Focused Rambling

Tesla (not the Hair-metal band, but the hair-raising inventor)

Nikola Tesla once tried to make electricity free for all . Now, the place where he attempted to do so is becoming the site for a renewed battle over his legacy. If you've ever been to the Science Museum and seen a Tesla Coil , you will remember the moment when your first touched it and it made all of your hair stand straight up on your head. Tesla was also active in working with better radio and a/c electrical components. Check out a video about Tesla below:

Evolutionary link?

A dive in the Bahamas has led to a discovery for a team from University of Texas at Austin that changes some Evolution thinking . They discovered "giant protozoans" that crawl along the ocean floor, and those protozoans may have created grooves in rocks that had been attributed to worms. So worms might not have been around 1.8 billion years ago... I don't think that was much of a bedrock principle for the theory anyway, but it's always interesting when logical thought is confronted with giant uphill-walking protozoans.

Evolution essays...

A new book on evolution draws on both scientific and philosophical expertise to expound on the theory, and purports to be as entertaining as it is informative. The collection of essays is the culmination of 6 years of research and editing by Michael Ruse and Joseph Travis...

Conservatives better hope Global Warming is a manufactured myth... or move to the mountains

With a new report that forecasts sea levels rising even more than expected previously , it is really getting to the point where someone needs to challenge all of the naysayers. This is either a global-scale catastrophe in the making, or a huge interwoven conspiracy involving vast numbers of unscrupulous scientists attempting to save their research grants. Beyond the fact that I tend to believe consensus that comes from a large group of professionals, it seems impossible that this disparate group of individuals that span many fields of expertise would be able to coordinate a hoax of this magnitude. Now if you were discussing hoax-enemies created by military/industrial complex to ensure that their bloated budgets remain in tact and that defense contractors earn a princely living , I would believe it... the attached picture is not part of this new sea rise study, just a visual to discuss sea level change.

40-yard wide asteroid slides by...

These little stories are always pick-me-ups (or reminders to enjoy life)... A 40-yard wide asteroid zoomed by Earth this week with little fanfare . It was deemed to be a small happening by the astronomer that tracked it, but it's still a quick reminder... Asteroids are all over the place and it's just a matter of time until something hits us (just on probabilities alone).

John Kerry challenges George Will to a mind fight on global warming...

So John Kerry has thrown down the gauntlet to one of the more respected conservative minds by challenging George Will to a debate on global warming. Kerry mocks the notion that there is a global scientific conspiracy to push a global warming agenda. Is that really necessary, do people believe that the scientific community is just signing off on anything to get more money to push their research? Come on, this isn't Tobacco or Big Business we're talking about

We are not alone... at least the probability is pretty darn good that we aren't

The Milky Way has billions of Earths ... and there is a good chance that some of them are inhabited by lifeforms much like those on Earth billions of years ago.

Could an entire baseball team ever be born from one woman at one time?

Following the recent birth of octuplets, I found it appropriate that someone out there has asked "how many babies can you fit inside one woman"...

Evolution in Texas...

The teaching of evolution in Austin, Texas required that teachers point out weaknesses in the theory as well as strengths. As the article notes, this was really just code for creationists to sprinkle seeds of doubt into student's minds as to whether evolution was really the best explanation out there. Much like the global warming debate, I don't know how many scientists you have to put out there to say that evolution is undoubtedly the best supported theory for the origins of humanity to convince some people. Luckily, in recent years it has become acceptable to some religious folk that evolution does not rule out a beginning that could be "God"... but what it does mean is that young-earth creationism doesn't fit with science of any kind, be it the theory of evolution or archaeology or astrophysics or anything else...

Eclipse treat in the Indian Ocean...

A rare solar eclipse will be visible in the Indian Ocean and parts of the Phillipines on Monday...