Read: A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that some 50,000-100,000 Americans die each year from lung cancer caused by particulate air pollution, the biggest cause of which is coal-burning power plants in the midwest and east. Even taking the maximum predicted death toll from Chernobyl, we would need a Chernobyl-sized [...]
READ MORE »Monthly archives for March, 2008
Proto-building blocks of life in space!
Fascinating article from BadAstronomy today, describing the recent confirmation of a organic molecules in space. Particularly a molecule that is a precursor to the amino acid that makes up living DNA: ♦ An organic farm in the galactic center You know what that means…. Well, nothing certain, of course. But it indicates that, in conjunction [...]
READ MORE »Beer review: Blue Fin Stout
Beer review: Blue Fin Stout Brewed by: Shipyard Brewing Co. Maine, United States Style / ABV: Irish Dry Stout / 4.70% ABV C- / 2.65 look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | drink: 2.5 rDev: -41.9% I received a bottle of this at a conference I recently attended. I love [...]
READ MORE »Thoughts on this year’s ICFA, pt. 2.
(And still, the weird problem remains with using “from” too many times. I swear, the blog refuses to post unless I change some of the “from”s to “frm”. It must be some kind of bug in the module that tries to detect SQL injections, is the best I can figure.) Yesterday I posted some of [...]
READ MORE »Thoughts on this year’s ICFA.
(Note: At some point my blog decided it no longer liked the word “from.” It wouldn’t post if I had too many of them. So after a while you’ll find “frm” instead. Sorry for the inconvenience.) Spectacular! I got back from this year’s International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts just this morning. Was [...]
READ MORE »States fight back: Real ID is an attempt at real control.
NPR has a short, 4-minute interview with the Governor of Montana discussing the inanity of the Federal Real ID program. ♦ Montana Governor on ‘Real ID’ Act Basically, he…no, the entire Montana State Legislature! is calling the Federal government on their bluff. The Feds are demanding that the states adhere to any new policy that [...]
READ MORE »“FBI interrogator: Torture doesn’t work, breeds jihad”
BoingBoing has posted a video showing an interview with a former FBI interrogator discussing the uselessness and the harm of using torture on prisoners. ♦ FBI interrogator: Torture doesn’t work, breeds jihad The TV show “24″‘s shtick of showing the torture of the guy who has the vital information in a “ticking bomb” scenario is [...]
READ MORE »Next they’ll want to open up your stitches.
BoingBoing has a story today on an incident regarding a TSA agent who, against fervent protest by the chronically ill child, opened a clear sterile bag containing the kid’s spare stomach feeding tube, risking his life. And doing so with a cavalier arrogance: ♦ TSA endangers child’s life by contaminating his feeding tube despite pleas [...]
READ MORE »Re: Jesus loves you.
OMG. This is hilarious stuff!! The latest Friendly Atheist has posted a couple of YouTube videos that just had me rolling. Go here: ♦ Some Grey Bloke Chooses His Religion and enjoy!
READ MORE »The Golden Rule.
The Friendly Atheist has a post today featuring a couple of interesting images worth taking a look at: ♦ The Golden Rule The Golden Rule is so ubiquitous among the various religions, you’d think people would follow it more often. *shrug*
READ MORE »“Suspicion breeds confidence”
BoingBoing recently posted an article on UK police spreading fear and suspicion: ♦ London cops declare war on photography It links to the “2008 Counter-Terrorism advertising campaign” where you can see three posters that advises you to keep your eyes open and report suspicious activity, in a snazzy way that reminds me of the “fictional” [...]
READ MORE »Unintelligent design.
Just listened to an episode of Air America’s “Atheists Talk” episode 8 where they interview “The Friendly Atheist” and biologist PZ Myers: ♦ Atheists Talk #008 Mar 2, 2008 (click the “listen now” link at the bottom to listen or download) The first half interview with Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist is kind of [...]
READ MORE »“What Everyone Should Know About Science”
A quickie: Science blog Uncertain Principles has a great little post today to remind us that science is not a religion, it’s not a dogma, if it has any similarity to am ideology, it’s because it’s simply a model of how to look at the world but does NOT tell you WHAT to think or [...]
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