News Briefs 30-07-2009
Posted by Perceval at 11:17, 30 Jul 2009The unstoppable journey continues:
- Antikythera mechanism: World's first computer may be even older than thought. See an impressive 3D reconstruction of its inner workings.
- The chances of the Earth taking a hit like Jupiter. Follow @AsteroidWatch for advance warning of asteroid impacts.
- New links between lucid dreaming and psychosis could revive dream therapy in psychiatry. If your dreams are insane - don't tell the shrink!
- Astronauts, admirals, generals discuss UFO cover-up.
- Astronaut Gordon Cooper talks about his experiences of 'extra-terrestrial vehicles'.
- Scary music is spookier with eyes shut. No, really?
- Michael Shermer is skeptical of the Shakespeare skeptics. And earns a riposte.
- Technology joins the search for the lost tomb of Genghis Khan.
- Switch on 'disease fighting genes' with yoga and meditation. Now would be a good time.
- Beluga whale saves struggling diver from drowning.
- Could a link between cosmic rays and cloud formation challenge anthropogenic global warming theory?
- Atheist bus ads are "pathetic" says Canada's most renowned philosopher.
- Camp faithless: Is Britain's first atheist summer camp harmless fun or should we be worried?
- Magic does the trick for children's self-esteem. Warning: unsupervised instruction in magic may inflate your child's self-esteem past tolerable levels, leading them to start an 'educational foundation' in their own name.
- 51 headless Vikings found in English execution pit?
- Old man river: Amazon river is 11 million years old.
- The Big Green Scattering.
- 'Green Pope' praises Teilhard de Chardin's vision of the cosmos as a living host.
- Secret societies in the social media age.
- Goat’s crowning as king of Ireland in doubt.
- Help build the Enlightenment Machine. This guy will need all the help he can get!
Thanks to Greg, Rick, RPJ
Quote of the Day:
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
Albert Einstein
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Comments
30 July 2009
2 years 42 weeks
FYI, your Gordon Cooper link is broken.
Thanks for a great blog!
Regards,
Mark Turner
www.mindblogging.com
25 November 2004
22 hours 22 min
Thanks for the nudge.
Also fixed the link to the Enlightenment Machine. Worth clicking for a laugh. (Sorry folks - a few distractions today).
Daily Grail, meet Mindblogging. Mindblogging - Daily Grail. I'm sure you'll find plenty in common!
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I don't believe in belief!
Perceval
12 April 2007
5 hours 52 min
Was that Rael's son, or the newest character of Sacha Baron Cohen? :-P
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
12 April 2007
5 hours 52 min
Warning: unsupervised instruction in magic may inflate your child's self-esteem past tolerable levels, leading them to start an 'educational foundation' in their own name.
LOL Brilliant!
Incidentally, Mexico is mourning the loss of a very charismatic magician called Beto el Boticario. As a kid, I loved to watch this affable man perform his "experiments", as he called them —later as a teenager I was a bit more interested in the magician's assistant!
Descanse en paz, magazo!
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
25 November 2004
22 hours 22 min
The credit for that one goes to big G.
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I don't believe in belief!
Perceval
14 December 2008
2 years 32 weeks
Very interesting is Richard Dawkins' reaction to the whole thing. Mind you, Taylor has kept his comments relatively general and unpersonal, and here Dawkins goes calling him an idiot.
"You seem to be very, very angry." - "Shut the f*ck up I'm not you idiot !".
That a grown-up and intelligent man like Dawkins would let himself get provoked to a response of that kind just illustrates more beautifully than any of his critics could, how his "crusade" is not about reason or rationality, but about much deeper issues of his, be it fear, anger, or something else. Priceless how he lets his pants down like that.
2 May 2004
4 min 52 sec
Surely more evidence that whales are intelligent creatures who deserve our respect?
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
~ * ~
@levitatingcat
8 April 2006
16 hours 6 min
I would respect them more if they didn't have all that useful ivory. As long as we maintain the herd, what's the matter with culling it for our advantage?
Respects,
Gwedd
12 April 2007
5 hours 52 min
Sometimes I suspect that's the same reasoning aliens use when they go and kidnap innocent people in the middle of the night.
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
22 November 2004
5 weeks 1 day
Surely aliens with a higher intellect must be peaceful.
After all, pacifism is the highest form of societal development :P
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No amount of cursing at the round earth will make it flat.
12 April 2007
5 hours 52 min
Would you show the proper diplomacy to a cockroach wandering around your kitchen cabinet? ;-)
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
22 November 2004
5 weeks 1 day
well no, I wouldn't. But that is because I'm not sufficiently evolved.
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No amount of cursing at the round earth will make it flat.
12 April 2007
5 hours 52 min
So you do agree that showing respect to other species sharing this planet with us —specially the ones that are endowed with intelligence— is a sign of a higher evolution.
Even if those species have the misfortune of carrying ivory, or some other stuff we might deem valuable.
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
22 November 2004
5 weeks 1 day
I'm saying that whales are being protected because they supposedly are intelligent.
While dolphins are perhaps as intelligent as a smart dog, most whales are kinda stupid. On a similar level as many animals we eat. So eating whales is ok to a degree - we don't want to mess with the ecological balance too much (we already have of course).
Also I was making fun of the pacifist crowd who take themselves as superior to the rest of humankind.
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No amount of cursing at the round earth will make it flat.
12 April 2007
5 hours 52 min
So trying to eat less whales is important, not so much as for the whales themselves, but for the ecological impact their disappearance would cause?
Don't get the impression that I'm a Vegan. I respect them, but I love to eat meat; the bloodier the better. I know it's paradoxical but I'm human.
But regardless of the lack of intelligence a dog has, I wouldn't be able to eat one. I would think of my beloved Kimba, a boxer I had as a child.
Am I a hypocrite? possibly.
But I think that if we lived in a world where the animals could communicate with us, I would have to stick to plants.
Intelligence has to count for something. It may be the most precious thing in the Universe, for all we know.
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
21 March 2009
4 weeks 6 days
The "earns a riposte" link has the same target as the link to Shermer's article.
25 November 2004
22 hours 22 min
Shame to waste a good link. Apologies again for not having my mind on the job.
Thanks for letting me know.
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I don't believe in belief!
Perceval