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The 2009 State of the Climate report released today draws on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable. More than 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries contributed to the report, which confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years.

That’s not correct. Of course this report is deniable. That’s what deniers do: deny. And we’ll be hearing from them in the comments below, have no doubts.

Mind you, I am distinguishing, as I always do, between deniers and skeptics. Those are two very different things. I am, quite literally, a skeptic of global warming. I do think it’s happening, but that’s because that’s what the evidence is telling me.

This week marks three related anniversaries. April 12, 1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space. That was 49 years ago today. April 14, 1970: An oxygen tank disrupts on Apollo 13, causing a series of catastrophic malfunctions that nearly leads to the deaths of the three astronauts. That was 40 years ago this week. April 12, 1981: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, launches into space. That was 29 years ago today.

In 1970 Apollo 13 became our nation’s "successful failure".

But I’m old enough to remember when NASA could do the impossible. That was practically their motto. Beating the Soviets was impossible. Landing on the Moon was impossible. Getting Apollo 13 back safely was impossible.

The fluctuations in the CMB temperatures at large angular scales do not match those predicted by the standard model in physics — their signals are not as strong as expected from the smaller scale structure revealed by Planck.

An asymmetry in the average temperatures on opposite hemispheres of the sky runs counter to the prediction made by the standard model that the Universe should be broadly similar in any direction we look.

A cold spot extends over a patch of sky that is much larger than expected.

In other words, because women do well in school, it’s no longer manly to do so.   So masculinity becomes increasingly associated with anti-intellectualism, thus the “intellectual passivity” Denny describes.

And don’t make a mistake: anti-intellectualism is clearly a non-progressive ideal. Looking up the answer in the back of the book means “trust authority, listen to what your superiors say, don’t bother to look into it for yourself, just believe what we tell you.” It comes directly from the tradition that values, above all, children shutting up and being obedient to adults. Being told to research it yourself says “make up your own mind, learning things is your responsibility, don’t take anyone’s word for it, if your mother says she loves you check it out.” And it comes from the newer idea that children should try to become their own people.

Here's our current understanding of the Milky Way's geography. The central bar has a huge proportion of our galaxy's stars, and jutting off of it are the two main arms of the spiral, which are the Perseus Arm and the Scutum-Centaurus Arm. The other four arms are mostly just gas and relatively unimportant. Our solar system is close to the Perseus Arm, which extends about 300 degrees around galactic center.

The discovery of this new arm provides good evidence that the Scutum-Centaurus Arm is just as large and expansive as the Perseus Arm, suggesting we live in an almost perfectly symmetrical galaxy.

In order to keep the time determined by Earth's motion in line with the seconds measured by atomic clocks, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service inserts "leap seconds" into the calendar. But leap seconds may fall out of favor after next year's World Radiocommunication Conference

the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) uses the resonant frequency of cesium-133 atoms in the NIST-F1 Cesium Fountain Atomic Clock to keep time so accurately that even if it ran for 60 million years, NIST-F1 wouldn't drop or add a single second.

atomic clocks are actually more stable than Earth's orbit—to keep clocks here synched up with the motion of celestial bodies, timekeepers have to add leap seconds.