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Saltwater Crocodiles Return To Darwin

Saltwater Crocodiles Return To Darwin

Jul 05 2012 | comment(s)

A "salty" performing for it's supper.

Crocodiles and humans are natural competitors. In all our history they have been there, silently waiting in the waters of our shared world, and only in our most recent history have we had the wisdom to see their worth, magnificence and need for protection. Now, in northern Australia, we come once again into conflict with these ancient and awesome predators over who shall use the water and the resources that lay there. Will our wisdom win out?

In Case Of Alien Invasion, The Army Has Built A Special Island Fortress

In Case Of Alien Invasion, The Army Has Built A Special Island Fortress

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

Well, that Nibiru rapture on July 2nd never happened but it does not mean we are out of the woods.  In July of 1996, a barely tolerable movie called "Independence Day" had a plot where aliens invaded Earth.  It accomplished two things; the jingo-istic neo-cons in Hollywood of the Clinton years got to make July 4th a world holiday and they showed a Mac is so crappy it can ruin an alien civilization.

Maybe they also inspired the US army.  
Global Warming Is Back, Baby

Global Warming Is Back, Baby

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

You remember when temperatures became really moderate and every heat wave could no longer be called global warming because we were not warning.  We were enduring climate change instead. That makes some sense, instability is going to occur when things get weird in the atmosphere. Almost everyone thought global warming was a terrible term anyway, lacking any science justification, but global warming is a huge part of why science journalists lost the confidence of the public, and then their jobs because no one felt like journalists were trusted guides on the issue.
Food Police Chief Presides Over Hot Dog Eating Contest

Food Police Chief Presides Over Hot Dog Eating Contest

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, General in the War On Choice, is nothing if not inconsistent.  You can't decide how much salt to use in NYC or decide what size soda to buy, thanks to imperial fiat, but you can gorge yourself on hot dogs in public and be a bad role model for what Bloomberg considers the most gullible and unintelligent people in the world.

Mayor Bloomberg does not want to look hypocritical so he now says there is nothing wrong with the occasional fast food meal. Why ban something if it is occasionally okay?  I guess he means there is nothing wrong with occasional fast food as long as he decides when that occasion is. Like when it gets him a photo op.
Rolf Heuer:

Rolf Heuer: "I Think We Have It" !

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

Rolf is drawing the conclusions. He just asked the audience:

"I think we have it. Do you agree ?" And a roar of consensus fills the auditorium.

The slide says "The observation of a new particle consistent with a Higgs boson".

It is a historic milestone, but only the beginning.

A standing ovation follows. Then a connection with Melbourne, with the other auditorium applauding. Now questions in the CERN site ensuing.

Theorists take the stage, Higgs saying it is an extraordinary achievement for the lab, and that he is glad that it happened in his lifetime.

A very moving finale !
Has The Higgs Been Found? If It's A New Particle, It Is Heavy...

Has The Higgs Been Found? If It's A New Particle, It Is Heavy...

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

At CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented their latest results in the search for the Higgs particle. Both experiments see strong indications for the presence of a new particle in the mass region around 125-126 GeV and a 4.9-5 sigma signal.

When the results from the two experiments are combined, they should show a 5-sigma signal and be a discovery. If this is indeed a new particle, then it must be a boson and it would be the heaviest such particle ever found.
Higgs Live Blogging 7 - The ATLAS Seminar

Higgs Live Blogging 7 - The ATLAS Seminar

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

[ The previous entries of this live blogging series are available here (part 1) , here (part 2) , here (part 3) ,  here (part 4), and
Physicists Demand LHC Shut Down After Higgs And Higgs Nonsense

Physicists Demand LHC Shut Down After Higgs And Higgs Nonsense

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

The Higgs boson has been discovered last year. There is no news today. It is merely the significance level that is a little higher now, but even a level of so called “five sigma” (don’t worry if you do not understand it, it is arbitrary anyway) does not prove anything.
It's A Higgs (We're Pretty Sure)

It's A Higgs (We're Pretty Sure)

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

The long and complicated journey to detect the Higgs boson might finally have reached its goal, said experimental physicists at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CERN, near Geneva - and they said it with a telltale bump on a slide.

The Higgs boson is the final building block that has been missing from the "Standard Model," which describes the structure of matter in the universe. The Higgs boson combines two forces of nature and shows that they are, in fact, different aspects of a more fundamental force. The particle is also responsible for the existence of mass in the elementary particles.
Higgs Live Blogging 6 - The CMS Seminar

Higgs Live Blogging 6 - The CMS Seminar

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

[ The first three entries of this live blogging series are available here (part 1) and here (part 2) and here (part 3) and here (part 4) and
Higgs Live Blogging 5 - Draft Quotes For The Guardian Etc.

Higgs Live Blogging 5 - Draft Quotes For The Guardian Etc.

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

[ The first three entries of this live blogging series are available here (part 1) and here (part 2) and here (part 3) and here (part 4)].
Live Webcast of the CERN Higgs Announcement

Live Webcast of the CERN Higgs Announcement

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

Below is a live streaming webcast from the auditorium at CERN, where they will be revealing the latest news on the Higgs discovery.
Higgs Live Blogging 4 - Big Expectations

Higgs Live Blogging 4 - Big Expectations

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

[ The first three entries of this live blogging series are available here (part 1) and here (part 2) and here (part 3)]
Higgs Live Blogging 3 - Fundamental Bits To Decrypt The Seminars

Higgs Live Blogging 3 - Fundamental Bits To Decrypt The Seminars

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

[ The first two entries of this live blogging series are available here (part 1) and here (part 2) ]
Higgs Live Blogging 2 - Observation Versus Discovery: Myths And Truths

Higgs Live Blogging 2 - Observation Versus Discovery: Myths And Truths

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

This is the second post of a series of blogs that I am writing this morning, July 4th, to describe the ongoing happenings at CERN, where at 9AM the Higgs boson Observation will be announced by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. Please reload this page at 10 minute intervals if you want to hear the latest news, or see the previous entries.

Entry 1 - Where's the queue ?
Higgs Boson, Where Is The Queue ?

Higgs Boson, Where Is The Queue ?

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

5.30 AM. Getting in at CERN through the B entrance I see no living soul. "Ha" -I tell myself- "I have been worrying too much".

5.36 AM. But the people is all here since last night ! There is a huge queue of 180 people already, extending from the doors of the Main Auditorium all the way up the aisle and back down on the other side. Most of the higgs enthusiasts have camped since last night here, and there is even a couple of guys with wide shoulders (but a polite smile) that direct newcomers to the end of the line.

Here are a couple of pictures of the queue as of now: the head of the queue close to the doors of the auditorium,

Free Thought Blogs Closet Sexism Trips Feminista Greg Laden

Free Thought Blogs Closet Sexism Trips Feminista Greg Laden

Jul 04 2012 | comment(s)

The so called “Free Thought Blogs” (FTB) has kicked out blogger Greg Laden and some other godless chap: “Thunderfoot”. Ed Brayton, the FTB high priest, writes that:
it was intended to be very “loosy-goosy,” where we would all make decisions together like a commune; it turns out that doesn’t work very well …
There's A Reason Cats Go Blind On A Vegetarian Diet

There's A Reason Cats Go Blind On A Vegetarian Diet

Jul 03 2012 | comment(s)

Are you smarter than a cat?

Not if you are a vegetarian. Cats know what is good for them and that is why cats are basically carnivores.  Cats can't produce taurine,  2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, which is vital for eyesight. Good luck getting taurine from a vegetarian diet. But mice and other critters?  Absolutely.

Because being a vegetarian is unnatural, people in Norway are prohibited from putting their dogs or cats on vegetarian diets under the country’s Animal Welfare Act. That's right, Norwegians won't let you do to pets what PETA wants to do to all Americans.
V1647 Ori - 3 Telescopes Watch The Beating Heart Of A Newborn Star

V1647 Ori - 3 Telescopes Watch The Beating Heart Of A Newborn Star

Jul 03 2012 | comment(s)

V1647 Ori resides 1300 light-years away in McNeil’s Nebula. It is a young Sun-like star spinning at high speed and spewing out super-hot plasma and astronomers have now been able to deduce what might be happening behind the dusty disc cloaking the star. 

Three telescopes, XMM-Newton, Chandra, and Suzaku, have kept their eyes on it during two multi-year outbursts. The first lasted from 2003 to 2006; the second has been under way since 2008.  During these extended outbursts the star displays faster growth in mass, a surge in X-ray emission and a dramatic increase in temperature to 50 million degrees celsius.
Social Authoritarians Can't Cure Obesity In America, But Science Can

Social Authoritarians Can't Cure Obesity In America, But Science Can

Jul 03 2012 | comment(s)

What causes obesity?  Obviously ingesting more calories than a person burns leads to weight gain but what really causes obesity?

Will banning Big Gulps, Happy Meals and Trans fats make people thin? (1)

While a modern 'ban, legislate and micromanage' mentality about food has taken hold on the coasts of the US, obesity researchers in the middle, at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, contend handing over even more control of choice to social authoritarians won't work; we instead have to show people that just because you can eat a lot of junk food doesn't mean you should. And go for a walk once in a while.