2008 Q4 FReepathon. Target: $80,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $61,916
77%  
Adding in the monthlies... Woo hoo!! Over 77 percent!! Less than $19k to go!! Thank you FReepers and Lurkers!!

Keyword: pseudoscience

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • Obama’s Climate Change Education Bill for Kindergartners:

    10/09/2008 5:57:48 AM PDT · by Opinionatedtoday · 13 replies · 331+ views
    Canada Free Press ^ | October 9, 2008 | Marinka Peschmann
    While the highly charged debate on climate change and global warming ensues, Obama wants kindergarten children to be taught climate change science in the classroom. On May 14, 2007, Obama introduced in the Senate, a bill called, the “Climate Change Education Act,” which authorizes “the National Science Foundation to establish a Climate Change Education Program.”
  • Palin, McCain Disagree on Causes of Global Warming

    09/22/2008 7:55:37 PM PDT · by Chet 99 · 72 replies · 45+ views
    No one, including Gov. Sarah Palin, questions that Alaska's climate is changing more rapidly than any other state's. But her skepticism about the causes and what needs to be done to address the consequences stands in sharp contrast to the views of her running mate, Sen. John McCain, and place her to the right of the Bush administration and several other Republican governors. Although Palin established a sub-cabinet to deal with climate change issues a year ago, she has focused on how to adapt to global warming rather than how to combat it, and she has publicly questioned scientists' near-consensus...
  • Easily Startled People May Be More Politically Conservative

    09/19/2008 10:34:48 AM PDT · by james500 · 35 replies · 17+ views
    LiveScience ^ | Thursday, September 18, 2008 | Jeanna Bryner
    Fierce individualists, Americans figure that we choose our own political beliefs — but actually it could come down to biology. Individuals who are more easily startled by threats are more likely than others to support protective policies, such as military spending, the Iraq War and the death penalty, finds a new study. ... The researchers measured levels of skin moisture as indicators of stress and anxiety for each participant as he or she looked at threatening images, including a large spider on the face of a frightened person, a dazed individual with a bloody face and an open wound with...
  • Barack Makes His-tory With His Two Dads (LOL)

    09/03/2008 1:22:54 PM PDT · by Deetes · 5 replies · 6+ views
    http://www.tmz.com ^ | Posted Sep 2nd 2008 7:58PM | TMZ Staff
    Terry Moran from "Nightline" -- Funniest goof ever!
  • Disney's New Hannah Montana Album Features 'Global Warming Anthem'

    08/26/2008 1:52:48 PM PDT · by Rufus2007 · 9 replies · 15+ views
    businessandmedia.org ^ | August 26, 2008 | Jeff Poor
    Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s two daughters, Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6, are big fans of Hannah Montana – and maybe there’s a reason why. Teen star Miley Cyrus, known as Hannah Montana in the Disney Channel TV series television of the same name, is now crusading for global warming alarmism. But she admits she isn’t really sure what it means. Disney, conveniently owns ABC, a network that often hypes climate change alarmism. On the 15-year-old singer’s recently released album “Breakout,” she sings that she wants America to wake up and deal with global warming. The song, “Wake Up...
  • Scientists left Open-mouthed after shark eats polar bear

    08/12/2008 12:45:17 PM PDT · by wildbill · 62 replies · 223+ views
    The Scotsman ^ | 08/12/2008 | Jenny Haworth
    SCIENTISTS have been stunned by the discovery of a shark that had eaten a polar bear. Part of the jaw of a young polar bear was found in the stomach of a Greenland shark in Svalbard, northern Norway. Kit Kovacs, of the Norwegian Polar Institute, said: "We've never heard of this before. "We don't know how it got there. We can't say whether or not the shark took a swimming young bear or ate a carcase.
  • Two invisibility cloak materials developed

    08/11/2008 2:06:36 PM PDT · by An Old Man · 45 replies · 21+ views
    Telegraoh.co.uk ^ | 11/08/2008 | Roger Highfield, Science Editor
    Scientists have developed two light-warping materials that takes them step closer to cloaking devices that could render people invisible. Wormholes could end messy wiring and speed up computers Scientists create the sound of silence Harry Potter invisibility cloak 'within five years' In recent years, several teams around the world have shown with mathematics how a cloaking device could work in principle, by making light waves flow around an object - just as water in a river flows undisturbed around a smooth rock.
  • Team of Psychic Detectives Aid Police in Search for Missing Florida Girl

    08/11/2008 1:51:40 PM PDT · by nmh · 51 replies · 39+ views
    Fox News ^ | 8/11/08 | Fox News
    ORLANDO, Fla. — A team of psychic detectives is assisting Orlando police in their search for missing three-year-old Florida girl Caylee Marie Anthony, according to local news reports. The group, known as "Body Hunters" and lead by psychic detective Gale St. John, is "blind driving" around Central Florida in search for the toddler who was last seen June 16, Local6.com reported. "We will not even look at street names," psychic detective Gale St. John told the TV station and its Web site on Monday. "We drive and go completely on feeling instinct, chasing down what we call a person signature."...
  • Lord Nelson and Captain Cook's shiplogs question climate change theories

    08/04/2008 3:18:54 AM PDT · by Cincinatus · 47 replies · 7+ views
    Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | August 4, 2008 | Tom Peterkin
    The ships' logs of great maritime figures such as Lord Nelson and Captain Cook have cast new light on climate change by suggesting that global warming may not be an entirely man-made phenomenon. Scientists have uncovered a treasure trove of meteorological information contained in the detailed logs kept by those on board the vessels that established Britain's great seafaring traditition including those on Nelsons' Victory and Cook's Endeavour.
  • Religions thrived to protect against disease

    08/03/2008 10:04:18 PM PDT · by forkinsocket · 14 replies · 15+ views
    Telegraph.co.uk ^ | 30/07/2008 | Roger Highfield
    Religions thrived to protect our ancestors against the ravages of disease, according to a radical new evolutionary theory of the genesis of faith. Prof Richard Dawkins the atheist and sceptic, has condemned religion as a "virus of the mind" but it seems that people became religious for good reason - actually to avoid infection by viruses and other diseases - according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences. Dr Corey Fincher and Prof Randy Thornhill of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, come to this conclusion after studying why religions are far more...
  • 50% Britons Believe in Captive Space Aliens (38% Believe 9/11 Bushes Doing)

    07/31/2008 7:59:55 AM PDT · by Coffee200am · 21 replies · 20+ views
    Web India 123 ^ | 07.31.2008 | ANI
    Almost 50 percent of British adults believe in captive space aliens, and topping the list of such generally-held truths is a secret plot to harbour aliens at a remote military base in a desert in the United States, says a new survey. The online poll was conducted to coincide with the UK cinema release of 'I Want to Believe', the second X-Files film, which aimed to uncover the most popular conspiracy theories. The survey uncovered that almost fifty percent of respondents believe there is some truth in the legend of Area 51, which holds that Groom Lake, in Nevada, was...
  • American physicists warned not to debate global warming

    07/21/2008 9:54:26 AM PDT · by BufordP · 73 replies · 26+ views
    The Register ^ | 21 July 2008 | Andrew Orlowski
    Bureaucrats at the American Physical Society (APS) have issued a curious warning to their members about an article in one of their own publications. Don't read this, they say - we don't agree with it. But what is it about the piece that is so terrible, that like Medusa, it could make men go blind? It's an article that examines the calculation central to climate models. As the editor of the APS's newsletter American Physics Jeffrey Marque explains, the global warming debate must be re-opened. "There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not...
  • Al Gore proposes...er blackouts

    07/18/2008 12:41:42 PM PDT · by Corky Boyd · 22 replies · 39+ views
    Island Turtle ^ | 7/17/2008 | Corky Boyd
    Al Gore today called for replacing all carbon based electric power generation with alternative forms, primarily wind, solar, and geothermal in the next ten years...I pulled up these Intellicast wind maps a few hours after he delivered his speech. They cover the entire eastern portion of the country at 10PM EDT. Seems to be a problem. It’s night (no solar) and there’s no wind. It happens!
  • Couple poisoned after eating cut-price supermarket grapes tainted with spider venom

    07/16/2008 1:50:49 PM PDT · by Daffynition · 46 replies · 76+ views
    The Daily Mail ^ | 16th July 2008 | Luke Salkeld
    It was supposed to be a healthy snack. But a bunch of cut-price supermarket grapes became poisonous after they were infested by a pair of false widow spiders. Ceri and Rose Williams suffered numbness, head aches and high blood pressure after eating the fruit they purchased in Tesco. Mr Williams, 52, and his 45-year-old wife had already started munching on the two Ł1 bags of fruit when they noticed that something was moving inside. A quick rummage revealed that two spiders, one alive and one dead, had already made a meal out of the Moroccan-grown grapes. Mr Williams also spotted...
  • Wikipropaganda - Spinning green.

    07/08/2008 10:45:21 AM PDT · by neverdem · 27 replies · 10+ views
    National Review Online ^ | July 08, 2008 | Lawrence Solomon
    July 08, 2008, 6:00 a.m. WikipropagandaSpinning green. By Lawrence Solomon Ever wonder how Al Gore, the United Nations, and company continue to get away with their claim of a “scientific consensus” confirming their doomsday view of global warming? Look no farther than Wikipedia for a stunning example of how the global-warming propaganda machine works. As you (or your kids) probably know, Wikipedia is now the most widely used and influential reference source on the Internet and therefore in the world, with more than 50 million unique visitors a month. In theory Wikipedia is a “people’s encyclopedia” written and edited...
  • California puts green tags on new cars

    07/07/2008 7:03:46 AM PDT · by Crazieman · 52 replies · 42+ views
    The Los Angeles Times ^ | 7-7-08 | Colin Ryan
    All new vehicles on sale in California will soon have to display their green credentials. This is a new scheme implemented by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). From January 1, 2009, stickers like the one seen here will carry information about the environmental performance of every vehicle they’re pasted into. There will be a ‘Global Warming Score’ (based on greenhouse gas emissions from driving and fuel production) and a ‘Smog Score’ (pretty much self-explanatory), both rated on a one-to-ten scale, with ten being the cleanest. And, similar to warnings on cigarette packets, they will say: ‘Protect the environment, choose...
  • Time to Retire 'Denier'--move beyond powerful, yet baseless buzz words

    06/11/2008 5:21:49 AM PDT · by SJackson · 9 replies · 14+ views
    Fox News | ^ | June 11, 2008 | Steven Milloy
    In Charles Krauthammer's May 30 must-read column, "Carbon Chastity," he rightly lambastes environmentalists as resurrected communists/socialists who have latched on to the environment and climate change as a means to advance their anti-people social agenda. The specific occasion for his justifiable outrage is a recent proposal by a British parliamentary committee to institute a personal carbon ration card for every citizen. The plan would place limits on food and energy consumption in the form of credits not to be exceeded — except through the potential for heavy-carbon users, often the wealthy, to purchase credits from lower-carbon users, often the less...
  • Discovery launches first "ecotainment" channel (Planet Green)

    06/05/2008 11:09:01 AM PDT · by rightinthemiddle · 49 replies · 8+ views
    Rooters ^ | 6-3-08 | Kimberly Nordyke
    LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Could "green" become a new watchword in TV programming? While the media companies have long been touting everything they're doing behind the scenes to become more environment-friendly, the message increasingly is seeping into their programming. On Wednesday, Discovery Communications launches the first 24/7 eco-friendly network, Planet Green, which will take over the space occupied by Discovery Home Channel. That follows NBC Universal's second companywide "Green Week" in April -- featuring 100 hours of green-themed content airing across 42 NBC Universal brands and 28 Web sites -- with two more already planned for November and April....
  • Senate votes to begin global warming debate

    06/02/2008 10:19:05 PM PDT · by PROCON · 26 replies · 1+ views
    Yahoo News ^ | June 2 , 2008 | H. JOSEF HEBERT
    WASHINGTON - The Senate began what is expected to be a weeklong, contentious debate Monday over legislation to combat global warming by mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Senators voted 74-14 to proceed to the bill, but immediately it became clear Republican opponents were not going to make it easy. A request by Democrats to begin considering substantive changes in the bill was blocked by GOP opponents until Wednesday at the earliest. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada promised a thorough debate that will probably last through the week, if not longer. He said it's clear...
  • Hurricane forecasts 'not useful'

    06/02/2008 5:42:29 AM PDT · by Graybeard58 · 12 replies · 2+ views
    Chicago Sun-Times ^ | June 1, 2008 | Allen G. Breed - A.P.
    RALEIGH, N.C. -- Each April, weather wizard William Gray emerges from his burrow deep in the Rocky Mountains to offer his forecast for the six-month hurricane season that starts June 1. And the news media are there, breathlessly awaiting his every word. It's a lot like Groundhog Day -- and the results are worth just about as much. ''The hairs on the back of my neck don't stand up,'' ho-hums Craig Fugate, director of emergency management for Florida, the state that got raked by four hurricanes -- three of them ''major'' -- in 2004. When it comes to preparing, he...
  • Climate Models get a Boost from the Wind (global warming)

    Climate scientists Robert Allen and Steven Sherwood from Yale Universitry have used a new technique to show temperatures changes in the upper troposphere (7.5-10 miles up) since 1970 are clearly in sync with most of the climate change models in showing a general warming of 0.65 degrees celsius per decade. Over the past two decades, temperature data directly gathered by satellites and balloons had showed little or no increase in upper troposheric temperature during that period, but researchers suspected these discontinuities with the model projections were due to unknown changes in instrumentation and data processing. By tracking radiosondes attached to...
  • What happened to Ozone Depletion? (vanity)

    05/26/2008 6:16:08 PM PDT · by DariusBane · 82 replies · 22+ views
    Darius Bane
    The wife and I were wondering to day whatever happened to ozone depletion? I am still terrified by that and have not been able to move on to be afraid of global warming. I was wondering if anybody has heard anything about that in the last year or so.
  • Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (review)

    05/08/2008 9:12:10 AM PDT · by steve-b · 63 replies · 2+ views
    The Flick Filosopher ^ | Maryann Johanson
    Nazis! It’s all about Nazis. In a parallel universe even crazier than our own, Ben Stein is making a documentary about how the Nazis utilized the controversial theory of gravity to make bombs that fall from the sky to the earth, and so the theory of gravity must be wrong. But we are here, and here, Ben Stein is telling us with a straight face that because the Nazis thought it would be a good idea to breed people like people breed animals, the theory of evolution must be wrong....
  • Gore Used Fictional Video to Illustrate ‘Inconvenient Truth’

    04/22/2008 10:34:44 AM PDT · by Alouette · 63 replies · 12+ views
    Newsbusters.org ^ | Apr. 22, 2008 | Noel Sheppard
    It goes without saying that climate realists around the world believe Nobel Laureate Al Gore used false information throughout his schlockumentary "An Inconvenient Truth" in order to generate global warming hysteria. On Friday, it was revealed by ABC News that one of the famous shots of supposed Antarctic ice shelves in the film was actually a computer-generated image from the 2004 science fiction blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow."
  • `X-Files' movie title is out there: `I Want to Believe'

    04/16/2008 12:42:20 PM PDT · by NormsRevenge · 84 replies · 2+ views
    AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 4/16/08 | David Germain - ap
    The truth is finally out there about the new "X-Files" movie title. The second big-screen spinoff of the paranormal TV adventure will be called "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," Chris Carter, the series' creator and the movie's director and co-writer, told The Associated Press. Distributor 20th Century Fox signed off on the title Wednesday. The title is a familiar phrase for fans of the series that starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents chasing after aliens and supernatural happenings. "I Want to Believe" was the slogan on a poster Duchovny's UFO-obsessed agent Fox Mulder had hanging in...
  • Realtor Complains Lack of Global Warming Hurting Business

    04/16/2008 12:20:48 PM PDT · by Sub-Driver · 18 replies
    Realtor Complains Lack of Global Warming Hurting Business Photo of Noel Sheppard. By Noel Sheppard | April 16, 2008 - 15:12 ET Imagine for a moment you're an upscale realtor in the exclusive southeastern part of France called "Provence" driving around with a couple of well-healed prospective buyers hoping to see gorgeous vistas on a sunny, April day only to get caught in a snow storm. What would you do? Well, the manager of a British real estate company called VEF, whose office is in Haute Provence, was so angered by this that he wrote a complaint letter to the...
  • Pelosi Statement on President’s Announcement on Climate Change

    04/16/2008 11:24:56 AM PDT · by Sub-Driver · 43 replies · 4+ views
    Pelosi Statement on President’s Announcement on Climate Change Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today ahead of President Bush’s expected announcement this afternoon of Administration efforts on climate change: “After seven years of denying the seriousness of the climate crisis and delaying tough action to save the planet, President Bush finally will discuss the subject this afternoon. With just nine months left in his term, the White House has already made clear that the President’s announcement today will not reverse his record on global warming before he leaves office. “The President should encourage the efforts of...
  • Expelled from 'Expelled' (Darwinist priesthood in uproar)

    04/10/2008 8:58:06 AM PDT · by unspun · 266 replies · 17+ views
    World Net Daily ^ | 4-10-2008 | Jill Stanek
    Darwinism is a specific evolutionary theory that excludes everything but material processes in the design of all life forms. No Intelligent Design allowed. "What's driving it is Darwinism is a foundational principle – scientific validation of secularism, atheism, liberalism – and that it strikes at the core of who they are," said Mathis. "Secondarily, these scientists are the high priests of the biggest question ever asked. They have all the authority, knowledge, power, funding," continued Mathis. "This is ground they own exclusively. They look down their elitist noses at the unwashed ignorant religious masses and scoff. That's why they respond...
  • Dubious theory

    03/04/2008 11:27:14 AM PST · by kathsua · 8 replies · 46+ views
    The Hutchinson News ^ | 02/29/08 | ELDON SMITH
    I read with interest The Associated Press article by Dylan T. Lovan that appeared in The News on Feb. 9. His whole point was to paint Ken Ham as a manipulator by quoting David Shultz when he said the claim by Ham that Charles Darwin was a racist was "a ploy to get evolution out of the curriculum." If Lovan had done his research, the motives of Ham would have been a moot point. But alas, he then wouldn't have had any reason for the article. All one has to do is read Darwin's works and his racist statements are...
  • Brother, can you spare a carbon credit?(Barf-o-rama)

    02/24/2008 3:33:30 PM PST · by GQuagmire · 9 replies · 16+ views
    Boston Globe ^ | February 24, 2008 | Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow
    GLOBAL WARMING IS a planet-sized problem, so policy solutions tend to aim for the grandest possible scale. The signatories of the Kyoto Protocol have pledged to cut their greenhouse gas emissions at a national level, while laws in various countries and states seek to reform entire industries.
  • Great Britain: Life insurers to impose 'fat tax' on the obese, costing up to 50 per cent more

    02/23/2008 7:39:57 AM PST · by Stoat · 21 replies · 89+ views
    The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | February 22, 2008 | BECKY BARROW
    Life insurers to impose 'fat tax' on the obese, costing up to 50 per cent moreBy BECKY BARROW - More by this author » Last updated at 22:37pm on 22nd February 2008  A "fat tax" is to be imposed on the obese by life insurance firms, it emerged last night.  Around 50 per cent extra could be charged on new premiums - and the threshold at which the higher rate starts will be lowered. The increased charge can be up to 400 per cent if you fall into other high risk categories, such as being a smoker or having...
  • Slowly Strangling America's Golden Goose

    02/13/2008 10:58:23 PM PST · by ForGod'sSake · 49 replies · 89+ views
    UnderstandEarth.com ^ | 2006 | J. Marvin Herndon
    Slowly Strangling America's Golden Goose© 2006 J. Marvin HerndonTransdyne Corporation   Imagine: You wake up tomorrow and find that America’s judicial system has changed. Now, prosecutors can present secret witness testimony and only provide their own brief excerpts or summaries to the defense; judges are no longer independent, they have been replaced by the prosecutor’s boss. Your first thought, “Now, we will get much needed criminal convictions.” Then, “Ohmygosh! Are we in deep yogurt! We have seen all that before, in the Spanish Inquisition and in virtually every totalitarian regime on Earth, so we know what will happen. Soon...
  • Fake Doctor Jailed over 'Treatment'

    02/01/2008 8:07:52 AM PST · by Froufrou · 17 replies · 4+ views
    breitbart.com ^ | 02/01/08 | Unknown
    A bogus doctor who took thousands of dollars from infertile couples promising to get the women pregnant has been exposed as an illegal immigrant with no medical training. Delores Rodas, 43, from Ecuador, has been jailed for a year by a court in New York. Rodas' "treatment" involved injecting a mysterious liquid into various locations in the women and into the men's genitals.
  • Humans Force Earth into New Geologic Epoch

    01/31/2008 9:37:24 AM PST · by forkinsocket · 65 replies · 35+ views
    Livescience ^ | 27 January 2008 | Robert Roy Britt
    Humans have altered Earth so much that scientists say a new epoch in the planet's geologic history has begun. Say goodbye to the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch and hello to the Anthropocene. Among the major changes heralding this two-century-old man-made epoch: Vastly altered sediment erosion and deposition patterns. Major disturbances to the carbon cycle and global temperature. Wholesale changes in biology, from altered flowering times to new migration patterns. Acidification of the ocean, which threatens tiny marine life that forms the bottom of the food chain. The idea, first suggested in 2000 by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen, has gained steam...
  • Warming Atlantic Worsens Hurricanes...Or Stops Them..Or Something...GLOBAL WARMING IS BAD!

    01/31/2008 9:47:38 AM PST · by DogWings · 9 replies · 33+ views
    All American Blogger ^ | January 31, 2008 | Duane Lester
    The latest fear mongering from the Church of Global Warming comes packed with a really scary photoshopped picture of the 2005 season and a scary headline: WARMING ATLANTIC WORSENS HURRICANES
  • Is climatology a pseudo-science?

    01/28/2008 6:28:24 AM PST · by mattstat · 32 replies · 7+ views
    The short answer, I will disappoint many of you by saying, is no. Like I wrote before, climatologists are generally nice people genuinely struggling with understanding the immense complexities of the oceanic-atmospheric (and space!) system. It might be that many of them are misleading themselves by custom tailoring models to show them what they expect (or desire?) to see, but this has not reached a level where it is done with intent. Most mistakes that are made are honest ones. And it is also true that much has been learned while examining climate models. Still, while scientists are in general...
  • Interview: 'Big Science' in America is Killing 1st Amendment, Says Ben Stein

    01/17/2008 7:42:51 AM PST · by ZGuy · 107 replies · 53+ views
    CNS ^ | 1/17/8 | Kevin Mooney
    Intelligent design theory, or ID, is opening new doors of scientific research, particularly in cancer and other disease research, according to its adherents, but a new movie, "Expelled" starring Ben Stein explores how an "elitist scientific establishment" is apparently muzzling and smearing scientists who publicly discuss ID. The First Amendment is under brutal attack in the scientific community, Ben Stein, a former presidential speechwriter-turned-actor and commentator, says in the film, which opens in theaters on Feb. 12. "I always assumed scientists were free to ask any question, pursue any line of inquiry without fear or reprisal," he says. "But recently,...
  • Insect Attack May Have Finished Off Dinosaurs

    01/03/2008 5:16:53 PM PST · by blam · 47 replies · 9+ views
    Science Daily ^ | 1-3-2008 | Oregon State University.
    Insect Attack May Have Finished Off Dinosaurs ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2008) — Asteroid impacts or massive volcanic flows might have occurred around the time dinosaurs became extinct, but a new argument is that the mightiest creatures the world has ever known may have been brought down by a tiny, much less dramatic force -- biting, disease-carrying insects.Tick found in Burmese amber. (Credit: Image courtesy of Oregon State University) An important contributor to the demise of the dinosaurs, experts say, could have been the rise and evolution of insects, especially the slow-but-overwhelming threat posed by new disease carriers. And the evidence...
  • Celebrities slammed for scientific silliness

    01/03/2008 8:51:32 AM PST · by Sub-Driver · 8 replies · 19+ views
    Celebrities slammed for scientific silliness January 04, 2008 01:00am Article from: The Daily Telegraph WHEN your name's Nicole Kidman or Gwyneth Paltrow, everyone wants to hear what you have to say. But before holding forth on their favourite remedy, celebrities should get their facts straight, experts say. The two Hollywood actresses, along with fashion designer Stella McCartney, are singled out by a charity founded to increase the public's understanding of scientific issues. Sense About Science warned: "A small group of people in the public eye promote pseudo-science without embarrassment and cannot be dissuaded from it." Alice Tuff, who helped compile...
  • Stars who spout 'pseudo-science should check their facts first' (Scientists fight celebrity idiocy)

    01/02/2008 11:07:25 PM PST · by Stoat · 49 replies · 27+ views
    The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | January 2, 2008 | FIONA MACRAE
    Stars who spout 'pseudo-science should check their facts first'By FIONA MACRAE - More by this author » Last updated at 23:29pm on 2nd January 2008  Nicole Kidman: Criticised for promoting a computer brain workout programme   When your name's Nicole Kidman or Gwyneth Paltrow, everyone wants to hear what you have to say. But before holding forth on their favourite remedy, celebrities should get their facts straight, experts say. The two Hollywood actresses, along with the TV presenter Gillian McKeith and fashion designer Stella McCartney, are singled out by a charity founded to increase the public's understanding of scientific...
  • Global Warming Saps Hurricane Strength - Reduce emissions, save the ‘canes!

    12/06/2007 12:29:45 PM PST · by neverdem · 32 replies · 13+ views
    National Review Online ^ | December 06, 2007 | David Freddoso
    December 06, 2007, 4:00 a.m. Global Warming Saps Hurricane StrengthReduce emissions, save the ‘canes! By David Freddoso In June, as the 2007 hurricane season began, the predictions were dire. There were to be 16 named storms. Nine hurricanes. Five “intense hurricanes.” A 74 percent-chance of a storm hitting the U.S. coastline — all above the historical average. And numerous news stories cited Global Warming as the culprit for what was about to happen. Hurricane season just ended over the weekend. The results? There have been six hurricanes (the historic average), two of them “intense hurricanes” (below average). Not one...
  • Why Politicized Science is Dangerous - Michael Crichton

    10/15/2007 1:15:45 PM PDT · by Bon mots · 65 replies · 11+ views
    MichaelCrichton.com ^ | Michael Crichton
    Imagine that there is a new scientific theory that warns of an impending crisis, and points to a way out. This theory quickly draws support from leading scientists, politicians and celebrities around the world. Research is funded by distinguished philanthropies, and carried out at prestigious universities. The crisis is reported frequently in the media. The science is taught in college and high school classrooms. -excerpted- Click HERE for the rest of the essay.
  • The Global Warming Scare (A must read)

    10/12/2007 12:21:34 PM PDT · by yoe · 15 replies · 857+ views
    Our World - Compuserve ^ | November - 2006 | David Pratt
    (1. Introduction 2. The ever-changing climate 3. IPCC pseudoscience challenged 4. CO2 fixation, Kyoto and beyond 5. Sun and climate 6. Modelling fantasies 7. Global alarmism 8. New science and technology 9. Sources
  • [Gore's] Chilly reception for debate offer

    10/05/2007 7:00:19 AM PDT · by Roberts · 27 replies · 801+ views
    Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 10/5/07 | Steve Huntley
    Seven hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money to spend to try to get someone to talk to you and not get an answer. That's how much the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based libertarian think tank, has forked over in six months for advertisements in national newspapers trying to persuade Al Gore to debate one of its experts on global warming issues. "We have tried, repeatedly, to contact Gore directly, with registered letters and calls to his office, and have never received a reply," says Joseph Bast, Heartland president. A spokeswoman for Gore told me by e-mail that Heartland is...
  • Clinton assails Bush's 'war on science'

    10/04/2007 8:25:28 AM PDT · by presidio9 · 26 replies · 637+ views
    Associated Press ^ | October 4, 2007
    Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday she would sign an executive order rescinding President Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. ADVERTISEMENT The presidential candidate also said she would bar political appointees from altering or removing scientific conclusions from government research without a legitimate reason for doing so. "The Bush administration has declared war on science," the New York senator said. "When I am president, scientific integrity will not be the exception it will be the rule." Her address to the Carnegie Institution for Science was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the launch of...
  • Religion Must Be Destroyed, Atheists Say

    10/03/2007 12:24:21 PM PDT · by Angry Write Mail · 65 replies · 1,248+ views
    NewsMax.com ^ | October 3, 2007 | Not Credited
    Science must ultimately destroy organized religion, according to some of the leading atheist writers and intellectuals who spoke at a recent atheist conference in Northern Virginia. God is a myth, and children must not be schooled in any faith, they said, at the "Crystal Clear Atheism" event, sponsored by the Atheist Alliance International. Some of the luminaries who spoke at the conference, held at the Crown Royal Hotel in Crystal City, Va., over the weekend, included Oxford professor Richard Dawkins, author Sam Harris and journalist Christopher Hitchens. The Atheist Alliance International describes itself as "the only democratic national atheist organization...
  • Gay Or Straight? Body Type And Motion Reveals Sexual Orientation, Study Suggests

    09/12/2007 2:10:02 PM PDT · by presidio9 · 177 replies · 4,415+ views
    An individual's body motion and body type can offer subtle cues about their sexual orientation, but casual observers seem better able to read those cues in gay men than in lesbians, according to a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "We already know that men and women are built differently and walk differently from each other and that casual observers use this information as clues in making a range of social judgments," said lead author Kerri Johnson, UCLA assistant professor of communication studies. "Now we've found that casual observers can use gait and body shape to...
  • Prayer to End Climate Change (Religious Leaders & Greenland's Melting Glaciers)

    09/08/2007 7:45:12 AM PDT · by Libloather · 58 replies · 725+ views
    ABC News ^ | 9/07/07 | CARRIE MCGOURTY
    Prayer to End Climate ChangeReligious Leaders Join Scientists in Environmental Concerns on Greenland's Melting Glaciers From World News with Charles Gibson By CARRIE MCGOURTY Sept. 7, 2007 Religious leaders from all over the world met at the mouth of a melting glacier in Greenland today to say a silent prayer for the planet, appealing to mankind to address the impact that humanity is having on life on Earth. A group of nearly 200 scientists, theologians and government officials sailed into the ice fields of the Illulissat Icefjord, the largest glacier in Greenland that is bearing the brunt of global warming....
  • Summer Melting on the Greenland Ice Cap in 2005

    09/04/2007 8:03:37 AM PDT · by cogitator · 20 replies · 254+ views
    NASA Earth Observatory ^ | 09/04/2007 | DOD/NASA
    "One such piece of evidence comes from the Defense Meteorological Satellites Program (DMSP-F13) Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), which records microwave energy emitted from the Earth’s surface. Because wet snow and dry snow look different in the microwave frequencies, measurements from the SSM/I tell scientists where and when the ice sheet is melting. Made from SSM/I data, this image compares the number of days melting occurred on the Greenland Ice Sheet in 2005 to the annual average number of melting days since 1988. Greenland is nearly entirely ringed in red and orange, showing that the summer melt season was much longer...
  • Gay By Choice? The Science of Sexual Identity

    08/29/2007 9:24:16 PM PDT · by Lorianne · 27 replies · 895+ views
    Mother Jones ^ | August 27, 2007 | Gary Greenberg
    when he leaves his tidy apartment in an ocean-side city somewhere in America, Aaron turns on the radio to a light rock station. "For the cat," he explains, "so she won't get lonely." He's short and balding and dressed mostly in black, and right before I turn on the recorder, he asks me for the dozenth time to guarantee that I won't reveal his name or anything else that might identify him. "I don't want to be a target for gay activists," he says as we head out into the misty day. "Harassment like that I just don't need." Aaron...