Archive for the 'Off Topic' Category
Avoid Humans
November 4th, 2015Har! Via: Avoid Humans: Sometimes, everybody needs a break from everybody. Enter Avoid Humans—a web-based app that combs data from Foursquare and Instagram check-ins, giving you the nearest places in your area with the least amount of humans. The app is divided into four categories-nightlife, food, coffee and refuge—and each location is color coded to […]
The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy
October 14th, 2015Via: The Atlantic: When I spoke to Boyajian on the phone, she explained that her recent paper only reviews “natural” scenarios. “But,” she said, there were “other scenarios” she was considering. Jason Wright, an astronomer from Penn State University, is set to publish an alternative interpretation of the light pattern. SETI researchers have long suggested […]
NASA: Water Flows on Mars
September 28th, 2015Via: Guardian: Liquid water runs down canyons and crater walls over the summer months on Mars, according to researchers who say the discovery raises the odds of the planet being home to some form of life. The trickles leave long, dark stains on the Martian terrain that can reach hundreds of metres downhill in the […]
New Human-Like Species Discovered in South Africa
September 10th, 2015Via: BBC: Scientists have discovered a new human-like species in a burial chamber deep in a cave system in South Africa. The discovery of 15 partial skeletons is the largest single discovery of its type in Africa. The researchers claim that the discovery will change ideas about our human ancestors. The studies which have been […]
NASA: 1 Billion ‘Earths’ in Our Galaxy Alone; Estimate, “May Be a Little Low”
July 25th, 2015Via: Washington Post: During the NASA newser Thursday, I asked whether the latest Kepler data offered any new insight on the abundance of Earth-like planets around sun-like stars (the shorthand for this formulation is “eta-Earth”), and then followed up with an e-mail to NASA. Batalha, an astrophysicist who is the mission scientist for the Kepler […]
NASA’s Three-Billion-Mile Journey to Pluto Reaches Historic Encounter
July 14th, 2015Via: NASA: NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is at Pluto. After a decade-long journey through our solar system, New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto Tuesday, about 7,750 miles above the surface — roughly the same distance from New York to Mumbai, India – making it the first-ever space mission to explore a world so […]
ZQI Ammunition Factory Tour
April 14th, 2015Curious about what a modern ammo factory looks like? I was. Via: Military Arms Channel:
Plonk Reactor: Age Liquor 20 Years in 6 Days?
April 13th, 2015Via: Wired: The whiskey renaissance has the world clamoring for well-aged hooch, but the so-called brown spirits—whiskey, brandy, rum—have one widely-publicized problem. It takes time, and lots of it, to make them. Or at least to make them taste good. The booze industry has been looking for shortcuts to the aging process virtually since its […]
Enphase Promotes STEM Careers for Women
March 2nd, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems that include Enphase products in New Zealand. This is far off topic, but I thought I’d share this for people with young daughters, or for any young women who happen to be reading. The media is saturated with stories about women leaving tech jobs because of entrenched nonsense. Let’s […]
Why Animals Eat Psychoactive Plants
February 10th, 2015Via: BoingBoing: What Ronald K. Siegel discovered seems strange at first. He explains in his book Intoxication: After sampling the numbing nectar of certain orchids, bees drop to the ground in a temporary stupor, then weave back for more. Birds gorge themselves on inebriating berries, then fly with reckless abandon. Cats eagerly sniff aromatic “pleasure” […]
