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To keep LJ happy
This is to reassure LJ that I've not been abducted by space aliens, so please don't delete my account. -
I started a new job this week
After 12 years doing software development at one of the world's leading medical research institutes, I changed jobs this week ( Read more... ) -
16 years old, talented and good-looking ... and not Justin Bieber
It's not just Canada that can boast talented and good-looking 16-year-old boys. So can Britain.
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Girls have X-ray vision
Alert readers will remember that I posted an entry back in November about the curious fact that whales and seals have lost their ability to see in colour.
I've been doing a lot more reading about colour perception, and over the Christmas holidays I discovered a fascinating paper which explores the possibility that some humans have an enhanced kind ( Read more... ) -
When will the world end?
My wife and I run an astronomy-related web site, so we occasionally get emails from visitors. Mostly, their questions are thoughtful, and I enjoy answering them.
One recent query came from Gabriela in Houston, Texas. She wrote:
WHEN DO U THINK the wolrd will end cuz arnt u a scientist
I'm guessing that Gabriela has recently seen the movie 2012 ( Read more... ) -
Whales cannot see blue
I was doing some reading on colour perception recently, and came across a fascinating paper¹ by a team of scientists who had examined the eyes of whales and seals ( Read more... ) -
Happy Equinox
Summer officially ends in the northern hemisphere at 21:19 Greenwich Mean Time today. That's 5:19 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, or 2:19 p.m. for those of you on the west coast, and 1:19 p.m. for my favourite Alaskan, tko_akThe days will continue to get shorter until the solstice at 17:47 GMT on December 21st ( Read more... ) -
Physicists in Hell
Seen at the Pharyngula science blog:
There are no physicists in the hottest parts of hell, because the existence of a "hottest part" implies a temperature difference, and any marginally competent physicist would immediately use this to run a heat engine and make some other part of hell comfortably cool. This is obviously impossible.
Richard ( Read more... ) -
Spotted Dick
Spotted Dick is not a medical condition requiring a course of antibiotics. It's a very yummy suet pudding:
( Read more... )