How does Legolas see so well ?

Reshare because European Southern Observatory (ESO) [on another thread, now lost] just unwittingly provided the answer.

Legolas' eyes work as an interferometer. With 12x the sharpness of the sharpest human vision, he'll be able to see details about 25cm across 24km away. That's easily enough to count the enemy soldiers and discern the height of the enemy leader. And it will work in ordinary optical light, no need for ultra-violet !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk2izv-c_ts&feature=share

RESCUE ALL THE HYDROGEN OVERPASSES !

Multiple Google translates, methinks. Choice highlights :

"Using a William E. Gordon Telescope, astronomers rescued a overpass of atomic hydrogen gas 2.6 million light years prolonged between galaxies 500 million light years away."
SAVE THE HYDROGEN ! SIGN THE PETITION !

"...Arecibo Observatory, a radio astronomy trickery of a US National Science Foundation..."
No comment.

" “Student impasse is really critical to us." "
God forbid we should actually teach them anything useful.

via Robert Minchin
http://techknowbutler.net/astronomers-discover-a-bridge-of-atomic-hydrogen-gas-2-6-million-light-years-long

Overly objective

""This technology cuts the mathematical referees out of the verification process," says Hales. "Their opinion about the correctness of the proof no longer matters."

Well, there's a philosophical can of worms. Does a computer's proof count ?

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26041-proof-confirmed-of-400-year-old-fruit-stacking-problem/

An important announcement

Originally shared by Fake Science

Happy OMg day! Make sure to celebrate with Fake Science !
 http://fakescience.org/fakescience101/

Shouting loudly really seems to work

http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/my-doctor-told-me-i-should-vaccinate-my-children-t-653

"Fly, you fools !"

An ingenious theory on the reason the Fellowship of the Ring didn't simply use eagles...

http://www.tickld.com/x/this-guy-just-changed-the-way-we-see-lord-of-the-rings-mind-blown

We publish too much stuff

It is easy to forget that 350 years ago the scientific journal was itself an innovation, enabled in large part by the emergence of the printing press some 200 years earlier. Today our challenge is to create a new kind of scientific publication, internet-enabled and fit for a data-rich digital age.

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/aug/05/why-we-should-publish-less-scientific-research

One of the most interesting books I've read in a long while.

One of the most interesting books I've read in a long while. In short, modern science owes a debt to medieval theology that many people today would like to forget. Unlike both modern militant atheists and religious fundamentalists, the world of medieval theological inquiry was surprisingly tolerant of different ideas.

Many of the popular images of the medieval Church as having held back the development of science are simply wrong. While religious teachings did sometimes clash directly with scientific discoveries, most people were happy to interpret the Bible figuratively rather than literally when the evidence was sufficient. The famous trials of Bruno and Galileo were a lot more complicated than is often depicted today - Bruno was a nutcase, and Galileo got into trouble more for insulting the Pope than he did for his observations.

Basic research is not an optional extra

Basic research can mean an element of ivory-tower academics doing nothing of any interest to anyone in the real world. It also means things like electricity, satellites, and the internet. Basic research doesn't contribute to the economy - it transforms it out of all recognition.

http://feedly.com/e/P08XorgF

Something something quantum

Originally shared by Jonathan Langdale

"These arguments have injected new life into a deterministic (as opposed to probabilistic) theory of the microscopic world first proposed, and rejected, at the birth of quantum mechanics."

This conclusion is inevitable.
.
http://www.wired.com/2014/06/the-new-quantum-reality/