Here's an analogy quiz! Linux is to bicycles as Windows is to... what? Read on and find out!
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Linux and Bicycles
March 3, 2008, 8:14 pmTesting the RSS Feeds
September 13, 2007, 9:31 pm
We had some techincal issues recently with the RSS Feeds, this is just a test post to see if they are back up and running again.
Software Freedom Day Celebration
September 11, 2007, 6:53 pmIntroductions
April 25, 2007, 9:30 am
Besides being a rather prolific blogger, though it would be hard to guess based on my meager output here, I am also something of a science junkie when it comes to my choices of blogs and websites to read. Since I know I'm not the only one who loves to read about the latest and greatest in the science and medical world, I'd like to share a few links to some of my favorite bloggers in those categories. Head below the fold for the list...
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Big News for Astronomers
April 25, 2007, 7:16 am
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is reporting the discovery of an extrasolar Earth-like planet. The planet, with a radius only 50% larger than that of Earth and roughly five times its mass, orbits the red dwarf star Gliese 581, located 20.5 light years away in the constellation Libra. Most intriguing about the find, besides the size of the planet, is that despite the star it orbits being much colder than our own sun, the planet, dubbed Gliese 581 c, lies within a distance known as the "habitable zone" where liquid water is a real possibility and there is a potential for the formation of life.
Researchers, through computer modeling, predict that the planet is either rocky like our own or perhaps totally covered with water. The models also suggest, given the relatively short distance between the planet and the star it orbits (fourteen times closer than the Earth is to our sun), that surface temperatures may average anywhere between zero and forty degrees Celsius. According to Xavier Delfosse, one of the researchers involved in the discovery, the new planet will likely be a target of future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life.
Additionally, it seems that no fewer than three planets orbit this same star. The first, discovered in November of 2005, is approximately fifteen times the mass of Earth and probably similar to our own Neptune. The other is likely about eight earth masses. As it turns out, all three are quite speedy travelers as well, with the eight Earth-mass planet being the slowest of the three and completing an orbit in only 84 Earth days (four days faster than our own Mercury). The fastest orbit award goes to the largest planet at 5.4 days, with the newcomer placing second at thirteen days. For any potential life-forms inhabiting 581 c, that means one birthday for every two of our weeks (which I'd imagine could get expensive for families).
For additional information, the full paper, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, is available free of charge at http://obswww.unige.ch/~udry/udry_preprint.pdf. As a fair warning to those tempted to read the published paper: if you've never read anything published in a scientific journal before, you're in for some extremely technical reading...
Researchers, through computer modeling, predict that the planet is either rocky like our own or perhaps totally covered with water. The models also suggest, given the relatively short distance between the planet and the star it orbits (fourteen times closer than the Earth is to our sun), that surface temperatures may average anywhere between zero and forty degrees Celsius. According to Xavier Delfosse, one of the researchers involved in the discovery, the new planet will likely be a target of future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life.
Additionally, it seems that no fewer than three planets orbit this same star. The first, discovered in November of 2005, is approximately fifteen times the mass of Earth and probably similar to our own Neptune. The other is likely about eight earth masses. As it turns out, all three are quite speedy travelers as well, with the eight Earth-mass planet being the slowest of the three and completing an orbit in only 84 Earth days (four days faster than our own Mercury). The fastest orbit award goes to the largest planet at 5.4 days, with the newcomer placing second at thirteen days. For any potential life-forms inhabiting 581 c, that means one birthday for every two of our weeks (which I'd imagine could get expensive for families).
For additional information, the full paper, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, is available free of charge at http://obswww.unige.ch/~udry/udry_preprint.pdf. As a fair warning to those tempted to read the published paper: if you've never read anything published in a scientific journal before, you're in for some extremely technical reading...
OS Choices Presentation
April 23, 2007, 3:00 pmUnderstanding fire
March 22, 2007, 9:11 am
By M. Keene Hueftle
Fire! Fire!
From our infancy, it has been impressed upon virtually every one of us, over and over, to be afraid of fire, that fire is extremely dangerous and to be avoided … or we will suffer the painful consequences.
It is no wonder that we, as an entire culture, continue to almost automatically respond to nature's fires, on our public lands in the West, by doing everything possible, like those admonishing words of the “Smokey Bears” ads, to prevent and put out all fires, man-caused or by nature.
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Fire! Fire!
From our infancy, it has been impressed upon virtually every one of us, over and over, to be afraid of fire, that fire is extremely dangerous and to be avoided … or we will suffer the painful consequences.
It is no wonder that we, as an entire culture, continue to almost automatically respond to nature's fires, on our public lands in the West, by doing everything possible, like those admonishing words of the “Smokey Bears” ads, to prevent and put out all fires, man-caused or by nature.
[ more.. ]
Exciting Fossil Find in China
March 15, 2007, 2:45 pm
As published in the March 15, 2007 volume of the science journal Nature (vol. 446), a team of scientists working in a fossil-rich deposit in China's Hebei province has unearthed fossils of a previously unknown mammal. Named Yanoconodon allini, in honor of the Yan mountains of the same province, the fossil was unearthed in Mesozoic strata dating to around 125 million years old. Finding any preserved examples of early mammals is exciting, but Yanoconodon stands apart from the rest in that the remarkable preservation includes structures not typically reflected in fossils: the tiny bones that form the working parts of the mammalian ear.
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Ryan vs Dorkman Saga
March 9, 2007, 11:25 pmSurviving the MySpace Generation – A Parent's Guide
February 26, 2007, 10:34 pm
A few compromises so you can keep an eye on your teen's MySpace page without being to embarrassing.
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My Wallet's Empty and I'm Bored – Free PC Games
February 24, 2007, 2:22 pm"Mommy, it's broken." 2 weeks with Vista
February 22, 2007, 10:06 amNeed A New Computer Operating System, Anyone?
February 15, 2007, 11:26 amGreenhouse gases and solar energy
August 26, 2006, 10:19 am
By Joe Evans
Somewhere around the middle of the last century, mankind became aware that we had the ability to change our environment.
A movement started in the United States to clean-up our rivers, lakes and air that had become polluted. Later we discovered that not only were we polluting our above ground environment but that groundwater was also threatened by this same pollution.
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Somewhere around the middle of the last century, mankind became aware that we had the ability to change our environment.
A movement started in the United States to clean-up our rivers, lakes and air that had become polluted. Later we discovered that not only were we polluting our above ground environment but that groundwater was also threatened by this same pollution.
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