Free Republic

Here’s an interesting conundrum involving nuclear decay rates. We think that the decay rates of elements are constant regardless of the ambient conditions (except in a few special cases where beta decay can be influenced by powerful electric fields). So that makes it hard to explain the curious periodic variations in the decay rates of silicon-32 and radium-226 observed by groups at the Brookhaven National Labs in the US and at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesandstalt in Germany in the 1980s. Today, the story gets even more puzzling. Jere Jenkins and pals at Purdue University in Indiana have re-analysed the raw data...

According to a classified NATO report, the Japanese military and government security apparatus attempted to create an "ultimate weapon" in 2001. The NATO document, entitled "Theopotential Technology Development in Japan: An Intelligence Assessment", was discovered among a group of documents released to Samui Ochanomizu, a newspaper researcher seeking information on the August, 1998 overflight of Japan by a North Korean ballistic missile test. According to the document, reaction to the overflight created a tremendous stir within Japan's defense establishment, prompting the creation of a research project designed to create the "ultimate weapon". This research led to the initiation of a...

...Bohm showed that Einstein was partly right in that Bohr's view was incomplete. One must keep both the particles and force fields of the old physics in addition to the new quantum wave function. Contrary to Bohr, we can picture the motion of particles in space at the quantum level , but there is a new kind of quantum force in addition to the classical forces of electromagnetism, gravity and even the strong and weak forces of modern high energy physics. This new quantum force or "connection" is like The Force in George Lucas's Star Wars. Unlike ordinary forces the...

On Plato, the Early Church, and Modern Science: An Eclectic Meditation By Jean F. Drew God, purposing to make the universe most nearly like the every way perfect and fairest of intelligible beings, created one visible living being, containing within itself all living beings of the same natural order. Thus does Plato (d. 347 B.C.) succinctly describe how all that exists is ultimately a single, living organism. At Timaeus20, he goes on to say: “There exists: first, the unchanging form, uncreated and indestructible, admitting no modification and entering no combination … second, that which bears the same name as the...

Hello, I'm engaged in an abortion discussion, I've created great controversy by arguing that babies in the womb deserve more consideration than pets. I feel I am on the cusp of changing minds and opening eyes a bit. I've shown some high quality pictures of babies in the womb that are quite stunning, that alone probably changes minds. What I really need help with specifically is any source documenting that babies in the womb can perceive pain, dream, think, anything. These people I'm talking with think basically life only starts once you leave the womb. Give me a list of...

A Response to John Piper by Dr. Gregory A Boyd(Professor at Bethel College, Preaching Pastor at Woodland Hills Church) In what follows I shall respond to a recent packet of essays which were written and distributed by Rev. John Piper regarding my theological views. On the whole I commend John for the fairness and accuracy with which he presented his case against me. But I believe a few words of rebuttal and clarification are needed to fill out the picture of what I believe and of what this debate is about.John's essays do not contain page numbers so I shall...

Girl 'sees' broken bones Astounding ... Natasha Demkina By LUCY HAGANTHE SUN has brought the incredible X-ray eyes girl to Britain and seen her amazing powers at first hand. Russian Natasha Demkina, 17, has stunned doctors in her home country with her ability to see medical conditions inside people. We flew her 1,500 miles to London to demonstrate her extraordinary powers on Sun reporter Briony Warden, who suffered multiple injuries when she was knocked down by a car in October last year. She is still recovering from the hit-and-run and uses crutches or a wheelchair to get around. Before...

The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short. The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour. He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do. N'kisi's remarkable abilities, which are said to include telepathy, feature in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine. N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language...

Parrot's oratory stuns scientists By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short. The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour. He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do. N'kisi's remarkable abilities, which are said to include telepathy, feature in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine. N'kisi...

The Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting proposals to develop an ontology-based (sub)system that captures, stores, and makes accessible the flow of one person’s experience in and interactions with the world in order to support a broad spectrum of associates/assistants and other system capabilities. The objective of this "LifeLog" concept is to be able to trace the "threads" of an individual's life in terms of events, states, and relationships. http://www.darpa.mil/ipto/Solicitations/PIP_03-30.html • IPTO Home • Search IPTO • DARPA Home • • Personnel • Research Areas • Solicitations • Conferences • Briefings...

The Absurdity of 'Thinking in Language' This paper has been read to the University of Southern California philosophy group and the Boston 1972 meeting of the American Philosophical Association, as well as to the Houston meeting of the Southwestern Philosophical Society. Appeared in The Southwestern Journal of Philosophy, IV(1973), pp. 125-132. Numbers in "<>" refer to this journal. Among the principal assumptions of major portions of philosophy in recent decades have been: (1) That philosophy somehow consists of (some sort of) logic, and (2) that logic is a study of and theory about (some sort of) language. There, of...

Philosophy - What Is It? A long time ago, one of my very young sons was attempting to dissuade some of his friends from launching some stupid project bound to end in disaster. Try as he might, with his limited reasoning and persuasive power, he was unable to convince any of them of their folly. Finally, in exasperation, he threw up his hands and declared, "I'm surrounded by idiots!" I am convinced this is the true picture of the world, a world so absurd, if it is not populated by idiots, than it is populated by the insane. I...