Posts tagged: Science
Merry Christmas
And Remember…

Tour the known universe in 6 minutes
The AMNH has put together this amazing tour of the entire known universe based on the most up-to-date astronomical data. Every object is in its correct location, with proper scale and movement.
Here’s the full article to go with it.
Via: Pharyngula
Don’t Diss Darwin
The NCSE has created a new site, Don’t Diss Darwin, to combat Ray Comfort’s mutilated copies of Darwin’s Origin of Species to be given away at “100 top universities” in the US (19 18, Nov. 2009) and Canada (24, Nov. 2009).

I thought someone should do the same thing to some of Comfort’s books, but if you added an introduction and cut all the nonsense out, you’d be left with nothing but the introduction.
Via: RichardDawkins.net
UPDATE: Comfort changed his plan in an attempt to counter some rationalist’s plans. He’s giving the books out TODAY. (Via: Pharyngula)
Super powers: XKCD style

They laugh now, but within 10 years the city’s entire criminal class will have quit to work on space research.
I didn’t post anything for Carl Sagan Day or his birthday. I’ve been a little busy lately with a couple of projects. XKCD does a great job as usual. It makes me wonder how many would-have-been criminals are actually working on space research because of Carl Sagan’s amazing influence.
When Galaxies Collide
Felicia Day *swoon* (and Sean Astin) try to educate the public about colliding galaxies in this hilarious NASA PSA for the Spitzer Space Telescope.
There are a lot of great little inside jokes in there. “What in the name of Joss Whedon?” And Felicia makes a wonderful point:
It just goes to show you don’t have to make up explosions or doomsday scenarios to make science interesting. Astronomy is pretty interesting on its own.
Via: The Bad Astronomer
The inconceivable nature of nature
But you gotta stop and think about it … to really get the pleasure about the complexity; the inconceivable nature of nature. – Richard Feynman
We Are All Connected
Symphony of Science has done it again. This time with appearances by Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye.
Check out their previous video, grab MP3 and FLAC files of the songs as well as video downloads at their website.
Surrounded by ignorance
Just watch this… as the video progresses, try to NOT let your mouth hang open in disbelief.
Oh… My… God! Now, I know many people are genuinely ignorant of things that don’t really affect them in their day-to-day lives. But really, America? This level of ignorance is just absurd. Apparently there are people living among us who don’t know how many sides a triangle has and don’t see something wrong on a map where the entire country of Australia is labeled “Iran” or “North Korea”.We also seem to have had THREE world wars and Hiroshima and Nagasaki are only famous for sumo wrestling.
Wow.

Via: Unrelated TechCrunch post.
A Glorious Dawn
This is just chock full of awesomeness.
Via: Pharyngula
Everything is amazing and nobody is happy
Comedian Louis C.K. reminds us just how much modern technology we take for granted.
Links in case embedding gets cut off: here and here
Isaac Asimov – The Answer for Humanity (1989)
Isaac Asimov delivers a keynote speech for the Humanist Institute’s 1st Annual Meeting on January 14, 1989. The topics lay an interesting parallel with current events. It’s almost like nothing’s happened in all this time.
The Arrival Of Homo Evolutis
In this humorous and inspirational talk, Juan Enriquez discusses the present state and future advances awaiting the human species.
Via: TED
Science flies you to the moon…
Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings. – Victor Stenger
Best. T-Shirt. EVAR!
And mine just arrived courtesy the XKCD store. Now, if only it came in a Dr. Horrible lab coat style.
Congratulations Space X!
A little bit of history was made Sunday evening at 23:16 GMT when Space X’s two-stage Falcon 1 rocket successfully made it into Earth orbit.
After three failed attempts, Space X has become the first privately owned company to send a rocket into orbit. A warm congratulations go out to everyone involved. I can’t imagine how excited they all must feel, but the cheers in the background of the video above give you some idea.
Awesome and utterly awe-inspiring! Keep an eye out around the 3:00 marker (after stage 1 separation) when the edge of Earth appears in the upper-left corner of the screen. I’m almost at a loss for words. This is just amazing.
Seriously… congratulations to everyone at Space X! You’re all heroes in my book.
















