The sun has been cranky lately

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Mar 082011
 

UPDATE: Below is a video of the recent and impressive solar activity. It’s worth watching all the way to the end.

A very large coronal mass ejection (CME) was caught today on cameras from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).  The sun’s relative size can be seen by the white outline on the occlusion disk in the center of the picture.

March 8, 2011, CME

March 8, 2011, CME

This eruption follows a warning issued yesterday by South Africa of a large solar flare triggering high radiation levels and possibly impacting the power grid.

NASA disputes alien life discovery

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Mar 082011
 

Several NASA scientists have openly refuted claims made last week by fellow NASA scientist Richard B. Hoover of discovering extraterrestrial fossils within a sample of French stony meteorites.

In an apparently condescending and dismissive remark, NASA’s Carl Pitcher is quoted as saying, “He [Hoover] clearly does some very interesting microscopy. The actual measurements on these meteorites are very nice measurements, but I am not aware of any other qualification that Mr Hoover has in analysis of meteorites or in astrobiology.”

However, Hoover’s paper has more than a few scholarly supporters.

This cat-fight reminds me of several that I have directly witnessed (and even instigated) during my career. The sundry scientific fields have more than their fair share of socially stunted, territorial, insecure and emotionally volatile (and even unstable) people.