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Bloody Vikings!
2007-09-24 12:30:00
The background of my father's side of the family has always been a bit of a mystery. We know that some generations back, his ancestors came across the pond from somewhere in the British isles, and that the family name seems to have a fair amount of history behind it. But various sources have given us a variety of stories for the ultimate source of the name. So when I heard about the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project, I really perked up...
More About: Biology , Vikings , Bloody

Meteorites, the Media, and Mass Hysteria
2007-09-21 20:31:00
When I first heard about the recent supposed meteor impact in Peru, and the sickness it allegedly brought to locals, I was just going to let things go by. Something odd happened in a remote area, and it seemed pretty easy to write the mess off as a miscommunication. But this mess seems to be building up quite a head of steam in the media, so I suppose it's worth a further look...
More About: Media , Space , The Media , Astronomy , Hysteria

Blog carnivals du jour
2007-09-18 15:42:00
This week's crop of good sciencey blog carnivals...
More About: Space , Carnivals , Astronomy , Biology , Climate

Episode 11 ? Colony Collapse Disorder
2007-09-16 23:51:00
So, what's the buzz about honeybees? Listen in to this episode, and you'll learn about honeybees, how important they are to modern agriculture, and how damaging something called Colony Coll apse Disorder (CCD) has become -- at least, in the U.S. and Europe. I try to put recent news in a bit of perspective, and talk a bit about the work that still needs to be done....
More About: Episode , Biology , Colony collapse disorder

A moment of your time, please?
2007-09-12 13:55:00
Out of curiosity (and because I'd like to gauge just how satisfied folks are with the available themes for the site), I'm putting up a quick poll. Please just click to vote for your favorite theme. If you're not that wild about any of the available themes, and / or have some suggestions for others, please just comment on this post....
More About: Site News , Time , Moment

This week in blog carnivals
2007-09-11 14:50:00
As usual, there are lots of good blog carnivals for you to choose from, if you're on the hunt for some good science-related reading.
More About: Space , Carnivals , Biology , Blog , Math

SOS, graphed
2007-09-09 11:03:00
There are a lot of interesting utilities to be found out on the web.Some of them are even useful.Just for fun, I thought I'd show you one of them that I ran against this site's home page -- the utility generates a graph, showing the structure of whatever page you give it.
More About: Site News , Graph

How logical are you?
2007-09-08 18:38:00
You Are Incredibly Logi cal Move over Spock - you’re the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer! How Logical Are You? OK — give it a shot, and let everybody know how you did! Tags: logical, online-quizBookmark to:  

When you dive on a reef, and you?re hit with sharp teeth?
2007-09-07 06:48:00
It turns out that most bony fishes have two sets of jaws -- a normally-visible external one, and an internal (pharyngeal) one that's essentially in the fishes' throat. The fish pull in their food (generally via suction), then the pharyngeal jaw and its teeth are used to chew or grind the fishes' food and help in swallowing it. If you've ever tried to retrieve a lure from a trout's craw, you know just what I'm talking about here. Well, it turns out that the moray eel is a fish of a different color.
More About: Biology , Teeth , Sharp , Reef , Dive

Blog carnivals du jour
2007-09-03 15:27:00
Today's a holiday in the U.S., but that doesn't mean folks don't want a little "sciencey" reading to go along with their hamburgers and potato salad (and of course, folks in other countries need a break from their daily labors as well).
More About: Space , Carnivals , Biology , Climate , Blog

About this site’s layout — tips for readers
2007-09-03 00:07:00
One of the handy things about publishing a blog using Wordpress is that the software makes it very easy to change the look of the site with just a few clicks of my mouse. By using "themes" that web developers freely publish, I can pick a pre-made set of artistic choices (generally more tasteful / visually appealing than what I could come up with on my own) in a shot -- and with a bit of tweaking, I can easily customize a given theme to "fit" this site. What you may not have noticed, though, is that I've set this site up with a number of themes that YOU can choose from...
More About: Readers , Tips , Site , Layout , Dash

This week?s carnivals
2007-08-27 05:46:00
Plenty of good weekend reading material is available, courtesy of a fresh batch of sciencey blog carnivals: The 133rd Carnival of EducationCarnival of Space #17Friday Ark #153Grand Rounds 3.48 (medical stuff)I and the Bird #56Philosophia Naturalis #13 ("The Carnival of the Damned")Happy reading, all...
More About: Carnivals , Astronomy , Biology , Week

The original Futurama ? dreams of futures past
2007-08-26 05:56:00
At the World Fair in New York, the General Motors pavilion featured something called Futurama -- a look at the wonders of the far-off world of 1960! In this thrilling visiion of the future, 7-lane superhighways are everywhere (mind you, in 1939, most roads in the U.S. were still unpaved), car traffic is rendered safe through radio-based driving systems (!), and "most towns" have electricity.
More About: Technology , Dreams , History , Original

Another silly online test?
2007-08-18 05:45:00
Your Result: Science/Math Nerd (Absolute Insane Laughter as you pour toxic chemicals into a foaming tub of death!)Well, maybe you aren't this extreme, but you're in league with the crazy scientists/mathmeticians of today.... Thank whosever God you worship, or don't worship, so thank no deity whatsoever in your case, for you people!
More About: Humor , Online , Test , Silly , Online test

Here comes the Sun?
2007-08-09 15:21:00
In late June, a global dust storm kicked up on Mars, leaving the little solar-powered rovers little energy to do anything -- even just keep themselves from freezing.Perspective: before the storm, the rovers were at top condition, with each generating about 700 watt-hours of power per day (so, enough to run an average light bulb for seven hours).... So the good news is that things have lightened up enough that both rovers are again charging up their batteries (Spirit is fully charged, Opportunity nearly so), and their temperatures are rising.
More About: Technology , Space , Here comes the sun

Going looney
2007-08-03 07:03:00
I don't know if there's any deeper significance to this, but there seems to be a lot of moon-related news out there of late.First off, Arizona State University is teaming up with NASA in order to make old Apollo images of the moon both sharper and more readily available.... This will be the first ever digital archive of every image that the Apollo missions took of the moon -- both from orbit, and from the surface.
More About: Going , Goin

Dead horses and NASA and such
2007-07-26 14:33:00
Here's an example: the U.S. house is trying to increase NASA funding for aeronautics, education, and science -- and the White House has announced Bush will veto the increase if it makes it onto his desk:The Administration supports the House's full funding for NASA's Exploration Systems and Space Shuttle. However, the Administration does not endorse funding in excess of the request for Aeronautics, Education, and Science...So, as I've pointed out before, NASA's funding for aeronautics, education, and science has been thrown under the train in the interest of funding the development of the Ares I launch vehicle (which duplicates capabilities that commercial launchers already have).
More About: Horses , Dead , Nasa , Such

Everybody loves a carnival?
2007-07-21 20:00:00
And you've got plenty to choose from this week.
More About: Technology , Space , History , Carnival , Astronomy

Pneumatic Anatomica
2007-07-07 08:01:00
Fine, you may know what's in that hot dog you're about to take a bite out of. But honestly, do you know what's in a balloon dog (Canis Pneumatis)?Courtesy of Jason Freeny, now we can all find out -- go to his site to order a print of the full image (the above is just a segment of it), including the evolutionary history of the balloon dog.
More About: Humor , Biology , Atomic , Neum , Anatom

Bring the family!
2007-07-01 07:34:00
OK, so I try to make this blog and podcast fit for listening in your car, with the kids along for the ride. But now, it's official...
More About: Humor , Family , The Family

Episode 10 ? Quantum Mechanics
2007-06-27 00:19:00
Now it's time for some much odder physics than you're likely used to -- we're getting down to the sub-atomic level with quantum mechanics.... If you're new to the podcast, you'll want to check out episodes 4 (Physics : A Brief History , 6 (Special Relativity), and 8 (General Relativity) first, just to put this material in context.If you're not subscribed to the podcast, you can listen to the episode via an inline player (Flash required) here:[audio:SOS010_Quantum _Mechanics .mp3] For sources, and those who?d just like to follow along, the episode?s show notes are here...
More About: Episode

A funny thing happened on the way to the Moon?
2007-06-25 00:31:00
Not that I enjoy saying "I told you so," but President Bush's lack of ability or (more likely) desire to forge any sort of bipartisan support for his Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) is really coming back to bite NASA. Let's have a quick refresher, shall we?
More About: Funny , Technology , Moon , Thing

The week in carnivals
2007-06-22 06:25:00
As usual, you've got a good selection of science-related blog carnivals for your reading pleasure this week...
More About: Carnivals , Physics , Biology , Climate , Humanity

Episode 9 ? Stem Cells
2007-06-11 00:51:00
Stem cells -- everybody talks about them, but how much do all these talking heads really know about them? Listen in to this episode, and you'll get a basic background in stem cells, and why you should care about them. What stem cells are, what they're useful for, what kinds have ethical concerns attached, and which shouldn't -- it's all in here for your listening pleasure. I also talk about some promising new news from Japan -- the dawn of guilt-free stem cells may be just down the road...
More About: Episode , Biology , Humanity , Stem Cells , Stem

You just have to love xkcd
2007-06-09 17:31:00
The latest "xkcd" is SO appropriate...
More About: Humor , Love

Poor Pluto?
2007-06-06 14:56:00
A fun piece of art from Mathias Pedersen...
More About: Humor , Space , Astronomy , Pluto , Poor

Life is a Carnival?
2007-06-04 07:27:00
Or at least, it is on the internet. Here's a good selection of Carnival ia for your reading pleasure this week...
More About: Life , History , Math

Dinosauria News
2007-05-29 15:27:00
A cluster of interesting dino news has hit the internet over the past week or so, so I thought it'd be a good time to gather things up in one place...
More About: News , Biology , Dino

Episode 8 ? General Relativity
2007-05-21 04:25:00
Now that we have some of the preliminaries out of the way, it's time to take a quick look at Gene ra l Relativity. Fortunately for the physics impared, it's actually a bit easier to get your head around than is Special Relativity -- and you get black holes, the big bang, and gravitational lensing in the bargain.?.
More About: Episode , Physics

New site feature
2007-05-08 06:11:00
After weeks of tweaking and fiddling, I can finally announce a new site feature that I've been working on -- switchable site themes. While I'm still messing with a couple of troublemaking themes, I've now set up the site with a set of eight themes for you to choose from...
More About: Site News , Site , Feature , New Site , Feat