jewel August 31st, 2008
While it is unfortunate the presidential candidates wouldn’t actually participate in a public debate regarding their positions on science policy, Obama and McCain did both say they would provide answers to the decided upon 14 questions. I’m happy to say that Obama has submitted his answers and they are posted on the ScienceDebate2008 website. Perhaps McCain will submit his answers soon so that the American people can see where he really stands.
jewel August 27th, 2008
Twice in the past couple weeks I have walked by someones desk at work and saw them looking at one of the scare monger websites saying that the Large Hadron Collider is going to destroy the planet! Oh noes! Sadly, both times the person reading the site was buying into all the weapons grade bullshit the site was spewing. Also, sadly, I have no links to the sites they were visiting. I’ll have to remember to get links next time.
Anyway, thankfully, people way smarter than me have done all the hard work for me and have explained exactly why these scare monger websites are so very wrong and I was able to point these folks in the right direction and give them, hopefully, some peace of mind. I hate to see people scared over nothing and actually buying into whatever these snake oil salesmen are selling. And it’s always something, isn’t it. Continue Reading »
jewel July 20th, 2008
Today is the 39th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy, posted about it today along with the left half of the picture above of Buzz Aldrin’s footprint on the moon. There is a really neat trick of perspective in that picture (that many of the commenter’s noticed). When the picture is looked at right side up, the footprint looks raised and the surrounding ground more solid, while when turned upside down the footprint looks indented (like one would expect) and the surrounding ground looks softer. I just love stuff like this. Continue Reading »
jewel June 24th, 2008
My husband and I just got back from Vegas where we attended our very first TAM! Wow. We’re both still processing all of it. In fact, I’m not entirely sure what to write. Man o man, it was just amazing.
We got into Vegas on Wednesday night and got checked in and stuff and were even able to get a semi good night’s sleep. We were both awake at 5am because we were still on east coast time and that was great for us because we got to have a leisurely breakfast and wander around a bit and get our bearings.
I’m going to try to get to the real highlights of TAM 6. This is going to be hard, there were so many, but ok, here it goes, in no particular order: Continue Reading »
jewel May 1st, 2008
Phil Plait, over at BadAstronomy, linked to this yesterday. I watched it twice, absolutely enthralled. It’s a video of a talk Brian Cox (physicist extraordinaire) gave at the TED conference in February of this year regarding the new Large Hadron Collider. It’s a must see.
Let’s see, what to say about Brian Cox…well, he’s British - I don’t know what it is about the accent, but it’s damn sexy - also, he’s brilliant and a physicist. I happen to have a bit of a weakness for brilliance and when that brilliance comes in a young, good looking, British package….well. But I digress. Continue Reading »
jewel November 15th, 2007
In case you missed Judgment Day the other night, you can now view it online for free. I can’t wait until it’s available on DVD!
Judgment Day was absolutely fascinating. Much better than any biology class I ever took. If biology class had been this good, I may have just made a career of it!
jewel November 10th, 2007
Some very cool news - on Tuesday, November 13th, at 8pm PBS will be airing a new NOVA program about the Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial on teaching ID in public schools. Check your local listings.
For more information, see the press release or click on the graphic to be taken to the NOVA site on the program.
edited to add: The NY Times also has a pretty good write up on Judgment Day.
jewel October 6th, 2007
I just finished reading 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, OxyContin®, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania by Matthew Chapman, a great great grandson of Charles Darwin.
We actually got to meet Matthew Chapman last weekend at the Atheist Alliance International conference and he is a very down to earth fellow. When I first read about who he was I thought - “Great great grandson of Charles Darwin - how cool is that?!”, but of course we cannot choose our ancestors and he is a very approachable guy, so although I do still think it would be cool to be a direct descendant of such a great historical figure, my rational side does take over and it isn’t such a big deal.
But I digress…
Anyway, I just finished his book on the Dover, PA trial “Kitzmiller v. Dover” where a school board - who were neither educators, nor schooled in science - bent on introducing the teaching of Intelligent Design (aka Creationism in a Labcoat) in their biology classrooms was given the smackdown by a George W. Bush appointee judge. Continue Reading »
jewel October 5th, 2007
I’ve often had conflicting opinions of Hillary Clinton. On one hand, she’s very ambitious - some would say opportunistic. On the other hand, she’s highly intelligent and she sees the big picture and understands the details. Of all of the Democratic candidates that have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the nomination, she might just be the one I would prefer. She’s not as liberal as I would like - neither was Bill, but I think she has the most potential to bring this country out of the hole of shame that Bush has dragged us into. Continue Reading »
