Muller – Denier No Longer

Richard Muller is a professor of Physics at the UofC Berkeley, and has long been a Global Warming skeptic.  He has been the darling of the radical right. Last week he published the results of his own climate study – “Global warming is real.” he wrote.  He went over 5 times as much data as [...]

Indian Summer

Just a reminder… An “Indian Summer” is unusually warm weather after the first frost.  So if there has not been any frost, the term does not apply. Now let’s try to get it right this year people!

Soyuz Rockets

Every Russian ever launched into space has gone up on a Soyuz rocket.  It has the best safety record of any rocket every.  Recently, one crashed… but it was not the main Soyuz stage that failed… it was the second stage. My point is that the Russians have been upgrading the same rocket for about [...]

Evolution is Fact

Whooo there boy… them’s fightin’ words!  Let me explain.  When talking about evolution, we are really talking about 2 completely different topics… related, but not quite the same. It is a fact that evolution exists… it is going on around us every day!  It’s why we can’t cure the common cold – viruses evolve.  It’s [...]

Anti-Intellectualism

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’" — Isaac Asimov Lori posted this on Facebook… and I copied it to my Facebook page… but I thought it was important [...]

My School PE Plan…

Physical Education… love it or hate it, IT IS important in our educational system.  So here is what I think middle, and high school PE should look like. Students should be able to pick between a number of different kinds of PE – Aerobics/Fitness, Team Sports, Individual Sports, Conditioning… and more.  Each class would include [...]

Lazy Days of “Summer”

While much of the country swelters under record heat, here in the Pacific North West continue to have a very cool, wet summer – after a cool wet Spring.  For me that does mean Lazy days… I don’t mind the cool, and I can handle the wet.  But what is the deal? Portland, OR passed [...]

Life Begins…?

When does “Life” begin.  Though there are people who claim they know, I believe no-one can be sure.  Even the Bible is silent on this issue – it never really says.  But this Blog will deal with just one aspect of the issue. Some claim life begins at conception.  I suppose that can legitimately be [...]

Boneless Wings

Hello!!! What is the deal with boneless wings? They are never as good as real wings.  STOP buying them if you do.  Deal with the bones, and enjoy the real flavor of chicken wings. It’s just more reconstituted chicken, and has no place in our diet.  If you are going to be a carnivore, then [...]

“past” History

Okay… What other kind of History is there??  It’s just another warping of our language… a twisting to reduce our intelligence.  The major source of dumbing down of English is the Advertising industry.  They love to mislead using creative language. History is ALWAYS past… that is what History is.  Sorry I went off on Advertisers, [...]

Chicken or the Egg?

It’s an old question – which came first, the chicken or the eggs?  I suppose most of us have pondered that question… Back when I was in the 4th grade (possibly the 5th) my father and I were out walking around the neighborhood, and he asked me that question.  I thought about it for a [...]

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Science Fiction has a long history of allowing people to write about controversial issues in a safe way.  The first book of Sci-Fi was “Somnium” by Johannes Kepler around 1625 – it’s about a man who dreams of flying to the moon.  The church would not allow publication of any book stating we could actually [...]

Gas Mileage

I am tired of hearing companies advertising “great” gas mileage at 28mpg highway.  Or what every.  My Car is a 1994 model, and gets 32mpg city, and about 36mpg highway.  Why have we done no better?  We keep increasing the Horsepower of cars, without making any real gains in fuel efficiency. Americans like power… we [...]

Motivated Reasoning

What is the problem so many people have believing the facts of various issues?  There has been a lot of research on this recently, and there are many examples of Americans ignoring the science of situations – Climate Change and the supposed link between Vaccines and Autism are 2 good examples. In both examples the [...]

Gas Prices

Why do some people blame the President – any President – for high gas prices?  There is not a lot a President can do to affect gas prices very much. Gas prices go up in the Spring, but it’s because of more than an increase in demand.  In much of the country refineries mix butane [...]

ACC and the World

ACC – Anthropogenic Climate Change – is well accepted by the experts in Climate.  A poll just out found that over 97% of Climatologist believe in ACC.  “Anthropogenic” means human caused. It has sometimes been called Anthropogenic Global Warming, but some people take that to mean everywhere on Earth is warming.  Not so.  All the [...]

Shuttles New Homes

Texas is pissed off!  And I think their claims are ridicules. They are upset Huston did not get a Shuttle — the Shuttles went to Los Angeles, NASA in Florida, the Smithsonian, and Ohio, with the Enterprise going to New York City. Their argument is that Huston has been a center of the space program [...]

Shuttles

Darn… the Seattle Museum of Fight did not get one of the Shuttles – but I think the odds were long.  But Seattle is getting the only full sized trainer.  Every Shuttle astronaut has trained on this trainer. And people will be able to walk thru, and touch the trainer.  They will be able to [...]

Apollo 11

There really is no describing what it felt like when Apollo 11 was on it’s way to the Moon.  If you were not here to experience it, you will never know.  You may understand… but you will never know that feeling. In watching the film “The Dish” I am reminded of what it felt like.  [...]

God’s Plan – Be Green

If you are at all religious, you should want to protect God’s creation.  Being green is one way to help do that.  Don’t contribute to the destruction of the beauty that is God’s.  We are all in this together. But strangely, religious conservatives seem to be the ones who are most against being green.  That’s [...]

Annoying Commercial

There is a commercial I have seen a few times that really annoys me.  It’s about liquid soap.  They show adults and kids getting liquid soap out of a dispenser… pushing the top down for the soap.  They point out how these people are leaving their germs on the soap dispenser.  The top will become [...]

Japan Nuclear Danger–3/19

9:00pm Saturday, Japan Time – It is clear now the scale of the disasters in Japan has overwhelmed it’s government, and they were slow to react to some of the issues at Daiichi… but it is hard to imagine these events NOT overwhelming any government.  This is an almost unprecedented series of events that has [...]

Japan Nuclear Danger — 13

CORRECTION: 8:00am Friday, Japan Time – NONE of the spent fuel rods are stored within the containment structures. They are stored in pools outside the containment, but inside the reactor building. So all the spent fuel stored is in danger of becoming overheated, releasing radiation to the atmosphere even if the containment is not breached.  [...]

Japan Nuclear Danger — 13

5:40am Friday, Japan Time – There is not much new to report, so more background today.  All 4 of the reactors in danger at Daiichi have storage areas for used (spent) fuel rods.  Like the US, the Japanese store this spent fuel at the reactor – either inside the containment, or in nearby storage.  Spent [...]

Japan Nuclear Danger — 12

3:45pm Wednesday, Japan Time – The IAEA has confirmed that reactors #1 – 3 all have core damage.  That has been the operating assumption since yesterday.  The other 3 reactors at Daiichi were not running at the time of the earthquake.  They can still sustain damage if cooling fails, but could not meltdown. It is [...]