Way of the Woo

Something to be said for Snake Oil

2010-01-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite quotes on comparing homeopathic remedies with herbal medicine:

At least snake-oil has the decency to contain some snake.
Matt Parker

This comes from Parker's excellent article in TimesOnline in which he shows mankind has not accumulated enough money to buy even one molecule of Arnica at current homeopathy rates: Homeopathy by the (mind boggling) numbers.

Mass Suicide Attempt as Protest Against Homeopathy

2010-01-21T23:08:00.000-05:00

This is clever. Some 300 (or more) people in the U.K. will be protesting outside the Boots stores by overdosing on homeopathic remedies!

Boots hit by mass homeopathy 'overdose'
The protesters will drink large quantities of homeopathic fluids to illustrate their claim that the potions are too diluted to have any impact on the body.

Since homeopathic remedies do little more than cure thirst, no lives are at stake. However, some homeopathic medicines are not always truly homeopathic because they do mix in some chemicals, typically taken from some obnoxious plant. These are pseudo-homeopathic, and they can cause harm if taken in large quantities. This group, however, is an offshoot of the Merseyside Skeptics Group, so I'm pretty sure they will be well informed.

In case things go south, I suggest they have professional homeopathic medical personnel standing by. You know, the ones without legitimate degrees or any training whatsoever.

The event is planned for 10:23 on January 30th. See the 10^23 site for more details.

Unidentified Floating Object?

2010-01-20T23:18:00.000-05:00

Not quite - it has been identified:

Mystery surrounds the death of a UFO expert who was found dead in the sea.
An inquest into the death of Paul Vigay failed to conclude how he came to drown off Eastney Esplanade, Eastney, Portsmouth.

No-one saw the 44-year-old father-of-one enter the water and he left no suicide note.

As you read the full article, you'll find that the "mystery" is not much of a mystery and he did leave a note which can be interpreted as a "suicide note". But the author of this article tries very hard to shamelessly weave an air of mystery/conspiracy when it is clear that the issues that led to Vigay's suicide are personal ones.

Katie Spotz Rows the Atlantic

2010-01-12T11:00:00.001-05:00

Did you know that somewhere on the Atlantic there is a young woman in a row boat attempting to cross the ocean solo? I've been watching her tweets, photos and blog posts (via satphone) over the past week. It's an amazing and dangerous journey. Of course, the rowboat is a high tech affair, complete with sleeping cabin. Still, she has a long way to go. It's a woman against nature.

Now that I am in the trades, I have been rowing in much bigger waves making for one salty ride. Yesterday there was a 20 foot wave that broke on me while rowing – enough to get the heart pumping! For a moment I thought the boat might capsize but luckily came away only losing some bits of gear. Into the sea went my sunscreen, water bottle, sheepskin seat, and rowing gloves (plenty of extras).(link)

Priorities

2010-01-12T05:11:00.000-05:00

It's nice to see we have our priorities in order.

‘Lost’ Fans Can Relax
Fans of the television show ‘Lost’ have no fear. The White House does not plan to schedule the President’s first State of the Union address on the same night as the premiere of the popular ABC series.

What do people think Obama's been doing in Hawaii all this time if not taking onsite tours of the 'Lost' production sites?? And what better way to tease the State of the Union address than saying it will contain a spoiler or two? Or having Hurley sitting between Pelosi and Reid?

Dark Energy and Neutrinos - Coincidence?

2009-12-31T20:53:00.000-05:00

Could neutrinos present at the Big Bang have kicked off dark energy? It's an interesting idea, but maybe it's just coincidence. From Discovery News,

The idea sprang from calculations showing that the density of dark energy is comparable to the value of neutrino mass, said lead researcher Jitesh Bhatt, with the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India.

But what does "comparable" mean? Same order of magnitude? And how many neutrinos are there really? It's only been within the past decade or so that we solved our solar neutrino problem (in which the sun seemingly only produced 1/3 the number of neutrinos that theory predicted - turns out that neutrinos change their type as they travel, and we were only looking for one type at the time). Up until this time, one could have been forgiven to presume neutrinos massless. Yet here we are today saying the amount of dark energy is comparable to neutrino mass. Both are notoriously difficult to measure and, again, comparable may mean neutrino mass is half of the dark energy equivalent.

"It will take much more work before we can pin down the nature of dark energy," Bhatt said. "Without knowing the nature of the dark energy, our knowledge of theoretical physics would remain incomplete."

Indeed.

Bertrand Russel on Skepticism

2009-12-19T05:00:00.000-05:00

From Bertrand Russel's On the Value of Scepticism, the following is something to keep in mind when considering 'science by consensus':

The scepticism that I advocate amounts only to this:
(1) that when the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain;
(2) that when they are not agreed, no opinion can be regarded as certain by a non-expert; and
(3) that when they all hold that no sufficient grounds for a positive opinion exist, the ordinary man would do well to suspend his judgment.
These propositions may seem mild, yet, if accepted, they would absolutely revolutionize human life.

(h/t the quackometer)

Why Randi, Why?

2009-12-18T05:00:00.002-05:00

I have the utmost respect for James Randi. He has done the most of anyone on this planet to promote skepticism and fight the woo. I had the opportunity to meet and talk with him on a couple occasions and he left me with the impression of a man who chooses his words carefully, demanding precision in language. I think he believes that one must be exact in their arguments because the other side is often so inexact. In fact, their main tactic is to twist words and meanings creating purposeful misdirections to pull off their particular brand of magic.

Randi seems to have departed from this rigorous standard in his initial posting about Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) on The Swift Blog. In AGW, Revisited, Randi created a storm of controversy among skeptics when he "turned his skeptical eye" to AGW. I think by now he is having regrets. Although he claims that this Global Warming is not his area of expertise and freely admits that he is only an amateur, even AGW amateurs like myself can see that he is still only on level 1. It became painfully obvious that Randi did not have enough experience to weigh in on this topic. While I understand not knowing the science, I don't understand how he could have so easily gotten in to trouble. After all, it is well known that AGW is contentious even among skeptics. He should have known that more in depth study was needed than what he evinced on his blog. He made several obvious mistakes that are understandable for an AGW amateur though not for a professional skeptic.

Thankfully, Randi responded to the criticisms a day later in his post I Am Not "Denying" Anything. His response seemed more geared towards the extremists who misinterpreted his earlier posting, or perhaps read something into it that wasn't there - namely that Randi denied global warming or AGW. He does well defending himself, though it doesn't take much to dispatch his most hardcore detractors. But this second post really doesn't do much more than this. Sure, he admits mistakes were made, and he reiterates that "the importance and impact of this phenomenon is well beyond my grasp", but he still makes himself available to AGW denialists (or 'skeptics' if you prefer):

As I've indicated, I do not deny the finding of GW. AGW, to me, is less clear, though I accept that it is likely true.

OK. Wait - what? It appears he's leaning towards AGW, but it also sounds like it wouldn't take much to switch his vote. To be or not to be an AGW proponent. That is the question. But it's one I wish Randi would have never answered. At least not at this point in time.

Here's a roundup of some of the more distinguished blogs commenting on this:

The Island of Doubt: It Wouldn't Be Fair... and James Randi Stands Corrected
Pharyngula: Randi Responds and Say It Ain't So, Randi
Rationally Speaking: James Randi, Global Warming and the Meaning of Skepticism
Greg Laden's Blog: James Randi and Global Warming and Randi and Global Warming, the Retraction
Respectful Insolence: James Randi, Anthropogenic Global Warming, and Skepticism
Bad Astronomy: Randi, Skepticism, and Global Warming

Fun Science

2009-12-17T05:00:00.000-05:00

Perfect for parties and sure to get you a date! Richard Wiseman presents fun tricks for the holidays:

(thanks Phil, always with the best posts!)

Randi on Global Warming - Shockers!

2009-12-16T15:37:00.001-05:00

James Randi is the world's most renown representative for skepticism. As such, his opinion is highly valued by skeptics from all corners of the globe. Recently, he posted AGW, Revisited - a short discourse on his doubting anthropogenic (man-made) global warming (AGW). But he does it very carefully, noting several times that he is no expert, that he is an amateur in this area. He rightfully rejects 'science by consensus', but by doing so he leads one to believe that this is how we arrived at AGW - by consensus. It's not. It is an argument bandied about on the news as a way to convince others, but it has never been used in a scientific article as proof that AGW is occurring.

Randi argues that throughout the ages, throughout the many shifts in climate change, the biosphere has survived. This is a confusing point because no scientist argues otherwise. If AGW is occurring and we do nothing to stop it - even if we accelerate the effect - the biosphere will still survive. Whether man will or not is another question. Certainly, whole civilizations will change dramatically.

He writes

In my amateur opinion, more attention to disease control, better hygienic conditions for food production and clean water supplies, as well as controlling the filth that we breathe from fossil fuel use, are problems that should distract us from fretting about baking in Global Warming.

In other words, he is saying we have other things we should be worried about before getting to Global Warming. Of course, we are worried about those things. The spectre of Global Warming does not diminish our more immediate concerns. However, what's the point of stamping out a few small fires in your room as the house continues to burn?

I was disheartened to know Randi's stance on this issue, but I understand that it is a divisive one even among skeptics. Or perhaps, especially among skeptics. Skeptics have a particular drive to ignore ideology and focus on facts and data. That this particular community can be so divided illustrates how difficult the issues are surrounding Global Warming. For one, GW is not immediate. It occurs over hundreds of years. Also, high quality data does not exist. The past history of climate change has to be obtained via proxies - e.g. tree ring growth, ice core samples, effects on corals, etc. These are fraught with many variables and often times run counter to what the GW proponents theorize. Lastly, computer models do not still adequately address a variety of feedback mechanisms, not the least of which is low and high altitude cloud formation, which can have a significant effect on GW.

Yet with all these problems, the vast majority of scientists (aka the consensus) has discerned that GW is occurring and man is largely responsible. Does Randi think they are wrong? It certainly sounds like it. His opinion goes against the grain of science, yet he has shown in the past how scientists - especially scientists - are easily fooled by charlatans and tricksters who depend on deception and human fallibility. Nature, however, does not engage in premeditated tomfoolery. It does not actively seek to trick the scientist. It may hide its secrets very well and require the construction of a large hadron collider to tease them out, but it does not purposefully evade detection. So, I do not understand how Randi arrived at his conclusion. His post makes vague references and cannot stand alone as validation of his convictions. It merely states what he believes and alludes to 'common sense' as justification. As for myself, I don't buy it.

(first seen at Pharyngula)

Climate Scoreboard

2009-12-16T09:10:00.001-05:00

Evil Dead to be Rereleased

2009-12-14T05:00:00.005-05:00

Bruce Campbell returns to the silver screen in the role that made him famous as Grindhouse pictures rereleases The Evil Dead in 2010.

Release dates are

– January 8-9: Uptown Theatre, Minneapolis
– January 15-16: Esquire Theatre, Denver
– January 29-30: Sunshine Cinema, New York
– February 5-6: Egyptian Theatre, Seattle
– February 19-20: River Oaks Theatre, Houston
– February 26-27: Inwood, Dallas
– March 5: Nuart Theatre, Los Angeles

Pure awesome. I see a trip to New York in my future...

(via Reelz Channel)

14 Days in History

2009-12-12T05:00:00.001-05:00

The following editorial was originally printed in the Guardian newspaper on December 7, 2009 and is freely reproducible under a creative commons license.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copenhagen climate change conference: 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation'

This editorial calling for action from world leaders on climate change is published today by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages
Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.

• How the Copenhagen global leader came about
• Write your own editorial
• The papers that carried the Copenhagen editorial
• In pictures: How newspapers around the world ran the editorial

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based.

Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.

But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June's UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: "We can go into extra time but we can't afford a replay."

At the deal's heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided — and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels.

Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.

Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world's biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.

Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions. The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down – with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of "exported emissions" so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them. And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it; for instance newer EU members, often much poorer than "old Europe", must not suffer more than their richer partners.

The transformation will be costly, but many times less than the bill for bailing out global finance — and far less costly than the consequences of doing nothing.

Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it.

But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognized that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs and better quality lives. The flow of capital tells its own story: last year for the first time more was invested in renewable forms of energy than producing electricity from fossil fuels.

Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.
Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature".

It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too.
The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.

This editorial will be published tomorrow by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages including Chinese, Arabic and Russian. The text was drafted by a Guardian team during more than a month of consultations with editors from more than 20 of the papers involved. Like the Guardian most of the newspapers have taken the unusual step of featuring the editorial on their front page.

This editorial is free to reproduce under Creative Commons

Mandating Religion In Schools?

2009-12-11T09:00:00.001-05:00

In an effort that is destined to go nowhere, a woman in Redding, California is getting signatures on a ballot to mandate the singing of Christmas carols in public schools. Merry Hyatt, apparently unable to comprehend the concept of 'Separation of Church and State', is seeking to actively promote the expression of one religion in her local schools.

She is a recent transplant to Redding and quickly installed herself in the Redding Tea Party Patriots. Tea Party Patriots, as we all know, are really starting to feel their oats. They have a particular fundamentalist view of what America should be based on their interpretations of a mythical American history. Meryy Hyatt is no different.

Hyatt, a substitute teacher who moved to Redding from Riverside, said her motivation for the initiative was to help restore children's moral compasses by inviting Jesus to school Christmas parties.

"He's the prince of peace; he's the only one who can get these kids to stop being so violent," she said in November.

Hyatt said she believes it is Americans' First Amendment right to worship.
"It's our right to have freedom to worship," she said. "That's why we came to this country. They came to be Christians and they're trying to take that away. They're out of line; we're not." (link)

Once these efforts fail, I expect her next initiative will be to mandate circumcision.

(Update)
You can find the text of the initiative here (pdf warn).

How Did Those People Get Into Heaven?

2009-12-05T05:00:00.011-05:00

Sarah Trachtenberg brought up a good point I hadn't thought of before in a comment she left at The Hypatian Shore. Supposedly, Christ died for our sins. Even if you were born and led a godly life, you still were stuck with original sin. So, you can't get into heaven without worshiping Jesus as the one true Son. So, as Sarah pointed out, what happened to everyone who came before Christ? How the hell did they get into heaven?

And while we're on the subject, did everyone killed in the flood go to hell? You would think so - after all, God didn't seem to like them very much. Seems like there have been huge swaths of people denied entrance to the party.

I'm sure the Christians have a convoluted explanation involving the fall and original sin. But I'd like to here one that uses the analogy of God as bouncer and everyone else trying to pay the cover charge.

T-bagga? What is Nordlinger Thinking?

2009-12-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

Jay Nordlinger, a senior editor of National Review, addresses in his latest article Rise of an Epiphet the term "teabagger" and how conservatives should handle it. He gives both the colloquial definition as well as what conservatives intended it to mean when they adopted it last April 15. Of course, after the middle-aged gun-totin' white guys found out what it really means, they back-pedaled and attempted to shift to "tea partier" or "tea party patriot". However these don't quite roll off the tongue as easily as "tea bagger". Nordlinger senses the quandary and suggests conservatives simply take ownership of the term, eventually to change its definition. He offers "Yankee Doodle" as an example, offering that "doodle" "probably relates to the male organ". The colonials took over "Yankee Doodle" and they made it their own. Think "Yankee Doodle" and "American patriot" immediately comes to mind - not 'yankin' a doodle'!

Nordlinger also provides us with "scumbag" and "putzhead" as past examples that were used in political arenas, though not with their intended meaning (i.e. "used condom" and "penis head", respectively). Like "Yankee Doodle", these are no longer the vulgar pejoratives of old. Unlike "Yankee Doodle", they still are derogatory.

Nordlinger seems to have neglected simply googling "doodle" for he would have immediately found that it doesn't mean what he thinks it does. From the Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology:

doodle simpleton XVII; larva of tiger-beetle (also doodle-bug, applied in 1944 to the ‘flying bomb’) XIX; aimless scrawl on paper XX. In the first sense — LG. dudel- in dudeltopf, -dopp simple fellow; the connection of the other senses is doubtful; the last is prob. rel. to dial. vb. doodle fritter time away.

and from Wikipedia,

As a term Doodle first appeared in the early seventeenth century,[4] and is thought to derive from the Low German dudel or dödel, meaning "fool" or "simpleton".

Nordlinger should take a lesson from Condrad's Heart of Darkness - venture too far into the jungle and you just might turn native.

Most delicious and ridiculous of all, Nordlinger goes so far as to suggest "teabagger" could be the new N-word:

What about a special case — the worst word in American English, as some of us see it, namely the N-word? When I was growing up, in Ann Arbor, Mich., there was a little debate: Should school officials try to prevent black students from using the N-word? I don’t believe the issue was ever settled. And this brings up the question of whether “teabagger” could be kind of a conservative N-word: to be used in the family, but radioactive outside the family.

Think of that for a moment. Teabagger = T-bagga? It's kind of catchy. You know, Michael Steele is trying to "urbanize" the GOP. And this idea is so crazy, it just might work!

Bring it, JayNord! All the T-bagga's in the house go HIP HOP HIPPITY HOP, HIP HIP HIPPITY HOP. The roof, the roof, the roof (of the socialist hospitable where grandma lies dying) is on fire! We don't need no water because it's all OBAMA'S fault! Can I get a what what?

No?

P.Z. Myers on Geoffrey Simmons

2009-12-03T05:00:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from P.Z. Myers regarding Geoffrey Simmons. I had forgotten about it until recently, so I thought I'd record it here, just so I can come back and dust it off every now and then.

This is a man who thinks the fact that he isn't drooling and feces aren't dribbling down his leg is a miracle from god.

The original can be found here.

Great STS-129 Shuttle Launch Highlights Video

2009-12-02T05:00:00.000-05:00

I thought this was a very cool video. It captures the STS-129 mission launch from the many different cameras and a variety of angles. You can follow the solid rocket boosters from separation to splashdown. You can watch the ignition of the main engines and SRBs and follow liftoff from both fore and aft directions. It's a little long with the credits and I couldn't get sound...but who needs sound in space? Eh?

View on ExposureRoom

(h/t Nasawatch)

1.18 TeV and counting

2009-12-01T11:00:00.005-05:00

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) set a new particle collision energy record at 1.18 TeV, surpassing Fermilab's Tevatron record of 0.98 TeV. And the LHC is just getting started! It is designed to ultimately accelerate beams of protons to 7 TeV. The beams run in opposite directions and head-on collisions occur when the beams are steered into each other, for a total collision energy of 14 TeV! That's 14 million million electron volts! That's a heady number and it's very difficult to grasp the enormity. But think of it this way: if every person on earth had just one electron volt, you would need 14 million million people! Crazy - I know.

Or, here's another way to imagine it. 1 TeV is about equal to the kinetic energy of 1 flying mosquito. So the LHC is like sending 7 mosquitoes one way and 7 t'other, and having them collide head-on in midair. Do it enough times, and one of the mosquitoes will poop out a god particle. At least that's what the physicists will be looking for. Like I said - crazy! I may crap a god particle just thinking about it.

Darwin at the Throne

2009-11-23T05:00:00.002-05:00

Besides introducing one of the greatest theories in history, Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species apparently makes for great bathroom reading.

A first edition of Charles Darwin's Origin Of Species, which was kept on a toilet bookshelf, is to be auctioned.
It is hoped the book, which was bought about 40 years ago in a West Country shop for a few shillings, will reach £60,000 in Tuesday's sale.
The book was kept on a bookcase in a guest lavatory at the owner's family home in Oxfordshire.(link)

The True Meaning of Christmas

2009-11-18T12:00:00.006-05:00

Forget about the Christmas tree, the colorful lights, the snowmen, stockings hung with care. Forget about Santa Claus, his reindeer, the north pole. Forget about Yule logs, Christmas caroling, fruitcake and gingerbread houses. These are the mere trappings of Christmas. They serve only to provide the mood. To set the ambient lighting. To fill the air with the incense of joy. But they don't represent the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is all about Jesus, and the more the better. Break it down: Christ + mas = more Christ. In particular, we celebrate Christmas by giving presents to each other. In the past, secular and religious organizations have both complained that Christmas has devolved to a marketing tool by the big retail corporations. But what they fail to understand is that the giving of presents is a special recognition of the greatest present of all: Jesus gave us the ultimate gift (i.e. his life) to wash away the sins of mankind with his blood. In the years that followed (though the evidence for this is shaky), the newly minted Christians celebrated this event by cutting and spilling their blood. It was the least they could do - until infection set in. The somewhat deadly practice (for its time) gave way to the ritual exchange of gifts. This practice had the advantage of not killing the celebrant while simultaneously jump starting capitalism (ultimately giving rise to the United States).

While cutting is now a dangerous practice among troubled teens, the vestiges of the original tradition can be seen in the gift wraps and the bows used to ornament Christmas presents. Traditional Christmas colors are red and green, which symbolizes both colors of blood (e.g. see Hemoglobin and Hemocyanin). A red bow is symbolic of a bloody rag.

The classic Norman Rockwellian version of Christmas has families coming together over the holidays to share in the human bondage of love and feast. Nevertheless, this tradition evolved from the early Christian families gathering together to shed blood in the presence of one another, to symbolically absolve one another of sin. Today, we conclude Christmas by exchanging gifts, as if saying one to the other, "I sacrifice a part of me for you, that I may forgive you and cleanse you of your past sins." Giving gifts, sacrificing a small part of yourself, naturally makes you feel better, much like Jesus must have felt ascending into heaven.

If all this sounds like a contrived explanation, I have taken my cue from the American Family Association, an organization that describes themselves as an association of American families. They seek to promote the biblical truth underlying the culture of American families and they have been waging a war against the war on Christmas by leading a boycott against retailers who fail to say the word "Christmas" loud enough in their seasonal promotions. Think The Gap and Old Navy. And Banana Republic. In the AFA's recent call to arms, they are explicit about what makes Christmas special:

Christmas is special because of Jesus. It's not just a "winter holiday." For millions of Americans the giving and receiving of gifts is in honor of the One who gave Himself.

So Christmas is not about Cola drinking Polar Bears, mistletoe, or chestnuts roasting in an open fire. It's about exchanging presents. It's about absolving sins through personal sacrifice by way of a $50 Macy's gift card. It's about capitalism and the absolution of sin. It's about more Jesus. This is the biblical truth according to the AFA.

(h/t Think Progress, AFA Misfires in the War on Christmas)

Religion Going Down The Toilet

2009-11-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

Are fundamentalist preachers getting crazier every day, or has it always been this way. Here, Pastor Steven L. Anderson shows us how he's a manly man doing manly things, like pissing standing up.

(via Pharyngula and Jesus' General)

Saving Spirit

2009-11-16T14:02:00.000-05:00

The Mars rover Spirit has been stuck in a sand trap since 1889. That would be Sol 1889...or 1,889 days on Mars. On that fateful day, Spirit had been limping along, driving backwards, dragging it's left front wheel which had seized up many Diemos's and Phobos's ago (i.e. many moons ago). The fine engineers at JPL have been working on a plan ever since to free Spirit. They've even come up with their own logo and website devoted to the task. Meanwhile, Spirit has been busy taking in the scenery, snapping some pix, and going through a bout or two of amnesia. But the day has finally arrived. For today, NASA will finally put their plan into action and start sending commands start Spirit moving again. They have several different possibilities to go with, and will be choosing the best action as they get results back from their previous efforts. Among the final, last-ditch effort attempts will be to use the Microscopic Imaging Arm to help push (or pull) its way out. But lets hope it doesn't come to that.

Good luck JPL, NASA, and Spirit.

Bill Maher Was Only Joking

2009-11-16T12:19:00.000-05:00

Remember when Bill Maher tweeted "If u get a swine flue shot ur an idiot"? Turns out, he was only joking! For one, he said it on Twitter, so that should have clued you in. Moreover, he's a comedian, for gods' sake! Get it? A comedian who tweets? You didn't really think he was serious, did you? Never mind that he's been as outspoken as Jenny McCarthy against vaccinations and used his HBO show as a platform to rail against the evil pharmaceutical companies. When he tweets, don't take him seriously. At least, that's the excuse he's giving at The Huffington Post:

For example, I recently joined Twitter Nation -- what can I say, Demi Moore is a very convincing salesperson -- and what everybody told me about Twitter was that it was supposed to be whatever stray thought or thing just happened to you -- you know, for people who find blogging too formal and stuffy.

But apparently it's taken very seriously, because there was Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes asking the Secretary of Health and Human Services what she thought about the fact that "Bill Maher told his viewers anyone who gets a flu shot is an idiot."

Well, not quite. It was twittered, which I guess doesn't make a huge difference, but as 60 Minutes is the last bastion of TV journalism, accuracy is appreciated. And I see that counts for Twitter, too -- my bad -- so yes, some people are not idiotic to get a flu shot. They're idiotic if they don't investigate the pros and cons of getting a flu shot. But, come on -- it was a twitter from a comedian, not a treatise in the New England Journal of Medicine, that's not what I do.

He continues on by saying that he's "representing an under-reported medical point of view" in this country. And there are so many of those, are there not? I look forward to the time Bill Maher corrects the under-reporting of homeopathy, phrenology, and aromatherapy. Or does Maher consider only his points of view to be under-reported? Bill Maher suggests that our problem is in not having a strong enough immune system in the first place, probably due to all the junk food we eat. As if eating enough spinach will make you strong enough to fight the H1N1 virus. I wonder what nutrition plan he would suggest to people with AIDS? Perhaps an all-natural vegetarian meal followed by an after dinner joint?

Maybe he's on to something. After all, he claims to know enough about vaccinations:

Michael Shermer wrote me an open letter and felt I needed to be told that "vaccinations work by tricking the body's immune system into thinking that it has already had the disease for which the vaccination was given." Thanks, Doc, I thought there might be a little man inside the needle. Yes, I read Microbe Hunters when I was eight, I have a basic idea how vaccines work.

Yet if he really understood how vaccines work, he wouldn't have wrote the HuffPo article. When exposed to certain viruses, the immune system adapts and "learns" how to fight them so that when the virus returns years later, you don't get sick. Contrary to Maher's implications, no amount of farm fresh spinach or broccoli will teach your immune system how to fight off a virus. That's simply not the way it works. What Maher is really getting at is what the medical community has known about for decades: clean, healthy, stress-free living gives your immune system the ability to more effectively respond to viruses - to fight off those viral agents it already "knows" about, as well as to quickly learn and respond to those it doesn't know about. Of course, you'd much rather have an immune system with a large "memory" of viral agents for faster response. Which is what vaccinations are all about.

And if you think Maher is really trying to set himself apart from all the other anti-vaxxer whackos, think again:

In addition, my audience is bright, they wouldn't refuse a flu shot because they heard me talk about it, but if they looked into the subject a little more, how is that a bad thing? If they went to the CDC Web site and saw what's in the vaccine -- the formaldehyde, the insect repellent, the mercury -- shouldn't they at least get to have the information for themselves?

He is using the same scare tactics that the anti-vaxxers use. Formaldehyde, insect repellent, mercury, oh my! Go to the CDC website, says he. Just look at all the crap they put into a vaccine, says he. Then read further to find out what these ingredients are for, check out the low dose rates, and see what effect they have on the human body, says he. Or...wait. No, he didn't say that. Nothing but lions and tigers and bears for Bill Maher.
The problem with Bill Maher is not his musing about big pharma doing shady things to make a buck. That's a discussion worth having. After all, corporations respond to shareholders uber alles. No...Maher's problem is thinking he has science on his side. Like George W. Bush, he's thinking with his gut on this one.

But then again, maybe we shouldn't take him too seriously. Maybe he was only joking in his HuffPo article. He is a comedian after all.

Concerning Bodies Floating in a River

2009-11-07T06:00:00.003-05:00

An article in the NY Times from March 1882 reads thusly:

The Moniteur Scientifique Quesneville publishes these alleged statemens of a Parisian ravageur concerning human bodies floating in the river: "I always know beforehand if it is a man or a woman. If the body has the face upward, it is that of a woman; if it floats on its belly, with the nose in the water, it is that of a man. I have remarked that a man who has been thrown into the water after being assassinated reappears on the surface much earlier than one who has fallen in by accident or has drowned himself. The time the body remains beneath the water shows whether it is a case of suicide or of murder." These curious pieces of information are valuable in proportion to their truth, and they would appear to require verification.

I applaud the New York Times for their skepticism. "Valuable in proportion to their truth" is my new catch phrase when arguing with Intelligent Design proponents. Yet I feel a note to their editor of the Journal of Science and the Times is warranted with their uncritical reporting of Mr. Varley's latest invention:

"Mr. C. E. Varley, the eminent physicist, has patented an improved divining rod for ascertaining the presence of metallic veins underground."

I shall send a telegraph straight away.

Best Jon Stewart Clip

2009-11-06T15:13:00.000-05:00

For me, this was the funniest clip ever from Jon Stewart. It's called the 11/3 Project and is a dead-on parody of Glenn Beck. But not only is it extremely funny and accurate...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

The 11/3 Project

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

...it has a Feynman diagram!

The Endangered Yet Naughty Kakapo

2009-10-23T17:19:00.000-04:00

The Kakapo (Owl Parrot) is a flightless parrot that wanders New Zealand. There are only 90 left in the world. They way this fellow reacts, it's not hard to see why. But despite his state of confusion, the real source of his demise is the introduction of other species by man over the past several hundred years.

It's a coincidence that I ran across this video over at The Intersection. I started out there reading Mooney's and Kirshenbaum's take on Jerry Coyne's review of their book, Unscientific America (which I have yet to read). This spat has been going on awhile. I'm also reading Jerry Coyne's book, Why Evolution is True (which I highly recommend). He devotes a chapter to biogeography, explaining the differences in the diversity of creatures between continents and islands, noting the difference between continental islands (i.e. those that broke away from larger continents millions of years ago), and Oceanic Islands (i.e. those that rose from the sea via vulcanism). He also devotes a chapter to vestigial traits. The Kakapo happens to be featured in both.

Long live the Kakapo.

Hilarious - The Dawn of Man

2009-10-22T05:00:00.001-04:00

Just saw this at Primate Diaries. It is all so clear now.

Bill Maher Denies Being A Nut

2009-10-21T09:00:00.002-04:00

Bill Maher denies that he's a nut for opposing vaccines. Just go to the CDC website, he says. Look at all the chemicals in vaccines, he says. Aluminum. Mercury. Formaldehyde. OK. Bill Maher's not a nut - he's Jenny McCarthy!

(via Hot Air)

Time Lapse of Ares X-I Assembly

2009-10-20T15:21:00.000-04:00

NASA's Ares X-1 test rocket has been rolled out to launch pad 39-B at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for launch at 8 a.m. on October 27. While NASA's future is up in the air, it is still proceeding along its timeline for sending humans back to the moon as a stepping stone to Mars. Their orders are basically to continue until otherwise directed. The following is a really cool time lapse video of the Ares X-I being assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). As always, NASAWATCH will have the latest updates.

Not a Jot of Evidence

2009-10-18T01:23:00.000-04:00

Ben Goldacre has a good recap of the so-called evidence the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) has provided in support of its suit against science writer Simon Singh. When Singh claimed in his now famous article that there was "not a jot of evidence" to support the claims made by the BCA, the BCA provided a list of 19 articles that supposedly backed them up. They do not and Ben Goldacre shows why here. Goldacre's last paragraph sums up the article:

There are huge, endless debates to be had on our libel laws, on the risks they pose to the public by stifling access to information, and on the changes that could be made. But, for today, know this: there is no good evidence that chiropractic is effective for the conditions claimed by the BCA....

Malicious Characters

2009-10-16T16:42:00.000-04:00

On October 14th, the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) issued a press release in response to Simon Singh's being granted leave to appeal the libel suit brought against him by the BCA. Singh, they argue, has been claiming the issue is one of freedom of speech whereas they see it as a simple libel case when Singh claimed they promoted 'bogus' treatments. In the original article, Singh said

The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying - even though there is not a jot of evidence. This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments.

Obviously not happy with the latest ruling, the BCA said in their press release:

The BCA supports and would never seek to stifle legitimate open scientific debate. However, this action is actually a simple libel claim based on the fact that the BCA was maliciously attacked by Dr. Singh in the Guardian newspaper.(link - PDF)

In essence, the BCA has stated publicly that Singh's criticisms regarding the BCA were designed specifically with the intent to cause harm with no scientific or legal justification backing them up. That is, the BCA has said Simon Singh is a malicious character, from which we can imply that all his writings in the past and the future are not to be trusted because they may have been written with other goals in mind than simply to inform the public. Or in other words, Simon Singh is not a reputable character. I don't believe it, but their are some who may buy into it, and therefore Singh's reputation may have been damaged by the BCA. The excellent blog, Jack of Kent, argues that it is Singh who might have grounds to sue for defamation. Funny how the tables turn in this case.

The BCA updated their press release to tone down the nastiness, to say that "the BCA was libeled by Dr. Singh" rather than "the BCA was maliciously attacked by Dr. Singh". Still, their original words are out their in the public domain. As the British courts have noted, it doesn't matter what they intended to say - it matters what they said, an argument that has been used against Singh himself.

(H/T: Bad Astronomy)

PZ Myers and Mr. Deity

2009-10-14T12:41:00.000-04:00

I've been a big fan of Mr. Deity from the beginning. Now they've launched their best episode ever!

PZ Myers as the science advisor to Mr. Diety. Great concept. And Myers' acting ain't half-bad either. Kudos to both of them!

Simon Singh Update

2009-10-14T09:54:00.000-04:00

Some good news on the Simon Singh libel case against the British Chiropractic Association (BCA). The courts have given him leave to appeal his case, which he formerly 'lost' when Judge Eady construed Singh's use of the word 'bogus' (as in chiropractic deals in 'bogus treatments') as libelous against the BCA. Upon appeal, Lord Justice Laws has found Mr. Justice Eady's interpretation favored rights of reputation over rights of free expression. Left unsaid was that the BCA's highly public case against Singh has done more to tarnish its reputation than Singh could ever have done by himself (i.e. singhle handedly).

Singh isn't out of the woods yet. He had been granted permission to appeal the case. He still has to win the appeal.

Mr Justice Laws described Eady’s judgement, centred on Singh’s use of the word “bogus” in an article published by the Guardian newspaper, as “legally erroneous”.

Laws also pointed out that Eady’s judgement had conflated two issues — the meaning of the phrases complained of, and the issue of whether the article was presented as fact or fair comment.

Laws said there was “no question” of the “good faith” of Singh in writing the article, as the matter was “clearly in the public interest” (link).

Seemingly, Singh's strategy must now be to convince the appeals court of his 'good faith' and that 'bogus' was not meant to deride, but to describe (again in good faith) that chiropractic treatments do not rise to the standards of effective medical treatment.

As for me, I'll take a Lord Justice Laws over a Mr. Justice Eady any day of the week.

Translating Google's Barcode Doodle

2009-10-07T10:20:00.001-04:00

The Google Doodle for today is a barcode. When translated, it reads "Google (ding!)" That's right - it ends with the sound of a little bell, like the typewriters and teletypes of days gone by. Here's how to decipher the barcode:

1) Examine both the bars and the whitespaces.

2) Define the smallest width as a one, the next widest as a two, etc.

3) Widths range from 1 to 4.

4) Write your sequence of numbers in groups of six.

5) Decode the meaning of each group with the Code 128 barcode symbology character set.

6) Note that some codes have two different meanings, depending on the context.

Examining the above barcode, we determine the width series of bars and white spaces as:

2-1-1-2-1-4-2-1-1-3-1-3-1-3-4-1-1-1-1-3-4-1-1-1-1-2-2-1-1-4-2-2-1-1-1-4-1-1-2-2-1-4-1-2-2-1-1-4-2-3-3-1-1-1-2

Break these up into groups of 6 (the last is actually 7 numbers) and apply our Code 128 conversion:

2-1-1-2-1-4 Start code B (the start of the barcode)

2-1-1-3-1-3 = G

1-3-4-1-1-1 = o

1-2-2-1-1-4 = g

2-2-1-1-1-4 = l

1-1-2-2-1-4 = e

1-2-2-1-1-4 = (the BEL character)

2-3-3-1-1-1-2 = Stop

And that's all there is to it!

(Update - The Google Operating System blog has a faster way to decode by uploading the barcode image to OnlineBarcodeReader.com - but the output doesn't let you know about the bell).

Scam Alert: Cornelia Dassault

2009-10-02T11:06:00.000-04:00

If you received a Cornelia Dassault letter, then you are a smart person. How do I know? Because you took it upon yourself to go online to do some research. You want to know if the letter is valid or if it is a scam. You are suspicious of things that sound too good to be true, and that is something that will serve you well for the rest of your life. You are a skeptic and it just saved you some money.

The CORNELIA DASSAULT SCAM has been around for over a year. I first wrote about it here, and since then have received numerous comments and emails from people around the world who have received a letter inviting them to become rich - for a small fee. Although there are variations in the scam, basically this is how it works:

You receive a letter from some rich person, usually a Dr. Grant from the Netherlands. He has recently visited a psychic who told him that, to avoid future misfortune, he must give some of his money away. The psychic takes his hand and he feels something like a small electrical shock. The psychic, named Cornelia Dassault and given the title 'Master of All Ancestral Secret Formulas', tells him that she has a vision of who must receive some of his money - and that person turns out to be you. Dr. Grant, who is officially known as the 'President of the Multi Millionaires Club', writes you and says he will send you the money, usually in the form of two or three checks. All you have to do is fill out some information - very personal information - so he knows who to send the money to or where to deposit it. Also, he invites you to purchase, for a very small fee, a small charm called 'The Great Trigger of Wealth'. All you have to do is think about what you desire most for one minute each day. With the charm, you will be able to win at gambling, make money in the stock market, etc.

That is the essence of the Cornelia Dassault scam. If you have received a similar letter, DO NOT RESPOND! If you do, you will have provided these scammers with your personal information as well as money for a small, useless charm. Your name will go on a list of gullible people and you will be inundated with letters, emails, and calls from other scammers. There only purpose is to separate YOU from your money.

In his letter, Dr. Grant writes that this is the first time he has written to anyone he has not yet met. That is a lie. Although this letter writing scam may have started in Ireland, it has made its way to SOUTH AFRICA, MEXICO, MALAYSIA, NEW ZEALAND, BELGIUM, AUSTRALIA, ALGERIA, PHILIPPINES, and NORWAY. This is a very large letter writing campaign. These people would not be doing this if they were not making money. If they send out 100 letters, all they need is one person to send them money - then they have enough money to send out 1000 letters. Maybe ten people respond, and before long they are sending out hundreds of thousands of letters, with thousands of people responding. DO NOT BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE!

Here are some interesting comments I have received:

Scam is in new zealand, received a letter via post mail today.. Dr. Grant is apparently working with IES (international express services) and they are asking that people send a fee of $120 to receive a financial package with value of over $1000.. the document if someone doesn't know any better is extremely well done.
----------
It is now Australia. Carsten Kruger lives in the USA and Cornelia Dassault wants to help me as well. It is all in Australian dollars - 3 cheques for $5,000 after you pay $55. Oh and Dr Grant has moved to The Netherlands - PO Box 40215 in Maarssen.
----------
Cornelia Dassault wants to help me as well. 3 cheques for $5,000 after you pay $55. But you another $5000, making it a total of $20K. Dr Grant has moved to The Netherlands.
Well worth the read...very clever and it will suck people in.
----------
It seems that these people's scam has traveled all around the world. I just received such a letter this morning. Martin Felder, Financial Director of Club of Mutimillionaires, informs me about 3 checks of $5,000.00 each as a donation from a Mr. Carsten Kruger the Dr. A. Grant reiterates this happy event then introduces Cornelia Dassault and another check for $5,000.00 from Cornelia plus "The Greater Trigger of Wealth" for a 'symbolic' amount of $40.00. I live in the Philippines.
----------
I received the same letter 20 minutes ago and it made me so excited. God answered my prayers, that is my initial reaction. But it made me think who will give me this much these days. Then I opened my computer and try to search for cornelia. Bingo! I found that it is fake and just a scam. I wonder who are the people who have been a victim of these kind of scams. Thanks for this kind of information as it really help.
----------
My best friend got sucked into the first of many steps which will get her,wait for it...$7 million dollars.She is only out about $100 CAD but they wanted more for her to go further(always a red flag for me). Also from the Netherlands with only a post office box# and not even a phone# on a single paper. Thank you for posting this as she was going to keep sending cash...

While it is nice to imagine that, some stranger is going to give you a lot of money for no reason, that is not the way the world works. In the REAL WORLD, there are overwhelmingly more people who want to take money FROM you than give money TO you. They work hard at this. Think about it. You would not give your money to a stranger without expecting something in return. Maybe you're buying clothes or food. Or maybe you willingly give your money to a charity, knowing that they will use it to help other people. But what motivation does someone have to give you money without expecting something in return? Do not delude yourself into thinking that you've lived a good life, been nice and helpful to other people, and that, in some sense, you deserve this good fortune. Perhaps you do, but it won't be coming from a stranger. Not Dr. Grant. Not Cornelia Dassault. There are greedy people behind these scams and they don't care what your personal situation is. But they know they can make money off the gullibility of others. Unfortunately for them, they won't be taking your money because you were wise enough to do the research. You were skeptical.

Here are some other links for more information on this scam:

'Supernatural' Letter Scam Warning
Customer beware as 'psychic' gift scam targets Irish homes
Club of Multimillionaires Complaints
Customer beware as 'psychic' gift scam targets Irish homes
Cornelia Dassault and the President of the Multi-Millionaire's Club

Aliens Get Foxy

2009-10-01T10:29:00.002-04:00

Back in 2006, the aliens landed and told the world which internet browser they preferred - FIREFOX. Using advanced technology, they inscribed the Firefox logo in an oat field near Amity, Oregon. Unfortunately for ET enthusiasts, some local Firefox fans quickly claimed all the credit, describing in detail their plans and methods. They would have you believe such a thing can be done with only rope and two-by-fours. Their elaborate, attention-garnering efforts even went so far as to include 'photos' and 'videos', which, as we all know, are easily faked with proper terrain generating software, Photoshop, and iMovie.

Firefox IS an outstanding browser, but who are we to deny the aliens their credit?

View Larger Map

A collection of crop circles found on Google Earth can be found at the Rodsbot website, which includes over one thousand 'strange' maps.

Judge: "The blondes are fickle"

2009-10-01T05:00:00.001-04:00

In an attempt to mediate a dispute between two arguing attorneys over the composition of an all-male jury, Justice William Morris of New York's First District Municipal Court settled the matter by calling for a jury comprised of both men and women. Said the judge,

I think the best way to settle this matter is to call a jury of both men and women. I am sick and tired of hearing you men argue about the relative merits of jurymen, so I'll put a quietus on both of you by making up a jury of three women and three men to adjudicate this controversy.

This decision is particularly noteworthy (I'll explain why shortly). Upon looking across the courtroom, the judge continued

There will be no blondes on this jury either. The blondes are fickle.

Three brunettes were chosen to make up half the jury. One of them protested

Judge, I've got to hurry home to get dinner for my husband.

To which the court accommodated, saying

That's a very important duty, next to this and we will expedite matters so that you may perform your task here and at home.

The unabashed sexism is NOT what makes this noteworthy. Rather, this is an account of the first mixed-sex jury empaneled in the state of New York, occurring in March 1921. In and of itself, this is a fascinating glimpse into the history of the sexes. Apparently, blondes were at a disadvantage even back then.

See the original story here (pdf warn).

Would You Like to Ride in My Beautiful, My Beautiful UFO?

2009-09-30T13:03:00.000-04:00

Hundreds of mysterious lights glide across the night sky. Far below, the wary eyes of Americans, trained for suspicion, track the objects. A 911 call is made. A terrorist attack? More likely, an alien invasion. What else could it possibly be? A more mundane explanation is unavailable, so the incomprehensible becomes likely.

Take, for instance, the recent reaction in Greenwich, CT:

It wasn't a bird, a plane or Superman, but residents of downtown Greenwich thought a myriad of lights in the sky just may have been an unidentified flying object passing overhead Saturday night.

The bright, moving lights in the sky caused several people to call police to report a possible UFO sighting. Some reports indicated there had been 30 to 40 individual lights glowing in the night sky.
(...)
"These were being propelled," said Urda. "If it was an air current, the balloons would have been very lethargically moving along."

Urda said the "intense" orange lights were traveling in pairs, and sometimes threesomes. Urda estimates he saw 30 to 40 go by.

"They kind of disappeared into the clouds all at the same spot," said Urda. "I was standing there in total amazement."

Similar sightings were reported in Norwich, UK:

As previously reported, Sarah Browne, who first contacted the paper after spotting the light, described the light as being “silent” with no aircraft noise, smoke or trail.

Trudy Gray, who lives near Aylsham, said she had seen a similar light the Tuesday before at about the same time. She said: “It was a continuous orange light, quite high up, going in straight line with no sound, no nothing.”

And in Southport, UK

Emergency services raced to Wyke Cop on Sunday night after residents reported a ball of fire falling from the sky.

Fearing the plummeting fireball was a light aircraft or microlight, search and rescue teams patrolled the area whilst ambulances stood by, though nothing was found.

And in Taunton, UK (Somerset)

And Jane Merchant from Taunton said she was relieved after reading other people's reports of a UFO sighting and claims she saw a similar flickering light “moving briskly and quietly across the sky”.

“Every time I've mentioned my experience no one's taken me seriously,” she added.

Invariably, these UFOs are described as silent, reddish-orangish glowing lights moving briskly - sometimes in a straight line, sometimes erratically. They are reported as moving too slow for a plane, too quiet for a helicopter, yet too fast for a balloon or an oriental sky lantern.

Therein lies the rub. The witnesses are relying on personal experience to intuit just exactly how fast a sky lantern should be moving. Also, not knowing the size, altitude, or distance of the lantern makes determination of velocity nearly impossible. Even an estimate can be off by an order of magnitude. Living at sea level gives you know perspective of actual wind speed at 1000 meters, the typical height most lanterns achieve. Wind speeds at this altitude depends on local topology (flat, hills, mountains) as well as whether or not you live near large bodies of water. Of course, a large factor in wind speed at altitude depends on nearby low and high pressure systems. In general, though, you can expect wind speeds (and thusly, lantern speeds) to range from 0 - 40 mph at 1000 meters.

The so-called UFOs are often reported as moving in unison, perhaps one right after the other. That, of course, is not so hard to explain if you assume the lanterns are being released from the same back yard and are therefore subject to the same air currents. However, one commenter argued that this was contrary to his understanding of sky lanterns:

I was a guest at Mr Aultons BBQ and i do not believe these balls of fire were Chinese Lanterns. If they were, how can it be explained that they were 4 minutes apart and all followed the same course and trajectory. (link)

While these sequence of lights is easily explainable, it's apparently not so easily understandable by certain people.

And therein lies the other rub. Personal experience or belief is no substitute for the physics behind the observations. That is, for rational explanations to be understandable, there must be some critical thinking skills and some basic knowledge of science involved. It is perhaps this requirement from the skeptics that leads others to believe the skeptics to be 'smug'. So, perhaps you are being smug when you expect a certain level of intelligence from your listener. You find yourself having to 'talk down' to their level of knowledge which, unless you're a fine actor, comes across as patronizing and, well, smug.

The pattern of these 'UFOs' is explainable. Sky lanterns can be strung together or released into the same wind currents intermittently. They are quiet. They are bright. They can be rather large. They can move unexpectedly fast. They can disappear immediately as they move behind an unseen cloud at night. They can even fall to earth as a ball of fire. In fact, one company has gone so far as to sell their sky lanterns as 'UFO Balloons'! While they dismiss the authenticity of extraterrestrials, they do capitalize on the scary physics at work:

A UFO Balloon that takes off because of the hot air inside, that’s some kind of a mystery, that’s maybe a bit frightening and certainly, it’s fascinating. It has nothing to do with the extra-terrestrial.

While sky lanterns have the potential of posing a fire hazard, there is no link with sky lanterns killing farm animals. Thus, the following headline comes as no surprise: Sky lanterns could kill farm animals in Gloucestershire.

In the following video, you can see hundreds...maybe thousands...of 'UFOs' being launched - or perhaps they are escaping their human captors. Midway through the video, we see the earthlings attack with rocket propelled explosives although only one UFO is brought down in flames.

Greenwich, CT link
Norwich, UK link
Southport, UK link
Make your own UFO

Psychic Sundries

2009-09-30T10:21:00.000-04:00

Psychic Lying About Other Psychics Attacking Her

Despite her intuitive powers, psychic Janet Lee probably did not see an arrest in her future, especially just weeks after alleging she was the victim of an assault outside her store on Greenwich Avenue.
However, the self-proclaimed "foremost psychic in New England" was arrested by Greenwich police over the weekend after detectives said she lied about being attacked in town by rival psychics over the summer.

Seems like roving gangs of psychics would find a more ingenious way of taking you down than simple pummeling!

Filed Under Belief (Faith) - Some Uri Geller Magic

Then Uri turned toward me and said, “Now, I want you to close your eyes with your hand still covering your drawing, and then transmit your drawing to me mentally, and when I get it, I will draw on your other card what I think you have drawn.”

So, I closed my eyes and began transmitting to Uri Geller the drawing I made.

After about 20 seconds, Uri said, “I am seeing something. I don’t know what it is, but it looks like this.” Upon saying that, he drew on my other card what I had drawn.

When I saw his drawing I was completely amazed. It was almost a perfect replica of what I had drawn!
(...)
I asked Uri how he knew what I had drawn. He replied that “if the image the person is transmitting to me stays in my mind clearly for about 20 seconds, then I know I got it right.”

Well, it's either that or it's simple trickery. Of course, this article wasn't filed under Entertainment...

Psychic Business Struggling for Acceptance

Sophia Anderson set up shop in Boston's famous Italian North End neighborhood September 19th. "I do psychic, tarot cards, palm readings. I do candles, crystals, incense," she explains.

Her vision never included the chilly reception she's now getting from some locals who feel she just doesn't fit in.
(...)
Across the street, restaurant owner Khalid Moheydeen says he hears locals talking.

"They feel it's going to be the wrong element here, people who sort of believe in magic stuff, doesn't fit with the neighborhood," he says.

A clear case of discrimination against the stupid.

'Personal Love Psychic' Sued

A Hartford woman says a Sioux Falls psychic adviser who promised to bring her estranged husband back scammed her out of $30,500.

Jane Stockwell filed a lawsuit last week in Minnehaha County Circuit Court against Katherine Adams, who used to run Psychic Experience at 2012 S. Minnesota Ave. in Sioux Falls. Stockwell wants her money back plus at least $50,000 in punitive damages.

Sorry you got scammed, Jane...but why a 'love psychic' when you could have purchased a love potion for so much less?

RockerChic4God Revolts Against BofA

2009-09-16T05:00:00.001-04:00

Her name is Ann Minch. She's gutsy, taking a big risk to make her point.

"When I finally made my decision about what I needed to do, it was scary," she said. "I knew I was probably going to ruin my credit. (link)"

Blogger Has Released 'Read More...' Feature

2009-09-15T17:09:00.000-04:00

Ooo...I've been waiting on this for a long time. This is just a test post...

...to see if it works! Cool. This is just one of the several presents from Google on Blogger's 10th birthday.

Google's Crop Circle Doodle, H. G. Wells, and Zero Wing

2009-09-15T11:46:00.007-04:00

On September 4, 2009, Google tweeted "1.12.12 25.15.21.18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19" in association with it's mysterious Google logo showing a UFO making off with the 2nd 'O' in its trademarked name. Using A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc., this decoded to "ALL YOUR O ARE BELONG TO US", a reference to the iconic arcade game Zero Wing, made legendary by the "All your base are belong to us" phrase (frequently shortened to simply AYBABTU). This Google 'Doodle' sparked waves of speculation as to what it all means. The 2nd 'O' seemed to have more significance given that even the file name for the picture was "go_gle.gif". Gogle?

Today, Google has a new doodle - a crop circle, again sparking waves of speculation as to what it all means.
This time, the 'L' seems to be missing and the UFO is hovering over the first 'O' in the logo. As before, Google supplied a mysterious tweet, "51.327629, -0.5616088", which turn out to be coordinates:

View Larger Map

Horsell, Surrey in the U.K. happens to be the central location for H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Also, two UFO reports were filed for this location in 1985.

So, what's the connection between H. G. Wells and Zero Wing, other than the scifi element? H. G. Wells was born on September 21, 1866. Zero Wing was released on September 21, 1989. Seems like Google is gearing up for a celebration of Zero Wing's 20th anniversary. Also, Google itself has its 11th birthday coming up, which will be celebrated anywhere from September 7th to 27th (no one really knows when its official birthday is).

Why the missing 'O'? Why the missing 'L'? Could it be the binary connection (e.g. 0 and 1)? Does the UFO hovering over the 1st 'O' in the crop circle mean it's going to be next? In the past, Google has changed it's doodle to incorporate the its age. Perhaps this is just a process of preparing to install a '11' in the name. Who knows...but it seems like a Zero Wing/Google birthday celebration to me. Just as long as it's not a celebration of Joseph Smith's visitation by the Angel Moroni!

2009-09-11T09:00:00.001-04:00

UFO or pterodactyl over Argentinian lake?
A strange object photographed over a lake in Argentina has been described as either a flying saucer or a flying dinosaur.

So that's it? Woo or woo. No other choices? Shall we mourn the loss of creativity at the Telegraph? Has unabashed tabloid journalism stunted their imagination? Are the depths of fecundity only waist high?? One needs only study the picture to realize it's obviously a fat, drunk witch slumped over on her broomstick, trying not to puke as she lurches home. And no, this time I'm not talking about my mother.

More pics here.

Dr. Jay Gordon - Flu Whisperer?

2009-09-11T05:00:00.005-04:00

By way of introducing us to why he will not be giving H1N1 vaccines this year to his patients, Dr. Jay Gordon tells us:

I have seen more children and adults with influenza-like illness: 104 degree fevers, muscle soreness, sore throat and negative tests for strep, than in any summer I can remember. I haven’t used the “flu swab” to test anybody, but I’m sure that many if not most of these sick people had Swine Flu. They all felt miserable, and they are all feeling just fine now.

Hellz yeah! I had symptoms like those at one time. I'm telling all my friends that I had swine flu before swine flu was cool!

Dr. Gordon's powers aren't limited to mystical determinations of influenza strains. He also has powers of prognostication - or is a gambler:

I also won’t be giving the flu shot to the kids and parents in my practice unless there are extraordinary risk factors. I anticipate giving none at all this year. I doubt that there will be any really large problems with the vaccine, but I also doubt any really large benefits. As I said, I think that this year’s version of this particular H1N1 is as “mild” as it will ever be and that getting sick with it this year will be good rather than bad. The chances that a new “flu shot” will be overwhelmingly effective are small.

Not sure why "flu shot" is in scare-quotes but "whatever". Dr. Gordon goes on, rambling this way and that in an article that says vaccines can be good, so why give vaccines? He's seems more afraid of giving advice than of the H1N1 virus, but if I can tease one point out of his meandering post, it is that he does not think enough testing is being performed on the H1N1 vaccine. I don't know whether that's true or not, but I assume a new flu vaccine has to follow a rigid protocol of testing before released to the public. After all, new flu vaccines are produced every year, so it's not like we don't have experience in this arena. Yet somehow Dr. Gordon rationalizes that the risk of the new H1N1 flu vaccine is greater than the risk of getting the H1N1 flu virus itself, basing his reasoning solely on his belief that this year's swine flu will be mild. Doctors everywhere are probably coming to the same conclusion, and even the World Health Organization notes:

The vast majority of cases of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) have been mild so far with few deaths. It remains to be seen whether the virus will mutate into a more virulent strain.

And, WHO also addresses Dr. Gordon's concerns about testing:

Q: These must be the fastest vaccines ever produced. Given their fast-tracking, what is the guarantee of safety and efficacy?
...Based on the extensive knowledge available on seasonal vaccines and the results obtained through evaluation of H5N1 avian influenza vaccines, there is no doubt that it will be possible to make effective H1N1 pandemic vaccines.

So, his argument falters. At least he shows a lack of knowledge regarding registering flu vaccines for use in the U.S., because the process with H1N1 is no different than for all the other seasonal strains of flu.

Misadventures in Ghost Hunting

2009-09-10T14:04:00.001-04:00

Woman falls to death while 'ghost-hunting' in T.O.

A woman has fallen to her death after attempting to jump across a gap in the roof of a historic building at the University of Toronto while out on a first date.

A male friend was with her at the time of the incident, which occurred on Thursday morning at around 1:45 a.m. local time. The pair, who had been drinking, were reportedly in the building because they thought it was haunted.

Well, that certainly will make her ghost hunting a whole lot easier!

Kevin Trudeau's Appeal

2009-09-03T17:00:00.000-04:00

The following is from the excellent Consumer Health Digest #09-36:

The U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a contempt ruling against Kevin Trudeau but ordered the lower court to reconsider its penalties. Since 1998, the FTC has charged Trudeau with false advertising and obtained consent agreements several times. In 2006, he began using infomercials to market The Weight-Loss Cure "They" Don't Want Your to Know About. The supposed "cure" was centered around the use of injections of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). However, scientific studies demonstrated that HCG injections didn't cause weight loss and regulatory actions by the FTC and FDA have curbed their use in the United States. In September 2007, the FTC charged Trudeau with violating a 2004 consent agreement by misrepresenting the book's contents and asked the Illinois Federal Court to hold him in contempt. The court did so, banned him, for three years, from involvement in any infomercials for publications in which he has a financial interest, and ordered him to disgorge $37,616,161, which the judge said was a reasonable approximation of the loss consumers suffered as a result of Trudeau’s deceptive infomercials. In 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals agreed that Trudeau had misrepresented the book's contents. However, the appeals judge said that the lower court judge had failed to explain how he had calculated the penalty and that a three-year ban without an opportunity for reinstatement upon good behavior was too harsh for a civil contempt ruling. The lower court still has wide discretion in setting penalties and could consider a criminal contempt finding if Trudeau is given an adequate opportunity to defend himself against such a charge. Casewatch has posted the relevant documents.

$37.6 million? Doesn't seem high enough for the likes of Kevin Trudeau. This guy should be living on the streets!

Walter and The Skeptic

2009-09-03T05:00:00.002-04:00

Sir Walter Raleigh wrote an essay called "The Skeptic" in which he said

The skeptic doth neither affirm nor deny any position but doubteth of it, and applyeth his Reason against that which is affirmed, or denied, to justify his non consenting.

He was beheaded in 1618.

I'm Lost

2009-09-02T18:00:00.002-04:00

Well...not really...but maybe...

I've been taking advantage of a (no longer advertised) deal with BlockBuster. Pay $10 and get as many videos or games as you can stand for a week (as long as you take only one out at a time). After a few movies, I decided to watch the T.V. show Lost, starting with season 1. Last night I started on season 2. So far, it's been intense, and I bet it's a little different experience than watching it week by week. For one, I don't have to worry about commercials. The shows are only 42 minutes long. And their widescreen. But there are some minor annoyances which makes this show as much a soap opera as a drama. For example, the lead character (Jack) cries in every other episode!

For fans of the show, my take must sound like it's coming from decades in the past. They're so far ahead of me. What, is the show into it's 7th season now? 6th? Something like that. The rep. at BlockBuster is also a fan and said she loved seasons 1-3. In her words, there was an interesting story behind them. Now, she says, they're just on the island, doin' it.

Yeah, I get it. Guess the novelty has worn off. It's like being on this blue marble floating in the hostile black. I'm just doin' it.

Anyway, that's why this blog has lapsed recently. I've been lost.

Update on Psychic Psuit in Montgomery County, MD

2009-09-01T17:00:00.002-04:00

Nick Nefedro is a 'gypsy' suing Montgomery County Maryland on their ban against

Every person who shall demand or accept any remuneration or gratuity for forecasting or foretelling or for pretending to forecast or foretell the future by cards, palm reading or any other scheme, practice or device.

I first wrote about this case in July 2008 here. On his syndicated radio program Culture Shocks, Barry Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, examined the law banning fortune telling in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Part of the county's argument is that this law protects its citizenry against fraud. Nefedro's argument is that fortunetelling is his gypsy heritage and he is being discriminated against because he can't practice his heritage here in Montgomery County. Conveniently, Nefedro disregards the wandering nature of nomadic gypsies in his application for a business license to set up shop in Bethesda, MD. Nor do we know the status of his application for licensing a caravan to carry him up and down Wisconsin Ave. to ply his trade, sell his wares, dance some jigs...

Nefedro, through the discrimination aspect of his suit, stereotypes the gypsy culture. Today, many psychics, fortune tellers, palm readers, and astrologers have adopted the gypsy mystique to lend an aura of mystery about their craft. Claiming discrimination, Nefedro also leans on the centuries of persecution that gypsies suffered:

He said the law is nothing more than persecution of Gypsies, who have long been stigmatized as nomadic thieves and con artists.

"Gypsies do exist, and they are not criminals," he said, adding that fortunetelling is "something we've been doing for thousands of years."

Far from practicing fortunetelling for thousands of years, the earliest gypsies, known as the Romani people, show up in history around the 11th century. Their heritage stresses the separation of pure and impure. For example, the genitals and lower body are impure, so underwear and lower body clothing must be washed separately from other clothing. Giving birth is impure and must be done outside the home. After giving birth, the mother is considered impure for forty days. However, gypsy fortunetelling is has become a stereotype promoted in romanticized novels and movies, even though there is some basis in fact (e.g. see Rom and Romnichels here). Regardless of the extent of fortunetelling in the Romani past, the practice of fraud in one's heritage does not give license to continue that fraud in today's society - at least not in Montgomery County.

Under the same Montgomery County law, a New Jersey astrologer, Gerry Stevens, was denied a permit to open up shop on Wisconsin Avenue. The Gazette covered the story:

But Rockville attorney Jody S. Kline, who is representing Stevens along with attorney Robert F. Dato of New Jersey, said Stevens Astrology Readings does not violate county code.
"Astrology is not fortune telling," said Kline, who said his client's business would not violate county code. Kline also said he plans to argue the fortune telling law is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment regarding freedom of religion.
Kline said the astrologer received an OK from the County Attorney's Office in 1996 when Dato corresponded with senior assistant county attorney Alan M. Wright. Since then, Stevens has leased space in Bethesda, but is not able to operate his business because of the permit denial.
In correspondence with the County Attorney's Office, Dato said astrology "interprets the proximity of stars, planets, the sun and moon, thereby providing clients with information that may be of value in determining anticipated courses of action."
But that constitutes fortune telling, said Clifford Royalty, the associate county attorney who is handling the case.
"When Alan wrote his letter, I think he misunderstood what they did," Royalty said. "It seems to me any astrologer is a fortune teller."

It seems like the county attorneys argued that the law was in place to protect the citizens from fraudulent behavior. According to Clifford Royalty,

...the law was most likely passed because "fortune telling is rifled with fraud and the potential to be ripped off."
He said fortune telling is analogous to businesses like adult book and video stores and strip clubs that can have a negative impact on a neighborhood.

In 2001, Monica Mitchell, a 19 year old psychic, lost her case to overturn the fortunetelling ban in Aberdeen City, MD. Walter Stevens, her father-in-law, provided the newsworthy comment:

"Such places of business as she wants to open up are legal across the United States of America, some successful, some not successful. She would like to have the opportunity to either succeed or fail, without being interrupted by local authorities," her father-in-law said.

"We feel that is prejudicial because this business cannot harm anyone, cannot influence anyone, cannot damage anyone and there's nothing criminal about it. It's not like it was a place that sells drug paraphernalia or a nudity bar," Walter Stevens said.

However, Stevens ignores the many scams perpetuated by alleged psychics, with people (particularly elderly women) losing their life's savings due to fraud. By banning fortunetelling for gain, the city and county and state governments can prevent these scoundrels from preying on weaker minds. According to Ben Radford posting on Live Science,

Repeated studies over the course of decades have failed to show strong evidence for the existence of psychic powers. The failure of psychics to predict or prevent tragedies such as the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, or the Sago mine collapse—or to locate missing persons such as Natalee Holloway—suggest that such powers, even if they exist, are not reliable enough to be useful. While many self-professed psychics claim that what they do is entertainment, each year hundreds of thousands of dollars are stolen in confidence swindles involving phony psychics.

But back to Nefedro. In December 2008, he lost his case against Montgomery County. In the following from the Washington Examiner, you can get a hint at the way the judge's mind works:

Clifford Royalty, an attorney for Montgomery County, told The Examiner the court upheld the law and he expected a judge to return a signed copy of his written order this week.

“Insofar as the county law does regulate speech, it is narrowly drawn to serve the county’s compelling government interest in protecting its citizenry from fraud,” Royalty’s order said.

“The judge said he agreed with my argument, that this was a proper exercise of police power and would survive scrutiny under the First Amendment,” Royalty told The Examiner. “The judge also asked counsel for Mr. Nefedro if he’d predicted that outcome.”
Nefedro’s attorney, Ed Amourgis, said he was surprised by the decision.

This was an interesting win for Montgomery County. There are similar laws written into city and county codes across the nation and, within the past decade or so, they have come up against First Amendment challenges and have lost (e.g. see here, here, and here). To judge 'free speech', the law takes into account the content of the speech and generally allows it to be sold (just check out all the books in the New Age section of Barnes & Noble). There are further arguments to be made about the fraudulent intent of said speech as well as the detriment to society, especially when there are other laws on the books that deal with fraud. One of the best resources I've seen to navigate through these weighty issues is an article on the Law and Magic blog, May a Municipality Ban Fortune Telling.

That the Montgomery County law has survived so far is testament to the superb job done by Clifford Royalty, the county attorney who has been down this road before. However, his skills are about to be put to the test because Nefedro has appealed his case and is bringing the ACLU onboard. He's still pushing the gypsy discrimination issue, but I think the ACLU will focus on the First Amendment issue. They are well versed in this arena and have had their success in the past regarding a ban on fortunetellers. Also, there's this:

But the clear modern trend in the United States is to strike down such ordinances and statutes, generally on the grounds that they violate Freedom of Speech and are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. [See Trimble v. City of New Iberia, 73 F.Supp.2d 659 (W.D. La. 1999); Angeline v. Mahoning County Agricultural Society, 993 F. Supp. 627 (N.D. Ohio 1998); Rushman v. City of Milwaukee, 959 F. Supp. 1040 (E.D. Wis. 1997); Argello v. City of Lincoln, 143 F.3d 1152 (8th Cir. 1998); Psychic Science Church v. City of Asusa, 703 P.2d 1119 (Calif. 1985).]

In the City of Asusa case, the court noted:

The City assures us that the ordinance is aimed only at communications that purport to predict future events. Assuming that such a bad would be permissible, however, the ordinance contains no words to this effect. Thus the prohibition against “spiritual reading” would encompass Bible lessons, the bar against “hypnotism” could include hypnosis as an accepted technique of the psychotherapist, the banning of “magic” could prevent numerous popular theatrical performances, and the prohibition against “prophecy” could interfere with many religious services. The ordinance is clearly overbroad, applying to many activities that are protected by the California Constitution.

So, unless Clifford Royalty is a law-god, I think...nay, I predict!...the forces behind the ACLU in an appeals court setting will establish the Montgomery County law as similarly overbroad and that it will be ultimately struck down. However, look for them to make silly arguments like 'if you ban fortunetelling, you must likewise ban weather forecasting, commodities predictions, and medical prognoses." Out of these four, can you guess which one gets pulled out of the butt?

----------
Update 9/2/09: See ACLU of MD's press release here. Legal brief here (pdf warn). Also deleted mp3 download link - it pointed to an episode about Waiter Rants!

Dark Energy or God?

2009-08-19T12:13:00.004-04:00

We've known for a century that the universe is expanding. We've known for just over a decade, that not only is it expanding but that the expansion is accelerating - at least that's what observations seem to be telling us. The Big Bang theory was sufficient to account for simple expansion, but to have accelerated expansion, there must be something more, something we have called Dark Energy. While the name is ominous, it seemed to be nothing more than adding a correction to Einstein's equations of General Relativity, akin to adding an exertion of pressure which happens to get larger as the density of the universe decreases.

However, a new model published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)(abstract free, article free after a few months past publication date), proposes a "simpler" explanation: that we are in the midst of a density wave caused by the Big Bang. As often happens with modern physics theories, the concept is not so easy to visualize, even though the equations work out. Essentially, it boils down to where and when galaxies form in high and low energy densities. If the Milky Way forms in the center of a low-density trough, distant galaxies will be forming at higher-density peaks. The outward expanding wave will 'push' these galaxies away from us with a rate of expansion that appears to be accelerating.

This theory had been proposed early on as a means of explaining away dark energy, but the PNAS article is the first time equations have been solved to show that the theory can be made consistent with observation.

The biggest criticism so far is that, for the theory to hold water, we (the observer) must be in the center of the density wave. The density wave is like the outward expanding wave we see from a pebble being dropped into the pond. We might think of the Big Bang as the pebble - the source of the ripples in space and time. However, the observer must be at the center of the ripples in order for observations to be consistent. That is, in the simplest case, the Milky Way galaxy must have formed right at the center of the Big Bang. This, of course, runs counter to all the lessons we've learned in the past which tell us there is nothing special about our location in time and space. It would be an extreme coincidence for us lowly observers to inhabit the most "special" place in the universe - which naturally leads one to believe that there is purpose behind all this. In other words, taking the theory in the most simple case is an argument for God or some intelligent design agent.

To be fair, the authors say that there may have been multiple ripples with different locations throughout the universe and we may be at one of these minor sources. And they aren't saying this is truth - only that this theory may be an explanation. I, however, have no doubt that this will be quickly latched onto by believers as further "scientific evidence" for the existence of God. They will quickly abandon whatever interpretations and creative constructs they've developed from their reading of the bible to find new passages that support humans as the center of all creation. They will ignore the possibility of existences in some lowly side ripple - what's the point in that? They will ignore that the theory isn't even fully vetted. As a model, it has to explain many other observed characteristics of the universe - not just accelerated expansion.

I, for one, am grabbing the popcorn and ready to watch them spin.

Other sources:
National Geographic
Space.com
USA Today

ScienceDaily Headline Gives More Ammo to the ID Crowd

2009-08-08T06:00:00.001-04:00

Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute has been going around hawking he new book, Signature In The Cell, torturing analogies as needed to support Intelligent Design. For instance, he claims the cell has information storage scheme similar to the files and folders we use on computers today. Now, ScienceDaily News gives Meyer a juicy headline, seemingly made just for him:

Scientists Find Early Evolution Maximized The 'Spellchecking' Of Protein Sequences
As letters of the alphabet spell out words, when amino acids are linked to one another in a particular order they "spell out" proteins. But sometimes the cell machinery for building proteins in our bodies makes a mistake and the wrong amino acid is inserted. The consequences can be devastating, resulting in a garbled protein that no longer has the correct function, possibly leading to cancers and other diseases.

Such is the risk when trying to make complex subjects more accessible to the public.

P.Z. Myers Rides A Dinosaur!

2009-08-08T00:15:00.004-04:00

P.Z. Myers and some 250 atheists visited the Creation Museum yesterday. I'm looking forward to his take. While no live blogging took place, you can find the various twitters here and more photos of the event here.

More links to visit:
Expelled from the Creation “Museum”
A little taste of the strangeness
Creation Museum Highlight
Photos from the trip
Secular Student Alliance Conference and Creation “Museum” Trip: After the Visit
Atheists Invade Creation Museum
PZ Myers and Hemant Mehta at the Creation Museum

CreoZerg! PZ Myers and 285 Atheists Visit Creation Museum
Quick Random thoughts on the Creation Museum
The Creation Museum visit
Pharyngulates at the Creation Museum
I CreoZerg’d all day today
I Went to CreoZerg
Makul insanlar yaratılışçı müze gezisinde

HuffPo Rips Into Dembski

2009-08-07T22:35:00.002-04:00

Barrett Brown, author of Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, can be found on the Huffington Post ripping into ID proponetist William Dembski:

Consider William Dembski, the mathematician and theologian who rose to the top of the nascent intelligent design pack in the late '90s after claiming to have proven that certain aspects of biology can be attributable only to the intervention of one or more intelligent entities. As for who or what those entities might be, Dembski is coy when addressing a potentially secular audience, claiming that there "are many possibilities." Among these possibilities, we may determine, is that Dembski is lying; in a 1999 interview with the Christian magazine Touchstone, Dembski stated unambiguously that "[i]ntelligent design is just the Logos theology of John's Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory."

More rips here.

Mass Hysteria of 2009

2009-08-06T10:00:00.002-04:00

Throughout the U.S., democrat Representatives are being assailed at their town-hall meetings by organized groups of angry conservatives. Like the closet confederates who could never concede they had lost the civil war, these citizens are still in denial that their party has lost the election - and lost it in a big way, at that. The base of the republican party is now exhibiting signs of mass hysteria, similar to the Dancing Plague of 1518. If you don't like 'mass hysteria', how about mass psychogenic illness, collective obsessional disorder, or collective hysteria? These are described as

...the sociopsychological phenomenon of the manifestation of the same or similar hysterical symptoms by more than one person. A common manifestation of mass hysteria occurs when a group of people believe they are suffering from a similar disease or ailment.

Symptoms first start appearing following a period of stress, as when a black man finally becomes president of the United States. These symptoms include manifestations of conspiracy theories - like the President is not a U.S. citizen, he is leading the country into socialism, he wants to kill your grandma, and he wants to take your guns away, among many others. None of these have any basis in fact, yet talking heads like Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck foster and perpetuate these myths. Corporate lobbyists also create campaigns to organize so-called 'grass roots' movements, loosely known as the 'tea-baggers'. Besides buying and hording guns at an unprecedented pace, these groups are descending onto local town-hall meetings with the sole purpose of disrupting the events by shouting down their elected representatives. Although a minority, they have been successful at gaining media attention. Their manic hysteria is cheered on by the conservative talking heads in an endless feedback loop.

But is it just the extreme right wing of the republicans suffering from this illness? From the title of a Politico article, Town hall trouble from both sides now, you might think democrats are also joining in with the rabble republicans. The article quickly clears up the misconception, though the headline is clearly misleading:

But Democrats — especially those who have expressed anything less than full-blown support for the legislation before Congress — are getting back-home pressure from the left, too.

It’s just usually a bit more civil.

On Tuesday, about two dozen activists gathered in front of Democratic Rep. Eric Massa’s office in Pittsford, N.Y., to deliver close to 5,000 petitions from New York voters urging him to support the House health care bill.

Obviously, the democrats are operating from a more traditional playbook on conducting protests, one that tells them to leave their pitchforks and torches at home. The behavior from the right, however, is increasingly uncivil and irrational, to the point that one democrat congressman has been threatened that he may lose his life over the health care bill.

While saner voices on the right still exist (example), their audiences are smaller and they are easily shouted down by 'right wing opinion media' (which is about as respectful as I can be to them). These demagogues rule over malleable minds which makes it all the more easy to perpetuate the hysteria. A recent FoxNews headline reads "Conservatives Vow No Letup in Health Protests", following with

Activists are vowing to keep up their fight against President Obama's health care plans, even as the Democratic Party pushes back hard, accusing Republicans of organizing angry mobs.

These are more than mere 'protests' and accusations of rabble-rousing is not 'pushing back hard'. It's closer to journalism - reporting the facts.

Perhaps when the country regains its economic footing, an important stressor will be relieved and rational heads prevail. But until that time, fomented irrationality may turn to hate - and we all know where that leads.

The Loch Ness Monster Disproves Evolution

2009-08-03T05:00:00.001-04:00

If you think the Loch Ness monster disproves evolution, then you're well on your way to mastering science in the U.K. Here's how it goes:

“Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur. Could a fish have developed into a dinosaur? As astonishing as it may seem, many evolutionists theorize that fish evolved into amphibians and amphibians into reptiles. This gradual change from fish to reptiles has no scientific basis. No transitional fossils have been found or ever will be discovered because God created each type of fish, amphibian, and reptile as separate, unique animals.”

If you believe this, then the U.K.'s National Recognition Information Centre (NARIC) says your knowledge is comparable to that gained in some of the most respected universities and schools in Britain. That's because NARIC finds that those who hold the International Certificate of Christian Education (ICCE) are as well-educated as anyone else. The problem is that the ICCE curriculum is based on the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum, which hails from the good old U. S. of A. and, not surprisingly, provides for a very fundamentalist brand of teaching:

If, as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you believe that the Bible is the Creator’s reliable and trustworthy handbook to the whole of life, then you will be glad to hear that the ACE curriculum is written from the literal Bible creation base.

In other words, we believe that God says what He means and means what He says.(ref)

One might as well teach from Grimms' Fairy Tales. In fact, the Brothers Grimm may even be more historically accurate. But suppose you have some overly inquisitive student who asks, for example, how the use of a non-existent creature disproves evolution? I get the feeling that such a question would never come up because:

ACE pupils are able to work with minimal supervision because they have learned the godly lesson of self-discipline.(ACE core curriculum)

Which is to say 'don't ask questions', followed by ruler smacking outstretched palm.

(see also The Telegraph and The Guardian)

Bobby McFerrin and the Pentatonic Scale

2009-08-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

Straight from the 2009 World Science Festival, Bobby McFerrin has a little fun:

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

(seen at The Rogues Gallery)

Dr. Collins - What About Dog Butt Jesus?

2009-08-01T00:04:00.008-04:00

Over at the Pharyngula blog, P.Z. Myers directs our attention to a talk given by Francis Collins two years ago at a conference of AAAS Science and Technology Fellows. Eventually, Collins brought the discussion around to his ability to accommodate both faith and science under one temple. The twists and turns of logic needed obviously makes this temple something more like a carnival fun-house, complete with distorting mirrors and spinning rooms. As an example, he notes the similarities between an end-view of the DNA helix and a stained-glass rose window. He says

"What I want to do is first to give you a snapshot of some of the new discoveries that for me as a physician-scientist studying the human genome are enormously exciting and provide a real glimpse into how life works," Collins said. "I'm also going to make the argument that, for me also as a believer, research in genetics is an occasion not just of scientific enjoyment, but an opportunity to appreciate the grandeur of God's creation, and in effect, to worship."
[...]
"I'm not trying to say that there's something inherently religious" in the DNA image, Collins emphasized. "But, I think it is emblematic of the potential here of the topic to both interest people and to make them unsettled. Can you, in fact, admire both of these [images]? Can you do it at the same time? Is there an inherent problem in having both a scientific world view and a spiritual world view?"

My first thought was Spirograph. But I guess that's one of the few reasons I wasn't picked for director of NIH.

So what was Collins' point? That it's obvious just by looking around to see God's signature in all things? Or did he just want to show how silly his mind can be at times? Describing his journey to faith, Collins recounts:

As an undergraduate, Collins said, he considered himself an agnostic; as a graduate student in chemistry, he was an atheist. But as he began to appreciate biology as "beautiful stuff that made sense," and later, genomics, he also began to struggle with questions of faith. Then, in his third year of medical school, as he visited with an elderly patient who was facing death, Collins said, he experienced a crisis of faith as she asked him, "What do you believe, doctor?"

It's as if the problems suddenly became too big with no immediate answers at hand. He took the easy way out. He read the last page of the book without slogging through the whole thing. He copied off someone else's paper. He peeked at the answer to the puzzle. He took the Christian shortcut.

Despite his appointment, Collins has not shirked from publicly expressing his faith. He has gained more notoriety today for his glass half-full of faith and half-full of science than he has for his work on the Human Genome Project. Still, it's surprising to find him singing the praises of design on air. Caution to the listener: it's a scientist singing - and it sounds exactly like that. (Trivia - Collins' guitar is emblazoned with both a DNA helix, and the Christian fish.)

I have to wonder - what would Collins make of Dog Butt Jesus? Would he say it's "emblematic of the potential" to hold two contradictory views and "admire the image" as well as the concept it represents? Or would his sciency disposition kick in and compel him to say, "It's just a dog's ass!"

Liverpool Cathedral Bells - Behind the Scenes

2009-07-31T07:00:00.000-04:00

On the heels of my last post, I found this video which gives a nice behind the scenes look of the Liverpool Cathedral Bells in action.

Altogether now...one two three four...one two three four...

Well...Imagine That!

2009-07-31T06:00:00.000-04:00

Can you guess the song?

With Cathedral bells, no less! Some background info on the obvious sensitivity issues, as well as the technical challenges, can be found here, here, and here. There's even rumor that the group performing may bring this to New York.

Simon Singh Appreciation

2009-07-30T05:00:00.000-04:00

The following post is my little part in supporting Simon Singh, an author who published the following article and subjected himself to a libel lawsuit by the British Chiropractic industry. See Orac's post for more details on what those wacky doctors found offensive.
--------------------------------------
Beware the Spinal Trap

Some practitioners claim it is a cure-all, but the research suggests chiropractic therapy has mixed results – and can even be lethal, says Simon Singh.

You might be surprised to know that the founder of chiropractic therapy, Daniel David Palmer, wrote that “99% of all diseases are caused by displaced vertebrae”. In the 1860s, Palmer began to develop his theory that the spine was involved in almost every illness because the spinal cord connects the brain to the rest of the body. Therefore any misalignment could cause a problem in distant parts of the body.

In fact, Palmer’s first chiropractic intervention supposedly cured a man who had been profoundly deaf for 17 years. His second treatment was equally strange, because he claimed that he treated a patient with heart trouble by correcting a displaced vertebra.

You might think that modern chiropractors restrict themselves to treating back problems, but in fact some still possess quite wacky ideas. The fundamentalists argue that they can cure anything, including helping treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying – even though there is not a jot of evidence.

I can confidently label these assertions as utter nonsense because I have co-authored a book about alternative medicine with the world’s first professor of complementary medicine, Edzard Ernst. He learned chiropractic techniques himself and used them as a doctor. This is when he began to see the need for some critical evaluation. Among other projects, he examined the evidence from 70 trials exploring the benefits of chiropractic therapy in conditions unrelated to the back. He found no evidence to suggest that chiropractors could treat any such conditions.

But what about chiropractic in the context of treating back problems? Manipulating the spine can cure some problems, but results are mixed. To be fair, conventional approaches, such as physiotherapy, also struggle to treat back problems with any consistency. Nevertheless, conventional therapy is still preferable because of the serious dangers associated with chiropractic.

In 2001, a systematic review of five studies revealed that roughly half of all chiropractic patients experience temporary adverse effects, such as pain, numbness, stiffness, dizziness and headaches. These are relatively minor effects, but the frequency is very high, and this has to be weighed against the limited benefit offered by chiropractors.

More worryingly, the hallmark technique of the chiropractor, known as high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust, carries much more significant risks. This involves pushing joints beyond their natural range of motion by applying a short, sharp force. Although this is a safe procedure for most patients, others can suffer dislocations and fractures.

Worse still, manipulation of the neck can damage the vertebral arteries, which supply blood to the brain. So-called vertebral dissection can ultimately cut off the blood supply, which in turn can lead to a stroke and even death. Because there is usually a delay between the vertebral dissection and the blockage of blood to the brain, the link between chiropractic and strokes went unnoticed for many years. Recently, however, it has been possible to identify cases where spinal manipulation has certainly been the cause of vertebral dissection.

Laurie Mathiason was a 20-year-old Canadian waitress who visited a chiropractor 21 times between 1997 and 1998 to relieve her low-back pain. On her penultimate visit she complained of stiffness in her neck. That evening she began dropping plates at the restaurant, so she returned to the chiropractor. As the chiropractor manipulated her neck, Mathiason began to cry, her eyes started to roll, she foamed at the mouth and her body began to convulse. She was rushed to hospital, slipped into a coma and died three days later. At the inquest, the coroner declared: “Laurie died of a ruptured vertebral artery, which occurred in association with a chiropractic manipulation of the neck.”

This case is not unique. In Canada alone there have been several other women who have died after receiving chiropractic therapy, and Edzard Ernst has identified about 700 cases of serious complications among the medical literature. This should be a major concern for health officials, particularly as under-reporting will mean that the actual number of cases is much higher.

If spinal manipulation were a drug with such serious adverse effects and so little demonstrable benefit, then it would almost certainly have been taken off the market.

Simon Singh is a science writer in London and the co-author, with Edzard Ernst, of Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial. This is an edited version of an article published in The Guardian for which Singh is being personally sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association.

(prodded by Skepchick)

This Must Make Perfect Sense to Someone

2009-07-26T14:19:00.003-04:00

Somewhere in the world, someone must see this and think "Why didn't I think of that?"

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Yeah...what she said. Wait - what did she say?

Atheist Meetup Location

2009-07-24T21:37:00.003-04:00

(found at randompictures posted by krushisabitch)

Brad Pitt: Inglourious Glistening Atheist Basterd

2009-07-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

In an interview with BILD,

BILD: Do you believe in God?
Brad Pitt (smiling): "No, no, no!"
BILD: Is your soul spiritual?
Brad Pitt: "No, no, no! I'm probably 20 per cent atheist and 80 per cent agnostic. I don't think anyone really knows. You'll either find out or not when you get there, until then there's no point thinking about it.

Say...doesn't that put atheism in the running for Sexiest Non-Belief System of 2009?

Of course, right after that, he had this to say about getting older:

BILD: Are you scared of ageing?
Brad Pitt (smirking): The grey hairs on his beard glisten: “No I like it. I think it’s good.”

So, there you have it. He's ath/agnostic, doesn't mind getting older, and has glistening gray hairs. Actually, Brad and I aren't that far apart, other than there is absolutely nothing about me that glistens. And the whole world-famous actor thing.

Embarrassing the gods?

2009-07-23T18:03:00.005-04:00

This is a new one on me:

Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plow parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on Thursday.

Witnesses said the naked girls in Bihar state plowed the fields and chanted ancient hymns after sunset to invoke the gods. They said elderly village women helped the girls drag the plows.

It must be a very surreal culture for them to think this embarrasses only the gods. You have to wonder what these naked, plowing, singing girls are thinking.

"See me, O Weather Gods. Do I not shame you? I shall shame you some more with my nakedness. And my singing. And my plowing. I might even repair the roof and fix the tractor. I will do the work of my fathers and brothers, naked, until you give us rain. Or until they get bored with their new X-Box and 40" Sony HDTV. Until then, my bare buttocks will continue to embarrass you!"

Someone should take a poll in India as to how many men are praying for rain - and how many are not. Especially when Kareena and Jasmine take to the fields!

Uh Oh

2009-07-15T05:00:00.000-04:00

Study suggests H1N1 virus more dangerous than suspected
In contrast with run-of-the-mill seasonal flu viruses, the H1N1virus exhibits an

ability to infect cells deep in the lungs, where it can cause pneumonia and, in severe cases, death. Seasonal viruses typically infect only cells in the upper respiratory system.

"There is a misunderstanding about this virus," says Kawaoka, a professor of pathobiological sciences at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and a leading authority on influenza. "People think this pathogen may be similar to seasonal influenza. This study shows that is not the case. There is clear evidence the virus is different than seasonal influenza."

The ability to infect the lungs, notes Kawaoka, is a quality frighteningly similar to those of other pandemic viruses, notably the 1918 virus, which killed tens of millions of people at the tail end of World War I. There are likely other similarities to the 1918 virus, says Kawaoka, as the study also showed that people born before 1918 harbor antibodies that protect against the new H1N1 virus.

And it is possible, he adds, that the virus could become even more pathogenic as the current pandemic runs its course and the virus evolves to acquire new features.

Evolution in Action

2009-07-14T12:47:00.003-04:00

Researchers have found what they believe to be a speciation event occurring in two populations of small birds called the Monarch flycatcher. The two separate populations live on different islands, so there is a natural barrier which, if maintained long enough, leads to a branching in the tree of life. One group lives on the large island of Makira, part of the Solomon Islands. The other lives on smaller, surrounding islands, and it is this group that developed one small mutation to a gene that regulates the production of melanin which, for birds, determines the color of their feathers. In this case, the normally black birds on the surrounding islands developed a brownish underbelly.

According to the PhysOrg article Study catches two bird populations as they split into seperate species,

The question of whether these two populations are on the road to speciation comes down to sex. When two populations stop exchanging genes--that is, stop mating with each other—then they can be considered distinct species.

While they can't actually observer every encounter between the two populations to check for mating, male birds are notorious for defending their territory from others males that are potential sexual competitors. The Makira population was seen to not really mind if the brown-bellies came around, which leads the researchers to think they are not seen as much of a threat.

Of course, this doesn't prove anything conclusively...only time can really tell. Over the next hundred years or so, the natural barrier may not be big enough to keep the mutated gene from spreading to all flycatchers, which means no speciation. Still, this is an example of evolution in action, whether or not speciation occurs. Can you guess why?

See Elie Dolgin's post at TheScientist.com for more, including comparison images.

Greenpeace Sends a Message from Mt. Rushmore

2009-07-09T00:02:00.000-04:00

Ballsy move.

Religion - Crazy Like That

2009-07-07T05:00:00.000-04:00

Irrational beliefs making fools daily:

(via The Sunny Skeptic)

After-Image Optical Illusion - What Color Are Their Clothes?

2009-07-06T15:30:00.002-04:00

Last year, I had a fairly popular post called Aural Illusion. Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer of the Discover/Bad Astronomy blog, picked it up and, next thing I know, I'm getting hits from Siberia, Alice Springs, and Ouagadougou. Well, it took a year, but I've finally come across another, comparable illusion - only this one is optical. Check it out:

(discovered at Of Two Minds)

Screaming Teens on Beta Aquilae

2009-07-04T11:33:00.003-04:00

Somewhere in the universe, Ringo is the cute one...

(via NeuralDump)

Squirrely!

2009-07-03T01:03:00.002-04:00

Squirrel likes nut. Nut likes squirrel. The twain have met:

Are you ready for the 2010 Census?

2009-07-02T10:41:00.008-04:00

Are you ready for the 2010 Census?

Are you sure?

Are you ready for 100 Black Men being in charge of going door-to-door, asking you a lot of personal questions, getting all up in your business? How about Boat People? Hispanic Police Commanders? Baby Boomer Women?!

Because, if Rep. Michele Bachmann is right, that’s what you can expect. According to her, these groups are the recipient of federal money and are in charge of the door-to-door intrusive, highly personal examinations, all in the name of Census 2010.

So, maybe you’re OK with those groups. How about these:

Cambodians, Laotians, and Vietnamese Americans
The NAACP
American Indians
Colored Women
Cuban American Women
The Rainbow Push Coalition
Residential Property Managers
Arab Americans
Japanese Americans
Blinded Veterans
Catholics
Florida A&M University
Phi Beta Sigma
Public Data Users

or (shockers)

Teachers of Mathematics!

These organizations are all official partners of the U.S. Census Bureau in carrying out the 2010 census. Bachmann, however, is particularly concerned with ACORN, an activist community organization that came under scrutiny during the last election for voter fraud. ACORN is also a national partner, one of nearly 300. The latest list of partners can be found here (pdf warn).

According to a Washington Times interview with Bachmann,

"They will be in charge of going door to door and collecting data from the American public," she said. "This is very concerning."

and

"I know for my family the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home," she said. "We won't be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."

Contrary to Bachmann’s assertions, however, these organizations are not funded by the government for assisting with the census. Their job is voluntary. They are specifically tasked with spreading the word about the census and helping in recruiting some 1.4 million census takers (who will be paid), who will be subjected to criminal background checks. These workers then become temporary employees of the Census Bureau, so the partners are never in charge of anything. And, Bachmann is also wrong about the requirements of the Constitution, but let me refer you to the Pulitzer prize-winning Politifact (here and here) for the best analysis of her claims.

About now, any sane person would be regretting the inanity of their comments and, in politispeak, “walk them back”. Bachmann, on the other hand, just keeps digging deeper and deeper into the stupidity, implicitly suggesting (by explicitly not suggesting) that this new liberal government might do something untoward with all that private information.

If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that’s what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up.

I'm not sure what Michele Bachmann hopes to accomplish with her public fear mongering about the census. I know it's getting a lot of air time with right wing media, but ultimately, her inciting the public to boycott the census can only hurt their districts. Besides, it's against the law. You'd think a lawmaker would know that.

Just one last thing - it'll be a cold day in hell before I let a teacher of mathematics cross my doorway without proof of identity and proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Written in the margins of a notebook.

And them Public Data Users better watch out, too.

Paleontologists Visit The Creation Museum

2009-07-01T23:00:00.004-04:00

When some 70 paleontologists took a break from their conference and dropped in on the Creation Museum, the universe experienced a momentary spike in incredulity. NY Times has part of the story:

The museum welcomed the atypical guests with the typical hospitality. “Praise God, we’re excited to have you here,” said Bonnie Mills, a guest service employee.

Indeed, I'm sure some of the American PhDs must have felt a little ashamed or embarrassed with having their foreign colleagues come face to face with Backwater, USA.

“I’m very curious and fascinated,” Stefan Bengtson, a professor of paleozoology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, said before the visit, “because we have little of that kind of thing in Sweden.”

Some scientists, though, are also believers. What was their take? Here's Lisa Park's response:

"I think it's very bad science and even worse theology -- and the theology is far more offensive to me," said Park, a professor of paleontology who is an elder in the Presbyterian Church.

"I think there's a lot of focus on fear, and I don't think that's a very Christian message... I find it a malicious manipulation of the public."

...and...

Daryl Domning, professor of anatomy at Howard University, held his chin and shook his head at several points during the tour.

"This bothers me as a scientist and as a Christian, because it's just as much a distortion and misrepresentation of Christianity as it is of science," he said.

Too many people actually believe that the comical presentations of the Creation Museum are fact, so this story is only one of gauging scientists' reactions, which ranged from bemused to appalled. Perhaps it will ignite a spark in the group, letting them know that the fruits of their labor are so easily ignored. Sure, we have traditional museums which try to be entertaining while being educational at the same time and, by comparison, the Creation Museum should be seen as nothing more than a curiosity - like Graceland, or the world's largest ball of twine. But at its heart, the Creation Museum demonizes the scientists, placing them at the root of the world's evils. It is explicit in its words and animatronics that religion cannot coexist with science, because one must surely bring down the other. The paleontologists, after chortling and eye-rolling, should have felt deeply offended because their short tour in the funhouse is insignificant to the hundreds of thousands who have passed through, many of whom agree with the museum's views.

The museum’s presentation appeals to visitors like Steven Leinberger and his wife, Deborah, who came with a group from the Church of the Lutheran Confession in Eau Claire, Wis. “This is what should be taught even in science,” Mr. Leinberger said.

Brilliant Monkey Quote

2009-06-03T09:00:00.002-04:00

All the monkeys are healthy and do not glow under normal lighting conditions.

(as seen in The Guardian)

What? No Chocolate?

2009-06-02T05:00:00.000-04:00

All I'm asking for is chocolate and an explanation, then I'll convert.

(if you haven't visited Enrish.com, you're missing out on the funny)

Brain Surgery or Rocket Science?

2009-06-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

(from FAIL Blog)

Casey Luskin's New Home

2009-05-31T05:00:00.002-04:00

It's Sunday and that means the church of skepticism is now in session. Guest speaker today is the insightful Thunderf00t who welcomes the Discovery Institute's Casey Luskin to his new home...

The Discovery Institute Bares All

2009-05-30T05:00:00.000-04:00

The Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture has shed their white scientist smock to reveal the religious vestments we knew were there all along. They've dropped all pretense of objectivity with their new website, Faith + Evolution. Obviously, Jonathan Wells and co. were getting uncomfortable with the restraint on their evangelizing, especially with the million dollar microphones they wield. Or perhaps it was their rich benefactors demanding they address religion, folding it into their pseudoscience (as if they hadn't already). Curiously, they chose to attack Francis Collins first with their headlining article "Is Francis Collins Right About Evolution?" That's like Beetle Bailey questioning Sarge.

At least now they have a vehicle for their Wedge Document to reside in, with appropriate cover for when it is again revealed to the world (2nd coming of the wedge?). Also, it will be fun to watch their banner evolve over time. Recall the CSC's original banner (when it was known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture):

which eventually evolved into this (see The National Center for Science Education for details):

Demonstrating Evolution With Robots?

2009-05-29T17:02:00.002-04:00

I'm finding it hard to see how this is a demonstration of evolution:

Robots with fins, tails demonstrate evolution
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (AP) — Robots wag their tail fins and bob along like bathtub toys in a pool at a Vassar College lab. Their actions are dictated by microprocessors housed in round plastic containers, the sort you'd store soup in.

It hardly looks like it, but the two swimming robots were set loose in the little pool to study evolution, acting out predator-prey encounters from roughly 540 million years ago.

The prey robot, dubbed Preyro, can simulate evolution.

This is not like robot evolution in the "Terminator" movie sense of machines turning on their human masters. Instead, Vassar biology and cognitive science professor John Long and his students can make changes to the tail of Preyro to see which designs help it avoid the predator robot.

"We're applying selection," Long explains, "just like natural selection."

It's selection all right, just not natural selection. These roboticists are tweaking their design towards meeting a predetermined fitness criteria. They're assuming what nature would select for without really knowing. If their robot swims faster, does that indicate their hypothesis is correct and that they know what nature's criteria was? No. Evolution is random mutations with unguided natural selection. This isn't the same thing. It's interesting nonetheless, but this work does not "demonstrate evolution".

The Horror of Woo

2009-05-28T05:00:00.000-04:00

Troops claim 'supernatural powers' after pygmy sodomy
"Some soldiers from the 85th Brigade sodomised three male pygmies to gain supernatural powers and protection in Kisa village in Walikale territory,'' the Human Rights League of the Great Lakes said.

"The village chief was stripped and (sodomised) in the presence of his wife, his children and daughter in-law.

"The children in turn were stripped and raped in front of their father."

As bad as homeopaths, astrologers, psychics, 9/11 truthers, Jenny McArthy, and Sylvia Browne are, they're not this sick and inhuman. Third world woo sounds funny on the surface, but it often results in kidnappings, hacked-off limbs, and murder.

(h/t TYWKIWDBI, one of my new favorite blogs)

Judi Hoffman Blows The Kentucky Derby

2009-05-27T05:00:00.001-04:00

The day before the Kentucky Derby, Judi Hoffman released her psychic picks for the race:

As many of you know, Judi accurately predicted 2008’s win, place, and show horses in the Kentucky Derby. She has decided to share her 2009 trifecta pick with all of her friends, she is playing 2 combinations, 7/12/19 and 5/14/18 lets see if she can make it 2 years in a row! One note though, she did mention that “Advice” the #4 horse could be a spoiler!

Predictions like that shouldn't be left on the web for too long. They might give the unwitting pause before subscribing to her "Inner Circle of the Enlightened". Why two different combinations with a bonus pick? Look at it this way...Judi picked 7 horses our of 19. That's 37% of the field. That means she had a 37% chance of one of them placing first or second or third. What are the odds of any 3 of the 7 placing in the top 3 positions? I calculate it as (7/19)*(6/18)*(5/17) = 3.6% (and I'd be happy if someone checks my math). The point is that she offered up 7 horses to win/place/show. Even though she was more specific, we know that psychics will take whatever they can get. That is, Judi could have claimed victory not only for a 7/12/19 combination, but also a 12/19/7 or 5/19/18 or 12/4/14...or any permutation of 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 18 and 19. Even if she only got one right, that would been some victory, allowing her to claim that "the spirits weren't strong that day, but hey...I got one right!".

Unfortunately for Judi, none of her 7 horses placed in the top 3. The winning combination was, in fact, 8/16/2. Mine That Bird, #8, was a come-from-behind shocker, a 50-1 long shot. Judi would have been much better to only pick one horse, any horse, and have a 5% chance of being right. As it is, she didn't get anything right, which shows what a complete and utter failure she was as a psychic predicting this year's Kentucky Derby, especially when the psychic fields should have been veritably humming with the energy of this long shot.

Instead, Judi got 0% correct. Sign of the null set. Zip. Zilch. Nada. In other words, Judi wasn't very enlightening.

Despite all this, I do hope she gets better. Last I heard, she was dying from throat cancer and offering (for a price) to contact subscribers from the great beyond. Hopefully, would-be subscribers will take note that Judi's psychic powers ain't all that she makes them out to be, and that they won't be getting any phone calls from the grave. That's just silly. If she needs donations for medical bills, she should just ask rather than preying on those with ill-formed neuronal connections.

The Republican Conch

2009-05-26T15:30:00.000-04:00

Watching the Republican party disintegrate reminds me of William Golding's The Lord of the Flies. You can easily imagine that the entire party crashed into the ocean on November 4, 2008, with survivors scrambling to the nearest deserted island. In fact, the signs of serious engine trouble can be traced at least back to 2006, if not before. Almost immediately, the survivors split into two camps - the rational speaking moderates and the hardcore, religious fundamentalist, right wing extremists. The balance of power shifted to those with the conch, specifically the Becks, Hannitys, and Limbaughs, whose values are bought and paid for by advertisers seeking wide audiences. These visceral leaders beat to a bloody pulp any who strayed from their group until they came back with whimpering apologies. Other, bolder moderates (e.g. Colin Powell and David Frum) have stood their ground, even when being pelted by the likes of Cheney and Rove. At the moment, it is difficult to see how the "new majority" will regain power when a full measure of their base continues to call for blood.

Let's listen in as one war-painted leader dances vulgarly around the fire:

CALLER: I just wanna say, Obama is a lot smarter than you folks give him credit for. You guys were on a roll, I have to admit, with all those tea parties. Everything was rolling along, the Republicans were gaining momentum. And he managed to change your entire conversational focus. And you let those three hundred thousand people —

HOST: My God. He’s so smart. His own party voted against him on Guantanamo Bay. How stupid was that, Cindy? His own party refused to fund the closing of Guantanamo Bay.

CALLER. Yeah but you know he can just move those people over here anyway. He’s already doing it with the one guy.

HOST: Yeah, sure, he can do whatever he wants. Let me ask you a question. Why do you hate this country?

CALLER: No, I love this country.

HOST: (angrily shouting) I SAID WHY DO YOU HATE MY COUNTRY! WHY DO YOU HATE MY CONSTITUTION? WHY DO YOU HATE MY DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE?

You just said it. He can blow off Congress. He can do whatever he wants, right?

CALLER: Well, he seems to, he just moved (inaudible).

HOST: Answer me this, are you a married woman? Yes or no?

CALLER: Yes.

HOST: Well I don’t know why your husband doesn’t put a gun to his temple. Get the hell out of here.

Check here for the host's identity. Also, David Frum offers his take on this at the New Majority site. Unfortunately, his is but a tiny conch.

Joomla!

2009-05-22T05:00:00.001-04:00

Joomla! It's my new word for when self-righteous yet self-serving people get caught. Kent Hovind guilty of tax fraud? Joomla! Ted Haggard caught doing the naughty? Joomla! The Creation Museum blown away by a tornado? JOOMLA!

Well, that last hasn't happened yet, but give it time...

Here's the quick backstory on the origin of my new word. VenomFangX is a popular teen christian fundamentalist who has been evangelizing on YouTube for the past few years. He gained his share of supporters as well as detractors, particularly for being vehemently ignorant. Besides his stage name, he's also acquired the moniker "PCS" for "Poster-boy for Christian Stupidity". I first wrote about him back in October 2008, after he had gotten himself in a little legal hot water, which is bound to happen when the blissfully ignorant plays on the sharp rocks.

Apparently, he hasn't learned his lesson. Having developed quite a following, he used YouTube and his website to garner donations which he said he would donate to the Sick Children's Hospital after the first $500. Again, he was blissfully unaware that he was using these services and setting himself up as a financial middle man between two entities - his supporters and a hospital. That is, through an oral contract, he had apparently sold himself as a charity without legally establishing himself as a charity. Worse still, some accounts say he didn't even honor the contract, possibly keeping some if not all of the money for himself. The truth is still murky and may never be known. Suffice it to say that PayPal saw enough in this to suspend his account(s). So, to VenomFangX or PCS, here's a hearty JOOMLA! to you.

Oh yeah...if you visit his website within the next day or so, you will see this:

A much better synopsis can be found here:

VenomFangX/PCS/Shawn has all the markings of a great TV evangelist: greed and utter disregard for the teachings of Jesus.

The Skeptic

2009-05-20T05:00:00.000-04:00

Zoe Saldana, who played Uhura in the reboot of Star Trek, has another movie this year: The Skeptic. The tag line for the film is "What do you believe?" - which gives you a sense of how dumb this movie will be. Hey geniuses, how about "What do you not believe?", or some evocative equivalent. If the movie was called "The Believer", then the tag line would work.

But it gets worse. Check out the plot summary:

After the mysterious death of his Aunt, a confirmed skeptic lawyer, Bryan Becket, dismisses reports that her house is haunted and moves in. Immediately occurrences begin he cannot explain. And beyond the occurrences there is something about the house which gnaws at Becket - some strange connection he senses he has with the house's past. Soon, the haunting turns personal, he hears voices suggesting clues to a deep mystery. He questions his sanity, seeks medical help, but instead finds assistance in a young psychic who immediately declares, "There's a very bad secret in this house." Together they embark on a terrifying journey to uncover the secret - a journey which leads them deep into the recesses of The Skeptic's own troubled mind.

The trailer (it is to laugh):

Groan. So, when will the movie be released? Turns out, it opened over two weeks ago, grossing a total of $6223, according to Box Office Mojo. Although Newsblaze gives it a not-unflattering-review, the critics at Rotten Tomatoes are less kind (and probably more accurate). The Skeptic has only shown on two theaters. My worry is they'll make some changes and re-release it. After all, it must have cost just a little more than $6223 to make the movie. Surely they want to recoup some of that money - unless it's such a dog that the distributors will charge more than it can potentially take in.

Jenny McCarthy Is...

2009-05-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

(h/t Skepchick)

Challenging the Discovery Institute to Discover

2009-05-19T05:00:00.001-04:00

How do we explain all the forms of life we see around us today? Compare the time when there was no life on earth with today, in which we see multitudes of species of which there are many still to be discovered. Put a black box between these two points in time. The black box has only one function - to get from there to here. To get from no life to life as we know it now. Creationists say the inner workings of the black box are rather simple: God created all life. Intelligent Design proponents say some intelligence "designed" all the life around us, including all that has come before and since gone extinct. Scientists who give us the Theory of Evolution say life evolved from an early self-replicating mechanism that evolved and branched out over millions of years.

The difference between these three views is that two of them leave the black box opaque, while the third is making it more transparent every day. Creationists and IDists have no way to support their particular views other than to attack evolution. The Discovery Institute has frequently linked evolution to eugenics (most recently regurgitated in a podcast here). If evolution was a person, this would amount to nothing more than an ad hominem attack. They have no real science to support them. But if they think they do, then let them answer this challenge:

History Awaits.

(links: Atheist Media Blog, Pharyngula, Thunderf00t, and C0nc0rdance)

So It Was A Crusade After All

2009-05-18T05:00:00.000-04:00

This is really disturbing. During the days surrounding the invasion of Iraq, the daily Top Secret intelligence briefings provided by the Pentagon to the President were introduced with cover sheets that featured biblical verses. Displaying images of our military might (e.g. a lone tank in sunset, a group of soldiers huddled in prayer, dusty desert roads), former President Bush drew further inspiration of his righteous cause from quotes like:

Seek the Lord and His Strength; seek His face continually. - 1 Chron 16:11
Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses' hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind. Isaiah 5:28

GQ has the whole story on this, complete with images of the briefing cover sheets.

These cover sheets were the brainchild of Major General Glen Shaffer, a director for intelligence serving both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense. In the days before the Iraq war, Shaffer’s staff had created humorous covers in an attempt to alleviate the stress of preparing for battle. Then, as the body counting began, Shaffer, a Christian, deemed the biblical passages more suitable. Several others in the Pentagon disagreed. At least one Muslim analyst in the building had been greatly offended; others privately worried that if these covers were leaked during a war conducted in an Islamic nation, the fallout—as one Pentagon staffer would later say—“would be as bad as Abu Ghraib.”

As I said, this is disturbing but not really surprising. The Bush administration reasons for going to war with Iraq are (and were) far less convincing than the backstory of selling an unnecessary war to the public. The only thing that has not been fully revealed is the true motivation for the war. We can speculate all we want, but without hard evidence, history instead will record that the intelligence agencies were buffoons and provided misleading information.

Think Progress and TPM introduced me to this story, headlining former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as the putative culprit. For my money, the person who should have put an end to this was President Bush himself. But then, he never was one for maintaining that separation of church and state.

Fear of Flight

2009-05-17T05:00:00.001-04:00

For some, the thought of taking their first flight is a little too much. I wonder what this poor fellow was thinking?

(h/t TYWKIWDBI)

Star Trek Reboot

2009-05-12T13:00:00.000-04:00

I saw the new Star Trek movie over the weekend and was surprised that it really worked well. I'm not a rabid Trekkie but I'm happy with this reboot to the franchise, if only for nostalgia's sake.

I only have one small nit: escape hatches in reactant feed tubes. That's just silly. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - there are NO escape hatches in reactant feed tubes! A risk analysis simply wouldn't have called for one and no engineer would design one. Other than that (and the rehashed plot), everything else was outstanding.

In the future, plan to see Zachary Quinto (Spock) fight typecasting, Chris Pine (Kirk) fight weight gain, and John Cho (Sulu) fight to stay in the closet.

Bill O'Reilly - Without Makeup

2009-05-12T10:00:00.001-04:00

Ambush media captured Bill O'Reilly in the wild at the 2009 Whitehouse Correspondents Dinner - and it wasn't a pretty sight. I've always thought that, from his TV show, O'Reilly's makeup looked like it was put on with a putty knife. Very heavy handed with that caked on look to it. Now I know why.

(More photos at TPM)

Microsoft Dreams

2009-05-06T12:34:00.002-04:00

We're the ones who are dreaming about a silicon utopia where computers are instant-on and starting apps don't result in spinning hourglasses and "program not responding" is an extinct phrase. Apparently Microsoft is dreaming as well. Here is their vision of the future:

Productivity Future Vision
Reality, of course, will be somewhat different. 404 Errors and File Not Found and the Blue Screen of Death will have their offspring represented in the future. After all, we are talking Microsoft, right?

Auto Fuel Efficiency - 70 Years and No Change

2009-05-06T12:00:00.000-04:00

Ever get nostalgic about the good old days? The days when you dressed up to go on a plane flight...when movie theaters had curtains and ushers showed you to your seat? Bobby socks? Spats? Pants pulled up to the waist? Auto fuel efficiency??? Well, my friend, as you pine for days gone by, consider this: the car you're driving today might just be as fuel efficient as those in the era of The Great Gatsby.

Fuel efficiency of vehicles on the road: Little progress since the 1920s
A new study in the journal Energy Policy by Michael Sivak and Omer Tsimhoni of the U-M Transportation Research Institute shows that overall fuel efficiency for vehicles in the United States was 14 miles per gallon in 1923 and 17.2 mpg in 2006.

The researchers documented and analyzed the annual changes in actual fuel efficiency of vehicles on U.S. roads from 1923 to 2006 by using information about distances driven and fuel consumed to calculate fuel efficiency of the overall fleet and of different classes of vehicles.

They found that overall fleet fuel efficiency actually decreased from 14 mpg in 1923 to a low of 11.9 mpg in 1973, but then rapidly increased to 16.9 mpg by 1991.

Little change in fuel efficiency and we lost the rumble seat? Some days I understand why we're bailing out the auto industry, some days I don't. Today I feel we should just let this dinosaur go extinct.

Brit Hume To Swine Flu: 'Whatever!'

2009-04-30T07:00:00.001-04:00

When major news stories break, there's a sudden genesis of interest in something new, the media descend, blog posts are written, crowds gather at the water cooler, and the 24 hour coverage becomes relentless. Then a few break off from the herd and take an opposing tack. Others soon follow and before long, debates are raging along ideological divides. Regarding the international concern over the swine flu pandemic (as it is now being called by the World Health Organization), Britt Hume is perhaps the first national figure to publicly poo poo the media attention over something that has the potential to kill tens of thousands of people. On Fox News Channel's "The Live Desk", Hume complains:

“I realize it’s been a slow weekend in terms of news,” Hume said. “The president went out and played golf on Sunday. The White House reporters don’t have much to work with today, so they’re trying to get a piece of this swine flu story, which you know, all the cable news channels are agog about, bug-eyed about. But so far, it doesn’t amount to much in the United States of America.”
[...]
"What this is, is much ado about – I’m afraid to say this – not very much.”

So Hume is saying that the media is really giving too much attention to this. Of course, since his comments, WHO raised their influence phase from 4 to 5, officially declaring this strain of flu a pandemic. Thus far, we've yet to see the tens of thousands of people dying around the world which might fit our ordinary definition of a pandemic, and Hume does make the point that these actions are intended to release funds to limit the spread of the virus, yet his very act of minimizing the importance of the flu acts to undermine the efforts of WHO which asks people to take this little virus seriously.

What could Hume's motives be? General disgust with the media? To score bragging points by being the first to break from the herd? Or is he just too cool to take this seriously?

To put this in a little more context, let's journey back in time to 2005 when flu was raging across the globe and hundreds, if not thousands, were dropping like flies - or in this case, birds. In an interview with then Health and Human Services Secretary, Mike Leavitt, Hume seemed to show a little more concern than he has today:

HUME: Now, the great worry, of course, is that it becomes communicable human-to-human, which it so far has not, correct?

LEAVITT: That’s correct.

HUME: How likely is it that that mutation of the virus will occur?

LEAVITT: I wish I knew that answer. It is maddeningly uncertain. We have had three pandemics in this century, 1918, 1957 and 1968, and they all followed the similar pattern where viruses that were either in birds, or animals, or people did what scientists call re-assort and create a new virus that no one has immunity for.

And that’s when — when that virus has the capacity to go from person to person to person, it’s when it sets off this geometric expansion of disease. And it’s a very dangerous situation. It’s something that’s been with us for centuries. And it will likely continue.

HUME: No known vaccine for this?

LEAVITT: The good news is we do have a vaccine. The bad news is, we don’t have capacity to manufacture it in enough quantity.

HUME: You said we have a vaccine. Do we have a vaccine that can prevent one getting it or simply a vaccine in which it can be treated, or what?

Here, at least, Hume seemed to understand the importance of a potential pandemic, and asked the pointed questions. So, it was not beneath him back then to have concern, despite ending the interview with:

HUME: Let me just come at you as journalists get to do, from an entirely different perspective now. You’re talking about a disease that no one in America has, that infects chickens but not in this hemisphere, certainly not in the northern part of this hemisphere at this stage, which cannot be transmitted yet from human to human. And we’re talking about $7 billion and dragooning the drug industry into going along with all of this.

Couldn’t you argue that that’s an overreaction?

LEAVITT: Perhaps some will. But let me give you some sobering facts. The last time we had a pandemic on this genetic strain of a virus was in 1918. It killed over 40 million people around the world. It killed the equivalent of two million people here in the United States.

HUME: Wow. Secretary Leavitt, good to have you. Thank you very much for coming. Hope you’ll come back.

Wow, indeed. And the bird flu strain hadn't even jumped to humans.

Where is Hume's "Wow" today?

Swine Flu Pandemic Imminent

2009-04-29T22:38:00.003-04:00

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised its Influenza Pandemic Phase from 4 to 5. That's DEFCON 2 going on 1 for those who speak militarese. According to the WHO website:

Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.

Serious stuff. How serious? Remember how the martians died in The War of the Worlds? It's that serious.

Camel Swallowing

2009-04-25T18:01:00.002-04:00

Nice skeptical blog I just discovered: Swallowing the Camel. Not quite sure about the name, but it sounds kitschy-chic in a secular sort of way.

Hillary's Brilliant Response

2009-04-23T11:00:00.000-04:00

Rep. Pence (R-IN) poses a question about President Obama pal'n around with socialist dictators because, you know, Obama's a fascist socialist communistic Nazi who's going to take away our guns, make slaves of us all, and send our children to reeducation camps. Hillary has an answer for him.

Jesus Is Watching

2009-04-23T05:00:00.000-04:00

In case you're wondering what he's watching...

More excellent items at the Landover Baptist Church store.

Gays From The Sky!

2009-04-21T17:03:00.001-04:00

The gaythering storm...

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

George Takei, no less!

(visit Giant Gay Repellent Umbrella)

Stephen Hawking Hospitalized

2009-04-21T13:00:00.001-04:00

From WebMD,

April 20, 2009 -- Physicist Stephen Hawking, the author of books including A Brief History of Time, is said to be seriously ill and hospitalized in Cambridge, England.

Hawking, who is 67 years old and has ALS ( amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), is "very ill" with a chest infection that he's had for several weeks and is undergoing tests at Addenbrooke's Hospital, according to a Cambridge University spokesperson quoted in media reports.

This sounds serious.