noosphere

we are too close
to the end of these sad bad times
to stop moving


what lives here:
microfiction, science, philosophy(?)
poetry, autobiography, photography
a bit of maths, art, music
and stuff

gmail at noosphere.tumblr

mikehudack:

thedailywhat:

Letter Of Note of the Day: A telegram from former U.S. Naval Operations Chief, Admiral Edward W. Eberle, cabled to all Naval stations on August 22, 1924, ahead of an extremely close Mars opposition, requesting that airwaves be monitored for potential Martian contact.

[via.]

adorable.

APOD: 2009 November 5 - Halloween’s Moon

Illuminating the landscape all through the night of November 2nd, this week’s bright Full Moon was known in the northern hemisphere as a Hunter’s Moon. But this dramatic view of the shining lunar orb, from Sobreda, Portugal, was captured just a few nights earlier, on Halloween. In the spirit of the season, the image plays a little trick. The picture is actually two digital photos - one short and one long exposure. They were combined to bring out the details of the bright lunar surface and the fainter features in the dark, surrounding clouds, in a single image. Of course, you may recognize some of the spookier shapes in the clouds as having visited your neighborhood last week, along with Halloween’s Moon.

billydalto:

From here, either a periodic table or a board game.

or maybe both!~ =)

A Vending Machine for Crows by Joshua Klein

The goal of this project is to create a device that will autonomously train crows. So far we’ve trained captive crows to deposit dropped coins they find on the ground in exchange for peanuts. The next step is to see how quickly we can get wild crows to learn the system, and then how quickly they can learn it from each other.

Once we’ve got system down for teaching coin collection we’ll move to seeing how flexibly they can learn *other* tasks, like collecting garbage, sorting through discarded electronics, or maybe even search and rescue. The crows continue to amaze us with their abilities, so who knows?

mikehudack:

thedailywhat:

Chart of the Day: “Explicit Support for Same-Sex Marriage by State and Age” (pdf) by Jeff Lax and Justin Phillips of the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. Created using data collected for a joint paper on gay rights.

Prof. Lax breaks it down:

Seven states cross the 50% mark overall as of our current estimates, but the generation gap is huge. If policy were set by state-by-state majorities of those 65 or older, none would allow same-sex marriage. If policy were set by those under 30, only 12 states would not allow-same-sex marriage.

[via.]

APOD: 2009 November 4 - Blue Sun Bristling

Explanation: Our Sun may look like all soft and fluffy, but it’s not. Our Sun is an extremely large ball of bubbling hot gas, mostly hydrogen gas. The above picture of our Sun was taken last month in a specific red color of light emitted by hydrogen gas called Hydrogen-alpha and then color inverted to appear blue. In this light, details of the Sun’s chromosphere are particularly visible, highlighting numerous thin tubes of magnetically-confined hot gas known as spicules rising from the Sun like bristles from a shag carpet. Our Sun glows because it is hot, but it is not on fire. Fire is the rapid acquisition of oxygen, and there is very little oxygen on the Sun. The energy source of our Sun is the nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium deep within its core. No sunspots or large active regions were visible on the Sun this day, although some solar prominences are visible around the edges.

mikehudack:

negevrockcity:

Mayor of London saves woman from street attack… while riding his bike.

“Boris Johnson rescued a woman from three “feral kids” who were wielding an iron bar, chasing them away on his bicycle, it emerged tonight. The mayor of London was cycling through Camden, north London, on Monday night when he answered the cry of Franny Armstrong, a documentary maker and environmental activist who was surrounded by a group of hoodie-clad young girls. Johnson stopped and chased the girls down the street, calling them “oiks”. He then returned to walk Armstrong home. “He was my knight on a shining bicycle,” she said today.”

BORIS = BETTER THAN BLOOMBERG

eScienceCommons: Ape murder-suicide leads to human drama

A conniving kingmaker and his young protégé conspire to overthrow a popular king. Their plot fails, so they murder him instead. The kingmaker then installs his protégé as ruler. The young king does not properly reward his mentor, however, so the kingmaker selects a new protégé. Together, they torment the young king to the point of madness. He throws himself into the palace moat and drowns.

The brutal power struggle reads like a Shakespearean tragedy, but it actually happened on an island of captive chimpanzees at a Holland zoo during the late 1970s. Emory primatologist Frans de Waal documented the events in his best-selling book “Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes.”

And now, in a strange case of art aping life, the true story has been turned into a fictional play – with human actors taking the names and roles of the chimpanzee characters.

“We are all apes,” is the central message of “Hominid,” (photo at top shows a rehearsal) playing at Emory Nov. 12-22. Theater Emory commissioned Atlanta’s Out of Hand Theater to create the evolution-themed work – a collaboration of playwrights’ imaginations and de Waal’s research. Scenes from a documentary by Bert Haanstra of the chimpanzees are also woven into the stage performance.