Something that might be of interest
A Field Guide to Quackery and Pseudoscience: Part 1: http://photoninthedarkness.blogspot.com/2006/01/field-guide-to-quackery-and.html http://tinyurl.com/bsejv Part 2: http://photoninthedarkness.blogspot.com/2006/01/field-guide-to-quackery-and_15.html http://tinyurl.com/ahm9d Part 3: http://photoninthedarkness.blogspot.com/2006/01/field-guide-to-quackery-and_22.html http://tinyurl.com/cxu4p Part 4: http://photoninthedarkness.blogspot.com/2006/01/field-guide-to-quackery-and_31.html http://tinyurl.com/bl4t6 There are examples in the comments, even, if you're masochistic enough to wade through all of them. :) (Part 2 has comments going on and on and on and on) Or even just enough of them to get the flavor. Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Cool space picture
Michael Harney wrote: Deborah Harrell wrote: I was looking up the Horsehead Nebula for a friend, and happened across this -- what a nifty cosmic Rorschack (?sp) test! http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060119.html I see: -a saint (or other bearded fellow with outstretched hand) -a frontal view of a turtle's head, mouth gaping -a startled Sorting Hat -a panting pony's head, with a very long flowing mane -cosmic eggyolk -a distorted Man in the Moon Debbi-- I saw a firebird. In red, of course. I don't know if this is because of a high wholeness quotient, or an artifact of how far I am from what size monitor. Now that you mention it, I do see the Sorting Hat (low, and a bit left), and the scrambled eggyolk (on the right). ---David Yes, I've been lurking for a long time, and have often been so far behind that responding was pointless. In fact, I saw a very helpful post about Miyazaki movies on TMC, one day after they were all done. This has strengthened my resolve to stay caught up. : ) Hello, again! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
The Radioactive Boy Scout
Hi folks, I'm currently re-reading The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein. It's the true story of a teenager near Detroit who tried to build a breeder reactor in his back yard shed in the 1990s - the EPA eventually had to clean it up. It's an interesting read, though the author has a strong anti-nuclear stance. Anyone else read it? I originally read it along with Bobby Fischer Goes to War for an obsessed prodigy two-fer. :) Patrick Sweeney [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The Radioactive Boy Scout
Patrick Sweeney wrote: Hi folks, I'm currently re-reading The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein. It's the true story of a teenager near Detroit who tried to build a breeder reactor in his back yard shed in the 1990s - the EPA eventually had to clean it up. It's an interesting read, though the author has a strong anti-nuclear stance. Anyone else read it? I haven't read it, although I have read *about* it. I originally read it along with Bobby Fischer Goes to War for an obsessed prodigy two-fer. :) Now, that sounds like a book I might enjoy. Of course, I've already got plenty to keep me going for awhile. (You know, you really actually have more time to read when the twins are infants than when they're toddlers. Really.) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Human-Animal Hybrid Ban
http://tomburka.com/archives2/2006_02.php#000900 White House Staff Hit Hard By Human-Animal Hybrid Ban Chickenhawks at Risk, Among Others A ban on human-animal hybrids announced by President Bush in his State of the Union address has many senior White House staffers panicked, and the NIH, which has been tasked with enforcing the ban, has already prepared subpoenas for DNA samples for most of the White House staff. Dick Cheney, who is thought to be a chickenhawk/man, told reporters today that the State of the Union was not intended to be taken literally by anyone. It's really a rhetorical flourish, he said. Karl Rove, who many people freely attest is not entirely human, backed up Cheney, saying that almost everything the President said was unenforceable. Cheney and Rove then retired to the White House dining room where they gnawed on hanging seed sticks and sharpened their beaks. A White House official, who preferred to remain anonymous because commenting on the genetic makeup of co-workers is frowned upon, said that Donald Rumsfeld, while not necessarily a chickenhawk, was certainly half-man, half-beast. In this morning's press gaggle, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan found himself denying rumors today that the President himself is half-man, half-chimp, saying only, There's just a resemblance. After becoming increasingly defensive, McClellan finally compared the press corps to a bunch of geese and left the room. A poll this morning found that Americans, by and large, are completely unconcerned by events in the White House or on Capitol Hill. According to pollster Melonie Fisk, On the whole, Americans are more concerned with keeping up with the herd and the coming spring shearing. xponent House Of Pain Maru rob Second clue: Are We Not Men? ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Sciencey
From Eschaton: After sending a bunch of 24 year olds from the Heritage foundation to help fuck up Iraq, the Bush administration has given 24 year old campaign interns the authority to tell scientists what science is. A week after NASA's top climate scientist complained that the space agency's public-affairs office was trying to silence his statements on global warming, the agency's administrator, Michael D. Griffin, issued a sharply worded statement yesterday calling for scientific openness throughout the agency. It is not the job of public-affairs officers, Dr. Griffin wrote in an e-mail message to the agency's 19,000 employees, to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical staff. The statement came six days after The New York Times quoted the scientist, James E. Hansen, as saying he was threatened with dire consequences if he continued to call for prompt action to limit emissions of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. He and intermediaries in the agency's 350-member public-affairs staff said the warnings came from White House appointees in NASA headquarters. ... The Big Bang memo came from Mr. Deutsch, a 24-year-old presidential appointee in the press office at NASA headquarters whose résumé says he was an intern in the war room of the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. A 2003 journalism graduate of Texas AM, he was also the public-affairs officer who sought more control over Dr. Hansen's public statements. In October 2005, Mr. Deutsch sent an e-mail message to Flint Wild, a NASA contractor working on a set of Web presentations about Einstein for middle-school students. The message said the word theory needed to be added after every mention of the Big Bang. The Big Bang is not proven fact; it is opinion, Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator. It continued: This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most. ... Mr. Wild declined to be interviewed; Mr. Deutsch did not respond to e-mail or phone messages. On Friday evening, repeated queries were made to the White House about how a young presidential appointee with no science background came to be supervising Web presentations on cosmology and interview requests to senior NASA scientists. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/science/04climate.html?_r=1oref=slogin xponent Truthiness Actionly Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The Radioactive Boy Scout
I enjoyed Bobby Fischer Goes to War. It focuses on the 1972 match with Boris Spassky in Iceland, of course, but also covers the careers psychologies of the two chess masters, U.S.-Soviet relations, and a lot more. It skips analyzing the arcana of the chess matches except to explain a revealing blunder or pivotal moment, so it's accessible even to people with only a passing interest in chess. A great read. Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060510242/102-8102077-3649715?v=glancen=283155 Patrick Sweeney [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Human-Animal Hybrid Ban
Hi folks, Does this mean a big-screen version of Manimal is out? Patrick Sweeney [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
