Like many of you (I hope!), I had a bit of a vacation this month, but nevertheless, December was still a busy one here at Anthonares.net. The list below is not a complete list of blog entries this month, but is more of a highlight reel.
- I finished my review of Tom Bethell’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science and concluded that it was mostly a work of very poor science journalism motivated by political ideology. I’m sure many of you would say that is a fairly obvious conclusion to reach, but I approached the book fairly and treated it as a work of science rather than partisan tripe.
- Continuing my weekly published research synopses, I reviewed two studies that contradict the ocean-at-Meridiani hypothesis, discussed the nature of short-hard Gamma Ray Bursts, summarized the results of several different groups from the Huygens probe, and examined a paper claiming to have detected clays on Mars that indicate widespread water early in its history
- I discussed the use of Wikipedia in science and summarized a Nature study that found the information there to be nearly as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britainica when it comes to science topics.
- A normal day suddenly became a great day for science, headed by a study revealing that a Narwhal tusk may be one of the most unique sensory instruments on the planet.
- The Daily Kos is a liberal political blog site that serves also as a common location for thousands of individual political blogs. Space Advocates need a forum like this, bulletin boards are outdated and ineffectual.
- Following an announcement that the Magnetic North Pole is wandering towards Siberia, I tried to bring some attention to media overhype of scientific results to try and quell fears that Alaska may lose its Northern Lights.
- Also in the overhype category, I did a few quick calculations to dampen fears that Taipei 101 may be causing small earthquakes in Taiwan.
- While pondering the expirability of blog entries, I wrote that the blogosphere requires ideas to constantly resurface lest they be buried by millions of other bloggers. This has the side benefit of quickly killing bad ideas, but encourages short attention spans and constant rehashing of debates as well.
As always, politics, religion, bigotry, and greed are big news stories, while 2006 looks to be a good year for science, space, and Anthonares.net, so subscribe to my feed and stay tuned!
