Our friends at Fox News have posted a great primer of how the delegate math works for Alabama and Mississippi this evening. These states aren’t terribly complex compared to some, but the math isn’t simple representative wins by district or percentage either. There’s more to it than simple statewide vote totals. It has combinations of district thresholds, open delegates, and winner take all provisions. Confused? See below [Read more…]
NASA's Cassini spacecraft took this raw, unprocessed image of Saturn's moon Rhea on March 10, 2012. The camera was pointing toward Rhea at approximately 26,019 miles (41,873 kilometers) away.
The Cassini spacecraft wandered near Saturn’s icy moon Rhea last week and grabbed some eye candy of the frozen satellite. [Read more…]
It’s not exactly a surprise that on the right, in the two states holding primaries tomorrow, Mississippi and Alabama, the anti-science Teaparty ignoramuses run the show. But data from the PPP poll on voter preferences below also held some interesting data about evolution and Obama that really drive home just how out of touch these voters are. [Read more…]
Call it the Return of Gingrich, or possibly the Santorum Surge, then again it could be Romney’s long predicted Knock-out Punch. You can call it anything you want, because all three GOP hopefuls are clustered tightly within a few points of one another in a new poll on the eve of the Mississippi and Alabama primaries tomorrow: [Read more…]
If God-eh is keeping global warming at bay like Sen. James Inhofe assures us, then perhaps the rustbelt has been forsaken. A new study comparing station data and satellite photos concludes winter ice cover on America’s Great Lakes has plunged by 70 percent since 1973:
The details are sparse, but reports are one US service member walked out of his base yesterday and opened fire on a row of Afghan houses, killing at least 16 people inside including young children: [Read more…]
On almost every post where conservative denial of science rears its unwelcome head, a fascinating question breaks out in comments: do they really believe it or are they just being cynical assholes? The traditional response is “I can’t read people’s minds …but”. Now, thanks to the rapidly growing field of neurophysiology, we’re starting to get insight into the cerebral activities that rise and fall when someone is confronted by strong counter arguments to their beliefs. Defacto mind reading? It’s a complicated subject, way out of my league as a writer. But luckily, I happen to have in my hot little hands a review copy for a new book due out in April by noted science writer Chris Mooney called The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Don’t Believe in Science. [Read more…]
See that chart up there compiled by NASA of ground and ocean surface temperature readings over the last century? Fear not, for Senator James Inhofe (R-bugfuck) assures us all, every one, that God is on the case, and in fact He has been from the very beginning when the univserse was created lo those few thousand years ago. It says so in Genesis: [Read more…]
On the honor system, let’s all remain masters of our domain. Anyone want to venture some guesses on what planet and/or event we’re looking at in the image above? I promise you, you have heard about it! You can click it and get the answer or look below … [Read more…]
Microraptor gui holotype fossil with white arrows pointing out feather impressions, click image for background info. New colored reconstruction below the fold
Fossils are rare, fossils which preserve feathers and other soft tissue are extraordinarily rare. But scientists re-examining a fossil of a feathered, flying dinosaur unearthed in China’s rich Yixian and Jiufotang formations have found a specimen so well preserved, despite spending more than 130 million years in the ground, that they are able to determine the actual color and tone of the little dino: [Read more…]