interested in keeping up with astrophysics discoveries?

this is the place

note:  for Nature and Science published articles,
original articles can be accessed if you are using an NCSSM (or university) IP address;
links provided to these articles are only abstracts

(feedback, questions, submission suggestions are welcome at kolena@gmail.com)



solar system



stellar physics



exoplanets



galaxies & cosmology



particle & quantum
physics

                            

cultural literacy

                       
       

teaching & education

                                           


late  February 2014

likely on hiatus until March 9



Largest ever lunar
impact by
meteorite

(Washington Post)
with a movie
of the blast


an unexpected and
stunning discovery:

4.4-billion-year-old
Australian zircon
crystals may require
rethinking of
Earth's formation

(U Wisconsin)
contrary to current
theory, Earth's first
continents formed
soon after the
impact that
formed the moon




IRIS spots
largest solar flare

(NASA Goddard)
with a movie
of the blast



Planet-sized
exposions on Venus

(NASA Goddard)



First geologic map
of Ganymede

(Sky and Telescope)
with a rotation movie


360-degree view
of Saturn's auroras

(Earth & Sky)
with a movie


More evidence
for water flows
on Mars

(JPL)


Asymmetric
Ti abundance
hints at
supernova
mechanism

(Sky & Telescope)
map of Cas A
contradicts both
spherical and
bipolar collapse
models



the oldest star
in the universe

(Sky & Telescope)
with 15 million x
less iron than
the sun...
remarkably, the
authors conclude
that the ONLY
star's predecessor
in time was a
low-metal,
low brightness
supernova with
a mass of 60 suns



Runaway star
creates mammoth

bow shock 4 c-yrs
ahead of star
(Spitzer)
1100 km/s speed
is sufficient to
escape the
galaxy




2 Kepler papers
announce
715 new planets

(Washington Post)
using the principle
of 'verification
by multiplicity'



Kepler finds
a planet
with a 11-year
precession period

(Hubble)
Earth's is
26,000 years


Measuring an
exoplanet's mass
the hard way

(Astrobites)
by using
transmission
spectroscopy of
the atmosphere


Einstein:
a lost theory
rediscovered

(Nature)
toying with
Steady State?




Snack Time in
the Cosmos

(NY Times)
our galaxy's SMBH
is about to begin
feeding



Why galaxies
delay star birth

(Sky & Telescope)
2 research groups
find the smoking gun:
hot stars' winds and
radiation flux decrease
cool gas density,
and thus star formation



Missing galaxy mass
found

(Nature)
discrepancy between
Planck CMB results
and gravitational lensing
solved?
the culprit:
the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich
effect
(or did  a 4th neutrino
cause it?...
see column to the right)



One of the
youngest ever
galaxies found

(Hubble)
30x smaller than ours,
but forming stars at
a 10x higher rate


'Watching' our
nearest galactic
companion (LMC)
rotate

(Hubble)
sadly, no movie,
only vector directions




Physics is enjoying
a golden age

(Washington Post)
GPS and relativity,
dark matter & energy,
quantum entanglement,
mathematics as
structure




X-rays detected
from dark matter?

(Matt Strassler)
including a
purported
emission line



LHC's ATLAS
detector sees
no quantum
black holes

(Science 2.0)
is this good
or bad???




Fear-mongering and
another new particle
accelerator

(Science 2.0)
this time it's
strangelets
that will destroy
the world



Dept of Energy
future support for
particle physics:
A Calamity

(Sean Carroll)
support for research
& grad students
could drop
30 - 50%



Cosmic mismatch
hints at
sterile neutrino

(Scientific American)
mismatch is
between
Planck CMB
results and
lack of
galaxy clustering
(but also see
the entry in the
column to the left)



catch
Particle Fever
(IMDB)

"Physicists are on the
cusp of the greatest
scientific discovery
of all time --
or perhaps their
greatest failure."
opens 3/5/13 in NYC;
3/21/14 in DC


science &
technology


'LASERs to
beam our minds
into space soon'

please let it be
after I'm dead


The Mammoth
Cometh

(NY Times)
bringing an extinct
animal back to life
is going to very cool,
unless it's very bad


Buying a gun on
Facebook takes
15 minutes

(Venture Beat)



Apps are turning
us into sociopaths

(Wired)
the BroApp will
send random
& regular love
notes to your
sig other


15 inaccurate
science diagrams

(Mental Floss)
electrons don't
orbit,
raindrops aren't
tear-drop shaped,
and more


genes

The Brain's
Inner Language

(NY Times)
mapping the
mouse brain


Your ancestors,
your fate

(NY Times)
your chances for
upward social
mobility may
depend on
your genes
(w/examples of  'good'
and 'bad' last names)


current events

Who 'won' the
Olympics?
(Medals per Capita)
it's either
Slovenia or
Norway


WhatsApp is
Everything that's
wrong with the
US economy

(Trove)
they don't make
anything;
yes, they've made
a few people
enormously  rich....
but where
are the jobs?


politics

25 maps that
explain America

(Washington Post)
NC stands out in
long-term unemployment,
inbound immigration,
and lagging behind
in Internet speed


Obama, Democrats
surrender to
'blue slip' and
the Republicans
on judges

(Washington Post)


What the Hell
is Obama's
Presidency for?

(Guardian)
does he even know?

The gap between
rich and poor and
black and white
has grown while
he's been in office,
the prospects for
immigration reform
remain remote,
bankers made away
with the loot, and
Guantánamo's still open.


Comcast web of
lobbyists set to
attack Capitol
Hill with money

(NY Times)
100 lobbyists
(including
former senators
& reps & a former
FCC chair),
100 bought
congressmen...
how can these
guys lose?


sadly,
one of only two physicists
in the US House
will not seek re-election

(NY Times)
not that one person
can really stop
the excess of
scientific ignorance
in government


talking bad to
Governor McCrory
can get you fired

(Raleigh N&O)
governor offers to
find fired clerk
another job


Outrage over
Wall St. pay
but shrugs for
Silicon Valley?

(NY Times)
maybe because SV
didn't cause a
5-year depression,
like Wall St. did?


technology

new pcell system
to offer private
wireless fast lane?

(NY Times)


poor 'taste'

More than half the food
Walmart sells would
be banned at
Whole Foods

(Slate)
surprise... surprise


a plea for sympathy
for an obnoxious,
under-talented,
overpaid actor

(NY Times)
the pleas is almost
as offensive as
the behavior

 
the Duke Energy
toxic coal ash
spill story
that WUNC
suppressed twice
on 2/21/14

(NPR)
on the audio version
of the DE story,
listen to
Gov. Pat McCrory
(ex-Duke Energy)
squelch a reporter


2 steps
closer to 1984 :


Homeland security
seeks license-plate
monitoring system

(Washington Post)
update:
DHS changes its mind
one day after plan leaked


Spying with Lights
(NY Times)
'terrifying'










You think you know
what teachers do,
right?  Wrong!

(Washington Post)
from an ex-teacher,
now a lawyer.....
you work just as hard,
but get paid 5x less


Alan Alda:
how to make
science accessible
(NY Times)
a Q&A review of
his popular talk
at the recent
AAAS Chicago
meeting



The Art of
Science Learning

(SEED)
it's time for
wood and clay?




Sports Olympians
get money, nurturing,
and fame...
Academic Olympians,
not so much

(USA Today)



Stop the tax-free
gifts to Harvard
(and other well
endowed schools)
and save America

(Bloomberg)
the rich colleges are
doing nothing to
help upward mobility...
and a ditto from Slate



UNC to look
harder for
academic fraud

(Raleigh N&O)
will they
actually find it
this time?
Q&A about the dispute



NC private school
vouchers 'on hold'

(Raleigh N&O)
violates
NC constitution



Duke U. explains
that its $60 K tuition
is actually a 'bargain'

(NPR Planet Money)
'only' 25% goes
to admin/academic 'support'...
pie chart shows
where tuition goes


Increase in Duke
tuition due to
administrative hires,
no faculty

(Duke Chronicle)


STEM Academy's
Reach Spans Illinois

(Education Week)
article on IMSA,
the NCSSM-like
school in Illinois...
NCSSM gets a
very minor mention...
the present Chancellor
is an ex-NCSSM RA



Wake county students
won't have to make up
last week's 3 snow days

(Raleigh N&O)
'spring break is saved'...
apparently NC
students are
smart enough


McCrory's tax cuts
prevent all teacher
salaries from
being raised

(Raleigh N&O)
so essentially all
teachers in years
1 - 6 will make the
same salary


Snow days impact
low-income families
much more

(WUNC)


early  February 2014



best images
of Saturn's
hexagonal
weather system

(Cassini)



February guide to
observing the planets

(Earth  & Sky)
Mercury still
noticeable in
the west after
sunset




Archaeology
of the Stars

(NY Times)
on age & the
metallicity
of stars

(in the Times!?!)


first weather-
pattern
observations on
a brown dwarf

(Max Planck)
and how they
managed to
do this without
seeing a surface



Help astronomers
find planetary
disks

(Disk Detective)
another citizen
science project



why is Polaris
getting brighter?

(Live Science)
and it's not the
only Cepheid
doing so




Amino acids,
aliens, and
the origin of life

(Space)
terrestrial life is
based on only 20 of
many amino acids...
did it have to
be this way?



have you read the
latest NASA graphic
astrobiology novels?

(Astrobiology)
wait.... what?


Mystery of ultra-
compact galaxies
solved?

(Hubble)
early starbursts,
burned-out compacts,
massive elliptical
galaxies now
all connected in one
grand evolutionary
scheme


Missing galaxy clusters?
(Sky and Telescope)
number of clusters
found via SZ-effect
and surveys does
not match
Planck observations






Hawking's
recent black-hole
'paper' continues
to draw commentary...

the best so far
although see below
for more


Introduction to
the Black-Hole
Information Paradox

(Matt Strassler)


Russia bashing
and US hypocrisy


Russia has
anti-gay laws!!

oh, wait....
so do 8 US states


there's bribery
and corruption in
the 2014 Olympics!!

oh, wait....
have we really
forgotten about
Salt Lake City
and the buying of
its Olympic games?



the Russian
Olympics will be
a security nightmare
for participants!!

oh wait,
you mean like
the offensive
security at any
US airport?



Russia has huge
income inequalities
among its workers!!

oh wait....
there's greater
inequality in NY City


here's a
whole hour of
Russia bashing
(and smug US
superiority)

(Diane Rehm show,
1-hour audio)

can't wait till
the next US
Olympics when these
same 'journalists'
will similarly bash the
US for lack of
health care for all,
a precipitous drop
in the minimum wage
since the 1950's,
and the anti-science
mindset of a
majority of Americans
(anti-evolution,
anti- climate science,
etc.)



miscellaneous

Misunderstanding
orange juice
as healthy

(The Atlantic)


Is Atheism
Irrational

(NY Times)
continued
silliness from
philosphers


WUNC
(the local NPR
station) has begun
one of its over-many,
excessively-annoying,
greedy pledge drives
(worst in the nation)
listen live to NPR
broadcasts in
peace on your
computer at
WBUR (Boston)
KCRW (L.A.)
WKSU (Kent St.)
WBEZ (Chicago)
KPLU (Seattle)


or download
these stations
apps for
android or iphone..
better yet,
download NPR's
app
and listen
to Morning Edition or
All Things Considered
without all the
station breaks,
news breaks....



another generation
discovers that
the sum of all the
positive integers
equals   - 1/12




What Machines
Can't Do

(NY Times)
enthusiasm, focus,
creative teamwork,
design, & reduction
to essentials


a summary of
conservative
positions on
current issues

(PJ Media)
not that its
positions are
either sensical
or defensible..
mostly it's a whiny
criticism of wealth
and the 'haves',
which is odd,
because that's
exactly what their
economic policies favor



NC governor's
plan to raise
starting-teacher
salaries by 14%

(Raleigh N&O)
but nothing, apparently,
for any other
teachers



Do Parents
Care Enough
about School?

(NY Times)
or are educators
shirking responsibility?




Sunday's N&O in-depth
cover story:

Teachers' Jobs Harder,
Compensation
Stagnant

(Raleigh N&O)
'stagnant'??
how about 'decreasing'?
did they read
their own story?



Thousands run in
Raleigh on 2/8/14
in Krispy Kreme Challenge

Thousands march in
Raleigh on 2/8/14
for
public education,
the eradication of poverty,
health care for all,
expansion of voting rights,
etc

guess which got the top
headline in News & Observer
?

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/08/3602345/hkonj-thousands-march-in-downtown.html#storylink=cpy



NC State's
Emerging Issues Forum:

Training, Retention, and
Support of Teachers

February 10 - 11
streamed live



Virtual school
on snow days

(NY Times)
this is debatable?


Sky & Telescope
releases an
Excel spreadsheet
of magazine's
Tables of Content
since 1941




Part-time
professors demand
higher pay...

will colleges listen?
(NPR)
25% of all
college teachers
are now 'adjunct'


Adjuncts are better
teachers than
tenured faculty

Chronicle for Higher Education
students learn more
from non-tenured faculty
than tenured faculty...
well, at least on
economics and poli-sci
courses
Are Tenure-Track
Professors Better Teachers?



A Review of the
Academic Evidence
on the Relationahip
between Teaching and
Research in
Higher Education

a mild correlation
found in the study
of studies at 0.10
(individual studies
have correlation
coefficients from
-0.4 to 0.8)

Another Meta-analysis
of the relationship
between reserach
and teaching

(Review of
Educational Research)

correlation = 0


late January 2014


NC Astronomy Days, Saturday 1/25 and Sunday 1/26, NC Museum of Natural Science, Raleigh




Asteroids'
unexpectedly diverse
composition
points to more
chaotic early
solar system

(Nature)
early planetary
migration;
frequent
asteroid collisions
continuing today

Astrobites comments


Now is the best
time to see
Mercury

(Sky & Telescope)
low in the west
after sunset



Opportunity:
still ticking after
10 years

(Sky & Telescope)
designed to last
for 3 months
and travel 200 m,
it's gone 38 km



Asteroid Ceres
is venting water

(ESA Herschel)
first discovery of
water around an
asteroid....
ok, only 6 kg/s,
but still....



'Jelly-Doughnut'
rock appears
in front of
Mars Rover

(Washington Post)



Citizen Science Project
Explore Mars
from home

(Planet Four)


Rosetta wakes up,
phones home

(ESA)
comet rendezous
this August...
comet landing,
November?



meteors from
the dead
Comet ISON?

(Earth & Sky)
unlikely, but watch
on January 15...



sadly,
the life of the
Int'l Space Station
has been extended

(NASA)
one of the most
anti-science
things in existence


4 types of waves
in the atmosphere
of Venus

(Earth&Sky)
"long, medium,
short, and irregular"
(oh, those
scientists and
their clever names)


Best images of
Moon from
Jade Rabbit

(Planetary Society)

_________________

from the journals:

The Case Against
Copernicus
(Scientific American,
January 2014)

It wasn't religion
that heliocentrism
had to overcome...
it was a better
model


Supernova
explodes in
(relatively)
nearby galaxy

(Scientific
American)

apparently a
type IA, so no
neutrino burst

Observing Guide
for the supernova

(Sky & Telescope)
don't get too
excited... you
still need a
pretty big
telescope

images of M82
supernova



Native American
Crab Nebula
Supernova Art
debunked

(Scientific
American)




Why stars seem
brighter in
winter

(Earth & Sky)
we're staring
through the
dust plane
of the galaxy
in summer;
away from
it in winter






Giant planetary
system formation
site discovered

(Astronomy)
found by sub-mm
 ALMA array




Better than Earth:
SuperHabitable Worlds

(Astrobites)
planets that are in
the middle of the
habitable zone
(not on the edge,
like Earth)...
lots of speculation
about plate tectonics,
magnetic shielding,
and what not



How to Keep Warm
Outside the
Habitable Zone

(Astrobites)
tidal heating
in eccentic orbits


Massive exoplanets
may be more like
Earth than
previously thought

(Northwestern)
with actual continents
(i.e., and not just
waterworlds),

due to a water cycle
between surface
oceans and
mantle


First Earth-mass
planet found
by transit

(Astronomy magazine)
KOI-314c in 5:3
resonance with outer
companion planet

but it's no Earth twin
  big(Nature)


Evolution of the
bar fraction in
spiral galaxies

(Astrobites)
the fraction of
bar galaxies
appears to
decrease as we
go back in time




Expanding
supernova
photospheres as
galaxy distance
measures

(Astrobites)



Citizen Science Project:
Map the mass
distribution in
extragalactic
gravitational lenses

(Space Warps)



Citizen Science Project:
help create a 3-D
Milky Way model

(Milky Way at Home)
using SDSS data



Gravitational Lensing
of Supernovae

(Astrobites)



Onset of Spiral
Structure in Galaxies

(Astrophysical Journal)
appears to begin
at z = 1.8



Hawking's new claim
about black holes

(Nature)
despite what has been
universally reported
("there are no
black holes")
he actually said
there are no
permanent
event horizons...

Hawking's
paper
 attempts to resolve
the firewall paradox

(arXiv)
a 2-page article,
with no equations,
is generating no
light, but a lot of "heat"

some other
(mostly  useless)
comments:

Astrobites
New Scientist
Scientific American

more helpful than
most:

Matt Strassler
with a follow-up



overhyped book
of the month:

"Our Mathematical
Universe"  by
Max Tegmark

(Amazon)
now (1/20/14)
the #1 seller
on Amazon in
cosmology

why NOT to buy it:

it's "devoid of content"
(Wall Street Journal)

another
"I'm not convinced"

a less extreme view:
When does
multiverse speculation
cross over into
fantasy?

(New Scientist)


[want even crazier?
try his just-published

"Consciousness as
a state of matter"

(arXiv)
which introduces
'perceptronium',
a new state of
matter]




Should Physicists
Stop Looking
for Fundamental
Laws?

(Scientific
American)
well, yes, if the
multiverse theory
is true



A New Physics
Theory of Life

(Quanta)
"the underlying
physics driving
the  origin and
evolution of life"?



The States of our Union
(Politico)
ranking of states
based on
14 criteria:
income inequality,
math scores,
life expectancy, etc
NC ranks 40th


9 questions about
Ukraine and the
protests that you
were embarrassed
to ask

(Washington Post)
with excellent
graphics


sports

Where's the
payoff for
big-time college
sports?

(Raleigh N&O)
it doesn't
appear to exist



Get Rid of the
Olympic Games

(Washington Post)
the political, moral,
financial, and
human costs



Is it Immoral
to Watch the
Super Bowl?

(NY Times)


King of Sports
& the Pathology of
Football
(Diane Rehm Show
1-hour audio)

tax evasion,
shattered brains,
'get an education'
pretense


Health Hazards
of Sitting

(Washington Post)
with pictures....
how to increase
your chances of
dying by 61%


science

Aging:
an older brain
is not really
slower...
it's just fuller

(NY Times)
are mental tests
biased toward
the young?


5 big unanswered
questions

(Washington Post)
or we are on
the verge of
science's end?



20 articles and
6 months of
GMO articles

(Grist)
none of the
research
apparently
matters...
what was learned
in writing the articles




Climate Science,
Climate Activism?

(NY Times)
is it OK for
scientists to
be silent in a
controversy?


Best-Selling
Science Books

(NY Times)
it's interesting
to see what the
Times thinks
is 'science'



Which
Scientific
Idea is Ready
for Retirement?

(Edge)
its annual
question of
the year
[some answers:
infinity,
the theory of
everything,
the universe
(as in 1), etc.]


The Continuing
Costs of (NC)
Coastal Confusion

(Orrin Pilkey,
Raleigh N&O)
and, as always,
the readers
comments
are especially
entertaining


public policy

A Big Step
Toward
Voting Rights

(NY Times)


The Undeserving
Rich

(NY Times)


50 States of Fear
(NY Times)
how the government
manipulates our
security fears...
and what we should
be spending TSI
money on


Going the
Distance

(New Yorker)
On and Off the
Road with
Barack Obama...
 18 (web) pages


Is Privacy
Obsolete?

(Detroit Free Press)


40 more maps
that explain
the world

(Washington Post)









Wake Co. middle
schools moving
to digital textbooks

(Raleigh N&O)
and what if you
have no internet
access at home?



NC schools
reports cards
released

for 2012-2013


Wake County
(among many others)
cancels school
for the day (1/28/14)...
snow doesn't show
up until after 6 pm

school officials
defend decision

another great day
for NC education...

most Triangle schools
still closed
3 days later, after
1-2"  'snowstorm'


how much snow
does it take to
cancel school
across the USA?

this map tells you



The latest attacks
on science in
the classroom

(Mother Jones)
e.g., did you know
that astrology (sic)
undermines
climate science?
(from South Dakota)




Backlash at UNC
(Chronicle of
Higher Education)
"someone has to
fix this mess"




Drop-out rate reaches
95% at Harvard
and MIT

well, in the EdX
online courses


Valuing
Education?

New York City gets
11 inches of
snow
& schools are
open
but....
Orange and Person
County get 1 inch;
schools are closed

of course
(01/21/14)



Obama's
Homework
Assignment

(NY Times)
what's missing
in American
education...
anyone listening?



NC legislator says
he hears people say
"We're not paying
our teachers as
much as
surrounding states"

(WUNC)
gosh, could that
be true?


What's up with low
scores in NC
math classrooms?

(WUNC)
the test has changed,
not the students


early January 2014


the
barrage of astronomy stories during the second week of January  is a consequence of the astronomers meeting in D.C.



9 of the best
2013 pictures
from Mars

(Guardian)


solar flare erupts;
huge spot is
front & center on sun

(NASA)
aurora alerts for
mid USA
starting 1/9/14;
space station
shuttle launch delayed




36 stunning
photographs  from
the Cassini
mission to Saturn

(The Atlantic)
with commentary


The Madness of the
Planets

(Nautil.us)
on the instability
of our solar system



catch the now-crescent
Venus before it disappears
(Earth & Sky)


evidence for
first
Thorne-Zytkow
star
(a red supergiant
that swallowed
a neutron star)?

(Nature)
evidence:
Li, Rb, Mb excess



triple-dead-star
system
could be used
to test GR

(New Scientist)
system
contains
1 neutron star
&
2 white dwarfs...
commentary
from Astrobites



A Supernova
Dust Factory

(NRAO)
the frozen
aftermath of
the explosion


Stormy Stars
(Spitzer)
weather on
brown dwarfs...
a lot of hype,
few hard facts


New technique
of measuring
exoplanet masses

(Astronomy magazine)
mass estimate
derived from
the transmission
spectrum during
transit;
the content & density
of the planet's
atmosphere in
turn depend on
planet's mass


GJ436b & GJ1214b:
a warm Neptune

& and a super-Earth
with clouds

(Hubble)
lack of spectral
features in
light passing through
the planet's atmosphere
 during transit means
a high-altitude
cloud later

& audio from NPR



Cloudy with a
chance of dustballs

(Nature commentary
with links to
Nature  discovery
articles)



the strangest
exoplanet discoveries
of 2013

(Scientific American)
smallest, most
Earth-like,
most distant from
its star,
worlds with water,
blue colors due to
glass rain (sic)



what an exomoon
would look like
from Earth:
a lightcurve demo

(Scientific American)


Worlds Without End
(Nautil.us)
on finding another
Earth





First gamma-ray
gravitational lens

(Astronomy magazine)
found by the
Fermi satellite



New class of
hypervelocity stars
caught escaping
our galaxy

(Vanderbilt)
not kicked out
by the SMBH
at the galactic center


SWIFT satellite
explores
galactic center
in x-rays

(SWIFT)
neutron star
flares;
simulation of
SMBH shredding of
gas cloud



Dwarf Galaxies:
clues to the origin
of supermassive
black holes

(NRAO)
or,
Galactic Runts
Carry Beefy
Black Holes

(Sky and Telescope)
but only 1%
found feeding...
are the rest
dormant or
non-existent?



Unprecedented
accuracy in
galaxy-distance
measurements

(SDSS)
to within + 1%
Sci Am story
has better explanation


Thousands of
faint distant galaxies
seen for the first time

(Hubble-Spitzer-Chandra)
using an intermediate
gravitational lens



4 unusually bright
star-forming
galaxies as they
looked more than
13 billions years ago

(Hubble-Spitzer)


A Deep Sea of
Small Faint galaxies

(Hubble)
10 billion yrs ago,
galaxies were
100x more numerous
but 100x fainter


Death by Black Hole
in a Small Galaxy

(Spitzer)
the first known
shredding of a
star in a
dwarf galaxy


A rare crash in
our galaxy's core

(AAS)
coming this March?


Dark Matter
near Earth
peaks every
March

(Scientific American)



GPS satellite
orbits suggest
equatorial disk
of dark matter
around Earth

(New Scientist)



Breaking Relativity:
Celestial signals
that defy Einstein

(New Scientist)


a very unfortunate
court ruling
against net neutrality

(Slate)
but, of course,
the
Wall St Journal
cheers it on



miscellaneous science

Using the Internet
to Search for
Time Travelers

(arXiv)
poster paper
presented at
AAS meeting....
spoiler alert:
none found!
commentary
from Astrobites



Science News
top stories
of 2013

(Science News)
Planck,
Kepler demise,
Voyager I,
negative temperature
comet ISON,
dark energy,
Siberian meteorite
make list of
top 25


The Science of
Reincarnation

(NPR 7-minute
audio & transcript)

I guess this would
work when
time travel
doesn't


Science Culture
Top Tickets: 2014

(Nature)
the best in museums,
exhibits, movies,
and music
to come in 2014


 'Quantum computing'
top headline
in Washington Post

or at least
NSA's efforts
to make it work

Quantum Computing
explained?

(Washington Post)
well, at least
one long-standing
myth dispelled


Science magazine:
breakthrough of t
he year 2013:
Cancer Immunotherapy


runners-up included the
identification of
cosmic ray origins:
the debris clouds of
supernovas



2013 science in review
(Nature)

& what to expect
in 2014

(Nature)


Why the passenger pigeon
became extinct

(New Yorker)


The Future of
Space Exploration

(Diane Rhem Show
1-hour audio)
an exciting time
for exploring the
science of the universe
(habitable exoplanets,
geysers on Europa,
water on Mars, etc.),
but instead the US
spends its money
building  big rockets
and putting
humans into space
rather than the former


Tikker, the watch that
counts down the time
until you die
NPR story
The Atlantic story
and why would
someone buy this?


technology

2014
Consumer
Electronics Show



How NSA almost
killed the
Internet

(Wired)


Women Aren't
Welcome Here

(Pacific Standard)
'here' =
the Internet...
and what to
do about it


Will digital networks
ruin us?

differences between
brick-and-mortar
companies
and digital ones...
and why you should get
paid any time you
give up your
personal info


The Death Watch
no, wait...
The Happiness Watch..
it counts down the
time till you die


health care

The barriers to
a single-payer
health-care
system

(Bloomberg)
it's not the
insurance
companies;
it's the
pharmaceuticals,
the doctors, &
the medical
device companies

Obamacare
a step forward

(Raleigh N&O)

Obamacare is
here to stay

(Washington Post)

Real Obamacare
enrollment numbers

(The Atlantic)
as opposed to
those made up
by supporters
and opponents


The Obamacare
we Deserve

(NY Times)
now, how about
insurance for
everybody?

and the contrary
How Obamacare
might pave the
way toward
Single Payer

(New Republic)


the bribe Obama
paid to the
insurance
companies
so they wouldn't
object
(Washington Post)


war &
foreign policy


a foreign-policy
report card for
the Obama
administration

(Washington Post)
1 A, 2 B's,
2 C's, 3D's & 1F


the 3 types of
NSA snooping
revealed by
Snowden

(Washington Post)
and why we're
never going to agree
about whether
he's a hero or
traitor



The Quiet Fury of
Robert Gates

(Wall Street Journal)
unquietly contemptuous
of both Congress
and the Obama
administration,
and particularly,
Joe Biden

The Inconsistency of
Robert Gates

(Washington Post)
which was it?:

“the most gratifying
experience of my life” 
or

“People have no idea
how much I detest
this job.”


elections

Gerrymandered
districts decide
NC elections

(Raleigh N & O)
in 2012,
Democrats got
51% of the vote
for US House seats;
Republicans got
69% of the seats
(it was just as bad
when Democrats
were in power)


National Strategy
Funds State
Political Monopolies

(NY Times)
how out-of-state
 money
manipulates
state politics


miscellaneous

the first book-less
library

(Time magazine)
in San Antonio


What your beer/wine tells
about your politics

(Washington Post)
Coors/Miller Lite
&
red sauvignon wines

=   Republican
microbrew beer &
&
  white sauvignon wines

  =  Democrat

What your liquor/wine
tells about your politics

(Washington Post)
Beefeater  =
Democrat
Kendall-Jackson wine
= Republican


Why Men Really
Earn More than
Women

(Slate)
competitiveness
and
overconfidence....
gee, now there's a
surprise


the Boeing extortion
(LA Times)
" In 1980, 84% of
US workers ..." earned
lifetime pensions
 from their companies,
and 70% got health
insurance fully
paid for..."
  "Today, fewer than
30% have lifetime
pensions and
only 18% have fully employer-paid
health insurance.


And we wonder why
workers are upset?


The Map of Worsts
(Washington Post)
find out what your
state is worst at...
NC: teacher salaries...
duh




teaching in NC

Teachers:
Just Say No

(Raleigh N&O)
to the legislature's
proposal to give
up lifetime tenure
for $500.

Here's how to raise
NC teacher pay

(ex-Governor
Jim Hunt)
it's not exactly
rocket science


I would love to teach,
but ....

(Washington Post)
I might have titled a
virtually identical
article,
"Why I retired ..."
since so much
of my experience
matches his


An Urgent Wake-up Call
from NC Teachers

(Raleigh N & O)
will the legislature
pay attention?

 
_______________

UNC-CH
academic/athletic
scandal

Majority of
UNC-CH athletes
reading like
children

(Raleigh N&O)
and most don't
have the excuse
that they went to
NC schools...

BB coach denies it

UNC-CH athlete
reading scandal
story heats up

Time for UNC-CH
to come clean on
athletic/academic
scandal

(Raleigh N&O)
when will they
stop the
stonewalling?

CNN story says it's
widespread


reading scandal
story heats up


A's for UNC athletes,
an indictment for
the professor

(NY Times)
an outside view of the
UNC academic/athletic
mess
_______________


the future of teaching


Hoteling: the future of
college education
Wall Street Journal
"buy a defunct college
campus, ... don't
bother to hire faculty,
 ... bring in on-line
engineering
from Georgia Tech,
literature from Yale,
business from Stanford...
hire unemployed
PhDs to tutor..."
students can live
anywhere in the world...

in other words,
let's not create
anything of value...
being a middle man rules!


The rise and fall of MOOCs
(NPR)
On-line education
drifts off course...
was it really ever
on course?


GOP Darwinism
(Washington Post)
anti-evolutionism
thinking among
Republicans up 20%
in the past 10 years...
have their young stopped
going to school?
or is it evolution?


The Dark Side of
Emotional
Intelligence

(The Atlantic)
where it's helpful;
where it isn't...
and something
guidance counselors
should read....
if they actually read,
that is


What's the matter
with Kansas schools?

(NY Times)
what happens
when the legislature
cuts school
budgets by 15%


Obama administration
criticizes schools'
'zero tolerance'
policies

(NY Times)

(Washington Post)

previous astro/culture updates

from 2013:

november-december 2013

september-october 2013

july-august 2013 

may-june 2013

march-april 2013