Geek Counterpoint -- Your antidote to soundbite science!

When the Chinese government demolished one of its aging weather satellites a few weeks ago, they did more than just test out a potentially useful technology. They also cluttered up low Earth orbit with a huge amount of debris, and stirred up a comparable amount of controversy in the press. While nobody is yet quite sure what the motivation behind the test was (to send a message to the White House? to start discussions on a new space treaty?), there's been no shortage of speculation on the subject. What hasn't received much attention is the history of this technology. So this episode is all about the history of efforts to militarize space.

It's taken some time to do a reasonable level of fact checking, but my climate cats have now been successfully herded, so it's (finally!) time for another climate change episode. Since (at least in the media) the discussion over climate change has been boiled down to two "sides," I'll start with the case made by various parties skeptical of the mainstream view. Mind you, as in any argument, a given position is held by a variety of parties -- some sincere and rational, some sincere and irrational, some merely misinformed, and some with nefarious motives. Since all of these approaches tend to get equal time in the mass media, I'll try to cover as many of them as possible in this episode and a few to follow. In this episode, I'll briefly discuss the history of climate change science, then start looking at some general arguments used by a variety of parties against the theory of global climate change. Subsequent episodes over the next few weeks will look at additional general arguments against climate change, then discuss some specific climate change skeptics and their arguments. Since this is the third episode in a series, I'd recommend that before listening to this episode, you first listen to episodes 45 and 47.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of a giant of space exploration -- Sergey Korolyov (sometimes also transliterated as Sergei Korolev). For much of the 20th century, Korolyov was the prime driving factor behind the Soviet space program. He led the efforts to launch Sputnik, put Yuri Gagarin into orbit, and hold up the USSR's end of the race to the moon. Yet during Korolyov's life, even his existence was a Soviet state secret -- he was only ever publicly referred to as the "Chief Designer." After his death, he finally received some recognition for his accomplishments, yet many parts of Korolyov's life and work were more rumor than fact until after the collapse of the USSR. Tune in this week, and you'll learn more about the impressive contributions made by a man who, until recently, was almost unheard of.

Sure, it's not much to look at -- but this humble lump of corroded bronze completely demolished our previous understanding of the history of mechanical inventions. The Antikythera Mechanism was built late in the 2nd century BC, and is the earliest example ever found of a geared mechanism, but represents a level of mechanical technology not seen again for nearly 2000 years!

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