tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36625172024-03-12T23:54:38.966-04:00bjkeefe<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_the_day/show/692">"Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms."</a>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.comBlogger368125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-59478026994271418942019-10-30T11:34:00.001-04:002019-10-30T11:37:05.773-04:00It's hard to imagine a four-word phrase that would perk me up more than this*<blockquote>
<p>xkcd filter on matplotlib</p>
</blockquote>
<div style="float:right;">
<p style="text-align:right; width: 25em; font-size:80%;"> This isn't the first time the streams have crossed between two of my favorite areas of interest, btw.**</p>
</div>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
<p>I came across that delightful phrase in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/figure?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003833.g008">section eight</a> of a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003833">wonderful article</a>, "Ten Simple Rules for Better Figures." You should read this, for sure, if you ever have to make charts | graphs | plots. You should read it if you ever have to critically view this kind of work by others. You should read it if you're at all interested in clearer communication. You should read it. You should also check out some of the many fine links in the article, including (and how's this for a great name?) Kaiser Fung's <a href="https://junkcharts.typepad.com/">Junk Charts</a>.</p>
<p>I came across the link to the article in the Preface to a book I've just started reading. The author, Nicolas P. Rougier, has very generously made this book, <a href="https://www.labri.fr/perso/nrougier/python-opengl/"><i>Python & OpenGL for Scientific Visualization</i></a>, freely available online.</p>
<div style="float:right;">
<p style="text-align:right; width: 25em; font-size:80%;"> (* Resists temptation to start typing <i>You should</i>s ... again *).</p>
</div>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
<p>Admittedly, this is not gonna be primo beach reading for some of you. But all of the above is so in my wheelhouse that I just had to pass it along.</p>
<p>This concludes <span style="text-decoration:line-through;">your</span> my early Sunday*** morning geekout.</p>
<p class="bottom-note-italic">(h/t: <a href="https://pycoders.com/issues/392">PyCoder's Weekly for 2019-10-29</a>)</p>
<hr>
<p class="bottom-note">* That you would be willing to say in polite company, I mean.</p>
<p class="bottom-note">** You do know about <code>import antigravity</code>, right?</p>
<p class="bottom-note">*** My weekend, these days, is Tuesday, Wednesday, and I work nights. The carpenters remodeling the apartment next door evidently do not share my schedule.</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-65358967730247265822018-07-03T11:47:00.000-04:002018-07-03T11:48:18.991-04:00Ponder this<p>While refreshing my memory of what a Schwarzschild radius is, I came across <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_radius#Supermassive_black_hole">this</a> rather startling claim:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>... the average density of a supermassive black hole can be less than the density of water.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thanks for the link, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/06/gravitational-waves-and-the-slow-pace-of-scientific-revolutions/">John Timmer</a>!</p>
bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-54783714263149178452015-12-08T22:13:00.000-05:002015-12-08T22:13:40.878-05:00You submit one cheek swab and this is the kind of email you get<blockquote>
<p>A message from haplogroup Administrator, Mike Walsh:</p>
<p>People in any R1b subclade from R-M269 on down should consider going to 111 Y STRs or 67 at a minimum.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And oh yeah, there's a "Buy Now" button.</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-49580077684843237152015-10-25T03:17:00.001-04:002015-10-25T03:45:34.117-04:00Not good. Not good.<blockquote>
<p>Without a trace of embarrassment, a spokeswoman for the Scottish Nationalist Party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, admitted that the first minister’s science adviser had not been consulted because the decision “wasn’t based on scientific evidence.”</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The scientific community is facing a new European reality. Last November, the European Commission’s president, Jean-Claude Juncker, chose not to reappoint Prof. Anne Glover as his science adviser after lobbying by Greenpeace and other environmental groups.</p>
<p>“We hope that you as the incoming Commission president will decide not to nominate a chief scientific adviser,” they wrote.</p>
<p>Never mind that Professor Glover’s advice on G.M.O. safety reflected the scientific consensus. Mr. Juncker, hoping to make his political life easier, complied with their demand. Europe now has no chief scientific adviser.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yep, GMO foods. And <a href="http://bjkeefe.blogspot.com/2014/01/subject-in-which-popular-beliefs-often.html">again</a>, I find myself in the awkward position. I'm not a fierce advocate, and I have my own occasional <a href="http://bjkeefe.blogspot.com/2013/07/heres-article-on-gmo-foods-that.html">worries</a> about possible unforeseen environmental consequences, but I hate <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/opinion/sunday/with-gmo-policies-europe-turns-against-science.html">when My Side is acting like wingnuts</a>.</p>
<p>[Added] From the links at the bottom of the piece (last link above): <i><a href="http://www.ecomodernism.org/">An Ecomodernist Manifesto</a></i> and "<a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/256244-is-eco-modernism-the-third-way-on-climate-change">Is eco-modernism the third way on climate change?</a> seem like good further reading.</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-8786994192688064272015-09-25T02:43:00.000-04:002015-09-25T02:43:43.543-04:00It's a bit runny. I LIKE runny. Oh, it's VERY runny.<blockquote>
<p>When you chew on a Camembert rind, you’re eating a solid mat of mold.<br>
<i>-- <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/science/that-stinky-cheese-is-a-result-of-evolutionary-overdrive.html">Carl Zimmer</a></i></p>
</blockquote>
<p class="bottom-note-italic">(title: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPN3KTtrnZM">cf.</a>)</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-79279854478221938492015-08-27T04:06:00.000-04:002015-08-27T04:06:48.457-04:00Line of the Day: 2015-08-27<blockquote>
<p>Altruism and compassion toward the feelings of others represent the best of human impulses. And it is good to continually challenge rigid categories and entrenched beliefs. But that comes at a sacrifice when the subjective is elevated over the assumption that lurking out there is some kind of real world.<br>
<i>-- <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/science/the-widening-world-of-hand-picked-truths.html">George Johnson</a></i></p>
</blockquote>
<p class="bottom-note-italic">(h/t: <a href="https://twitter.com/drninashapiro/status/636751330070032386">@drninashapiro</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/SamHarrisOrg">@SamHarrisOrg</a>'s RT)</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-61854542647018542792015-08-08T01:09:00.000-04:002015-08-08T01:10:23.860-04:00"She was called a fussy, stubborn, unreasonable bureaucrat."<p>By Big Pharma, of course.</p>
<p>I did not know until just now that it wasn't so much the FDA who saved the US from the horrors of thalidomide. It turns out it was just one woman.</p>
<p>Belated thanks, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/08/science/frances-oldham-kelsey-fda-doctor-who-exposed-danger-of-thalidomide-dies-at-101.html">Frances Oldham Kelsey</a>. You took your job when I was about a month from appearing on this planet, and my sisters were not far behind.</p>
bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-21695614227573852742015-07-02T02:22:00.001-04:002015-07-02T02:23:53.235-04:00Now THAT's something to ponder<blockquote>
<p>Very roughly speaking, action is what you get from entropy when you allow time to become an imaginary number.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From a <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/in-100-years/">very fun read</a>, "How Physics Will Change—and Change the World—in 100 Years," by Frank Wilczek.</p>
<p class="bottom-note-italic">(h/t: <a href="https://twitter.com/RCdeWinter/status/616397624908906496">RC deWinter</a>)</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-72098691784188908162015-06-14T12:41:00.001-04:002015-06-14T12:41:49.334-04:00Usually, cosmic rays are the scapegoat of last resort, aren't they?<p>Let the image rehabilitation <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/science/space/lightsail-setbacks-spacecraft-prepares-unfurl-sail.html">begin</a>!</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Eight days of silence followed until, <b>as engineers expected</b>, a high-speed charged particle zipping through space fortuitously scrambled part of the computer’s memory and caused the computer to restart.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Emphasis added.</p>
<p>Also, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/science/lightsail-spacecraft-sends-back-a-selfie-showing-its-sail-stretched-out.html">unfurled selfies</a>!</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-32846104255652341602015-06-01T01:08:00.000-04:002015-06-01T01:08:29.566-04:00Feel-good story<p>How can you not <a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/big-bang-theory-creates-science-scholarship/">like this</a>?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The stars of the “The Big Bang Theory” will be putting their very big paychecks to good use. Actors on the sitcom, as well as members of the crew and the CBS show’s co-creator Chuck Lorre, have created a scholarship at the Univerity of California, Los Angeles, for science students seeking financial aid.</p>
<p>The Big Bang Theory Scholarship Endowment has already raised more than $4 million, including gifts from the stars Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, Johnny Galecki, and Mayim Bialik. Scholarships will be awarded to 20 low-income science students this fall, and five students per year going forward.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And I know you'll <a href="http://bjkeefe.blogspot.com/2009/02/been-long-time-since-i-wanted-t-shirt.html">like this</a>, from the same show, some time ago.</p>
bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-52417210591487870342015-05-25T03:15:00.000-04:002015-12-25T12:19:32.373-05:00So, maybe one takeaway would be ...<P>... to vote for members of Congress who will fund space watch programs?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This level of ocean evaporation is commensurate with atmospheric temperatures rising to over 500 degrees Celsius for a few weeks after the impact, and remaining above 100 degrees Celsius for over a year. That’s what models have predicted would occur for collisions with asteroids 50 to 100 kilometers across.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In fairness, <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/05/asteroid-impacts-3-3-billion-years-ago-may-have-boiled-the-oceans/">this happened</a> three and change billion years ago, and as we are all frequently told, the Earth is only 6000 years old, so ... not to worry.</p>
<p><small>Reminder: 100°C is the boiling point of water. 212°F if you're keeping score in Fahrenheit.</small></p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-33439056729476987972015-05-23T00:07:00.001-04:002015-05-23T00:08:27.991-04:00As I've long said, ...<p>... we humans aren't "killing the planet." The Earth will shrug off any- and everything we throw at it. What we <i>are</i> doing, and what we should be concerned about, is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/business/energy-environment/california-takes-step-to-ban-microbeads-used-in-soaps-and-creams.html">fouling our own nest</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Everything on earth is biodegradable on a geological time scale,” Mr. Wilson said. “It’s not biodegradable in a meaningful time frame.”</p>
</blockquote>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-46280210042369804482015-05-19T12:31:00.000-04:002015-05-19T12:31:37.758-04:00The perfect dog for cat lovers<blockquote>
<p>Judd nodded. “I had a dog that was half coyote,” she said. “I lived in New Mexico.” She continued, “That dog could climb over anything. It was the only dog I ever had to tell to get off the refrigerator.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/13/wily">source</a>)</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-57165374055726134092015-04-07T21:21:00.001-04:002015-04-07T21:21:43.196-04:00Sure, you know perigee and perihelion. But what about peribothron?<p>If I were a cynical man, I might worry that this would become the new biz buzzword for opportunistically gaining proximity to the Big Boss.</p>
<p>Fortunately, I am only about <a href="http://sen.com/news/astronomers-lock-horns-over-mystery-object-g2">the science</a>.</p>
<p class="bottom-note-italic">(h/t: <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/04/07/sen_venus_and_the_seven_sisters.html">Phil Plait</a>, vaguely. Weird to see a site give access to the news and charge for the blogs. Smells like TimesSelect to me, but what do I know?)</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-15974538689836726242014-11-24T02:08:00.000-05:002014-11-24T02:08:07.156-05:00Just plain good news<p>"<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/opinion/good-news-on-energy.html">Good News on Energy</a>," that is. Read it and congratulate yourself for all the little steps you've been taking.</p>
<p>Highlights?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>... total energy use in the United States peaked in 2007 and has trended downward since. ... economic growth decisively outpaced any increases in energy use over recent decades ... Improvements in energy efficiency over the last 40 years have done more to meet growth in America’s energy needs than the combined contributions of oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear power. ... Since 2000, growth in electricity use has dropped well below growth in the population ... Moreover, oil consumption by vehicles, homes and businesses is down more than 12 percent from its 2005 peak ... More than one-eighth of our electricity supply is now in the “renewable” category, which is growing faster than any other.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Keep up the good work. We've got a ways to go yet.</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-87671693626865349512014-10-08T03:17:00.000-04:002014-10-08T03:35:18.076-04:00For further review<p>The lede didn't grab me ...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>WHEN was the last time you saw an anti-smoking ad?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>... because my immediate and then also considered answer was "the last thousand times I watched any baseball or basketball game for at least fifteen consecutive minutes."</p>
<p>But apparently, my evident non-membership in the article's target audience notwithstanding, there are all kinds of shenanigans associated with that lawsuit thing a few years ago, against Big Tobacco. I am too tired, right now, to really get what's being described in the article, but superficially, it appears to be: billions of dollars won, then lost, and it's probably only going to get uglier.</p>
<p>As in, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/opinion/how-the-big-tobacco-deal-went-bad.html">way uglier</a>.</p>
<p>Let's hope a night's sleep and then some coffee will make it at least a little better. But I'm betting on nightmares.</p>
<p>[Added] Sadly, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/magazine/how-school-lunch-became-the-latest-political-battleground.html">related</a>.</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-31901415788015426172014-09-19T18:51:00.000-04:002014-09-19T18:51:27.179-04:00Oh, you must read this article by E. O. Wilson<p>Hard not to blockquote every last word of <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-09-11/masters-of-earth-alone-in-the-universe"><i>Masters of Earth, Alone in the Universe</i></a>, but here's a taste:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Human beings are not wicked by nature. We have enough intelligence, goodwill, generosity and enterprise to turn Earth into a paradise both for ourselves and for the biosphere that gave us birth. We can plausibly accomplish that goal, at least be well on the way, by the end of the present century. The problem holding everything up thus far is that Homo sapiens is an innately dysfunctional species.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Chances are, if you visit this blog regularly, that you will find yourself saying, "Yes, I know that" many times during your reading. Read it anyway. He says what you know succinctly and well. And maybe, just maybe, you'll think of someone to pass it on to, who may not yet get the big picture Wilson paints.</p>
<p class="bottom-note-italic">(h/t: <a href="http://tinyletter.com/daviddobbs/letters/read-2-reason-loves-emotion-plus-going-gopro-wilson-s-ants-pet-kids-and-plagiarism">David Dobbs</a>, who linked to <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-09-10/ants-are-cool-but-teach-us-nothing">part 1</a>)</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-48734420499681936912014-09-16T03:15:00.002-04:002014-09-16T03:15:40.606-04:00Line of the Day: 2014-09-16<p>What say you about the multiverse?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s hard enough to have a theory for one universe.<br>
<i>-- <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/science/a-discoverer-as-elusive-as-his-particle-.html">Peter Higgs</a></i></p>
</blockquote>
<p>We (if I may be so presumptuous as to include myself with a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/261830.The_God_Particle">hero's hero</a>) are being flippant, of course. It's a good article, though. Overbye is worth more than whatever they're paying him, as I hope you already know.</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-86268796285210644222014-09-16T02:29:00.000-04:002014-09-16T03:23:48.392-04:00Can you imagine? Never mind fluoridation, this would make chem trails fall right off the radar.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center; margin: 1em 0 2em 0;">
<a href="http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff381/bjkeefe/aka7UP--lithiatedsodamis272.jpg">
<img src="http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff381/bjkeefe/aka7UP--lithiatedsodamis272.jpg"
style="border:none;" width="400" height="261"
alt="old ad for what is now called 7-UP" title="OMG. Artificial flavor???1?" /></a>
<br><center><small>The Uncola</small></center>
</div>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/opinion/sunday/should-we-all-take-a-bit-of-lithium.html">In which</a> it is argued that we should consider adding lithium to drinking water, because, among other things, it might decrease suicide, homicide, and rape (at least among Texans, so who can say?), a fun fact that I had never heard:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Lithium drinks were in huge demand for their reputed health-giving properties, so much so that the element was added to commercial drinks. 7-Up was originally called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda and contained lithium citrate right up until 1950. In fact, it’s been suggested that the 7 in 7-Up refers to the atomic mass of the lithium. (Maybe the “Up” referred to mood?)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not as sexy as marching powder in Coca Cola, but still, better living through chemistry, amirite?</p>
<p class="bottom-note-italic">(pic. source: <a href="http://bipolar-planet.blogspot.com/2011/09/lithium-102.html">Bipolar Planet</a>, you are doubtless shocked, shocked to learn. Many other great pix at the link.)</p>
bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-81597192247321997082014-08-24T02:59:00.000-04:002014-08-24T03:09:16.828-04:00Line of the Day: 2014-08-24<blockquote>
<p>Over the course of my work I have come to the realization that it is very difficult to endanger or kill large numbers of people except with a claim to virtue.<br>
<i>-- <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/opinion/sunday/the-climate-swerve.html">Robert Jay Lipton</a></i></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The piece from which I swiped that is ... I dunno. Either meh, or too much of a 101-level course when I'm looking for 102. It's about shifting attitudes regarding climate change, if you're interested.</p>
<p>But I did like that line.</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-15197694645647915912014-08-18T11:55:00.000-04:002014-08-18T11:55:15.269-04:00A first worth noting<p><a href="http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/august/fields-medal-mirzakhani-081214.html">Congratulations, Maryam Mirzakhani!</a></p>
<p class="bottom-note-italic">(h/t: <a href="https://twitter.com/sxbegle/status/499618098186838016">Sharon Begley</a>, via <a href="http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2012/12/31/secret-satans-math/">Thomas Hayden</a>)</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-62586573562502943022014-08-10T22:11:00.000-04:002014-08-10T22:12:11.968-04:00Statistically improbable phrase of the day<blockquote>
<p>... I started hanging out at a local pigeon supply store.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Also, is a “pigeon mumbler” like a horse whisperer?</p>
<p>Also, too, would you consider this <i>gentrification</i>? And if so, with all the negativity that that connotes?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>John Gotti’s old Mafia headquarters became a pet-grooming center.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Based on <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/the-pigeon-fliers-of-new-york/">the article</a>, that's <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%E2%80%9CThe+Global+Pigeon.%E2%80%9D">a book</a> I'd like to read.</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-34578125533190671922014-08-07T13:44:00.000-04:002014-08-07T13:50:03.370-04:00Nerd food<p>This isn't for everybody, but I hugely enjoyed it, and I think some of you will, too:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/08/the-never-ending-conundrums-of-classical-physics/"><span style="font-size: 125%; font-weight: bold;">The never-ending conundrums of classical physics</span><br>Even today, scientists still try to solve sprinkler brain teasers from the 19th century.</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I remember having a discussion with several other bright undergrads, our TA, and one of the physics profs about the sprinkler problem (we were all reading Feynman at the time), and we came to ... no conclusion. (I managed to end the discussion by speculating that the sprinkler would move chaotically, which, while incorrect, at least had the advantage of being a proposal no one else had made.)</p>
<p>I also remember the feeling I had at about the same time -- a few weeks into my Intro to Modern Physics course -- that the message of the course was <i>everything you have previously learned about physics is wrong</i>.</p>
<p>As with most things, it turned out to be not quite that simple.</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-86626117082651734282014-03-04T00:48:00.000-05:002014-03-04T00:48:15.297-05:00Line of the Day: 2014-03-04<blockquote>
<p>If we are going to decide big issues, like eating genetically modified food, fracking for natural gas, responding to the prospect of drastic climate change, exploring space or engaging in ambitious science research, we are going to have to start from some common experience.</p>
<p>As Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the longtime senator from New York, once said, everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts. So where are we going to get them?</p>
<p>In science, as in other areas of our culture, there is no dearth of voices, but are we paying attention? In the new New Age, it’s all about which cable channels you watch or whom you follow on Twitter.</p>
<p>We could use a national conversation that is not about scandal or sports. If everybody watches the new “Cosmos,” we can talk about it the way we once argued about “The Sopranos” every Monday morning.</p>
<p>And perhaps that will happen. The early reviews of the series are glowing, and an adoring profile of Dr. Tyson recently appeared in The New Yorker. And we are not talking about tweedy PBS here; the show will be on Fox, home of “24” and “American Idol.”</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine a better man to reboot the cosmos than Neil deGrasse Tyson.<br>
<i>-- <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/science/space/a-successor-to-sagan-reboots-cosmos.html">Dennis Overbye</a></i></p>
</blockquote>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3662517.post-88002051472751270242014-02-22T09:45:00.000-05:002014-02-22T09:47:22.238-05:00"... an impressively well-adapted resident of New York City."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center; margin: 1em 0 2em 0;">
<a href="http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff381/bjkeefe/flying-squirrel-from-NYT.jpg">
<img src="http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff381/bjkeefe/flying-squirrel-from-NYT.jpg"
style="border:none;" width="520" height="386"
alt="Flying squirrel against a night background" title="Glad it's not a carnivore?" /></a>
</div>
<blockquote>
<p>The flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) does not actually fly — it glides. When a squirrel leaps from its perch in a tall tree, it spreads its limbs, stretching out its two patagia (thick, furred membranes that extend from its wrists to its ankles). In this way, a squirrel less than 10 inches long (including a tail almost half that length) <b>can, in a single bound, cover 150 feet or more</b>, gliding through the treetops effortlessly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Emph. added.</p>
<p>(<a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/a-sharp-eyed-glider-leaping-into-darkness/">source</a> | <a href="http://www.animalsanimals.com/results.asp?search=1&screenwidth=1441&tnresize=130&pixperpage=40&searchtxtkeys=Flying%20Squirrel&captions=on">more</a>)</p>bjkeefehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10967912817595826059noreply@blogger.com0