Is it just my imagination or is Canada’s international reputation slipping into the sewer? The question seemed particularly pertinent this morning as I read an editorial in the New York Times Sunday Review entitled “Silencing Scientists.” I don’t have to tell you whose scientists they are referring to. It’s a
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Scripturient: Blog & Commentary: Chemtrails redux: the attack of the tin-foil hat brigade
My earlier post on the nonsensical chemtrail conspiracy has generated quite a lot of activity recently (more than 1,000 views in a few days – thanks!). So much so that I decided to look online again to see why – had this silliness abated? Were people waking up and laughing
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Key of Keys
Egoless divine pride: the most glorious concept I have ever heard – from Tibetan Buddhism. The Uttara Tantra elaborates: There once was a prince, who lost his memory and forgot who he was. Lost in forgetfulness and confusion, he wandered aimlessly, and became a homeless beggar. Years later, a minister
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: The Cosmic Origins of Life
Here’s one to confound the creationist crowd: life may have begun as a result of organic molecules resulting from impacts by comets or meteorites. No supernatural foundation, no invisible hand guiding the process. Just random crashes, a little physics, some chemistry, a while lot of time, and voila: life. But
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Post Atomic Fungi?
A short and quick look into some of the ‘winners’ of a nuclear disaster. I’m not going to build my next out mushrooms quite yet though. Filed under: Science Tagged: Atomic Bombs, Fungi, Science
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Wiki-immortality!
My August Canadian EV car sales stats update went up recently. Which was cool. Cooler still, I had a chance to wax poetic about sustainability, and my new-found optimism that we’ll avoid the worst of our dystopian horrors. I was invited to be a guest lecturer for an engineering course
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: An Irrational Mixup at SaskPower
Ten years ago, SaskPower was spending money to promote education about Climate Change. The poster contest is an important component of our efforts to educate the public about the climate change issue. There are increasing concerns that human activity – such as the burning of coal and other fossil fuels
Continue readingBob McDonald says "stand up for science"
On CBC News, Bob McDonald, Canada’s favourite science commentator, makes a plea for both basic science and for Monday’s “Stand Up for Science rallies.” He comments on our federal government’s unfortunate shift from basic science to applied science, in other words from the science government ought to be doing to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Canadians: Stand Up for Science on Sept. 16
Previously on Things Are Good we’ve seen Canadians concerned about democracy mobilize to ensure that our political leaders make informed decisions. After a streak of attacks on knowledge, scientists and non-scientists alike are rallying in cities throughout Canada this coming Monday. If you’re in Canada you should join the rallies
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Why is the Sky Dark at Night?
Minute Physics, unlike myself has the answer. 🙂 Filed under: Science Tagged: Minute Physics, Why is the Sky Dark at Night
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Blacklocks reports (PDF) on the abuse of a corporate tax credit which served as an “open bar” allowing businesses to have the public fund their basic operations. And it’s surely worth noting that after that abuse was identified, the Cons’ reaction was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Frances Russell laments the state of Canada’s Potemkin Parliament (and the resulting harm the Cons are inflicting on our political system and our country alike): Poll after poll show a majority of Canadians regularly confuse their parliamentary system with the American presidential-congressional system.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Lawrence Krauss: Quantum Computing
Dr.Krauss is not really comfortable speaking in this format, but lays down some of the basic technical challenges faced by those who would construct the world’s first quantum computer. Filed under: Science Tagged: Quantum Mechanics, Science
Continue readingcartoon life: The Swerve
2500 years ago Lucretius gave us the modern world. We ignored him. Listen to The Swerve In 1417, a Renaissance scribe and book hunter discovered an ancient manuscript in a monastery. That book was the Roman poet Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things. Renowned scholar Stephen Greenblatt tells us how that discovery
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Roads: Why Are They Still Asphalt?
We live in an age of innovation. Using the great scientific advances of previous generations and implementing them in new and creative ways is huge part of our progress. No longer burdened by what we can do (mostly), the question for most fields now is how we can do it
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Say sayonara to seafood – the oceans are no longer safe to eat from in the wake of Fukushima
It looks like sushi time is over – seafood is no longer safe to eat after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Fukushima continues to dump 300-400 tons of radioactive contaminated water into the Pacific every hour. Japanese experts estimate Fukushima’s fallout at 20-30 times as high as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Fukushima Keeps Staying The Worst
It’s always been /worse/. And it just keeps staying tragically the same. It’s remained a global crisis with hemispheric deadly consequences. Japan could still wind up largely uninhabitable (if it isn’t already). Canada could suffer directly a great deal. Steam and non-water vapour has been off-gassed since the beginning. The
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Disservice – Science, Religion and the Big Bang
The God of the Gaps, one of classical set pieces of religious nonsensical arguments, lurks in the shadows waiting to prey upon the unprepared rational atheist. Fear not team-godless Minute Physics delivers the facts you need to set the record straight when it comes to cosmology and the Big Bang
Continue readingEclectic Lip: The Innovator’s Dilemma, Toyota edition
This car — yes, this car — has impeded Toyota’s electric efforts My post on how The Innovator’s Dilemma explains why Toyota lags in electric vehicles — and how Kleiber’s Law explains there’s nothing for them to worry about (yet), is now up on GreenCarReports. While the Tesla stats were
Continue reading350 or bust: Choosing Not To Know
An excellent TED talk on willful blindness. The speaker, Margaret Heffernan, doesn’t mention climate change, but everything she discusses applies to the majority of attitudes toward this urgent situation.
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