scientists are baffled

It’s the favorite headline of crappy science reporting. When you find a story with this in the headline it’s often, but not always:
- a gullible story about some pseudoscience crap
- another way of saying “scientists are still working on the answer” or
- they didn’t actually talk to a credible scientist
Sometimes it’s a perfectly legitimate phrase [...]

sail me to the moon

The Planetary Society is planning to propel a spacecraft using sunlight before the end of next year. Unlike the ill-fated Cosmos 1 solar sail mission of a few years ago, this will be smaller, lighter, and will proceed in three stages.
LightSail 1 will be about the size of a loaf of bread, and that’s before [...]

what we’ll know in a few years

Earths beyond Earth
In about three years we’ll know the percentage of stars in our part of the Milky Way that hold earth-size or larger planets in the “habitable zone.” The habitable zone is a region where temperatures are likely to enable liquid water. The knowledge arrives thanks to NASA’s Kepler mission. Of course, we all [...]

the high desert

It’s where I belong. Click photo for larger version.

another halloween gone

All praise to the Timmons’ for continuing their most excellent annual Halloween parties. Thanks to “A Wink and a Smile,” now Seattle’s burlesque stars are coming to the party, which seems to get larger every year.

cosmic puzzles–easy answers

The following questions appeared in New Scientist magazine. They are allegedly the seven unanswered questions that most frequently keep physicists awake at night. I can answer all seven because I have friends with authority on these matters. I decided to put these questions to either the Master Nashwan or my Ouija board mouse pad. [...]

isn’t the cost of medical care an interesting topic?

I’ve been listening to the two-part “This American Life” examination of the health care industry in the U.S. of A. Below are a few items I took away from this broadcast. Caution: I sometimes get things wrong, so I advise listening to it yourself. It’s an entertaining and educational review of the topic.
Underlying causes of [...]

random images for today

A reminder regarding the upcoming election–don’t forget #6!

I saw this burst of blue fireballs in the desert. It lasted less than a second.

Greta copied me on this charming photo and message.