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did life of Earth come from Mars? (BBC) so, which would you rather do: capture an asteroid or go back to the moon? (New York Times) two moons passing in the night (NASA) Curiosity watches from the Martian surface as Phobos passes Deimos Pluto, the last planetary first (Science) 2772 days down, 690 more until the arrival of New Horizons huge lava fountains gushing on Jupiter moon Io (New Scientist) comet ISON will apparently NOT be the "comet of the century" another in a long line of comet mis-advertisements by astronomers |
supergiant missing, supernova mystery solved (Scientific American) An observational correlation between stellar brightness variations and surface gravity (Nature) The Crab that Roared (Science) a new surprise for an old explosion brown dwarfs: from zeroes to heroes (New Scientist) "zombie vortices" key step in star formation? (UC Berkeley) |
KOI 1843.03 an iron planet with a 4-hour 'year' (New Scientist) the Kepler rundown: 136 confirmed planets & 3,548 unconfirmed, potential planets. Of those unconfirmed planets, 272 are believed to be in the so-called "habitable zone," warm enough for liquid water and life (PBS) |
4 reasons Physics says you shouldn't exist (Slate) Hubble sees 'true shapes' of galaxies 11 BY ago the galaxies appear to be split between blue star-forming galaxies with a complex structure (e.g., discs, bulges, and messy clumps) and massive red galaxies that are no longer forming stars galaxies took on present shapes and colors near dawn of time (New Scientist) |
CERN comedy webcast [e.g., heard about the Higgs boson that goes to church? ...can't have mass without him] (live, Aug 30, 7:30 pm) caution: contains adult material wait, what? one year out from the Higgs discovery, has particle physics come to a standstill? (Guardian) the Higgs field explained (in 3 minutes, 20 seconds) (CERN) another re-hash of the death-by-black-hole paradox all of the articles referred to within have appeared on this page previously Quantum Computing disentangled: the D-wave machine (Scientific American) The Proof in the Quantum Pudding (Quanta) how do you know if a quantum computer is doing what it claims? Quantum Zeno effect seen in diamond (Nature) In the Hunt for Dark Matter, Promises to Keep? (Quanta) CERN: help us analyze antimatter's behavior CERN technology, now available for your PC: Particle detectors for the classroom 3600 Euro, each, alas Discovering the Expected in particle physics Quantum Mechanics Made Easy chapter 11 of Sean Carroll's From Eternity to Here |
the latest embarrassment: ACT scores just released: (8/21/13) NC has lowest composite score of any state in the country (NC was dead last in reading, science, and English; we beat TN, LA, and KY in math) from the ACT report on NC (see pages 4-5): "17% of 2013 North Carolina high school graduates who took the ACT test in 2013 (i.e., ALL NC h. s. graduates, since the test was required) have the reading, math, English and science skills needed to succeed in college or a career." And the ACT's criteria for 'success'? a 75% chance of getting a C or higher in an introductory college course... 49% of NC grads met NONE of the 4 subject benchmarks for 'success'. I guess you get what you pay fpr? The Smartest Kids in the World, and how they got that way (spoiler alert: they're not ours) (Diane Rehm show, NPR, 1-hour audio, 8/1913) and why the US students continue to fall further behind those in Finland, South Korea, Poland, ... a shorter version (The World, 7-minute audio, 8/21/13) book excerpt also included Why a Master's Degree matters for NC Teachers (except to NC Republicans) how teachers, students, and universities will suffer from the loss of the "master's bump" (WUNC) The Tuition is Too Damn High, Part II: Why College is Still Worth It (Washington Post) The Right Reasons to Pick a College (McClatchy) Wrong Answer: The Case Against Algebra II (Harper's, September 2013) a 9-page diatribe against high school Algebra II requirements and abstract reasoning in general The Two Education Cultures (Stanley Fish) evidence-based (aka 'testing') vs. 'teaching is an art' The Common Core & the Common Good (New York Times) Greeting the new school year with anxiety rather than joy Shifts in NC education law leave teacher pay stranded (Charlotte Observer) Reality bites: New education laws prompt public school teacher to leave NC (The Independent) the 'top 15 lesson plans' for back to school and not one is on science?!? I guess we now know what the priorities are(n't) (PBS) Georgia Tech to offer on-line Master's in CompSci for $6.6K vs $45K for same degree in person Udacity/San Jose St. suspend on-line math MOOCs due to poor student performance a very bad time to be a voting college student N.C. elections boards move to curtail college student voting (The State, Columbia, SC) App State students will suffer under voting changes (WUNC) College Students Will Have to Work Harder to Vote in N.C. (Raleigh News & Observer) North Carolina: a Leader in Modern Vote Suppression The Massacre of ... N.C. .... i(Bloomberg) "North Carolina is channeling South Carolina and Alabama..." (oh well, at least he didn't say 'Mississippi') |
Lapdog media learn nothing, beat war drums (Salon) "Before attacking Syria, let's know the truth." 9 Questions about Syria you were afraid to ask (Washington Post) race and America Joseph Stieglitz: (NP Economics, 2001) The Great Divide: race and economics Bobby JIndal: The end of race John Fountain: "How do you get over 250 years of slavery?" (Chicago Sun Times) and if you don't think racism is alive and flourishing in America, read the comments below the article Kathleen Parker: Obama's race remarks exacerbate tensions Colin Powell: Trayvon Martin verdict questionable US spying/lying, continued the latest (8/30/13) Snowden leak: the secret U.S. 'Black budget' revealed: $53 billion annually (Washington Post) the secret budget [for our 16(!) different spy agencies] in 11 charts War on leaks = War on journalists? (NY Times) "What are we thinking?" the latest lie exposed: 75% of email content was collected by the NSA (Wall Street Journal) forget that initial report about it only being 'metadata' the NSA is losing the benefit of the doubt (Washington Post) especially the 'scary' Footnote 14 NSA gathered thousands of Americans' e-mails before court struck down program (Washington Post) UK/US intimidation continued: Bradley Manning's conviction sends a chilling message hard drives smashed. journalists detained at airports. this is democracy? (The Guardian) U.K. defends destruction of data (Washington Post) UK destroyed hard drives of Guardian to stop Snowden story (Washington Post) So the innocent have nothing to fear? Ask David Miranda. (The Guardian) The price Gina Gray paid for whistlblowing (Washington Post) the Laura Pointras story (NY Times) harassing people who tell the truth (even if they've won a Peabody & McArthur) House panel withheld NSA surveillance documents from Congress (Washington Post) NSA privacy breaches? U. S. senator says " ... it's just the tip of the iceberg ..." (The Guardian) how to keep the NSA out of your computer (Mother Jones) John Grisham: Guantanamo Bay (NY Times) how we create new terrorists, or, and you wonder why 'they' hate us? and how to change commentary on Bradley Manning's Letter to President Obama (link to the actual letter contained within) remarkable suggestions from a US ambassador: 1) match our rhetoric to actual policy 2) stop our hypocritical preaching to the rest of the world 3) be consistent in our policies (duh) What NC's Pat McCrory could learn from California's Jerry Brown cultural literacy economics What is economics good for? (New York Times) a reminder that it's a craft and not a science We're Still Hostages to the Big Banks (New York Times) How Technology is Wrecking the Middle Class (New York Times) Hard Times, well for some of us (New York Times) the rich get richer, by a lot Return of the Oppressed reverse the USA's present and growing economic inequality.... or else football Remote Control Anytime, Anywhere Protecting the Empire (NY Times) The power of ESPN over colleges NFL Intimidates ESPN (NY Times) into dropping out of series on player concussions with PBS' Frontline miscellaneous gen X: the weakest (worst?!?) generation? (the Washington Post used 'worst' in the title on its home page) ingenious methods of animal navigation dung beetles use the Milky Way & the moon; loggerhead turtles & robins use Earth's magnetic field; bees use sky polarization; and more Zealot or not Zealot listen to KCRW show with Aslan 8/16/13 segregation, diversity, & clustering the demographic map of America every person plotted next out of the printer: living tissue |
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NASA image shows 1400 known asteroids potentially hazardous to life on Earth watch 1 year of Curiosity on Mars in 2 minutes celebrating the 1-year anniversary of Curiosity on Mars (but, sadly, in black-and-white) a more interactive version ofthe first year of Curiosity on Mars (and this one's in color) we're in the midst of the weakest solar cycle in 100 years how to find the 5 visible planets during August although mostly in pre-dawn hours runaway greenhouse effect apparently possible on Earth |
Stars, Gold, Dung Beetles, and Us (NY Times) more philosophical musings on our place in the universe Hubble: kilo-nova burst provides first sound evidence that short-duration GRBs are produced by collisions of neutron stars (Hubble) Spitzer: eclipsing triple-star system surrounded by dust rings |
sadly, Kepler's planet-hunting days are over (NY Times, 8/15/13) the official NASA version telescope to look for another purpose in life first exoplanet transit seen in x-rays (Chandra) |
the way we were: Subaru releases 3-D map of the universe's galaxy distribution 9 BY ago Hubble identifies source of the Magellanic stream most of the gas comes from the SMC, not the LMC Spitzer: monster galaxies lose their appetite as they age galactic cannibalism reached a peak 5 BY ago evidence of Milky Way's supermassive black hole's past feeding frenzy? long-awaited discovery of CMB polarization may be able to confirm inflation and provide clues to the neutrino mass |
idiotic Science News article on multiverses prompts sane rebuttal: 'Belief in multiverses requires exceptional vision. So does telepathy.' (Scientific American) was all this prompted by a Nobel Prize winner's writing? help CERN: determine antimatter properties from the comfort of your home Dark Energy the result of the HIggs Boson? (Physical Review Letters, 08/09/13) New Scientist (08/14/13) are IceCube's energetic neutrinos the sign of dark matter decay? Black Hole Mystery Wrapped in a Firewall Paradox (NY Times) more about the continuing controversy over death-by-black-hole: are you crushed or incinerated? a new particle accelerator to study the Higgs? (NPR) a coordinated magazine attack on reality? (but you have to buy/subscribe to read the entire articles) Quantum Weirdness: the Battle for Reality Reality, Relativity, Causality or Free Will? "...at least one of them is an illusion... but which?" (New Scientist, August 3, 2013) Quantum Physics: What is Real? Fields or Particles... or something else? (Scientific American, August 2013) Quantum
Weirdness?
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Where Low Pay for Teachers Will Lead (Raleigh News & Observer 8/13/13) The Difference One Teacher Made (Raleigh News & Observer 8/14/13) A Teacher's Worth (Raleigh News & Observer 8/12/13) Internet connectivity, North Carolina: dead last in the nation (Raleigh News & Observer 8/4/13) Attracting Top-notch Teaches to North Carolina: 1) Re-open the Doors to Teaching Talent (Raleigh News & Observer 8/9/13) as a start, let's make teaching a better-paying job than managing a Burger King and make it so teachers' kids don't have to go Medicaid (Asheville Citizen-Times) 2) Hire Quality, Compensate Accordingly (Raleigh News & Observer 8/9/13) What NC Lawmakers Treasure (Raleigh News & Observer 8/6/13) it isn't students and education The Truth about Tax Reform and Teachers (Raleigh News & Observer 8/3/13) "the legislature's ... all-out assault on public education..." (Raleigh News & Observer 8/2/13) the Durham County perspective Attacking Teachers, Robbing Students (Raleigh News & Observer 7/31/13) Benefits Today's Kids Don't Have (Raleigh News & Observer 8/13/13) |
the North Carolina legislative disaster continues to attract national attention North Carolina law takes war on voting rights to a new low (Washington Post) " ... an abomination ... " NC won't be able laugh off the loss of its young people North Carolina: the end of a middle way The Decline of North Carolina North Carolina: First in Voter Suppression lying about spying (continued) audits show that NSA often broke its own privacy rules (8/16/13) (gee, now there's a surprise!) NY Times story Washington Post story secret government order forces 2 secure email providers to shut down permanently in the US... Washington Post story1 & story2, 8/9/13) New York Times story, 8/9/13) Edward Snowden, patriot (Washington Post) Edward Snowden is a patriot (Politico) Congress Denied Access to NSA Info (The Guardian, London) NSA's XKeyScore is collecting all social-media content & internet browsing history of US residents (The Guardian, London) including details of how they do it... ideas The Great Divide (New York Times) the best series of articles on US economic equality, the present and coming disaster it's causing, and what we should be doing about it 40 Maps that Explain the World (Washington Post) did lactase tolerance result in the dominance of European civilization (Nature) Science is Not Your Enemy (New Republic) Steven Pinker on science and the humanities The Geography of Happiness based on geotagged twitterers (I mean 'twits')... gee, now there's an unbiased source freedom and otherwise US ranked 10th in press freedom and 15th in democracy... (well, at least we're ahead of Estonia) rankings here and here maps, pie charts, and info here The Al-Qaeda Menace the US Helped to Create other science what happens when you a drop a ball through a hole straight through the center of the earth? (and you should know if you had physics at S&M) (a very slow news day at NPR?) Freeman Dyson on Robert Openheiner and his science (NY Review of Books) a scientific explanation for near-death experiences?: Clues from the Brains of Dying Rats (NPR) another version (Washington Post) light stopped (inside a crystal) for record-breaking one minute The Race to Save the Orange (NY Times) is the orange on the verge of disappearing?, will we allow genetic modification save it? or, will the threat of no oranges save GMOs? education in general Education Life issue (NY Times) ACT goes digital, SAT gets overhauled (again), adventures in college application reading, what and where to study (if money is your goal), how to talk to your teachers, fantasy SAT questions, and more miscellaneous Hard Hurdles for Student Voters in NC (Raleigh News & Observer 8/13/13) "... no state makes it harder for students to vote." |
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360 simultaneous videos show A Year of Sky on Earth from San Francisco a solution to the faint-young-sun paradox? Hubble discovers 14th Neptune moon 12 miles across 3rd-ever photo of Earth from the outer solar system |
origin of all the universe's gold from colliding neutron stars in gamma-ray bursts? |
A Universe Full of Planets (NY Times) a reminder that we're in the midst of a rare scientific revolution Hunting Aliens (Washington Post) by looking for transits of alien spacecraft as they pass over their planet's surface! |
Hubble finds multiple generations of stars within a single globular cluster giant black hole maybe escapee from another galaxy youtube videos of lectures at the UC-SantaCruz Cosmology summer school |
your tax dollars at work: NASA working on faster-than-light space travel (NY Times) yeah, dream on |
Teachers Take Another Hit In State Budget (News & Observer) NC legislature continues to trash teachers (News & Observer) can it get any worse? |
NC the disaster (NC Legislature) is finally over when even Europe takes notice, you know it's bad NC voting bill slammed (The Guardian, London) Scary Ending (News & Observer) "Tax breaks for the wealthy, a slap for teachers, and new voting limits..." economics Economic Mobility in America (and why growing up in the South is a bad idea) other science MIT biologists implant false memory into brain (of mice) sound waves can levitate matter |
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IBEX gives spectacular first view of solar system's tail how to see Venus in the daytime on July 10 unusual simultaneous double coronal burst movie from early July re-visiting the formation of the Moon: a nuclear explosion in Earth's interior? (New Scientist) re-visiting the Tunguska event what -- if anything -- did collide with Earth in 1908? (New Scientist) |
finally, A Unified View of Neutron Stars research article here NGC2392 A Beautiful End to a Star's Life how sun-like stars die Barns are Painted Red Because of the Physics of Dying Stars can you figure out why before you read this? (Smithsonian Magazine) |
Hubble finds a true blue exoplanet small planets can survive in crowded clusters double death knell: months after Kepler dies, Corot follows suit |
energetic radio bursts unexplained another story here a possible explanation: massive star collapse to black hole? distant galaxy caught feeding |
the strength of the known forces (Matt Strassler) an oldie but goodie: How the Higgs Field Works (with math) (Matt Strassler) is missing half-neutrino a goldstone boson in disguise? (New Scientist) Lisa Randall's Guide to the Galaxy and her new ideas on what dark matter might be (Smithsonian Magazine) |
education, economics, et al. The Decline of North Carolina (NY Times) even other people are noticing the disaster in Raleigh A Wasted Crisis? Why Democrats Did So Little to Reign in Wall Street (New Republic) another reminder that we live in an oligarchy masquerading as a democracy death of a visionary an oldie: Apple America and the USA's Squeezed Middle Class (NY Times) “...The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need..."”. nsa spying How Microsoft and Skype gave NSA access to its users' encrypted communications (The Guardian) We Can Handle the Truth (Washington Post) |
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