I have recently posted a new video presentation on my YouTube channel. In the video I talk about some of the reasons why I think the debate over Intelligent Design and biological origins is of great significance. Aside from just being a fascinating area, it has many implications in several areas of life. This video, Read More…
General interest
FYI: Footage of the Arecibo Observatory collapse
Courtesy National Science Foundation
Stuart Newman, one of the Third Way evolution scientists, on why COVID-19 is deadly to seniors
Maybe viral “cold case” detective work will become a new specialty. Newman agree that seniors should be avoid public gatherings but doesn’t think mass quarantine of the entire population is the best strategy because it prevents the development of herd immunity.
Friends point us to this handy science-friendly summary of what is known about COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) as a virus. Updated on an ongoing basis.
Discovery: Spiders fly hundreds of miles using electricity
They sense and manipulate Earth’s electric fields.
World population trends modelled 10,000 BC – 2100 AD
Here is a model of the top 15 “countries” across the span from the Agricultural Revolution onwards: Food for thought on trends and implications. Notice, the principle that trends (like pie-crusts) are made to be broken. To truly predict, we need dynamics and some reasonable idea of contingencies. Don’t forget to take reconstructions of the Read More…
Fastest known bite in the animal kingdom?
Researchers report: “The speed of a hairy frogfish’s bite is the result of a vacuum in its mouth that can suck in its prey in just 1/6000th of a second. It’s so fast that even slow-motion video struggles to capture it.”
ID Breakthrough — Syn61 marks a live case of intelligent design of a life form
Let’s read the Nature abstract: Nature (2019) Article | Published: 15 May 2019 Total synthesis of Escherichia coli with a recoded genome Julius Fredens, Kaihang Wang, Daniel de la Torre, Louise F. H. Funke, Wesley E. Robertson, Yonka Christova, Tiongsun Chia, Wolfgang H. Schmied, Daniel L. Dunkelmann, Václav Beránek, Chayasith Uttamapinant, Andres Gonzalez Llamazares, Thomas Read More…
Are high intensity and/or high blue light “white light” LED’s damaging to our health?
Of course, any high intensity light source is potentially damaging to the retina; that’s why we should not look directly at the sun or try to view a solar eclipse directly. Electric arc welding and lasers — including laser pointers — are also hazardous. Retinal burns are painless and permanent. It is believed that that Read More…
Churchill on rebuilding the traditional: “We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us”
According to news reports, already over US$ 1 billion has been pledged towards rebuilding Notre Dame: BTW: after the fire, a video tour: In today’s ever so polarised age [currently awaiting the infamous redacted Mueller Report on a two-year investigation into US President Trump], it is unsurprising that we see for example in Rolling Stone: Read More…
The ID issue vs Digital Empire/Cartel concerns: information utilities/ “superhighway” vs shadow-censoring, de-platforming information gatekeepers
The ID issue has long been a focal point for intense, often deeply polarised debate on our origins and world roots as informed by science. Science, being a major source of knowledge and understanding about our world, which also energises technological innovation and economic growth. Science is often treated as though it is the grounds Read More…
Scutoids: a New Geometric Shape found in Epithelial Cells
Here’s a new paper form Nature Communications describing a discovery of a new geometric shape that is apparently found only in curved epithelial cells. I find it intriguing that this shape is entirely new, not found elsewhere in nature, but now coined “scutoids” by the authors, and is proposed as making “possible the minimization of Read More…
Rev Dr Billy Graham has died
. . . at age 99 years. Condolences to those who mourn. Thoughts? END
Sci-Tech: Meltdown patches patched as a first wave of lawsuits hits Intel over Meltdown and Spectre [u/d, AMD sued over Spectre too]
The Meltdown-Spectre processor architectural flaw crisis we have been monitoring has deepened as Intel has to patch its initial patch: . . . and as a first wave of the inevitable lawsuits hits. Here, we clip one in San Francisco: NB: Comment 3 below links and clips documentation AMD has been sued over its Read More…
The Meltdown microprocessor architecture flaw vs control systems in industry
Let’s follow up our earlier Sci-Tech Newswatch on the Meltdown-Spectre MPU architecture flaw issue. (We see here just how hard it is to create a robust, complex design that can readily be adapted to changes in the environment. Besides, a heads up on a big but under-reported story is helpful.) In a new Jan 15, Read More…