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News Briefs 18-02-2011

Anything is possible.

Thanks to Greg and RPJ

Quote of the Day:

Does the sun walk in glorious raiment on the secret floor

Where the cold miser spreads his gold?

William Blake

  1. Tolerant of intolerance?

    “There’s also a vast difference between being intolerant of people, which no one is advocating, and intolerant of bad ideas, which is expected of every scientist. We simply need to move that skeptical attitude out of the lab and into the wider sphere of public engagement.”
    http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/02/a_virtuous_intolerance.php

    It is troubling that we have arrived at a place where there are those who believe that they know enough to prescribe thought to the individual and preach… nay, demand intolerance of any and all opinion that does not meet their standard of acceptability.

    The public should be made as aware of this kind of thing as possible, so to be ready to recognize it when it pops out from behind the door of the laboratory or courtroom or classroom or government office. People from all walks should be ready to assign there own healthy skepticism to anyone; scientist, jurist, teacher or representative, who is arrogant enough to demand their narrow brand of perfection.

    There is no virtue to intolerance of any form of thought, regardless of what it may be, because it bulldozes our last line of defense. How and what we think, in the solitary refuge of our own hearts and minds, and our right to express the same in the form of spoken opinion, should be vigorously defended.

  2. That’s Mark Twain’s Mustache… just figured that out.
    [quote=Perceval]

  3. The slowest-growing religion in the world – Dudeism.
  4. [/quote]

    Studies do show that more people need to chill.

    [quote=Perceval]

  5. We should be as intolerant of pseudoscience as we are of homophobia and racism.
  6. [/quote]

    I agree with Redoubt. Intolerance is terrifying for the public. In fact without intolerance wouldn’t there be world peace?

    [quote=Perceval]

    Anything is possible.

    [/quote]

    Wow, I want to go look at that in real life so bad!

  7. Please stop
    [quote=]The Kepler Space Telescope announced a new bonanza of distant planets this month, reconfirming that solar systems, some possibly hosting life, are common in the universe.

    So if humanity someday arrives at an extraterrestrial cocktail party, will we be ready to mingle? At the Wild Dolphin Project in Jupiter, Florida, researchers train for contact by trying to talk with dolphins.[/quote]

    Okay can we stop saying dolphins are aliens or relating them to such? I know that isn’t what this article is about but really, c’mon. They are not from another planet and I assume that whatever outer species are out there they have adapted differently with even more sophisticated languages than dolphins or humans. I just think they should be two separate fields of thought, that’s all.
    http://weeklyworldnews.com/alien-alert/11754/dolphins-are-aliens/

  8. For all PKD nerds
    There’s a Bladerunner sim in Second Life.

    Various other stuff related to sci-fi or popular culture in general that i have found during my explorations is Aeon Flux, a Lovecraft sim which name eludes me at the moment but it was pretty creepy though, a post apocalyptic world called Wastelands which rings vibes of Mad Max and such. There’s also several steampunk sims, Nemo comes immediately to mind.

    http://honour-mcmillan.blogspot.com/2010/01/bladerunner-city-in-second-life.html

  9. Archives of the weird kind
    I was interested to read that the British Royal Navy had a ‘sea monters’ file from the mid 1800s as when I was reseaching some information from their archives, I came across a ships log that seemed to record a UFO.

    I had meant to write up the report but at the time, I did not understand the astronomical information that was given in the log. The gist of the report was that Venus? had risen in the wrong section of the night sky and had appeared to follow the sky throughout the night. The ship’s location was I think, in the West Indies.

    I guess I will just have to try and find my notes and a copy of that ship’s log – but it was about 30 years ago so just hope I still have it tucked away somewhere!

  10. Hm
    I would be able to take the skeptic movement more seriously if they striked phrases like ‘woo woo’ and ‘wishy washy’ from their vocabulary, I think they make good points but every time I see/hear that language it completely turns me off of whatever they have to say.

    They clearly use it as a way to demean the people they disagree with, and it makes them seem very smug. Too smug for my eyes/ears.

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