INTERSTELLAR “We’re going to need a bigger spaceship.” Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is now playing at a few Portland theaters on 35mm, with digital screenings starting tomorrow night at pretty much all the chain theaters. Nolan wants you to see it on 35mm and 70mm IMAX—hence the film’s early release in those formats—and I’ll throw in […]
Science!
Posted inScience!
New Estimate for the Amount of Dark Matter in the Milky Way
What it is you must know and keep in mind at all times (during a shower, a meal, sex) is that only 4 percent of the universe (a universe that is expanding at a speed that even the speed of light can not overwhelm) makes any sense to us (to our thinking and to the […]
Posted inEvents
It’s Happening Tonight!
SCIENCE—CSI is bullshit. Watching CSI while sober is bullshit. You wanna learn how crime scenes are really reconstructed? You wanna feel less like David Caruso and more like Will Graham? OMSI Science Pub features real crime-scene walkthroughs from a real reconstructionist, without all the Laffy Taffy-level one-liners. Oh yeah, and there’s beer. BOBBY ROBERTSCrystal Ballroom, […]
Posted inScience!
Volcanoes Like Iceland’s Bárðarbunga Have a History of Going Beast Mode on the Planet
Iceland officials have raised the threat of that country’s Bárðarbunga volcano eruption to code orange, the second highest level before an event. While the risk isn’t critical at the moment, past Icelandic volcanos have gotten seriously rowdy with the planet, and no one is taking any chances. Over the last few days hundreds of minor […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Portland, GMOs, and Grrrrrrgh! Arrrgh! Neil deGrasse Tyson!
Following the National Review‘s “Grrrr, Neil deGrasse Tyson is THE WORST!” cover story (it’s behind a pay wall, but the subhead that frets about “America’s nerd problem” sums up the tone nicely), the Los Angeles Times‘ has an editorial by Matthew Fleischer that asks “Why Are Conservatives Afraid of Neil deGrasse Tyson?” It’s a pretty […]
Posted inNews
Man Witnesses Police Shooting, Expounds on Shrubbery
Wikipedia Common hawthorn This week’s Mercury takes a brief look at witness testimony in the June 12 police shooting that left a 23-year-old homeless man dead. It’s a tragic story, involving common themes of untreated mental illness and limited resources for combatting homelessness. Then there’s a chunk of the 171-page grand jury transcript that is […]
Posted inMedia
BBC Officially Has No Time for Science Skeptics
Lindsay Abrams writes for Salon: Good news for viewers of BBC News: You’ll no longer be subjected to the unhinged ravings of climate deniers and other members of the anti-science fringe. In a report published Thursday by the BBC Trust, the network’s journalists were criticized for devoting too much airtime (as in, any airtime) to […]
Posted inScience!
Scientist Offers $10,000 to Anyone Who Can Scientifically Disprove Climate Change
Glenn Beck’s conservative news aggregation site The Blaze has the story: A physics professor is so fed up with the claims made by “climate change deniers” that he has launched a “$10,000 Global Warming Skeptic Challenge.” The challenge issued by Dr. Christopher Keating, a professor who previously taught at the University of South Dakota and […]
Posted inAstronomy
Happy Martian Birthday, Curiosity!
It has been 678 Earth days since NASA’s Mars Curiosity landed to look for signs the planet could or once did support living organisms, just in case, you know, out of curiosity and all. That means it turns one Mars year old today, so HBD, Curiosity! To celebrate, let’s review a few of its discoveries […]
Posted inTV
Time Team America‘s New Season Debuts on OPB Tonight
Like anyone with other options, I like to think I’m pretty selective about TV, partly because programming on channels I used to love (Animal Planet, the History Channel) has been crowded out by reality dreck that seems like it’s more about dissuading people from the very interests they ostensibly cater to. (“Oh, you like animals? […]
Posted inScience!
Neil deGrasse Tyson! In Portland!
Did you guys see Neil deGrasse Tyson is coming to Portland? This is fantastic news and easily justifies my decision to keep on living until at least September (and possibly beyond, depending on how September goes). Tickets go on sale this Thursday at 10 am, but do not buy them then, because that’s when I’m […]
Posted inTV
I Really Want To Hate Neil DeGrasse Tyson, But It’s Not Working
Neil Degrasse Tyson is too prevalent, too universally liked, too smiley. He must be destroyed. I’m not proud of it, but that is how I think, the Law of Contrary Public Opinion. I just got this overwhelming sense that somebody was She’s All Thating him. Somebody made a bet that they could make a goofy […]