February 2012
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January 2012
“In a profession which specialises in hypocrisy, Mr Gingrich’s performance stands...”
– Newt Gingrich harried Bill Clinton for having sex with an intern 27 years his junior when he was having sex with a staffer 23 years younger than himself. His arrogance, meanwhile, verges on monomania. He once wrote of himself as the “definer of the forces of civilisation”. (via theeconomist)
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“Many [right-wingers] (and neoliberals) love to argue that the marketplace is the...”
– Occupy Innovation: Neither the Military Nor the Market Does
Yet another example, LA Liberty, of why we need government funding of scientific research.
(via ryking)
Stunning view of a bloom from space - Phil Plait -... →
atheistfeed:
Almost exactly one year ago, I posted a beautiful picture of a phytoplankton bloom as seen from space. And here’s another one, and it’s way, _way_ more spectacular!
This shot of a bloom in the southern Atlantic Ocean was taken by the ESA’s Envirosat, which — duh — is designed to observe our…
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Cat Women of the Moon →
wagesandrevenge:
“Two-part [BBC Radio] programme exploring the popular motif in science fiction of an all-women society surviving without men. Presented by writer Sarah Hall.”
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If my last name is Logue, should its adjectival form be Logian, Loguesque, or Loguish? The final is the only one with an English precedent (rogue, roguish), but is my least favorite; the middle is the most pleasing to my eye and preserves the nominal form within it; the first has a certain intellectual quality which I enjoy as it is analogous to most eponymous scholarly adjectives (Cartesian...
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the leading tone: You know the fermata: watch the... →
leadingtone:
You know the fermata: watch the conductor, if any; ponder dinner plans; await sniffles, coughs, and candy wrappers from the audience. But did you know it is one of the most ancient musical symbols, bearing a distinguished pedigree hardly warranting its prosaic ‘birdseye’ nickname?
It was already in use by the time of Dufay, in the early 15th Century. It appears twice here in a...
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Why Are Finland's Schools Successful? →
sunrec:
In 2000, Finland’s 15-year-olds received the highest scores in reading on a standardized test called Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, taken by students around the globe. In years since, the country’s students have similarly excelled in math and science. Veteran education journalist LynNell Hancock goes inside some schools to find out what makes the Finnish...
