The Xerces Society has a new website. Yay, bugs!
I mean, seriously, just because they lack endoskeletons and have more appendages than you do is no reason to get all squeamish.
Here, we’ll start you off slowly with some really, really important bugs: native honeybees and bumble bees (one of my favorites). And they’ve got all these cool books and guidelines.
or, What Democrats Don’t Understand About Morality
This is really fascinating stuff, folks.
Then watch this:
And to quote from Jonathan Haidt’s article:
Here’s my alternative definition: morality is any system of interlocking values, practices, institutions, and psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make social life possible. It turns out that human societies have found several radically different approaches to suppressing selfishness, two of which are most relevant for understanding what Democrats don’t understand about morality.
So wait, did anyone else know that dolphins make ring vortices of air and play with them like toys? If so, why didn’t you tell me? This video is the most amazing thing I saw all day. Makes me happy just thinking of it.
The Solar System’s planetary roll call just got longer. From today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day:
One of the strangest objects in the outer Solar System was classified as a dwarf planet last week and given the name Haumea. This designation makes Haumea the fifth designated dwarf planet after Pluto, Ceres, Eris, and Makemake. Haumea’s smooth but oblong shape make it extremely unusual. Along one direction, Haumea is significantly longer than Pluto, while in another direction Haumea has an extent very similar to Pluto, while in the third direction is much smaller. Haumea’s orbit sometimes brings it closer to the Sun than Pluto, but usually Haumea is further away.
It may be just a dwarf planet, but I think it’s interesting enough to visit on the Grand Tour. Who knows what we might find on that (probably) icy planet and its two little moons?
[from my GeekDad post]
Robert Woodhead, self-described Mad Overlord and all-around geek, has posted an amazing amount of detail from his recent experiment in seeing how the Diet Coke & Mentos reaction works in microgravity. It’s a modification of the now-standard geyser-producing demonstration, but with a twist: performing the trick on a Zero G flight and recording it on a high-speed camera. The Youtube video is great, but the expanded description is even better.
Continue reading “Mentos + Diet Coke + Zero G = Best. Experiment. Ever.”