Vox

July 4th Lightshow

The NASA version

Eye Candy...

...or mind candy.

Either way, Anil's post made me weak in the knees. All that genius in one place - wowza!

Disembodied Space Suit

Yep, here's your chance to listen to a talking disembodied space suit as it floats through space.

Pretty cool.

Stargazing

I love the NASA RSS feed:

Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, are converging, and they're going to be beautifully close together for the next two weeks.

Rainbows

I stopped by Barnes & Noble today to pick up a book. Yeah, that'll happen. So I ended up with several, one of which is Feynman's Rainbow: A Search For Beauty in Physics and in Life. I am looking forward to reading this one - and it is all my brother's fault. He turned me into a Feynman fan early in life by introducing me to this book, Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman, a book I think everyone should read, not just those interested in science. The way he embraced life and learning was is beyond inspirational. I used to dream about meeting him just so I could shake his hand....

Also worth reading (OK, all his books are worth reading) is What Do You Care What Other People Think?. I'll let you know how this new book I got stands up as it is only about Feynman, not by him.

I also got a book of quotations, which I certainly don't need - I have shelves of quotation books and can find just about anything I need online. But it was on the clearance rack...so it was cheap.. and there might be something new there, some hidden gem....

And two computer books, one of which I went in for. And a design book, another of which I don't need. And I have so much time for reading........

 
UPDATE: I typed in quite a bit from the Feynman book because I found it "wondrous and magical" and wanted to share it. In the first chapter the author, Leonard Mlodinow, captures what it is that captured me about Feynman specifically - and physics generally. Unfortunately, a pop-up ate IE and I lost it. I am in no mood to retype it at this time. You will either have to trust me or get the book and read it for yourself. It starts on page 10, about halfway down.

Moon Illusion

Theory of Everything

Blood Suckers

Michelle Malkin (you already know how I feel about her) takes Maureen Dowd to task. Dowd, in all her quasi-intellectual superiority, suggests that Bush's reelection...

rushes backward, stifling possibilities, stirring intolerance, confusing church with state, blowing off the world, replacing science with religion, and facts with faith. We're entering another dark age, more creationist than cutting edge, more premodern than postmodern

In her world, the Bush "health care plan will probably be a return to leeches"

As Malkin points out, there is nothing to return to as leeches have continued to hold a place in successful medical treatments all along. She goes into much more detail debunking Dowd's claims - and gives us a great quote from Orrin Judd

Here's as good a definition of the difference between conservatism and liberalism as you're likely to find: liberals can't comprehend that leeches work, because we've used them for thousands of years, but they do think that Christopher Reeve would be walking around today if only they sacrificed enough lives at the altar of Stem Cell Research. And they think we're the fanatics.

Need a visual on those leeches? Fine, look here or here

Stem Cells & Alzheimers

John Kerry has come out swinging Reagan's long and unpleasant illness, and the suffering of his family and friends, as a bat to promote harvesting embryos. Telling the world that perhaps the research could have saved him, and that Nancy herself "stood up to help find a breakthrough". And she did. Many people reach for the snake oil that is offered to them in times of crisis.

But the facts in the Embryonic Stem Cell debate should not be ignored - it doesn't work. I said before that even if it offered a cure, I don't see that as a viable arguement in the harvesting of our children. The fact that it offers nothing but false hope and political leverage enforces my position.

I am in awe of Nancy Reagan and her unfailing devotion to her husband as he was taken over by this horrible disease. I am in awe of her strength this week in dealing with his passing and the Nation's desire to participate and share in her grief. She is one of my favorite First Ladies for many, many reasons. But I disagree with her request to President Bush to open up further embryonic stem cell lines to research.

(Hat Tip to T.C.H.O.T.P.)

Got To Love this

I whole-heartedly agree with Bill Brown; to heck with the genetic engineering naysayers, this is way cool

UPDATE: I think this is pretty cool, too. I would buy some if I didn't know they would die a slow painful death in my house.