The Parker Solar Probe survived its trip into the sun’s corona. That is so cool. You know what’s also cool? It is traveling at 430,000 miles per hour. It is officially the fastest human made thing ever built. The heat shield can apparently withstand up to 2,500 degrees (Fahrenheit of course) while keeping the insides…
Donald Trump said on Truth Social, “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” Taking him at his word, which is always dangerous with a BS artist like Trump, I agree. We should end Daylight Savings Time. In other words, we…
I never met a plant I couldn’t kill. That’s what I always tell people. It’s not absolutely true. I have four house plants that seem unkillable. Don’t ask me what they are, because I couldn’t tell you. They are green, though. One is some kind of cactus, I think. Anyway, I have no idea how…
The AIs used to detect whether a piece of writing is AI generated or not think that the US Constitution and the Bible are AI generated. That’s objectively funny. But is it a problem? The easy answer is that, yes, it is a problem. The AI detectors don’t do what they are designed to do….
For years, people have talked about the danger of an AI apocalypse. It’s been a staple of science fiction for decades. More recently, big names like Elon Musk have been talking about it as a live possibility, something we should be actively working to avoid. With the advent of AIs like ChatGPT and Dall-E, the…
I read an article called “Digitalization is increasing the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide“. Is it really, though? Now, fair warning, this isn’t really a post about anxiety, depression, and digitalization. It’s more about science communication and journalism. The scientists looked at Google Ngram Data, which covers about 6% of published books, to find…
For a long time now, I’ve been a staunch opponent of daylight savings time. It’s awful and I hate it. My opposition probably started in high school. It was the first time I had to be up early. In next to no time, I realized it sucks trying to get up when it’s still dark….
Light pollution is a problem that doesn’t get enough attention, and it’s getting worse. Two astronomers, Chris Impey and Connie Walker, say that on average, it’s getting 9.6% brighter every year, or at least every year from 2011 to 2021 when they did the study. There is, of course, no reason to think that anything…
I read an article the other day called “Why taxing cow burps isn’t the best climate solution“. In the article, Kevin Trenberth explains why methane released from cattle, which has been brought to the fore and vilified recently, isn’t nearly as bad as people claim. The reason for this is the carbon cycle. Unlike fossil fuels,…
Yesterday, I wrote about how depression puts people at higher risk for severe covid. Today I want to talk about another problem with covid. Apparently, covid can cause depression. “[O]ver half of a U.S. COVID-19 survivor sample reported symptoms of depression months after recovery, those with more severe COVID symptoms being more likely to have depression.” They…
