Related to my last post on Europa Report, a movie I discovered when I read these articles earlier today, and also in the category of things I somehow missed, NASA is planning a robotic mission to Europa. This is exciting since, as I noted in the movie review, Europa's underground ocean makes it currently the … Continue reading NASA planning a robotic mission to Europa
Europa Report, a review
Somehow I completely missed the release of this movie. It seems to represent the beginning of something I've hoped to see for a while: small independent productions that make use of the lowering cost of CG technology to make narrow genre films. Most film science fiction is, unfortunately, garbage scientifically. The cost and risk of … Continue reading Europa Report, a review
The web is 25 years old!
The Guardian has a nice article up about the web, its creation, and its creator Tim Berners-Lee, who I think it's definitely accurate now to call Johannes Gutenberg's heir. It sprang from the brain of one man, Tim Berners-Lee, and is the fastest-growing communication medium of all time. A quarter-century on, we examine how the … Continue reading The web is 25 years old!
Americans, Crimea is not about us
Watching the Sunday morning news shows, there is lot of stupid silly ridiculous commentary, mostly from conservatives out to score political points, that the Crimean crisis is somehow Barack Obama's fault, that maybe if he had been a stronger, more decisive, more manly leader, Putin wouldn't have sent troops in.I'm not going to pretend to … Continue reading Americans, Crimea is not about us
Credible and baseless concerns about AI
I caught James Barrat on CSPAN BookTV Saturday evening, talking about his book, 'Our Final Invention', the main theme of which appears to be that we're in danger of designing intelligent machines, won't be able to control them, and that will be the end of us. One of my earliest posts on this blog was on … Continue reading Credible and baseless concerns about AI
SMBC: Sperm cosmology
All kinds of ways to interpret this one. (Click through to see full sized version.) via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
You say multiverse, I say galaxies
Corey Powell has an interesting post up on what he calls the Four Great Eras of Exploration. The first era was Galileo's discovery of the vastness of the universe, the second that stars were composed of chemical elements, and the third was Hubble's discovery of other galaxies. The fourth, and main topic of his post, … Continue reading You say multiverse, I say galaxies
Sleep and death
HuffPost has an interesting Sleep 101 article up. Sleep is anything but a waste of time. While many people think of catching ZZs as the body "shutting off" until morning, nodding off actually activates a complicated process that helps you feel rested and healthy the next day. Scientists divide sleep into four stages -- each … Continue reading Sleep and death
Was Jesus a conspiracy?
Bart Ehrman posted a video on his blog (embedded below) where he discusses the case for the existence of the historical Jesus. Most of his excellent blog's content is pay-walled, so I'm happy to have an opportunity to link to something that isn't. (Incidentally, if you have the means and interest, I highly recommend subscribing. All … Continue reading Was Jesus a conspiracy?
If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel – A tediously accurate map of the solar system
Wow! We've talked before that humans can't really comprehend large numbers, or very large or very small distances. We have to deploy metaphors to handle them. At this link is an image of the solar system, drawn to scale, including all the empty space. If you think you've ever seen that, you may be in … Continue reading If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel – A tediously accurate map of the solar system
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