A Scientific Approach to Better Urban Design
Urban design is not an easy activity because of the multitude of variables that impact the overall urban experience. There are buildings, traffic (foot and vehicular), landmarks, natural occurrences like…
science
Feb. 12: Happy Darwin Day
February 12 is international Darwin Day, the day when we collectively celebrate science and reason. And, of course, we recognize Charles Darwin’s birthday: February 12, 1809 (the same birthdate as…
aspartame, science and society
Oh, what questions arise from opening a science textbook! I didn’t realize a biology textbook would lead me again to wondering about the challenges of being open to new information…
Debunking the Adam Bridge
A story popped up on the internet in late 2013, recycled in early 2014, claiming “NASA Images Find 1.7 Million Year Old Man-Made Bridge.” Claptrap. It’s not a…
Speak up for science
Our federal government’s lamentable attitude to science, or at least any science that doesn’t benefit business, is one of its key features. Nonetheless, Industry Canada is giving us a chance…
Reading Thucydides at last
Somewhere on one of my bookshelves, is an old Penguin paperback copy of History of The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. It’s a bit worn, pages lightly yellowed, glue a little…
Greens: Conservatives Ordered Illegal Destruction of Canadian Records
Elizabeth May on Harper government's library closures: Book burning doesn't remind me of this century #CDNpoli— Mike De Souza (@mikedesouza) January 27, 2014 A worrying subset of the Canadian population…
Part 1 #OilConVoid – Neil Young Hints At Unspeakable Canadian Civil War
I’m starting a short series of 3 blog posts today deliberately with the top climate change story in Canada. There are huge stories also in the RoboCon election fraud scandal,…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – John Cassidy makes the case to call the U.S.’ war on poverty a success – pointing out that there has been a meaningful…
Sunspot AR1944 Blasting Earth #skstorm
I hope our electrical grids are prepared, as there is a risk of overloading from an event like this. -The Sun Wednesday afternoon, from Regina. Canon S5IS on tripod with…
The War On Knowledge: Is the Harper Government Canada’s Taliban?
* Silence of the Labs: The Fifth Estate More links: How The Harper Government Committed A Knowledge Massacre
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Diane Coyle offers a preview of Thomas Piketty’s upcoming book on inequality – featuring a prediction that absent some significant public policy intervention,…
Salt and bread making
Salt is one of the four essential ingredients in making bread, along with flour, yeast and water. Nothing more is needed, although often a lot more is added. Salt is…
PMO: Anger Betrayal Deception; Oil
Our lying Prime Minister felt betrayed and angry, and … deceived? The scheme only became public after a CTV news report on the evening of May 14. The next morning,…
American belief in evolution is growing: poll
A new Harris poll released this month shows that Americans apparently are losing their belief in miracles and gaining it in science. The recent poll showed that American belief in…
He Didn’t See It Coming
Picking the exact date for the end of the world, without scientific evidence to back you up, makes you a fool. Harold Camping was a fool, and unscrupulous and foolish…
Putting the “X” back in Xmas
Xtians began using “Xmas” 500 years ago, since in Greek, X is the “Ch” in Christ Around the holidays, some people (not to name names or anything) urge modern society…
Lights from Space
Tragic fire from space. Check out Mars in great detail. – More link dumping: –Teach your kid how to share. An excellent list of free programs, and ones you cannot…
Parliament needs a science watchdog
Science has never been more important to the human race than it is today. We are faced with the two greatest threats in our history: catastrophic climate change combined with…
What am I doing wrong?
I began a levain last week (Nov 19) and it seemed to go well at first, but then it just seemed to have stopped… or slowed to a crawl. Was…