(I have no idea what that post title has to do with what I'm talking about, except for the fact that it is going on the second day in a row without coffee...I must be delirious)
In the midst of news of tumbling markets, failed billion dollar corporate bailouts, and Washington politics as usual, the news of possible snow on Mars barely registered on my news radar. But there it was, a faint blip this morning:
NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has discovered evidence of past water at its Martian landing site and spotted falling snow for the first time, scientists reported Monday.
With summer waning, less sunlight is reaching the spacecraft's solar panels on Mars.
Soil experiments revealed the presence of two minerals known to be formed in liquid water. Scientists identified the minerals as calcium carbonate, found in limestone and chalk, and sheet silicate.
But exactly how that happened remains a mystery.
"It's really kind of all up in the air," said William Boynton, a mission scientist at the University of Arizona at Tucson.
A laser aboard the Phoenix recently detected snow falling from clouds more than two miles above its home in the northern arctic plains. The snow disappeared before reaching the ground.
Read the rest of the report at CNN.com...
Also in science news today, the Gray wolf is making the threatened species list once again in the Great Lakes region, which warrants suspension of nuisance predator licenses that had been granted to farmers through state wildlife management. The species now inhabits a slim percentage of its historical range in the United States. This makes me sad...
This just in! The new James Bond movie has a stupid, ambiguous title! Who do we blame? The movie's star: "Daniel Craig chose the name of the forthcoming James Bond movie Quantum of Solace - because he didn't want a grisly title with "death" in it. The British actor rejected several potential names during a brainstorming session with producers - before insisting they go with the title of a short story by Bond creator Ian Fleming. And he is adamant it was the right move - even though some movie critics have panned the name. Craig tells Britain's GQ magazine, "I was involved in making the decision. Names were coming out, some ludicrous stuff was going back and forth - I can't remember exactly, but you know the sort of thing: 'The Blood On Your Face'. "I knew I didn't want 'death', 'die', 'bleed' or any of those things in the title." But the actor admits that in the great tradition of Bond movies, the film's title is often meaningless. He adds, "As soon as it came out, people were saying, 'Ooh, it sounds like Harry Potter'. No, it's Quantum of Solace. I was saying, 'It's a Bond title!' "The name of a Bond film is not about anything. Live And Let Die? Octopussy? What does it mean? It means very little."
(By the way, one interpretation I saw for the title was "The smallest amount of comfort that can exist independently"...and several parody songs playing on the film's title are flying around the 'tubes these days.)
And also, here's to a blessed Rosh Hashana for my kosher friends!
Sep 29, 2008
It's all in the reflexes.
I spent Friday night being driven all over M's stomping grounds looking for something to do. Since malls universally never seem to want to be open past 9 pm, we ended up seeing a late showing of The Dark Knight. It was...intense (I thought about shielding my eyes at least once), and Heath Ledger was amazing. We acted like children after the movie had let out and took pictures with the promotional stand-ups for the coming attractions. It's kind of a tradition, at this point.
Saturday I was introduced to Wii Sports, and spent part of an afternoon trying to avoid being outscored by a 14 year old and a 6 year old. Yesterday my husband and I went to Toys-r-Us to get my son an MP3 player for our road trip later this month. The MP3 player I wanted to get was sold out. But they had something else that caught my husband's eye. The Wii's were in stock. For how long, we didn't know - so we gave in to the desire to impulse buy and got a Wii system, plus the Wii Play with additional games to get a second remote. My son was very surprised when he got home from church in the afternoon (apparently playing the Wii at grandma & grandpa's the day before was all he would talk about). My husband went out later to get the download card that lets you purchase the older Nintendo games...so we bought a Wii and he's playing Zelda. I'm sure this makes as much sense to others as it does to me. We're also going to have to rearrange our living room, in order to get the tv farther away from the couch and into a more safe area, away from flailing arms and wildly waving Wii-motes.
I'm signed up for the fourth installment of the CDP's Worldwide Mix Tape trade. I have two weeks to pick the playlist, burn the cd, work out the liner notes and get it out in the mail. I failed on the first one (and in all fairness, I never got a mix sent to me either) and sat out the second and third, but I think I'm up for the challenge this time.
My office is freezing...my coworkers are making things harder than they need to be...I haven't had any coffee yet and it is now almost lunch time.
Saturday I was introduced to Wii Sports, and spent part of an afternoon trying to avoid being outscored by a 14 year old and a 6 year old. Yesterday my husband and I went to Toys-r-Us to get my son an MP3 player for our road trip later this month. The MP3 player I wanted to get was sold out. But they had something else that caught my husband's eye. The Wii's were in stock. For how long, we didn't know - so we gave in to the desire to impulse buy and got a Wii system, plus the Wii Play with additional games to get a second remote. My son was very surprised when he got home from church in the afternoon (apparently playing the Wii at grandma & grandpa's the day before was all he would talk about). My husband went out later to get the download card that lets you purchase the older Nintendo games...so we bought a Wii and he's playing Zelda. I'm sure this makes as much sense to others as it does to me. We're also going to have to rearrange our living room, in order to get the tv farther away from the couch and into a more safe area, away from flailing arms and wildly waving Wii-motes.
I'm signed up for the fourth installment of the CDP's Worldwide Mix Tape trade. I have two weeks to pick the playlist, burn the cd, work out the liner notes and get it out in the mail. I failed on the first one (and in all fairness, I never got a mix sent to me either) and sat out the second and third, but I think I'm up for the challenge this time.
My office is freezing...my coworkers are making things harder than they need to be...I haven't had any coffee yet and it is now almost lunch time.
Sep 22, 2008
Blogging the controversy.
Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.
Henri Poincare (1854 - 1912)
Last night I watched the program The Neanderthal Code on the National Geographic Channel that focused on and gave a great deal of credence to the interbreeding theory, which hypothesizes that modern sapiens from the "Out of Africa" migration would have encountered Neanderthals on the European continent and, instead of replacing them, would have assimilated them and any advantageous adaptations Neanderthals would have posessed that could be passed down through their genes. In addition, this would have been a boon to the genetic diversity of modern humans and may have accelerated their development. Anthropological thought is divided on this issue, and until the genomes of both species are mapped in their entirety, it remains a contentious issue in the field of biological Anthropology.
To learn more about the enduring mysteries of Neanderthal DNA, National Goegraphic profiles the search for answers through genetic mapping in next month's issue.
You can also visit Anthropology.net for other topical discoveries and revelations in the field of Anthropology.
In other news, science sure doesn't pay what it used to...but being an (overpaid, out of touch) administrator sure isn't as intersting as being a (poor) researcher (toiling away in obscurity).
toothpastefordinner.com
Henri Poincare (1854 - 1912)
Last night I watched the program The Neanderthal Code on the National Geographic Channel that focused on and gave a great deal of credence to the interbreeding theory, which hypothesizes that modern sapiens from the "Out of Africa" migration would have encountered Neanderthals on the European continent and, instead of replacing them, would have assimilated them and any advantageous adaptations Neanderthals would have posessed that could be passed down through their genes. In addition, this would have been a boon to the genetic diversity of modern humans and may have accelerated their development. Anthropological thought is divided on this issue, and until the genomes of both species are mapped in their entirety, it remains a contentious issue in the field of biological Anthropology.
To learn more about the enduring mysteries of Neanderthal DNA, National Goegraphic profiles the search for answers through genetic mapping in next month's issue.
You can also visit Anthropology.net for other topical discoveries and revelations in the field of Anthropology.
In other news, science sure doesn't pay what it used to...but being an (overpaid, out of touch) administrator sure isn't as intersting as being a (poor) researcher (toiling away in obscurity).
toothpastefordinner.com
Sep 19, 2008
Arrrrrgh, maybe?
Ahoy, ye scurvy dawgs! Ye be knowin' the significance of the day, aye? If ye not be knowin', may Davey Jones have mercy on yer soul...
A seaman meets a pirate in a bar, and the talk turns to their adventures. The seaman notes that the pirate has a peg leg, a hook, and an eye patch. "How did you end up with the peg leg?" he asks.The pirate replies, "I was swept overboard into a school of sharks. As my men were pulling me out, a shark bit my leg off.""Wow!" says the seaman. "What about your hook?""Well," answers the pirate, "we were boarding a ship when one of the enemy hacked off my hand.""Incredible!" says the seaman. "How'd you get the eye patch?""A seagull shiat in my eye," the pirate replies."You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?" the seaman asks."Well," says the pirate, "it was my first day with the hook."
Please feel free to post your best (worst?) pirate jokes in the comments!
Sep 17, 2008
America's future is secure
Apparently some time today some pillars of maturity decided to go around chalking boastful claims as to the size of their anatomy on the sidewalks around where I work.
My boss has been despairing over the students in the history class he's teaching this fall. He was grading maps earlier today and expressing his dismay over the fact that most of the young adults he's encountering couldn't even handle elementary-level geography. Of course, I promptly laughed and said I'd have some trouble with labeling the map, too. But I went through the Florida public school system, so I'm lucky I can even spell my own name...
My boss has been despairing over the students in the history class he's teaching this fall. He was grading maps earlier today and expressing his dismay over the fact that most of the young adults he's encountering couldn't even handle elementary-level geography. Of course, I promptly laughed and said I'd have some trouble with labeling the map, too. But I went through the Florida public school system, so I'm lucky I can even spell my own name...
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