solar system
stellar physics
exoplanets
galaxies & cosmology
particle & quantum
physics
cultural literacy
teaching &
education
late August 2014
First detection of
'Strange neutrinos
from the sun'
(Scientific American)
uhh, don't get too
excited..
these are neutrinos
from the fusion of
2 protons, which is
only the first step
of a multi-step (with
branches!) process
of converting
4 H nuclei into
1 He nuclei
(an precluded from
previous discovery
by their very
low energies)
link to Nature
article
Dark Spots in
our knowledge
of Neptune
(NY Times)
Potential comet
landing sites for
Rosetta
(Earth & Sky)
The Pleiades-distance
paradox has been
a nagging one:
is the cluster
435 c-years distant?
(ground-based)
or 392 c-years?
(HIPPARCOS
satellite-based)
NRAO VLBI parallax
measurements
say 444 c-years
Sky & Telescope story
with graphic of
previous distance
estimates
NRAO story
with graphic of
method
Nature weighs in
(is other HIPPARCOS
data now suspect?)
Fingerprint
from the first stars
(Sky and Telescope)
a low-metall (300x
less that solar) star
contaminated only
by the chemical
signature of a Pop III
pair-instability (PISn)
explosion?
...
but the fit is to a PISn
is not exact
warns Nature
7 interstellar grains
captured
(UC-Berkeley)
Radio waves:
a new method for
searching for exomoons
(UT-Arlington)
Spin of black hole
in distant quasar
measured at 74%
of max possible
(Astronomy)
from frame-dragging
of spacetime surrounding
the inner accretion disk
Rarest type of
black hole confirmed
in nearby M82
(Physics World/Nature)
only 400 solar masses
Avoiding the Multiverse:
Scale Symmetry
(Quanta)
maybe mass and length
are not fundamental
The Alien Debate:
are we alone in
the universe?
part 1
(Scientific American)
a concise summary
of the
'definitely not'
vs.
'we could be'
camps
Which America do
You Live in?
The Black American
Experience
(New Republic)
can whites empathize
with the black experience?
Everything
is Obama's Fault
(National Review)
everything was hunky-dory
until 2008 when 'evil
personified' burst onto
the scene
Lost in America
(NY Times)
why pessimism about
the future reigns
in America
Coming for the
Zillionaires,
with Pitchforks
(Politico)
what will happen
when the 99% revolt
__________________
2 previously
undiscovered Mayan
cities found in
Yucatan
(higher learning)
Wasted Summer
(IndyWeek)
an account of the
budget disaster in the
NC General Assembly
maps
The Rise and Fall
of the Roman Empire
in 40 maps
(Vox)
What $100 is worth
in each state
(Washington Post)
$111 in NC
Mapping Migration
(NY Times)
Homeschooling and
abandoning the
public good
(Raleigh N&O)
A 9-step strategic plan
to save public education
(Washington Post)
is any plan with so many
steps likely to succeed?
Education polling:
60% oppose Common Core;
80% disapprove of
public schools;
70% give Obama a D or F
on support for education
(Washington Post)
but then 60% think
charter schools are private
schools...
are they really likely to
even know what's in
Common Core?
The trouble with tenure
(for h.s. teachers)
(NY Times)
is it time for public school
teachers to support
realistic evaluations?
Teaching is Not a Business
(NY Times)
what reformers continue
to misunderstand
Almanac of Higher Ed
2014
(Chronicle of Higher Ed)
all the graphs, tables, and data
you could want about
colleges in 2014
early August 2014
ESA's Rosetta set for
comet encounter
Wednesday
8/6/2014
(Rosetta)
coming soon: a
landing attempt
Sun rises for the
first time in 15 years
on Saturn's hexagonal
polar hurrincane
(NY Times)
movie bonus includes
Saturnian aurora
APOD picture of the day
the 5 visible planets
in August
(Earth & Sky)
Mars and Saturn
in the evening;
Jupiter and Venus
in early morning;
Mercury transitions
to the evening sky
the 101 geysers
of Enceladus
(NASA Cassini)
animations and
images
1st progenitor
of a type Iax
supernova
identified
(Hubble)
blue companion
of a white dwarf
is likely an
evolved star
which lost its
hydrogen envelope
to the white dwarf
Most 1.6 Earth-radius
exoplanets are NOT
rocky
(Astrobites)
Bayesian statistics
implies the transition
from rocky to liquid/gas
is between
1.5 and 2.0 Earth-radii
3 surprisingly
dry exoplanets
(Hubble)
10x - 1000x less
water than expected
Galaxy Growth redux:
it's not the cannibalism,
it's the capture and taming
of intergalactic gas
(Sky and Telescope)
or did these researchers
just miss the close
(dark-matter-dominated)
neighbors
2 groups suggest that
gamma-ray bursts
can be used as
standard candles
(Sky and Telescope)
should we really trust
studies based on
only 8 events?
Most distant lensed
galaxy
(Hubble)
Milky Way mass estimate
drops below
1012 solar masses
(arXiv)
the mysterious fast radio bursts
Radio bursts,
origin unknown
(Science)
a nice 2-page summary
Arecibo confirmation
(National Geographic)
Now up to 8?
(Space)
how are our future lives
might be changed by
quantum information transfer
(big questions)
quantum paradoxes
the quantum sleeping
beauty problem
(Preposterous Universe)
the previously unnoticed
Quantum Pigeon-Hole
Effect
(Physics World)
3 quantum pigeons
in 2 pigeon holes:
at least one hole is
doubly occupied, right?
perhaps not?
experiments to come
-------------------------------------
the multiverse nonsense
the believers
Parallel Universes
(Scientific American)
what's a multiuniverse
reading list without
Max Tegmark?
the multiverse as "science"
part 1
part 2
Why the Many-Worlds
view of quantum mechanics
is likely correct
(Preposterous Universe)
the blog's title is likely
more descriptive
Worlds without End
(Columbia U Press)
well, at least the book is written
by someone with proper
training: a theologian
the doubters
Does the Multiverse
Really Exists?
(Scientific American)
short answer:
no, not if we can
never prove it
multiverse is still
'not even wrong'
(Peter Woit)
as in neither provable
or disprovable
George Ellis on the
trash science of
of 'famous' physicists
(Scientific American)
when falsafiability
and unprovability
run rampant
belief in the multiverse
requires exceptional vision
(Scientific American)
"...and so does telepathy"
Edward Snowden:
the Untold Story
(James Bamford,
in Wired)
what the NSA is
doing is even scarier
than we thought
maps
Wish you lived in
a US county where the
police have military aircraft,
grenade launchers,
and armored vehicles?
Here's where to move to
beer vs. marijuana
prices by state
(Washington Post)
in NC,
1 joint = 4.6 beers
Where we come from,
State-by_State
(NY Times)
who knew that NC
(and SC) had the
greatest number of
in-born residents in 1900?
(but not anymore)
--------------------------
How to dig out
of Obama's foreign
policy mess in Iraq
(Leslie Gelb,
in Daily Beast)
and the answer isn't
to listen to the
warmongers like
McCain and Graham
A search for voter
impersonation fraud:
31 found out of
1,000,000,000 ballots
(Washington Post)
Stop the CIA spin
on Torture
(NY Times)
by the person who
was demoted after
investigating
Abu Ghraib
Yossarian lives!
(NY Times)
who was given the job
of redacting the report
criticizing CIA torture?
of course...
the CIA
Why do people live
in unhappy cities?
(Washington Post)
NYC rules
(in unhappiness, that is)
and why are 5 of the happiest
cities in Louisiana???
The Future of College
(the Atlantic)
elimination of tenure, lectures,
football games, and
research libraries?
A's for everyone
(Washington Post)
Princeton gives up its
attempt to tone down
grade inflation
Cuts, caps, and the
the battering of the
UNC college system
(Raleigh N&O)
"Year after year, the legislature
has frozen pay,
cut budgets and forced
elimination of open positions."
NC reducing credit
for AP, IB, ... courses
(Raleigh N&O)
"Some students may (be) skip(ping)
regular courses they’d like in
favor of the advanced courses
with the extra quality points."
NC teacher pay
Pay Daze
(Raleigh N&O)
pay and punishment
for NC teachers
New NC teacher
pay plan sows confusion
(Raleigh N&O)
raises from 0.3 % to 19%....
but we sure don't want
teachers making more
than $50,000
Cast of 'Big Bang Theory"
now makes $1,000,000
per episode
(Raleigh N&O)
that's more than any
NC teacher will make in
his/her lifetime
Playing politics with
NC teacher pay
(Raleigh N&O)
"The Republican legislature was
right to raise teacher salaries,
which they project should raise
NC teacher salaries from
46th in the nation to 32nd..."
but then "In the last decade,
no state had a greater decline
in teacher salaries than NC."
Low pay, tenure battle
driving teachers out
(Raleigh N&O)
and when the most a
teacher will every make
in a year is $50K...
gee, now there's a surprise
You can't give teachers
a raise with money
they've already earned
(NCAE)
unless you're the
NC legislature, that is...
teachers lose longevity pay
to fund their own 'raises"
The missing rungs on the
NC teacher career ladder
(Raleigh N&O)
the NC legislature's
continued refusal
to reward teachers for
advanced degrees is
unconscionable
Facing up to NC
teacher pay realities
(Raleigh N&O)
what does a $50,000 cap
on teachers' annual salary
say about how much we
value education?
An NC budget aimed at
the election, not the future
(Raleigh N&O)
what different bachelors'
degrees are worth upon
graduation from NC colleges
(NC Tower)
pick any of the top-ten-
paying degrees, and you'll
be earning more than the
most experienced teacher
will ever make
late July 2014
Finding Aliens by
their Pollution
(Harvard CfA)
based on the hope
that they aren't really
little 'green' men
how a solar superstorm
nearly destroyed
life-as-we-know-it
2 years ago
(Washington Post)
yeah, assuming the
loss of the internet
means destroying
life-as-we-know-it
Earth has just one
moon, doesn't it?
(Earth & Sky)
which is not to say
that it doesn't have
other companions
More (and bigger) eyes
on the skies
(NY Times)
the most ambitious
round of gigantic
telescope-making
in history begins
Icelines and the
formation of
Uranus and Neptune
(Astrobites)
what made the
difference between
H/He liquid planets
(Jupiter and Saturn)
and ice planets
(Uranus and Neptune)
NASA 'Adrift',
part 3
(Houston Chronicle)
brought you to by
people who think
that the US 1969 lunar
landing was due to
the moral superiority
of democracy over
communism
A surprising inner
structure for Vesta
(Astronomy magazine)
a large metallic core,
and a crust larger
than its mantle
Is Earth's Life
Unique in the
Universe?
(Scientific American)
how not to write
interesting science
First geologic
map of Mars
(Earth & Sky)
a big leap over the
last one, published
27 years ago
Mercury:
hit-and-run survivor?
(Sky & Telescope)
how did Mercury
get its huge
iron core?
Kepler 421-b:
first transiting
planet at the
frost line
(Harvard CfA)
so apparently
some exoplanets
formed there didn't
migrate in like
many others
Expected Galactic
Black Holes Fireworks
a No-Show
(Scientific American)
pretty much nothing detected
during the swallowing of
a gas cloud at the center
of the Milky Way...
and we now have a
even the
NY Times comments
The Black Hole that
Birthed the Big Bang
(Scientific American,
August 2014 issue)
fringe ideas trying to
become reputable
by showing up in SciAm
(the article's gist is
that our lack of knowledge
about the origin on the
universe is best answered
by hiding the origin behind
a 3-D event horizon, which in
turn requires a 4-D universe,
with, of course, 4-D
stars and 4-D galaxies....
and all without a shred of
evidence, of course)
Stalking the Dark Universe
(NY Times)
more hype for Illustris;
but still not much to see;
even less to understand
_______________________
dark energy celebrates
its 15th anniversary
(of being known to humans)
semi-popular
to semi-serious
Dark Energy
(Physics World,
May 2004 issue)
Dark Energy:
the decade ahead
(Physics World,
December, 2007 issue)
Theories of the dark side
(Physics World,
July 2014)
The Dark Universe
(Physics World,
February 2017)
free, downloadable e-book
... pretty good
Still the greatest cosmic
mystery
(New Scientist)
Chameleon gravity
(New Scientist)
A Cosmic Conundrum
(Scientific American,
September, 2004)
Does Dark Energy
really exist?
(Scientific American
April 2009 issue)
The puzzle of
Dark Energy
(Scientific American,
March 2016)
go to page 38
Supernovae, Dark Energy,
and the Accelerating
Universe
(Physics Today,
April 2003 issue)
The Dark Side of Cosmology
(Science,
March 6, 2015 issue)
(paywall)
compendiums
The search for dark energy
(New Scientist)
Resource Letter on
Dark Energy
(arXiv, published in
American Journal of Physics)
references to seminal papers,
but written in 2007
Dark Energy
(Nature)
The Dark Universe
(Nature, September 2016)
6 articles on dark energy
or dark matter
The Dark Side of the Universe
(Great Courses)
yours for only $215 !!
Nobel Prize (2011)
Lectures and Info:
Saul Perlmutter lecture
Brian Schmidt lecture
Adam Riess lecture
history and discovery
serious (but readable)
scientific reviews
A short review of
dark energy
(arXiv, 2014)
Modeling dark energy
(arXiv, 2012)
The Accelerating Universe
(arXiv, 2010)
Frontiers of Dark Energy
(arXiv, 2010)
Dark Energy and the
Accelerating Universe
(arXiv aka Annual Review of
Astronomy & Astrophysics
2008)
and in case you were looking
for one of those other kinds
of dark energy:
plant nutrient
sound synthesizer
cymbals
battery
in the brain
the previously unnoticed
Quantum Pigeon-Hole
Effect
(Physics World)
3 quantum pigeons
in 2 pigeon holes:
at least one hole is
doubly occupied, right?
perhaps not?
experiments to come
George Ellis on the
physics foolishness
of 'famous' physicists
(Scientific American)
non-kudos for Krauss,
Hawking, Tyson, Carroll,
and Einstein
(he missed Greene and
Tegmark)
Why probability in
quantum mechanics
depends on
wave-function squared
(Preposterous Universe)
Sean Carroll returns
to discussing
something real
Black holes aren't
black after all
(Medium)
Quantum Split:
Particle in this box;
its Properties in
another
(New Scientist)
Physics Psychobabble
(NY Times)
books to read when
space, time, energy
and matter aren't enough
to hold your interest
Quantum bounce
causing black holes
to explode?
(Nature)
so says a new
prediction of
quantum loop gravity
(perhaps some of
these explosions
masquerading are
as supernovas?)
If black holes suck,
do white holes blow?
(New Scientist)
3 Next-Generation
Dark-Matter-Detection
Experiments get
green light
(Earth & Sky)
with detection-
method descriptions
and pictures
Charity begins
at CERN
(Nature)
CERN sets up
foundation to
raise money
for not-physics
The historical background
to the Israel/Palestine
conflict
(New Republic)
recounting the war
crimes of the
last colonialist power
Torture is not a
public relations problem
(Washington Post)
the CIA is 10 years
too late in addressing
torture
How the Democrats
lost their way
(Salon)
the takeover of the
party by Wall Street
big money
The value of young voters
(LtE, Raleigh N&O)
addressing the hypocrisy
of the inaptly named
"Voter Integrity Project"
Paper Perfect
(VQR)
the science of origami
5 ways to become
invisible
(Guardian)
money and politics
Citizens United
and the decline of
democracy
(NY Times)
worse than we
imagined
What if People
were Corporations?
(Washington Post)
exposing the
'corporations are
people' idiocy
Idiot's Guide to
Inequality
(NY Times)
in case you don't
have time for the
Thomas Piketty
600-page opus
Celebration
of a court ruling
against federal
health-care subsidies
(Washington Post)
is conservative cheering
about other people losing
health insurance
really what America
is about?
Is there no end to
app stupidity?
1) Secret
2) Yo
Teaching Teaching
(NY Times)
wait, you mean
training teachers is
important??
Will Free On-Line
Courses Ever Replace
a College Education?
(the Atlantic)
or more importantly,
will it change
education in college?
Common Core: a guide
to the fighting factions
(Raleigh N&O)
the anti-capitalists,
the psychologists,
the back-to-basics crowd,
the school choice-ers
(but apparently, no educators,
the people who know best?)
Busing teachers to address
the achievement gap?
(Raleigh N&O)
Why do Americans
stink at math?
(NY Times)
an excerpt from her
book:
Building a Better Teacher
(best anecdote: why Americans
thought a ⅓-lb hamburger
was a worse deal
than a same-price,
better tasting, ¼-lb-er:
'they were led astray by the
4 being bigger than the 3'
oh, those fraction devils...)
Don't send your kid
to an Ivy League school
(New Republic)
"professors and students
have .. a “nonaggression pact.”
Students are regarded ...
as “customers,”
people to be pandered to
instead of challenged"
or is it just self-loathing hype?
(Washington Post)
and an incredibly
weak counter-response
(New Republic)
How e-reading
threatens the humanities
(Chronicle of Higher Education)
"Readings in the humanities
tend to be lengthy,
intellectually weighty, or both."
(apparently the humanities
are not being threatened
by pomposity)
Why teacher pay
matters, even if you're
not a teacher
(WUNC)
with an interactive
map of where
NC teachers live
Creating on-line apps
for education and outreach
(in astronomy)
(Astrobetter)
early July 2014
Primitive life
sheltered in
asteroid/comet
impact craters?
(Inside Science)
by protecting it
from harmful uv and
providing hydrothermal
sources of energy,
food, and water
an unusual conjection
of the asteroids
Ceres and Vesta
(Sky & Telescope)
now visible in the
same binocular
field...
map included
Titan's ocean:
as salty as the
Dead Sea?
(Astronomy)
with salts not just
of sodium, but also
sulfur and potassium
Solar Maximum
is now...
but so far it's a
mixed show
(NY Times)
the sunspot numbers
will be the 4th
smallest in history
(i.e., since Galileo)
the NASA version
with sunspot plots
Supernova 2010jl
reveals origin of
universe's dust
(Nature)
830 Earth-masses
of over-sized
dust grains
produced in
2.5 years
following blow-up
Scientific American
July 2014 issue
has an article on
Fermi bubbles
(and on
ExtraSensory
Perception...
uhh, as in
GPS, Google
glasses, etc.)
Planets in Chaos
(Nature)
well, maybe our
knowledge our
exoplanet systems
is in chaos...
the planets are fine
IAU invites public
to help name exoplanets
(Earth & Sky)
clubs and non-profits
can suggest names...
public gets to vote, at
NameExoWorlds site
Gleise 581d:
the 'habitable' exoplanet
that is no more
(Sky & Telescope)
stellar activity
masquerading
as an exoplanet
published in Science
dark matter decay?
(Sky & Telescope)
more on the unexplained
3.55-kev emission line
in 71 galaxy clusters...
but not the Virgo,
and not in the Milky Way
SM black hole trio
in a single galaxy
(Sky & Telescope )
deduced from
3 distinct radio jets
well, maybe not --
it's only a duo?:
update from 8/18/2014
(Sky & Telescope)
Embrace the Lumpiverse
(New Scientist)
what if the universe
is really not homogeneous?
...then the need for both
dark matter and dark
energy disappears...
Clustering of distant
galaxies supports
general relativity
(Royal Astro. Society)
well, to within 6%
dwarf galaxy news
supercomputer
simulation says
dwarf galaxies
responsible for
early universe
re-ionization
(Astronomy magazine)
complete ionization
reached 860 Myr A. B.
Dwarf galaxies formed
more than their
fair share of stars
(Hubble)
especially during
the early universe
why are dwarf galaxies
concentrated in
thin sheets around
the massive galaxies?
(Astronomy magazine)
Dwarf Galaxies and
the Dark Web
(Scientific American,
March 2014 article)
how the Milky Way
got its dwarf galaxies
Missed Particle Fever
in the theaters?
Now you can
watch in on ITunes
but I would think
you can find something
better to do with $14.99
X-rays from
dark matter?
(ESA)
previously unknown
emission line at
3.56 kev detected...
from decay of
sterile neutrino?
On 50th anniversary,
Bell's Theorem
still reverberates
(Nature)
for the meaning
and implications
of 'locality'
Higgs boson
should have ended
the universe
(Earth & Sky)
if the BICEP2
results hold
Stock Market America
and the rest of us
(Daily Beast)
For the donor class,
things are great...
the rest of us,
not so much...
Why do both the
White House and
Congress think
this is fine?
how NSF spying
intercepts far more
ordinary Americans
than targeted
foreigners
(Washington Post)
one last Snowden
revelation?
Would we understand
the Math of Extra-
terrestrial civilizations?
(Science 2.0)
math without infinity,
or math based on
quantum mechanics,
or math without
linear time,
and more
technobabble
New Yorker
magazine
latest to institute
a pay wall
(NY Times)
in 3 months
Monsanto
& GMOs
(Business Week)
monster story on
America's 3rd
most hated company
i-hour OnPoint
radio program
on GMO Labeleing
E-books vs
paper books
(Financial Times)
which does your
brain prefer?
Disrupt or be
disrupted?
(New Yorker)
the mantra of the
tech age is (likely)
bogus
An ultra-simple app
that allows anyone
to encrypt anything
(Wired)
cyber-security for
dummies
------------------
maps
15 maps that don't
explain the Middle East
(Atlantic)
where the 'haters'
live
(76% of whom are
under 30)
(NY Times)
yep, Montana, Idaho,
and Alaska is where
the most are
21 things the
US is #1 at
(Washington Post)
guns,
people in prison,
health-care expenses,
and more
driving vs. transit
in big cities
(Washington Post)
why driving is
still attractive
where pot smokers
live
(Washington Post)
map of the world
showing the top-25
pot-smoking
countries
Diversity in America
(Washington Post)
county-by-county maps
of where whites,
African-Americans,
Hispanics, Asians, and
Native Indians are
in the majority
the best
from late June
the last of the
Great Divide series:
Inequality is
not inevitable
(Joseph Steiglitz,
NP, Economics, 2001)
a short, clear, & damning
indictment of America's
current political and
economic system
addenda:
The new age of Oligarchy
(Daily Beast)
Obama and the
alliance of
government with
the 1%
Coming for the
Zillionaires,
with Pitchforks
(Politico)
confessions of a
zillionaire
the drone dilemma
the slippery slope
of continuous war?
(Stimson Center)
what if other
countries start
using drones on us?
NY Times comments
Wall Street Journal
comments
the on-going US
drone war:
a really bad idea
(LA Times)
"Drone strikes may
be an efficient way
to kill terrorists, but
they're no way
to make friends."
----------------
how the NY Times
let itself be scooped
on NSA spying
(NPR)
by suppressing the
story during Bush's
2004 reelection campaign
Wrong Answer:
when teachers cheat
(New Yorker)
the sad story of
some middle-school
Atlanta teachers
NC Senate drops
'dumping tenure'
for teacher raises
(Raleigh N&O)
but nothing has passed
both houses yet...
and governor threatens
to veto teacher
wage increase of
more than 6%
The Shadow Scholar:
Cheating in Schools
(Chronicle of Higher Education)
confessions of a paid
writer of term papers,
teacher lesson plans,
master's and phd
degree work