Achenblog - The Washington Post's Joel Achenbach on whatever strikes his fancy - June 14, 2009

The Whole World Is Watching

Iran's leaders have prohibited journalists from covering the demonstrations today, so what's happening is sketchy. But information wants to be free -- there's no way to cover up tens of thousands of people in the streets and riot police...

Infinitely Mind-boggling

At lunch I read Tom Siegfried's piece in Science News about multiple universes, and now I need a nap. Make no mistake, it's a fine piece, especially the top, which elegantly lays out the anthropic principle: "...there may be...

A Lake On Mars

There's new evidence of an ancient lake on Mars, a good site for future robotic probes trying to scratch up Martian microbes. Planetary scientists think the oldest surfaces on Mars formed during the wet and warm Noachan epoch from...

Humongous Science Questions

I was at the Carnegie Institution this morning, listening to the Human Space Flight Review committee, and found myself distracted by something out in the hallway: Lots of science questions. The institute has posted 100 big science questions [can't...

Eleven Degrees Hotter?

The Obama Administration has put out a big climate change report, and the gist of it is that we need to do something or face a drastically hotter planet -- like maybe as much as 11 degrees hotter by...

Summer Groove

Got my summer groove going. Am lowering standards across the board. Complete sentences: optional, like shoes and long pants. Having an actual point or a coherent argument: bonus feature. Even that societal mandate, showing up for work, really should...

T.Rex and Daffy Duck

It is hard to believe that a bat and a blue whale are of a kind. But in establishing kinship, the differences don't matter -- they're both mammals because of certain similarities. This is Jack Horner's point in my...

Election Fraud in Iran

It's never a prudent strategy to plan on the world becoming more just and peaceful -- harmony and wisdom running riot. But if the Iranians could somehow stage a revolution right now -- beating a path back to a...

Achenblog: June 14, 2009 - June 20, 2009