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Flipped out
It's amazing what can be found in "main stream" websites, or sponsored by the NSF. For example, here is a rather radical article on one researcher's hypothesis that the Earth literally flipped over during the past.If you read through this, it takes on the air of someone who is an "anti-plate tectonic" scientist, who basically ignores such ( Read more... ) -
Cool Science Stuff
Yesterday I had a rant about enduring climatic extremes, in particular the prospects of an unusually hot/dry summer.
But instead imagine an ice covered world - along the lines of the planet Hoth of Star Wars fame. This has happened in the Earth's past and it was far more severe than you could imagine. The recent "Ice Ages" are a pale imitation ( Read more... ) -
quantum physics
I was discussing various nerdy interests with a friend, and I mentioned that I am absolutely fascinated by quantum physics. He proceeded to tell me that quantum physics is bullshit, and I don't remember what his argument was, or even whether it was a scientific or purely philosophical reason he believed it to be BS. I was wondering if anyone ( Read more... ) -
When modelling is not simulation
The most recent edition of New Scientist (or maybe it was Scientific American, at this precise moment in time I'm not certain) Discover¹ magazine carried a story which mentioned a researcher who was "simulating the tobacco mosaic virus in unprecedented detail to find out how it reproduces".
Um, no he wasn't. Pardon me, but I'm going to be a ( Read more... ) -
The Quest for the Holy Grail
..may have failed
Back in April (2005), A couple of research scientists from Cornell university announced the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the river swamps of eastern Arkansas. Presumed extinct for at least 50 years, this was seen as the recovery of Orthinology's "Holy Grail". Unfortunately, this announcement may have been ( Read more... ) -
Future Signs
Cube it, man
Today I found this link on the dubious history of the "Cube Farm". In a way, I guess I'm luckier than most. I've always had an office or at least a large room to work in. When I was teaching high school science, this came in the form of an equipment room where had another desk/work-area in addition to my normal classroom environment ( Read more... ) -
Water, water everywhere
Pointed out by Peter Murray and dmmaus, respectively:
Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch.com published this article which, among other things, covers Mike Davis's discussion of climatic tipping points, which in turn comments on such events as Hurricane Catarina -- the first South Atlantic tropical hurricane in meteorological recorded history -- and the ( Read more... ) -
I call ... BULLSHIT
I was very disappointed to see in New Scientist, of all places, a full-page ad for a book by Anatoly T. Fomenko (an ad across which is "stamped", in large red letters, "SOLD 3.8 MILLION COPIES IN RUSSIA") titled "History: Fiction or Science?" The gist of the ad is that Fomenko, self-proclaimed "leading mathematician of our time", "proves" that ( Read more... ) -
Honor thy Idiocy
If Ignorance is Bliss
..then stupidity is a badge of honor - at least through much of the South. About a half hour earlier I was listening to a 'quiz' on one of the local rock stations and it was a Idiots R Us. The topic was phobias, and at least 90% of the contestants totally tanked on guessing the type of phobia (other than the most obvious and/ ( Read more... ) -
TAI vs UTC, leap seconds vs leap hours, thoughts?
This may be OT: it's actual science, but the bullshit is on the scientists' part in this instance, rather than the pseudoscientists'.
So yesterday the UTC new year was rung in a second late for the first time in seven years. And possibly the last time, since the PTB are mulling eradication of the leap second system, apparently in favor of a leap ( Read more... )