Thursday Throughput: Leaving on a Superluminal Jet Edition
We are in a golden age of astronomy, with capabilities exceeding anything we’ve ever had before. And we’ve just gotten another glimpse into the universe
Author: Michael Siegel
A Bad Number in A Good Cause: A Scientist’s Plea About COVID Vaccine Numbers
I am going to ask folks nicely: please please stop putting out COVID vaccine numbers like this. Without context, it is absolutely meaningless
Video Throughput: Kill the Moon? or Kill the Science with Doctor Who
We look at the science behind the Doctor Who episode “Kill the Moon” which has been a particular bete noir of mine.
Thursday Throughput: Units of Measure Edition
In describing the grandeur and scope of the universe, units intended for the human experience — meters, kilograms, liters — are simply not up to the challenge.
Calling All Grifters: On Hawking The Freedom Phone
How can one “Bitcoin millionaire” suddenly create a competing “Freedom” phone overnight? The answer is that…he probably can’t.
Video Throughput: The Science of Navigation
I take little moments of astronomy in the films Moana and Master and Commander to talk about how our ancestors navigated using the stars.
Thursday Throughput: Billionaires In Space Edition
For some reason, this billionaire space race has set off a wave of hand-wringing articles about how awful billionaires in space is
Video Throughput: Pericarditis From COVID-19 Vaccine? Edition
Are the recent reports of young people getting pericarditis from COVID-19 vaccine a reason to stop vaccinating them? Let’s take a look at the risks involved.
Thursday Throughput: Not So Fat Obesity Edition
The turn-of-the-century predictions of skyrocketing obesity proved incorrect and the scale we are using to judge health appear to be a few pounds too light
Video Throughput: HCQ Revisited
A video Thursday Throughput explaining why, no, the use of HCQ to treatment COVID-19 has not been vindicated by a recent preprint.
Thursday Throughput: The Boys Are All Right Fertility Edition
Activists will continue to milk the issue, but this new paper suggests we should hold off flogging this fertility panic for the time being.
The Final Stages of the Con: Donald Trump, Stolen Elections, and Delusion
And so, we find ourselves in the final stage of the con. Trump’s glorious promises have been revealed for the empty promises they always were.
Mini-Throughput: The Hope of Humping Humpback Whales
When I was a kid, it was accepted that humpback whales were on their way to extinction. Humpbacks are now listed as “least concern”.
Thursday Throughput: The Economy of Lockdowns
After a year of evidence, the claim that you must choose between saving the economy and stopping the virus is simply not true.
Fertility Rates, The Environment, Misogyny and the Fate of the Human Race
Declining fertility rate is something to be concerned about. But our power to do anything about it is extremely limited.
The Justice Department and the Very Delicate Feelings of Devin Nunes
The effort to compel the release of information under the threat of criminal law came only after Devin Nunes failed to get it under the threat of civil lawsuit.
Thursday Throughput: Brooding Cicadas Edition
Every 13 or 17 years, Cicadas mature to adulthood, fly around, make a hell of a lot of noise, and have an astonishing amount of bug sex.
Mini-Throughput: Tumbling Chinese Rocket Edition
If you allow enough 20-ton Chinese rocket stages fall to Earth in an uncontrolled fashion, it is inevitable that something bad will happen.
COVID, PCR and The Wrongness of Alex Berenson
A perfect illustration of what Berenson and others have been doing: making wild COVID claims contradicted by the very documents they cite.
Thursday Throughput: Michael Collins Edition
Michael Collins was such a professional, he wrote a 117-page manual to deal with every possible rendezvous situation. Ad Astra, sir.
