Everyone's favourite frostball!

post from Supernova Condensate on 08 February 2010 11:39:30 AM. © Supernova Condensate

Oh frosty, frosty Pluto, how you tantalise us. So small that even the most powerful telescopes can only discern you as a handful of pixels, yet immutably fascinating every time we learn something new about you!

(Read more ...)

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At least James Dobson will approve

post from Pharyngula on 08 February 2010 11:12:08 AM. © Pharyngula

Focus on the Patriarchy has always favored punishing children to teach them right from wrong, so I can't imagine them being too upset at this news: a fellow's 4-year-old daughter was having trouble memorizing her ABC's, suggesting that she needed some extra incentives to excel. So Dad waterboarded her. How sweet that Daddy cared so much about the importance of her education.

I'm going back to teaching in the fall. Will this be considered a reasonable educational technique? I'm thinking of putting a rack in the lecture hall and carrying around some thumbscrews just to help my students learn better.

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mes_dobson_will_app.php

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New UN emissions pledges still stack up to 3.5°C

post from New Scientist - Environment on 08 February 2010 10:37:00 AM. © New Scientist - Environment

The commitments from 55 nations representing 78 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions hardly make a dent in projected warming

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cle0Cmg20A5274620B90A0A0Enew0Eun0Eemissions0Epledges0Estill0Estack0Eup0Eto0E35c0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fenvironment/story01.htm

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NASA funding announcement and the Google Lunar
X-PRIZE Team Summit

post from Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought on 08 February 2010 10:34:40 AM. © Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought

Just over 5 years after the $10M Ansari X PRIZE was won by a private space team, President Barack Obama announces that NASA funding would also be used to entice companies to build private spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station after the space shuttle retires.

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-team-summit

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I don't know which way I want this poll to go

post from Pharyngula on 08 February 2010 10:22:53 AM. © Pharyngula

Some guy named Gerard Alexander has an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled "Why are liberals so condescending?" I will say one thing in its favor: it gets to its point quickly and clearly in the first few sentences.

Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration.

Unfortunately, it's downhill from there. He does demonstrate nicely that many liberals do categorize many conservatives as idiots, but he doesn't seem capable of addressing the question of why they think that. It's mostly a lot of waa-waa about the tone and how this attitude is an obstacle to politics.

He doesn't consider the obvious explanation that many conservatives are amazing idiots pursuing idiotic policies.

Seriously. Sarah Palin. Conservatives defending Palin's stupidities. Republican candidates for the presidency who are certain that the earth is only 6000 years old. A Republican party dominated by the religious right.

Years ago, I would have considered Alexander to have a good point: that on some policies, such as economics, conservatives had something to contribute. But then they elected Reagan and Bush and the crowd of clowns in congress, and any claim to being a serious political party went out the window. They are the silly party now, and where they do the most damage is when pompous wankers demand that we treat them seriously simply because they are the conservative party we've got. No, we shouldn't: we should laugh them out of office until they come up with candidates who aren't stupid shills.

So I'm divided on the poll accompanying the article.

Who is more condescending?
They're both impossible 12%
Conservatives 22%
Liberals 66%

It's really just an attempt to tar liberals with another insult — ironic for an article that is so condescendingly disparaging liberal tone — but it's also true. We are more condescending. Because most conservatives are so deserving of condescension.

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_which_way_i_want_t.php

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LiveU Puts the Power of a News Van in Your
Backpack (Video)

post from Singularity Hub on 08 February 2010 10:22:42 AM. © Singularity Hub

I was covering Apple’s recent premiere of the iPad when I saw some guy with a professional video camera plugged into his backpack. Was he some Apple mega-fan with a screw loose? Nope, turns out he was broadcasting a live news feed onto the internet. The backpack was part of an uplink system developed by [...]

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Playboy Pontiac

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 08 February 2010 10:17:00 AM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

I got to thinking the other day about Pontiac, and what a shame it was that they had tossed out so many wonderful model names in their decision to go all alphanumeric, just like the premium German brands they were emulating. Think about it: Bonneville! Le Mans! Tempest! Catalina! Why would you

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Notes & Queries 2/8/10

Prospects for Interstellar TravelBe aware of Paul Titze’s continuing exegesis of John Mauldin’s book Prospects for Interstellar Travel (Univelt, 1992). I used Mauldin again and again as I developed my Centauri Dreams book, finding the dense[...]

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http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=11286

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Augmented reality: Cool 3D modeling application

post from Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought on 08 February 2010 10:12:22 AM. © Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought

At SIGGRAPH Asia 2009, members of the Reality Media Lab Team at Ritsumeikan University presented an augmented reality system demonstrating a woodworking application.

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Marijuana ineffective as an Alzheimer's treatment

post from Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought on 08 February 2010 10:03:55 AM. © Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought

The benefits of marijuana in tempering or reversing the effects of Alzheimer's disease have been challenged in a new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.

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