You’ve seen this, right?
So, chemistry-wise, why does it do that (from Compound Interest)?
Your science lesson for today. There will be a quiz.
The chemistry of the Mentos fountain
Reply
Category Archives: Science and Technology
Echo Silver
This would be a great invention. (Are you listening, Jeff Bezos?)
Writers decide not to strike. A win for AI.
Hollywood writers reached a tentative deal for a new three-year contract with television and movie studios early Tuesday, averting a strike in dramatic overtime negotiations.
At nearly 1 a.m. on the West Coast, weary union leaders, including Patric Verrone, the former president of the Writers Guild of America, West, emerged from the offices of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of studios, and said that a favorable contract had been drawn up.
The writers made a deal because they knew they couldn’t compete with this:
Damn you, Hasselhoff!
Hollywood writers are going to strike. Bad move.
This happened this week (from the Los Angeles Times)
In a sign of rising labor tensions in Hollywood, members of the Writers Guild of America voted overwhelmingly Monday to authorize a strike just a week before the union’s contract is set to expire May 1.
Although the vote is largely seen as a negotiating tactic to put pressure on the studios, it moves the union one step closer to a work stoppage that would have widespread repercussions throughout the film and TV industry.
The guild said 96.3% of the 6,310 writers who cast ballots voted in favor of the measure, which gives leaders the authority to call a strike if negotiations fail. The union said 67.5% of eligible WGA members voted, describing it as “a historic turnout.” The union has nearly 13,000 members.
During the last writers walkout in 2007, members voted 90% in favor of granting a strike authorization.
They might want to reconsider, because someone has downloaded screenplays into a computer and let AI come up with a script. I’m not kidding.
Here’s the first result:
And here’s the second:
I’ve said it before. When Skynet becomes self-aware, we are screwed. But even more screwed than we would have been a year ago, because Skynet is going to look at the orange babyman and his supporters and say, “Hell, no!”
Science and music
I was at today’s march for science, and as I got near the main stage, this guy was singing:
That’s Thomas Dolby. He blinded me.
And amid the mass of speakers, this science guy got a big ovation:
Yes, Bill Nye.
The rally near the Washington Monument was a combination of the 47th observance of Earth Day and a March for Science. The march probably wouldn’t have happened if a bunch of mouth breathing pump truppets hadn’t put the orange troll in the White House, which the main stage was facing as speakers repeatedly noted that people who don’t believe in science have taken over the country. Here’s what the dwarf appendaged crimson menace looked like during the speech:
Thanks, pump truppets.
The march for science
Scientist and people who believe in science are going to gather at the Washington Monument Saturday for a March for Science. (I’m planning to go as a believer.)
So here’s a science oriented graphics to get all you geeks revved up (from Compound Interest):
Yay, science! Take it away Thomas Dolby:
Life in the solar system
Saturn’s moon Enceladus features a warm subterranean ocean covered in ice. In an extraordinary new finding, scientists have confirmed the existence of a chemical energy source within this moon’s water that’s capable of sustaining living organisms here on Earth. Enceladus is now officially the best place beyond Earth to look for life.
Molecular hydrogen is being produced in the ocean of Enceladus, according to a new study published today in Science. The most plausible source of this hydrogen is hydrothermal reactions between hot rocks and water in the ocean beneath the moon’s icy surface. So in addition to warm water, organic molecules, and certain minerals, this moon is also producing an accessible source of energy that could conceivably support alien microbes.
Indeed, hydrothermal processes near volcanic vents are known to sustain complex ecosystems here on Earth. The new study marks an important development in our ability to assess the habitability of distant celestial objects, while setting the stage for future missions.
Hopefully, we are going to do future missions. But the way things are going, the “we” is a global “we” instead of an American “we”, since there’s an anti-science pathology in the pigmy fingered pinhead’s administration.
