Remember The Birth
On this day, hundreds of years ago, a baby boy was born. His birth had been presaged by the passing of another great man, a great bringer of light to the world. But the people of the day scarcely noticed.… Continue Reading
Science
Environmental Disaster In Roane County
The Tennessee Valley Authority is the country’s largest utility — it generates electricity, regulates the Tennessee River, and is a huge employer. It also just got a huge black eye and gave a huge black eye to “clean coal.” Of… Continue Reading
Now He Tells Us
George W. Bush — not a Biblical literalist. Actual quote (the headline is deceptive): Asked whether the Bible was literally true, Mr Bush replied: “Probably not. No, I’m not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from… Continue Reading
Cinque Piedi di Acqua Alta a Venezia
This must have been scary for Venetians. Six hours of water five feet above where it normally is. Walking around sidewalks hip-deep in the lagoon — yuck! A beautiful city, but that lagoon is nasty. Is it global warming? Well,… Continue Reading
It Came Out Of The Sky
Two videos from Canada, filmed last night: This was, of course, a meteor. A spectacular one at that. Coolness.
Land of the Lemurs And Other Lessons In Practical Evolution
Last night, I went to class with The Wife. Instead of a regular English composition class, there were four half-hour lectures about Charles Darwin and applications of his ideas in science. Well, there were supposed to be. The first lecture… Continue Reading
Not The Right Path
I first saw this idea in a column by David Brooks in the New York Times: The Republican Party is become the party of anti-intellectualism: What had been a disdain for liberal intellectuals slipped into a disdain for the educated… Continue Reading
Newly Evolved Earthworms Eat Heavy Metal
Your basic earthworm, you plop him down in a bunch of soil laced with particulate arsenic, lead, and copper, well, he dies. Why? Because he can’t digest those things. But these little babies eat up the heavy metals and like… Continue Reading
A Solution To The Darfur Crisis
Tonight, a chunk of space rock ten feet in diameter will impact the atmosphere of Earth at the speed of eight miles a second and descend towards the northwestern quadrant of the Sudan, releasing megatons of energy. I’m sure it… Continue Reading
Mo Better Science
It’s not a big secret that science and math education in the United States is, at best, struggling to compete with that being done in the rest of the industrialized world. American special effects impresario-turned basic cable TV show host… Continue Reading