From Bryan Gaensler:
Back of envelope calc: 10^6 [1,000,000] cubic parsecs fried by #M82supernova. Approximately 5000 earth-like planets wiped out.
A really sobering thought….
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Author Archives: gmcdavid
The dirty secret behind ball lightning ….
This shows the role of luck in scientific discovery:
a team of researchers serendipitously observed ball lightning at a time when they had the right equipment to study it. Jianyong Cen, Ping Yuan, and Simin Xue were in the field measuring the properties of ordinary lightning when they happened to catch ball lightning with both their high-speed cameras and their spectrographs
Monday Night Irish Class, January 13, 2014
Irish Class, January 13, 2014
Rang Gaeilge, 13ú lá mí Eanáir 2014
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Fadas: áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ
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Coming soon to Barnes and Noble
A Dolphin Hypothesis
This is what I would expect if the experiment were actually performed.
Roman Emperors, Up To AD 476 And Not Including Usurpers, …
… In Order Of How Hardcore Their Deaths Were
Not surprisingly, the Five Good Emperors all died of natural causes. But they are definitely in the minority.
From
Comparing Temperatures
Coping with the Cold
It has been cold here in Minnesota, and Monday will be even colder, with an expected high around -15oF/-26oC. All K-12 public schools will be closed, per an order from Governor Dayton this morning. So a lot of Minnesota parents are going to be stuck at home (even the zoo will be closed) with their kids. How to cope…..
At 3:25 PM The Four Firkins, a local specialty beer store, sent out an email which included:
It’s cold. School is closed on Monday. Will you be prepared for being locked in the house with the kids all day? Alaskan Brewing is to the rescue!
Hop°thermia is brewed using Amarillo, Citra, and Centennial hops to create a juicy citrus fantasy explosion of hopcellence. The malt base is nice and toasty, and balances perfectly to the hop aromatics. Being a double IPA, it weighs in at a very warming 8.5%.
While I do not have this particular scheduling problem, I do want to try the beer. It sounds quite interesting.
Phil Plait’s First Debunking of 2014
China: The The Next Space Superpower
A lunar rover, a crewed space station, and new rockets top China’s space agenda
As 2014 dawns, China has the most active and ambitious space program in the world.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 