Sunday School MAR 13, 2011
last week i linked to the first news trickling out about a new paper by a NASA astrobiologist that purported to show that a meteorite contained fossilized bacteria. well, once people took a good look at the paper and its findings it became clear that the findings were absurd. lots of commentary on this one.
Matt, The Skeptical Teacher, Charlie Petit, Greg Fish, Larry Moran, Phil Plait, PZ Myers, David Dobbs, and Rosie Redfield. (if you only read one of them then read Rosie's!)
the pseudo-journal in which the paper was published responded to all the criticisms with an epic paranoid delusional rant. one of the people behind the journal sent an email to PZ Myers that's.... weird, let's just say. lol.
seeing as how this is all vaguely similar to the arsenic bacteria fiasco, NASA is taking some flack. so Lynn Rothschild wrote to defend NASA. NASA distanced itself from the whole thing but PZ Myers thought not strongly enough.
what if we really did find alien life? how would we react?
massive 9.0 (at this point; the figure keeps getting revised) earthquake hits Japan. the quake and subsequent tsunami cause massive destruction. this thing was so powerful Earth wobbled on its axis and the days got shorter. check out this NOAA video showing the quake's energy ripple across the planet.
this series of before and after satellite photos from Google Earth shows the extent of the devastation. one of Japan's nuclear power plants is in danger of melting down. Maggie Koerth-Baker explains nuclear power plants so that you can get a better handle on just what's happening and where the danger is.
what happened, how could it have been worse?
some nutball astrologer claimed the "supermoon" caused the earthquake. that was quickly debunked by Phil Plait. Ben Goldacre was livid that a newspaper would even publish such nonsense.
Greg Mayer at WEIT wrote about obliterative camouflage, following up on Jerry Coyne's post on more typical camouflage but a nonetheless fascinating example of it.
on penis spines. that's right. you read that right. penis spines. all you wanted to know about them and how we lost them and how they separate us from our ancestors. (or do they?) John Hawks, Ed Yong.
Pascal's Wager? don't make me laugh!
how a pit viper saved millions of lives- snakes as drug factories.
Jason Rosenhouse reviews Franscis Collins and Karl Giberson's new book that aims to defend theistic evolution- spoiler: it doesn't work.
Sean Carroll took a look at the Ontological Argument and shows where and why it fails.
the Oregon legislature voted to repeal the "faith-healing" exemption from state law.
the archbishop of Philadelphia suspended 21 priests suspected of child abuse.
John Loftus pointed to an essay by EvoPsych Jesse Bering on neurological syndromes, nymphomania, and free will. Lofus also pointed to new work by Stephen Law refuting Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism.
R. Joseph Hoffman wrote on "quick fix atheism", the Dawkins Revolution, and the need for worry.
Chris at The Teapot Atheist posted a great rant on the value of theology.
Dolores is training to be an abortion provider and wrote to answer some common questions she gets.
Pascal Boyer's new post is an interesting read- why would (otherwise intelligent) scholars believe in "Religion"?
Paul Kurtz- why do people believe?
KOI 326.01- that planet named "most habitable" from among the list of 1200 exoplanet candidates that Kepler found, it turns out that it isn't habitable at all.
elephants cooperate, help each other out.
child labor lawsuit filed against The Church of Scientology.
40 million year old doggystyle captured in amber. bow chicka bow wow...
SCOTUS rejects "in god we trust" lawsuit. again.
does horizontal gene transfer (HGT) undermine the "tree of life" concept?
people don't know when they're lying to themselves.
dark matter requires you to think big!
what's the probability of design in the universe?
ex-apologist pointed to another interesting paper-- Hans Halvorson and Helge Kragh- Theism and Physical Cosmology. does cosmology shore up or undermine theism?
Bayesian epistemology: the short version. think more clearly about fact claims.
Views: 18
Tags: Hoover, Journal-of-Cosmology, NASA, abortion, bacteria, church, cooperation, dark, dark-matter, design, More…
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Comment by Dale Headley on March 13, 2011 at 2:49am -
This reminds me of the hullabaloo over the faces on Mars.
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Comment by Nelson on March 13, 2011 at 2:53am -
you mean the meteorite "bacteria" Dale? it does seem to be a bit like seeing faces in the clouds doesn't it?
thanks for commenting!
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Comment by Eoganacht on March 13, 2011 at 4:15am -
Thanks. I've been looking for some good science articles about the Japan earthquake. After the Christchurch one week non-stop coverage, I was disappointed that there was nothing about it on the news even though it was worse.
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Comment by T A A on March 13, 2011 at 5:00am
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Comment by ungodlynews on March 13, 2011 at 7:19am -
Pascal Boyer's piece and commentary made my head hurt. Those people have smarty-smarts.
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Comment by Nelson on March 13, 2011 at 10:06am
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thanks for the new comments! glad you all found something you enjoyed reading.
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Comment by Albert Bakker on March 13, 2011 at 2:30pm -
I never got to following up on that meteorite business. It was immediately received with much skepticism in the press here. But good grief what a mess they got themselves into. By the time I read it they seem to have removed the "official statement" about terrorists having won and stuff. That was already supremely weird and defied explication. But that e-mail PZ Myers got really hurt my brain. Maybe a warning not to eat or drink while opening that page is in order, you might spill or choke.
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Comment by Nelson on March 13, 2011 at 3:47pm
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lol. thanks for commenting Albert! i agree. whatta buncha kooks over there huh? :)
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Comment by James on March 13, 2011 at 3:47pm -
A great class again Prof. Nelson!
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Comment by Nelson on March 13, 2011 at 3:47pm
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cheers James! always good to have you stop in. thanks for commenting.
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