Will kids be inspired by a talking proton? A filmmaker is betting on it. Using as a plot an effort to destroy the Cassini-Huygens antenna, writer/director Harry Kloor in Quantum Quest has a photon, a neutrino and two protons setting out to save the project - and the whole universe.New Scientist has an interview with Kloor, including the struggles involved in getting actors like William Shatner, Chris Pine (so, two Captain Kirks!), Samuel L. Jackson and Amanda Peet for small(ish) budget films and criticisms from some scientists, like 'protons can't talk'.
Two human skulls were mailed to Brigham Young University recently, to a department that doesn't exist ("BYU Historical Department") with a return address that doesn't exist, "Jim Crow, Route 3-126, Augusta, Mont."
Philip K. Dick wrote over a hundred short stories, none better than "The Minority Report", where police were able to anticipate crimes rather than arrest people after the fact - leading to arrests before the fact for crimes people hadn't committed yet and a 1950s science-fiction discourse on the nature of free will.In "The Minority Report" three unaccountable mutants sit in a room mumbling gibberish until a computer sifts through it and makes projections about parallel futures created by actions; when two predictions agree it is a majority report. When a police commissioner finds out he is going to be arrested for a future murder, he goes out to find the minority report where he commits no crime.
Lady Gaga's massive 10-inch tapered heels, like her gender, may be just for show - she certainly couldn't walk around in them all day. Even three inch heels are tough. And men look silly in them; trust me, I know.Blake Snow stumbles into the physics of high heels, proving once again women are tougher than men. Once properly inspired by a man telling women about high heels, you can take the advanced course, like these high heels for high tide:
As I wrote in While Webb Bleeds, Space Science Hemorrhages, U.S. budget skepticism is going to persist as long as every big project is years behind schedule and far over budget. The nation that put a man on the moon has since seen fiascoes like the Superconducting Supercollider and now the James Webb Space Telescope.
Since oil is expensive, scientists are working on making plastic from human waste, algae and milk.One company, Novomer, is getting topically relevant in the global warming arena and making it from carbon dioxide. They a petrochemical material, add carbon dioxide and a catalyst developed by Cornell University professor Geoffrey Coates to grow a polymer. Using this process, Novomer can control the length of the molecular chain for different types of materials.Peter Shepard, Novomer's executive vice president of polymers, explained the whole thing to Discovery writer Alyssa Danigelis.
One is addicted to attention, delusions of grandeur and a belief that money exists in a magical pot that never ends - and the other is Lindsay Lohan.Allysia Finley argues that California is suffering from spending addiction like starlet Lindsay Lohan - and also a fair amount of denial. 'Smoke free restaurants' do not actually make California the envy of the world any more than the remake of "The Parent Trap" makes Lohan enviable (though she was pretty good). If you look at the decline in the California economy, it happened when the legislature started funding social activism and penalizing businesses that pay taxes - result; a whopping 12% unemployment rate though, since Lohan is 100% unemployed, California has her beat there.
The most valuable natural resources we have at our disposal during our brief lives are the Earth and the Sun. And if we want life on Earth to continue as we know it, we have to avoid destroying our own natural environment. The big questions are whether we're actually damaging it to the point of devastating destruction, and if so, what we need to do to fix it. One of the things we've measured reasonably well -- at, for instance, weather stations all across the world -- is the global average temperature since the late 19th century. Have a look.
City Hall station, which opened in 1904, has been out of use since 1945, but riders can still make the journey to this long-forgotten subway stop - if they know how. John-Paul Palescandolo was kind enough to take some pictures and tell curious folks how to visit.
I'm not saying a belief that religion will prevent global warming should mean an immediate disqualification as chair of the House Energy Committee - but I am not saying it shouldn't either.There are some areas of politics, well, most, where articles of faith work just fine - are there any atheist politicians in national office? - because politics is subjective. We hope they have some basic ideas of economics and technology but on a national energy committee, belief in higher order solutions is not credible.
