White-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) (male?), cracking a nut on a pine limb, Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch, Colorado, July 2012:
White-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)works over a seed, Colorado, 2012 – photo by Ed Darrell
White-breasted nuthatch in action
July 21, 2012
2 Comments | 
Bird Watching, Nature, Ornithology, Science, Travel | Tagged: Bird Watching, Colorado, Nature, Ornithology, Science, Travel, White-breasted Nuthatch | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Look on the cloudy side of the street . . .
July 21, 2012. . . for the rainbow.
A view from Elbert Road, a few miles north of U.S. Highway 24 in Colorado, on July 18, 2012:
Start of a dual rainbow in an afternoon rainfall, Elbert Road, Colorado – photo by Ed Darrell
Leave a Comment » | photography, Physics, Science, Travel | Tagged: Colorado, photography, Physics, Science, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
July 16, 1945 – Trinity test, world’s first atomic bomb
July 16, 2012Another good reason to follow the National Archives on Twitter, Tumblr and other media: Great updates.
Like this one on the explosive arrival of the Atomic Age:
Atomic Age Begins
Jumbo” atomic device being positioned
Atomic Age Begins
On July 16, 1945 the United States tested a nuclear device, code named “Trinity”, for the first time in White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico.
Left: [“Jumbo” atomic device being positioned for “Trinity” test at Alamogordo, New Mexico.], 1945
Right: [“Trinity” explosion], 07/16/1945
Source: research.archives.gov
Related articles
- Trinity+67 Years: the Explosion of the First Atomic Bomb, Alamogordo, New Mexico, 1945 (longstreet.typepad.com)
- Trinity, July 16, 1945 (sandwalk.blogspot.com)
- July 16, 1945: Trinity Blast Opens Atomic Age (wired.com)
- Dinosaurs of the Atomic Age! (blogs.scientificamerican.com)
- James B. Conant on Trinity (1945) (nuclearsecrecy.com)
- Weatherwatch: Mushroom-shaped clouds and their causes (guardian.co.uk)
- Nuclear Explosions – I am become Death [34 Pics] (amazfacts.com)
Rare color photograph of the first nuclear test at Trinity site, July 16, 1945. Blurriness is in the original photograph (done when color photography was still fairly new). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
3 Comments | 1941-1945, Atomic Bomb, Geography - Physical, History, Nuclear weapons, Physics, World War II | Tagged: 16 July 1945, Atomic Age, Atomic Bomb, geography, History, National Archives, Nuclear weapon, Physics, Science, Trinity, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Manhattanhenge, Part 2
July 13, 2012I could be persuaded Instagram may have some value:
Manhattanhenge, July 12, 2012 – photo by Henry Sene Yee
Even a bigger hit the second day in July (it also occurs two days in May).
But can this be accurate?
As the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson put it on the Hayden Planetarium website, “Manhattanhenge may just be a unique urban phenomenon in the world, if not the universe.”
Surely there is a phenomenon almost as cool, somewhere in the American Midwest or Mountain West, perhaps, where the good Presbyterian, Lutheran and Mormon pioneers laid out their cities and entire states with clean Cartesian grids . . . anyone got information to correct Dr. Tyson?
Maybe the question to ask, perhaps from Tyson, is how to calculate when an east-west street in your town might get a “henge” moment.
For example, how about a special sunrise at Delicate Arch, in Arches National Park? Or at Newgrange, Ireland?
Sunrise at Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, by Alex Savage
December 20, 2009, solstice sunrise at Newgrange, Ireland – Photograph by Cyril Byrne – courtesy of The Irish Times (Astronomy Picture of the Day, NASA)
Related articles
- Tyson figures out how to make astronomy popular: Name it “Manhattanhenge,” watch the millions flock to see it (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
- Sun Turns NYC into ‘Manhattanhenge’ Tonight (space.com)
- 18 Unbelievable Manhattanhenge Photos [GALLERY] (bostinno.com)
- Manhattanhenge’s sunset show wows New Yorkers (photoblog.msnbc.msn.com)
- Sunset to transform New York City into ‘Manhattanhenge’ (csmonitor.com)
- New Yorkers marvel at ‘Manhattanhenge’ sunset (7 Pics) (mytechnologyworld9.blogspot.com)
- Manhattanhenge (thestarryeye.typepad.com)
- Sun Turns NYC into ‘Manhattanhenge’ (news.discovery.com)
- Manhattanhenge 2012, Viewing The Setting Sun As It Aligns With the East-West Streets of Manhattan (laughingsquid.com)
- Cameras roll on ‘Manhattanhenge’ (photoblog.msnbc.msn.com)
- Manhattanhenge: A Unique Bi-Annual Photo Op for New Yorkers (petapixel.com)
- Sun Turns NYC into ‘Manhattanhenge’ Tonight (livescience.com)
3 Comments | Astronomy, Geography - Physical, photography | Tagged: Arches National Park, Astronomy, Delicate Arch, geography, Manhattan, Manhattanhenge, Neil deGrasse Tyson, photography, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Tyson figures out how to make astronomy popular: Name it “Manhattanhenge,” watch the millions flock to see it
July 12, 2012
Sunrise over Stonehenge on the summer solstice, June 21, 2005 — the analogy of Manhattan’s skyscrapers to the rocks of Stonehenge is obvious (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dr. Tyson at the November 29, 2005 meeting of the NASA Advisory Council, in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Some time ago astronomy phenom Neil de Grasse Tyson mentioned the twice-a-year happenstance of the sun’s setting perfectly in line with New York City’s east-west gridded streets. On many streets, on most streets, you can watch the sun all the way down to the horizon, between the massive “rocks” of Manhattan skyscrapers, almost like watching the solstices at Stonehenge.
Tyson called it “Manhattan henge.”
July 11, 2012, the crowds turn out to see the phenomenon. How many years ago was it no one bothered to give it a second glance?
Have you seen it?
In your hometown or city, what dates would the sun set right down the east-west axis of some street, if there are any?
Manhattanhenge 2011 | The Commuter (Photo credit: MichaelTapp)
Michael Tapp photographs a lot of stuff around Manhattan, and he also provided a link to an NPR Science Friday video in which Tyson explains the phenomenon. So, go see Tapp’s work (hey, maybe buy some of it); and go see Tyson’s explanation.
The sun shines down 42nd Street in New York City at sunset during “Manhattanhenge,” May 30, 2011. Photographer: Xinhua News Agency/eyevine/Redux
According to Bloomberg/Businessweek:
On May 30 at 8:16 p.m. and again on July 11 at 8:24 p.m., Manhattanhenge reaches its point of perfection as the full setting sun aligns with the city’s grid of East-West streets, according to the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium. The best places to view the fiery canyon of skyscrapers are at 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 57th Streets. The Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building offer especially good views.
Manhattanhenge on 34th Street, by Chaitanya Kapadia / UGC – Here’s what Chaitanya Kapadia says about this picture: “I had set up on a nice spot right in the middle of 34th Street, between the double yellow lines with a few photographers wanting to get the Empire State Building in my shot. However, I should have anticipated photographers to just swarm the streets when the sun lined up with the grid. Minutes later, the police drove down the middle of the road, getting everyone out, which only meant stepping to the side until they passed you, and then right back. Took this using three exposures hand-held.”
Manhattanhenge, July 11, 2012, by Andy Dallos
More:
- Manhattanhenge (thestarryeye.typepad.com)
- Manhattanhenge Returns to NYC (wnyc.org)
- Manhattanhenge Takes NYC Again Tonight (newser.com)
- Sun Turns NYC into ‘Manhattanhenge’ Tonight (livescience.com)
- Manhattanhenge’s sunset show wows New Yorkers (photoblog.msnbc.msn.com)
- Sun Turns NYC into ‘Manhattanhenge’ Tonight (space.com)
- Here a Henge, There a Henge: Astronomy Fun on a Street Near You (blogs.scientificamerican.com)
- Manhattanhenge (cameraconnect.wordpress.com)
- New Yorkers marvel at ‘Manhattanhenge’ sunset (7 Pics) (mytechnologyworld9.blogspot.com)
- 18 Unbelievable Manhattanhenge Photos [GALLERY] (bostinno.com)
- Sun Turns NYC into ‘Manhattanhenge’ (news.discovery.com)
- Manhattanhenge’s sunset show wows New Yorkers (photoblog.msnbc.msn.com)
- Manhattanhenge Bathes New York City Streets at Sunset (newsfeed.time.com)
- Manhattanhenge Want to see more? Browse photos tagged… (instagram.com)
3 Comments | Astronomy, History, photography, Science | Tagged: Astronomy, History, Manhattanhenge, Michael Tapp, Neil deGrasse Tyson, New York City, photography, Science, Stonehenge | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
EU climate authority approved Britain’s plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
July 11, 2012It’s stunning to listen to radio, or read newspaper letters-to-the-editor sections in the U.S., and see people who argue we have no need to control carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the European Commission (EC) Climate Change Committee (CCC) approved Britain’s plan to auction pollution rights, part of the UK plan to control and limit carbon emissions.
You’d think we don’t share the same planet.
Here’s the news, from Britain’s Department of Environment and Climate Change:
EU Emissions Trading System: European Commission approves the UK’s national auction platform
Press Notice 2012/081
11 July 2012
Today the European Commission (EC) Climate Change Committee (CCC) voted to approve the UK’s national auction platform for phase III and aviation auctions under the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).
Welcoming this important vote, Greg Barker said:
“This announcement is a further step towards ensuring that we can start auctioning phase III and aviation allowances as planned. The endorsement by the EU Climate Change Committee reflects the strength of the UK’s proposal and continued leading role in carbon auctioning.”
The CCC endorsement is the latest step in the UK’s preparations for auctioning phase III and aviation allowances. Under EU rules, the Commission and Member States in the form of the CCC must first approve the platform. This will be followed by a three month scrutiny period by the European Council and Parliament. The UK expects auctioning to start in November 2012, subject to successful completion of this scrutiny process.
Following a decision by the CCC last year, Member States are due to start auctioning some 120m phase III emissions allowances early before the end of this year. The UK’s share of these allowances is 12m. Subject to EU approval, it is expected that these allowances will be auctioned in November and December this year. In addition, the UK is expected to auction approximately 7m aviation allowances by the end of 2012.
Auctions of these allowances will be held separately during the same period.
Further detailed information on the UK’s phase III and aviation auctions, including the proposed auction calendar and how to access the auctions, will follow in due course.
Notes to editors
- The European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) is at the heart of UK Government policy to tackle climate change
- The rules governing the system are set out in the EU ETS Directive; it covers sectors responsible for around half of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions
- In 2008, the EU ETS Directive was revised to make auctioning the main method for allocating emissions allowances in Phase III of the EU ETS (2013-2020). In Phase III, at least 50% of general emissions allowances will be auctioned across the EU. In addition, EU member states will auction 15% of aviation allowances
- Under the rules set out in the EU Auctioning Regulation, Member States have the option to either auction via a common EU platform, or set up their own, national platform. The UK, Germany and Poland have opted to set up national auction platforms.
- In April DECC announced that ICE Futures Europe was its preferred supplier for the contract to conduct auctions of phase III and aviation EU ETS. This followed an EU-wide competitive tender process that launched in December 2011.
- Before auctions can begin on the UK platform, the platform must first be approved by the Climate Change Committee and then be subject to a 3 month scrutiny period by the European Parliament and Council. These requirements are set out in the EU Auctioning Regulation.
- Both Germany and the European Commission (auctioning on behalf of 24 Member States) have announced their intention to start auctioning after the summer.
Further information can be found on:
- DECC’s EU ETS Phase III web page.
- The EU News [External link] web pages
More:
- Quick fix to EU carbon scheme expected in weeks (reuters.com)
- EU Pledge ‘Fair and Equal’ Access to CO2 Auction Proposal – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
- Climate Live: UK curries boosted by climate change, environmental groups launch court case over Arctic drilling and EU ETS reforms expected (rtcc.org)
- The EU-ETS: Fix it or shut-it down, Part 4 – Winners & Losers (eco-business.com)
- New cars in Europe may have to cut carbon emissions by one-third (guardian.co.uk)
- EU faces prolonged wait in aviation ETS row (junkscience.com)
- EU hails airline emissions tax a success (guardian.co.uk)
- EU Carbon Price Increases Would Intensify Crisis, Poland Says – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
- EU Commission set to announce cleaner car plans (reuters.com)
- America’s Plan to Cut Carbon: Frack Now (blogs.the-american-interest.com)
Leave a Comment » | air pollution, Climate change, climate_change, CO2, Global warming, Politics, pollution, Science | Tagged: air pollution, Climate change, Climate Change Committee, CO2, DECC, Emissions trading, Environmental protection, European Commission, Global warming, Politics, pollution, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Meanwhile, back in reality, Superfund cleanup of Torrance DDT site continues
July 11, 2012
Map of Superfund sites in California. Red indicates sites currently on final National Priority List, yellow is proposed for the list, green means a site deleted (usually due to having been cleaned up). Data from United States Environmental Protection Agency CERCLIS database available at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/phonefax/products.htm. Retrieved April 24, 2010 with last update reported as March 31, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It’s near midsummer, so the sputtering of right-wing and anti-science propaganda calls for a “return to DDT” should begin to abate, absent a serious outbreak of West Nile Virus human infections, or some fit of stupidity on the part of DDT advocates.
DDT remains a deadly poison, and you, American Taxpayer, are on the hook for millions of dollars needed to clean up legacy DDT manufacturing sites across the nation. Contrary to bizarre claims, DDT really is a poison.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works constantly at these cleanups. Comes this press release from EPA talking about a small success, a $14.6 million settlement with past property owners or users of sites in Torrance, California, designated for cleanup under the Superfund. The money will pay for cleanup of groundwater at the sites.
Links to sources other than EPA, and illustrations are added here.
EPA Reaches $14.6 million Settlement for Groundwater Cleanup at Torrance Superfund Sites
Release Date: 07/10/2012
Contact Information: Nahal Mogharabi, mogharabi.nahal@epa.gov, 213-244-1815Plant will Treat a Million Gallons per Day, Prevent Spread of ContaminationLOS ANGELES – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a $14.6 million settlement with four companies for the construction of a groundwater treatment system at the Montrose and Del Amo Superfund sites in Torrance, Calif. Construction of the treatment system is the first step in the cleanup of groundwater contaminated by chemicals used to manufacture DDT and synthetic rubber over three decades.
Once operational, the system will extract up to 700 gallons of water per minute, or a total of a million gallons each day, removing monochlorobenzene and benzene, and re-injecting the cleaned, treated water back into the aquifer. The treated water will not be served as drinking water, but will instead be re-injected to surround the contamination and prevent it from any further movement into unaffected groundwater areas. Construction of the treatment system is expected to be completed in 18 months. EPA will pursue further settlements with the four companies and other parties to ensure that additional cleanup actions are taken and the groundwater treatment system is operated and maintained until cleanup levels are met.
“One of the toxic legacies of DDT and synthetic rubber manufacturing is polluted groundwater,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “The treatment plant will be a milestone for the site, protecting the groundwater resources for the thousands of people who live or work near these former facilities.”
Montrose Chemical Corporation of California manufactured the pesticide DDT from 1947 until 1982. Monochlorobenzene was a raw material used in making DDT. The Montrose site was placed on the EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL) in 1989. The Del Amo Superfund site, located adjacent to the Montrose site, was formerly a synthetic rubber manufacturing facility that used benzene, naphthalene and ethyl benzene. The Del Amo site was placed on the NPL in September of 2002. Groundwater contamination from both sites has co-mingled and will be cleaned up by this single treatment system.
The four responsible parties for this settlement are: Montrose, Bayer CropScience Inc., News Publishing Australia Limited, and Stauffer Management Company LLC. In addition to constructing the treatment system, these parties will also pay oversight costs incurred by EPA and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
To date, extensive investigations and cleanup actions have been performed at both sites. EPA’s DDT soil removal actions in the neighborhood near the Montrose site were completed in 2002. In 1999, Shell began cleaning-up the Del Amo Superfund site, constructing a multi-layer impermeable cap over the waste pits and installation of the soil-vapor extraction and treatment system. Additional soil and soil gas cleanups at the Del Amo site are slated to begin in 2013.
The proposed consent decree for the settlement, lodged with the federal district court by the U.S. Department of Justice on July 9, 2012, is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. A copy of the proposed decree is available on the Justice Department website at: http://www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html
For more information on the Del Amo and Montrose Superfund Sites, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/socal/superfund/index.html
###
Follow the U.S. EPA’s Pacific Southwest region on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EPAregion9
And join the LinkedIn group: http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1823773/
More:
- EPA reaches cleanup deal at 2 CA Superfund sites (sacbee.com)
- Cleanup starts on highly polluted Arkema site in Northwest Portland (oregonlive.com)
- Tainted soil, water cleanup to continue at federal Superfund site in Middlesex County (nj.com)
- EPA announces soil cleanup at Marlboro Superfund site (nj.com)
- Colorado, EPA, Cotter call timeout over uranium mill cleanup (denverpost.com)
- Bayview-Hunters Point Community Weighs in on Navy’s Plan for Superfund Site (blogs.sfweekly.com)
- Businesses, Landowners Will Pay $6.6M To Fund Toxic Cleanup In South El Monte (losangeles.cbslocal.com)
- Silent Spring’s 50th anniversary: Birds sing, air is cleaner, water is cleaner (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
- First Stage of Long-awaited Lower Passaic River Cleanup Begins (gloucestercitynews.net)
- Officials discuss revitalizing former Anderson auto plants (heraldbulletin.com)
Map of NPL sites in contiguous US (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Leave a Comment » | DDT, Environment, Environmental protection, History, pollution, Science, Superfund, Water | Tagged: DDT, Del Amo, Environmental protection, EPA, History, Montrose Chemical Corporation of California, pollution, Science, Superfund, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Water | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
CERN press conference: Discovery of the Higgs boson
July 4, 2012Here is the complete press conference held today, July 4, 2012, at the CERN offices in Geneva, Switzerland. (Alas, the press conference was not held in Cedar Hill, Texas, making it a monument to the dangers of saying “we can’t be great in America any more” and refusing to appropriate money for science, or anything else good.)
This may be the biggest discovery of the decade for particle physics; it’s incredibly exciting, despite the appearance of calm. It may be the biggest discovery of the century. (We have 88 years left in the century, too.)
Description from the poster:
Published on Jul 4, 2012 by Charbax
This is the full press conference update on the search for the Higgs boson at CERN in Geneva Switzerland. This press conference followed the 2-hour Seminar that you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAlgX4FNiyM
This original CERN webcast recording was officially published at https://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1459604 but I re-uploaded it here because YouTube is best. The CERN Copyright notice seems to say doing something like this may be ok http://copyright.web.cern.ch/ but if they release this video on the official http://youtube.com/cerntv YouTube channel, I may remove this copy from my YouTube account.
So, if the video above goes dark, check the official CERN YouTube site.
Especially for middle school and high school teachers, More:
- CERN: CERN is an acronym derived from the French words for European Organization for Nuclear Research or as Wikipedia explains it concisely, “The European Organization for Nuclear Research (French: Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire), known as CERN or Cern (
/ˈsɜrn/; French pronunciation: [sɛʁn]; see History) is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border (46°14′3″N 6°3′19″E). Established in 1954, the organization has 20 European member states.” - I’ll post more basic and explanatory material, and more news links, here at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.
- CERN document server; place to download your own video of the entire press conference
- John Horgan at Scientific American blogs tries to blow through the hype on the Higgs boson discovery
- “I think we have it,” DVICE article on the press conference
- “Scientists in Geneva find a particle, stop short of calling it the Higgs boson,” Newark (New Jersey) Star-Ledger
- CERN press release, July 4, 2012: “CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs boson”
- CERN Confirms Existence of a Particle Consistent With Higgs Boson (mashable.com)
- Higgs Boson announcement from Cern: LIVE – Telegraph.co.uk (telegraph.co.uk)
- Everything You Need To Know About The Higgs Boson In Under Eight Minutes (gizmodo.com.au)
- CERN announces discovery of Higgs boson (theverge.com)
- Higgs boson hunt over: CERN scientists at Large Hadron Collider find ‘God particle’ (news.nationalpost.com)
- Higgs boson breakthrough should earn particle’s namesake the Nobel Prize: Stephen Hawking (news.nationalpost.com)
- CERN confirms existence of new particle consistent with Higgs boson (engadget.com)
- CERN Finds Evidence of the Higgs Boson (What’s Next, Star Trek Artificial Gravity?) (pcworld.com)
- Truimph at Cern as Large Hadron Collider scientists announce discovery of Higgs boson ‘God particle’ (independent.co.uk)
13 Comments | History, Physics, Research, Science | Tagged: CERN, Higgs Boson, History, Large Hadron Collider, Nuclear Physics, Physics, Research, Science, Standard Model | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Creationists, lay off Nessie (part 2)
June 29, 2012
Nessie replica in Scotland. Or, a replica of what that drunk guy claimed he saw. Based on a sketch the police wouldn’t use. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dave Does the Blog agreed, and pointed the way to Slacktivist, a blog on issues of faith and lack of faith, who also agree that creationists ought to change their tune: The Loch Ness Monster doesn’t belong in science textbooks, especially as a claim against evolution theory.
We soaked this idea a bit here at the bathtub a couple of days ago.
Slacktivist points out that the Nessie claim is taught in schools funded with public money. Your tax dollars at work, parents, teachers and politicians, teaching your children that Nessie is real.
What constitutes real science evidence, for creationism? Looking west as Nessie marches up 6th Avenue on a sunny early afternoon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What about monsters under the bed? Does the text claim they contradict evolution, too?
Related articles
- American Children Taught Nessie is Real (gizmodo.co.uk)
- Louisiana Elementary School Teaches Loch Ness Monster Refutes Darwin (jdjournal.com)
- Loch Ness monster proves Darwin wrong (freethinker.co.uk)
- Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution (boingboing.net)
- Fundamentalist Schools Using “Nessie” To Disprove Evolution (idle.slashdot.org)
Leave a Comment » | Creationism, Darwin, Education, Science, War on Education | Tagged: Accelerated Christian Education, Darwin, Education, Evolution, Loch Ness Monster, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
XKCD debunks claims of the Moon landing hoax
June 28, 2012Kenny’s right — this is a pretty good debunking of the Moon landing hoax hoax. Good old XKCD:
With debunking this clever, don’t you think this strip is one you should read every day?
Grateful tip of the old scrub brush, to Kenny Darrell in the wilds of darkest Connecticut.
More:
- Earlier at the Bathtub: “Hall of Fame: Debunking the Moon landing hoax hoax,” and “One more way to know Apollo 11 landed on the Moon“
- Moon Hoax? How do we know what really happened? (molinahistory.wordpress.com)
- Dark Side of the Moon: A Mockumentary on Stanley Kubrick and the Moon Landing Hoax (openculture.com)
- Apollo Moon Landings: A Brief History (Enhanced Version) book (cyadmooi.typepad.com)
- Stop the Lunacy! 5 Mad Myths About the Moon (livescience.com)
Buzz Aldrin on the Moon (Cropped from Image:AldrinFlag2.jpeg (now called Image:NASA AS-11-40-5875.jpg) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
4 Comments | Apollo Project, History, Hoaxes, Moon, NASA, Science | Tagged: Apollo 11, History, Hoaxes, Moon, Moon Landing, Science, XKCD | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Christians, call on this publisher to repent
June 27, 2012What would Jesus do in a case like this?
In order to question evolution theory, a publisher claiming to be Christian, publishing books to be used in nominally Christian schools that get charter school funds, claims that the Loch Ness Monster is real. Why?
[Loch Ness Monster = dinosaur] + [Alive with humans] = [Falsification of evolution theory]
Like Dave Barry, we could not make this stuff up. It’s too lunatic for fiction.
Here’s the story, from Scotsman.com (not “true Scotsman,” of course) (links added):
Loch Ness monster cited by US schools as evidence that evolution is myth
The Loch Ness monster: Used as evidence that evolution is myth*
By CLAIRE MCKIN
Published on Monday 25 June 2012 14:05THOUSANDS of American school pupils are to be taught that the Loch Ness monster is real – in an attempt by religious teachers to disprove Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Pupils attending privately-run Christian schools in the southern state of Louisiana will learn from textbooks next year, which claim Scotland’s most famous mythological beast is a living creature.
Thousands of children are to receive publicly-funded vouchers enabling them to attend the schools – which follow a strict fundamentalist curriculum.
The Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) programme teaches controversial religious beliefs, aimed at disproving evolution and proving creationism.
Youngsters will be told that if it can be proved that dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time as man, then Darwinism is fatally flawed.
Critics have slammed the content of the religious course books, labelling them “bizarre” and accusing them of promoting radical religious and political ideas.
One ACE textbook called Biology 1099, Accelerated Christian Education Inc reads: “Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence.
“Have you heard of the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland? ‘Nessie’ for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur.”
Another claim taught is that a Japanese whaling boat once caught a dinosaur.
One former pupil, Jonny Scaramanga, 27, who went through the ACE programme as a child, but now campaigns against Christian fundamentalism, said the Nessie claim was presented as “evidence” that evolution could not have happened.
He added: “The reason for that is they’re saying if Noah’s flood only happened 4,000 years ago, which they believe literally happened, then possibly a sea monster survived.
“If it was millions of years ago then that would be ridiculous. That’s their logic. It’s a common thing among creationists to believe in sea monsters.”
Private religious schools, including the Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, Louisiana, which follows the ACE curriculum, have already been cleared to receive the state voucher money transferred from public school funding, thanks to a bill pushed through by Republican state governor Bobby Jindal, a Hindu convert to Catholicism.
Boston-based researcher and writer Bruce Wilson, who specialises in the American political religious right, said: “One of these texts from Bob Jones University Press claims that dinosaurs were fire-breathing dragons. It has little to do with science as we currently understand. It’s more like medieval scholasticism.”
Mr Wilson believes that such fundamentalist Christian teaching is going on in at least 13 American states.
He added: “There’s a lot of public funding going to private schools, probably around 200,000 pupils are receiving this education.
“The majority of parents now home schooling their kids are Christian fundamentalists too. I don’t believe they should be publicly funded, I don’t believe the schools who use these texts should be publicly funded.”
And you wonder why kids turn out like they do?
Christians, you may disagree with evolution theory, or Darwin’s findings and the work of 10,000 other scientists, but do you want to perpetrate bald-faced hoaxes to defend your disagreement? Call on the publisher to change the book. Spreading falsehoods is the wrong way to go about getting at the truth.
_____________
* Yes, that’s the photo that’s been debunked a dozen times, a dozen ways. Whatever it is a photograph of, it is not the Loch Ness Monster.
More, and Related articles
- Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution (boingboing.net)
- Fundamentalist Christian Textbook Uses Nessie To Disprove Evolution (patheos.com)
- Loch Ness monster proves Darwin wrong (freethinker.co.uk)
- Fundamentalist Schools Using “Nessie” To Disprove Evolution (idle.slashdot.org)
- Louisiana Elementary School Teaches Loch Ness Monster Refutes Darwin (jdjournal.com)
- Weird Science: Taxpayer-funded religious schools in Louisiana teach monstrously bad biology (secularnewsdaily.com)
- In Louisiana schools, ‘Nessie’ is real, evolution is myth (sfgate.com)
- American Fundamentalist Schools Seek To Disprove Evolution Using Loch Ness Monster (techie-buzz.com)
- At Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
- Critics of evolution will damage the economy of Texas and the Nation, Tyson says
- Fred Flintstone waded here: Hoaxsters ready to teach creationism to Texas kids
- Dangers of creationism: Synapse shutdown
- Peppered Moths
- Dembski’s blog caught hoaxing again
- Fearful IDists can’t meet ethics challenge in Dallas
- Inherently dishonest: Creationism
- Twisting recent history (creationism), 2
- Twisting recent history (creationism), 1
12 Comments | Accuracy, Creationism, Darwin, Education, Evolution, Religion, Science, War on Education | Tagged: Accelerated Christian Education, Accuracy, Charles Darwin, Creationism, Education, Evolution, Loch Ness Monster, Religion, Science, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Whooping cough epidemic in Wenatchee, Washington, makes case for vaccinations
June 19, 2012
Professor Matthew Hay, the famous Scottish physician and public health champion, ” … assailed by the furies of typhoid, measles, influenza, whooping cough and scarlet fever,” the same furies that affect public health around the world, including Wenatchee, Washington (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Thinking about skipping the DPT shot for your kids?
Read this story out of the Wenatchee (Washington) World about what happens to a small town when a significant number of people do that, and one of the kids gets sick.
EAST WENATCHEE — With 31 cases of whooping cough reported in Chelan and Douglas counties, health officials are saying the disease has reached epidemic proportions.
“People should be taking action to prevent it from getting worse by getting their Tdap shots, especially those people who are around infants,” said Mary Small, director of community health and preparedness at the Chelan-Douglas Health District. “Infants are at highest risk for death and hospitalization.”
The shots are for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, which is also known as whooping cough.
At last report, in early May, the two counties had a total of 22 cases this year. In 2009, there were no cases of pertussis in the two counties; in 2010, there was one case; and in 2011, there were two cases and one probable case, Small said.
You say your town isn’t as isolated as Wenatchee, Alaska? Then there are higher odds that some stray person with whooping cough will wander into your town. Your town is not as small as Wenatchee? Then the odds are higher that you’ve got enough uninoculated kids to make an epidemic spread quickly.
Vaccinate the kids, will you? They don’t need whooping cough.
More, and Related Articles:
- Alberta’s new top doctor issues vaccination plea amid whooping cough outbreak (calgaryherald.com)
- Hickenlooper Promotes Whooping Cough Vaccine (denver.cbslocal.com)
- Whooping cough numbers continue to skyrocket (komonews.com)
- Whooping cough epidemic continues to surge in Wash. (komonews.com)
- Whooping cough outbreak in Kansas spurs calls for vaccinations (kansas.com)
- Adults, as well as children, need to be vaccinated against whooping cough – The Seattle Times (drugstoresource.wordpress.com)
- Whooping cough widespread but waning in Johnson County (kansascity.com)
- To be or not to be: The Prevention and Public Health Fund (The Pump Handle)
- A shot in the dark: Vaccine funding cuts a gamble for good health (Pump Handle, again)
4 Comments | Health care, Vaccinations | Tagged: DPT vaccine, Epidemic, health, Health care, Pertussis, Science, Travel, Vaccinations, Whooping Cough | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Silent Spring’s 50th anniversary: Birds sing, air is cleaner, water is cleaner
June 16, 2012Fifty years ago today New Yorker published the first of four parts of Rachel Carson‘s epic research book, Silent Spring.
Cover of New Yorker Magazine, June 16, 1962 — the issue which carried the first of four parts of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
What a difference five decades make!
People outside of it claim claim Carson started the entire environmental movement . Historians, politicians and people inside the movement don’t forget the contributions of John James Audubon, Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Moran, John Wesley Powell, Laurance Rockefeller, John Muir, Thomas Meagher, Gifford Pinchot, William H. Jackson, Frederick Law Olmsted, and dozens of others of more or lesser fame and prominence. Carson’s book still stands tall among the contributions of those giants, for its literary achievement, its voice, and its scientific foundations.
Contrary to the history of history-turning books, the controversy over Silent Spring grows stronger in the last decade. Upton Sinclair‘s fictional works on Chicago meat packing company misdeeds gets lionized in high school history courses. Thomas Malthus‘s work on population growth crops up in economics texts. Adam Smith shows up on ties. Few read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but no one defends slavery nor calls Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s book inaccurate even though it was a work of fiction.
In contrast, the attacks on Carson and Silent Spring grow more shrill — today’s Google searches find many more listings for scathing and wildly inaccurate critiques of the book than there are tributes to either.
Carson and her book deserve the praise most often denied, and they deserve little if any of the criticism. Fifty years on Silent Spring’s influence is almost universally positive.
- Carson forced the public, and scientists, to look at the wild as an integrated whole, including the plants and animals and mineral, land and ater resources, and also including the towns speckled among wild lands, and especially the farms sprawling in verdant production across most of America. Carson, almost as much as Darwin, forced scientists to see their science as part of a larger whole — study of ecosystems became important, perhaps more important that the study of individual species or locations.
- Silent Spring alerted humans that all actions in the wild have consequences in the wild, and that the tyranny of numbers affects the entire out-of-doors as much as smaller parcels. Human effects were seen as world-wide.
- Carson’s writing found firm footing in science and showed literary flair, with more than 50 pages of careful and thorough footnotes including precise citations to science research publications. This demonstrated what Richard Feynman later brilliantly described, that a knowledgeable, scientific view of nature makes it more beautiful, and more charming. This near-refutation of Mark Twain‘s philosophy of learning from Life on the Mississippi opened a new genre of literature that is non-fictional and floridly descriptive, but readable and persuasive because of its scientific accuracy.
- Silent Spring made it clear that local actions can make big environmental effects. The bird-killing, spring-silencing actions that could cause the silent spring fable in the books introduction was not a massive federal project, but was instead the result of actions of small towns and cities, county governments, and even individual farmers. Planet-saving action could be started at home, next door, in the block in the neighborhood, in the county — and did not require first approval from a national government.
- Silent Spring unabashedly pointed a finger at all of us as the culprit of the damage, and not some “other” as a bad guy. While this troubles many today, it carries with it the explicit realization that our own actions can start our own salvation. Personal responsibility becomes real in Silent Spring.
- Silent Spring made nature appear accessible to anyone with a yard, or a patch of grass nearby. This gave rebirth to the parks movement, and it encouraged countless thousands to recreation in the outdoors, and to careers outdoors as farmers, ranchers, scientists, forest and park rangers, land managers and gardeners.
- Carson specifically addressed the trade-offs required to stop pollution. DDT was a key part of the campaign to eradicate malaria from the planet, she noted. But overuse or abuse of DDT would surely lead to insect resistance to the stuff, she documented with research already a decade old that showed exactly that. If DDT overuse were allowed to continue, she said, DDT would stop being effective in the fight against malaria. The book was published in 1962. In 1965 the World Health Organization stopped its campaign against malaria in Central and Subsaharan Africa that relied on DDT. Getting support from the not-strong national governments in the region had delayed implementation (80% of all households must be treated with DDT in this program and medical care must be improved to cure malaria in human carriers to make it work). Worse, in areas yet untouched by the WHO campaign, mosquitoes were already resistant and immune to DDT due to overuse in agriculture and other fields. Within 18 months after her 1964 death, Rachel Carson had been revealed as a reluctant prophet.
- Carson alerted the world to alternatives to technological fixes, especially those that carry high costs. Carson worried about the effects on the fight against malaria if DDT was to be rendered ineffective by overuse. Few planned for that eventuality, but it happened. Happily, she also pointed to other solutions. At peak DDT use, 500 million malaria infections annually killed 4 million people worldwide. Today, mostly without DDT but instead with wiser policies of medical treatment and the use of bednets, malaria infections have been cut in half, to about 250 million annually, and malaria deaths have been reduced by 75%, to under 1 million annually. This is more impressive when one realizes the total world population more than doubled in the same time, and the area where malaria is endemic also increased. Carson told us it was possible to defeat a disease without poisoning our selves and our environment, and we have done it, to a great degree, with malaria.
- Birds still sing in the spring, the bald eagle is off the Endangered Species List, America’s air is cleaner, America’s water is cleaner, and more land is set aside for the regeneration of America’s renewable resources and our national, collective psyche in recreation. Much of this can be attributed to actions by people inspired by Rachel Carson’s book.
Rachel Carson in New Yorker, 2007, illustration by Tom Bachtell
Rachel was right. Careful research, care in writing forged by years of research and writing about research, gave Carson the voice and the research chops to write a readable, scientifically accurate call to action.
That call still sounds today, even if one must strain to hear it over the chorus of ill-informed or ill-intentioned hecklers.
More, resources and related articles:
- New Yorker commentary on the dangers of ignoring Carson’s advice and model, from 2007
- “Why we don’t believe in science,” Jonah Lehrer in New Yorker, 2012; “A new study in Cognition, led by Andrew Shtulman at Occidental College, helps explain the stubbornness of our ignorance.”
- “Silent Spring at 50,” a seminar at the University of Utah College of Law (anyone got a copy of the proceedings?) (Videos from presentations at the seminar, a production of the Wallace Stegner Center)
-
“Would a modern Silent Spring be heard over the web twitter?” Michael Bywater in the Week (UK)
- Harvard Health Blog, “Silent Spring at 50: Connecting human, environmental health”; ” It is in the Modern Library’s 100 best nonfiction books, and Discover magazine named it one of the 25 greatest science books of all time. ¶”If you haven’t read Silent Spring, the 50th anniversary is as good a time as any. Rachel Carson’s message that human health and environmental health are inextricably linked continues to resonate today, and still carries the same urgency that it did in 1962.”
- Sanctuary, Spring 2012; this is the publication of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and this issue carries several articles about Carson and Silent Spring; it also demonstrates what a great on-line publication can look like
- The Amazon Pink Dolphin’s Voice: Rachel Carson-50 years on and the DDT debates continue (selvavidasinfronteras.wordpress.com)
- Rachel Carson: The green revolutionary (independent.co.uk)
- Rachel Carson: The green revolutionary! (environmentaleducationuk.wordpress.com)
- Rachel Carson and the legacy of Silent Spring (guardian.co.uk)
- Silent Spring ~ Rachel Carson (evolutionarymystic.wordpress.com)
- Rachel Carson’s redwood dreams, and 50 years of “Silent Spring” (hcn.org)
- DDT Chronicles at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub — more than 145 articles from this blog on Rachel Carson, DDT and malaria, and the controversy that swirls around them
7 Comments | Books, DDT, History, Literature, Malaria, Rachel Carson, Science, Turning Points | Tagged: Aldo Leopold, Books, DDT, Environmental protection, Henry David Thoreau, History, John James Audubon, Literature, Malaria, Rachel Carson, Science, Silent Spring, Turning Points | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Rachel Carson’s birthday
May 28, 2012May 27 is the anniversary of the birth of Rachel Carson. Carson’s birth was May 17 1907 — 105 years ago.
1981 U.S. postage stamp honoring Rachel Carson
Good writers and good scientists deserve to be celebrated. Carson was both a good scientist and great writer. We have two reasons to celebrate her birth.
One way you might appropriately celebrate: Check with your local public library this week, to see whether they have both Carson’s book Silent Spring, and the best biography of Carson, by Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. If either one is missing, offer to donate the amount of money the library needs to purchase the book.
Spread the good words, spread the good news.
Gordo, Sunday comic strip honoring Rachel Carson, by Gus Arriola; for this strip (from the 1960s?) Arriola signed as “Frenda Mann.”
More:
1 Comment | DDT, History, Rachel Carson, Science | Tagged: DDT, History, Rachel Carson, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Eclipse? Opportunity for photographers to show off
May 24, 2012Some photographers have the patience and skills to show off well. Found this picture of last week’s eclipse, by Mark Langridge, on TwitPic:
Mark Langridge photograph of the May 20, 2012 annular eclipse
Annular eclipse of May 20, 2012 – photo by Mark Langridge via twitpic
Mr. Langridge provided details; he used a Celestron telescope with his Nikon camera:
Celestron CGEM 800 HD, Canon EOS 60Da, Kendrick Astro baadar solar filter.
Blow this image up, or go to Langridge’s TwitPic site and see it in its large format, glorious detail. You can see the mountains on the Moon . . .
1 Comment | Art, Astronomy, Natural history, photography, Science | Tagged: Art, Astronomy, Eclipse, photography, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 