October 6 – 10 This week was devoted to being Off Our Meds, looking calmly and as rationally as possible at scary issues in medicine. Ebola is about as bad as it gets, and no vaccines or drugs. Guest Robin Mejia suggest we learn some R numbers: “for each day that we’re not effectively isolating […]
September 29 – October 3, 2014 You think a place like L.A. just happened to sprawl like that? that our various civil and environmental messes just happened? Nope, says guest Erika Schoenberger, a lot of times we planned ’em like that. An evocative argument over whether Native Americans came over the land bridge, as the […]
Over the years, I’ve met a number of physicists who had direct or indirect connections with the Manhattan Project and who then spent the rest of their lives trying to get the nuclear weapons genie back into the bottle and the bottle corked. I think of these physicists as the old arms-controllers. They’re impressive people. […]
My first interviews for this current astronomy story were with the astronomers I’ve known and known of for decades — whose research I’ve followed, whose talks I’ve attended, whom I’ve interviewed, as I said, for decades. The astronomers were what they have been likely to be: men. Astronomer: Werk looked at other metal lines. She […]
I’m pretty sure that a Transformers™ movie came out a few years back, and I’m dead certain that the neighborhood kids regularly call on me to admire their transformable Transformers™ toys. And I think a Transformers™ movie came out just recently but I don’t know anything about it. It’s probably all explosive and apocalyptic. I’m […]
August 18 – 22 We reduxed a post by our beloved ex-LWONian, Tom Hayden, about all the shiny new multiplexing gadgets he’s bought and broken. Turns out the old stupid crap technology? it never breaks, it always works, it stays your friend. Helen bought an ice cream maker as a present but the recipient of […]
I mean, LOLCats was severely dumb and stupid but nobody’s doing that any more, right? I hope. AG’s cat (though a little badly drawn) is thoroughly in the spirit of Snark Week and has the attitude nailed: if you think soft cuddly Nature loves you and is your friend, you’re not paying close enough […]
Our continuing public service for those trusting souls who think animals are cute and loving: a full week of the horrifying truth. I grew up on a small farm where we raised chickens. I didn’t always think they were repulsive. When I was around 10, I had a 4-H project for which I raised chickens […]
