Thursday, November 07, 2002

All Consuming is a website that scans weblogs to find out what books webloggers are reading. It then cross-references that information with Google, Amazon and Alexa.com. The result is an elegantly designed page that allows you to see what books are the most talked about and what people are saying about them in weblog space.

I'm currently reading the giant tome "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory" by Stephen Jay Gould. Go here to find out what webloggers have to say about it [via Jon Udell].
12:07:10 PM    



Ever since Apollo landed on the moon, conspiracy theorists have been claiming that it was all a hoax. Now NASA is rebutting these claims with a book [BBC News].

Flags that ripple on the airless Moon, discrepancies in the part numbers of lunar lander components, shadows that point in the wrong direction, the lack of stars seen in the sky - these are all "facts" that have fuelled the conspiracy theory.

The idea that it could have been a conspiracy is fun to pursue, but in the end it is a ridiculous notion. The book will not be aimed at those who think that it was a conspiracy. Instead, it is aimed at teachers and others as a resource.
11:02:07 AM    



13 to 40 percent of the carbon released into the atmosphere comes from wildfires [Scientic American]. That may be true, but, on the other hand, all of the carbon released in wildfires is stored in plants. When those plants grow again, they will reabsorb the carbon that was released during the fire. Of course, it may take 50 years or more for the carbon to be reabsorbed, but that is a blink of the eye. So, though wildfires contribute to a large amount of carbon in the atmosphere, their net contribution is zero.
10:54:59 AM    


"Al Qaeda is a Faith-Based Initiative" and other thought provoking signs were carried in Washington this week during the Godless Americans March on Washington [Washington Post][via Corpse Divine].
10:31:24 AM    


I live one block away from the Seattle city limits, in Shoreline, and I'm now glad about that. Seattle voters are doing everything they can to worsen an already pathetic transportation problem. For years they've been frustrating plans for a light rail system and now they've voted to extend the decrepit Monorail [Seattle P-I].
10:23:52 AM    


The 2002 Leonid Meteor Shower will peak on November 19th. The estimate is that there will be about 40 meteors per minute or 2400 per hour over North America [Space.com]. You may remember that last year's storm was forecast to be a blockbuster, but didn't quite live up to the hype [Space.com]. Many of the astronomers who had made last year's predictions went back to revise their models, so I'm hoping this year's shower will be more on target. Either way, I'm gonna go watch it. To see the predictions for when the showers will peak in the Seattle area, go here.
10:11:23 AM    



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Last update: 12/2/2002; 11:40:04 AM.