The Mumpsimus Blog

A snowstorm on a comet

19 noviembre 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science, technology

You think our winter is crazy here? Whiteouts, snow storms, blizzards... imagine a snowstorm in space - with snow falling up, instead of down! That's what's happening on Comet Hartley right now. Particles of ice and snow - frozen CO2 probably, and some as large as a basketball - are being shot from jets on the comet's surface. This...

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Tags: science, NASA, Comet Hartley 0 Comments

Darwin and the Barnacle compared with Creation

18 octubre 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science, Book & film reviews, Uncategorized

Earlier this year, we got a DVD copy of Creation, the film about Charles Darwin and his family life as he struggled to come to grips with his ideas about evolution. It's a touching, emotional film about the man inexorably linked with the theory of evolution (played brilliantly by Paul Bettany) as he wrestled with competing issues of faith and...

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Tags: Darwin, Creation, barnacle, evolution 0 Comments

Are monkeys self-aware? How do we define awareness?

02 octubre 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science, Animals, Social values

There's an interesting article in this week's online edition of The Scientist about experiments done with rhesus monkeys and mirrors to determine if they recognize themselves. In other words, can they see themselves in the mirror and identify the image as their own self? That, we're told, indicated self-awareness.

Self-awareness in...

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Tags: ethics, sentience, self-awareness, science 0 Comments

Wifi motion the mayor's Waterloo?

30 septiembre 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, Social values, Science, Election 2010, Collingwood's municipal m..., Collingwood life

Mayor Carrier announced a week earlier that he intended to make a motion about discontinuing municipal wi-fi services in the town of Collingwood, starting with the Library. That caught everyone off-guard because not only had it never been raised as a municipal issue this term, but he never discussed it with either town staff or his colleagues...

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Tags: wireless, wi-fi, Collingwood Municipal Madness, mayor 8 Comments

Saw the ISS this morning

04 septiembre 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Personal reminisence, Science

About 6:30 a.m., I was out on this chilly (12.9C) morning taking Sophie for her morning bio-break. I was admiring the way the morning sun hit the clouds when I noticed a flash of light in a break between them.

I was looking roughly E-SE and there it was: a bright dot against the clear blue of the sky. I watched it as it moved away, heading E-SE,...

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Tags: ISS, space station, astronomy 0 Comments

The lime tree puzzle

15 agosto 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Personal reminisence, Science, Social values

When I crush a leaf from my lime tree, it smells deliciously of lime, like its fruits do. And its fruits, when it graces us with them, are richly aromatic and unmistakably lime-scented. When you cut into one, you can smell it across the room, and the scent from the oils will linger for hours on your fingers.

Yet today, with it in full bloom in...

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Tags: botany, lime, science, evolution, Citrus aurantifolia 0 Comments

Goodbye Triceratops, hello Torosaurus

07 agosto 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Science

Another cherished childhood myth demolished. This week paleontologists Jack Horner (one of those I respect the most) and John Scannella revealed that the beloved Triceratops was not a separate species, but rather the immature form of Torosaurus. First Brontosaurus, now Triceratops...

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Tags: scientists, paleontology, dinosaurs, triceratops, science 0 Comments

Debunking psychics

01 agosto 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Science, Collingwood life

Why aren't all psychics filthy rich? I mean, if you can predict the future, surely something as basic as the stock market's rise and fall should be a snap. Surely they can predict the winning lottery numbers, too. I never buy lottery tickets because there's always a lineup of psychics ahead of me, cashing in their winnings. No wonder...

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Tags: psychics, superstition, Collingwood, debunk 2 Comments

Ideas for local government 2.0

03 junio 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, Social values, Science, Election 2010, Collingwood's municipal m...

The most interesting seminars I attended at the recent FCM were about what's been dubbed "government 2.0" - government that's open, accountable, and uses the technological tools to create interactive communication with its residents. It's as much a philosophy as a practice. But it requires an administration and bureaucracy...

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