In the aftermath of the cold-blooded murder of 16 Afghans by a US soldier, we have been treated to a flood of details about the soldier and his family, all seeking to understand why he might have done such an appalling thing. This process tends to arouse greater understanding for his motivations and even some sympathy for his plight. This is not unreasonable. It is always useful to learn what drives people to commit horrific acts. [Read more…]
Helium is extremely valuable for research and technology because it boils at the low temperature of -269oC, close to the lowest attainable temperature known as absolute zero (-273oC) and thus is used in its liquid form whenever extremely low temperatures are required. [Read more…]
The great thing about the internet and blogs in particular is that it enables immediate feedback and criticism. Most authors welcome this by enabling comments but even those who do not allow comments (Andrew Sullivan at The Dish is one such prominent blogger) get rapid-fire feedback from other blogs. Once you enter the blogging world, you must expect criticism, sometimes in quite harsh terms. It simply goes with the territory. [Read more…]
The late Carl Sagan was much sought after by the popular press to comment on science issues and he would rightly be cautious about expressing opinions about things that were unknown. He would sometimes be pressed to provide a more definitive response, being asked what his ‘gut feeling’ was, to which he replied “But I try not to think with my gut. Really, it’s okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.” [Read more…]
At a recent campaign meeting in which Rick Santorum was speaking, two men stood up and started kissing each other. [Read more…]
Most middle-class, law-abiding people think of the police as being on their side, protecting them from criminals. Hence if a police officer should, for any reason, request to talk to us about a crime or request a search of our car, home, or person, we would likely consent, thinking that it must be due to some misunderstanding that will soon be cleared up and would likely be a good story to tell one’s friends later. [Read more…]
In my private discussions with other bloggers about the issue of whether one should ban offensive commenters, the point was made that even if I could live with such comments, other readers may find them so offensive that they leave and never return because they think that by allowing them, the host is condoning such views. The suggestion was also made that men seem to be more comfortable with creating and being in a heated atmosphere and that if the blog host is not careful, the blog may become an exclusively male preserve. This is a serious argument that merits serious consideration. What is the blog host’s responsibility to provide a congenial environment to all who choose to visit? [Read more…]
The Daily Show takes to task the White House press corps for their focus on trivial trash-talk politics while ignoring the important issues that are right under their noses.
Famously thin-skinned Sarah Palin gets a lot of flak from liberals and Democrats about which she whines incessantly.
But getting dissed by Ann Coulter and having it implied that she is a self-promoting charlatan has got to really hurt since they are both conservative flame throwers and presumably cheering for the same team.
Ball is in your court Sarah.
A different research group called ICARUS has repeated the earlier experiment done by the OPERA group and found that neutrino speeds do not exceed the speed of light after all. You can read the paper here. [Read more…]