Equinox

March 20th marks the Equinox, when day and night are of equal length. The March Equinox is often called the Spring or Vernal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (where days will now get longer) and the Fall or Autumn Equinox in Southern latitudes (where days will start to shorten).

Okay, days still stay 24 hours long, it’s the periods of daylight that get longer and shorter. Come on, lighten up. The UN says March 20th is also the International Day of Happiness.

___________________

Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-roD

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Pentagon: Most UFO Reports Are ‘Unremarkable’

The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) recently reported that most sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) are “unremarkable,” glimpses of balloons, drones, or airborne plastic bags and other trash.

If you’re keeping score at home, UAPs used to be called UFOS and, before that, flying saucers; the AARO was called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group (AOIMSG) and, before that, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF).

There you have it. Klaatu barada nikto.

Download the AARO 2022 UAP report here.

__________________
Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-CWH

Image (“Strange Starry Night, after Van Gogh”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Spreadsheets of Species: Systema Naturae

Carl Linnaeus organised the natural world in his Systema Naturae. The Linnean Society of London explains.

______________________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-r1V

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Published Drug Research Accents the Po$titive

Scientific Method be damned, medical journals have an economic incentive for publishing papers with postive outcomes. When a drug study shows positive outcomes, pharmaceutical companies buy reprints of it in bulk to distribute it to prescribers.

Those purchases can add up to over $2 million. For journals like The Lancet ($40 annual revenue) and NEJM ($100 million/yr.), that’s huge. 41 percent of The Lancet’s 2021 income came from reprints. When it comes to drug studies, Big Phama’s thumb is firmly on the scale.

More:

Scientific journals are incentivized to publish positive drug studies,” Annalisa Merelli, Quartz

Related:

“Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” John P. A. Ioannidis, PLOS Medicine

___________________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-yLt

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

(Bare) Majority of Americans Believe in Evolution

According to a University of Michigan study, the percentage of American adults who believe in evolution is now 54%. In all, 32% of religious fundamentalists, 34% of conservative Republicans, and 83% of liberal Democrats accept evolution as fact. Science marches on!

More:

“Study: Evolution now accepted by majority of Americans,” Morgan Sherburne, Michigan News

 

_______________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-xoo

Image: Anti-Evolution League at the Scopes Trial, Dayton Tennessee, from Literary Digest, July 25, 1925

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

An ‘Adams Event’ May Have Killed Off the Neanderthals

An ‘Adams Event‘ may have killed off the Neanderthals, explains Stephen Fry in a video from the University of New South Wales Sydney.

More:

“End of Neanderthals linked to flip of Earth’s magnetic poles, study suggests,” Nicola Davis, The Guardian

“A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago,” Alan Cooper, Chris S. M. Turney, et al., Science

_____________
Shortlink: https://wp.me/p6sb6-wGC

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Equinox

Today, it’s officially Fall in the Northern Hemisphere, the Autumnal Equinox. It’s better to call it the September Equinox, since it also marks the beginning of Spring for the southern half of the world.

More:

“Hello fall! Equinox kicks off autumn on Sept. 22,” Laura Gegge, Space.com

“Fall equinox 2020: Not as ‘equal’ as you may think,” Forrest Brown, CNN

“Pagans Are Celebrating the Autumn Equinox and You Should Too,” Rebecca Toy, Fodor’s Travel

____________________

Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-vFA

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Seven Million Years of Human Evolution

The American Museum of Natural History outlines human evolution. Seven million years in under six minutes.

_____________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-tYV

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Octopus Dreams

The octopus dreams in color. Just watch.

From the PBS Nature program Octopus: Making Contact.

_____________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-tTm

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

 

The Deadliest Being on Planet Earth

“The Deadliest Being on Planet Earth: The Bacteriophage.” A Kurzgesagt (“In a Nutshell”) video.

______________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-tA3

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine