Monthly Archives: August 2011

Spare the rod, save the child

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“Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

-Proverbs 22:6

This is a report of a Fundamentalist Christian couple who beat thier 7 year old child to death as part of the practice of corporal punishment to which they subscribed as per instructions given them by God. They were following the detailed methodology of child torture supplied in a book called To Train Up A Child. Which may or may not be related to a book called Train Up a Child: Successful Parenting for the Next Generation.

Nine children were subject to this abuse over several years. The child who died was adopted.

Some people should just not be allowed near other people.

In connection with this story, I’ve advanced one of “Evolution … not just a theory anymore”‘s archive revival posts to the front of the line, for your perusal: Child abuse in the name of god

I am Iowan. I am barn.

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I’ve known very few real Iowans. I know people who live there now but are from the Twin Cities, but I’ve only met a handful of native Iowans. One of them is a dear friend, most are only vague acquaintances. Six of them were landlubbing pirates of no value to humanity whatsoever.1 But I’m sure Iowans are mostly wonderful people who are well intentioned, hard working, intelligent, and are just as good as anyone else. Nonetheless, states have personalities and personalities have reputations, and people who live in states contribute to making those personalities and reputations. And for that reason I’m sure I’ll be forgiven for what I’m about to say. About your stupid state.
Continue reading I am Iowan. I am barn. →

Psychedelic octopus found in frigid waters off Antarctica

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Several strange creatures including a psychedelic octopus have been found in frigid waters off Antarctica in one of the world’s most pristine marine environments.

Others resembled corals and shrimps. At least 30 appear to be new to science, said Julian Gutt, chief scientist of an expedition that was part of the International Polar Year research effort set to launch on March 1. The researchers catalogued about 1,000 species in an area of the Antarctic seabed where warming temperatures are believed to have caused the collapse of overlying ice shelves, affecting the marine life below.

“This is virgin geography,” said expedition member Gauthier Chapelle. “If we don’t find out what this area is like now following the collapse of the ice shelf, and what species are there, we won’t have any basis to know in 20 years’ time what has changed and how global warming has altered the marine ecosystem.”

Details here

Japan Nuclear Disaster Update 33: Fukushima is as interesting as it’s ever been

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Things at Fukushima are about as interesting as they’ve ever been. We want to talk about specific problems at the reactor site, with radioactive material, cooling systems, etc. but first a few words about things happening more broadly, beginning with the largest and work towards the smallest scale. Everything we discuss here is based on the material provided in “Ana’s Feed” below. There, you will find detailed notes from media and other sources since our last posting, and links. (See here for all of our postings on Fukushima.)

Globally, it is interesting and disconcerting that Japan itself is drawing back from further use of nuclear power while remaining very much involved in promoting this source of energy in other countries. In the US and elsewhere, the nuclear industries and institutions in various countries continue to make strong yet inconsistent statements about nuclear power. In the US, the heated discussion that arose from the big-ass reality pimp-slap we know of as Fukushima has caused a certain amount of friction and tension in the fractious relationship among the disparate nuclear-related regulatory agencies. In one tasty but bitter bit of irony, a nuclear power plant had to go to 50% power because the waters in the river used for cooling at that plant were too warm owing, presumably, the global warming that running nuclear power plants would curtail. If they worked as such.

In Japan, the contaminated beef story continues to develop, and problems continue with contaminated compost, fish, rice and tea (see more below regarding contamination). The Japanese Government, accused earlier of trying to control the message regarding Fukushima a bit too earnestly, has both denied those accusations and deleted the public data on radioactive contamination of children.

And now, a few details from on-site or nearby.
Continue reading Japan Nuclear Disaster Update 33: Fukushima is as interesting as it’s ever been →

NASA Mars Rover Arrives at New Site on Martian Surface

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After a journey of almost three years, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the Red Planet’s Endeavour crater to study rocks never seen before.

On Aug. 9, the golf cart-sized rover relayed its arrival at a location named Spirit Point on the crater’s rim. Opportunity drove approximately 13 miles (21 kilometers) since climbing out of the Victoria crater.

“NASA is continuing to write remarkable chapters in our nation’s story of exploration with discoveries on Mars and trips to an array of challenging new destinations,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “Opportunity’s findings and data from the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory will play a key role in making possible future human missions to Mars and other places where humans have not yet been.”

Details here.

Close Up Photo of Asteroid

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3D Image of Vesta’s Equatorial Region

This anaglyph image of Vesta’s equator was put together from two clear filter images, taken on July 24, 2011 by the framing camera instrument aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. The anaglyph image shows hills, troughs, ridges and steep craters. The framing camera has a resolution of about 524 yards (480 meters) per pixel. Use red-green (or red-blue) glasses to view in 3-D (left eye: red; right eye: green [or blue]).

The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. It is a project of the Discovery Program managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.

The framing cameras were developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The framing camera project is funded by NASA, the Max Planck Society and DLR. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena.

All the details are here

Can a person be scientifically literate without accepting the concepts of evolution and the big bang?

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Can a person be scientifically literate without accepting the concepts of evolution and the big bang? To many scientists and educators, the answer to that question is an unqualified “no.” But the National Science Board–the governing body of the National Science Foundation (NSF)–isn’t sure that rejecting evolution for religious reasons automatically undermines a person’s scientific literacy.

yes it does

The paper in question is behind a firewall, but I may be discussing it later.

The Internet is Very Interesting Today

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Did we miss an opportunity over the last few months? For several months, since Last April, SETI has been in hibernation, not taking calls from aliens living in other worlds with radio sets. Phil Plait reports that SETI is back on line after a revival of funding. The question is, did we miss any calls? The funds are private donations. Phil “… was happy to see that people such as Jodie Foster (who played SETI astronomer Ellie Arroway in the movie “Contact”) and science fiction author Larry Niven were among people who had contributed, as well as Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders. The $200k donated is enough to get things started again, but not enough to continue operations, so it looks like there will be more fund (and awareness) raising soon by SETI.”

You’ll notice that I’ve not been posting regular hurricane updates this year as I did over the last couple/few years. There are three reasons for this: 1) I’m inconsistent and capricious in my blogging; 2) In the Atlantic, which is where I’ve focused, the Hurricane Season has been less interesting than usual; and 3) Dr. Jeff Masters has it covered at his Wunderblog, which I strongly recommend. Dr. Jeff is currently reporting two African waves that may develop and if they do, I might start blogging their windy watery selves.

I know the average person does not understand what placebos are (and are not) but I also suspect that the average person in the health industry does not either, or at least, as well as they should. Neuroskeptic has an interesting blog post pointing to a piece in Nature about sham surgery. Worth a look.

There is now a new blog carnival: The Roman Bioarchaeology Carnival. Most of my personal bioarchaeology of these later periods has been Greek, but this is still interesting. Check it out. It’s mostly about human skeletal materials.

Don’t forget to check out Sheril’s new blog, “Culture of Science” … she’s been posting up a storm, and it’s all good stuff.

Does it work to “trap” bugs in a bug trap that attracts them to their doom, or do you end up attracting more bugs than get trapped, thus spiting yourself and the bugs? Ask Bug Girl, obviously.

125 sq km of ice knocked off Antarctica by Tsunami

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ResearchBlogging.orgThe Honshu tsunami of March 11th (the one that caused the Fukushima disaster) caused the otherwise stable Sulzberger Ice Shelf to calve giant hunks of ice. Climate scientists call this “teleconnection.” I call it a big whopping bunch of whack knocking off a gigunda chunka stuff. Either way, this is important and interesting.
Continue reading 125 sq km of ice knocked off Antarctica by Tsunami →