The Negative Gravity Problem

We were standing in the workshop when the fellas from research and development showed up with a five gallon container, surrounded by Lead weights and welded to the cart. They were pushing it too fast and the thing hit the swinging double doors, busting the left door from it's bottom hinge.

It was still floating an inch off the floor so the cart pitched and yawed, bending the caster wheels of the cart as each corner of the cart individually bounced off the floor.

"Yoh! What the Hell, man!? Whose gonna fix that shit!" Harold said in a tone you could tell he could barely control, as he looked up from his newspaper. His first coffee cup of the morning still four-fifths full. He shot a look over his bifocals that would cast a pall over the rest of the day. His feet didn't move from his desk. "Chain that shit over in the corner. God dammit!"

The rest of us stood there, hearts sinking simultaneously. We all would have called in sick today if we saw today's invoice. Today we must install gravity thrusters. If the material escapes the container uncontrolled, it will expose the entire workshop that's not behind lead shielding.

The last time it happened, all the exposed materials, including people were forced away from the gravitational pull of the planet, the other gravitational forces in the solar system, the galaxy, and so-on. And so-on.

Continental Calving

You know how glaciers calve into the sea, creating icebergs, right?

Antarctic Glaciers 

After the Tsunami of 2011, I began to wonder if the same thing could happen the subducting earth's crust going under a continental plate.

Geology Cafe 

 Wondering what might happen if it just snapped off and sank into the asthenosphere? It probably just melts at the end and is absorbed, but what if it snapped? Would a giant fissure open up, flooding lava to the surface?

Gun Violence as a Health Issue

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was researching gun violence within the context of health until 1996 when the National Rifle Association lobbied the United States Congress effectively enough to enact a "ban" on federal funding for gun violence research.

• PRI (07/02/2015) : Quietly, Congress extends a ban on CDC research on gun violence 
• NPR (12/08/2015) : Congress Still Limits Health Research On Gun Violence 
• Washington Post (01/14/2015) :Why the CDC still isn’t researching gun violence, despite the ban being lifted two years ago 

So, what was it that Congress was so upset about that they had to shut down the CDC's efforts to treat gun violence as a health issue?

• New Hampshire Public Radio (nhpr) : CDC Studies Wilmington, Delaware's Gun Violence As Public Health Issue 
• New York Times (12/24/2015) :When Gun Violence Felt Like a Disease, a City in Delaware Turned to the C.D.C. 
• Delawareonline.com (01/27/2017) : Post CDC report, officials suggest more youth support 
• The Atlantic (04/05/2016) : Why Did the CDC Stop Researching Gun Violence?