Constitutional Football
I'm not particularly interested in football - aka soccer. Nor am I at all interested in what footballers get up to on or off the pitch. However, I am greatly interested in the scientific study of that most peculiar human system know as law.
Our modern legal systems - especially the common law systems - can be traced back at least as far as Ancient Greece. In a time when arguments in court were won by the best orators and when a finding of guilt or innocence had more to do with parentage and peer groups than scientific proofs, philosophers devised methods of logical argument as a counter to methods in rhetoric.
Grímsvötn Ash Plume
Grímsvötn, an ice-capped volcano in the south of Iceland is currently erupting. The ice cap is quite extensive and thick, so unless there are unknown sub-surface fissures, extensive local flooding is unlikely to result from the eruption.
The volcano is likely to melt only the ice immediately over and adjacent to the caldera. Melt water intrusion into magma can increase the production of tephra, as happened with last year's eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. However, the ice cap of Grímsvötn is so thick that the erupting volcano will probably do no more than melt a hole through the icecap.
Zombies Ate My Research AssistantNow it can be told: the hidden truth behind the climate change hoax. Global warming may not be real, but zombies are! If you don't believe me, go argue with America's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention:
Zombie apocalypse survival guide published by US government.
Arctic Ice May 2011 - Update #1Even if it leaves you too tired to come back and read my own humble offerings - but I hope you do come back - there are two very topical blog posts that I want to recommend to you:
Tell good stories that entertain and are relevant. It is so easy to say “use simple everyday life language”, but for a scientist who are trained to do the exact opposite it hurts. Almost physically.
Arctic Ice May 2011The great thing about the scientific method is that we can figure out what will happen if we do something before we do it. Scientists figured out long ago that burning fossil fuels and putting CO2 into the atmosphere at a great rate would affect the planet's climate systems. Which it has. One of the predictions about the effect of dumping CO2 into the atmosphere was that the Arctic would be affected most. Which it has been. Scientists predicted an Arctic acceleration or amplification: a process where positive feedbacks become ever stronger with ever less Arctic ice. Ice loss is accelerating.
Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4
Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3
Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2
Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #1
