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Avi Loeb And Aliens: The Right And Wrong of Science Funding. (Also Bing Image Search Brings up Porno When you Search for him)

Avi Loeb he prolific Harvard astrophysicist, dances on the edge of cosmic controversy. His research...

What Is And Is Not Plagiarism In Scientific Papers? Neri Oxman And Claudine Gay Did Nothing Seriously Wrong. A Basic Guide To Citation.

The online discourse of our time has come to the issue of plagiarism. Now Claudine Gay and Neri...

Asteroid 2007 FT3 Will Not Hit Us, And Other Predictions For 2024. Suppose It Did Hit Us.

In the past I have predicted certain things at the start of certain years.  This is a selection...

UPDATE: Claudine Gay Not Fired By Harvard. Claudine Gay Did Not Plagiarize. Weeks Later Resigns Due To Ongoing Pressure.

Christopher F Rufo has accused the president of Harvard of plagiarism in an effort so clumsy that...

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Hontas FarmerRSS Feed of this column.

Currently I am an adjunct professor at the College of DuPage. My research focuses on astrophysics from massive star formation to astroparticle physics. Born and raised in Chicagoland I have lived... Read More »

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About five phones out of 2.5 million replacement Samsung Note 7's caught fire according to Samsung and the CPSC.  That is less than one tenth of one percent.  Your odds of being hit by lightning on a sunny day are better than that.  

Here is a simple calculation.    5/2,500,000 *100  = 0.0002%   Put another way 99.9998% of Samsung Note 7 replacement  are perfectly fine.  A total of about 40 counting both the replacement and the original.  If we double the 2.5 million to get the amount of total Note 7's that 40 still means less than one hundredth of one percent

According to new work published recently the TRAPPIST-1 planets could have an atmosphere hospitable to life as we know it. Could that life be intelligent and technological if it is there?  Sadly, that is not likely.    At less than 50 light years away we have had radio technology long enough that we would have heard something from them by now.  There could have been two way communications by now and there haven’t been.  The real significance of these planets is that they could be the best extra solar candidates for human colonization. (Gillon, et al. n.d.)  I also give a break down of why the habitability of multi star solar systems, as seen in a TV show like "Firefly" isn't possible.

Friends, don’t let friends play Pokémon go alone unless they are known to be very situationally aware.  One or two images will show the problems that arise from not watching what you are doing while playing this game.  Consider where the “Pokéstops” are located.   By the by that is a name which is just begging for a double entendre meaning.    Much of the danger stems from the very thing that makes this game almost unique, it is based on augmented reality.  The space you play in is comprised of the very streets, buildings, and hazards of the real world.   Hence you need to be as warry as you would in the real world.

It did promote physical activity.

The concept origin of space-time itself as a emergent property of a collection of fundamentally quantum systems without a notion of space-time is not new. When this is done usually certain presuppositions are made about the nature of the underlying quantum system. In a recent paper posted to the arXiv by scientist out of Cal Tech develop aversion of this approach in which noting is assumed about the quantum system at the smallest scale. (Chun Jun Cao, 2016)

Systematic structural racism is not just a White-Black thing.  A Black man is less likely to be hired for a job with a community college degree than a white man who has just gotten out of prison.

Brexit, if it happens as we all fear will make the UK the Puerto Rico of Europe. No, not really... Puerto Rico has more rights as a commonwealth of the US than Britain will have in association with the EU. Puerto Rico can stay outside the union while people of that semi independent nation are full citizens of the union with free trade, free movement, and even serve on our supreme court.  All they need to do to join is hold a binding referendum and have statehood win with a 2/3 vote on a high voter turnout.