnessed something remarkable-yet altogether ordinary.
I had the honor of being invited to a family's memorial service a while ago. While not a member of this family, I am very close to one member and through him knew the deceased. To the others, Sylvia was sister, sister-in-law, aunt, great-aunt, and relationships extending outward from there. Her own family had scattered after her divorce, and she moved up to Minnesota to be close to her brother's family.
Read the rest at Quiche Moraine ...
gregladen | July 22, 2010Just do it.
You were planning to give your favorite candidate 50 bucks, and 10 bucks to the Girl Scouts or whatever, and maybe a few bucks to some other cause over the next six months. Well, divert five, ten bucks (or if you're loaded, make it large) as an expression of appreciation to Bora.
Why? How? Who? Huh?
CLICK HERE NOW
Thank you very much.
gregladen | July 22, 2010... by people who really know how to tell a fortune...
Ask us any question you want! And we'll answer it for you! We'll have tarot cards! Palm readings! A crystal* ball! And dowsing pendulums (courtesy of SurlyRamics)!
You can even attend out pseudoworkshop "5 minute Google: How to impress your drunk ass friends with psychic readings". Then you can hold your own psychic fair!
We'll even have raffles (we already know that you're a winner!) And a silent auction. And chairs! And an open bar! And a skeptical psychic face off!
You can even compete to prove your own psychic powers are the best in…
mspringer | July 22, 2010I've been in Casper Wyoming the last few days at the Workshop of Quantum Science and Engineering, put together by Dr. Marlan Scully. The point of the workshop is to discuss the various work we're doing, exchange ideas, and all the other stuff that usually happens at these physics shindigs. We've also had a few talks celebrating 50 years of the laser and 95 years of its inventor, the Nobel laureate legend Dr. Charles Hard Townes. Dr. Scully says he's the greatest living scientist, and I have to say I think he's got a pretty good case.
Casper, Wyoming is Dr. Scully's hometown, and he makes sure…
gregladen | July 22, 2010Or at least, Greg Laden's Blog is no longer on strike. There is a scheduled phone conversation today between an elite subset of bloggers and the management. I have no idea how the phone call will go (or went), but I've been promised a summary eventually.
The bloggers were concerned about delayed paychecks. They were concerned about lousy technical support. They were concerned about a corporate blog being sprung on us, and about the potential of similar things happening in the future, and they were concerned more generally about communications between management and the bloggers, claiming…
gregladen | July 22, 2010There is a small but vocal movement of people who refuse to believe that skin cancer caused by sunlight is a significant health risk. These people tend to also believe that the risk is being purposely hyped by others, and that our current approach to skin cancer prevention is causing an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency....
The story is at White Coat Underground
cwilcox | July 22, 2010It's official - I am on board the Hi'ialakai and we are underway, headed to our first stop Nihoa.
Want to know where I'm at? Follow me around using NOAA's Ship Tracker. The Hi'ialakai is "HA", and you can click the link on the left sidebar to get it pointed out. Click "show latest track" to zoom in and focus on our movements.
Meanwhile, I've got briefings to go to. Catch you later!
Home sweet home for the next month!
gregladen | July 22, 2010On Friday, Paul Goldberg of The Cancer Letter reported on an investigation into Duke cancer researcher, Anil Potti, MD, and claims made that he was a Rhodes Scholar - in Australia. The misrepresentation was made on grant applications to NIH and the American Cancer Society.
This is important. Read it on Terra Sigillata.
gregladen | July 22, 2010Huge news, and hat tip to excellent food-policy writer Monica Eng at the Chicago Tribune: In a piece published Tuesday, she details that 300 hospitals in the Chicago area and nationwide have begun preferentially buying and serving meat that is raised without the use of antibiotics....
Huh. This is interesting. Read the rest here.
gregladen | July 22, 2010I'm one of those dreadful animal-centric zoologically inclined biologists. Plants? What are those? Fungi? They're related to metazoans somehow. Lichens? Not even on the radar. The first step in fixing a problem, though, is recognizing that you have one. So I confess to you, O Readers, that my name is PZ, and I am a metazoaphile. But I can get better. ...
Read the rest here
gregladen | July 22, 2010...Let's talk about sex. And let's talk about stress. And then let's talk about how increases in glucocorticoids are not the be all end all of psychiatric pathology....
Are you curious to see how this turns out?
gregladen | July 22, 2010Sometimes a whole bunch of stories on the BBC amuse me all at once, even when they are not necessarily funny. Is it because I read them in a British Accent? Or because of the quaint bits that can only happen in an Old World news story? Or is it just that the British are different yet the same enough for me to see behind a curtain that might otherwise appear as a wall?
So let's review the BBC morning news.
Read the rest...