MSNBC: UFOs over Cleveland?

Typical of the ignorant mis-comprehension of the mundane workings of the natural world, the mainstream media (MSNBC specifically) turn to a pseudo-scientific hack to explain something that he doesn't understand and therefore implies that it must be something "other-worldly."



And my response sent to "Contact us-MSNBC.com": "I just saw a report from MSNBC about "UFOs" over Cleveland. The "expert" you had on to talk about the lights doesn't know anything about the night sky. What you could have done was had someone on who knows something about lights in the sky. An astronomer, even an amateur astronomer, could have told you that this light is the planet Venus, which is in the western sky right now for a couple of hours after sunset. When it gets close to the horizon it appears to flicker and change colors when its light refracts as it passes through Earth's atmosphere. The next time you want to "get to the bottom" of a mystery maybe you could consult a scientist instead of a crank."

Just a hint to UFO hunters: if an object appears in the sky at the same time every night, travels across the sky at the same rate as the stars around it, and sets in the west, it just might be an astronomical object.

"Polonium Halos" in Granite

As often happens we get visitors to the Beagle that like to try out their knowledge on us "sciencey" types. A gentleman was looking at Polly in our front window this afternoon. When I told him it was a nearly complete fossil of an adult Psittacosaurus that was 125 million years old, he replied, "you don't really believe that do you?" I allowed as to the fact that I neither discovered the fossil nor dated the fossil itself, but was confident that it had been properly dated most likely based on several factors. He than said, "how do you explain the fact that granite contains polonium, since polonium has a half-life of only a few seconds?" I replied that I didn't have to explain it, but I did tell him that polonium has isotopes that range in weight from 194 to 218 and the natural isotopes have half-lives ranging from 0.145 seconds to 102 years.

After he left I did some data mining on-line and found a short article that is spot on point:

"Creationist Robert Gentry has argued that ring-shaped discoloration (halos) in primordial granite rocks are the result of damage from alpha-particle emission by radioactive isotopes of the element polonium (Po). Since radiogenic polonium has a very short half-life (usually measured in fractions of a second), Gentry argues that, if granite takes thousands to millions of years to form as mainstream geology believes, any polonium originally present would have decayed away long before the granite could have formed and could not have produced these (halos). Therefore, he feels that their existence is evidence for an instantaneous and recent creation of these granite rocks, and by extension the Earth. The following articles point out the flaws in Gentry's argument.
"Polonium Haloes (sic)" Refuted
Professional geologist Tom Bailleul takes a second look at Gentry's claimed polonium (halos), arguing that there is no good evidence they are the result of polonium decay as opposed to any other radioactive isotope, or even that they are caused by radioactivity at all. Gentry is taken to task for selective use of evidence, faulty experiment design, mistakes in geology and physics, and unscientific principles of investigation and argument style.
Evolution's Tiny Violences: The Po-Halo Mystery
Amateur scientist John Brawley investigated Gentry's claims directly by studying local rock samples, and concluded that there is no good evidence that these "polonium" (halos are actually produced by polonium at all, as opposed to longer-lived radionuclides such as radon or uranium."

This was taken from: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/po-halos/.

Participate in Midwest Precipitation Measurements

We are on a weekly email blast from Earth Gauge which keeps us updated on the global climate change situation. The following item arrived today and I thought many of you would find it interesting and would want to participate:

Parkville, MO
Link: http://www.earthgauge.net/2010/march-madness-2

Earth Gauge: March Madness
It’s March Madness for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) – they want to see how many volunteers sign up this month to measure precipitation in their backyards. CoCoRahS is a nationwide network of citizen scientists who are measuring and mapping precipitation in their communities. CoCoRaHS volunteers help to provide quality rain, hail and snow data used by the National Weather Service, hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities, engineers, ranchers and farmers, teachers and a range of other interest groups.
Viewer Tip: CoCoRaHS is in all 50 states! Sign up to become a Volunteer Observer with CoCoRaHS in your state to help this network grow. You can volunteer to measure precipitation as an individual or as part of a community or school group. Check out http://www.cocorahs.org/ to learn more.

(Sources: Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. www.cocorahs.org; “About Us,” http://www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=aboutus)

Let us know here at the Beagle if you do, in fact, decide to participate. Additionally, why not post you findings here and/or on our FaceBook page?