Monthly Archives: September 2005

The Pitch Drop Experiment

Another deep time experiment has been going on since 1927. Thomas Parnell set up an experiment to measure the viscosity of pitch, a derivative of tar once used for waterproofing boats. The Pitch Drop Experiment is a glass funnel full … Continue reading

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MossCam

In response to the Sociopathic Cephalopod movie in a previous entry, Katherine Preston sent us a link to The MossCam Project at the James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve. That’s right, a moss cam. I admit to being somewhat underwhelmed by … Continue reading

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Maybe the Feds should be watching NOVA

Our buddy CES links to this prescient 12-minute segment from NOVA’s scienceNOW which aired on January 25th, 2005. It contains this amazing quote from Walter Maestri, the emergency manager for the city of New Orleans: What really scares me to … Continue reading

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When Cephalopods Rule the Earth

At the Seattle aquarium, two Giant Pacific Octopi were put into a holding tank with several sharks for a while. The aquarium employees figured the octopi would be safe from the sharks because of their ability to hide in the … Continue reading

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Best Katrina Quote

By way of Pharyngula, we have this quote from The Sideshow: Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. (A combination of two famous sci-fi quotes: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” from Arthur C. Clarke and Hanlon’s … Continue reading

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Other Presidential Appointees besides Michael Brown

In all of the discussion on the net over whether being fired from a job overseeing judges at horse shows would qualify you to be the head of FEMA, and whether the head of the department of homeland security could … Continue reading

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A Conversation on Charles Murray and “The Inequality Taboo”

Charles Murray, one of the authors of The Bell Curve, has broken his decade-long silence on the subject of group differences in IQ. Shockingly, he’s come out of his shell to defend Larry Summers. This has seen a number of … Continue reading

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