Books read this year #22

Book: 22
Title: Bad Astronomy

Author: Philip Plait
Genre: Anti-Antiscience
Why did you get this book? I am interested in astronomy, sceptisism and debunking pseudo-science. Phil Plait’s web site is therefore one of the sites I check out daily. Only natural to check out his book.
Did you enjoy the book? Yes.
Was the author new to you? I was familiar with his web site so his book was a natural choice for me.
Would you read something by this author again? Yes.
Are you keeping it or passing it on? I am keeping it. I will lend it to my daughters though.
Anything else? Phil fights the good fight against fuzzy thinking and pseudo-science.
Number of pages: 264
Total pages for the year: 8134

December

Yesterday was the winter solstice. The Sun has turned and the days will get longer (here in the northern hemisphere at least – you in the southern hemisphere have had your turn).

21st December 1913 – First Crossword Puzzle Published

The first crossword puzzle was published in the New York World on 21st December 1913 by Arthur Wynne.

Do you feel the need to try one? Help yourself.

I can’t remember where I first saw this joke. It was long before the internet was invented.

20th December 2005 – cdesign proponentsist day

Quote from Wikipedia for today:

US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching “intelligent design” in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.

My first encounter with an evolution denier happened in my late teens. I was talking to a new acquaintance. In telling him things about myself I made a passing comment that took for granted that the theory of evolution was as much a fact as things scientific ever are. My new acquaintance stunned me by telling me he did not believe in evolution. To me this was the equivalent of denying that the theory of gravitation was true. I was shocked that someone could refuse to accept a theory that has stood the test of time since 1859. This person was obviously smart yet his faith seemed to me to be in direct conflict with reality.

Later in life I came across Niven’s Laws the 14th of which seems to cover this:

There exist minds that think as well as you do, but differently.

10th December 1868 – First traffic lights installed

On 10 December 1868, the first traffic lights were installed outside the British Houses of Parliament in London, by the railway engineer J. P. Knight. They resembled railway signals of the time, with semaphore arms and red and green gas lamps for night use. The gas lantern was turned with a lever at its base so that the appropriate light faced traffic. Unfortunately, it exploded on 2 January 1869, injuring the policeman who was operating it.

The above block quote can be found here.

In recent years there has been tendency to make roundabouts rather than traffic lights here. I would guess that is because they are cheaper. Personally I prefer traffic lights. That may be because when I drove, with my driving instructor, to take my test I drove the wrong way round a roundabout. Well I was nervous. I think my instructor was amazed that I passed.

3rd December 1967 – First human heart transplant

Christiaan Barnard performed the worlds first human heart transplantation.

The operation was a success but the patient died (sorry I couldn’t resist that). Actually the patient Louis Washkansky survived for eighteen days after the operation.