I keep learning new stuff about dishwashers. Almost five years ago, I wrote about one misconception of how it worked that got removed when I saw a video taken inside one while it was operating. Now this article tells me that my practice of pre-rinsing before putting items in the dishwasher is not only wasteful of water, it actually leads to less clean dishes!
[Read more…]
Via Rob Beschizza I came across this fascinating video about how it works.
Sean Carroll has compiled a nice list of 19 items of what we currently know and don’t know about the Big Bang, in the hope of dispelling some common misconceptions. I found items #12 and #16 helpful in clarifying my own thinking about how to express these ideas.
12. The early universe had a low entropy. It looks like a thermal gas, but that’s only high-entropy if we ignore gravity. A truly high-entropy Big Bang would have been extremely lumpy, not smooth.
16. Dark energy is not a new force; it’s a new substance. The force causing the universe to accelerate is gravity.
There is a report that the Flat Earth International Conference is organizing a big sea cruise for its members. But they seem to have overlooked one important detail.
“Ships navigate based on the principle that the Earth is round,” said Henk Keijer, a former cruise ship captain who sailed all over the globe during a 23-year career.
“Nautical charts are designed with that in mind: that the Earth is round.”
Keijer, who now works as a forensic marine expert for Robson Forensic, said the existence of GPS, the global positioning system, alone is proof that the Earth is a sphere, not a flat disc. GPS relies on 24 main satellites which orbit the Earth to provide positional and navigational information.
“The reason why 24 satellites were used is because on the curvature of the Earth,” Keijer said.
“A minimum of three satellites are required to determine a position. But someone located on the other side of the Earth would also like to know their position, so they also require a certain number of satellites.
“Had the Earth been flat, a total of three satellites would have been enough to provide this information to everyone on Earth. But it is not enough, because the Earth is round.”
No, this post is not about my favorite sport. Thanks to a private communication from Marcus Ranum, I became aware of this article that sheds some light on the mysterious affliction that affected US diplomats at its embassy in Havana, Cuba that I had written about before. This had led to all manner of wild speculations of high-tech sonic warfare being waged against the embassy personnel by Cuba, Russia, or China or some combination of those countries. None of those theories made much sense but when did the lack of evidence ever prevent a lot of breathless media speculation, especially when wrapped up in Cold War fears?
[Read more…]
As a result of the rapid advances in science, the explanatory claims of religion for natural phenomena have been all but discredited. But that has not stopped religious people from trying to retain some relevance. Some have taken the tack of arguing that religion ‘explains’ things like the meaning of life that science cannot, a fatuous claim since those ‘explanations’ are simply evidence-free assertions. But others take the position that their ancient religious texts actually predicted scientific phenomena.
[Read more…]
Many will have seen Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant satire Dr. Strangelove. Here is the clip of two famous scenes where the US general (played by Sterling Hayden) who has unleashed an unprovoked nuclear attack on the Soviet Union explains to a British officer (Peter Sellers) how the introduction of fluorine into the drinking water (promoted as a way of reducing tooth decay) was actually a cunning Communist plot to weaken Americans by destroying their precious bodily fluids.
In a historic first in space research, China has safely landed a probe Chang’e 4 on the far side of the lunar surface. Spacecraft had flown past it before but none had actually landed on it.
[Read more…]
I am sure that many readers have tried for themselves, or at least heard about, the famous experiment done in 1999 by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris. If you are not aware of what I am talking about, check out this video before reading on. I recommend watching the video on full screen mode.
This time of year brings an endless supply of best/worst lists most of which I ignore. The ones that I read are those of people who have died because often news of such people’s passing was lost in the noise when it happened. One such list that I read are those of actors but this one of scientists who died is also noteworthy, the most famous of whom was Stephen Hawking.
Another is this list of writers, musicians, and actors who died.