Franken/Coleman recount updates, what happened to the General Motors pension funds, 10 reasons why conservatives’ fiscal ideas are dangerous, and the last stronghold of free-market economics: academia?
Daily Archives: March 9, 2009
Fermi KO’s LHC With Amazing Discovery!!!
Fermi lab has observed a single top quark. If you know anything about quarks, especially top quarks, you will know that this is extraordinary. Top quarks, generated using the Strong Nuclear Force have been observed in the past, but a single top quark is generated with the Weak Nuclear Force. This is apparently very hard to do, but Fermilab has done it.
The following is, apparently, what a top quark … a single top quark … looks like:
Its in there somewhere, trust me.
Details here: Take That LHC: Fermi Scores Again In Discovering Rare Single Top Quark
Rebecca and Shawn Lawrence Otto
I am reluctant to use the term “power couple” in reference to a pair of Minnesota leaders in the area of science and politics, but considering the contributions of Rebecca and Shawn Lawrence Otto, the term moves past cliché and into double entendre. Rebecca is the Minnesota State Auditor, an elected constitutional office that I consider to be second only to the governor in terms of authority and importance. Shawn has been one of the key figures involved in the organization Science Debate 2008, originally formed to spur the large field of 2008 presidential hopefuls to have at least one debate on the role of science in making public policy….
A dead gene comes back to life in humans
Why is there “junk DNA”? What is Junk DNA? What is a Pseudogene? What is Gene Duplication?
Goodness, you certainly do have a lot of questions. And some of them can be answered, or at least addressed, on examination of a very interesting new paper recently published about a gene that became a useless “pseudogene” a very long time ago and has recently been revived by evolution to serve once again as an active member of the community we know of as the genome. In humans.
Continue reading A dead gene comes back to life in humans
Sailing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he’s drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas.
Actual Email about emacs and vi
Mac vs. Windows (/ducking)
Consider this:
Apart from “Windows or Linux?” nothing will start an argument in a bar full of techies quicker than, “Which hardware gives you more bang for the buck, Mac or PC?”
It turns out that they are the same, but Mac’s are more expensive.
Hey, don’t yell at me, it says so here.