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Those who do not learn from history.....
Here the USA goes again. You think this country would learn, but noooo-oooh. Once again Tom Tomorrow nails it. What can possibly go wrong?
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More than just Mosses
My life as postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Davis is more than just mosses. I am also an active member of my postdoctoral union. The union has a number of roles such as...
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What if the Manhattan Project had been like an Alzheimer's disease drug...
The vast K-25 gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge - anengineering endeavor (Image: Nuclear Secrecy Blog)Every once in a while you will find someone comparing a major scientific or technological...
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The green wine bottle challenge
Somehow over the past several decades the Phactors have accumulated 300 or so green wine bottles of the standard type with shoulders. All of them have been cleaned of labels and there are a variety of...
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Stunning Central American Millipedes
Blue cloud forest millipede Pararhachistes potosinus, copyright Luis Stevens.For my semi-random selection of taxon to write about this week, I drew the millipede family Rhachodesmidae. Rhachodesmids...
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Poor taste marketing
TPP is late to this issue; so what? In one sense Urban Outfitters marketing a bloodied Kent State University sweatshirt almost deserved no comment, so utterly tasteless is this idea. Who in bloody...
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TALL grass prairie vegetation
One obvious aspect of field research is that you cannot apply treatments or gather data if you cannot find your permanent plots. Now least you think TPP is careless or an amateur, several precautions...
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Hearing the Islamic Call to Prayer encourages Muslims to cheat less
People placed in religious environments tend to act more morally - but what, exactly, triggers this behavioural shift? There’s been a few recent studies which I think are really interesting, because...
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Re-unite Pangaea
With all of this secessionist politics in the news, you might want a t-shirt like this to voice a more united position. A number of years ago the paleobotanists had a button that said "give Pangaea a...
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It's the most wonderful time of the year...#2014Nobels
...and the carolers are already out. Thomson Reuters already have their 2014 Nobel Prize prediction list, and pasttradition obliges me to respond. C&EN is also having a nice panel discussion on the...
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Counter productive health care plans
If you need any evidence about why the USA needs more stream-lined, efficient health care plans, today's mail brought a datum, actually data. Yes, the Phactors needed a new post-65, post-retirement...
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Does a standing desk lengthen your lifespan?
Standing desks are all the rage lately. These desks allow you to stand up while working on your computer. Some standing desks can be raised and lowered, so you can alternate during the course of the...
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Foucault and the pendulum
http://t.co/AphFwEZfQ2 #foucaultpendulum #physics #earthrotation The first public exhibition of a Foucault pendulum took place in February 1851 in the Meridian of the Paris Observatory. A few weeks...
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CERN's 60th Birthday
http://t.co/zU9b7V4idL by @ulaulaman about #CERN60 The day to celebrate CERN's birthday is arrived: The convention establishing CERN was ratified on 29 September 1954 by 12 countries in Western Europe....
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Water, water everything
This time of year is tricky for gardening especially when mild warm weather predominates, but things aren't growing so much. Gardens just don't look like it's the end of September out there, and it's...
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Triassic Research at the 4th International Paleontology Congress - 2014
Wishing I could have joined my colleagues this week for the 4th International Paleontology Congress in Mendoza, Argentina. There is a large amount of Triassic research being presented at this meeting....
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Lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Chinle Formation in Lisbon...
The stratigraphy of the Chinle Formation in Lisbon Valley, Utah has been somewhat controversial. This paper is the result of several seasons of fieldwork and provides an intense revision of the local...
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Messing with gravity
There are things you'd like to count on, and gravity is one of them, yes, even when you're at the top of a ladder. Here's the thing. Ice has mass; it's heavy because it's water, which is pretty heavy,...
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Almost, almost a great idea!
Here's a link to a fun article about a brewery in Bruges building a pipeline to the bottling plant to keep hundreds of beer tanker trucks off the roads. Now this is a pretty good time, energy saving...
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From Nash equilibria to collective behavior
https://twitter.com/ulaulaman/status/517303481565458432 by @ulaulaman about #Nash equilibria and their role in collective behavior The Nash equilibrium is an important tool in game theory: [It] is a...
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