Ed’s right on the money about reality TV

Riffing off Ed’s post about reality TV, there are some shows that fall under the taxon that aren’t half bad. COPS, Survivorman, and Pawn Stars, just to name a few. They aren’t my top favorite shows, but they’re decent, interesting things happen, you might even learn something. And while there’s little doubt some of the scenes are staged or close to it, those three shows and others in the same vein really include some measure of reality.

But so many of the genera feature anything but reality. [Read more…]

The big difference between Mittens and Santorum on climate change

Santorum's NASA conspiracy incarnate. Who ya gonna believe?

Mitt Romney may have accepted the role humans are playing in global warming — before he was against it. But Tricky Rick Santorum has been priming the misinformation and character assassination industries consistently from the get go. Santorum, speaking at CPAC, demonstrates that, unlike Mittens, he may be sincerely clueless: [Read more…]

The beautiful and incredibly violent Eta Carina

Eta Carinae, 7th sun in its constellation, is not your ordinary star, or even a familiar crusty old red-giant. At the heart of the gorgeous double lobed cloud are at least two massive stars, and one of them is one the most unusual kinds of stellar objects in the universe: an unstable, misshapen blue-white colossus that could burst open and shower this section of the galaxy with deadly gamma rays any day. It almost happened once before, in 1843, when the object suddenly became the second brightest star in the sky for a few weeks. What’;s neat is astronomers have now found a way to study that original light, once thought long gone at the speed of 300,000 KM/sec: [Read more…]

What we’re losing with cuts to planetary exploration

Yesterday’s WH budget proposal for NASA, with deep cuts to future planetary science to the whopping tune of $300 million , didn’t exactly come as a shock. That’s the news reporters have been hearing and writing about for weeks. But if those changes are implemented it comes at a price. In this case, the price could be postponing the single greatest scientific discovery ever made. [Read more…]

New Alzheimer’s drug spurs hope among the desperate

If there’s a more inhuman neurological disease than Alzheimer’s, I don’t want to know about it. Because the big “A” is bad enough. Stealing away precious memories and bodily functions alike, leaving behind a confused, amnesiac husk of a person when they should be enjoying the fruits of their labor and grandchildren. It’s not surprising a new study showing dramatic results in mice has spurred hope for some victims on the brink of no return: [Read more…]