Free Republic

A group of scholars at Concordia University in Montreal have dedicated themselves to “Decolonizing Light.” The effort is not about banning flashlights, but rather advancing other ways of knowing about light, science and physics. The group’s tagline is “Tracing and countering colonialism in contemporary physics.” The effort, funded by the Canadian government, seeks both to explore “ways and approaches to decolonize science, such as revitalizing and restoring Indigenous knowledges” and to develop “a culture of critical reflection and investigation of the relation of science and colonialism,” according to the project’s website. Led by Tanja Tajmel, a special equity, diversity and...

Is it possible for your ancestry, religious affiliation, or nationality to determine your intellect? According to a study performed by Cambridge University called, "From Chance to Choice: Genetic and Justice," Ashkenazi Jews have a median IQ of 117. That’s 10 points higher than the “accepted” IQ of their biggest competition, Northeast Asia, and 20% higher than the global average. The Ashkenazim make up approximately 80% of all Jews with descendants from Medieval Germany and throughout Europe. The other 20% is made up of Sephardic Jews. I bet you’re frantically searching ancestry.com right now. Genetic research from the Albert Einstein College...

I am all for clean air and a clean environment, but don't p--s on my leg and tell me it's raining, and don't expect me to buy into the Global Warming scam

Depopulation of Americas may have cooled climate MINNEAPOLIS — By sailing to the New World, Christopher Columbus and the other explorers who followed may have set off a chain of events that cooled Europe’s climate for centuries. The European conquest of the Americas decimated the people living there, leaving large areas of cleared land untended. Trees that filled in this territory pulled billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, diminishing the heat-trapping capacity of the atmosphere and cooling climate, says Richard Nevle, a geochemist at Stanford University. “We have a massive reforestation event that’s sequestering carbon … coincident...

Exposed: The Myth That Psychiatry Has Proven That Homosexual Behavior Is Normal In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality as a mental disorder from the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders (DSM-II). This decision was a significant victory for homosexual activists, and they have continued to claim that the APA based their decision on new scientific discoveries that proved that homosexual behavior is normal and should be affirmed in our culture. This is false and part of numerous homosexual urban legends that have infiltrated every aspect of our culture. The removal of homosexuality as a...

Frequently dismissed as cranks, their fussy eating habits tend to make them unpopular with dinner party hosts and guests alike.But now it seems they may have the last laugh, with research showing vegetarians are more intelligent than their meat-eating friends. A study of thousands of men and women revealed that those who stick to a vegetarian diet have IQs that are around five points higher than those who regularly eat meat. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers say it isn't clear why veggies are brainier - but admit the fruit and veg-rich vegetarian diet could somehow boost brain...

A bottlenose dolphin has been found with an extra set of fins, providing further evidence that ocean-dwelling mammals once had four legs and lived on land, scientists have claimed.

The industry's VIPs mingle at political galas and Super Bowl parties. Their product is available on cell phones, podcasts, and particularly the Internet _ there it's an attraction like no other, patronized by tens of millions of Americans. It's pornography. And if you're a consumer, John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain. Harmer is part of a cadre of anti-porn activists seeking new tactics to fight an unprecedented deluge of porn which they see as wrecking countless marriages and warping human sexuality. They are urging federal prosecutors to pursue more obscenity cases and raising funds for high-tech brain research that...

"There are ominous signs that the Earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically," begins the April 28, 1975, Newsweek article reprinted today on the opposite page. But this wasn't a prediction of global warming. A new Ice Age worried Newsweek and its reporter, Peter Gwynne. Future scenarios of widespread devastation, famine and starvation loomed because the Earth was getting cooler. "[T]he present decline has taken the planet about a sixth of the way toward the Ice Age average," Mr. Gwynne wrote. The scientific community was abuzz with fear. Melting the ice caps or diverting Arctic rivers to warm the...

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals. The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar...

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond (Viking, 592 pp., $29.95) Jared Diamond’s bestselling Guns, Germs, and Steel argued that geography trumped culture, and that the current privileged position of the West was therefore mostly attributable to the advantageous resources in, and location of, Western countries, rather than to Europe’s singular values. Despite the allure of such a politically correct exegesis — President Clinton endorsed the book wholeheartedly — there were numerous criticisms of this determinist idea of natural accidents resulting in the present-day dominance of the West. At some point a Cleisthenes, Plato, Augustine, Magna...

Tax on greenhouse gases looms   swissinfo   February 15, 2005 9:40 PM   A CO2 tax on fossil fuels would lead to a major increase of prices at the petrol pump (Keystone Archive) As the Kyoto Protocol comes into force, Switzerland is still not sure how to reach its targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.   The government is considering different options to encourage or coerce citizens and the economy into cutting carbon-dioxide pollution.   RELATED ITEMS   Summit fails to progress on climate change Tax on CO2 emissions moves step closer Kyoto - how it works     The...

Mobile phone radiation may damage cells by increasing the forces they exert on each other, scientists have said. The finding could be the key to claims that mobile phones cause cancer and other health problems. Swedish physicists looked at the effect of electromagnetic radiation on red blood cells using a mathematical theory, New Scientist reported. Experts cautioned that the finding was theoretical and said there was no evidence of a danger to health. There have been suggestions that mobile phones can cause brain tumours and Alzheimer's disease, but research has been inconclusive. The conventional view has been that radio waves...

Lomborg Confronts Newtonian Mechanics... and Wins! By Sallie Baliunas "Numero pondere et mensura Deus omnia condidit." ("God created everything by number, weight and measure.") -- Sir Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) Nearly a year ago the Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty (DCSD), a governmental panel, ruled that Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg's book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, published after peer review by Cambridge University Press, was "clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice" and shows "objective scientific dishonesty." But the DCSD opinion was vacated after careful assessment by its governing body, the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. That...

A friend of mine wanted me to watch a "documentary" by Stevin A Austin on the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens. In this film ( the entire thing which I could not stomach thru) it explains how volcanic eruptions can cause the layering which is found in the the Earth's rocks. I know that such layering caused by volcanic gas and mud, knocking down trees, is not like sedimentary rock, but I can't explain it very well to my friend. Does anyone have a link to a good page explaining Mr. Austin's works from an evolutionist's point of view? Thanks!...

Mays Swicord spent 26 years searching for a health effect of radio-frequency radiation. He tried and tried to falsify the notion that this radiation - the kind emitted by mobile phones - has no effect. He failed. He changed sides, and for the past 8 years he has been working for the mobile phone maker Motorola. Now he is trying to convince us that mobile phones are safe, and that enough research is enough. David Cohen caught up with him when he visited London     I see you have two mobile phones on your belt... One is for...