It’s been seven months since phase one of the ExoMars mission launched atop a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and today, they arrived.
Unfortunately, all does not appear to have gone to plan, and right now it seems that America remains the only country to have successfully landed an operational probe on Mars.
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A recent discussion on r/skeptic about whether patriotism is something that we, as skeptics, should be skeptical of has had me thinking — and (as I think you’ve heard me say before once or twice) I think the dose makes the poison.
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It’s Monday, Guido Fetta’s testing an EmDrive in space, and Roger Shawyer’s filed for another patent. It’s time for another look at the impossible engine that just won’t die.
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This week’s news covers a Mars mission you might not have heard about that’s arriving today (!), the greatly-exaggerated reports of the demise of the Great Barrier Reef, and the second death of the legendary programmer Dennis Ritchie. Add to that our weekly In Case You Missed It and Best of the Rest segments, and you’ve got the This Week In Tomorrow news roundup for Sunday, October 16, 2016!
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Have you ever had one of those weeks where basically nothing goes to plan? Guess what this past week has been for me. On Thursday, I was certain I knew what I wanted to talk about for Feminist Friday this week. I was so pleased, because it was going to be a positive story, one about the increasing representation of queer female characters in comics. (I’m still going to write that one soon, because it makes me happy.)
Then Friday happened.
The Tape happened. ‡
Sometimes, I wonder what I’d do without Alex Jones. If I’m having a bad day, or I’m short on things that are completely barking mad to post, I just think “what’s Alex Jones been up to?” and there it is. This week, Jones declared that both Secretary Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama are demons. Literally.
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Regardless of what you may think about the state of politics in the United States of America these days (I for one think of it as a raging dumpster fire we try to put out for four long years until some people inevitably destroy all the nearby fire extinguishers and hydrants before relighting the darn thing again) one thing that was said at the debate Sunday night made me feel as though I needed to write a post. That’s because he-who-shall-remain-nameless mentioned “clean coal.”
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Alright, so after some comments on last week’s post about “Himalayan salt” flavoured potato chips, I decided to do a little taste test. I’m a big fan of iodized salt because I don’t eat a ton of fish and I’m lactose intolerant and so iodized salt is the easiest place to get iodine (and because nobody’s a fan of goiters). Now, I can tell you for certain that there aren’t any health benefits to pink salt over not-pink salt, and that anyone who tells you pink salt is better for you is either lying to you or just plain old run-of-the-mill wrong.
But.
People say there are differences in the taste of different salts. I was skeptical, but willing to see for myself, so here we go: a barely exploratory mostly unscientific n=1 one-subject single-blind (technically single blindfold) taste test of three kinds of salt.
If you’re not aware, it’s Thanksgiving in Canada, which once started out as a harvest festival (which is why it’s earlier in the colder north of the continent than in the south) and is now a long weekend for seeing family and trying not to have an argument about politics over the dinner table with a distant relative you wouldn’t normally hang out with. It’s also, as the name suggests, a time to be thankful.
So in honour of Canadian Thanksgiving (or, as Canadians call it “Thanksgiving”) we’d like to first to be thankful for all our Canadian friends, family, and readers, and also to celebrate one of our favourite Canadians, for whom we’re very thankful indeed.
We’re either doing two stories or four today, depending how you count them, with the Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology/Medicine Nobel Prizes, and a surprisingly good result from the Blue Origin team’s latest rocket test! Add to that our usual In Case You Missed It and Best of the Rest segments, and you’ve got yourself the Sunday News Roundup for 9 October 2016. Check it out!