This is perfect for some lazy Sunday viewing: the complete, hour-long documentary “The Joy of Stats”, in which incredibly excited host Hans Rosling takes you inside the world of numbers. Prepare to fal…
Category Archives: science
Global map of air pollution
Image: NASA’s satellite-derived map of air pollution, throughout planet earth, between 2001-2006. Specifically, the “warmer” areas of the color map (yellow, orange, red) indicate higher densities of problematic particles known as fine particulate matt…
Visual study guide to cognitive biases
“Cognitive Biases – A Visual Study Guide by the Royal Society of Account Planning” is a short slide-show aimed at helping you remember all the major types of cognitive bias. This might just be my favorite subject at present: it’s so fascinating to rem…
Portrait of a Polluted Land [Megapollution]
NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of a massive smog bank smothering huge portions of China today. This blanket of pollution has been hovering over the country for over a week now, exacerbated by cool air and smoke from fires.
According to NASA, whose researchers first wrote about this lingering smog bank on Oct. 30:
A temperature inversion may be responsible for the build up of pollution over eastern China. Normally, air cools with altitude, but occasionally, a layer of cool air will be trapped beneath a layer of warm air. Since the cool air is more dense than the air above it, the two layers don’t mix and pollutants build up in the cool air near Earth’s surface.
Temperature inversions develop most often during the winter, when long, cool nights chill the ground. The cold land cools the air nearest the ground, leaving the air at higher altitudes warmer. The two layers of air do not easily mix, and the temperature inversion can last for days if winds are calm.
So far it has lasted for more than a week. Is this the future of weather?
via NASA
How to run, meditate, and not get hurt
It’s a brisk Saturday afternoon in San Francisco, and I’m standing outside of Sports Basement with a metronome in my hand. Several hundred feet away, a guy in a funny hat is running around the empty parking lot at a consistent 85 steps per minute. His …
Huge Unidentified Organic Blob Floating Around Alaska
Z80xxc! writes “The Anchorage Daily News reports that a 15 mile-long blob of unknown, ‘gooey,’ probably organic material is floating past communities on Alaska’s North Slope. The US Coast Guard sent pollution experts to investigate, who determined that it was not an oil spill or other type of pollution, but were unable to determine what it is. A sample is currently being analyzed by experts in Anchorage, while the blob is following the current northwards.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
