Private Space Station Prototype Hits Orbital
Milestone

From SPACE.com: A prototype module for a private space station has passed an orbital milestone after completing its 10,000th trip around the Earth. Genesis 1, an inflatable module built by the Las Vegas, Nev.-based firm Bigelow Aerospace, passed the 10,000-orbit mark as it nears

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Pinellas County, Florida expels science

This is the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve website — it looks exactly like the kind of organization I would support, a community effort to protect a local wildlife area. They lobby, they educate, they offer opportunities to hike and experience nature.

One problem: it's in Florida. That seems to mean the organization is infected with stupidity and cowardice.

As part of their educational mission, they were going to have a speaker come in next Febrary, Dr Lorena Madrigal of the University of South Florida. She studies genetics and human evolution, and was going to speak on 12 February, Darwin Day. To the Pinellas County bureaucrats, this is a problem.

"Biology without evolution is not biology," she suggested, which obviously explains, at least in the mind of William Davis, the Pinellas County director of environmental services, why the professor's speech would be problematic.

"Her topic was about evolution," Davis said. Well, yeaaaaaah! "I flinched on that."

"I canceled her out after discussing it with my supervisors," he said. "We are not the platform for debate on creationism versus evolution."

Right. Talking about evolution might annoy the creationists, so the county's response is to shut down and silence efforts to educate and inform by an environmental institution which relies on evolutionary biology to perform its mission. This is a perfect example of how creationists work to keep people ignorant, and create an environment free of legitimate information about a subject that contradicts their absurd literalist beliefs.

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What's Our Connection to the Platypus

From Scientific American: The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is an odd-looking creature whose features combine the furry torso and wide, flat tail of a beaver with the rubbery bill and webbed feet of a duck. But its looks are not all that is strange about it. A new study in

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Productivity rises when companies are facing
closure

In companies that are slated to be shut down, productivity increases during the phase-out period itself. When management is busy dealing with matters other than daily operations, employees shoulder a greater responsibility for their work­-and efficiency is enhanced.

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Space Shuttle Wired for Destruction

From mental_floss Blog: Each time the space shuttle rises from its launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., an Air Force officer waits anxiously for the first 2 minutes to pass safely. If the spaceship were to veer off course and endanger a populated area, this range safety officer would

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Make Fuel at Home With Portable DIY Refinery

From mental_floss Blog: People were making ethanol at home long before there were cars. They called it moonshine. With gas prices going through the roof and everyone worried about global warming, a California company is betting people will jump at the chance to use the same technol

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nery?from_rss=1

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Laptop and Cell Phone Combos – How
necessary

Now on the market: A bunch of hybrid devices that "split the difference between laptop and phone." Rob Pegoraro of the Washington Post cites some popular examples, looks at the pros and cons, and wonders, "Are people so dependent on the Web that they just have to have these gadgets?" What do you thi

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ecessary?from_rss=1

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Good Sense or Nonsense in HDTV

Gamers are driving HDTV purchases, and recent news stories suggest that 25% of American households now own an HDTV. With slim profit margins and a struggling economy, is the effort to distinguish brands causing manufacturers to add useless bells and whistles? On one hand, ability to play multiple fo

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Friday Cephalopod: Veiny

Octopus marginatus

Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide ^{(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll)}, by Mark Norman.

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Teatime

I commented on a post on the Bad Language blog, produced by my good friend Matthew Stibbe, earlier this week. He was waxing lyrical about cutting power consumption in his SOHO and mentioned how he prefers to brew tea with freshly drawn water. I pointed out that while this may have benefits it would actually [...]

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http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/teatime.html