Keep it simple, stupid

Wow, a webcomic just turned me on to the simple wikipedia and I have been blown away. It's like wikipedia, only not for people who are already rocket scientists.

Sure, it may be lacking some detail, but if there's a really complex subject you just want to learn the basics about, simple wikipedia is the way to go. Take, for example, the entry on the large hadron collider:

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's biggest and highest-energy particle accelerator, used to make some very small things called particles hit each other.

There's more info than just that in the entry, but how much more do regular folks need to know?

I strongly recommend everyone give this site a look.


p.s. In case you were wondering, here's the comic that inspired this post:

The Imperial March with Tesla Coil accompaniment

Found via Geekdad

ArcAttack uses Tesla Coils to produce music.
How it works:

These high tech machines produce an electrical arc similar to a continuous lightning bolt which put out a crisply distorted square wave sound reminiscent of the early days of synthesizers. The music consists of original highly dance-able electronic compositions that sometimes incorporates themes or dub of popular songs.

Which leads me to ask, would Nikola Tesla have imagined his tools to become musical instruments? He envisioned radio, particle guns, ion-propelled aircraft, death rays, theories of gravity and, of course, alternating current. But music?

I think that when he stood in the cross-arcs of his lab, he felt the hum of electricity. To Tesla, his designs were music enough, but it's too tempting to not think of him with a DJ rig, throwing out beats to crazed youth underneath the crushing power of Niagara Falls.

Happy Darwin Day!

David Attenborough and the Tree of Life.

Remember people - CREATIONISM MAKES YOU STUPID!

Methane on Mars - Old news, but good news

Great NASA scienceprop on how a blip of gas is changing the way we conceptualize the red planet.

Sure, everybody knows about the methane on Mars... but if you haven't figured out by now, this blog is mostly about us, not you.

Coming up tomorrow - how not to pitch a science story for a local current affairs radio show.
Here's a hint: try not to say menopausal whales more than three times in one sitting.

NASA video found via Colony Worlds