Spiritual backbone

post from Pharyngula on 18 April 2008 10:12:07 PM. © Pharyngula

Parents — don't send your children to a Christian school.

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Malignant Narcissism

post from Pharyngula on 18 April 2008 09:30:08 PM. © Pharyngula

Hey, I remember when this piece from Rush came out, and I remember the snake-like tree in the video, but I don't remember the ending … and it's the ending that makes me laugh now.

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The whole idea seems nasty

post from Pharyngula on 18 April 2008 09:16:55 PM. © Pharyngula

Apparently, it's a religious holiday called Passover, which refers to some horrible, awful series of afflictions a god visited on some unfortunate people, but passed over some others, so the survivors celebrate. It seems terribly mean-spirited to me. Anyway, here's something "fun": Passover-themed gifts. In this case, a collection of plagues for children. A bag of plagues, plague fingerpuppets, chocolate plagues — there's a frog in that one. Which made me think of…

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Chambers Street Subway Art 1

post from Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) on 18 April 2008 08:59:59 PM. © Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

tags: chambers street subway art, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC

I finally managed to snap more pictures of NYC subway art. The Chambers Street station on the A and C lines is another one of my favorite subway art stops, so I am pleased to share this one with you.

Chambers Street Subway Art #1
as seen at NYC's Chambers Street stop for the A and C trains.

Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].

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Biodegradable Plastic Bags and Bottles

post from Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog on 18 April 2008 06:59:00 PM. © Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog

researchers look to make environmentally friendly plastics

Every year, more than 30 billion water bottles are added to America’s landfills, creating a mountainous environmental problem. But if research at Missouri University of Science and Technology is successful, the plastic bottles of the future could literally disappear within four months of being discarded.

The Missouri S&T research team is constructing new breeds of biodegradable and bioavailable plastics in an effort to reduce the tons of plastic waste that ends up in the nation?s landfills each year. Bioavailable plastics contain substances that can be absorbed by living systems during their normal physiological functions.

By combining and modifying a variety of bio-based, oil-based and natural polymers, the team seeks to create optimal blends that can be used to make agricultural films, bottles, biomedical and drug delivery devices, and more.
…
As polylactic acid degrades, the material reacts with water to decompose into small molecules, which are then mineralized into water and carbon dioxide.

“In general, the main end products of polymer degradation are water and carbon dioxide,” Shahlari explains. “Polylatic acid has the potential of replacing the regular water bottles, and we anticipate that our research could be incorporated into that field too.

It sure seems like they are saying these would really biodegrade. Plastic bags can photodegrade where they break down into small bits of plastic that might be hard to see but are still toxic that can be eaten by animals, and us. As one would figure - that is not a good thing. The ocean garbage floats are not huge amounts of plastic bags and bottles but instead huge amounts of small and tiny plastic particles. I know using corn based bags has been looked at previously and used.

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NASA Extends Cassini's Grand Tour of Saturn

post from Science Blog - Send lawyers, guns and money on 18 April 2008 06:25:12 PM. © Science Blog - Send lawyers, guns and money

NASA is extending the international Cassini-Huygens mission by two years. The historic spacecraft's stunning discoveries and images have revolutionized our knowledge of Saturn and its moons.

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Bigelow Aerospace, bigger pictures

post from Bad Astronomy Blog on 18 April 2008 06:00:19 PM. © Bad Astronomy Blog

I just got word from the folks at Bigelow Aerospace — whose goal is to have an orbiting hotel for people who want a really spectacular view out their window — have tweaked a camera onboard their Genesis II satellite, and it’s now returning higher-res images. These are really stunning views of the planet, and [...]

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Things to do in Toronto this weekend

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TFT Symposium in the ECS Meeting in Hawaii

The 214th Electrochemical Society (ECS) Meeting will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii, on October 12-17 2008, in the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

The ECS Meeting includes a number of Symposia.

For the TFT community, I want to highlight the TFT 10 Symposium.

The TFT symposium is an intersting forum for the presentation and discussion of
the latest developments in all types of thin film transistors (TFTs) and
related fields. This symposium is chaired by Prof Yue Kuo (Texas A&M University)

Papers can deal with all aspects of fabrication processes, materials, device
physics, characterization, structures, and applications of TFTs. This TFT symposium will address the following topics:
(1.) new TFT Structures; (2.) novel or new processes; (3.) organic, inorganic, oxide, etc. thin film materials; (4.) device physics, modeling, characterization, and reliability; (5.) applications in LCDs, imagers, sensors, biochips, MEMS, etc.; (6.) applications in circuits; and (7.) integration of TFTsto large area displays, VLSIC, and other complex systems.

Abstracts should be submitted electronically to ECS headquarters by May 30.

Being this TFT Symposium in Hawaii, no doubt it will be a big success!

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UK: Skeptics in the pub

We weren’t sure if we could pull this off, but now it’s official: on Monday, April 21, at 7:00 p.m. James Randi and I will be doing a Skeptics in the Pub: a free public skeptical talk in London. I’ll be doing the Moon Hoax talk, and Randi will be grumpy and charming and very [...]

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