Archive for the ‘Eureka!’ Category
Rolling My Own
I've finally acknowledged that I need to keep, at least for awhile, a more detailed diabetes log–blood-sugar readings, carbs consumed, insulin taken, and such. My control needs to be better and it's been difficult lately to discern useful patterns in the paltry data I've been keeping. I wanted something convenient and paperless, if I could. […]
In: All, Eureka!, Personal Notebook
"Eye for Science" and Android Wallpaper
You may recall my mentioning Scienticity's "Eye for Science" project, a Flickr group to which members contribute interesting and provocative images that tell a story about science or nature or something related, which images we then try to get in front of others to provide a brief science moment. One way we do this is […]
In: All, Eureka!, Personal Notebook, Speaking of Science
Palin : America's First "Reality" Candidate?
As I write this the big controversy of the week–in addition to whether the senate might vote to repeal DADT and whether our not-really-progressive president has "caved" to Republicans on extending the anti-progressive Bush tax-cuts–is the escalating spat between Margaret Cho and Bristol Palin. Ms. Cho contended that Ms. Palin as induced by her celebrity […]
In: All, Current Events, Eureka!
Dollars Could Lead to Voting
In my reading this morning this sentence happened in front of my eyes: The legendary right-wing operative [Karl Rove] has been hard at work amassing $32 million for his tax-exempt organization …. [source] It's a discussion of money in politics, a common topic this close to an election, and a topic of considerable importance I […]
In: All, Eureka!, Will Rogers Moments
Fantasies of Unintended Consequences
Following the signing by President Obama of the new health-insurance bill, and trailing off the spectacle of "freedom"-loving teabagging bigots pelting elected representatives with various slurs and epithets in the name of do-it-my-way-or-else "democracy", we have the new spectacle of states' attorneys general rushing to join a federal suit against the legislation. This, of course, […]
In: All, Current Events, Eureka!
Books of a Feather
The game: correctly match entries from columns "A", "B", and "C". A B C c. 1000 BCE Old Testament, by numerous The infallible word of god, every word to be interpreted literally c 800 BCE Odyssey, by Homer An epic, heroic fantasy, an allegory of life's tribulations c. 450 BCE Physics, by Aristotle Everything that was known about how the […]
In: All, Eureka!, The Art of Conversation
Einstein & Cell Phones
From Bob Park's "What's New", a pedantic opportunity for me. First: cell phones & brain cancer (cue ominous music): BRAIN CANCER: OF COURSE CELL PHONES ARE DANGEROUS! Cell phones may lead to neural atrophy as mindless chatter is substituted for coherent information, but they don't cause brain cancer. This week, however, a doctoral thesis at […]
In: All, Eureka!, It's Only Rocket Science
Friday Soirée IV: Eureka!
With tonight's program we're out for some thrilling exoticism and discovery — in an intimate setting: harpsichord music by one of my favorite Baroque guys and stimulating conversation with a great scientist and thinker. Soler: Sonata in F-Sharp Major Padre Antonio Soler (1729–1783) was a Catalan composer who studied music from the time he was […]
In: All, Eureka!, Friday Soirée, It's Only Rocket Science, Music & Art
Achieving Health-Care Competition
The other day I happened to have lunch near one of my lunchtime friends, which also meant being in close proximity to her arch-conservative husband. Naturally, as arch-conservatives are wont to do, he immediately wanted to talk about constitutional rights and what's wrong with liberal government. It's almost as predictable as those "Would you like […]
In: All, Current Events, Eureka!
Domestic Right-Wing Terrorism Threat
In case you missed it despite the sounds of patriot hearts a-flutter and conservative jaws a-jawin, we've recently learned (via The Raw Story; they have a link to the report) that the Department of Homeland Security has released a report saying that right-wing extremist groups are the "most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United […]
In: All, Current Events, Eureka!
Sky Puppies as Skyfood
We should totally start calling birds "Sky puppies." [Joe, "PETA: We Should Call Fish 'Sea Kittens'", Joe.My.God, 8 January 2009.] Between the quotation and the name of Joe's posting, you've pretty much got the story, such as it is. Mostly I just liked the idea of calling birds "sky puppies". Every now and then, usually […]
In: All, Eureka!, Laughing Matters
Solvency Through Good Health
Two big birds, one big stone. Here is my plan to solve the current economic crisis and crisis in health care costs. It's called "The Economic Bailout through Healthy Living Plan of 2008" (aka "Good Health Plan"). Beginning, say, on 4 November, all health care in America is free to everyone; costs are guaranteed by […]
In: All, Current Events, Eureka!
No-Sex Sex-Ed
I just read this sentence* and the little light bulb lit up. In a letter sent to the student body and faculty, and obtained by WIS News 10 Columbia, Irmo High School Principal Eddie Walker wrote, "The formation of this club conflicts with my professional beliefs in that we do not have other clubs at […]
In: All, Eureka!, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Fast-Tack Evolution
The story, as it's told online in National Geographic News,* goes like this. n 1971, scientists transplanted five adult pairs of [Italian wall lizards] from their original island home in Pod Kopiste to the tiny neighboring island of Pod Mrcaru, both in the south Adriatic Sea[, off the coast of Croatia]. Genetic testing on the […]
In: All, Eureka!, It's Only Rocket Science
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!
Earthrise
This remarkable image of the Earth rising over the lunar horizon is actually what it seems to be. It is a frame captured from an HDTV video taken on 7 November 2007 by the Japanese KAGUYA spacecraft, which is currently orbiting the Moon on a surveying mission. They tell us that the Earth is seen […]
In: All, Eureka!, It's Only Rocket Science
No "O"
We were at a mall this weekend (in Columbia, MD, in fact), flowing around with the crowds and enjoying the flow, largely because we didn't go there with a list of necessary purchases, when I was stuck by a thought. "Look!" I told a bewildered Isaac. "There's no 'O' store. Can you imagine that! Shouldn't […]
President Search
I was reading this blog entry* about how the author thinks maybe we shouldn't elect another Clinton, because that would mean just too many years with the White House controlled either by a Bush or a Clinton. A good point. He also said this: Surely, in a country of more than 300 million people we […]
In: All, Eureka!, Laughing Matters
The SAT Mega-Think-Tank
I was reading today, and probably over tired while doing it (I had to get up at 7am to sing Schütz this morning — twice!), so my mind was wandering and I tend to have odd ideas when that happens. Anyway, I was reading blog articles about great, seemingly intractable problems like global warming, what […]
Seeing What One Sees
I was reading an article* in the New York Times in which the author is trying to describe the excitement among mathematicians over the apparent proof of the "Poincaré conjecture"# by Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman. There's human interst and mystery, too, since there's a million-dollar award on offer to the one whose proof sustains three […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Eureka!