One of the consistent themes of this blog has been the search for "the thing itself," that is, a knowledge of reality that is not mediated by accidents of history, culture, religion, politics, or personal foibles and prejudices. Impossible, of course. We are always to some extent prisoners of our limited perceptual apparatus and the hard and soft wiring of our brains. Nevertheless, "the thing itself" remains the elusive Holy Grail of human knowing.

Can't Find Evidence of Problems in Electronic Throttle Systems

It is morning. Early morning. I am sitting at my desk with my laptop open before me. The shelves are lined with books. At my elbow, the big glass windows looking out to Dingle Bay. On the sill, morning glories and tomatoes. At my other elbow, a mug of coffee. In an hour or two I'll have breakfast.This is my White Queen time. "But one can't believe impossible things," cries Alice, in frustration. "Why sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast," replies the White Queen smugly.

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Where would you visit if you could go anywhere in the world, and cost were not a factor? I haven’t done a travel tips video for a week or so, so I decided it was past time to bring a couple of them to you. This one is full of tips for places to visit in Egypt! Egypt is somewhere I’ve always wished I could travel to, and these ideas make me hope to get there one day even more. Thanks to Tarek for sending these to me!

New Year is a celebration we can all get behind. While it might not occur at the same time every year for all of us, the concept of starting a new year, and cultivating new beginnings, has been perpetuated among human beings for a very, very long time.
To add some food for thought as 2009 comes to a close, I present ten bits of New Year trivia for you.

The first light in the universe, the light used to push spacecraft, and the light produced by kicking the head of a walrus.

The celebration of 50 years of the Aharonov–Bohm effect, and 25 years of Berry's phase, is a celebration of the elegance of physics.

The first light in the universe, the light used to push spacecraft, and the light produced by kicking the head of a walrus.

Michael Marshall, reporterThis week we published a special feature about "mysteries of you", which points out 10 aspects of humanity that, although they're apparently trivial and everyday, are still shrouded in mystery.The Telegraph newspaper's religion editor, George Pitcher, has written about the feature, to complain that we haven't tackled the "big questions".

Why Do We Forget Things?

A Guest Post by Sharon Friedman
1. We could keep up with the latest in the “big” climate science (as in GCM, IPCC) world in minutes a day. This comes in handy at work “hasn’t the A2 emissions scenario been proven to be way underestimating current conditions?”. Cocktail parties- [...]

An awful lot of energy could be saved if only people shared things more – especially their homes

An awful lot of energy could be saved if only people shared things more – especially their homes

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We’ve been doing a series of travel tips for awhile now, and this is our next installment. It’s inevitable – you’re going to have to leave your house at some point in time. By doing these “places to visit” videos, I’m hoping that you’ll make time for some fun and sightseeing while you travel.

Train Station Art - Beardy Balaclava - Solely Paper - Sunny Memories - Floating Green

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NASA is routinely criticized for failing to bring in projects on time and schedule. Dwayne Day notes that for all of NASA's problems, the Defense Department's project management woes are far more serious, with potentially bigger implications.Transterrestrial Musings found this 12 hours ago on thespacereview.com Find more top science news, videos, and blogs on ScienceBlips: Physical Science

Find out why some adults still have baby fat, whether you should multitask and other amazing things we learned about us in 2009.

A lot of silly structures have been built over the past ten or twenty years, but they don't hold a candle to the wild ideas that didn't make it past the drawing board. Curbed NY has come up with an amazing list of New York City's Top 10 Crazy Things That Didn't Get Built. But, actually, most of these failed dreams are pretty cool. It's too bad we'll never see Santiago Calatrava's towering 80 South Street or Frank Gehry's downtown Guggenheim.
More: What's silly?

It's normal for a species to go extinct, but occasionally many thousands go extinct at the same time in a 'mass extinction' - here are ten possible causes.

Earth Day is just around the corner. In case you don’t know the date, it is April 22nd, 2008. This year find new ways to celebrate Earth Day, but remember living green is better practiced daily instead of just once a year. Look below for some Earth Day Tips.

1. If you don’t have curbside recycling take your recycling materials to a local school or library with recycling bin. Schools and libraries are paid for the material they recycle. The money they earn goes to providing better services at these facilities (more books, renovations, student trips, etc.).

Labour has made some big changes to Britain and achieved considerable successes. But during its 13 years in office there have been grave disappointments, too

Does money buy happiness? Answers to this question differ, depending, in part, on whether one asks an economist or a psychologist. The former would point to correlations between higher incomes … [Read more]

We scientists have a desperate need to make our science interesting to everyone-- including ourselves. Our terminology reflects this. In astronomy, we have the Big Bang. In comp sci, computers Crash. In engienering, "Test to Destruction".
But at some point, usually when I'm in a classroom, my science audience wants me to do something extreme. Mix chemicals until they explode. Shatter a rose in liquid nitrogen. Fire off a rocket. Something 'kinetic', in the sense of lots of fragments of something once whole being rent a'sunder.

Universe Today has recently completed a fantastic, thought-provoking series on the near-disaster of the Apollo 13 mission, which unfolded forty years ago last month. Here are links to every post in the series -- enjoy!IntroductionPart 1: TimingPart 2: The Hatch That Wouldn't ClosePart 3: Charlie Duke's MeaslesPart 4: Using the LM for PropulsionPart 5: Unexplained Shutdown of the Saturn V Center EnginePart 6: Navigating by Earth's TerminatorPart ....

An awful lot of energy could be saved if only people shared things more – especially their homes

Darwin centre - London through a lens - Limoncello fete - SIE43 Chair - London Mela festival