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late October 2015 |
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Enceladus flyby 10/28/15 (Earth & Sky) does it show signs of life? Cassini hunts for life (NY Times) somewhere near Saturn Close encounter with Enceladus begins (Earth & Sky) in late October How Jupiter;s red spot has changed (Hubble) Memory of colossal solar storms past (Earth & Sky) Antarctica & Greenland ice-core evidence Pluto's moon Kerberos (Earth & Sky) |
Astroseismology, strong magnetism, and the inner workings of red giants (Caltech) the KIC8462852 story The most interesting star in the galaxy (Atlantic) The star with an alien megatructure (Washington Post) Nope, we haven't discovered an alien megastructure (Washington Post) Where's the flux? (arXiv) to be published in MNRAS |
Most Earth-like exoplanets not yet born (Hubble) |
Earliest known galaxies yet (Earth & Sky) 600 Myr A.B. (Radio) galactic haloes are more common than once thought (Earth & Sky) |
9 questions about Benghazi (Vox) that you were too afraid to ask |
The change the UNC system needs (Raleigh N&O) access, affordability, innovation, and advancement US math scores drop (first time in 25 years) (NY Times) Common Core the cause? Free speech flunks out at college (Washington Post) An admissions surprise from the Ivy League (NY Times) |
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early October 2015 |
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Mass extinction: who dies? who survives? (Washington Post) a stable food web, adaptability, and luck? Science article Science summary The Martian (the movie) No Life on Mars (Slate book review) movie gives the book dose of wonder Science sells (Salon) since when? NASA Mars Orbiter views of supposed 'The Martian' locations (Earth & Sky) ---------------------- NASA shortlists 5 missions (Earth & Sky) 2 Venus missions, NEOs, the asteroid Psyche, and Jupiter's Trojans... but not Enceladus! A global ocean on Enceladus (Nature) 7 years of observational data say it's under the surface, moon-wide All (8400 !!) Apollo images are now online (Project Apollo Archive) although it's not exactly clear to me what you can do with them Was it the asteroid or the volcanoes triggered by the asteroid? (NY Times) that killed the dinosaurs? The battle for Mauna Kea (Nature) and a new telescope Liquid water on Mars? (NY Times) a niche for life? perhaps, more honestly: Waterlogged salts on Mars (Sky & Telescope) and why searching for life on Mars will be very, very tricky (Scientific American) and why it matters (Raleigh N&O) Charon: cratered, cracked, and colorful (Sky & Telescope) Best yet images of Charon (Earth & Sky) showing its violent past history The visible planets in October (Earth & Sky) Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in/near Leo |
Pop III stars: found at last? (Nature) in the brightest- known galaxy in the early universe Zeta Ophiuchi, the bow-shock star (Earth & Sky) Does dark matter power supernovae? (Physics World) |
A new habitability index to guide the search for exolife (U Washington) Comparative Habitability of Transiting Exoplanets (ArXiv preprint) 13 potentially habitable planets identified Edward Snowden on aliens (Scientific American) will encrypted alien messages be confused with noise? |
Einstein ring weighs SMBH mass (Earth & Sky) How the most luminous galaxies formed (Sky & Telescope) surprise: stellar feedback is necessary also Monstrous galaxies unmasked (Nature) simulations may solve the problem of how they formed: prodigious gas infall and supernova- driven winds are required |
2015 Physics Nobel Prize for neutrino understanding 2015 Nobel prize in Physics goes to discoverers of neutrino oscillations (Nobel Institute) to leaders of Sudbury and SuperKamiokande Chameleons of Space (Nobel Institute) information for the public Neutrino Oscillations (Nobel Institute) scientific background A communist spy behind this years Physics Nobel prize? (Atlantic) the Bruno Pontecorvo affair further reading material (in order of increasing complexity) Solar Neutrinos (New Journal of Physics) 2004 article by NP winner McDonald Atmospheric Neutrinos (New Journal of Physics) 2004 article by NP winner Kajita Neutrino Oscillations (Reports on Progress in Physics) 2006 article by NP winner Kajita Focus on Neutrino Physics (New Journal of Physics) special 2014 issue on status of neutrino oscillations Non-standard neutrinos: current status and future prospects (New Journal of Physics) ----------------------------- The trouble with theories of everything (Nautil.us) No known physics theory is true at every scale -- and there may never be one The Bayesian 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (Preposterous Universe) one that now incorporates measurement Life is a braid in spacetime (Nautil.us) read & believe at your own peril (should you believe anything by an author who changed his name because he thought it would sell more books?) |
2 astonishing numbers: Of the 35 states that had a 2008 Democrat presidential primary, NC had the 2nd highest % of liberal voters (2nd only to Vermont) and the least white electorate of all (42%) (538) Buying power: the 150 families who have bought the 2015 pre-primary election (NY Times) the 150 families that have contributed half of the money spent so far guns in America How the gun lobby rewrote the 2nd amendment (Bloomberg) no clear right to individual gun ownership existed before 2008 A new way to tackle gun violence (NY Times) let's start treating guns as a public health problem A Durham gun-owner's 2-point proposal (Raleigh N&O) closing the no-check gun-show loophole & banning multi-round ammunition weapons... at least it's a start ------------------------- What the octopus knows (Raleigh N&O) a respite from controversy A dysfunctional NC Department of Labor (Raleigh N&O) part 1: Little help for unpaid workers Bernie Sanders Interview and commentary (OnPoint podcast, 48 minutes) The Populist Prophet (New Yorker) ------------------------- Ben Carson: Evolution is satanic and the Big Bang is a fairy tale (Slate) disqualifying Mr. Carson not only from the presidency but also from the human race The hypocrisy of the rich 'helping' the poor (Paul Theroux, NY Times) It's the same rich whose behavior made them poor in the first place What Obama gets about gun control, that the far right doesn't (Washington Post) the perfect retort to the shut-down-the-government conservative craziness The future of crytocurrencies (Nature) bitcoin and beyond Stop googling. Talk. (NY Times) and Talk to each other, not your phone (NY Times) two by the same author, MIT's Sherry Turkle (in case you don't get it the first time) and a review of her book, Reclaiming Conversation (NY Times) Math whiz solves Erdős discrepancy problem (Nature) A scourge on morality (Raleigh N&O) NC's refusal to expand Medicaid NC lawmakers ignore own expert in refusing Medicaid expansion (NC Policy Watch) Life (alas) in NC When the woods were no-parent zones (Raleigh N&O) growing up in the 50s was a lot easier The NC Budget: an exercise in villainy (Raleigh N&O) can it possibly get more regressive? A scourge on morality (Raleigh N&O) NC's refusal to expand Medicaid Durham-Orange counties' light rail Reasons why it's the best choice (Raleigh N&O) A sensible way to grow (Raleigh N&O) Forget rail, ride the bus (Raleigh N&O) What we need instead is better buses (Raleigh N&O) NC bans Sanctuary Cities and why it's based on stereotypes and not evidence (Raleigh N&O) banning such denies a person's worth (Raleigh N&O) |
The importance of recreational math (NY Times) should math be fun, even in school? How Common Core won the war (Politico) it's reality for 40 million students The Asian advantage (NY Times) in education and elsewhere.... strong families, hard work, and a passion or education The Case Against Free College (New Republic) because it would be paid for by working class people who don't attend (perhaps the working class should re-think the value of attending college?) NC teacher turnover reaches 5-year high (NC Policy Watch) nearly 15%.... 14,000+ teachers left their position State & charters forcing public shools to do more with less (Raleigh N&O) from the superintendent of Durham Public Schools Secrecy amplifies risk to UNC (Raleigh N&O) Fennebresque says 'no chance' to faculty request to meet UNC president candidates Patient? Tactful? Thoughtful? Not John Fennebresque (Raleigh N&O) the dysfunctional head of the UNC Board of Governors trying to hire a UNC President NC Legislature: steering NC backwards (Raleigh N&O) tax cuts for the rich, austere spending, education shortchanged (again) NC's disinvestment in public education continues (Raleigh N&O) funding for higher ed down 23%; tuition rises by 36% Autumn books Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs by Lisa Randall coming 10/27/15 Origins: the Story of Creation by Jim Baggott coming 10/08/15 Physics: from Quintessence to Quarks by John Heilbron coming 12/1/15 |
late September 2015 |
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Total Lunar Eclipse September 27 (Earth & Sky) entire eclipse visible in Durham partial eclipse starts at 9:07 pm; totality, at 10:11 pm; totality ends at 11:23 pm; partial, at 12:27 am, 9/28.... expected to be redder than usual Latest Pluto images (NASA) more interesting than ever Moving to Mars is crazy (NY Times) present planners are excessively optimistic The moon is shrinking! (NY Times) and it's Earth's fault! |
An impressive disk with hourglass jets in starbirth (ALMA) Sleep tight! No alien advanced civilizations nearby (Astron) based on lack of significant waste heat emission... so apparently 'advanced' means wasteful like us? White dwarfs with unexpected hiccups (Sky and Telescope) ZZ Ceti stars not quite as regular pulsators as thought |
Coming attraction: collision of black holes (NY Times) |
Carly Fiorina: worst tech CEO ever? (Politico) is the GOP really that desperate? and ditto (Washington Post) The inconvenience of Obamacare's success (Washington Post) largest recorded drop in uninsured numbers The importance of Donald Trump (New York) is Trump the savior of democracy? The Black family in the age of incarceration (Atlantic) 50 years after the Moynihan report D's and R's: living in different nations? (Washington Post) or maybe even universes Not up for debate: the science behind childhood vaccinations (NY Times) why did Ben Carson lie in the debate? Ancient Georgian script: the greatest discovery in the history of writing? (National Geographic) |
The Future of College? an alternative to MOOCs (Atlantic) founded on the idea that teaching is a science |
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early September 2015 |
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Pluto redux Wait for more Pluto data is over (Science News) downloads began on September 5 first new images (Earth & Sky) Dunes, but no surf (NY Times) On to 2014MU69? (Sky and Telescope) 30-mile-diameter KBO target picked for next New Horizons encounter Partial solar eclipse, 9/13/15 (Earth & Sky) if you live in southern Africa The 5 visible planets in September (Earth & Sky) Saturn at night; Venus and Mars (and Jupiter late in the month) at dawn Ancient lake bed found on Mars (Earth & Sky) 18 square miles |
How the sun (may have) captured Sedna and family from a passing star (arXiv) or does this belong in the 'solar system' column? |
Clues to starbirth in Andromeda (Hubble) the starbirth mass function appears to be the same across Andromeda and identical to that of the solar neighborhood |
Violations of Standard Model in B meson decay (Scientific American) at both LHC and at Belle accelerators 100 years of General Relativity (Scientific American September special issue) |
NC turning its back on what made it great (Charlotte Observer) education, education, education The triangle's broken economic ladder (Raleigh N&O) 'best place to live in the US' but one of the worst for upward economic mobility How climate change deniers sound to normal people (Slate) spoiler alert: sarcasm ahead... and NSFC (not suitable for conservatives) "All scientists should be militant atheists" (Lawrence Krauss, New Yorker) a horribly-assigned title for a very reasoned article on science and religion and a silly response (from the National Review, of course) the only thing sillier than the article itself are the comments appended to it No, there isn't a war on the police (Washington Post) and claiming such 'is grandstanding ... demagoguery, .... journalistic malpractice, .... and is .... getting people killed" Donald Trump Taking Trump seriously (Rolling Stone) on the stump with the braggart The Fearful and the Frustrated (New Yorker) Donald Trump's nationalism campaign GOP: now the official party of white paranoia (Rolling Stone) or, equivalently, the party of people who "don't know the difference between feeling sorry for themselves and being victims" --------------------------- Where refugees go in America (Washington Post) which states are welcoming and which aren't (NC is average) The Fog of foreign Policy (Washington Post) Sober thoughts on America's place in the world Labor Day Why we work (OnPoint 1-hour podcast) excellent discussion of how to improve working conditions Making work meaningful (Raleigh N&O) 90% of workers spend half their waking lives doing things they don’t really want to do in places they don’t particularly want to be 5 ways to help Labor on this Labor Day (HuffPost) Help for freelance labor (NY Times) ------------------------- The US's radical Islamic BFF, Saudi Arabia (NY Times) and we're still unable to deny our oil- addiction-caused worship |
Federal government introduces new website for college data (NY Times) but with sights set much lower the goals 2 years ago: rankings abandoned College Scorecard website is here Are college lectures unfair (to women, non-whites, and the poor?) (NY Times) some evidence says yes Surprises in college- graduate-earnings data (NY Times) an earnings gender gap exists at all top unis; many college grads earn little more than h.s. grads; wide disparities exist in college borrowing and loan payback across the US all part of the NY Times Education Issue A 12-question test of basic scientific knowledge (Pew Research) find out you compare to other adults (but beware, one question has 2 correct answers, and is graded incorrectly0 and including a question about astrology.... in a science quiz?!? wow. Intel ends sponsorship of Science Talent Search (NY Times) Is college tuition really too high? (NY Times) an enlightening article on why the answer is both yes and no A clearer picture of student college debt (NY Times) contrary to widespread beliefs, most of it is small loans at for-profit and community colleges (not expensive, highly- selective schools) back to school scores in NC NC's SAT scores at lowest level since 2005 revamp (Raleigh N&O) but graduation rate is highest ever, now at 86% 2015 ACT scores are in: NC in worse shape than last year: For the 13 states (like NC) where ACT is required, NC is Last in Reading; Last in Science; Last in English; Last overall (tied with MS); bright spot: 9 out of 13 in Math ACT scores stagnant in NC: 32% of NC grads ready for college algebra, 26%, for biology. awesome and stagnant across US, only 40% ready for college (Raleigh N&O) ------------------- Teachers aren't dumb (NY Times) but their training is Not caring for teachers means no concern for teachers (Raleigh N&O) placing the blame squarely where it belongs: the NC legislature Revealing public school scores data (Raleigh N&O) even more revealing is the total lack of substance in the story |
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