The Staton Jones Report: Bigger Than Us All Archives

September 22, 2005

Rita Watch #1

If you are in Houston or Galveston, get out now!

Posted by Steven at 10:56 AM | Comments (1)

September 05, 2005

Satellite Pictures of New Orleans

Google Maps has added a special Katrina button when observing New Orleans. Instead of the old (and likely permanently obsolete) database of NOLA, we're treated to very recent images showing the destruction and flooding. Sobering stuff, but worth checking out. Behold the Superdome:

Posted by Tom White at 12:26 AM | Comments (0)

August 30, 2005

Stranger Than We Can Imagine

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine. -- Sir Arthur Eddington (1882-1944), English astronomer

Thanks to science and technology, in the form of the Cassini probe in Saturn space, the universe once again got stranger than we can imagine.

There is a hot spot on one of Saturn's moons which should not be there and has yet to be explained, scientists said on Tuesday.
It is located at the south pole of Enceladus, a moon with a diameter of just 500 km (310 miles) which orbits Saturn at a distance of around 238,000 km.

The hot spot is unusual because it occurs at the pole, scientists said. Usually, the hottest part of any planet or moon is around the equator, as is the case with the earth.

This suggests that the heat at Enceladus' southern pole is generated from within, said scientists from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moons.

But they acknowledged they had no idea how.

...

The scientists expected to find that the temperature was around 80 degrees Kelvin (-193 degrees Celsius, -316 degrees Fahrenheit) at its hottest point, which they assumed would be near the equator.

Instead, they found that the heat was concentrated at the south pole, where the temperature hit 91 degrees Kelvin near a series of fissures, or "tiger stripes" on the moon's surface.

"It is an extremely conspicuous hot region," Spencer told a news conference. "Something is different about that area."

The scientists have come up with two theories to explain the hot spot. The first is that the heat comes from decaying radioactive material below the moon's surface and the second is that it is caused by gravitational tides.

But they say neither theory adequately explains the heat.

One supposes the anti-science crowd might consider this to be a gate to Hell, which some poor slob forgot to close behind him.

The rest of us will wait for more data and more theorizing, and the hope that someday we'll get out there and study it in detail and from close proximity.

Because, yes, it is stranger than we can (yet) imagine.

Posted by Tom White at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2005

Homo Sapiens Andro and Gyno

Researchers studying the X chromosome have discovered that the genetic variation between human males and females is greater than the genetic variation between humans and chimpanzee.

As many as 300 of the genes on the X chromosome may be activated differently among women than among men, said molecular biologist Laura Carrel at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, the other author of the paper.
The newly discovered genetic variation among women might help account for differing gender reactions to prescription drugs and the heightened vulnerability of women to some diseases, experts said.

"The important question becomes how men and women actually vary and how much variability there is in females," Carrel said. "We now might have new candidate genes that could explain differences between men and women."

All told, men and women may differ by as much as 2% of their entire genetic inheritance, greater than the hereditary gap between humankind and its closest relative � the chimpanzee.

"In essence," Willard said, "there is not one human genome, but two � male and female."

The more we peer into ourselves, the stranger it will get.

Posted by Steven at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2005

Never Forget

Never again. Read this story if you have a human soul. If the Holocaust touches your or your family directly, get a box of tissues first. If, like me, you don't have the personal aspect but still dread the worst of humanity and cherish its best, just hold on tight.

(Moved to the extension because this could be construed as spoiler content.)

This story must be read. Other media would not do it justice. I hope it never gets filmed, because some idiot would try to tack on the ending from Spartacus or In & Out. True life poetry does not need embellishment.

Posted by at 03:16 AM | Comments (0)