Bob Siederer
March 31 2024

Hello again Science Fans! I’m filling in for David this week (and next). For those of you who celebrate, Happy Easter!

More about Time

In my February 25 SciSchmooze, I went into a discussion about time. There was one error (that I know of) in that discussion where I said how there was a two week difference between the start of Daylight Savings Time here in the US versus Europe, with them making the change later than us. The difference is actually three weeks, with Europe changing to Daylight time early this morning. They will return to st

Bob Siederer
March 24, 2024

Hello again Science fans and welcome to another SciSchmooze!

There are 87 events on the calendar over the next two weeks. My picks include:

1. Wonderfest: BLACKBERRY and Corporate Psychology - 03/26/2024 05:00 PM
2. The Psychology of Misinformation and Its Remedies&nb

Herb Masters
March 19

Hello Science, Reason, and Irish for a day (or more), Inclined Readers,

I’m going to go much lighter this week. Last week was loaded with a lot of links and content.

I missed it last week but Feb 11 it was International Day of Women and Girls in Science. I personally think 

3.11.24

Hello Supporters of Science and Reason

Some recent news has sent me down a new path of questioning what we think we know, how we think we should react and why we should. Can Intellectual Humility Save Us from O

科学迷们，大家好！(Hello again science fans!)

Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis) and Denisovans (H. denisova ??) interbred at various times and places. (The “??” following H. denisova refers to the current situation where insufficient Denisovan fossils exist to firmly classify them.) Modern humans interbred with Neanderthals so today we H. sapiens have varying snippets of DNA derived from Denisovans. Also, study of blood types of these three groups suggest that Rh incompatibility may have affected the health of some hybrids. (By the way, D

Bob Siederer
Feb 26 2024

Hello again Science Fans!

This year is a leap year, when one day is added to the calendar to account for the difference between the tropical year and the common year. The tropical year is the time it takes Earth to make one complete orbit around the Sun, or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds. It would be pretty difficult to have a calendar that matched that exactly, so we use the common year length of 365 days. That means we fall slightly behind the actual year by almost 1/4 day. So every 4 years (with exceptions) we add one day to the calendar, that being February 29, to get back in synch, more or less.

Back in the day, namely 46 BC, the Julian cal

maybe even week! 2.19.24

Hello Fans and Supporters of Science and Reason!

Here’s to The Most Beautiful Science of the Year. I realize that “new year” was over a month ago but consider the 

Hello to Those Who Schmooze Science,

I hope that you found what you wanted today with the Super Bowl. For me I found no lines at the grocery store or the gas station. I did have a lot of computer data issues with today’s SciSchmooze though. Which will make this one a bit briefer than usual. If you did stay home for the Super Bowl, I hope Taylor was able to join you, the ads were as good as hoped for, and my friend Jerry’s was a big hit with the clydesdale fans.

Now, on to the science! Did you know that Sunday 11 February was the International Day of 

Hola, fans de la ciencia,

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Hurricanes and tornadoes and floods, oh my! ¿Tornadoes in California? Yes. Nine tornadoes were documented in California during 2023 with Los Angeles County getting three of those. A friend’s house in SoCal had part of her roof torn off during a storm in early January leaving a 5 meter strip of metal flashing grotesquely twisted. Several of her close neighbors had metal panels ripped off their carports at the same time. ¿Was that a tornado? There’s not enough evidence to know but if so, it only qualified for an EF0 rating on the 

Hello again Science Fans!

In the era of planned obsolence and less than robust construction, it is refreshing to see that some things are still over-engineered and over-built. The Mars helecopter, Ingenuity, certainly counts as one of the later. Ingenuity was designed to make 5 flights. It was intended as a test to see if it could fly through the thin atmosphere of Mars.

Ingenuity was dropped from the belly of Perseverance, the Mars rover, shortly after landing. It not only flew the planned 5 missions, but continued on in a new role, helping scout clear paths for Perseverance to take towards new exploration targets.