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Fluffy Old Stars

Scientists have this theory about how the universe developed: The very first stars grew out of vast hydrogen and helium clouds floating around after the Big Bang. Once they got going, the heavier elements -- like iron and lead -- formed inside them and were later spewed across the cosmos when the stars grew old and went supernova. The only trouble is nobody could find any remaining old, heavy element-less stars to prove it. Until now.

A team of astronomers has found a star with the catchy name "HE01017- 5240" that has only 1/200,000th as much iron as the sun. That's not exactly what they're looking for -- namely a star with no iron at all -- but it's close enough to make them excited.

posted by Gnomon at 4:44 PM | Link to it!

 
You Broke Whaaaat??

They probably had to use defibrillators on Royal Ontario Museum functionaries when they opened the shipping case containing the alleged burial box of Jesus' brother James yesterday. After travelling from Israel to Canada for an exhibition, the precious ossuary (as these bone boxes are called) was found to be riven with cracks -- including one that goes right through the controversial inscription "Ya'akov [James], son of Yosef [Joseph], brother of Yeshua [Jesus]." Lucky for them the mystery box owner had arranged for shipping.

Museum curators had planned to unveil the famous box to adoring throngs Friday morning; Now they're figuring out how to glue the thing back together.

Meanwhile, ancient writing expert Rochelle I. Altman contends that the second half of the inscription (the "brother of Jesus" part) is fake.

posted by Gnomon at 3:47 PM | Link to it!

 
Mondale Dodges Debate

According to this article in the Minnesota Daily,

"Walter Mondale might have accepted the DFL [i.e., Democratic Farmer Laborer Party] bid for Senate, but he will not accept an invitation to the Star Tribune-KSTP debate scheduled for tonight.

"Candidates from the three other major parties have accepted and are criticizing Mondale for his refusal, particularly in light of Tuesday night’s memorial for Sen. Paul Wellstone, which they dubbed a 'rally.'"

And he's getting beat up about it by Republican, Green, and Independence Party candidates.

Personally, if I sounded as doddering and out-of-touch as Mr. Mondale does, I'd try to avoid a debate with these young whippersnappers too!

posted by Gnomon at 9:36 AM | Link to it!

 
Going Up?

Can it be? Is the economy rebounding just before the mid-term elections? Consider these numbers:

The Gross Domestic Product is now steaming along at 3.1%


Consumer Spending grew at 4.2% this last quarter (including a jump of over 22% in buying "big ticket items")


Businesses invested in new equipment, etc. by 6.5% more


New unemployment claims only grew by 0.8% -- which is down from only 1% last time


And inflation is down to a mere 1.9%!

Add to that the fact that the Stock Market seems to have stablized and... hmmmmm... A bounce-back economy under the Bush administration just before election day... HMMMMM... I wonder how that could affect things?

posted by Gnomon at 2:40 PM | Link to it!

 

Where Have All the Froggies Gone?
Turned to Women, Every One...

Uh oh! According to UC Berkeley scientists, male frogs in the northern prairies are being changed into women frogs by the herbicide atrazine. In one Wyoming pond 92% of the frogs showed signs of "sex reversal." Some of the researchers think this could explain the world's alarming frog deficit (i.e., if they're all women, they'll have a hard time making more frogs). But the leopard frogs, at least, seem to be handling the situation quite well.

So help me, my first thought was that we need to drop atrazine on our misogynistic, Muslim- and/or Arab- supremacist enemies -- the ultimate in ironic weaponry! Then let's move on to Saudi Arabia...
posted by Gnomon at 10:46 AM | Link to it!

 
Where's The Enthusiasm??

One of the dumbest arguments we hear against using force to disarm Iraq is that "the country just doesn't seem enthusiastic about it." Chris Matthews was just spouting that line to Rudy Giuliani on MSNBC's irritating and low rated Hardball. "People accept it but they just aren't getting enthusiastic about it -- not like WW II !"

Of course not, and thank you for setting up another straw man to knock down. Nobody's going to be excited about a preventive war! We're fortunate enough this time not to have been attacked first -- the main motivating factor in WW II. Instead, we're actually wise enough (for a change) to deal with this beforehand, a la the Cuban Missile Crisis and what we should have done with Hitler in the '30's.

We were quite hot enough at the start of this Terror War, when almost 3000 of our civillians were killed. And if we let Iraq go for another eleven years, you can be very sure something else much worse will happen to motivate the populace in like fashion. What Matthews and his ilk don't get is that we're trying to avoid that step this time.
posted by Gnomon at 9:42 PM | Link to it!

 
Funeral Rally

Sen. Paul Wellstone was by all accounts a fine fellow. You know, that rarity in national politics: somebody who actually believes what he's talking about. The last one like that in the Senate was Barry Goldwater -- which tells you how few and far between they are. And you need nutty liberals (just like you need nutty conservatives) just to keep the process interesting.

But having said that, last night's Wellstone funeral service-cum-political rally made my skin crawl the way it used to when Jim and Tammy Bakker begged for money! The absolute low point came when one speaker pleaded with Republicans among the mourners to turn their backs on their party and help Mondale (supposedly endued with the spirit of Paul Wellstone) win! Man, that was shameless. Mondale deserves to loose based on the tackiness of that funeral alone!

posted by Gnomon at 4:33 PM | Link to it!