New Tangled Bank Review: “The Best” | The Loom

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zimmercover220.jpgThe Tangled Bank just got a great review in CBE-Life Sciences Education, a journal from the American Society for Cell Biology about teaching science. Scientific journals roll out their reviews a lot more slowly than newspapers and magazines, but in this case, it was worth the wait. Randy Moore, a University of Minnesota biologist who has done great work in defense of the teaching of evolution, leaves me trying to decide which line I want to drop, blurb-like, onto my web site…

“The best textbook I’ve seen for a nonmajors introductory biology course about evolution.”

…or maybe–

“The Tangled Bank is well-produced, up-to-date, readable, and exceptionally well illustrated. At no point does it falter.”

or maybe the last line of the review…

“Read The Tangled Bank. You won’t be disappointed.”

Thanks for the embarrassment of riches.


Lonely galaxy is lonely. But it ate its friends. | Bad Astronomy

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Do cannibals have friends? I imagine some must… unless they have them over for dinner.

Just like the giant elliptical galaxy ESO 306-17, which you can see in this gorgeous Hubble picture:

ESO-306-17

[Click to embiggen, or grab the monster 3800 x 3800 pixel version. They have wallpapers, too.]

ESO 306-17 sits about a billion light years from Earth. In this picture it looks like it’s surrounded by other galaxies, but that’s an illusion: all the other galaxies you see here are either much closer to us or much farther away. ESO 306-17 is actually a loner, sitting all by itself in space.[Update: Or almost all alone; Michael West, who led the team that took these images, tells me the little elliptical at the bottom left of ESO 306-17 may be interacting with it. It's difficult to tell; but what is certain is that there are very few galaxies near the big one, far fewer than you'd expect.]

How can a galaxy get this big and yet be sitting in a giant void? Easy. It ate all the neighbors. We know this is how galaxies grow in size, and is even why the Milky Way is a giant among galaxies. Like our galaxy, ESO 306-17 has a lot of globular clusters around it, just as you’d expect if it ate a bunch of other galaxies.

When I downloaded the bigger image, I noticed this weird galaxy on the left:

ESO-306-17_detail

Wow. I’m guessing that long stretched-out junk is a small galaxy that got shredded, maybe after a close pass to that spiral. I thought for a moment the spiral might be active — that is, the black hole in its core was actively eating matter and ejecting long jets of gas and light — but the core itself is not bright, as you’d expect. Plus, the material is lumpy and irregular, more indicative of a cosmic collision in progress. It’s unrelated to the elliptical, but still very cool.

I really urge you to download the big image and take a nice, long look at it. There’s a lot to see, and it’s all really beautiful.

Image credit: NASA, ESA and Michael West (ESO)


New Windows Phone Won't Run Current Apps

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. has said its new software for smart phones, Windows Phone 7 series, is a "clean break" with the past. Now it's clear just how clean that break is: The new phones, expected late this year, won't run any applications written for older versions of Microsoft's phone soft

Ultra-Efficient Gas Engine Passes Test

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A novel fuel-injection system achieves 64 miles per gallon.

By Kevin Bullis

Monday, March 08, 2010

Transonic Combustion, a startup based in Camarillo, TX, has developed a fuel-injection system it says can improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by more than 50 percent. A t

NY Governor candidate Kristin Davis’s Fiscal Conservatism

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A sexed up modern version of Ayn Rand

Libertarian and Personal Freedom Party candidate for New York Governor Kristin Davis spoke to a gathering of 25 generally libertarian supporters at a breakfast on March 1, and made the following comment:

"I advocate returning to limited government, accompanied by a minimal amount of confiscatory taxation to support only essential services along with Pay as Go budgeting; means testing for all government assistance programs; abolition of all member item pork barrel spending, balanced budgets; actual surpluses and payments to reduce long term state debt"

Davis is regarded as merely a "celebrity candidate," however, she takes economic issues and budgetary matters quite seriously.

The former Manhattan Madame spent 4 months in an upstate prison in 2008, convicted of running an illegal escort service. Her clients included former NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer. But she used that time productively. On her reading list during her stay, included economic texts by free market illuminaries Frederich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Ludvig von Mises. She's also reportedly a big fan of the writings of capitalist philosopher and one-time New Yorker Ayn Rand.

KristinDavis2010.com

Wild & Crazy New York Governor’s race gets even more Insane

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Paladino, Lazio, Redlich & Davis

From Eric Dondero:

As if the race for New York Governor couldn't get any crazier. Now word comes that a 4th candidate on the Right is read to jump in, and on yet another third-party ticket. And he, like the others, claims some allegiance to the GOP.

Meet Carl Paladino, a multi-millionaire businessman from Buffalo. He's a veteran of the Tea Party movement.

From the Daily Caller, March 2:

From the nascent Tea Party movement comes a potential champion. New York Tea Party leaders are urging Buffalo millionaire businessman Carl Paladino to enter the Republican gubernatorial primary and also petition a Tea Party Party onto the ballot. New York has a unique system where candidates can accept multiple party endorsements and win the cumulative number of votes cast for them on Election Day regardless of which party ballot position they won the votes.

Paladino, who is both a developer and lawyer, has a reputation for outspokenness and candor in the Buffalo business community... Paladino is like the character in the movie “Network,” who shouts “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Brash, articulate and opinionated, Paladino is the kind of outsider who could bring the Republican Party back in the Empire State.

What's even crazier, it appears former Republican Senator Al D'Amato, a current favorite of libertarians for his Pro-Legalization of Poker lobbying efforts, is maneuvering the State GOP into accepting Rick Lazio as its standard-bearer in order to secure his pal - Democrat - Andrew Cuomo the Governor's mansion.

Continuing from the Daily Caller:

Former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, nominally a Republican, and his sidekick, Kieran Mahoney, are squarely in the Cuomo camp and among Cuomo’s largest fundraisers. D’Amato has labored furiously to lock up the Republican gubernatorial nomination for weak candidate Rick Lazio in order to hand Andrew a weak challenge.

This is confirmed by the NY Daily News:

Interestingly, D'Amato is raising money for Gillibrand's old HUD boss, AG Andrew Cuomo. So, he clearly still thinks some Democrats are OK - especially those who might be poised to run the state in the not-too-distant future.

Recall D'Amato was at the press conference when Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand was tapped to be the US Senator from New York. Additionally, D'Amato is much credited with having been the master-mind behind the brief Howard Stern candidacy on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1994, and getting him to back out so as not to hinder the chances of then State Senator George Pataki. Of course, Pataki ended up winning that race in an upset.

Perhaps D'Amato's lobbying for various causes is overtaking his allegiance to the Republican Party?

Republican Party, Tea Party, Libertarian Party, and Conservative Party

So, on what's generally viewed as the Right in New York, libertarians and conservatives, we could possibly end up with the following:

Rick Lazio - former Congressman from Long Island, a milktoast conservative who lost a race that was generally regarded as an easy win for the GOP, to Hillary Clinton in 2000 for US Senate. Additionally, Lazio may be seeking the Conservative Party line.

Kristin Davis - (full disclosure; a heavy favorite of this website), running simultaneously on the Libertarian Party ticket and her own Personal Freedom Party line. Though, she is less certain of gaining the Libertarian endorsement.

Warren Redlich - At the same time upstate Attorney and Gunderland Town Councilman Warrend Redlich is seeking the Libertarian Party nomination, and going against Lazio for the GOP nod, as well. Redlich, who comes from the Ron Paul wing of the Libertarian Republican movement, could end up with both nominations, or depending how well Davis and Lazio do, could end up with neither.

Carl Paladino - And finally the new entrant Mr. Paladino from Buffalo, who plans to fund a petition drive to qualify the "Tea Party," on the New York State ballot. And let's not forget, Paladino is also seeking both the Conservative and Republican Party lines.

In such an environment, and given the mood of the country right now, anything could happen. If anyone believes Andrew Cuomo, who has some skeletons in his closet of his (to be revealed at a future date, quite possibly right here at LR), is a shoe-in for this race, they are sadly mistaken.