Even Smart people can be incredibly stupid

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Just when the thought crosses your mind that “Nobody could possible be ‘that’ stupid”, somebody comes along to prove you wrong. Today’s example is all about an Italian history professor, Roberto De Mattei, who has made the claim that … “The collapse of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Barbarians was due to … Read more

Good Science Journalism – “The Tevatron goes bump” by Jon Butterworth

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Jon Butterworth has written an article in today’s Guardian that is truly a fabulous piece. I applaud it, not simply because of the pure facts, but also because he has demonstrated scientific integrity at its very best. First, the core of the story itself is this … This week the CDF experiment at the Tevatron … Read more

We are not being told the truth about Libya

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How much of the mainstream media do you believe to be credible? (I’m talking Time, Post, etc, I’m not thinking about the stuff that pretends to be factual such as Fox News, but never is). Personally, I’ve accepted much, but there is a question I’ve been challenged over, specifically:

  • What is the real reason for our involvement in Libya?

If you believe the media and popular opinion, then its  because we can’t tolerate the slaughter of innocent people by a tyrant. Up until now, I’ve foolishly accepted this without giving it too much thought. The problem is that if I had applied a bit of critical thinking, I’d have quickly realised that there was something wrong with that statement. What has enabled me to change my mind is an article written by Johann Hari. In it he quite rightly points out …

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Power band Scam

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Was just in a sports shop about 10 minutes ago … and guess what? There sitting next to the till, was a rack full of Power bands. Yes indeed, a piece of plastic with a hologram on it can be yours for just £30 This will apparently make your sports performance magically improve. Well, OK, … Read more

Storm

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Its finally available, Tim Minchin’s nine-minute beat poem has been released as an animated movie. If you have not come across anything by Tim before, but you are a skeptic, then you really should check this out. Tim is an Australian comedian, actor, and musician, but is best known for his musical comedy, which has … Read more

Newly Discovered Asteroid Is Earth’s Companion

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Astronomers from the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland have found that a recently discovered asteroid has been following Earth in its motion around the Sun for at least the past 250,000 years, and may be intimately related to the origin of our planet.

Details are here on the Royal Astronomical Scciety website.

Their work appears in a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

The asteroid first caught the eye of the scientists, Apostolos “Tolis” Christou and David Asher, two months after it was found by the WISE infrared survey satellite, launched in 2009 by the United States. “Its average distance from the Sun is identical to that of the Earth,” says Dr Christou, “but what really impressed me at the time was how Earth-like its orbit was.” Most near-Earth Asteroids — NEAs for short — have very eccentric, or egg-shaped, orbits that take the asteroid right through the inner solar system. But the new object, designated 2010 SO16, is different. Its orbit is almost circular so that it cannot come close to any other planet in the solar system except Earth.

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