Animation of the time series of discovery of asteroids, beginning in 1980. Note the patterns of discovery as the Earth moves around the sun, and how these change over time as new technology comes on line. Also note compliance with Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Best seen in fullscreen.
Source: http://bottlerocketscience.blogspot.com/2010/08/asteroid-discovery.html
But that's okay, because we can be sure that Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and every Republican member of Congress will be talking about this tomorrow!
A Newspaper Apologizes to United Nations’ Climate Chief
Last December, Britain’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper published a 2,000-word article accusing Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of potential financial conflicts of interest.
On Sunday, The Telegraph made an abrupt about-face, pulling the story from its Web site and apologizing to Dr. Pachauri. [...]
The Telegraph apologized for creating the false impression that Dr. Pachauri had been earning millions of dollars from his consulting work, allegations that climate change skeptics seized upon to question the integrity of the United Nations climate panel he leads. The original story was broadcast around the world, and is still available widely on the Internet.
I'd say read the whole thing, as well as the righteous column from George Monbiot of the Guardian, but sadly, the only people who will are the only people who don't need to. As Monbiot concludes:
The best we can do is to set out the facts and appeal to whatever decency the people spreading these lies might have, and ask them to consider the impact of what they have done to an innocent man. Will it work? I wouldn't bet on it. As we have seen in the United States, where some people (often the same people) continue to insist that Barack Obama is a Muslim and was born abroad, certain views are impervious to evidence.
By the way? Total number of words in the Telegraph's apology?
63.
Including the headline.
Source: http://bjkeefe.blogspot.com/2010/08/another-global-warming-controversy1-uh.html
For part of our "Vision" theme, we talked about how eyes look, and how the way they look tells us something about what they do.
-- We looked at pictures of different animal eyes (I had printed them off the computer and cut some from our monthly zoo mailing). Some animals have big, round eyes with very round and large pupils.
-- Other animals have almond-shaped eyes with smaller, or even horizontal, pupils. Why is that?
Here's a very basic answer for young children: The huge, round pupils of nocturnal animals help them to gather more light. The long, flat pupils of animals like deer and horses give them better depth perception on rocky, uneven ground. Such pupils also help them to see more around them, such as a lion crouching in the grass.
-- Some animals who live underground or in caves have no eyes at all! Can your child think of an example? (Worms are animals without true eyes!)
Simple Activity:
After talking for a day or so about animal eyes and how we can tell the special things they can do by looking at them, I printed several pictures off the Internet and had Nora sort them by whether they belonged to Day-seeing or Night-seeing animals (diurnal or nocturnal animals!). She didn't find this activity difficult. It was a concrete way for her to evaluate the things we had been talking about. Plus, it's just cool to look at all those different animal eyes!
There are so many other aspects of vision that could be taught...but due to my young audience, I kept it simple.
Additional Resources:
The Weird and Wonderful World of Animal Eyes (terrific photos!)
A to Z's Cool Homeschool: Eye Activities
Source: http://funprojectsforpreschoolers.blogspot.com/2010/08/science-lessons-eyes-made-for-day-and.html
We're determined to do as much outdoor school as possible, since we'll be missing these warm days in a couple of months! Today we spread a blanket on the grass and started our biomes unit study. I'm using Amazing Biome Projects You Can Build Yourself by Donna Latham and Farah Rizvi as a springboard for the unit. We read the introduction, compared different biomes and discussed the threats that each of them face.
Then we used sidewalk chalk to list the eight (nine if you count the oceans) biomes covered in the book.
Super tried to write "tundra" in icy letters, but it was somewhat challenging using chalk on a crumbly sidewalk!
We talked about deciduous and coniferous trees, and found examples of each. Deciduous trees typically grow in areas with four distinct seasons, and they lose their leaves in winter.
Coniferous trees have thick, waxy needles that conserve moisture. They don't lose their leaves, which is why people refer to them as "evergreens."
We have both types in our neighborhood. In fact, we seem to have a little of everything here...
We'll be talking about animal adaptations in our biomes unit study, so we read Animal Senses: How Animals See, Hear, Taste, Smell and Feel by Pamela Hickman and Pat Stephens. Have you ever wondered what it's like to see with compound eyes like an insect?
Or to see ten times better than a human, like a hawk?
We did an experiment to find our field of vision: hold your arms in front of you and slowly move them to your sides. When you can't see them anymore, you have found the limits of your field of vision. We learned that frogs have a huge field of vision because their eyes are on top of their heads. But humans have "binocular vision," meaning we focus both of our eyes on the same thing. We can't see behind us, like a frog, but we can focus better on what's in front of us!
Then it was time for some gumdrop geometry...
Count the Dots to find the number of vertices.
It turns out, our geometric solids are useful as grasshopper catchers, too!
Don't worry, we let him go after lunch!
Source: http://karmamatopoeia.blogspot.com/2010/08/school-under-sky.html
