Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Barack Obama has come under a barrage of criticism from religious organisations over a new requirement that Catholic-run schools and hospitals provide free contraception to workers. As you might imagine, the republicans have also leapt upon this issue and are attempting to mint some political coin out of it by claiming he is “hostile to … Read more
Each year, Science Magazine and the National Science Foundation host the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. They have now announced the winners of its 2011 International Science & Engineering Visual Challenge. Here now are two of the truly inspiring and amazing entries. Yep, my pick, you might and probably would make a different selection, … Read more
In Today’s UK telegraph, Brendan O’Neill rants about a bunch of Christians being told to not make outrageous fraudulent claims, because doing so infringes upon their religious freedom. We have a special scientific word that accurately describes that stance, and that word is “Bullshit” …let me explain and fill you in on all the details. An organization in Bath … Read more
The UK’s Guardian has a story that claims to list the “Top five regrets of the dying“. The background is that Bronnie Ware, a palliative nurse based in Australia who counselled the dying in their last days, has revealed the most common regrets we have at the end of our lives. OK, I know you are … Read more
Now this all hit my … “Oh-thats-Cool” … button. You know of course that the earth has a magnetic field around it, right? And that we are protected from the solar wind, a stream of energetic charged particles emanating from the Sun, by this magnetic field because it deflects most of the charged particles. Did … Read more
There comes a time when enough is quite frankly enough. Elsevier’s business practices demand a response … why? They charge exorbitantly high prices for their journals. They sell journals in very large “bundles,” so libraries must buy a large set with many unwanted journals, or none at all. Elsevier thus makes huge profits by exploiting … Read more