Category: Uncategorized
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Artemis I and SLS
Launch is now targeting no earlier than September 27, 2022 at 11:37 a.m. EDT. NASA has adjusted the targeted dates for a cryogenic demonstration test and to the next launch opportunities for Artemis I, the first integrated flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft beyond the Moon. The agency will conduct […]
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A short follow-up to “U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Again in ‘Historic’ Setback”(NYT)
By Dr Beck Something was bugging me about The New York Times article. No one had compiled a graph of the total expectancy (age+expectancy) versus age of all Americans. In other words, if you lived to 100 and had a life expectancy of 2 years, your total expectancy would be 102. No one had done […]
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Northwestern Glacier has a lesson for us
By Dr Beck, Many articles and photographs are available of The Northwestern University Glacier, in Kenai Fjords, Alaska. There is even an article from 2011 in Northwestern Magazine It is gone as a sea-based glacier. It is now accessible only from land, and barely. Yes, you can take a “tour boat” upto it’s remaining land-based […]
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Eira, a Swedish youth, speaks out
By Dr Beck My poor translation of Eira’s biting commentary of the Social Democrats and others in power tonight… The video is available on Twitter at @GretaThunberg “How can you claim to protect democracy when you actively mislead the voters to deny the seriousness of the climate crisis while continuing to seem like you are […]
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Night Sky Over Detroit
Last Thursday evening, before crossing into Canada via the tunnel, I was able to walk along the riverfront of Detroit, Michigan just east of the Aretha Franklin Concert Hall, with my binoculars and SkySafari Pro 6.0, my app of choice for observing. I was wondering how elementary school students, mainly African-American in the major urban […]
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“Lifetime mobility of an Arctic woolly mammoth”
SCIENCE 13 Aug 2021. Vol 373, Issue 6556 A mammoth’s life “Fossils have long given us glimpses of the life that came before us, but these glimpses are generally static. They tell us a bit about species that lived, but not much about how they lived. Evolving techniques are deepening our viewpoint. Wooller et al. […]
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“U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Again in ‘Historic’ Setback”
“The decline during the pandemic is the sharpest in nearly 100 years, hitting Native American and Alaska Native communities particularly hard. By Roni Caryn Rabin for The New York Times Aug. 31, 2022. Updated 2:22 p.m. ET “The average life expectancy of Americans fell precipitously in 2020 and 2021, the sharpest two-year decline in nearly […]
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The Truth About Pigeons
By Dr Beck Being raised in the West, my first belief was that Corvids were the smartest birds imaginable. Ravens and crows. I once saw a magpie (another type of corvid) stare down a cat ON THE GROUND. The magpie did not flinch. The cat had to skitter away. There were studies conducted at the […]
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International Whale Shark Day – 30AUG22
Let’s celebrate this together and remember how we manage our oceans. IWSD for info on this day
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People want Space. People want America to lead in Space
By Dr Beck If anything was clear from the scrubbed first mission of the SLS and Artemis it was this: people want Space. People want America to lead in Space. All views and photos of the excited crowds near KSC today reminded us of an earlier era, more uncertain, filled with drama, when all social […]
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The Great Debt
The Great Debt and Space Exploration, on the Eve of the first Artemis Mission to the Moon By Dr Beck In the next two decades, humanity will come to a crossroads. If we take Buzz Aldrin’s advise and “Get our asses To Mars” and end humanity’s contributions to climate change we have a slim chance. Or, […]
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“This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone.”
“Renee Smith exemplified a medical practice common among her generation: the simultaneous use of multiple heavy-duty psychiatric drugs.” “Increasingly, anxious and depressed teens are using multiple, powerful psychiatric drugs, many of them untested in adolescents or for use in tandem.” By Matt Richtel Photographs by Annie Flanagan Aug. 27, 2022 “This article examines the increase in anxiety, […]
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From Greta
By Dr Beck This tweet from Greta Thunberg reminds us here in the US of the destructive power of human-mediated global warming, on real people. It is no accident that monsoons are more catastrophic; involve more rain showers; last for longer periods on land. Just as hurricanes have here, turning Louisiana and parts of Texas […]
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“Why experts say the legalization of marijuana is no cause for celebration…”
By Daryl Austin| Aug 4, 2022 9 p.m. MDT, for The Deseret News “Last month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a bill to end federal prohibitions on marijuana put in place when Congress made the drug illegal more than 50 years ago. “Attitudes toward cannabis use have fluctuated greatly in the last century. […]
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Science and Society
“When you have a society that’s leaning towards a disrespect to science, a distortion of the truth, and then just out-and-out lying, that’s really not only a threat to my field,.. I think it’s a threat to our democracy.” – Dr Anthony Fauci
I Really Appreciate Science 