Friday 24 April 2015

March Madness

Science is not democratic in that one cannot "vote" to decide whether something is or is not true/factual. Only experiment can decide whether something is so - and that procedure must be written up so that it can be scrutinized and verified as needs be.

Therefore I was shocked when I read that NASA and JPL had organized a vote on the nature of the white spots on Ceres.  6 options are given and "it's anyone's guess what those spots could be." So go ahead and cast your vote. My concern is that this will lead to confusion with real democratic procedures and ultimately with whether one can vote down global warming - and it will go away or go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Or vote on evolution vs creationism.


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OK. There is something else which I found interesting - how to make stone tools, and when. I saw a video demonstration in 2008 in connection with the Nebra Shield in Halle, Deutschland. I was surprised to see that the stone was struck on the opposite side to where the flaking was desired. I can understand it but it was not what I had expected beforehand. So this link to Scientific American  is interesting and adds to our humanity - maybe! Anyway there are lots of videos to help you survive your summer holidays.

Vicki and I expect to be back in Killarney Prov Park Aug 2-ish to Aug 16-ish looking for Perseid meteors, northern lights, sun spots and flares, planet(s), multiple stars and clusters, and may be a galaxy or 2. Hope everyone is well and having a safe healthy Spring leading into summer.

                                                                                                              wob


PS It snowed this morning and there are white-caps on the lake; +3deg C and winds up to 50kmh - for the curious!

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