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Atlas Obscura has lots of interesting places worldwide, but you can search by country etc. http://atlasobscura.com/globe/north-america/united-states I'd recommend visiting the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas http://www.atomictestingmuseum.org/ While in Vegas we meant to visit the Neon Museum, but never made it http://www.neonmuseum.org/ (Think it's also known as the Neon Boneyard) Other places I'd like to visit are the Sedan Crater, Nevada and the Trinity test site in New Mexico. Also, Griffiths Observatory in LA http://www.griffithobs.org/ which I think has a giant Tesla coil. California Academy of Sciences http://www.calacademy.org/ in SF appeals to me, after seeing it on the Discovery channel. Cheers, Phil UK

Science Museum of Minnesota is a remarkable place, esp if you want to learn about the earth's surface. They have teamed up with the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics to create some pretty amazing exhibits, including the Big Back Yard (mini-golf that teaches you about rivers) and Science on a Sphere (just go see it to see what I mean). California Academy of Science in the Golden Gate Park of San Francisco has just reopened in a remarkable new building. Its a green design with an entire tropical ecosystem contained in a 3 story tall glass sphere.

It's been many years since I was at the Exploratorium in SF, but I've since boycotted it, they had a human skeleton (you had to open a door to see it, to protect children's eyes from the sight of bones!) there was a typewritten card next to it, which mentioned that it was a male skeleton, given that female skeletons have one less pair of ribs. That's enough for me NOT to recommend a science museum.

The new California Academy of Sciences On the other hand, is awesome, my kids love it.

The brand spanking new California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. "An aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum, and a 4-story rainforest all under one roof." http://www.calacademy.org/visit/

To get some more science literacy, check out http://www.calacademy.org/. To test your already existing scientific literacy, take this Richard Carrier literacy test. If you're already confident in your knowledge, here's what other people do not know:

* Only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.
* Only 59% of adults know that the earliest humans and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
* Only 47% of adults can roughly approximate the percent of the Earth's surface that is covered with water .(*)
* Only 21% of adults answered all three questions correctly.

The linked scientific literacy test is a series of true/false questions dealing with the scientific method and no questions about random scientific facts. So the article itself proves it doesn't know the difference between scientific fact trivia and scientific literacy.

Anyone have the link to the quiz?

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So who it hotter? Ali or Ali's Sister?

you mean the DNA of these guys?

Science is fluid and ever changing. What scientists call "facts" are really just the best understanding of the world around us at this point based on the information we have. Case in point. Astronomy. Our best and brightest at one point calculated the size of the universe and with that it's age. Then they built a telescope that could see well beyond the edge. What did they find? More galaxies and stars and well... more universe. So they went back and calculated again.

That's just how science is. You only think you know everything when you know almost nothing. My own belief system/world view straddles both science and religion. I.e. I do believe that evolution happened and is continuing today. I don't believe it was all random. Note: I used the word "believe", The evidence is somewhat shaky.

I guess my mind is just too limited to accept that this universe, as wonderful, orderly and chaotic as it is was the result of random chance and the application physical laws.

Just for fun: If I was god and saw mankind label and categorize lifeforms into mammal, reptile, bird etc... I would probably sneak in something like the duck billed platypus as a practical joke.

BTW: If you missed the story about T-Rex meat see lazy links below.

http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/headline_sci ence/T-rex_soft_tissue.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7285683/

I, for one, miss our knuckle-dragging forbears. I bet they were fun at parties.

Seriously, the problem is that natural selection (the non-inteligent kind, anyway) doesn't choose the best of breed, it just mindlessly selects from whatever organisms survive. It's a stochastic process not a deterministic one.

See: Stick insect wings come and go.

He can even have the hero save the day by releasing the spider-egg eating ants in the /. story two before this one.

"The notion of a hybrid species is nonsensical. Individuals are hybrids, not entire species. Individuals descend directly from individuals, and are thus always hybrids of those individuals, at least in sexual reproduction. Species don't descend from sexual pairing of other species. Species are merely groups of individuals that are similar enough to successfully breed."

Close but no cigar.

First off the notion of what a species is, that I have read here, is not quite right. It's not as simple as "things that will interbreed".

There are species whose populations (races, klines, what have you) will not interbreed and there are different species that will interbreed.

See _Rivulins of the Old World_, Col JJ Scheel, 1968, TFH press 1968 for all sorts of neat examples of these.

"But wait!" I hear you say, "if they interbreed then they're the same species". Well, no, that's not what a species is.

The concept of species is an artificial one invented by man to make some sense of flora and fauna. He wants to pidgeon-hole them, classify them in a taxonomy (not an ontology!) so they make sense to him. But it's pretty arbitrary.

What a species is, is what the guy who knows most about them say they are. Whacked, I know, but that's the way it works.

We look for all sort of things, merisitcs, phylogony, geography, karyotype differences, DNA analysis so on and so forth, then we make an judgement call about where one species ends and where another begins. And, keep in mind, this changes over time. Animals and plants change, sometimes in as little as 5 years (Romand, Raymond, pers. commms, viz Roloffia geryi).

Plus opinions vary. Some are "spltters" who will divide populations of a currently accepted "species" into a bunch of new species and "lumpers" will do the opposite. Some poor critters vascillate back and forth decade after decade based on who published last. The ICZN acts as the scorekeeper for animals (plants have an equivalent). They make sure the rules get followed but other than that don't referee as to what's what.

Now why is there so much difference of opinion on the way these taxa are viewed? Becuase there's no right answer of course. It's all how we look at things and how we choose to classify them and in the end consensus wins and inevitably there are those who disagree. And probably always will be.

As for species that are hybrid species I can't think of an animal off the top of my head but I can offer up Cryptocoryne x willisii as an example of a hybrid "species" (there are others). It's a cross of two known plants and we're reluctant to give it species status because it's so obvioulsy a hybrid - but it's common as dirt, grows like made and one way of looking at it is that it is a species. If I write it up as such... then it is! But we're content to view it as the way we do.

Don't get me started on sub-species, that's even more messed up as the delineation between "populations" and "subspecies" is that well agreed on by scientists. I like Bill Eschemeyers example: Atlantic and Pacific salmon are subspcies of the same fish - there's a natural geographic break. If they they were separated by only a few miles or tens of miles then they're populations, not subspecies.

It's also possible they had a way on to the island, but not off, once the resources contraints began. Look at the case of Easter Island, whose inhabitants had the technology to travel hundreds of miles from Polynesia, but so thoroughly depleted their resources that they could no longer build boats to leave once the problems began.

For example, if you asked me a week ago the origin of chopsticks I (like most people) would have responded China, or parts nearby.

And you'd have been correct.

Now this totally neglects the less-than-common knowledge that they were actually created in America in the 1800s by immigrants to mining communities as a means of differentiating their restaurants from more common fare

Crap. Chopsticks have been in use in China and Japan for around 5000 years. This page includes a brief history, and you can get more details here. Note that the second article points out that a museum in Shanghi actually has a pair from the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907). There's also more nice information on Wikipedia.

For example, if you asked me a week ago the origin of chopsticks I (like most people) would have responded China, or parts nearby. Now this totally neglects the less-than-common knowledge that they were actually created in America in the 1800s by immigrants to mining communities as a means of differentiating their restaurants from more common fare

You think you are so smart with your straight eyes and Imperial traditions!
Proper persons eat with proper utensils! (I especially like the silver chopsticks)

1. Total Solar Eclipses
2. Planetary Transits
3. Naked-eye visible Supernovas

Not only do I get to see amazing astronomical events, while I am there I travel around and see wonderful and interesting parts of our own planet!

To pay for my vacations to these selected events, I have established travel investment funds (setup many years in advance) for:

• Total Solar Eclipses:
  • 29 March 2006 (Libya)
  • 01 Aug 2008 (Siberia or Mongolia)
  • 22 Jul 2009 (China or Pacific)
  • 11 Jul 2010 (Easter Island)
  • 13 Nov 2012 (high speed jet over the Pacific?)
• Planetary Transits:
  • Venus: 8 June 2004 (Italy)
  • Mercury: 8 Nov 2006 (TBD)
  • Venus: 6 June 2012 (TBD)

I also keep an emergency fund that allows me go anywhere in the world at a moments notice to see a Supernova bright enough seen with the naked eye. I had such a fund in place which allowed me to rush from California to Australia some 21 hours after the discovery of 1987A (24 Feb 1987).

Maybe next naked eye supernova viewable in my hemisphere. But if not, I have another supernova fund ready ...

I first learned about the Transit of Venus, in the early summer of 1970, during a Morrison Planetarium program of the California Academy of Science. At the age of 9 I decided that I wanted to see next transit.

I have waiting patiently for 34 years to make my transit observations. It is now only a few dozen days away!!!

1. Total Solar Eclipses
2. Planetary Transits
3. Naked-eye visible Supernovas

Not only do I get to see amazing astronomical events, while I am there I travel around and see wonderful and interesting parts of our own planet!

To pay for my vacations to these selected events, I have established travel investment funds (setup many years in advance) for:

• Total Solar Eclipses:
  • 29 March 2006 (Libya)
  • 01 Aug 2008 (Siberia or Mongolia)
  • 22 Jul 2009 (China or Pacific)
  • 11 Jul 2010 (Easter Island)
  • 13 Nov 2012 (high speed jet over the Pacific?)
• Planetary Transits:
  • Venus: 8 June 2004 (Italy)
  • Mercury: 8 Nov 2006 (TBD)
  • Venus: 6 June 2012 (TBD)

I also keep an emergency fund that allows me go anywhere in the world at a moments notice to see a Supernova bright enough seen with the naked eye. I had such a fund in place which allowed me to rush from California to Australia some 21 hours after the discovery of 1987A (24 Feb 1987).

Maybe next naked eye supernova viewable in my hemisphere. But if not, I have another supernova fund ready ...

I first learned about the Transit of Venus, in the early summer of 1970, during a Morrison Planetarium program of the California Academy of Science. At the age of 9 I decided that I wanted to see next transit.

I have waiting patiently for 34 years to make my transit observations. It is now only a few dozen days away!!!

Where the heck did you get that idea? Chopsticks were invented about 5000 years ago in China. And it's quite certain they started out as a pair of twigs back then.

bollox
cks

Please do a little googling before your post you predjudice.

Cheers,
R.

On the other hand, I'm still amazed at the pervasiveness of chopsticks in Asia, despite their invention by Chinese immigrants in U.S. mining communities in the 1800s as a way of promoting their unique (and tasty) cuisine.

Am I missing a subtle joke here? Google and The California Academy of Sciences assure me that chopsticks have been in use for over 5,000 years.


Chopsticks were developed about 5,000 years ago in China. ...

The pieces of food were small enough that they negated the need for knives at the dinner table, and chopsticks became staple utensils. It is also thought that Confucius, a vegetarian, advised people not to use knives at the table because knives would remind them of the slaughterhouse.

Got any source re. the origin of chopsticks? I think you're full of it. Chopsticks are known to have been in use in China since at least 1000 BC. Hardly a gimmick seen 3000 years later.

For example, see this Japanese page which claims that chopsticks came to Japan from China in the 6th or 7th century, and that bronze chopsticks have been found in archealogical digs dating from just before Christ (the chopsticks, not the dig!).

This site goes back further, and includes a couple pictures:

I agree with your main idea, though I think that the last sentence is a big reach.

Besides, "fuck[ing] like bunnies" would make you a rodent, wouldn't it?

Other cool stuff in San Fran: The Exploratorium and California Academy of Sciences.

Heading down the coast, there's The Tech Museum in San Jose

There's Fry's stores all the way through California, and they have neat themes like alien invason, alice in wonder land, ancient rome, etc. (I plan to pilgrimage to all of them at some point.) Although they are getting to be more like a giant consumer electronics store than somewhere to go for parts.

Unfortunately it looks like the Griffith Observatory is closed, but I'm sure there's plenty of other geek stuff in LA that people could point you to. There's just so much that nothing uniquely cool comes to mind.

In San Diego we have Balboa Park which has a aerospace museum, model railroad museum, automotive museum, etc, plus the Zoo. And there's the Wild Animal park. And the Birch Aquarium up here at UCSD. And the Gaslamp area, which has good bars ;-)

Another great location, depending on your particular interests, is the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park area. Until December 31, 2003, they have an exhibit of skulls that is amazing. A friend of mine saw it recently, and he said it is very impressive. I hope to go see it as well.

-Z

Another great location, depending on your particular interests, is the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park area. Until December 31, 2003, they have an exhibit of skulls that is amazing. A friend of mine saw it recently, and he said it is very impressive. I hope to go see it as well.

-Z

In his autobiography, Ansel Adams describes how he told an interviewer that he would like to "drown Ronald Reagan in my martini," which led to an invitation to lunch at the White House. The only thing the two agreed on about the environment was their support of nuclear power. Those who don't like books can read a paraphrased account here.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You're probably confusing 'chopsticks' with 'fortune cookies'. But even then you'd be wrong, since they were invented by a Japanese American in this century.

How could an entirely new form of eating utensil take off like wildfire throughout all of east Asia in just 200 years? If they really had that kind of traction, they certainly would have become popular in the US, Europe, and the rest of the world too. You think some uneducated peasant in rural china is going to stop eating with their hands (or whatever) and adopt hard to use chopsticks in order to be 'cool'?

Do you think that the Japanese, while trying to modernize and westernize would replace all their eating utensils with something used only in Chinese restaurants on the west cost of the US?

In conclusion, you're an idiot.

Oh, and Chopsticks were developed about 5,000 years ago in China. It is likely that people cooked their food in large pots which held heat for a long time, and hasty eaters then broke twigs off trees to retrieve the food....By A.D. 500, chopstick use had spread from China to present day Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. The chopsticks to the left, while Japanese, are rectangular in the style of Chinese chopsticks.

I was enjoying a meal of Hunan Chicken I was reflecting on the history of chopsticks, and the humor in the whole situation of people getting pretentious in their ability to use them. Aren't people aware that the things were invented in America in the 1800s by Chinese immigrants seeking to differentiate their restaurants in the mining communities?

I think you are remembering the invention of the Fortune Cookie, which is said to have been invented in San Francisco or some other West Coast city by chinese immigrants.

Chopsticks have been around a LONG time. Google it if you don't believe me, for the lazy, here is a link: California Academy of Sciences Anthropology Department History of the Chopstick

Check your facts on the chopsticks.

"Chopsticks were developed about 5,000 years ago in China. It is likely that people cooked their food in large pots which held heat for a long time, and hasty eaters then broke twigs off trees to retrieve the food. By 400 B.C., because of a large population and dwindling resources, food was chopped into small pieces so it could be cooked rapidly to conserve fuel. "

http://www.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/ut ensil/chpstck.htm

Look, I'll probably upgrade just to save the Moz people worrying about one more user on an older version.

But I have to say that this is the first time that I have seen a Moz release that I don't need or want any of the new features.

BTW re Type ahead find: I feel particularly sorry for the Afrotheria specialists. I get the feeling that trying to type ahead for aardvark won't be that easy.

Maybe I'm getting too old for this ish..

I have taught undergraduate differential geometry many times, and covered the relevant material (parallel transport of vectors along non-geodesics, holonomy) and frequently even reasonably strong students have a hard time with understanding it correctly. Particularly when I put a parallel transport question on an exam...

This Smithsonian FAQ has a bit about pendulums, but just says the relationship is complex. The California Academy has a page that is much better than a typical museum explanation in that it mentions that the amount of precession depends upon latitude and gives the relationship (precession is 2 pi sin(phi) where phi is the latitude) as well as making a reasonable effort at an explanation.

I see no evidence of any such thing on their website. Are you sure?

The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.

Just a thought.

This link presents the theory they announced today a couple years ago, search it for magnetite.