High-resolution images show that the solar corona is filled with large, banana-shaped magnetic structures called coronal loops. It is thought that these coronal loops, some over a few 100,000 km long, play a fundamental role in governing the physics of the corona and are even responsible for huge atmospheric explosions that occur in the atmosphere, what we call solar flares.

As if a vaguely distant coach and a missing striker who doesn't like his fans is not bad enough, a new study says Scots are more patriotic than those in England. 

Dr. Jackie Abell from Lancaster University, writing in the British Psychological Society's Journal of Social Psychology, said the study set out to understand the differences between how the Scottish and the English demonstrate their nationalism via support for the national football team.

Rather than hijack Eric Diaz' excellent recent post with lengthy and tangential comments, I'll post my thoughts about the roots of war here. Machines, Organizations&Us is a column on human-machine interactions, so after laying some anthropological and ethical groundwork I'll offer speculations on relationships between technology (and our feelings about technology) and war.

One of my aikido students asked me,

The DZERO collaboration just sent to the Cornell ArXiv a paper which presents their new precise cross-section limits for the rare decay of mesons into pairs of muons. This important new article hides a small controversy, at least to my untrained eye. And since I am a bitch who thrives in the mud of controversies (or, at least some would describe me that way), let me do precisely that here.

MODIS Rapidfire For Citizen Scientists - #3

This is part #3 of a brief explanation of the NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response System - Rapidfire - together with a Howto for citizen scientists.  The first parts were -
MODIS Rapidfire For Citizen Scientists - #1
MODIS Rapidfire For Citizen Scientists - #2


In this part, I'll show you some more tips on using the Arctic mosaic and images from the various bands available.

Pinpointing the North Pole

Yesterday I posted the highly insightful and scientifically bullet proof (wink-wink, nod-nod) Robin Hood Morality Quiz—you shoulda ranked Robin, Maid Marion, Little John and the good sheriff of Nottingham from most-to-least moral. Check the chart below to see how disturbed you are. Percentages are of total respondents.

•  RH, LJ, MM, SN: A moralist with conventional ideas. Old fashioned. 5% total.
•  RH, LJ, SN, MM: Massively puritanical. Women conspire against men. 2% total.
•  RH, MM, LJ, SN: Your philosophy is a confused mix of romanticism and moralism. 4% total.

Chemistry labs just don’t smell like they used to.  When I were a lad, chemistry lessons involved a procedure called Qualitative Inorganic Analysis.  This involved bubbling hydrogen sulfide H₂S, produced in a Kipp’s apparatus, through solutions to precipitate various metals group by group.

Ok, let me get one thing straight, Dogs are not responsible for global warming, humans are.  I realise there is a vocal minority out there who are climate deniers, Like the environment minister for the Saudi government.  Talk about a biased source, the total existence of the Saudi government is dependent on the sale of oil.   Unfortunately those deniers out there resort to misinformation, and ad hominem attacks on those who have done the research.  Take that climate gate fuss.  Ok, so the guy wrote some nasty emails (who hasn’t?)  how does that change the fact

Read the following story and then rank Robin, Maid Marion, the sheriff of Nottingham and Little John from most to least moral (I'll post interpretation instructions tomorrow):

The sheriff of Nottingham has finally caught Robin Hood and Little John! Instead of killing them immediately, he makes the mistake of all storybook villains in simply stashing them in the dungeon. Despite their track record of heroics, there the two benevolent outlaws rot--until Maid Marion shows up pleading her love for Robin and begging for his release. Sure, says the sheriff, if Marion will sleep with him.

Last weekend, Boston was taken over by the Transhumanists, for the gathering of the 2010 Humanity Plus (H+) Summit at Harvard University. The H+ Summit was two glorious days of information loading, idea sharing, and networking among scientists, techno-geeks, and futurists from all domains, all with one common goal: to enhance the human condition.