Hubble captures fireworks

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Michael

How a theist can look at all the fantastic images Hubble has offered humanity and somehow not feel insignificant in the Universe is one of the greatest feats of arrogance there is.

This gorgeous star cluster doesn’t need a holiday to set off fireworks. Officially called NGC 3603, the small community of young stars is located about 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina.

Ultraviolet radiation and violent stellar winds from the cluster’s stars shoved away the cloud of gas and dust in which the stars formed, giving the Hubble Space Telescope’s new Wide Field Camera 3 a clear view. Hubble captured this image in August 2009 and December 2009, just a few months after the new camera was installed, in both visible and infrared light. The image shows a sharper view of the stars than an earlier image taken with Hubble’s NICMOS infrared camera in 2007, and traces sources of sulfur, hydrogen and iron.

Most of the stars in the cluster were born around the same time, but age differently depending on their masses. Clusters like NGC 3603 give astronomers a lab to study stars’ life cycles in detail, as well as a window into the origin of massive star formation in the distant universe. NGC 3603’s stars are among the most massive known. After they burn through their fuel, these stars will end their lives in spectacular supernova explosions.

Via Wired.

Filed under: Astronomy/Cosmology/Physics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Cat imitates monkey

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Michael

Ever since I first laid eyes on it, my favorite animal has been the Golden Lion Tamarin. It’s a beautiful new world monkey that’s pretty rare, but can be found in some zoos, including the one in Washington D.C. (And if I recall correctly, I believe I saw it at the Baltimore Aquarium, for some odd reason.)

Given just how stunning I find this primate, I was rather worried when I read this article about a feline, the Spotted Margay, vocally imitating tamarins as a predatory method.

Researchers first recorded the incident in 2005 when a group of eight pied tamarins were feeding in a ficus tree. They then observed a margay emitting calls similar to those made by tamarin babies. This attracted the attention of a tamarin “sentinel,” which climbed down from the tree to investigate the sounds coming from a tangle of vines called lianas. While the sentinel monkey started vocalizing to warn the rest of the group of the strange calls, the monkeys were clearly confounded by these familiar vocalizations, choosing to investigate rather than flee. Four other tamarins climbed down to assess the nature of the calls. At that moment, a margay emerged from the foliage walking down the trunk of a tree in a squirrel-like fashion, jumping down and then moving towards the monkeys. Realizing the ruse, the sentinel screamed an alarm and sent the other tamarins fleeing.

My heart raced. Everyone knows only cute animals are worthy of human sympathy, but I’ve never seen a pied tamarin. Was it as cute as a golden lion tamarin? Could this feline have been attacking something I would be willing to irresponsibly feed purely due to its cuteness?

Phew!

This encounter was actually unsuccessful, but it shows just how cunning evolution has made some cats. Locals have claimed that they have also observed this behavior in other members of the feline family, including jaguars, cougars, and ocelots. The next step will be to determine if this is true (and I suspect it is), and then do more research to determine if there is a genetic basis for these actions beyond the obvious basis of simply being feline. I lean towards the behavior being learned simply because it hasn’t been observed with captured specimens or with specimens living in vastly different areas, but also because agoutis (rodents) also find themselves a target of margay mimicry, and they make an entirely different sound from tamarins.

But the margay’s remarkable abilities are not limited to traditional feline characteristics and mimicry. Take a look at this video.

Filed under: Science | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

We have the right!

Posted on July 10, 2010 by Michael

One of the pissant arguments I’ve come to detest the most is the one that begins by pointing out that everyone has a right to free speech, at least in the U.S. It’s terrible for a couple of reasons: 1) no one said otherwise and 2) everyone already knows it. Take a look at this hick.

Around one minute into Steve Douchey leading the interview to the specifications of FOX Noise, Douchey points out that the atheist group and everyone else has the right to put up any sign. The hick agrees, further pointing out that he also has the same right.

Who the fuck was saying otherwise? Who are these people that keep vehemently insisting there is no free speech in the U.S.?

This a point which needs to die because I think I die a little inside every time I hear it.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Thought of the day

Posted on July 10, 2010 by Michael

Sexual immaturity is rampant in Christianity.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | 7 Comments »

The fight against HIV

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Michael

In biology, it’s all about shape. Enzymes, proteins, antibodies, blood vessels, cells, everything. They work best when they fit best or match in shape best. That’s why two new HIV antibodies have such potential.

Scientists report they’ve discovered possible new weapons in the war against HIV: antibody “soldiers” in the immune system that might prevent the AIDS virus from invading human cells.

According to the researchers, these newly found antibodies connect with and neutralize more than 90 percent of a group of HIV-1 strains, involving all major genetic subtypes of the virus.

That breadth of activity could potentially move research closer toward development of an HIV vaccine, although that goal still remains years away, at best, experts say.

HIV molecules evolve at a rapid pace. This makes it nearly impossible to produce antibodies at rates and in quantities sufficient to combat the disease on a long-term basis. However, there is one part of an HIV virus which remains virtually unchanged. This is important because it means there is a site with a consistent shape on the virus. That’s where these antibodies are being directed, thus offering a potentially powerful new tool in the fight against HIV.

Filed under: News, Science | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Comrade Physioprof in the comics

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Michael

Take out the first sentence and this is perfect for Comrade Major Meltdown. (He actually does really, really, really, really, really care what women think of him.)

Filed under: Humor | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

PZ’s challenge

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Michael

PZ has a post about an interview from The Daily Show with Marilynne Robinson. In it, he issues a challenge:

Name one. Name one insight religion has ever given us that could not have been made by secular philosophers, that was also useful and true.

There isn’t one. Not a one.

Filed under: Philosophy, Religions | Tagged: , , , | 12 Comments »

Full report by Muir Russell

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Michael

The full report on ‘Climategate’ by Muir Russell can be found here. Watch for how many conservatives change their tone from “The data was made up!” to just plain old ad hominen attacks on Jones et al.

Also, look at this reader comment from another article. (I’ve added italics for readability.)

“…it did revisit the now infamous e-mail exchange between Jones and a colleague in which the climatologist refers to a a ‘trick’ used to ‘hide the decline’ in a variable used to track global temperatures.
Some skeptics took that as proof that scientists were faking global temperature trends. Russell’s report rejected that conclusion, but did say the resulting graph was ‘misleading’ — although not intentionally so.”
____________________________
Russell’s report lies on this point. Clearly, if you direct someone to use a “trick” to “hide the decline” in a way that is in fact misleading, it’s just a bald-faced lie to say the deception wasn’t intentional.
Muir Russell, you lie.

This is infuriating. This user, azmaveth, aside from having a terrible user name, hasn’t even bothered to try and understand what any of the terms in the emails mean in a scientific context. He’s just another conservative who is concerned with the profit margins of corporations, not the truth of science.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , , | 5 Comments »

‘Climategate’ scientists cleared. Again.

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Michael

Imagine that.

An independent report released Wednesday into the leaked “Climategate” e-mails found no evidence to question the “rigor and honesty” of scientists involved.

The scandal fueled skepticism about the case for global warming just weeks before world leaders met to agree a global deal on climate change at a United Nations conference in Copenhagen last December.

The seven-month review, led by Muir Russell, found scientists at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) did not unduly influence reports detailing the scale of the threat of global warming produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“We went through this very carefully and we concluded that these behaviors did not damage our judgment of the integrity, the honesty, the rigor with which they had operated as scientists,” Russell said.

Some scientists were dinks towards public requests for information, however. Weird that FOX Noise has been leading with that point, huh? It’s almost like conservative ideology is more concerned with short term big business vitality than science.

Filed under: News, Science | Tagged: , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Federal gay marriage ban is unconstitutional

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Michael

In a ruling most interesting for its reasoning, the federal ban on gay marriage has been struck down.

The federal law banning gay marriage is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define the institution and therefore denies married gay couples some federal benefits, a federal judge ruled Thursday in Boston.

This ruling has both an upside and a downside and then another upside. The upside is that it says DOMA is crap. The downside is that it only really says marriage ought to be left up to the states, leaving in place all the bigot-based constitutional bans so many states have in place. But then on the other upside, this opens the door for a strong challenge using the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the constitution that says each state must respect the laws of other states. (The whole reason for DOMA was to circumvent this part of the constitution.)

I doubt many conservatives will see the legal validity in this ruling, instead ranting and raving based upon their bigotry, but this is the correct analysis. DOMA has always been an obvious violation of the constitution, no matter what one thinks about gay marriage.

But there’s a second, better ruling.

In a ruling in a separate case filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, [Judge] Tauro ruled the act violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“Congress undertook this classification for the one purpose that lies entirely outside of legislative bounds, to disadvantage a group of which it disapproves. And such a classification the Constitution clearly will not permit,” Tauro wrote.

This ruling, while also correct, is the dicier of the two. Bigots will argue that homosexuality is a choice and an act which somehow magically harms society, therefore it is okay to classify those who engage in that life style. People on the right side of history will demolish that weak, weak, weak argument by pointing out that DOMA was classifying a group of people, not particular actions. As Tauro said, the constitution does not allow for any law to specify that any group of people be limited in their rights.

Now it’s time to wait until this gets appealed to the Supreme Court.

Filed under: News, Rights, Same-sex marriage | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »