Predictions 2012, based on Science & Why a Year isn't a year

Oh, those wacky scientists and their, ahem, humor. :thumbsup:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmi ... ariance%29
Predictions for 2012
by Sean Carroll
January 1st, 2012

So you don’t enter the new year completely unprepared, here are my most secure predictions for 2012. Unlike other prognostication websites, these predictions are based on Science!

8. The content of the world’s genomes will gradually evolve in ways determined by fitness in a given environment, sexual selection, and random chance.

9. The entropy of closed systems will increase.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badas ... tronomy%29
Another orbit? Why, you don’t look a rotation older than 4.56 billion years!
by Phil Plait
January 1st, 2012

In what is becoming an annual January tradition celebrating my laziness, I’m reposting this article about why astronomers are no fun at New Year’s parties. Well, they can be, but only until you actually say "Happy New Year!" to them, whereupon they’ll corner and lecture you about how to measure orbital periods. It’s amazing any astronomers reproduce. Anyway, here’s the article, which was a lot of fun to originally write, and even more fun to cut and paste here.

The year, of course, is the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun, right? Well, not exactly. It depends on what you mean by "year", and how you measure it. First, I will ignore a few things. For example, time zones. These were invented by a sadistic watchmaker, who only wanted to keep people in thrall of his devious plans. However, I will not ignore the rotation of the Earth. That turns (haha) out to be important.

http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomi ... th-seasons
U.S. Naval Oceanography Portal
Table of Earth's Seasons
Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion, 2000-2020