Monthly Archives: February 2010

Everything Old… a corrective

Hi All My first reaction to the “New Scientist” reporting the conclusions of William & Arthur Edelstein was to write an angry blog-post, but then I realised that such gamma-factors (~5,000) run up against the thermal glow of the galaxy … Continue reading

Posted in Carnival | 1 Comment

Everything Old…

Dummy spit Continue reading

Posted in Cosmos, SETI, Starflight, Super-Tech | 5 Comments

Odds & Ends News 14-2-2010

Happy Valentine’s Day to all you loveable Blog-ghosts who read this page. I’ve been working on the dynamics of laser pushed reflectors – i.e. super-reflectors which can ‘reuse’ the beam thousands of times before it is absorbed and lost as … Continue reading

Posted in Cosmos, SETI, Super-Tech | 5 Comments

God of the Goofs

Theology and theodicy are fraught with pitfalls and surprises. Amateur theology even more so. Here’s a review that is a case in point… A caring God would not have designed us like this …discussing a review of a new book, … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropology, Belief or Not, Biology, Cosmos | 5 Comments

Warming White Dwarfs with Dark Matter

Two recent arXiv preprints discuss capture of Dark Matter and limits on its self-annihilation inside white dwarfs… Capture of Inelastic Dark Matter in White Dwarves Inelastic Dark Matter As An Efficient Fuel For Compact Stars …the first discusses limits for … Continue reading

Posted in Carnival, Cosmos, Energy futures, SETI | 1 Comment

A Thought…

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending … Continue reading

Posted in Carnival | 3 Comments

In Ages Long Ago II…

Nick Lane is a prolific writer and has some very interesting pieces available at “New Scientist” as well as his own web-pages. Very readable work from a biochemist. Here’s a sampler from “New Scientist”… The Big O …not orgasm, but … Continue reading

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In Ages Long Ago…

Not the opener to “Voltron”, but the latest synthetic palaeo-news. First, appropriately enough, the first tracks of the First Crawling Things… Found: The first ever animal trails …reported by “New Scientist”, some rock-hounds have discovered 565 million year old anemone … Continue reading

Posted in Biology, Cosmos, SETI, Sol Space | Leave a comment

Pluto and Beyond…

Marc Buie, Pluto guru, has spent several years of computer time – or scrapings of time over several years – to process observations of Pluto done with the HST… Unusually Rapid Changes on Pluto …reported with panache, by Paul Gilster … Continue reading

Posted in Sol Space, Starflight, Super-Tech | 1 Comment