Stephan: The question of dark matter is one of the most fascinating enigmas of science. Here is the latest breakthrough.
The warm-hot inter galactic medium, or the Whim ought to appear as a dim outline in the cosmic microwave background, scientists say. Above, a map of relic radiation from the big bang, composed of data gathered by the Planck satellite. Credit: HO/AFP
It is one of cosmology’s more perplexing problems: that up to 90% of the ordinary matter in the universe appears to have gone missing.
Now astronomers have detected about half of this missing content for the first time, in a discovery that could resolve a long-standing paradox.
The conundrum first arose from measurements of radiation left over from the Big Bang, which allowed scientists to calculate how much matter there is in the universe and what form it takes. This showed that about 5% of the mass in the universe comes in the form of ordinary matter, with the rest being accounted for by dark matter and dark energy.
Dark matter has never been directly observed and the nature of dark energy is almost completely mysterious, but even tracking down the 5% […]
Stephan: Donald Trump and all his minions are doing their best to push back the clock and keep America in thrall to carbon energy. Meanwhile most of Europe and Asia are committing to electric transportation and the elimination of fossil fuel powered vehicles, usually by 2040 or before.
GM, which has a world market has gotten the message and, Trump notwithstanding, is following what they correctly, I think, see as the dominant trend. Here is the announcement. This is good news.
General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra stands next to a autonomous Chevrolet Bolt electric car Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016, in Detroit. General Motors has started testing fully autonomous vehicles on public roads around its technical center in suburban Detroit. Credit: AP/Paul Sancya
“General Motors believes in an all-electric future,” Mark Reuss, GM’s head of global product development, announced in a corporate press release Monday.
These are remarkable words for a company that has become a global behemoth over the past century by making and selling tens of millions of cars, SUVs, and light trucks that run on liquid fossil fuels. When you add in plans from huge, fast-growing markets like China and India to quickly shift to EVs and end the sale of petrol cars, it’s clear that upending the car market will also upend the oil market.
Reuss said GM would accelerate the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), with two new EV models coming out in 2018, and “at least” another 18 by 2023. On the same day, Ford Motor Co. announced it […]
Stephan: There has been considerable research showing that the youngest children in a class have life long issues, such that it is worth holding a child back from first grade for year rather than have them be the youngest child in the class. And now this research has just come out. If you know someone with a small child, or you have one yourself, considering this research could be helpful.
First graders Credit: GreatSchool
Younger children in a certain grade level were more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared with older children, a population-based study of a Finnish cohort found.
There was a “relative age effect” for children ages 7 to 9 years even in the same grade, as children born in September to December (“younger children”) had a higher cumulative incidence of ADHD diagnosis versus children born from January to April (“older children”), reported Kapil Sayal, PhD, of the University of Nottingham in England, and colleagues.
This effect was seen regardless of sex, with younger boys and girls having a higher cumulative incidence of ADHD diagnosis than older boys and girls in the same grade, the authors wrote inLancet Psychiatry.
They noted that prior research found that “relative age” (defined as a child’s age within their school year compared with the age of other children within the school year) was a risk factor for mental health problems in children, with interest growing in the “contributory role of young […]
Steve Prattor, Sheriff of Caddo Parish in Louisiana, addresses reporters
Steve Prattor, the Sheriff of Caddo Parish in Louisiana, is not a fan of his state’s new criminal justice reforms that will free many prisoners convicted of nonviolent offenses earlier than they had been scheduled to be released.
In a press conference held this week, Prattor said that keeping some of the “good” prisoners in jail was necessary for the prisons to keep functioning because they could provide needed labor that you couldn’t get out of more violent and dangerous prisoners.
“The [prisoners] that you can work, the ones that can pick up trash, the work release programs — but guess what? Those are the ones that they’re releasing!” Prattor fumed in his attack against criminal justice reforms. “In addition to the bad ones… they’re releasing some good ones that we use every day to wash cars, to change the oil in our cars, to cook in the kitchen… well, they’re going to let them out!”
Brad Christerson and Richard Flory, Professor of Sociology, Biola University / Senior Director of Research and Evaluation, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences - The Conversation
Stephan: For several years I have been tracking a very alarming trend, the rise of the Christofascists. It seems now that other researchers who study trend data are seeing the same thing. Here is one attempt to explain what is going on.
Worshipers pray with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, seen at center and on screen, at The Response, a daylong prayer and fast rally, Aug. 6, 2011, at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Credit: AP/Pat Sullivan
Last week, from Oct. 6 to 9, the National Mall in Washington, D.C. was filled with tents, worship music and prayer for the “Awaken the Dawn”rally. The purpose of the event, according to organizer Lou Engle, was to “gather around Jesus,” to pray for the nation and its government. It ended with a day of prayer by Christian women.
This wasn’t the first such event. On April 9, 2016, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, tens of thousands of people gathered to pray for the supernatural transformation of America.
Five years earlier, in August of 2011, more than 30,000 people cheered wildly as the then U.S. presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry – now secretary of energy in the Trump administration – came to the center stage at “The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis”at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
