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News Briefs 14–4-2006

Kat is busy nailing a certain President to a cross, so I’m filling in. Please excuse the smudges of chocolate I left all over the links.

  • Are you confused about the connection between rabbits and eggs? You can get explanations here and from New Moon Rising.
  • Can there ever be a reconciliation between science and religion? And if they divorce, will they get joint custody of the kids?
  • Controversy surrounds the Gospel of Judas recently revealed — the art dealer who “rescued” it from obscurity was detained several years ago in an Italian antiquities smuggling investigation. She stands to make as much as $2 million from deals involving the Gospel of Judas. Better than a Dan Brown novel.
  • Are fossils recently discovered in Africa the missing link in the chain of human evolution? You can see a terrific photo here (a big claim from such a small collection of bone fragments).
  • Geneticist Bruce Lahn says humans are evolving more rapidly — and more recently — than previously thought, but some radical thinkers say it’s not moving fast enough, and suggest it needs a little help from science.
  • Zoologists have found a fish in Africa that can move from water to land in the hunt for food.
  • New research says the length of a male lion’s mane is directly related to climate. The colder the climate, the longer and thicker the mane. Bald men across the world move to Siberia.
  • Here’s the trailer for the President-who-should-have-been Al Gore’s documentary on global climate change, An Inconvenient Truth. You can download it to your iPod too, Bill.
  • Australian researchers claim pharmaceutical companies are inventing diseases to sell more drugs.
  • In the near future, US tanks and vehicles may be protected by a hemispherical force-field. No word yet on a warp drive.
  • A high school student has won $250 in the Tallahassee Skeptics’ fake UFO photo contest. The laugh’s on them, the winner is an alien in disguise.
  • Infamous British hacker Gary McKinnon could end up in Guantanamo Bay without being tried in a US court of law if extradited, his lawyer has claimed.
  • Can dogs smell cancer? Wrigley the golden retriever can. I’ll ask my golden retriever, Macy, when I see her on Sunday.
  • Richard T. Crowe says he can smell ghosts. I think they used that in Ghostbusters.
  • Two women are holding a class on ghost hunting for the adventurous and curious. Prospective students who bring their own death certificates enrol for free.
  • It’s easy to scoff, but tales of Near Death Experiences are eerily similar.
  • A new study has found a link between the rapid-eye movement (REM) state of sleep and Near Death Experiences. This article from Nature has completely misrepresented the findings, as the study leader, neurologist Kevin Nelson, clearly stated it does not mean NDEs are dreams. I guess Nature just writes what it wants to, regardless of the actual study results Dr Nelson’s (and colleagues) cautioning that the study was retrospective and based on questionnaires.
  • REM = sleep. Goodnight.

Thanks Kat.

Quote of the Day:

The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly – that is what each of us is here for.

Oscar Wilde

  1. Man who should have been president???
    “Here’s the trailer for the President-who-should-have-been Al Gore’s documentary on global climate change, An Inconvenient Truth. You can download it to your iPod too, Bill.”

    This drives me crazy even after six years. Here is a guy who lost the election every single time the votes were counted. He never won, with hanging chads, swinging chads, pregnant chads, ‘attempted chads’ or any other BS methodology of recounting. Let’s not forget he wanted to dismiss the military vote, he only wanted to recount heavily black and democratic counties. Sounds like a class act.
    Let’s not have this place turn into another RENSE which is a house organ for DNC environmental propaganda. Environmentalism is a religion, not a science. Al Gore and the DNC are the same people who want to give China & India a big fat pass on pollution while crimping the environmental growth of the US (read: raise your taxes through increased energy prices, plain and simple). Al Gore wrote a book calling for 5 dollar a gallon gas. These are the people who have blocked every attempt at nuclear power plant construction, new oil exploration, natural gas exploration, etc, etc. Now they complain about high gas prices! Now they complain about having to ‘go to war for oil.’ Well, if we can’t get it at home, I guess we’ll have to keep fighting for it won’t we Mr. Enviro Gore? The man actually claimed recently that the world had 10 years to go! Is this “The man who would be president?” Thank God he is not in office.
    These hybrid cars are an economic fiasco as well. Diesel’s are the answer, as everyone in the rest of the world knows, but again, the DNC has blocked (via the CARB people in California) the profliferation of diesel cars in America, which would cut our oil use by close to half! Half! And get this, diesel cars like Mercedes E class or the VW Jetta (one of the only diesel makes to survive in US) are actually safe to put your family in, as oppposed to an egg shell Honda Insight or Toyota Prius. Environmentalism has become a religion and left the realm of science long ago. Here’s a recent article that’s a decent read for example..

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/04/09/do0907.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/09/ixworld.html

    1. Excuse me
      MikeG,

      I can’t remember the last time I read such a heap of BS from someone on this forum. Funny, this site usually attracts intelligent, articulate individuals with the ability to construct well-formed arguments and get their point across in a manner likely to engender some intelligent debate.

      I could spend an hour or two taking apart practically everything in your last post, but frankly, I don’t think you would even do it the justice of reading it so I’ll spend my time in more fruitful pursuits.

      yer ol’ pal,

      Xibalba
      (This post was brought to you by “Realm of the Dead”)

      1. Shaquille O’Neill
        The part about the Diesel cars is more of less correct. Diesels get mileage that is comparable to hybrids, and the performance is superior. They make a lot of sense for american driving – top speed is not important, but acceleration from low and medium speed is useful.

        The main reason that diesel cars are not marketed is an environmental regulation, having to do with particulate matter (a.k.a. dust). This can be taken care of with filters.

        As far I know, the environmental regulation in question is in California.

        None of this Diesel stuff has anything to do with Al Gore.

    2. Oops, you didn’t watch the trailer
      If you had watched the trailer, you’d have seen the self-deprecating humor as he introduced his talk on global warming by saying, ‘I’m Al Gore. I used to be the next President…’

      So rant on – but if you want it to be on-topic, you”l need to rant about the global warming debate, because that’s what the trailer’s about.

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