Some neighborhood photos

Year's Best Astronomy Photos courtesy of Discover Mag.

Quintessential

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism checks in with a very important blog post.

It really tied the room together.

Apparently, in terms of a universe, Lebowski's rug is a giant black hole with the mass of 4 million suns.

Understanding Aging

It turns out that single-cell organisms like yeasts and complex organisms like mammals share the same fundamental aging process. Now if they'd just figure out how to make it stop.

Uncovered by Andrew Sullivan.

Industry, Ecology and Economics

Oceans are acidifying much faster than predicted by climate models. Taken with the Artic ice disappearing at alarming rates and recent evidence of temperature changes in the Antarctic, could the danger of climate change actually be worse than the models predict? Our planet is a remarkably complex, closed system. It's also one that we don't fully understand - the number of potential variables effecting climate are astronomical. We could be heading towards the potential collapse of Earth's ecosystems as we know them.

Are inexpensive goods at Wal-Mart worth this, or is their true cost being shifted towards externalities hidden off the world economy's balance-sheet? We will not be able to secure the future of our Earth habitat as long as economics is reductive, assuming closed systems, and allowing business and industry fail to pay the true costs of their profits.

Holiday Reading

Michael Lewis, who wrote a tell-all book on '80s Wall Street, chronicles our current financial crisis. This is the best article on the financial crisis that I've had the pleasure of reading. You will laugh out loud. Unless you've recently been laid off, then you'll just be angry.