Yesterday, Roger Ebert tweeted: Bad luck. The asteroid that came so close to Earth is coming baaaaak. dld.bz/chPtq Well, of course. It's a known near-Earth object. They do that by definition. But the linked article by Andrew Malcolm at Investor's Business Daily was a little more alarming than that, at least until I realized he was making stuff up: Now, about that other bad … [Read more...] about Alarming Asteroid News…If It Were True
Science
On the Significance of Mass Shooters
Over at Reason, Nick Gillespie takes a look at spree-killer (and ex-cop) Christopher Dorner's "manifesto" and pronounces it useless: If there is a message buried deep within Dorner's incoherent litany of recriminations, anger, and random name-checks, it's this: People who go on shooting sprees typically tell us very little about society at large. They are by definition far, … [Read more...] about On the Significance of Mass Shooters
Weyland-Yutani Startup?
Could we be seeing the start of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation?A new space startup company, Planetary Resources, claims they "will overlay two critical sectors -- space exploration and natural resources". That sounds like space mining! And it's not just a bunch of nuts I've never heard of backing this idea. The investors include Ross Perot Jr., Google co-founder … [Read more...] about Weyland-Yutani Startup?
Goddesses and Falsifiability
My Nobody's Business co-blogger Rogier has a pretty good article up about divine delusions v.s. observable reality. It's a plea for rationality, even if faith and mysticism seem like more fun. As is often my way, I have a small quibble. Rogier and his opponent are discussing a Facebook poster's insistence that a bit of lens flare in a photo of a pyramid is actually a sign that … [Read more...] about Goddesses and Falsifiability
Life at Conception
A few days ago, at the conservative Illinois Review, an unnamed author who I assume is editor Fran Eaton got excited about some basic science in a post titled "Biology Textbook Author Asserts Life Begins at Conception": When does life begin? At conception? When the fertilized egg begins to multiply cells? When the zygote embeds itself into its source of … [Read more...] about Life at Conception