The importance of Play

IT Holiday Party Playlist

link to Spotify playlist for IT Holiday Party

Habitable exoplanets are bad news for humanity

Intelligent life hasn't contacted us yet, possibly because it self-destructs.

Christmas is the season of giving

If you're on Amazon, check out Amazon smile where you can support your favorite charity everytime you shop.   

Foodies, turn your pictures into donations with this app: We the Feedies 

A couple of other great links to check out:

Giving What We Can

What is the Greatest Good?

Holiday Giving:  7 Children’s Charities You Should Know About

Image used under Creative Commons license (BY) by John-Morgan

#Democracy

NSA reform falters as House passes gutted USA Freedom Act So-called reform measure still grants NSA broad access to phone metadata.

You cannot have a democracy without a right to privacy, where is the outrage?

Related TED talk: Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim

Scientists getting <3 on Twitter

#actuallivingscientist Tweets !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

#ActualLivingScientist is trending on Twitter

Space Junk is Becoming a Serious Security Threat

Do some of the proposed technologies for removing space debris pose dual-use concerns?

The short answer is yes. In fact, pretty much any technology for removing debris could be used to take down a satellite under hostile circumstances. This is one of the reasons that many in the space community believe such activities will require a multilateral development approach and an international governance structure.

Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.

Arthur C. Clarke

The Power of Play

FTS wikis