[Signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
- Giant Waves Solve Saturn Ring Mystery
- [Wired: Science - Lisa Grossman]
Saturn’s largest ring appears to behave like a mini spiral galaxy. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft caught enormous waves sloshing back and forth across Saturn’s B ring, similar to waves believed to give galaxies their spiral shapes…
In Saturn’s rings, the waves are more like compressions in a Slinky than water waves, but the physics is similar. “These waves just go back and forth, and keep reflecting until they finally grow large enough so that we can actually see them,” Porco said…
“This is the first time we’ve seen these things in nature,” Porco said. “It underscores the deep, physical connection between what we’re studying at Saturn’s rings, and disk systems across the universe at a very large range of spatial scales.”
- Cyclists cited, bikes impounded in Long Beach Critical Mass ride
- [L.A. Times]
[I support people who support green transportation. That said, I offer a pro tip to nighttime bicyclists: Unless you are covered in white clothing and reflective tape, you should assume that drivers cannot see you. -L]
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- Just wondering: Has Jon Stewart ever met a real racist?
- …Stewart's speech Saturday — the vast majority of which (especially the media-critique component) I wholeheartedly agreed with. But then there was this: "There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats, but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and tea partiers…"
…some of the people — myself included — who are having trouble distinguishing between Tea Partiers and real racists are people who have had extensive dealings over many years with genuine, card-carrying Klansmen, Aryan Nations, skinheads and Patriot/militia radicals.
Or, more precisely — as the NAACP pointed out in its report of a couple weeks ago — we are profoundly disturbed by the growing lack of distance between mainstream conservatives and real extremists as a result of the conduit between them that is the Tea Parties.
- Introducing Pinguy OS 10.04 LTS
- DistroWatch: "Pinguy OS is a project which attempts to take the Ubuntu distribution and make it more attractive and easier to use. The distribution targets home users who are not yet familiar with Linux and tries to provide everything an inexperienced (Linux) computer user will need right out of the box."
- Gerrymandering: A New Documentary on Legal Election Rigging
- [GOOD - Andrew Price]
Jeff Reichert's new film, Gerrymandering, examines the old American practice of politicians picking the voters they want by drawing up otherwise nonsensical congressional districts, and its unfortunate effects.
- VIDEO: Crow Adopts Kitten
- [I Can Has Cheezburger]
- New Question About MERS Mortgage System: Does It Owe Money for Unpaid Fees?
- [ABA Journal Daily News]
In the latest challenge to a controversial nationwide method of registering mortgage ownership, a Virginia lawmaker is requesting an opinion from the state attorney general on whether Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems is required to pay a fee every time a home loan is transferred. MERS is the glue that holds together tens of millions of securitized mortgages, acting as the agent for the lender in foreclosure actions, for example. But amidst a tidal wave of foreclosures, some are now questioning whether the company has the legal power to do so…
- Just say no to no new taxes
- [Hullabaloo - digby]
Just say no to no new taxes. Really. I live in California have watched this once great state deteriorate slowly at first and now all at once into an ungovernable mess largely by the design of the tax revolt fetishists. But they just keep coming.
Joshua Holland has helpfully compiled a list of anti-tax initiatives to vote against in this article. If you live in one of these states or have relatives and friends who do, you might want to forward this article.
- Crap Detection 101 : Howard Rheingold : City Brights
- The first thing we all need to know about information online is how to detect crap, a technical term I use for information tainted by ignorance, inept communication, or deliberate deception. Learning to be a critical consumer of Webinfo is not rocket science. It's not even algebra. Becoming acquainted with the fundamentals of web credibility testing is easier than learning the multiplication tables. The hard part, as always, is the exercise of flabby think-for-yourself muscles.
- Macroeconomics Is Hard
- [Paul Krugman]
And it's nothing like running a business.
[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. --L.]
The Of interest (Mon, Nov 1st, 4pm) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.