It is dangerous to use local weather events (such as a heavy or light winter) to make judgments about global climate. With that caveat, I’m blogging the following because I’ve noted a shift in the online discussion about “global warming,” or the more general “climate change”. This essay does a good job exploring the events…
With its six wheels stuck in powdery sand and two wheels no longer working, the resilient little explorer will become a fixed, immobile scientific observatory — if it can survive the harsh temperatures of the upcoming winter. —LA Times Similar:Witness Accounts in Midtown Hammer Attack Show the Power of False Memory Two people who saw…
Violent video games have triggered substantial controversy due to highly publicized incidents of youth violence that have been allegedly inspired by the content of such games. Several jurisdictions have passed legislation penalizing the distribution of violent video games to minors and used psychological research to support the justification for such laws. However, courts have consistently…
The Jurupa Oak tree first sprouted into life when much of the world was still covered in glaciers. It has stood on its windswept hillside in southern California for at least 13,000 years, making it the oldest known living organism, according to a study published today. —Independent Reading this story reminded me of a story…
I just played this Every Day the Same Dream. Simple, stark, and in places charming. I smiled and thought a little. Similar:Earth With RingsSure, Saturn’s rings are cool, but the E…AestheticsA.I. 'Completes' Keith Haring's Intentionally Unfinished Painting After learning of his AIDS diagnosis…AestheticsVanessa Otero's Complex vs. Clickbait, Liberal vs. Conservative Media ChartUpdate, June 2020: See…
A reading from a chapter of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Similar:Pop Culture Showdown with My Retro DaughterThe girl tried to weird me out with a vi…AestheticsWhat about Socialization?Sometimes, I worry that by homeschooling…Current_EventsWhat Does the Demise of Cursive Mean?Are you aware that our children aren’t b…CultureSupergiant and Hypergiant Stars Compared to our…
My wife’s theory about the Norway spiral lights is that, during a practice run, Rudolph had a bit too much eggnog, sending Santa’s sleigh into a death spiral. Similar:No results found for "officer on leave after video allegedly shows him pulling gun on unar…What is the story behind this image? Wha…Current_EventsMariah Carey meets William Carlos…
These dandelion children–equivalent to our “normal” or “healthy” children, with “resilient” genes–do pretty well almost anywhere, whether raised in the equivalent of a sidewalk crack or a well-tended garden. Ellis and Boyce offer that there are also “orchid” children, who will wilt if ignored or maltreated but bloom spectacularly with greenhouse care…. Gene variants generally considered misfortunes (poor Jim, he got…
In Pensylvania, homeshool kids have to take standardized tests every few years (at grades 3, 5, and 8). When he took the grade 5 exams last year, Peter did very well in all subjects, including math, though he 1) often says he hates math and 2) wastes a lot of time not doing math (staring…
I can’t say I understand, but someone invented every symbol and bit of notation that we use from emoticons to the alphabet. It’s cool to see the story of the need to invent new symbols. via Wired. Similar:Principal fires security guards to hire art teachers — and transforms elementary schoolThe school was plagued by violence…
My sixth-grader has scored very well on standardized tests for math, but he finds a blank page of math problems intimidating and boring. He spends hours — literally hours — wasting time at the kitchen table, not doing his long division or word problems. Yet for pleasure, he reads Death by Black Hole: And Other…
Awesome Flash animation from the University of Utah, showing relative sizes from a coffee bean to a carbon atom. I wish it could also zoom out and show astronomical sizes, too, like this FSU slide show (not as smooth as the Utah one) or the famous Powers of Ten movie. Similar:Trainer and Sea Lion Tango:…
Yesterday in my journalism class, I asked everyone in the room to take out a coin and flip it twice, and raise their hand if it came up the same. Then I asked the ones whose hands were up to flip again, and keep their hand up if the coin came up the same yet…
Similar:I think this #denoising filter makes my #CGI scene look a bit like a hand-illustrated chil…I think this #denoising filter makes my …AestheticsReal college classes have writing assignments and required reading.While I can imagine teaching a course th…AcademiaThe world's population is lopsided.AwesomeShy Preschooler Won't Say Her Lines in "Peter Pan" Rehearsal (Stage Right! Greensburg)Little Maggie…
I am not too happy about the way wild conclusions drawn from this self-published research periodically pop up in the media. Kudos to Liberman, from Language Log, who tries (yet again) to explain. The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness The best way to describe this, I think, would be to say something like: In the…
If language is as instinctive to humans as dam-building is to beavers, if every 3-year-old is a grammatical genius, if the design of syntax is coded in our DNA and wired into our brains, why, you might wonder, is the English language in such a mess?  Why does the average American sound like a gibbering fool every time he opens his mouth or puts pen…
For anyone who’s ever forgotten something or someone they wish they could remember, a bit of solace: Though the memory is hidden from your conscious mind, it might not be gone. —Wired Similar:The reluctant wisdom of a science major in my freshman writing class.”There’s nothing left to say,” said a sc…AcademiaChallenger Disaster: 30 YearsI was a…
Not as cleverly written as that video that has a line or two about each U.S. president (which I can’t locate at the moment) but still very nicely done. Similar:Chillax, Wikipedia, and bridezilla are not puns: Against adjoinagesSo if recessionista and fembot are not r…AmusingHear That? It’s Your Voice Being Taken for Profit.Why do tech…
A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably…
I remember some years ago reading an article that used a similar strategy to describe exactly what it would feel like to stand on Mars. One of things Ford wasn’t ready for is the weird smell. “From the [spacewalks] there really is a distinct smell of space when they come back in,” Ford said from…