Category: Science (Page 1 of 2)
February 6th, 2018, Elon Musk demonstrated that launching objects into orbit had become a mundane commercial activity. To make it interesting, the object he put in orbit was a Tesla Roadster that has since traveled over a million miles and made four laps around the sun. Where is the Roadster now?
Oh, I’m not missing anything. Sparky and I talk all the time. For example, the photo above, Sparky is saying, “Are we going for a walk, or what? We aren’t going to prom, just put some pants on and let’s go.”
At this point, it would be easier to list the Covid statements that were true and backed by scientific evidence.
City Journal: Unscientific American
My fourth year teaching at Normandy, I was the department chair. My department was concerned that students didn’t know the scientific method. I taught all Physics and Honors Physics, so figured my kids certainly knew how science worked. Sure, they could list some steps, but they couldn’t really think scientifically.
Around the same time, John Stossel, at ABC News, had done a special on pseudoscience, called, The Power of Belief. It seems a little quaint now, but it was an engaging look at unscientific beliefs that were popular in the culture. Magic crystals, past lives, faith healing, past lives, that sort of thing.
Being naturally lethargic, marijuana isn’t for me. Being naturally libertarian, I don’t care what other people do so long as it doesn’t ruin things for everyone else.
The “marijuana is good for everything and has no downsides” angle that shows up most in media sounds too much like propaganda. The Reefer Madness side isn’t convincing either.
A 2022 survey sponsored by the National Institutes of Health found that 28.8% of Americans age 19 to 30 had used marijuana in the preceding 30 days—more than three times as many as smoked cigarettes. Among those 35 to 50, 17.3% had used weed in the previous month, versus 12.2% for cigarettes.
Marijuana is everywhere. People should be a little more concerned.
For starters, she says, the “addiction potential of marijuana is as high or higher than some other drug,” especially for young people. About 30% of those who use cannabis have some degree of a use disorder. By comparison, only 13.5% of drinkers are estimated to be dependent on alcohol. Sure, alcohol can also cause harm if consumed in excess. But Ms. Madras sees several other distinctions.
Professor Madras sounds scientific, impartial and alarmed. I don’t know if she is correct, but more actual scientific research and informed policy would be prudent.
Instead of bankrolling ballot initiatives to legalize pot, she says, George Soros and other wealthy donors who “catalyzed this whole movement” should be funding rigorous research:
George Soros seems evil and only funds chaos in order to undermine civilization, so this is troubling. Maybe I’m wrong.
Friends invited me to attend a talk by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, last night, at the State Theater. Our group represented half of North Royalton High School’s Science Department. The half that attends a lecture by an astrophysicist is the same half that is actively disdained by the high school administration. Two of us retired early, one is retiring in a month, one is engaged in a district dispute due to unfair treatment by the principal and one was passed over for department chair so an administration shill could be installed.
WaPo: Record number of honey bees
WaPo: Record number of honey bees
After almost two decades of relentless colony collapse coverage and years of grieving suspiciously clean windshields, we were stunned to run the numbers on the new Census of Agriculture (otherwise known as that wonderful time every five years where the government counts all the llamas): America’s honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high.
When I started keeping bees 15 years ago, the corporate media was covering the impending environmental catastrophe of honey bee extinction. To populate a bee colony, a beekeeper can purchase a 3 lb package of bees. That’s around 30,000 live bees with a queen. When I started, a package cost about $120. The price has gone up about $5 per year, but never drastically from year to year. That convinced me that honey bee extinction wasn’t likely.
To summarize, this census only counts beekeepers with more than five hives. It would also only count beekeepers who register their hives. I never registered mine.
The challenges to bee colonies still exist, but various treatments mitigate the problem.
Changes in Texas tax law made it advantages to keep bees and register hives, so many more people did.
Honey bees are not indigenous to the US. Many other insects pollinate plants.
My beekeeper instructor told the class that wild honeybees no longer exist. The article suggests that the increase in domesticated bees will threaten wild honeybees.
Like most impending environmental catastrophes, people involved are managing the issues and the rest of us don’t have to worry about it.
Dogs understand what certain words stand for, according to researchers who monitored the brain activity of willing pooches while they were shown balls, slippers, leashes and other highlights of the domestic canine world.
The finding suggests that the dog brain can reach beyond commands such as “sit” and “fetch”, and the frenzy-inducing “walkies”, to grasp the essence of nouns, or at least those that refer to items the animals care about.
It’s good to see that researchers have finally caught up with what I figured out after a year with Sparky. After a year of practice, Sparky does not differentiate between Bunny and Mr. Moose. To him, “Moose” means a stuffed animal. “Crate” means run to his crate. “Bed” means run somewhere, but not necessarily to his cushion in my bedroom. We’ve practiced this almost every day, and that’s as far as he will ever get because it seems good enough to him.
One time, I said, “car ride”, and Sparky knew to run down to the garage and rush to the passenger side of my truck. He might have learned “car ride” prior to coming to me, but to know exactly where to go was impressive. Sparky really likes car rides.
During the tests, researchers monitored the dogs’ brain activity through non-invasive electroencephalography, or EEG. The traces revealed different patterns of activity when the objects matched or clashed with the words their owner said. The difference in the traces was more pronounced for words that owners believed their dogs knew best.
I can’t help thinking that dog researchers finally got time on an EEG machine.
While playing with Sparky, I found a related research topic.
When I tease Sparky with Mr. Moose, his eyes are locked on it. If I hold Mr. Moose behind my back, his eyes remain locked on where Mr. Moose should be based on the position of my arm. If I pull my arm out without Mr. Moose, Sparky is completely baffled and starts to look for Mr. Moose.
I don’t know what that means, but it seems like if he saw my arm holding Mr. Moose, my arm is an extension of Mr. Moose. When my arm comes out without Moose, then that connection is broken.
A newly popular alternative to cigarettes is changing the way many Americans consume nicotine—and becoming a political flashpoint.The product, a nicotine pouch, looks like a tiny tea bag and comes in flavors such as mint, coffee, berry and mango. It tucks discreetly into the cheek and doesn’t require the user to spit.
I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. Pulling hot smoke into your lungs always seemed like a bad idea. When I was young, I figured that lungs were moist, pink mucus membranes kind of like the inside of your mouth. Hot smoke would dry them out and damage them.