Roman Concrete
I remember some about this story a few years ago. I don’t think the formula for the Roman mix was well understood at that time. Portland Cement doesn’t cut it.…
science
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Alan Freeman discusses the real costs of ideologically-driven deregulation: The idea that “the market” will root out bad actors in any industry and…
Ritz: More Dense Than A Gas
Saskatchewan has a lot of ignoble MPs, but Ritz took the cake this past week. He’s helping to spread nonsense that is solidly a line from anti-science climate change deniers.…
You can’t educate Republicans on global warming
Many progressives believe that if the public were better informed about the science behind climate change, people would be more inclined to accept the reality of anthropogenic global warming. A…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Ben Tarnoff discusses the two winners – and the many losers – created by the spread of neoliberalism: Neoliberalism can mean many…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Miles Corak offers a must-read paper on the two stories most often told about inequality in Canada, reaching this conclusion on the recent…
The 10 Worst?
Skeptoid just published its top-ten worst anti-science websites and I’m sure you won’t be surprised at the awardees, especially not the regulars like Mercola, Dr. Oz, Deepak Chopra and Food…
As Humans Do
Obituary: Great Barrier Reef (25 Million BC-2016). Killed by coal, ocean acidification and climate change: https://t.co/V4npCbP1yR — 350 dot org (@350) October 14, 2016 Idle conversation among strangers around the…
Neanderthals: a love story
Squat, hairy, broad shoulders, a big nose, beetle-browed with a low forehead. As Blind Willie McTell wrote in his classic song, Statesboro Blues, “I know ain’t good lookin’, but I…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- George Monbiot observes that while few people would want to drive animals to extinction directly, we're all too often eager to settle for a…
Dramatic Jupiter Exploration Video
It’s done in the style of a fiction/action movie trailer, but this is for real. One of the early results is this compressed/shifted audio depiction of aurora on Jupiter.
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Alan Freeman is duly appalled by Apple's attempt to throw itself a pity party with the money it's hoarding rather than paying in fair…
Flat earthers? Must be a spoof…
At first, I thought a story on Tech.mic titled “Meet the People Who Believe the Earth Is Flat” was satire. You know, a parody of those zany conspiracy theorists who…
Leader Post: Publishing Anti-Facts
In response to Herb Pinder’s July 16th op-ed “Climate change alarmists ignore nature’s role”, I wonder if the Leader-Post has decided to publish conspiracy theories as reasonable opinions. I think…
Transcendance
It’s not surprising that AI replaced the biological form in the popular Frankenstein monster trope. In fact the smart-evil-machine scenario has been done so often this past decade or so…
The Postmortal
Mortality. We all get it. It’s the one one incurable ailment all humans succumb to without a chance of succor. Mortality is always 100% fatal. No medicine, no therapy, no…
The Amazing Rocket and America’s New Supergun
It's amazing what we humans can do when we push the boundaries of science.Like fire off this SpaceX rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, deploy a satellite.Then land the first…
Not quite seven signs of the apocalypse
A 2014 story on Salon, titled 7 things Americans think are more plausible than man-made global warming made its way around Facebook again, recently. It lists seven statistics about things…
Welcome to the Chief Science Officer
Leading up to the 2015 federal election I volunteered my efforts to the group Evidence for Democracy (E4D), a group formed in reaction to the Harper government's "war on science."…
432 vs 440Hz: Science or Codswallop?
Canadian band Walk Off the Earth posted excitedly on Facebook that they had just recorded a new song. Great. I like WOTE and look forward to their new song. What…