When I wrote my kindle and online book Case for Moon First, I was surprised to find that the Moon is resource rich, and often beats Mars in habitability comparisons.  Yet photos of Mars released to the press look so much more Earth-like than the Moon, because of the brightening of the landscape and boosting of blue in the scene (white balancing) done to help geologists read the rocks.

The text below is part of a chapter of "Anomaly!" which I eventually removed from the book, mainly due to the strict page limit set by my publisher. It is a chapter that discusses the preparations for Run 2 of the Fermilab Tevatron, which started in 2002 and lasted almost 10 years. There were many, many stories connected to the construction of the CDF II detector, and it is a real pity that they did not get included in the book. So at least I can offer some of them here for your entertainment... [A disclaimer: the text has not been proofread and is in its initial, uncorrected state.]

Psychology studies the individual, and sociology studies the group. Social psychology studies the relation between the individual and the group, and for me that’s where all the action is. I study perception and the subjective organization of meaning ...

The bacterium that causes citrus greening disease, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), is not only decimating citrus orchards, it also does a number in the guts of the insect that transmits it.

Citrus greening disease, also called Huanglongbing, has taken a terrible toll on Florida's $9 billion citrus industry and infected trees have already been detected in California. It is vector-borne, which means it is spread by insects, namely the Asian citrus psyllid. 

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), one of the nation's largest environmental groups, which has been bankrolled with $50 million from the heirs to the Walmart fortune, has spent millions of dollars pushing a wholesale change in how the U.S. manages its fisheries, to the detriment of fishermen and with no benefit to nature

Michael Pollan, food activist and journalist, is the proverbial man trapped in the past in his latest piece for the New York Times, criticizing the Obama administration for not catering to his bizarre beliefs about how food production actually works, and along the way taking the opportunity to smear...me.

Dear Awareness People:

Shut the F......... (1) I'm begging you.

I already have more than enough to be aware of. Even more than I'm aware of. 

You try walking around Manhattan unaware. You won't be walking for long. Nope, there will be the usual horde of coked-up delivery guy lunatics whizzing around on bikes (sidewalks only, please) just praying for the opportunity to be the first to run you over. 

If I asked you to call 1,000 people today and screen each person for 1 minute in the hopes that 500 of them would agree to participate in an upcoming survey, you could not do it. If you spent 60 seconds making 1,000 calls it would take over 16 hours, without a break.

Nestle, the world's largest food company, has decided to embrace optimizing our microbiome, which consists of trillions of bacteria living in the digestive system and which has been linked to depression, multiple sclerosis, autism - you name it, and someone is claiming their product will fix it.

Humanities scholars mostly focus on the bereavement customs of White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) whereas Catholics, the overwhelming majority of Latinos, are overlooked in their unique funeral customs, which sometimes include overnight wakes and presenting food to the deceased.

Candi K. Cann, Ph.D., a humanities assistant professor at Baylor University took a group of her students in 2015 to a Latino funeral home in a Central Texas city where nearly 30 percent of the total population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census statistics.