Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the life of the nineteenth-century, French physicist Léon Foucault, and features one of his most impressive inventions: the Foucault pendulum.

Back in the 19th century, it was well known that the earth rotated on its axis, but scientists had struggled to find a simple way of demonstrating this concept. Some particularly ambitious researchers tried dropping weights from high altitudes, or even launching a cannon balls vertically upwards and hoping the earth rotated sufficiently while the projectile was airborne that the ball’s launch point and landing point would deviate in a measurable fashion.

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Luckily, before anyone could get seriously injured by these types of experiments, Foucault came to the rescue. He devised a stunningly-elegant test using a multi-directional pendulum. The pendulum would be released over a thin layer of sand, at such a height that the pendulum’s bob would barely graze…

Officials in DeQuincy, Louisiana have been twerking hard this week to debunk a prank press release announcing a city ban on the dance craze recently popularized by Miley Cyrus at MTV’s Video Music Awards.

“It’s a bunch of hogwash,” DeQuincy Mayor Lawrence Henagan told NOLA.com. The announcement, reportedly circulated by press release distribution site PRLog, included fake names for DeQuincy’s mayor and sheriff and condemned twerking as a ”defiant act against Jesus and his teachings.” Those who broke the law would be sentenced 30 days in county jail, E! Online reported.

The joke is the third time that the city near the Texas border has been the subject of fake news, including faux city initiatives banning Korean residents and giving guns to students. Mayor Henagan told NOLA.com that he thinks one prankster is behind these DeQuincy jokes because all of the releases used the same fake names for city officials.

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The mother of Aaron Alexis, the suspected gunman in the Navy Yard shooting that left Alexis and 12 others dead, has given a formal statement expressing profound sorrow over the tragedy, CNN reports.

“His actions have had a profound and everlasting effect on the families of the victims,” Cathleen Alexis said. “I don’t know why he did what he did and I’ll never be able to ask him why.

“Aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that I am glad.”

To the families of those hurt or killed in the Navy Yard shooting, Ms. Alexis said, “I am so, so very sorry this has happened. My heart is broken.”

[CNN]

Buccaneer enthusiasts will be donning their finest eye patches and throwing planks across their backyard pools for an annual cult celebration tomorrow: International Talk Like a Pirate Day, an excuse for shenanigans that comes around every September 19.

Businesses are using the holiday as an excuse for promotions. Long John Silver’s is giving away free whitefish if you just say “Arrr!”, and Krispy Kreme will dole out a donut to anyone yakking like a scoundrel on the high seas. Radio station DJs have promised to broadcast in pirate-ese. And Mango, a company that produces language-learning software, has put together an elaborate tutorial to help you “parley” in “perfect Pirate” for the occasion. You can even find out your pirate name using this pirate name generator. All of which raises the question of what, exactly, it means to talk like a pirate.

It’s easy to list off quick tips:…

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California’s “Low Carbon Fuel Standard,” a key piece of legislation  in the state’s global warming laws.

The 2-1 victory makes California the first state to require fuel makers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through measuring a “carbon intensity score.” Fineries and ethanol companies argued that the score, which calculates a fuel’s entire life cycle including the transportation used to import it, imposed limits on commerce.

The ruling is considered a victory for environmentalists and state regulators, as a part of a greater campaign to reduce the state’s dependence on petroleum by 20 percent by 2020 and force the oil industry to embrace greener technology and cleaner fuels like biofuel, hydrogen and natural gas.

Fuel makers contend that the policy discriminates against out-of-state imports by focusing on the “carbon intensity” measurement.

[AP]