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15 December 2009
Have You Ever Seen an Ice Ribbon?
Joe Vaughn has. I received an email over the past weekend with a picture and a question. What is this?? What you are looking at is an ice ribbon. They are also sometimes called a frost flower. It’s been about a decade since a viewer sent me a picture of one. I have only seen them myself once. So what are they? Are they natural? Are they really ice? The …
3 December 2009
Get The jab, and learn What a semi-colon means before you accuse scientists of fraud.
I have a pile of things that I’ve wanted to write about, but it’s been a busy time with a family illness. That said, here are some great pieces of good Science I have run across this week. All are worth a look. First of all a salute to the ROYAL SOCIETY by the BBC in the form of an audio visual slide show. Mouse on the pic below to …
2 November 2009
What Really Crashed At Roswell
Roswell in New Mexico has made itself into the tourism mecca for those who believe we have been/are being visited by aliens. Thousands attend the annual UFO festival and just look at the artwork on the chamber of commerce web site! Countless TV shows with eyewitnesses and so called experts have looked into the reports that a flying saucer crashed into the desert near Roswell in July of 1947. It …
8 August 2009
Science You Learned, That Just Isn't True!
Many times it’s easier to oversimplify a scientific concept than to take the time to figure out how to explain it correctly in a more simple way. This has led to a lot of people believing things that just aren’t true. In some cases, it’s because the misconception used to be thought correct, but we now know better. So here is a post about some scientific concepts that you might …
21 May 2009
Sunset From the Saturn 5 Rocket Cam
There is only one upright model of a Saturn V Moon Rocket. It’s right here in Huntsville, and it’s next to the first Saturn V ever built. (The real one is in a building to protect it!). The rocket that took man to the Moon is 363 feet high. That’s 36 stories. It’s one of only three remaining, and is a priceless object of history. For my readers in other states, …
2 April 2009
The Curious Case of Pioneer 10
Dr. John Anderson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has discovered something very weird. Two other colleagues have been working on it as well. As of now, there is no explanation. Safe to say it’s likely keeping them up at night! Not that they haven’t tried to figure it out! Sherlock Holmes said, that once you rule out the impossible, then what remains, however improbable, must be the truth. The truth, in this case …
25 March 2009
The Case of The Missing Sun Spots
Do sun spots control Earth’s climate? YES! So does El Nino, La Nina, and the myriad of other oceanic oscillations. So do the slow regular changes in our orbit around the sun, and so do the ever increasing amount of greenhouse gases, in our atmosphere. The affect of the sun spot cycle on our climate has been investigated quite well. Thanks to bogus claims that the warming of the 20th century was …
23 March 2009
Earth Hour This Saturday
This coming Saturday at 8:30pm local time, millions of people will turn off their lights for an hour. It’s called Earth Hour. The idea is to get people thinking about our planet. We waste a tremendous amount of energy everyday. If incandescent bulbs were outlawed tomorrow, you could shut down several coal fired power plants immediately! They will be phased out starting in 2014, and they already have been in my house. (Saved …
25 January 2009
A Salute to Stephen Fry
For those of you who read this journal from outside the USA (and thank you by the way!), you will pardon me while I explain to the rest who Stephen Fry is. In a world where most famous movie stars, and sports celebrities have an education level that is sadly lacking, it is refreshing to have a famous actor/comedian/writer/game show host, who is just the opposite! If you check out …
10 September 2008
So Long Little Red Corsica
About 5 years ago the TV station I work for decided to auction off some of it’s older vehicles. One car in particular had a very troubled past. A 1995 red Corsica. It seems that one time the steering wheel came off in a reporters hand while driving down the road. Then the transmission fell out of it as well. All those things were fixed and with 120,000 miles it …
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.