Varmints and Game

Alright, this is kind of off-the-cuff, but here I go.

I was perusing some sportsman magazines recently; well, the Newfoundland Sportsman in particular, but a simple trip down google-lane will reveal similar sentiments all across Canada and the United States. That is, anti-coyote and wolf sentiments - 'varmints' as they are almost exclusively referred to in some magazines. These animals, many say, are pests that if left alone will decimate the caribou and moose populations, the former of which are experiencing declining herds populations in the province. And so the government has decided to introduce a "seasonal" coyote harvest aimed at controlling their numbers and easing pressure on the large ungulates. That season runs from September to July, and licenses are free. It's basically open season, boys, kill those 'yotes!

Camels in Canada

A research team headed up by the Canadian Museum of Nature have discovered fossil fragments from the leg of what appears to be a camel (or at least a close relative) - a camel that lived over 3 million years ago.

Pan-STARRS

http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2013/03/09/sun-diving-comet-will-be-visible/

Logical Fallacies

There's hardly a politician that speaks, hardly an argument or debate that wraps up, hardly a talking head that gives an opinion without some logical fallacy in the mix. These fallacies are usually honest attempts to prove a point, but can also be intentionally used to mislead. Here are a few:

Telekinesis

Well here is something cool. In the interest of saving time, I'm going to just post a link to the blog where I found it:

http://io9.com/5988596/this-wireless-brain-implant-could-make-telekinesis-a-reality

"In particular, this implantable neural interface technology will greatly assist in the development of advanced neuroprostheses. Once refined and proven safe for humans, it could allow disabled people to move objects remotely with their thoughts. It would be a kind of technologically-enabled telekinesis. Indeed, the project is very closely linked to the BrainGate initiative — another Brown University project that's working to develop brain interface technologies for the disabled.
And of course, this technology will very likely trickle over to non-medical applications, allowing even able-bodied people to move objects with their minds."

Indulge your inner geek

Back before my iPhone tragically fell in a river I had this cool little app called Skyview. You might have to dish out a buck or two to get it, but it is worth it. One thing I think everybody should try is to track the International Space Station and watch it pass over on a clear night. When you find the station it might be directly on the other side of Earth, but it takes surprisingly little time to come around, though I guess it is going 7.71 kilometers per second. There's no mistaking it when it passes over; it move too fast to be a plane, and it doesn't blink. It looks more like a star.

On the subject of fast things, the fastest outbound spacecraft is the Voyager I, which is now leaving the solar system at a speed of 17 km/s. The fastest man-made objects on record are the Helios probes, reaching 70 km/s on their closest approach to the Sun.

At the very least, useful information to have for trivia night.

Cyclical Time

For us in Western society the perception of time is quite simple: it goes in a straight line, it is unrecoverable, and it ends. We see time as linear. This is not wholly wrong, of course, it is easy to see why we view the passing of time in this way, but what can be said for time as a cyclical phenomenon?