Rhode Island’s Nuclear Fatality–Part I
This is in memory of Robert Peabody, a husband and father working a second job to support his family, assigned to a dangerous task in an unsafe workplace, poisoned by a nuclear reaction. There are lessons to learn, may we not forget them. It’s been almost thirty years since the Three Mile Island disaster put [...]
Scientific Advance Brings New Hope
Angela Christiano is a researcher on the front lines of hair promotion and preservation. My mom and her mother had hair loss from a young age. I have a cousin also who lost all of her hair. Ironically, hair is a big part of my family’s life. My grandfather was a barber in Italy and [...]
More and Better Predictions
Still searching for some credible psychic forecasts, but the field is pretty thin. Someone named Nikki from the Toronto Sun says that the year will be ‘up and down’, there might be earthquakes and celebrities will get married. And Michelle Obama will have twins. Maybe. I give Nikki credit for being specific, but Michelle Obama [...]
Insecure About Privacy
Before I went back to school for nursing I worked in photofinishing. I sat in a curtained booth scrolling through rolls of negatives viewing the positive images– this was done for color correction. I saw enough weddings– and cake smushings, to be glad I eloped. People would tell me that no one looks at your [...]
Kind of Fun
I used to have the SETI at Home screensaver on my desktop until it crashed. It was pretty. It would be very cool if SETI actually caught a message from the depths of space, but most likely we’ll just have to solve our own problems down here. Unless the Rapture comes. I’d bet that the [...]
We’re Watching You
This is a little unsettling. It’s been going on for years, I’m sure, but I never noticed it till now. I went on Google to look up remote control light switches– a slightly unusual piece of hardware. Now several sites I visit have flashy ads for them. Makes me glad that I never assumed my [...]
Readings for These Unreal Times
In the event you seek something other than distraction this weekend, here are some suggested readings for your edification: • Synthetic Novelty Is Not Reality – In Salon, writer David Sirota reflects on “the hullabaloo surrounding Florida pastor Terry Jones and his much-hyped plans to burn the Quran” and concludes that “we have just witnessed [...]
Igor, Julia and Karl
Three hurricanes in the Atlantic today. Follow this link to see the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s cool weather map. Your tax dollars at work. LiveScience has some fascinating hurricane history, including questions about how many hurricanes you can have at once.
Married to a Mortal
Last month the NYT had an article about the marital strain a couple will experience when the wife expects to die someday, but the husband has other plans… “You have to understand,” says Peggy, who at 54 is given to exasperation about her husband’s more exotic ideas. “I am a hospice social worker. I work [...]
Space Alien News Update
Some fascinating ideas about where SETI should look for signals. These long-distance calls being expensive, advanced civilizations are likely to keep it short and to the point… One possibility of an extraterrestrial beacon is a puzzling transient radio source some 26,000 light-years from Earth that was discovered in 2002 in the direction of the galactic [...]
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