Genetically modified organisms

There is a lot of discussion around GMO's these days, especially as it relates to genetically modified food. What are the arguments for and against?

Conspiracies that came to light

To continue the conspiracy theme, these I can't deny...

Current events and conspiracy

This is something I've been thinking about today after reading up on the various conspiracy theories surrounding the Boston marathon bombing. Just what we are to accept or believe when it comes to current events?

I think that anybody would (or should) admit that we cannot know with perfect certainty what happened, say, when Osama bin Laden died . The information we have is very limited. As I see it we have a few options: you could accept the official story in its entirety, you could accept that there is a government cover-up, you could accept some sort of mix of the two, or you could choose to withhold your opinion altogether.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

A few years ago I had APOD bookmarked and locked in. I would check it every day, like clockwork, and very often my mind was - how they say - blown. Somehow I forgot about it, and like the One Ring, it "passed out of all knowledge." (How's that for a double hit of the geek?) Well to continue the analogy (against my better judgement), I'm like Bilbo Baggins finding the ring again; or maybe the more appropriate analogy would be Gollum, who had the ring, lost it, and found it again (unfortunately when he was falling to his death.) But I'm getting sidetracked,

Unless....

 The Southern Ring Nebula

But as far as I can tell there is no Gollum nebula.
After the cut for more rings.

Nuclear fusion engines to propel humans to Mars

Using energy released from a fusion reaction to power a space-vehicle has been talked about for a long time. Now it appears that scientists are closing in on something efficient and doable. The efficiency is noteworthy because the problem in previous fusion experiments has been that the energy required to start the process has been greater than the energy produced, which is obviously not ideal. The newest technology encases plasma in a magnetic field which is then compressed using lithium rings to a point where fusion is initiated - say the fusion of two hydrogen atoms to create a helium atom. The energy released is funneled out through the back of the spaceship to create thrust.

Driving an engine in this way could apparently get a spacecraft to Mars in 30 days, as opposed to the current 250 days when traveling at speeds of up to 5,000 meters per second. If it takes that long traveling at those speeds, I am amazed to think of the speeds necessary to get you there in 30 days. I'm seeing ridiculous numbers like 343 km/s and even 700 km/s!

For your perusal:

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2013/04/17/missions-to-mars-and-nuclear-fusion/
http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/04/04/rocket-powered-by-nuclear-fusion-could-send-humans-to-mars/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_rocket

Wild dogs in Moscow

This morning I saw that someone had posted an article on facebook about wild dogs using the subway system in Moscow to commute. I was a little skeptical so I tried to get a sense of the truth of the story through google. I found that the exact same article with the same stock photos and videos had been posted a few times before, even as early as the year 2000. I didn't think that was a good sign, but a little more searching seemed to confirm that the story was true. It's pretty damn cool, and gives a lot of food for thought.

Here is an interesting video from ABC news on the subject:

There are thousands of stray homeless dogs in Moscow, and they have worked out some pretty clever ways to survive. A few of the most intelligent dogs have indeed figured out how to use the subway to get from where they sleep in the suburbs to the urban center where they scavenge for food. They have also honed their skills at begging; staking out places where it has been found that people are most receptive to giving out food, and even sending out the smaller "cute" dogs to beg on behalf of a pack. It's pretty remarkable stuff.

Awwww....they're just like people!

What does a lab tech do? The Third

One of the most common tests ordered when someone gets their blood drawn is a "complete blood count" or CBC. There was a time when this test would be done manually, in Hematology, but these days the tech can just pop the tube onto an automated analyzer and the results will come through less than a minute after the machine takes the sample,

Water drop photography

I found this on the very cool website io9

These are photos taken of water drops by Marcus Reugels. You can browse the pictures here: http://www.markusreugels.de/liquidart .

And here is a video showing how he does it:

Top Eight

Albums, that is - of the musical variety. Also, I'm not necessarily saying that these are the greatest albums of all time, and OMG there are no better, but to me they are somehow important, or at least they stand out. I was gonna go for ten, but I ran out of steam. You can throw the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and The Beatles' White Album into the mix too.

Hume - Of the Understanding

David Hume was twelve years old when he went to the University of Edinburgh, and fourteen or fifteen when he left. Before he was twenty the inspiration for A Treatise of Human Nature struck him, and by the time he turned twenty-five it is supposed to have been composed. The Treatise was published in 1739 with the subtitle of An attempt to introduce the experimental method of reasoning into moral subjects. I don't know what you were thinking about when you were a teenager, but I think it safe to say that Hume was something of a philosophical prodigy.

The Treatise is a massive undertaking, and would be for anyone of any age at any time. It is amazing how closely Hume touches the very nature of our understanding and reasoning, and the various operations of the mind. I'm not sure how much justice I could do it, but what the heck. Here is a summary of Book I: Of the understanding. Be warned, this will be lengthy; very lengthy indeed!

Robert Dziekański

I would say that most people in Canada are aware of the killing of Robert Dziekański by four RCMP officers. Dziekański had flown to Canada to visit his mother in October of 2007. His flight was 2 hours late, arriving at 3:15pm in Vancouver, and the baggage claim area where his mother told him to wait for her was actually a restricted area, so she was unable to meet him there. After a while it seems she went back home to Kamloops believing her son to have missed his flight; she even asked airport staff where he was, and they told her he was not in the airport.

All told, Robert, who could speak no English, was in the airport for 9 hours, and near the end was becoming extremely agitated, throwing chairs and computers around. Finally the RCMP arrived - what ensued was caught on video (it is somewhat disturbing):

Swarm intelligence

 I'm gonna just lazily copy and paste some stuff:

Of course, the most comforting application of swarm intelligence is the creation of swarms of intelligence robots.

After the cut, a national geographic article on the phenomenon.

Chris Hadfield in space

Canadian astronaut and current international space station commander Chris Hadfield has been drawing a lot of interest with his pictures, words, and video. The videos are pretty cool, if sometimes strange; see them after the cut:

 

The state of science in Canada

Democracy Watch requested that the Information Commissioner of Canada investigate "the federal government’s policies and actions to obstruct the right of the public and the media to speak to government scientists." In response to this request a 128 page report was released detailing some interesting government policies and showing just how active a role government takes in controlling what scientists and experts are able to say to the media and public via the Media Relations Headquarters. One case that is stated as an example shows how Canadian scientists attending the International Polar Year 2012 conference were given explicit instructions as to how they ought to respond to requests for interviews - basically, run it by the Media Relations Headquarters. Also:

Media Relations employees were sent to the conference to shadow Canadian

government scientists during interviews. The employees were tasked with monitoring and recording scientist interactions with the press. Although the government scientists were unwilling to speak on record about the Media Relations

staff sent to monitor them, one researcher told a CBC reporter that the strict communications measures were an embarrassment to Canada.

I think this is a sad state of affairs, but it is hardly surprising. The evidence is piling up and it seems that Harper is someone who desperately wants to control every word that comes out of any government employees mouth to ensure it doesn't contradict the approved message and narrative.