UFO Conspiracy Theories has Holes

from Discovery.com:
Keeping state secrets is difficult enough, but a conspiracy of this magnitude would involve thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands, of people in a dozen or more countries. There are plenty of (often contradictory) stories from both known and anonymous "former officials," yet not a single person has come forth with hard evidence of extraterrestrials.

Peckman and other UFO conspiracy theorists have a difficult time explaining why, exactly, all the governments of the world are so concerned about the public being aware of aliens, what the purpose of a cover-up would be.

A radio debate featuring Michael Behe and Keith Fox

from Premier Christian Radio website:

The introductory comments on the website read as follows:

Michael Behe is professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania and the founder of the modern Intelligent Design movement. His book “Darwin’s Black Box” ignited the controversy 14 years ago when it claimed that certain molecular machines and biological processes are “irreducibly complex” and cannot be explained by Darwinian evolution.

His new book “The Edge of Evolution” takes his conclusions further, arguing that the Darwinian processes of random mutation and natural selection are incapable of producing the variation and complexity we see in most of life.

So can we conclude that life was intelligently designed by a creator?

Keith Fox is Professor of biochemistry at the University of Southampton and chairman of Christians in Science. As a theistic evolutionist he believes that Evolution is the best explanation going for the complexity we see and that ID is a blind scientific alley and theologically unappealing to boot.

They debate whether micromachines in the cell such as the “bacterial flagellum” could have evolved by a Darwinian process of evolution. When inference to design is and isn’t acceptable in science. Whether random mutation can mathematically stack up to complex life, and whether God is reduced to a divine “tinkerer” by ID.

Back from the dead: One third of 'extinct' animals turn up again

from DailyMail:
Conservationists are overestimating the number of species that have been driven to extinction, scientists have said.
A study has found that a third of all mammal species declared extinct in the past few centuries have turned up alive and well.

Inventors Killed By Their Own Inventions: Slide Show

from discovery magazine:

While it may not have been a traditional magic act, Harry Houdini died literally at the hands of a physical "trick" he performed -- and a bad case of appendicitis.

Before a performance, two college students reportedly asked Houdini to demonstrate his physical strength "trick" of being able to absorb numerous blows to the upper body without injury.

The impact on that particular day was enough to burst the famous magician's already inflamed appendix.

Houdini died on Halloween in 1926, after surgery failed to save him from the resulting peritonitis. He was laid to rest in the prop casket he used to perform his famous "buried alive" illusion.

Malaria death toll grows while Greens vilify solution

from CFACT:

The Centers For Disease Control (CDC) was formed in 1946 specifically to fight malaria. Its primary weapon was DDT, which it sprayed on over 4.5 million American homes. It worked, and by 1951 malaria had been eradicated from the United States. Since then, a variety of green groups have waged a campaign to ban this valuable weapon, and have succeeded to a large degree. Ineffective bed nets are in. DDT spraying is out. CFACT's experts explain in the following articles why reinstating DDT as a tool in the fight against global malaria is a matter of life and death.

Whatever happened to quicksand in the movies

from Slate:

Access to sand and water may have given kids like me something that has since disappeared—a venue for a certain kind of wilderness fantasy, or "a peril over which the child's imagination has complete control," as Jesse, the quicksand fan, describes it. The ubiquity of sandboxes once nurtured the playful idea of being swallowed whole, while the kids who dreamed of quicksand sustained the movie myth. But in the late 1980s, nervous parents started to take our sand away. When they looked at the sandbox, they saw danger, too.

It's time to abandon Earth, warned the world's most famous theoretical physicist.

From Colliding Universe:

In an interview with website Big Think , Stephen Hawking warned that the long-term future of the planet is in outer space."It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet," he said.

Forgiveness Means Giving Up All Hope for a Better Past

from Brains on Purpose:

When we refuse to forgive it’s as if we’re holding onto the past and saying “see past, I’m not going to let you have the pleasure of me letting go of you.” Meanwhile, the past is the past, it’s not happening right now in the present moment, or is it?

We keep the past alive by holding tightly to it, so perhaps it is occurring in this present moment. Now, I’m not suggesting we forget the past for the past is our teacher, however, I am suggesting that we loosen our grip on it a bit.

In a past post I asked you to consider this experiment:

“Think of someone in your life right now (maybe not the most extreme person) who you are absolutely holding a grudge against right now. There is no way you are willing to forgive this person right now for their actions. Picture that person and hold onto that unwillingness to forgive. Now, just observe what emotions are there; Anger, resentment, sadness? Also notice how you are holding your body right now, is it tense anywhere or feeling heavy? Now bring awareness to your thoughts; are they hateful and spiteful thoughts?”

4 Steps to Stress Management: An Interview with Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D.

from Brains on Purpose:

There is a tremendous power to using labeling. Putting a linguistic label on it and doing it with a cognitive reframe. Here’s the heart of the answer, as you do these steps you begin using your impartial spectator or mindful awareness. What you want to do is get that 3rd person perspective on 1st person experience. All of these techniques are really geared toward enabling people to get a 3rd person perspective on 1st person experience.

Now being a serious Christian, I’m certainly more than happy for people to bring Jesus in as the impartial spectator. I believe this will be more than just a cognitive reframing, but certainly also a cognitive reframing. It’s probably the best way to get a real 3rd person to have a perspective on your 1st person experience. Because Jesus has access to that and Jesus can help you manage it.

FIVE THINGS: MARY ROACH IN SPACE...book review

from Economist: Given that Mary Roach has written about sex, cadavers, leeches and the human soul, it should come as no surprise that her forthcoming book, "Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void", addresses such phenomena as “fecal popcorning”, weightless burping, and the exigencies of puking in your helmet during a spacewalk.

Her newest endeavour is an exploration of the human relationship with outer space. It takes the author on a shiver-inducing tour through simulation facilities, isolation chambers and NASA research centres, where she asks the questions a layperson might be too embarrassed to articulate. The book that results is a space manual filtered through the lens of Roach’s ingenious reporting and wry humour. Herewith, five things More Intelligent Life learned along the way:

Global warming graph attacked by study

from FT.com:

A key piece of evidence in climate change science was slammed as “exaggerated” on Wednesday by the UK’s leading statistician, in a vindication of claims that global warming sceptics have been making for years.

The Plumpy’nut Dustup

from AidWatch:

Plumpy’nut is a bona fide miracle product. It’s easy for health care providers to administer, and it’s easy for patients to consume. Vacuum packed and shelf stable, it’s easier to store and transport than the fortified formulas that are otherwise used to treat malnutrition. It doesn’t require access to clean water like the formula powders do. And children love it and can eat it on their own, without parental help. Using Plumpy’nut instead of traditional F100 or F75 formulas increases cure rates to levels that have never consistently been seen before. It’s not surprising, therefore, that its patent has caused a lot of resentment.

Spaceflight's past and future

from cosmiclog:
Space enthusiasts are celebrating nearly five decades of human spaceflight - and anxiously awaiting word on what will happen in the decade ahead.

The celebration reaches its peak on Monday - which happens to be the 49th anniversary of the first human flight into outer space, made by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, as well as the 29th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch. Back in 2001, spaceflight fans began organizing "Yuri's Night" parties to mark the occasion.

Air Force's mystery spaceship: X-37 gears up for launch

from CSMonitor:
n artist's rendering of the original design for the X-37 spaceship in 1999, when it was still a NASA project. Now an Air Force program, the X-37 is set for its first test flight April 19.

Can You Really Predict the Success of a Marriage in 15 Minutes?

from Slate:
The upshot? What Gottman did wasn't really a prediction of the future but a formula built after the couples' outcomes were already known. This isn't to say that developing such formulas isn't a valuable—indeed, a critical—first step in being able to make a prediction.

The next step, however—one absolutely required by the scientific method—is to apply your equation to a fresh sample to see whether it actually works. That is especially necessary with small data slices (such as 57 couples), because patterns that appear important are more likely to be mere flukes.

But Gottman never did that. Each paper he's published heralding so-called predictions is based on a new equation created after the fact by a computer model.

Top Ten Darwin and Design

Check here for a review of all ten.

Another Global Warming Retraction.

from Watts Up With That?:

Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

Why bother discussing futurism at all if we can supposedly do anything we want without any necessary consequences or limitations

from NewAtlantis:
A defining feature of Singularitarianism is its basis in a fantasy world in which anything is possible (or at least, in which we have no way knowing for sure what isn't). This gives Singularitarians a way of wriggling out of any argument by saying that no matter what the potential problem, we'll be able to find a way around it (or at least, we don't know for sure that we won't).

Not Grass-Fed, but at Least Pain-Free

from NYT:
If we cannot avoid factory farms altogether, the least we can do is eliminate the unpleasantness of pain in the animals that must live and die on them. It would be far better than doing nothing at all.

Starship pilots: speed kills, especially warp speed - space - 16 February 2010 - New Scientist

Starship pilots: speed kills, especially warp speed - space - 16 February 2010 - New Scientist