Wolfram|Alpha. I'm just starting to play with this site. For example, type in "Mars from [your location]". Gives planetary configurations, distance, where to look for it.

It's not just planetary information, but any info that can be calculated. Very ambitious. This could be quite useful.

"Science" writes a letter to the Media. Funny and satirical.

Also a letter to Homeopathy, and a letter to Astrology.

In a rather unusual development:



What makes it especially unusual is that they appear to be distancing themselves not from the paper itself, but rather from the common misinterpretation of the paper's conclusions:



The good news is that the morning news show I watched didn't bring in a single vaccine denier for their story. No attempt to "balance" the story by presenting the "other side." They brought in one guy who carefully explained why the MMR-vaccination connection is a coincidence, complete with a compelling anecdote to illustrate his point.

The full article can be found on the BBC News website.

Investigative journalist (yes, they apparently still exist) Brian Deer is responsible for tracking down Wakefield's unethical conduct. Wakefield then tried to sue Deer which then allowed Deer to request a whole bunch of files that Wakefield would rather have kept private. Once those came out Wakefield himself was discredited for dishonesty, unethical conduct and very likely for falsifying results, and misrepresenting (lying about?) the children's symptoms.
Wakefield also had to withdraw his suit and pay for Deer's legal expenses. The UK's General Medicine Council, which began their own investigation after Deer's exposes in 2004, may pull Wakefield's license now. Took 6 years to get this ruling though...pitifully slow.
From their 143 page ruling. They also describe his conduct as irresponsible and dishonest.

A nice little interview with a cognitive scientist and musician.

From the website

Should be of interest to at least some folks.

Looks very interesting, but I won't have time to get to the interview until later.

Is anyone familiar with and able to comment on Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks? I've been wanting to read it, but I worry it will be excessively dumbed down to reach a popular audience.

I can't comment on the Musicophilia, but I have enjoyed some of Sacks' other books (The Island of the Colorblind, and The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat). The latter book was a bit simplistic, but his later book--12 years later according to Wiki--was more substantial. My feeling based on those books, especially the Colorblind book, is that his latest book will appeal to people knowledgeable in the material, and won't be excessively or offensively dumbed down. My sweetie has some mild colourblindness so it was interesting to read this book versus our genetic textbooks or various articles on the web.

That's just my impression based on two of his other books, and doesn't necessarily mean his latest will be the same. I strongly suspect it will be a good book though....

Behold, the WISE one (wide-field infrared survey). Gorgeous pictures taken in....well, the infrared. Blue is cold, hot is red. See the pic of the Andromeda galaxy--the warping on one side may be where it was warped by a passing galaxy, or where it absorbed a dwarf galaxy long long ago. The galaxy is 5 degrees across (that's 10 full moons), far wider (hence, "wide") than Hubble, although Hubble more detailed.

Edit: See youtube video on rocket breaking the sound barrier and blowing away a sun dog. Cool effect like ripples from a pebble.

Seriously wicked. A cheap off-the-shelf made mosquito defense system that shoots down mosquitoes with a laser beam (see embedded video). They go down in smoke--literally.

The inventor, Nathan, is the person Bill Gates called the brightest person he knows although once Nathan gets outside his field of expertise he's subject to the Dunning-Kruger syndrome (but that's off-topic).

Ohhhh that is truly awesome. And I can't get enough of watching mosquitoes dying horrible deaths...