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Thanks! Interesting & good review. I put the book on my wish list. The kids never know what to get me for Xmas & this would work. I'm not really interested in growing them either, although I donated a bunch of logs a while back when the Extension Office gave a class on it. I think they were growing chanterelle & I had a lot of young sugar maples that needed thinning in part of my woods. 8-10" logs were needed for the class.
Betsy wrote: ""Haha!
My husband sent me this one once. He's not big into science but he loves me apparently lol.
Betsy wrote: "Scientists and the TSA"LOL! That's great. I wonder if my mother followed someone like that. She carried on a pound of frozen salmon wrapped in foil & two big jars of homemade jelly. She said the TSA agent asked about the jelly & she told him. Then she mentioned he'd find the salmon, too. He just sort of rolled his eyes & let her go. She's like a pony; different rules apply.
;)
Betsy wrote: "Scientists and the TSA" That is priceless. "Astrophysicist Brian Schmidt was once stopped by airport officials on his way to North Dakota because he was carrying his Nobel Prize—a half-pound gold disk that showed up as completely black on the security scanners. “Uhhhh. Who gave this to you?” they said. “The King of Sweden,” he replied. “Why did he give this to you?,” they probed. “Because I helped discover the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating.”
What made us human & how did we progress from chipping nearby rocks to gathering them from the moon? This makes a case for storytelling. Not terribly scientific, but interesting.http://www.torforgeblog.com/2017/08/0...
The guy who made up the annoying password rules is now sorry he did.http://gizmodo.com/the-guy-who-invent...
Mod
http://www.openculture.com/2017/08/th...
Betsy wrote: "Someone created a separate haiku for each element in the periodic table:http://www.openculture.com/2017/08/th..."
The poems were very fun and creative!
Betsy wrote: "Someone created a separate haiku for each element in the periodic table:http://www.openculture.com/2017/08/th..."
Thank you for sharing, they are very clever!
Not really fun, but a useful tip for anyone who has a dog that gets skunked. I left for work at 4:45am this morning & Marg was woken up at 4:50am by 2 skunked Jack Russells. - Rinse them with water
- Wash with Dawn dishwash soap (It's the strongest.)
- Rinse
- Rub in baking soda & let sit about a minute.
- Slowly rinse with vinegar so the baking soda foams well. Keep scrubbing & rinsing slowly until no more foam.
- Water rinse again
- Wash once more with Dawn & rinse.
- Wash their faces a time or 2 with no-tears baby shampoo.
We've tried store-bought remedies, peroxide, & other methods, but none work as well as the above. Since we seem to live in skunk alley & our stupid Jack Russells can't seem to learn, we get to practice at least several times each year. We think this morning was the fourth this year, but we've lost count. Worse, they're just starting their active period.
:(
Is anyone else going to do the Great Back Yard Bird Count? It's really easy & a lot of fun. I saw a lot more birds a lot better when I did it last year, just 2 times for 15 minutes each. I'm not a real birder, but we spend a fair amount of money feeding them & I have a lot of bird houses up around the farm. Anyway, it's really easy to do. Go to
http://gbbc.birdcount.org/
create an account & then you can get a list of birds based on your location using your zip code. That list helps identify almost all the birds. For questionable ones (Who can tell the differences between sparrows?) there are easy links to do that, too. Doing this helps out Cornell's Ornithology department, too.
Mod
The bartender asked what he would have.
A tachyon went into a bar.
Mod
The new element is Governmentium (Gv). It has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lefton-like particles called peons.
Since Governmentium has no electrons or protons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.
A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction normally taking less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete.
Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years. It does not decay but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.
In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.
This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. Thishypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.
When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons. All of the money is consumed in the exchange, and no other by-products are produced.
h/t David Warren, who posted this in my Science group on MeWe.
Betsy wrote: "Scientists at CERN in Geneva have announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science:The new element is Governmentium (Gv). It has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy ..."
Bravo, that is wonderful!
Hi Candice! Not only did I order "Sixth Extinction", but I spent some time on the fun pages here. Dar
Dar wrote: "Hi Candice! Not only did I order "Sixth Extinction", but I spent some time on the fun pages here. Dar"I’m glad you enjoyed them.
Candice
Candice wrote: "https://xkcd.com/archive/xkcd web comic
Candice"
Were you pointing to What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions? It was a hilarious book, although best read in short doses. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim wrote: "Candice wrote: "https://xkcd.com/archive/xkcd web comic
Candice"
Were you pointing to What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions? It was a hilarious ..."
I totally agree about the book. This is different. It is a series of science-themed comics. I provided the link to the archive.
Candice
Have some fun and help do some real science at the same time by helping to map the surface of the asteroid Bennu here:https://bennu.cosmoquest.org/
The surface turned out to be much rockier than expected making the choice of a sample return point difficult. Given the mass of data, they have turned to the public to assist the mapping effort which needs to be completed by July 10, 2019.
I'm enjoying it.
Jim wrote: "Candice wrote: "https://xkcd.com/archive/xkcd web comic
Candice"
Were you pointing to What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions? It was a hilarious ..."
The book is written by the same person who writes the xkcd comics.
That is superb, Betsy. A fabulous achievement and piece of art.
Science and Inquiry
Books mentioned in this topic
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (other topics)What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (other topics)
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (other topics)
mycellium running: how mushrooms can help save the world (other topics)
The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (other topics)
I have The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. It's about 20 years old & isn't particularly easy to use since I need to pick up a lot of descriptive words I've never run across before, but we tried. I took pictures & posted them for my friend to double check.
We found 3 edible mushrooms in our woods:
(Laetiporus) Chicken of the Woods or Sulphur Shelf is the one Erin first found. They're not good when they get older, so we didn't eat them. We know where they are & what they look like now, though.
(Polyporus squamosus) Dryad's Saddle was probably still edible, but we couldn't find it in the guide & only took a sample for a spore print. It was getting old, but I'll check it out & might get it for dinner tonight.
(Calvatia Gigantea) Giant Puffball was right in the middle of one of our paths very close to the Chicken of the Woods mushrooms. It was good, so I brought about half home & sauteed it up in butter with a bit of salt. While it went well with the steak we had, it didn't have much flavor.
The fall isn't a bad time to look for mushrooms, but the spring is better. Still, we found a lot & are making spore prints (Put the mushroom down on white paper & wrap in wax paper to see how the spores come out. This makes a print that is important in identification.) to help identify them. We had a little magnifying glass, but I intend to put them under my microscope this morning, too. (I have a cheap one ($75) for kids that hooks to the PC. It does 10x, 60x, & 200x views which show on the monitor.)
The The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms is as thick as any of its cousins (We have them on birds, trees, & flowers, too.) but only covers 3 of the families of mushrooms. It's missing several different ones that I'm sure aren't edible (too hard & woody) that we found on other trees.
Wow, do I have a lot to learn! Fun!!!