Maybe it’s a promo scheme, but Ancestry.com, that wonderful service I’d probably be fascinated with if I knew who my biological parents were, has determined that President Barack Obama is descended from John Punch, one of the first documented slaves in America, through a surprising, but familiar, twist: [Read more…]
Iapetus, ice moon of beautiful Saturn, the two-faced moon. It is gleaming white, bumpy and tradionally cratered in some places, ridged across most of the equator with a Death Star like giant circle on one side, and bruised black and blue, literally misshapen, across an entire hemisphere from what was no doubt an ancient wound of titanic proportions. Iapetus may also have the weirdest avalanches or debris slides, or whatever the term is, in the solar system: [Read more…]
Richard Muller, a long standing cliamte change skeptic has finally accepted reality. Not only is climate chnge real, but human activity is causing most of it: [Read more…]
We know there’s some weird and rare stellar denizens in the cosmic jungle, galaxies hollowe dinto rungs like giant Ferris Wheels, dark matter pockets, pocean planets and diamond worlds. But it turns out one species of misfit may be way more common than thought. Cannibal stars, sometimes referred to as vampires, that suck the life blood out of their neighbors for a flush of youthful glory and may shape the evolution of future stars and planets: [Read more…]
Ted Nugent would no doubt blast the Great White Buffalo he once sang about with a rocket-propelled grenade given half a chance, but a real white buffalo came into the world this week. And it’s damn adorable. Click the image for more.
I wish that header were a joke, but it’s not. I can’t deduct the cost of a cheap tire to replace the bald menace I drove on for a month to my dead-end $11.00 an hour job, but the Romney’s enjoyed a $75,000 plus tax break for their freaking dancing horse: [Read more…]
Climate change science is getting more accurate, in part becuase of building on past research like any other science, and in part because computers are able to handle more and more complex chaotic models. Where the exact tipping point might be for a specific weather event is now clearer, and in some cases, the models indicate that critical factor is indeed global warming: [Read more…]
Kudos to reader TTCH who flagged this worrisome tidbit in an article about the psychiatrist Holmes’ reportedly spoke with or saw prior to the massacre in Aurora: [Read more…]
New evidence and/or leaks in the case of James Holmes, the gunman may have been under the care of a college psychiatrist and sent a letter to that person before opening fire: [Read more…]
Why do conservatives lie endlessly, engage in elaborate, easily debunked fantasies and wild conspiracies? Why do they cheat, simplify, spin, and tell bald-faced whoppers so ridiculous it’s hard not to laugh them off the stage? A new Pew Poll suggests one reason is because it works: [Read more…]