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Skepticon has proven to be a most valuable source of rational thought and interesting fodder for the Sunday disservice. In this episode, PZ Myers takes one creationist talking point and knocks it down, utterly and completely. Plus a small primer on molecular biology, all in under 50 minutes. Enjoy.
Those zany scientists, always finding out new shiny-bright science facts. The periodic table has just gotten a little more crowded say hi to as yet unnamed elements 114 and 116.
“The elements were recognized by an international committee of chemists and physicists. They’re called elements 114 and 116 for now — permanent names and symbols will be chosen later.
You’re not likely to run into any of this stuff. Scientists make them in labs by smashing atoms of other elements together to create the new ones.
“Our experiments last for many weeks, and typically, we make an atom every week or so,” said chemist Ken Moody of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who’s part of the discovery team.
In contrast to more familiar elements like carbon, gold and tin, the new ones are short-lived. Atoms of 114 disintegrate within a few seconds, while 116 disappears in just a fraction of a second, Moody said.”
Wow, these elements disappear faster than Peter McKay can change his story about flying about in helicopters on the taxpayers dime.
“Both elements were discovered by a collaboration of scientists from Livermore and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, near Moscow. They made them by smashing calcium ions into atoms of plutonium or another element, curium. The official recognition, announced last week, cites experiments done in 2004 and 2006.”
Enjoy the updated periodic table. :) – Oh and feel free to leave any suggestions for what we should call the new elements in the comments section – I’m putting forth Hawkensium and Planckium.
Think of yourself as strong willed? An outlier? I bet you’re not :) The psychology of group interactions is fascinating, and Theramin Trees explores historical and more recent research on the topic.
Mr.Mckenna on relativism and how it makes us into polite but foolish people. I see the religiously addled beginning to froth thinking perhaps that once we get rid or relativism we can get back to the unctuous vapidity of absolute morality…no no kiddies, what we are talking about here is moving debate back toward rational discourse. Delusional filled magic books and reverence for sky-daddies will get the rough treatment they deserve.
A fascinating video about how irrational we actually are as a species despite all of our material advancements. I would have to agree with what Dan Ariely says in this talk, we need to simplify our cognitive models and constructs so we can actually make rational, informed choices based on them.
How a coffee chain changed how many think about coffee…
A big thanks to tildeb over at Questionable Motives for bringing this video to my attention. The video is about the potential futures of climate change, but from a risk management perspective. It brings into stark relief the choices we are facing and some of the possible consequence of our potential action and inaction. I encourage my readership to copy and paste the video onto their blogs/social media as it is such an important issue.
Dr.Goldacre talks about a kilometer per second on this TED talk as he discusses some of the pitfalls of modern science and how bad methodology is hurting people and the profession.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…