Archive for the ‘All’ Category
Cheap Science Quiz
In a personal effort to promote science literacy, I took the very short# online quiz called "Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?" I'm sure you'll be relieved to know that I passed by answering every answer correctly. But perhaps this is really a quiz for the quiz-writer, a test that we might call "Could You […]
Technical Notice
Last night I upgraded my WordPress software to the recent version 2.5.1. It was a substantial change since I had been at version 1.5.2 for some time. Today I tidied up some details, particularly in the plugins. The upgrade seems to have gone smoothly and it looks like I have everything working again now. Please, […]
Edward Lorenz and His Butterflies
The image at right is a gorgeous rendering† of a mystifying object known as the Lorenz Attractor. It shares its name with Edward Lorenz, its discoverer, who died earlier this month at the age of 90.* Edward Lorenz is sometimes called "the father of chaos", and the Lorenz attractor is the reason. Lorenz was a […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, It's Only Rocket Science
Larry King on Larry King
You may recall the events of a few of months ago when gay student Lawrence King was murdered by a fellow student. On 25 April a national day of silence will be observed by many students in many schools to bring attention to the problem of bullying and name-calling faced by so many young people […]
In: All, Current Events, Faaabulosity
Charlie Charlie Rose is a Rose is a Rose
Years ago, when I was still watching television and before Isaac — hence before Isaac and I managed to find so many other things to occupy our time — I liked to watch Charlie Rose. I liked his conversational interview style, I usually enjoyed what he found to talk about with guests I didn't mind […]
Doing the Impossible
Hillary would have to win 69% to 70% of the delegates in every remaining state in order to catch Obama. He [NBC's Chuck Todd] then says that if Obama and Clinton split Indiana and North Carolina on May 6, as expected, then she'd need to win 80% of the delegates in every remaining state. Basically […]
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Beard of the Week XXXV: The Sound of Music
This week's beard belongs to Thiemo (died 1102), a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church. This information, from Catholic Online, appears to be about half of everything known about Thiemo: Benedictine bishop and martyr, also called Theodinarus. A member of the family of the counts of Meglin, Bavaria, Germany, he entered the Benedictines at […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Tutu on Human Rights…Again
This week people all around me here near Washington, DC are all agog with the arrival of The Pope, which is odd since so few of them are Catholic although it is true that Vatican City tends to have pretty stamps and he is the head of state of that petite philatelic gem. As I […]
In: All, Current Events, Faaabulosity
Little Snoring
It turns out that, in Norfolk, England, there is indeed a village called "Little Snoring" (map here). We're told that the name merely means that it's the place of the people who followed a man named Snear, as though that makes it better somehow. Among other interesting facts: Little Snoring is bigger than Great Snoring, […]
The Unkindness of History
I am pleased that Arianna Huffington has so succinctly summarized (here) this week's startling-yet-not-unexpected revelation from inside the Bush administration, complete with a perceptive remark from John Ashcroft of all people that indicated they really did realize they were doing bad things: This week, being sent to the Principal's office took on a whole new […]
In: All, Laughing Matters, Snake Oil--Cheap!
Celebrating Poetry
Melanie has been reminding me that April in the US is celebrated–by the artsy-fartsy elite, at least–as National Poetry Month. I decided I could celebrate and accomplish some self-promotion at the same time. Now, let me admit that I have some issues–my own personal issues–with poetry. I don't always feel that poetry is my friend, […]
Recent Days
There has been some disruption in routines around the house lately. On the internet front there was none–internet, that is–from sometime early Saturday until late Tuesday. Our router stopped working and nothing except waiting for a replacement to arrive would fix the situation. Over 80 hours total of deprivation! My goodness but it seemed an […]
Ed Kelly: "What If?"
You may remember the case of the now-notorious homophobe in Oklahoma named Sally Kern, the one who fervently believes that gay people are a bigger threat to America than terrorists, etc. A little while back there was a rally on her behalf; 1,000 people attended to shout their support for Sally's bigotry and to proclaim […]
In: All, Current Events, Faaabulosity
Old Ideas for New Crises
The context was a blog entry about financial difficulties for Border's bookstores, but this excerpt jumped out and grabbed my cuffs. In 1932, according to the author of The Coming of the New Deal [Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.], more than a quarter million families lost their homes through mortgage foreclosures; this at a time when […]
In: All, Briefly Noted, Common-Place Book
Differences in Celsius & Fahrenheit
Here's an unexpected bit of innumeracy. I'm about to finish up a book by Colin Tudge called The Time Before History : A Million Years of Human Impact (New York : Scribner, 1996; 366 pages). I expect there will be a book note soonish. Anyway, here are two quotations from two nearby pages. See if […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science
LIbrary of Congress Webcasts
In my latest NASA Earth-and-Space-Science-Education newsletter I was reminded that NASA and the Library of Congress sponsor an interesting lecture series at the LoC, featuring scientists from NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (in nearby Greenbelt, Maryland). I haven't yet made it for a live presentation but I was happy to see that all of the presentations […]
Shooting the Gordian Gun
Sometimes recently the Supreme Court heard arguments concerning the District of Columbia's hand-gun control laws. Swirling about this event were many arguments, many familiar arguments, about Constitutional Rights and whether the Second Amendment of said document guarantees the freedom to bear arms only in the context of a defensive militia, or in any circumstance whatsoever, […]
In: All, Current Events, Eureka!
Paul on Roach on Sex
I have previous read the two available books by Mary Roach, Stiff and Spook, and rather enjoyed them, for the most part. Roach is a sort of gonzo journalist-science writer who likes to take odd topics and see how science deals with them. Stiff is subtitled "The Curious Life of Cadavers", and Spook is subtitled […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book
"Peter Grimes"
I had seen a large opera performed live only once before; some years ago Isaac and I went to Baltimore for a dress rehearsal of Strauss' "Elektra". It was a good experience, but it seemed much smaller than when Bill and I went to see "Peter Grimes" at the Metropolitan Opera House on 11 March […]
In: All, Music & Art, Personal Notebook
Bjørn Jørgensen: Arctic Photo
A recent story from Science@NASA ("Spring is Aurora Season", 20 March 2008) told an interesting story about how the aurora borealis seems to be more active near the equinoxes. The apparent reason has to do with "magnetic tubes" whose creation is favored when the Earth's magnetic poles have the alignment relative to the Sun that […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Music & Art