Science Etcetera Venusday, 20080215

February 15th, 2008

Yellowstone Jack Rabbit

Yellowstone Jack Rabbit

A moment of silence for Yellowstone Park’s now extinct Jack Rabbits.

Happy Birthday Galileo Galilei! The physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher turns 444 today.

Filed under Too $%&#ing Kewl. Bush has ordered the Pentagon to shoot down its broken satellite as it enters Earth’s atmosphere to reduce it’s threat potential. It’s amazing how my incredible dislike for our President temporarily vanishes when he promises to explody things… inanimate things that is.

Researchers believe they have figured out how to Harvest Fuel From CO₂. The hitch: the process requires nuclear energy, and the fuel produced will cost over $4 a gallon.

Very bad news this week for Market-Solutions trying to fix the Environment. First the effort to seed the ocean with iron to sequester carbon emissions Runs Out of Cash because the carbon-trading market has no power, and the forest sanctuary Cameroon wants to rent to conservationists still has no takers meaning it could soon go to the lumber industry.

Very good news this week for conservation as the World’s Largest Sea Sanctuary is Created in the Pacific. It’s the size of California.

Harvard is now Mandating its Faculty of Arts and Sciences publish Open Access. Knowledge wants to be free.

Just like Birds, Humans Flock. Understanding this phenomenon might hold clues to curing Dittoheadism (You know I had to slip a Dittohead joke in there).

Our children lie Because We Do. Understanding this phenomenon might hold clues to curing Dittoheadism.

: )

September 7, 2008 I will be taking a week vacation to play the newly released Electronic Arts game Spore which involves evolving from a single-celled protozoa all the way up to a space-faring race:

Two videos for emphasis (this one of actual gameplay):

Anybody remember SimLife? I played that #$%&ing game for weeks and never designed one single sustainable life form.

No comments yet to “Science Etcetera Venusday, 20080215”

Videos no longer available ):
by Clint February 15th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I noticed that too but then reloaded the page - then the videos came up. I think there’s some kind of timeout that keeps the embed from working if it is in a “stale” browser window for too long.
by David Oranchak February 15th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Oh damn. I’ll be more careful next time.
by Clint February 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm