http://ideonexus.com Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:00:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There were a lot of neat miscellanous exhibits at the VLM, including an indoor bee hive, fossilized dinosaur tracks, and this nifty display of a snake's fangs opening and closing: Fangs I finally managed to get some photos of a river otter. These are the most playful animals of the all, always ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/07/05/virginia-living-museum-mammals-outdoors/ Advances in Eco-friendly fireworks are good news for pyrotechnicians, who are exposed to unnatural levels of toxic metals. Fireworks in a Storm Cloud Credit: Stuck in Customs Britsh Petroleum became "Beyond Petroleum" in a greenwashing effort that was at least supported by some eco-friendly measures, now the company has shut down it's alternative ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/07/04/science-etcetera-saturnday-20090704/ Metallography is a type of scientific microimaging that involves mirror-polishing metal surfaces and then etching them with various reagents to reveal their microstructures" and it looks pretty darn cool too. Metallografischer Anschliff einer Glockenbronze Credit: Eisenbeisser Mark Miodownik’s Materials Library is a collection of over 900 fantastic materials, including aerogel, the world's lightest ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/07/03/science-etcetera-venusday-20090703/ Vicky is hosting the 37th Edition of the Festival of Trees blog carnival, which has a slew of fantastic stories about survivor trees, magnificent trees that have recovered from cyclones, tornadoes, fires, having tunnels carved through them big enough to drive a car through, and the atomic bomb. Chandelier Drive through ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/07/02/science-etcetera-jupiterday-20090702/ Unscientific America Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum's Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future is a worthwhile survey of the cultural, academic, entertainment, and political aspects of science in America, and how they all contribute to the steady decline of science primacy in our country. Mooney and Kirshenbaum's writing benefits ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/07/01/mooney-and-kirshenbaums-unscientific-america/ Happy anniversary Evolution! The harlequin ladybird ("ladybug" here in the colonies) is an invasive species from China introduced to Europe for pest control and is now a threat to over 1,000 species in the UK, including other ladybugs; however, parasites, like wasps, are adapting to prey on them. Yum. Yum. Harlequin Ladybird ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/07/01/science-etcetera-mercuryday-20090701/ Happy Meteor Day, the 101st anniversary of the Tunguska Event. Don't celebrate by watching Armageddon. A nice, quick introduction to emergent patterns, which are found in flocking animals, zebra skins, termite colonies, and elsewhere in nature. Red Cabbage Pattern Credit: joellybaby Survey finds that bloggers have an unwritten code of ethics that stresses attribution, ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/06/30/science-etcetera-marsday-20090630/ This is outrageous. I can't believe that, with the house passing the Climate Change Bill on Friday, which will seek to curb CO2 emissions, it has just come out that the EPA crushed a dissenting report on the supposed dangers of "Global Warming." The report, titled Proposed NCEE Comments on ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/06/29/epa-suppresses-report-disproving-global-warming/ The Union of Concerned Scientists has put up an interactive book: Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming, which does not include my submission, but includes some pretty good content nonetheless… I guess. Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming Credit: UCSUSA Good news everybody! The Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) introduced ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/06/29/science-etcetera-moonday-20090629/ Eastern Newt The Virginia Living Museum, like zoos and other natural history museums, recreates many different ecological niches indoors, where visitors can get up close and admire the biology in detail. There's a sense of wonder in admiring the uniqueness of life without it being able to run away and hide. ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/06/28/virginias-mountains-and-world-of-darkness/ A virtual hospital in Second Life is being used for testing the medium as a means of giving learning disabled patients the information needed to provide informed consent, by walking them through the treatments they will receive virtually. National Health Service (UK) in Second Life Credit: rosefirerising British senior citizens have less disease ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/06/27/science-etcetera-saturnday-20090627/ The profundity of the film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has left my mind swirling with deep, philosophical, scientific, and political questions. Maybe someone could help me with them: What was the sociological explanation for incredibly-advanced extraterrestrials adopting stereotypical "gansta" lingo as their primary means of social discourse, as we saw ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/06/26/questions-about-transformers-revenge-of-the-fallen/ Seagulls in Argentina have begun attacking Whales, by landing on their backs and pecking away the skin and blubber, presenting a new threat to the species (slide show). A Gull Attacks a Whale Credit: Mariano Sironi, Instituto de Conservacion de Ballenas Eritherium azzouzorum is a rabbit-sized mammal that lived 60-million years ago, and ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/06/26/science-etcetera-venusday-20090626/ For better or worse, it is the nature of intellectuals to be independent in thought and action. Since the Enlightenment, when coffee-fueled intellectual discussions kicked off an age of accelerating advances in science and technology, academics and geeks have slowly fragmented from being united under the big tent of rationality ... http://ideonexus.com/2009/06/25/the-many-science-factions/