Dec 23, 2011
Dec 22, 2011
In support of the 99%
I made this a while back in support of the 99%, but neglected to blog about it. "Occupational Hazzard."
Dec 21, 2011
How Safe Is Pepper Spray?
What they won't tell you about the sometimes deadly police weapon.
A very nice and informative infographic suggested by friend of the site Peter Kim.
Dec 20, 2011
Atheism, Communism, and Kim jong Il
These political systems do not arise from some kind of atheist "doctrine" or atheist influence. Often, religion is outlawed (and by that token it could be said that atheism is enforced) because organized religions create their own communities and hierarchies and eventually gain power. Something authoritarian dictatorships dislike.
Throughout the dark ages for example, the catholic church's power rivaled that of any nation in Europe. That's something China, N. Korea, and the former USSR want to avoid, even in small scale. Totalitarianism does not arise from atheism, but religion does complicate things for dictators, for reasons unrelated to the virtues/vices of religion itself. The regime isn't a result of a lack of religion, it is rather that these regimes cannot afford to have their populace worship anything but themselves.
Dec 19, 2011
In remembrance of Christopher Hitchens. A video collection.
Hitchens had an uncanny mastery of the English language and amazing flexibility and adaptability of thought. In remembrance of his legacy, I have amassed a collection of videos exemplifying just how amazing he was at what he did best. It is by no means a comprehensive collection, but it is a collection of many of my personal favorites.
Enjoy.
A Christopher Hitchens Video Collection:
Intelligence Squared Debate - Is Catholic church a force for good in the world? (Nov 2009)
CNN Lou Dobbs - UN Wants to Regulate Free Speech (Feb 2009)
ABC News - The Rise of Atheism (Jan 2009)
Connecticut Forum - God: What difference does it make? (Jan 2009)
Larry King Live with Paula Begala on Clinton as Sec. of State (Nov 2008)
Hitchens on Hardball with Chris Matthews on Hilary Clinton as Sec. of State (Nov 2008)
Christopher Hitchens with Laura Ingraham on voting for Obama (Oct 2008)
Watch Christopher Hitchens get waterboarded (August 2008)
Hitchens on the 2008 election with Lateline's Tony Jones (April 2008)
Tim Russert with Guests Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan (April 05 2008)
Christopher Hitchens vs. Peter Hitchens (April 2008)
Hitchens on Barack Obama and race in the 2008 elections (Jan 2008)
The Four Horseman: Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennett, and Harris Hour 1 (Google Video)
The Four Horseman: Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennett, and Harris Hour 2 (Google Video)
Christopher Hitchens on MSNBC Morning Joe Dec 03 2007
Christopher Hitchens discusses Mitt Romney's Religion with Neil Cavuto Nov 2007
Christopher Hitchens on Saul Below BookTV Oct 24 2007
Christopher Hitchens and Tom Delay at the 2007 Hill Book Fair
Christopher Hitchens speaks at the Freedom From Religion Foundation Convention Oct 10, 2007
Hitchens on NPR discussing death of soldier in Iraq Mark Daily (audio) October 8 2007
Hardball: Christopher Hitchens on Princess Diana: 10 Years Later
ABC Lateline: Christopher Hitchens on the Patraeus Report - September 2007
Authors@Google: Christopher Hitchens - August 16, 2007
Book TV In Depth: Christopher Hitchens - September 02, 2007
Debating the existance of God on Hannity & Colmes May 2007
Christopher Hitchens lecture at Seattle's Town Hall Center lecture
Chirstopher Hitchens on Question Time June 2007
Christopher Hitchens debates the Rev. Al Sharpton on Hardball
Christopher Hitchens on Frost Over The World
Hitchens debates Al Sharpton at the NY Public Library (FORA.tv)
Christopher Hitchens talks with Bill Maher on god is not Great
Lou Dobbs Interviews Christopher Hitchens on god is not Great
Christopher Hitchens interviewed on The Hour
Christopher Hitchens on Charlie Rose May 2007
Christopher Hitchens discusses Jerry Falwell on Hannity and Colmes
Christopher Hitchens on FOX's Red Eye
Christopher Hitchens discusses terrorism with Tucker Carlson
Charlie Rose with Christopher Hitchen on Thomas Jefferson: Author of America
Christopher Hitchens discusses the Passion of the Christ on Charlie Rose February 2004
Christopher Hitchens - Scarborough Country - The War On Christmas
Dec 10, 2011
11 cheap gifts guaranteed to impress science geeks
1. Aerogel
Also known as frozen smoke, Aerogel is the world’s lowest density solid, clocking in at 96% air. It’s basically just a gel made from silicon, except all the liquid has been taken out and replaced with gas instead. If you hold a small piece in your hand, it’s practically impossible to either see or feel, but if you poke it, it’s like styrofoam.Aerogel isn’t just neat, it’s useful. It supports up to 4,000 times its own weight and can apparently withstand a direct blast from two pounds of dynamite. It’s also the best insulator in existence, which is why we don’t have Aerogel jackets: it works so well that people were complaining about overheating on Mt. Everest.
Price: $35
2. EcoSphere
Inside these sealed glass balls live shrimp, algae, and bacteria, all swimming around in filtered seawater. Put it somewhere with some light, and this little ecosystem will chug along happily for years, no feeding or cleaning necessary, totally oblivious to the fact that the rest of the world exists outside.EcoSpheres came out of research looking at ways to develop self-contained ecosystems for long duration space travel. They’re like little microcosms for the entire world, man. But ask yourself: are we the shrimp, or the algae?
Price: $80
3. Mars Rock
NASA has been trying to figure out how to get a sample of rock back from Mars for a while now. You can beat them to the punch and pick up a little piece of the red planet without having to travel a hundred million miles, by just taking advantage of all the rocks Mars sends our way.Every once in a while, a meteorite smashes into Mars hard enough to eject some rocks out into orbit around the sun. And every once in a while, one of these rocks lands on Earth. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen, and whoever finds the meteorite is allowed to cut it up into bits and sell it to people who want to have their very own piece of another planet.
Price: $70+
4. Gömböc
The Gömböc is a self-righting object, which means that no matter which way you put it down, it stands itself back up. It’s like a Weeble, except it doesn’t cheat by having a weight at the bottom, and it’s the only shape that can do this.The existence of a shape with these properties was conjectured in 1995, but it took ten years for someone to figure out how to actually make one that worked. And then everyone was embarrassed when it turned out that turtles had evolved this same basic shape in their shells a long time ago, to make it easier for them to roll themselves back over if they get flipped.
Price: $150
5. Violet Laser Pointer
It’s no longer geeky enough to have a red laser pointer, or a green laser pointer, or even a blue laser pointer. Keep moving up the spectrum until you get to violet, and you’ll find the new hotness at 405 nanometers.So what’s next year’s new color going to be? It’s looking like orange, but they’re not quite what I’d call affordable yet. Something to look forward to for next year, especially if you’re going for your own personal laser rainbow.
Price: $110
6. Gallium
Gallium is a silvery metal with atomic number 31. It’s used in semiconductors and LEDs, but the cool thing about it is its melting point, which is only about 85 degrees Fahrenheit. If you hold a solid gallium crystal in your hand, your body heat will cause it to slowly melt into a silvery metallic puddle. Pour it into a dish, and it freezes back into a solid.While you probably shouldn’t lick your fingers after playing with it, gallium isn’t toxic and won’t make you crazy like mercury does. And if you get tired of it, you can melt it onto glass and make yourself a mirror.
Price: $80
7. Miracle Berries
By themselves, Miracle berries don’t taste like much. The reason to eat them is that they contain a chemical called miraculin that binds to the sweet taste receptors on your tongue, changing their shape and making them respond to sour and acidic foods.The upshot of this effect is that some things you eat taste spectacularly different. Straight Tabasco sauce tastes like donut glaze. Guinness tastes like a chocolate malt. Goat cheese tastes like cheesecake. After about an hour of craziness, your taste buds go back to normal, no harm done.
Price: $15
8. DNA Genotyping
There’s nothing more personal than someone’s own DNA. And there are ways to give the gift DNA that won’t get you children or arrested. With just a little bit of spit, you can get an genotype analysis that will reveal fun insights about longevity, intelligence, susceptibility to diseases, and even food preferences.While the technology hasn’t reached the point where you can affordably get a complete sequence of an entire genome, looking at specific markers is still good enough to suggest some things worth looking out for while spurring a lively nature versus nurture debate.
Price: $100
9. Klein Bottle
If you want to give a mathematician something to try to wrap their head around, a Klein bottle is a good place to start. A real Klein bottle is an object with no inside and no outside that can only exist in four dimensions. These glass models exist in three, which means that unlike the real thing, they can actually hold liquid.The difference between the models and the real thing is that by adding an extra dimension, you can make it so that the neck of the bottle doesn’t actually intersect the side of the bottle. Take a couple aspirin and try to picture that in your head.
Price: $35
10. Giant Plush Microbes
They’re cute! They’re fuzzy! They’re potentially deadly! All of the microbes, bacteria, and viruses that you know and love (or maybe not) are available in huggable forms about a million times larger than real life. In the picture are gonorrhea, syphilis, mono, and herpes.These giant plushes are the perfect way to make the holidays even more awkward, when you present your friends with a variety of adorable STDs. Microbiologists, at least, will appreciate that they’re more or less anatomically correct, too.
Price: $9
11. Ferrofluid
Magnetic particles suspended in oil never looked so sexy. That’s all a ferrofluid is, and it looks pretty gross until you put it in close proximity to a magnet, at which point it grows spikes all over the place as the fluid flows out along magnetic force lines.Ferrofluids are found in everything from speakers to hard drives, but it’s much more fun to play with when when you’ve got a puddle of it naked and out in the open.
Price: $40
Dec 2, 2011
Must Watch: Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Pamela Gay, and Lawrence Krauss discuss our future in space
I'll come right out and say it: you need to watch this video. It's a bit on the long side, but the weekend is almost here, and you owe it to yourself to set aside 53 minutes to watch a veritable scientific dream team talk about humanity's future in space.
The video, originally shot back in July at TAM 2011 Las Vegas, is of a panel featuring Bill Nye, astronomers Neil DeGrasse Tyson & Pamela Gay, and theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss—and the entire discussion is moderated by Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait. The subjects raised are consequential, the discussions thought provoking, and the opinions of the panelists refreshingly diverse (and often conflicting).
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