Fountain Creek CBC 12/14/22

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Denver Museum of Nature and Science 1-26-19

13

petrified wood

quartz

rhodochrosite pocket

aquamarine pocket

Colorado gold

rich gold ore

amazonite and smoky quartz pocket

gnome hiding inside the escalator

paleontology hall is completely redone from what I remember

The Great American Bird Count!

This weekend (Friday to Monday) is time for the Great American Bird Count! Anyone can participate, all you have to do is go to your back yard or other easy location,and count what birds you see for 15 minutes (or more), and then report your count. This should be a fun family activity that is also useful for scientists! Details, log sheets, information on birds you're likely to see are all located at the official web site.

The Gazette has an article on it, as well.


On another note:

A recent study that I posted on Facebook reports a negative relationship between blogging quantity and Facebook/Twitter use. The study was pretty specific in its scope, but if its results may be generally applied it suggests that as people use social networks more they blog less. In my own case, it is true. If you look at my blog posts by year in the side bar, with one exception, the general trend is decreasing over time.

Why? Well, some things that used to be posted on my blog are now posted on social networking sites instead. For example, sometimes I used to post links to articles that interested me here. Now, Facebook and Twitter seem much more appropriate places to do that, as well as being more expedient places to do, using my twitthat! and Post on Facebook tabs on my browser toolbar. Even my blog itself is posted on Facebook automatically, and what appears on Facebook receives much more response/interaction than on the blog alone because people are more likely to run across it in their FB newsfeeds than they are to come to my blog.

So is the blog dead? Hmmm, not necessarily. Facebook and Twitter work best with things that are short, while blogs can "handle" reflective diatribes better (and graphics and video better in many cases, as well). Plus, its archiving features are much nicer - searchable, organized by date and by topic/tag. If I want to find something I posted in FB or Twitter, it is not so easy, nor do they show up in search engine queries like blog posts do. It is kind of interesting to view the blog as a personal history or personal journal and it keeps evolving over time. I definitely don't post as often as I once did, but I'm not ready to call it dead just yet.

What do you think - what is better blogged and what is better as a tweet or on FB?

Game time: Play "What is it?"

Click on the picture to make it big.

Post your guesses in comments.

Then, click here to see if you guessed well!

Personally, I was amazed when I read what it is a picture of - beautiful!

Ghost in Your Genes

Epigenetics is starting to come into its own and revolutionize our understanding of biology and genetics.

Men, if your grandfather entered puberty during the time of a famine, you are more likely to have a long life. Women, if your grandmother was in the womb during the time of a famine, you are more likely to die unusually young.

We are learning that it isn't only genes that are passed from generation to generation and that genes alone do not account for the diversity in our species and between identical twins. What matters even more is what genes are expressed, or turned on, and when and in what combinations. Things that you do or experience now can affect what gets turned on in your children and grandchildren. Your smoking or eating habits can lead to the cancer of your grandchild that you never even meet. Our behaviors have a bigger influence in the genetic destiny of our offspring than realized - increasing our responsibility for our actions beyond ourselves but also onto future generations to an extent never before imagined.

On the flip side, epigenetics also provides hope: Doctors are learning how, in some cases, to turn some activated genes back off to cure cancers that were hopeless cases before.


See the episode on NOVA.

The Nenana Ice Classic

I'm not advocating gambling, but I always found this contest interesting - and a wonderful source of data for AP Statistics students!

Nenana Ice Classic

Global Warming Evidence? That'd be a bit of a stretch at this point.

Bose-Einstein Condensates and Absolute Zero

I remember this being a big deal when I was working on my Physics degree - it is interesting to see how things have progressed even since I graduated.

about Bose Einstein Condensates and Absolute Zero, a few things were said in it by the scientists that struck me as having very interesting philosophical connotations.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
For one, when the atoms are cooled very close to absolute zero, they are no longer solid, liquid, or gas, but a whole other state of matter in which the particles are no longer atoms, but become like stretched out waves and their quantum states start to meld with each other so that in a sense, they all lose their identities and become one mixed state.

So when their energy is removed, their identity is removed, and what remains is unity.

Every thing has its unique energy or vibration that identifies it. Is the loss of that vibration the 'death' of that material, so that its identity leaves it? Or is it a birth of a new stage of existence, or a return to a more profound, fundamental existence?

Another interesting thing said was that although scientists have gotten within a few picoKelvin of absolute zero, to achieve truly absolute zero is an asymptote or limit. To achieve it, you would need infinite time and apparatus infinitely large.

So it is impossible to completely remove all energy, or all "being" or all "information".

The vibrations of things at least seem to continue to the extent of remembering their existence, or their Creation, impossible to be removed by other Created things. In the end when almost no energy or identity is left, there is still the sign of Origin. Every Created Being contains the sign of its Origin, even when every other "information" is taken away.

Matter itself has a relation to the presence of energy. As Einstein wrote, matter can be converted to energy and vice versa. The payout of energy converted from matter is very large (by the factor of the speed of light squared, apparently) - indicating that the form of matter contains great potential energy. Heat is a register of energy and making something colder is achieved by removing energy. Would Absolute Zero then require the loss even of that great energy contained in the form of matter itself - the loss of the matter itself?

Incidentally, the speed of light is a constant from what we know, but really it is like an index - it has different speeds in different mediums. Some scientists have passed light through Bose-Einstein condensates and slowed light almost to a stop. They are pursuing this as a potential means of storing information. The information contained in the light is "frozen" yet undamaged for later retrieval.

I found those two ideas to have a lot of implications. I saw connections or implications about the very nature of ourselves and all matter that we know, and our origins (which if you can't tell yet, means it makes me think about God). What do you think?

NOVA Intelligent Design On Trial

Nova's latest episode was a two-hour documentary of the court case in Dover, Pennsylvania about teaching Intelligent Design as an alternative to evolutionary theory. I used to teach science in middle school - biology- and this issue came up for me then. I taught at a school with a good portion of its clientele being Christians who believe that Earth is a few thousand years old, fossils were put into the Earth as they are and were never living creatures, and that other galaxies cannot be billions of light years away because the universe is also only a few thousand years old. I'm a religious person myself and also a lover of science and the pursuit of Truth, and like many other people, I think that if both religion and science are accurate on a certain point that they both happen to speak about in some way, then there will be no conflict. But some people thrive on creating fitna and conflict. On this and many other issues, I have experienced that first hand and yet I am still always a bit shocked by it, and deeply saddened.

Anyway, I watched the episode and found it to be very interesting. I've always been a fan of NOVA - I was one of those lucky kids who grew up with much of her early years in the absence of cable TV so we watched PBS instead. But, now that I have cable I still watch the same kind of shows I did then for the most part. I do find it interesting how there are a lot of science-light or pseudo-science shows out there that present as science but aren't really quite there, because ultimately they're about entertainment. And the same thing for shows on religion - I see the same phenomenon in that arena, too.

Northwest Passage is open

BBC Video report

The next Supercontinent

I find it interesting to imagine what this world would be like in the future or what it was like in the past.

One thing I always liked to imagine and wish I could see is to 'float' over a spot and see everything that ever happened there, or to witness events that answer questions of the past - such as witness the peopling of the Americas, climate changes over time, etc.

If such a world were to exist, its weather patterns would be completely different than ours - that inland sea would be interesting to see, wouldn't it?

The Equinox is Here! (On Sunday morning)

From infoplease:
In the language of science, an equinox is either of two points on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect. For the rest of us, it's one of two times a year when the sun crosses the equator, and the day and night are of approximately equal length.

At the autumnal equinox (Sept. 23, 2007, 5:51 A.M. EDT), the sun appears to cross the celestial equator, from north to south; this marks the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.

The vernal equinox, also known as “the first point of Aries,” is the point at which the sun appears to cross the celestial equator from south to north. This occurs about March 21, marking the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

On the date of either equinox, the sun is above the equator and night and day are of approximately equal length; the word equinox is often used to refer to either of these dates.

The equinoxes are not fixed points on the celestial sphere but move westward along the ecliptic, passing through all the constellations of the zodiac in 26,000 years. This motion is called the precession of the equinoxes. The vernal equinox is a reference point in the equatorial coordinate system. [My two cents: this is evidence to the ridiculousness of horoscopes, as the dates in which the sun is in a particular sign change over time and is not the same as when the astrology was created in the first place.]

More detailed information at wikipedia.


Happy Fall - my favorite season! I love the crisp air, brilliant night skies, first snow, cooler weather, nice smells and colors. And when I was a kid I was always excited about going back to school in the "fall". Further, my family has lots of fall birthdays.

Fossil

On Monday my parents had the day off and we went up near the Florissant Fossil Beds to a place where you can try to find, dig, and keep your "own" fossils. Really you don't have to dig much but you have to carefully try to pray apart layers of shale. Almost every layer has fossils in it and the sheets are too thin to get all of them, so you have to have some luck as well. In this one, you can see a nice leaf on the left, there is part of a twig to its right, there are some smaller leaves in the top right corner, etc. My dad also got one with a flying ant fossil, but mainly we found lots of twigs and a few leaves. We were only there a few hours - there are just lots of fossils and they are easy to find.

Goats Eat Weeds

Something else going on around here I'd like to see.

No rain for 400 years

Atacama Desert - World's Driest Place

Evidence suggests this desert had no real rain for 400 years, and parts of it have not seen rain in hundreds of thousands to even possibly tens of million of years.

Big Cats - A Great Loss

When will there only be images left?
Today, today. Not tomorrow; it is now.

North American Jaguar


In the news lately, I've read about the plight of the Amur Leopard. This most northern of the leopards is on the brink of extinction. Most consider its numbers already too low to salvage the population. Only about 30 survive. It is such a beautiful cat. It was featured in this week's Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel. I actually cried when I read that just last week some dumb hunter shot and beat to death one of the last 7 females. Now only 6 females are left.

As heartbreaking as that is, the tragedy exists here in the U.S. at the same level, largely ignored.

When I thought about the leopard, my mind recalled a story I had seen years and years ago about jaguars in Arizona. I remember being fascinated by the story, thinking only mountain lions or pumas of the truly big cats remained in North America. So, I checked up on it recently, and more are being sighted in Arizona, but as visitors from Mexico rather than residents, and remain ultra-rare. They, too, are on the brink of extinction - down to less than 100 individuals in Sonora, Mexico. Ranchers and poachers have killed 25 of them in the last three years.

Here is some information:
North American Jaguar
Arizona Sighting of Jaguar
Border Fence May Be Demise of Jaguars

The Florida Panther is another nearly extinct cat, with less than 100 individuals surviving as well.

Six main species of cat remain in the American wild, but many subspecies are at risk or have gone extinct in recent times. The American wild was once home to many other big cats - the American Lion, Saber Tooth Tiger, and Scimitar Cat included. Who knows how many men once saw these magnificent animals?

Who knows how many men will never be able to see an Amur Leopard, a Florida Panther, or a North American Jaguar? For once they are gone, they are gone from this world forever. Sometimes I wonder, does the animal know that he is the last generation of his kind, that no more will come after him, that his children will not survive and will not find anyone to have more children with? This last of his kind, does he wander looking for a mate, not realizing there is none to be found, perplexed over his lack of success? Or does he know he is alone in the world and feel it? Does he know why?

When he sleeps for the last time, he accepts his fate and the fate of his kind for as an animal he has only ever been submitted to God. But if the loss of his kind is due to the poor behavior of men, will he rise on the Day of Judgment when those men are questioned about him?

I'd like to be that guy

Giant crystals in Mexican cave How cool is that?

Can You Hear Me Now?

Part of me finds this totally pointless, but part of me still thinks it is cool. I guess that is true about a lot of records people try to set.

Man plans to make first cell phone call from the summit of Mt. Everest

Which came first? Lactose Intolerance, or Drinking Milk?

Evidence says: Lactose Intolerance

Don't buy premium

Many car owner's manuals will tell you it isn't worth the money, and if you've actually experimented with the different fuels you've probably noticed that where you buy it seems to make more of a difference than octane rating, and that's still not much.

Scientific American: Fact or Fiction?: Premium Gasoline Delivers Premium Benefits to Your Car
Exploding the myth that premium gasoline delivers better performance in the average automobile

How do food manufacturers calculate the calorie count of packaged foods?

Just thought it was interesting, you could check the calculation on the food labels....
written by:
S. Connery
Friday Harbor, Wa.


Jim Painter, an assistant professor of food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois, explains.
In order to answer this question, it helps to define a calorie. A calorie is a unit that is used to measure energy. The Calorie you see on a food package is actually a kilocalorie, or 1,000 calories. A Calorie (kcal) is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius. Sometimes the energy content of food is expressed in kilojoules (kj), a metric unit. One kcal equals 4.184 kj. So the Calorie on a food package is 1,000 times larger than the calorie used in chemistry and physics.

The original method used to determine the number of kcals in a given food directly measured the energy it produced.The food was placed in a sealed container surrounded by water--an apparatus known as a bomb calorimeter. The food was completely burned and the resulting rise in water temperature was measured. This method is not frequently used today.

The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 (NLEA) currently dictates what information is presented on food labels. The NLEA requires that the Calorie level placed on a packaged food be calculated from food components. According to the National Data Lab (NDL), most of the calorie values in the USDA and industry food tables are based on an indirect calorie estimation made using the so-called Atwater system. In this system, calories are not determined directly by burning the foods. Instead, the total caloric value is calculated by adding up the calories provided by the energy-containing nutrients: protein, carbohydrate, fat and alcohol. Because carbohydrates contain some fiber that is not digested and utilized by the body, the fiber component is usually subtracted from the total carbohydrate before calculating the calories.

The Atwater system uses the average values of 4 Kcal/g for protein, 4 Kcal/g for carbohydrate, and 9 Kcal/g for fat. Alcohol is calculated at 7 Kcal/g. (These numbers were originally determined by burning and then averaging.) Thus the label on an energy bar that contains 10 g of protein, 20 g of carbohydrate and 9 g of fat would read 201 kcals or Calories. A complete discussion of this subject and the calories contained in more than 6,000 foods may be found on the National Data Lab web site at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/. At this site you can also download the food database to a handheld computer. Another online tool that allows the user to total the calorie content of several foods is the Nutrition Analysis Tool at http://www.nat.uiuc.edu.