They See Straight Through You...

... and they're called X-Rays!

Google reminds us that X-Rays were discovered 115 years ago:

Global Warming No More?

I don't get it. I thought climate scientists followed the scientific principles that I was taught in school. Now I'm not so sure...

The latest is that there might not be any global warming. In fact it could be that the middle ages were warmer than now. And there has been no evidence of Global Warming since 1995. What a change from just last year...

Read for yourself: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html

Physics Rocks Raps!

On a heavier note, the Large Hadron Collider rap is making waves on YouTube.

Huckabee on Science

I like this clip of Huckabee.  He won't be President -- but I like his views on this topic.

Fly to the Stars!

Google Earth 4.2 now has Google Sky. It allows you to view the night sky and "fly" to the stars and galaxies.  Here's a video that shows the latest features!

Cool Picture

I know it's been a while since I've posted.  It may be some time before anything of real interest gets posted:  for the next 8 weeks I'm taking an online English course so I can finally finish my AA.  Since that already involves lots of writing, I doubt that I'll be placing much on here.

But anyway, the APOD for today looks really cool!

 

Diving and Stars

Diving

I'm taking my PADI Open Water Diving course.  Today I was in the swimming pool doing my confined water dives.  I spent 6.5 hours at the pool.  Needless to say I am wearing after sun lotion.  But it should be worth it.  This week I'll do my open water dives.

Stars

I have always liked astronomy.  I'm still going to find a way to keep it up.  Perhaps I'll buy a telescope.  Anyway, here are two images I wanted to share. 

The first one is the M8 region.

And this next one is not really a photo of stars.  Almost everything in this image is a galaxy of stars.

If you like these images, you can view the astronomy picture of the day at APOD.

Opposites Interfere

 This is a really cool science experiment.  You won't be able to duplicate it at home, but the results are definitely interesting.  To say that it goes against common sense is quite an understatement. 

The gist is:

"Heiblum and his team showed that, because of such interference, these two particles are entangled – the actions of one are inextricably tied to the actions of the other – even though they come from completely different sources and never interact with each other."

Which is basically to say that two particles coming from opposite ends of the room (and who never touch) still influence the movement of each other.

Los Angeles to plunge 3700 feet below Pacific

 I know some of you would be elated for this to happen and others would be devastated.  However, it appears that it will happen... in a billion years or so:

Link to Why a Rocky Mountain high?

Potentially Habitable Planet Found

It's quite a long ways away -- 20 light years, but it might be able to support life.  That would be very interesting... 

ABC News: Potentially Habitable Planet Found

The Science of Speaking in Tongues?

Ok readers, what is your opiniong of this report?

But will it stop the bite?

 Getting rid of malaria would be great.  Now if they can just get rid of mosquito bites...

Link to GM mosquito bred to destroy malaria-News-UK-Science-TimesOnline

Interesting News

Today has been a very interesting day for news.  But before I get to that here's an update on life.  I didn't get the chance to go snorkeling like I wanted too.  I had a great time watching the New Orleans - Chicago game since it was in a large group and we could give our host a bad time.  (New Orleans is his team and they lost).  Tonight is the return of Battlestar Galactica, one of the tv shows that I have been hooked on.  Sure, I like most Americans, consume lots of media -- but I try to spread it around.  But in case anyone is wondering, including any advertisers/marketers out there since I'm in the middle of the "most coveted" demographic, the 18 - 34 male, I only follow a few shows- Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and Lost.  All of them are serialized shows and since my schedule doesn't always allow for seeing the broadcast, I download them from iTunes.  But on to the interesting news...

Books

I have been trying to find a cheap, portable way to travel with my books.  Since I read for several hours a week and I travel a lot, I want a portable alternative to the traditional book.  My PDA can work for some items, but the selection of books are limited and the price is too high.  Also, the screen is smaller than I like.  Google might have the answer, though.  Google is entering the realm of e-books and is also talking about making the items available for purchase by the chapter or by renting.  While I don't think I would purchase just a chapter of a book, I do like the idea of renting a book -- if it will be cost-effective.

Storage

The bigger news is the advance in storing information.  Right now the medium used to store these words and images on your computer is a magnetic platter.  It takes up physical space on your hard-drive.  What if you could store a picture by light?  I'm not talking about a cd or dvd (optical media) what about the actual light?  What about a single photon?  It is possible now!  Researchers have stored a 100-plus pixel image on a single photon.  The image on the left is the picture from the photon while the image on the right is the orginal.

Have a great week!

Items of Interest

Sports

I know -- tonight most sports people will be focussing on the National Championship in College Football.  But it is interesting to see that Caltech won its first basketball game in ten years. 

No Joking Matter

This one is reminiscint of a Paul Harvey report:

Wedding jokes aren't always funny. When a bride in Austria jokingly answered "no" instead of "yes" when asked if she wanted to marry her husband-to-be, the official performing the civil wedding promptly broke off the ceremony.

Not even the bride's sobs could reverse the decision and the couple had to wait two and a half months before they could give it another successful try, the Austrian newspaper Oberoesterreichischen Nachrichten reported Friday.

 - ABC News

Map to Dark Matter

Scientists have used the Hubble Telescope to map the dark matter in the universe.  I'd like to know what color it is...

What to do about Middle School

I like the suggestion to get rid of 11th & 12th Grades.  What do you think?

Free Will

Do you choose how you live?  Or is it an illusion?  I tend to fall into the category of beliving we have free will.  I agree with the physicsists like Anton Zeilinger:

A vote in favor of free will comes from some physicists, who say it is a prerequisite for inventing theories and planning experiments.

That is especially true when it comes to quantum mechanics, the strange paradoxical theory that ascribes a microscopic randomness to the foundation of reality. Anton Zeilinger, a quantum physicist at the University of Vienna, said recently that quantum randomness was “not a proof, just a hint, telling us we have free will.”

But although I think we have free will, I also realize that the Lord directs our steps and sustains us.  Separately I am truly begining to realize that we cannot turn our hair white or black -- but that is another matter.

Your Brain: It's Alive! ...

While me may prefer to liken our brains to a static computer that just processes information, new research supports the idea that it actually grows.  Long thought to be just the domain of the young, even the adult brain continually grows and rewrites itself.  In fact, it is doing so right as you read this!

So perhaps my innocent idea as a child wasn't far off from the truth:  when I was young I compared my brain (memory) with a rotary card file index (computers weren't THAT common yet  and much more difficult for a youngster to visualize -- though now I realize I've dated myself).  Someone would tell me to remember something and I tried to imagine that I was able to store it by writing it down and storing ait away.  Now I am sure that I was just being a impertinent boy when I told people to wait so I could "write it down" -- but come to find out I wasn't that far off from the truth...

Question: Is Mythbusters the Best Science Show on Television?

The NYT asks if Mythbusters is the best.  What do you think?

I strongly disagree with Professor Larry Moran

While I don't have the time tonight to go into the entire Intellectual Design (ID) debate, nor into the UCSD debacle over the anti-ID lecture mandatory for all freshmen, I will place my vote firmly against Professor Larry Moran who wrote that "Pro-ID undergraduates 'should never have [been] admitted'" to UCSD and that they should be flunked:

The University should just flunk the lot of them and make room for smart students who have a chance of benefiting from a high quality education.

Pro-ID or Anti-ID does not make one smart or dumb.  Real education must consider alternate viewpoints -- not just dogmatic adherence to current beliefs.

Pastel California and Air Shower

Pastel California

A LA Times editorial on why California is not Blue or Red, but a pastel mix that is similar to the NRO article from yesterday's post.

Air Shower

An Australian company, while not the first, offers an ingenious way to save fresh water -- use less by taking an "air shower."

Finding Planets

Scientists will be using the upcoming transit of Mercury (when the planet passes in between the Earth and the Sun) to help them find other planets. The transit of Mercury only occurs 12x a Century (the only other planet that can come between Earth and the Sun is Venus, which will only do that 2x per century). Scientists will study the about of sunlight that is blocked by the planet and then compare that to other stars. If other stars have a tempory reduction in starlight, there is a strong possibility there is a planet orbiting it.

Finding planets is one thing... traveling to them... that would be really COOL.