Groundhog Day...

Via reader Jim M., this observation:

In 2013, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the same day. This is an ironic juxtaposition of events. One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for prognostication.

The other involves a groundhog.

Ouch. But it sounds right, doesn't it?

That's a Lot of Horse!

From a collection of gorgeous photos my mom sent me, this:

Pholistoma auritum...

Aka “fiestaflower”, found in California.  From BPOD, of course.

A Win on Two Counts!

Via my mom, who declares it a winner for (a) the cinematography, and (b) the score (Kenny G.):

The Right Point...

Why would a train (carrying biofuel) cross the U.S.-Canada border 24 times without unloading?  Why, because they could make millions of dollars that way, of course!  Read about it here. 

The author makes exactly the right point: this only happened because of central economic planning.  In a free market, this wouldn't have made any sense at all.  With the unintended (I'm willing to presume) consequences of central planning, these sorts of outcomes are almost inevitable.  Given the opportunity, people will game the system.  It's in our selfish genes...

2012 Win/Luck Compilation...

48 Hours in Tallinn...

I love seeing articles like this pop up in the mainstream press.  Little Estonia is being discovered!  I miss visiting there...it's been eight years now...

Tycho's Central Peak...

Tycho is a large, relatively young crater on Earth's moon, easily spotted with the naked eye (see photo with red location dot at right).  Tycho has a prominent set of central peaks (as seen in the photo at far right) that can be seen even with binoculars. 

APOD is featuring a photo of those central peaks today, taken a year and a half ago by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) – another one of NASA's largely unsung scientific robotic exploration heroes.  Even better, APOD links to this interactive high-resolution photo viewer, which shows the same photo in spectacular 1.5 meter per pixel resolution.  Awesome!

What Explains the Rise and Fall of Violent Crime?

In the years since 1960 in the U.S., the rate of violent crime rose dramatically from about 3 per year per million people, to over 15 in 1988, and then back down to 8 last year (and still falling fast).  Why such large swings?

Kevin Drum (a journalist) reports on a theory proposing a very simple cause: environmental lead (Pb), primarily from leaded gasoline.  Before my more rabidly conservative readers explode in apoplexy: yes, I know this is in Mother Jones.  Yes, I know who Kevin Drum is.  Those two facts don't mean the man's wrong - read it; don't just reflexively dismiss it because of its source.

It's an interesting idea with some compellingly suggestive evidence (though less than proof positive at the moment).  This also suggests that renewed efforts to reduce environmental lead would be very beneficial...

Curiosity: Looking Around...

Curiosity is still exploring things in the bottom of Gale Crater.  Almost every day there's a new set of imagery to beguile anyone curious about Mars.  I love the way (these days) NASA just throws all the raw images out there for us to peruse...