Month: November 2007
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“Life Flows on Within You Without You”
World clock in Ulm, Germany Tempus Fugit In the last second, cesium-133 atoms around the world oscillated through 9,192,631,770 radiation cycles in atomic clocks measuring International Atomic Time (TAI)*. While you read the previous sentence, 400,000 billion neutrinos from the sun passed through you*. By the time you finish reading this paragraph, you will have…
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Global Dimming – Yet Another Complication in Climate Modeling
Detail of Chris Jordan’s Jet Trails Depicts 11,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours. This research is old news, and complicates the whole Global Warming debate even further. Air pollution might be behind observations that the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface has gone…
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Happy Evolution Day!
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) Photo by J. Cameron, 1869 On this day, 148 years ago, Charles Darwin first published The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (wikipedia). Although the book and specifics of Darwin’s orginal theory have been improved upon, as the evolving body of scientific knowledge perpetually works out the myriad details of…
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Review of Michael Crichton’s “State of Fear”
LOLQuack Michael Crichton So I found a copy of Crichton’s book, State of Fear, in a box labeled “Free Books!” at the Coast Guard base, and figured I should go ahead and read it. I’ve read most of his other fiction, which is equally disposable, but usually a fun and brainless way to burn some…
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We Live in the Cosmic Boondocks
I hate living in the boonies. No, I’m not referring to Northeastern North Carolina, I’m referring to our location on a scope that surpasses geography and ventures into cosmology. Our sun is one of about 200 billion stars swirling around in a galaxy that’s a 100,000 light years across. If only 10 percent of those…
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Global Warming: What Me Worry?
Road In Front of My House This is the road in front of my house at high tide. On the left, where there are now recently-planted trees you can’t see in this photo, I’ve been told there were once houses, but the flood zone claimed them. Several locals tell me that it was foolish of…
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Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center
I spent my last Saturday at the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center. It’s been almost two decades since I last visited the tourist attraction, and I was instantly blown away by how much it had grown. Where previously there was a single tiny building with a dock leading out to the neighboring marsh, there…
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Governor Sonny Perdue’s Rain Dance
There is a fantastic scene in the film Apocalyptico, where the Mayan leaders are brutally sacrificing people in a steady stream of victims until a solar eclipse occurs and the spiritual leaders declare the gods are satisfied. The Mayan civilization is gripped in a terrible drought, the people are desperate, and the Mayan Spiritual leaders…
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The Little Red Dot from Brussels
My blog doesn’t drive the most traffic in the world. In fact, it’s pretty sad in comparison to some of my friends, but I write, not because I enjoy it, but because I have to write. It’s in my blood, it always has, and it slave drives me like an obsessive compulsive scrubbing permanent marker…
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One Laptop Per Child Now On Sale!!!
OLPC Logo I’ve ordered mine, have you ordered your’s? All the cool kids are ordering one. Don’t you want to be part of the “in” crowd? Not only does ordering one of these super-duper, ultra-nifty, best-thing-since-sliced-bread-cubed improve your health, fortunes, and make you more appealing to members of the opposite sex in general, but every…
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Happy Birthday Kurt Vonnegut!
Kurt Vonnegut Photo by Ryan Somma He would be 85 today. This great writer survived the firebombing of Dresden, wrote dozens of books and short stories, and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association. Although he objected to the description, Vonnegut wrote many science fiction stories. In his book Cat’s Cradle, he came up…