First, some background: “Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, has been a vocal critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci.” (Per CNN story here.) So it’s not surprising he went off half-cocked, but this one is a doozy. (Also relevant to this story, while Massie is an MIT grad in electrical[...]
Archive for the ‘Science’ Category
January 6th, 2022 - 5:28 pm § in Science
Fusion energy progress report
Fusion works. If it didn’t, the sun wouldn’t shine, and H-bombs wouldn’t explode. Harnessing fusion for electricity production is just an engineering problem. ” … [T]he enormous potential of fusion makes it hard to ignore. It’s a technology that could safely provide a[...]
January 2nd, 2022 - 2:31 pm § in Schools & Colleges, Science
Why Pluto should not be a planet
Well, they’re back at it again. Arguing over whether Pluto should be called a planet, a dwarf planet, or a Kuiper object. I guess it gives astronomers something to do around the water cooler. Anyway, the International Astronomical Association Union, which is as official as you can get, adopte[...]
Drunk hamsters (story and video)
The Atlantic gives me only 1 free article a month, so I have to be selective. (The reason I don’t subscribe, besides money, is there’s no point in linking to sources my readers can’t access. The downside to free links, of course, is that when you click on the link you’re usin[...]
December 24th, 2021 - 3:46 pm § in Science
James Webb Space Telescope in space!
LIFTOFF! James Webb Space Telescope IS FINALLY LAUNCHED INTO SPACE AFTER YEARS OF DELAYS SO FAR, SO GOOD Return to The-Ave.US Home Page[...]
December 22nd, 2021 - 10:38 pm § in Science
Tortoise singles ad
She was found in 2019 on Fernandina Island in the Galapagos. No one had seen a Fernandina giant tortoise since 1906. They were written off as extinct. But here she is. Get a load of her! Scientists say “footprints and poop” suggest there’s two tortoises on the island. They hope to[...]
December 21st, 2021 - 6:25 pm § in Science
NASA’s Xmas gift to the world
Windy weather in French Guiana has delayed the planned launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) until Christmas Day. (See story here.) Originally scheduled for a 2007 launch, the JWST has experienced repeated delays, and its cost ballooned from $500 million to over $10 billiont. Current statu[...]
The stupid things journalists write
“The Perseverance rover took a well-deserved break in October during solar conjunction, but it’s back to investigating intriguing rocks in Jezero Crater on Mars,” CNN correspondent Ashley Strickland wrote in an article posted on Thursday, November 11, 2021. Or, out of an abundance [...]
November 10th, 2021 - 9:41 pm § in Environment, Science
The oceans need a rest
Oceanographer Sylvia Earle (bio here), 86, told the U.N. climate change conference (aka “COP26”, details here) the oceans so badly need a rest that the world’s nations should immediately ban industrial fishing. This is necessary, she said, not just to prevent the collapse of fisher[...]
What time is it at the North Pole?
Paraphrasing Scientific American (story here): “At the North Pole, 24 time zones collide at a single point, rendering them meaningless. It’s simultaneously all of Earth’s time zones and none of them. Sea captains choose their own time in the central Arctic. They may maintain the time zones[...]