Unexpected SciSchmoozing

7 June 2021 Clouds are rare over Mars. Curiosity photographed clouds so far above the surface that they may be dry ice crystals. This SciSchmooze is going to press before the results of Ingenuity’s 7th flight are known. But if you would like a little model (about 1/7 scale) of Ingenuity – for free – … Read more

Searching with The SciSchmooze

30 May 2021 Dr. Elizabeth Bik searches for faked images, plagiarized passages, and incorrectly interpreted data in scientific papers. She is amazing in her ability to recognize improperly re-used images even when they are reversed and rotated. She presented a paper on “Misconduct in Scientific Papers: Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification” at the Bay Area Skeptics … Read more

SciSchmooze en los tiempos del COVID

2 May 2021 Fewer and fewer Americans are lining up to get COVID-19 shots while only 31% of our population has been fully vaccinated. Public Service Announcements are pushing for more people to get vaccinated, e.g. Barack Hussein Obama, Stewie from Family Guy, and Google. Aware that a large proportion of Republicans are hesitant, there … Read more

SciSchmoozing around the Neighborhood

4 April 2021 Dear Science Fans, Out in our solar system neighborhood, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter is about to be released from the underside of the Perseverance rover. NASA’s official description of Ingenuity’s role says it will be decommissioned after a month of test flights. Sorry, folks. I do not expect the world’s population will … Read more

103° in Winnipeg

Back in about 1975, the Canadian Wildlife Service invited personnel from the International Bird Rescue Research Center up to their regional offices in Winnipeg to instruct agents from across Canada in the cleaning and aftercare of oiled water birds. Alice Berkner and i naturally picked ourselves as the training team. As Alice and volunteers prepared … Read more

The Dead Duck

James Michael Harris, D.V.M. persuaded the folk at U.C. Berkeley Extension to let the International Bird Rescue Research Center offer a six-week night course in avian anatomy & physiology. This was when the Bird Center was in the warehouse on Eighth Street in Berkeley adjacent to the East Bay Humane Society. I would co-teach with … Read more

Dawn & Oiled Birds

Oil spills did not end with the San Francisco spill of January 1971 when i began my 7-year odyssey as Research Director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center, IBRRC. Spills were a constant feature of the shipping business of the Bay. The bilge water of  freighters and cruise ships normally collect lubricants and fuel … Read more

Require Paid Public Service by 24

David Almandsmith Send this page’s link to your friends and to your representatives and voice your approval of this valuable vision. https://cogito.blog/require-paid-public-service-by-age-24/ Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute expressed multiple reasons why a program of mandatory public service is not only a bad idea, but is also infeasible. His paper is “Mandatory Universal National Service: … Read more

Framework for Fair Elections

Underlying Concept:  Government Support for Candidates Who Show Backing “Every member of Congress is guilty of fundraising on the government’s time and taxpayers’ dime.” “… our ‘representatives’ of the people spend as much as half their time raising money.” “I received a call from a sitting lawmaker, asking for a donation toward the $325,000 dollars he’s obligated … Read more