Bright flash on Australian mountain 19 Jun 2009 A bright flash has occurred near Gin Gin in Queensland, followed by a fire on the mountain. Authorities are not saying what it was, but the locals have come up with the most likely explanation: space junk, rubbish that has re-entered. About ten years ago I was driving my kids and wife back from central Victoria at about 3am, when the sky lit up like a very large lightning flash, on a cloudless night. And then falling fire in front of me, for all the world like melting metal, slowly faded. It was, by my estimation, about 20km in front and at about 3km high or so. Nothing on the news the next day, so I was possibly the only person who saw it. In town it would have looked like a plane light or something. My family were, of course, asleep. But I am still convinced that it was a re-entering booster or something, that exploded after being heated to the right temperature on re-entry. Great fun. General Science
Evolution Philosophy is to science, as ornithologists are to birds: 3. Science is a Dynamic Process 6 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 In this post, I want to propose my own view, or rather the views I have come to accept, about the nature of science. [Part 1; Part 2] Read More
General Science Krugman on Keynes – how economists screwed up 5 Sep 2009 Paul Krugman has a thoroughly fascinating and interesting article in the NYT, in which he excoriates neo-classical economics and defends Keynes. What I find most interesting is that it doesn’t seem to me that we really can predict economics beyond a few truisms like “regulate as much as you need… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity “Systematics is sick” 21 Aug 2008 So says a committee of the UK House of Lords: Systematic biology and taxonomy – the science of describing and identifying plants and animals – is in critical decline and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) must act before it is too late. Of course, this is not… Read More
About four years ago in Pennsylvania, I witnessed a gigantic green fireball that lit up the entire sky for about five seconds. It was the most incredible astronomical thing I’ve ever seen, but not reported anywhere on the news that I could find. Probably just a meteor, but you never know. Where I am right now, in the US West at 10,000 ft, it’s hard to look up at the night sky without seeing a meteor. And at that altitude on a clear moonless night, the milky way is a spectacular, living, glowing thing.
I saw something similar to what jeff describes (green and all) camping on the beach with some friends along the south pacific coast of Mexico, about 18 years ago. We were drinking by the fire. We all stood up and cheer as it disintegrated. It was great.