"Science Is The Poetry of Reality"

The newest addition to the ouvre...

Blood Falls - Life Without Oxygen Or Light

A lake sealed away from the outside world - from light, from oxygen, from the things which we commonly imagine necessary for life to survive - has begun to pour through a weakness in its glacial container, revealing a of bacterial life which thrives in the hidden world's hyper salty, iron rich soup (hence the color).  This could have implications for astrobiology within our very own solar system... I know everyone's thinking... Enceladus?

Beautiful Gemule - NASA's Hi-Def Image of Home

( via Gizmodo  -  Click Through for HQ Image. )

Chaos and Order and Chaos

    This is a BBC Horizon Program on chaos theory, order and pattern in biology and in the universe, the Mandelbrot Set, and more.  For those of you unfamiliar with Horizon programming, it is similar to the NOVA science program found on PBS - but as a franchise it is altogether more prolific and of better production quality.  Here, the soundtrack and cinematography are top notch - as science programming goes.
    The admirable thing about Jim Al Khalili, the U.K. theoretical physicist and presenter, is that he has a passion for communicating science to the general public in an understandable way, like Sagan, Kaku, Cox, and Dawkins.  I have seen some pedantic criticism of this documentary, but it has to be condensible in a manner fit for television, and the aim is to inform the public on, and get people interested in, the wonders of science.  Enjoy.

(Click the video once playing to open in individual window HQ - and for parts 2-6.)

Storm - by Tim Minchin

I won't ruin this with any adumbration. It is fantastic. Full stop.

And Now For Some World Class Stupid

     If you have to be told not to purchase, at any expense, a large cone soaked in WAX, that you will then set ONFIRE and stick in your EAR so that the MELTED WAX rushes inside your EAR - the aim of which is to cure your sore throat - then... forgive me... then you are really, very probably, flaming stupid extremely gullible...
     The fact that the FDA and it's sister organization across the border in Canada are being forced to team up to seize shipments of these "Ear Candles" (they make burning wax running towards your ear drum sound so benign, don't they?) just goes to show you that some apes will believe anything - even if that thing is a 'cure' which is predictably, by common sense, dangerousridiculouswow.

Click For Full FDA Article 

Watch Jessica Simpson Put a Flaming Cone In Her Ear

(with the volume down - the dude is really annoying...)

XKCD is XKCD

                          - Click on the Link to Click on the Link -

Jesus and Mo

        - Click to magically transport to Jesus and Mo - 

Lest I Pick On Texas

Do not fault me for my second negative post about Texas within the week. In fact, these deplorable numbers could be as bad or worse in many other states. Still... I mean... Come on people! Dinosaurs were not our friendly neighbors!

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.... The differences in beliefs about evolution and the length of time that living things have existed on earth are reflected in the political and religious preference of our respondents, who were asked four questions about biological history and God:

• 38 percent said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and another 12 percent said that development happened without God having any part of the process. Another 38 percent agreed with the statement "God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago."

 Read the harrowing article with reference links here.

Inner Life of the Cell - A Harvard Biovisions Animation

I initially saw this clip, or part of it, in a NOVA program on embryology or Evo-Devo... I could be wrong.  It is hands down the most fantastic and inspiring rendering I've seen - specifically the part with the motor protein (yes I know it's Dan Dennett's favorite too).  I'll include both the short motor protein clip with the music, and below that you'll find the full animation with narration as to what's going on in each sequence.  The RNA to protein translation sequence is fantastic as well - keep an eye out!

BOOM !!! - AND BRAVO...

Rachel Maddow demands respect for conducting herself in a way rarely seen on modern television news programs, leading one of the few shows that will frequently invest time in laying out a nuanced, in depth argument, unlike other programs which offer platforms for rival talking heads to utter platitudes, catch phrases, and talking points in two-to-three minute time slots.  Here she is slapping Glenn Beck for deliberately misleading his audience.  Last week Mr. Beck suggested that the massive snow storm in Washington D.C. should inform our opinion of "Global Warming" negatively as to it's validity (it should really be called climate change by now... come on).

Vaccinidiots Exposed

The media get it right.  No "balancing" a scientist with a faith-head.

Good job Chris Mooney and Dr. Nancy Snyderman.

The Texas 'Ministry of Truth'

One and all should be conspicuously outraged at the Texas State Board of Education's Orwellian re-writing of our secular democracy's history.  They seek to show that America was founded as, and with the intention of being, a Christian nation.  How would they ever accomplish this, you ask?  By simply REWRITING OUR SECULAR DEMOCRACY'S HISTORY.

Last Sunday's article in the New York Times Magazine paints a harrowing account of, what the author says, are inevitable manipulations to the nations textbooks.  The 'arch-conservative,' as it is rightly put, TSBE is the single largest purchaser of textbooks - by a large margin.  Therefore, the standards they adopt for their textbooks will likely end up affecting your state.

     The state’s $22 billion education fund is among the largest educational endowments in the country. Texas uses some of that money to buy or distribute a staggering 48 million textbooks annually — which rather strongly inclines educational publishers to tailor their products to fit the standards dictated by the Lone Star State.

The article estimates that the textbooks of over 40 states will be influenced by what the Texas Schoolboard demands.

     James Kracht, a professor at Texas A&M’s college of education and a longtime player in the state’s textbook process, told me flatly, “Texas governs 46 or 47 states.”

In the coming year it shall demand that:

     Margaret Sanger, the birth-control pioneer, be included because she “and her followers promoted eugenics,” that language be inserted about Ronald Reagan’s “leadership in restoring national confidence” following Jimmy Carter’s presidency and that students be instructed to “describe the causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.” The injection of partisan politics into education went so far that at one point another Republican board member burst out in seemingly embarrassed exasperation, “Guys, you’re rewriting history now!” Nevertheless, most of McLeroy’s proposed amendments passed by a show of hands...
     Finally, the board considered an amendment to require students to evaluate the contributions of significant Americans. The names proposed included Thurgood Marshall,Billy Graham, Newt Gingrich, William F. Buckley Jr., Hillary Rodham Clinton and Edward Kennedy. All passed muster except Kennedy, who was voted down....  
     But while ignoring Kennedy and upgrading Gingrich are significant moves, something more fundamental is on the agenda. The one thing that underlies the entire program of the nation’s Christian conservative activists is, naturally, religion. But it isn’t merely the case that their Christian orientation shapes their opinions on gay marriage, abortion and government spending. More elementally, they hold that the United States was founded by devout Christians and according to biblical precepts. This belief provides what they consider not only a theological but also, ultimately, a judicial grounding to their positions on social questions. When they proclaim that the United States is a “Christian nation,” they are not referring to the percentage of the population that ticks a certain box in a survey or census but to the country’s roots and the intent of the founders.

Now, the author of the article claims all necessary votes exist to pass these standards.  If it is the case, however, that ridicule and mockery forced (temporarily) the TSBE to back down from forcing Intelligent-Design-Creationism into the science classroom, then it is conceivable that a loud and visible shaming - a pointing of fingers - might also embarrass those members who deserve it.  Perhaps even enough to change the course of this manipulative act.

The past is not that which they decide, but what it actually was.  History should be taught with fidelity, to the best of our ability.

Good Question...

And do you think that unto such as you
A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew
God gave a secret, and denied it me?
Well, well - what matters it? Believe that, too!
                                                     - Omar Khayyam

Might The Universe And Everything In It Be A Hologram?

    The GEO600 detector, initially conceived and constructed to detect gravitational waves produced by massive and energetic sources throughout the cosmos, has been experiencing "noise." An interference that is reminding some scientists of the noise that was coyly teasing the Bell Labs antenna around 1964, before Arno Penzius and Robert Wilson were enlightened as to it's cause (being the CMB Radiation left over from the big bang.  An effect that had been predicted years earlier.)
    Craig Hogan, of Fermilab Particle Physics laboratory, might have similarly predicted the noise experienced by the GEO600, with his hypothesis that the universe we know might be well described as a hologram projected from the 13.7 billion year horizon of the cosmos, encoded by single bits at the planck-scale (10^-35m).

The holograms you find on credit cards and banknotes are etched on two-dimensional plastic films. When light bounces off them, it recreates the appearance of a 3D image. In the 1990s physicists Leonard Susskind and Nobel prizewinner Gerard 't Hooft suggested that the same principle might apply to the universe as a whole. Our everyday experience might itself be a holographic projection of physical processes that take place on a distant, 2D surface.  

The "holographic principle" challenges our sensibilities. It seems hard to believe that you woke up, brushed your teeth and are reading this article because of something happening on the boundary of the universe. No one knows what it would mean for us if we really do live in a hologram, yet theorists have good reasons to believe that many aspects of the holographic principle are true.

As the volume of the universe is greater than the surface area of the horizon, the holographic existence is projected at a much larger scale (10^-16m):

If space-time is a grainy hologram, then you can think of the universe as a sphere whose outer surface is papered in Planck length-sized squares, each containing one bit of information. The holographic principle says that the amount of information papering the outside must match the number of bits contained inside the volume of the universe. 

Since the volume of the spherical universe is much bigger than its outer surface, how could this be true? Hogan realised that in order to have the same number of bits inside the universe as on the boundary, the world inside must be made up of grains bigger than the Planck length. "Or, to put it another way, a holographic universe is blurry," says Hogan.

This, as the article in New Scientist points out, is not accepted as a coherent theory at this point, but if the noise turns out to be un-eliminable (it's a word, because I say so) by other interference explanations, then another detector could be built rather cheaply, with an even better design to test for the proposed holographic graininess of spacetime.
    Try and wrap your head around that!  Now.... I am not a particle physicist, nor by any measure equipped to explain this fully, so if you're interested (who wouldn't be?), then start with the full article at New Scientist.

Dennett's Strange Performance Of Reasoning

This is one of Daniel Dennett's best talks, if not the very best.  If you have an hour and twenty minutes, spend it here, with Dan.  From molecule, to cosmos, and all the while seamless... a masterful lecture in humor and substance.

We Don't Know How To Put It More Simply

What Can I say?  Get something done.  However.  Whatever. It. Takes.  That means reconciliation, or at least a modicum of effort on the part of the Democrats to remind this country just how we came to find ourselves in this mess, and who's gumming up the works, as well as strategize a way to outmaneuver the party content to throw a wrench in the machine.  Need it any LOUDER?  Here's a review of the new Wapo-ABC News poll:

    The survey paints a portrait of a restless and dissatisfied electorate at the beginning of a critical election year. More than seven in 10 Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, and as many say they're inclined to look for new congressional representation as said so in 1994 and 2006, the last times that control of Congress shifted.
    Asked how they would vote in the November House elections, Americans split evenly -- 46 percent siding with the Democrats, 46 percent with the Republicans. As recently as four months ago, Democrats held a 51 to 39 percent advantage on this question.
    Obama's overall approval rating is holding steady, with 51 percent of respondents giving him positive marks and 46 percent rating him negatively. On the big domestic issues -- the economy, health care, jobs and the federal budget deficit -- bare majorities of Americans disapprove of the job he is doing.

A disgrace.

Water Cure-All Salesman Gets Called Out on Dragons Den Show

Came across yet another cynical cretin trying to claim that water cures medical diseases by using scientific jargon like "nano-water" (homeopathy anyone?):

Hat tip to the Bad Astronomer

EXPOSE HYPOCRISY WHERE IT IS FOUND

Republicans, who crow about earmarks and government spending whilst simultaneously purporting to put "country first," have a tough one on their hands - but only if they are forced to account.  Senator Richard Shelby (Alabama) has placed a blanket hold on ALL of the President's nominees to fill key positions in government.  Why?  To get the spending candy he wants for his state, and to throw a wrench in the system:

"While holds are frequent," CongressDaily's Dan Friedman and Megan Scully report, "Senate aides said a blanket hold represents a far more aggressive use of the power than is normal."

Shelby has been tight-lipped about the holds, offering only an unnamed spokesperson to reporters today to explain them. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid broke the news of the blanket hold this afternoon after Shelby announced it to him in a letter sent today. Reid aides toldCongressDaily the hold extends to "all executive nominations on the Senate calendar."

According to the report, Shelby is holding Obama's nominees hostage until a pair of lucrative programs that would send billions in taxpayer dollars to his home state get back on track. CongressDaily laid out the programs Shelby wants to move forward or else:

- A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers. From the report: "Northrop/EADS team would build the planes in Mobile, Ala., but has threatened to pull out of the competition unless the Air Force makes changes to a draft request for proposals."

- An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI. From CongressDaily: "[Shelby] is frustrated that the Obama administration won't build" the center, which Shelby earmarked $45 million for in 2008. The center is due to be based "at the Army's Redstone Arsenal."

Explain to me how a country can function at it's best with key positions vacant, due to the ransom demands of a greedy and cynical senator.  Republicans have been placing arbitrary holds on nominees since the inauguration (surprised?), but this particular action is perfect for Democrats to seize upon - and the public should raise hell at this fantastic hypocrisy (fat chance).

A Discussion On The Mechanism - Richard Dawkins and Stephen Rose

Discussion on the mechanism by which evolution is driven-Great way to spend an hour.
(Click once playing to open individual window and to continue to segments 2 through 6)

The Faith And Fundamentalism Of The Anti-Vaccine Movement

     Yesterday I posted responses to two highly visible articles (1, 2) on the Huffington post that were supportive of the fraudulent Andrew Wakefield.  Wakefield, if you haven't been following the story, has been found guilty of unethical misconduct, dishonest in his research, and may have faked data in the paper which became the detonator of the anti-vaccine movement (the paper that suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism).  I felt it would be an auspicious time to convince some more people that they had been misled about the link, since the Lancet retracted Wakefield's paper yesterday (in very, very harsh language for a scientific journal).  
     Alas, the responses I received from the anti-vaxxers ranged from accusations that I worked for big pharma (and that my comments were pre-written and planned PR stunts), that I didn't care about the plight of children, that the Lancet's retraction was a political sabotage meant to silence the truth tellers, that I was pushing pseudoscience... etc.)   
     The chorus of justifications, victim playing, and persecution allegations came in defense of a man who conducted experiments on children for no other reason than his own interests (the procedures were not in the children's interest and were in exchange for money)...  That really turned me ill.
     I was launched a series of graphic stories by mothers of children with autism, regarding their suffering and pain - a rather unfair way to argue the issue at hand - in order that I felt uncomfortable responding at all.  I would never presume to know their pain; I feel sympathy for their pain, even if it is hard to imagine.  But that simply does not afford their hypothesis any more veracity than it would any other empirical claim.
     It seems that evidence (forget the scientific consensus) means even less to this group than I had already expected.  Like arguing with a creationist, their positions are based on matters of faith and emotion.  There's just no retort when the argument becomes "I'm right, you're wrong, scientists are conspiring with the pharmaceutical companies to maim children in order to make money, any evidence against the link has been manufactured by the evil corporations, you don't understand the pain we suffer, I'm a mother and a mother knows what happens to her child, la la la la la la, I can't hear you, la la la la la la!"
     A perfect example of this evidence-supressing ethic happened yesterday, upon my response to one of the articles.  Kim Stagliano wrote an article and posted on The Huffington Post, by the title "The Censorship Of Autism Treatment."  In the comments section, however, she admitted to deleting comments on her website that were critical of the vaccine-autism linkage idea.  This irony was FAR too good to pass up, so I asked her to defend it.  Censorship is reprehensible on its face, let alone on an important issue such as this, where people are being misled with grave consequences (no pun intended, but appreciated).  I won't include the entire exchange, that would take up far too much space... Below is her response, and then mine:

So would you, an avowed atheist, go into a devout Christian site and tell them they are wrong, there is no God, and expect to have your comments posted regularly? Or would those Christians have the right to a single safe haven where they could share their views among each other? We are very clear in our moderation guidelines who is our target audience and the tone of our content.

I have to go tuck in my girls now. People forget in the midst of this that I have three very disabled children who will need me forever. Every Mom thinks they want their babies to need them forever. In reality, it's not quite what one had wished for. We'll even include you in our tuck in prayers. Good night, Landon Ross.

Kim

     If you find me harsh - let me stress, as clearly as possible, that this movement is KILLING AND MAIMING CHILDREN FOR LIFE... in fact, the exact accusation they level at their opponents (we who have the evidence on our side).
     The only encouraging news remains that the media has seemed to pick up the right angle on the story - and are giving the real doctors vastly more attention now than they were previously.  Just today, Arthur Caplan, Ph.D, an MSNBC contributor, published an article titled How A Zealot's Word Led Us Astray On Autism.  In it, there is some satisfyingly sobering language regarding the matter:

     Why did The Lancet finally act? Because the British board that licenses doctors recently concluded that Wakefield had “shown callous disregard” for the children in his study and had “abused his position of trust” in doing his research. In language I have almost never seen from a disciplinary body, the General Medical Council added that Wakefield acted "dishonestly," was "misleading" and "irresponsible" in the way he described the findings of his tiny study about the danger of MMR vaccine in The Lancet....     The language was probably not strong enough. The Wakefield paper killed children and left others deaf and disabled from preventable diseases as their parents, in an effort to avoid autism, left them unvaccinated.

     Wakefield’s study was both tiny and flawed. Nearly all of his 13 other co-authors eventually bailed out on the article. Still, the press could not resist from spreading the scary news over and over again, even though no one could get the same findings as Wakefield did. And Wakefield himself, supported by a fanatical anti-vaccine lobby that to this day cannot let go of the vaccine-autism connection, continued to spread fear of vaccines right up to the time of his disciplinary hearing.

Well that's more like it.  Some real knock down media coverage of a dangerous, irrational, and infectious meme that is wreaking needless havoc.

Nerdstock - 9 Lessons And Carols For The Godless

This was a fantastic event - and good fun to watch the whole way through. The acts towards the end are the best, but I'd recommend you watch the special in order.  Brian Cox, as well as the second and last musicians rock.

I so wish that they would run something similar in the US.  Could you ever picture NBC running a godless holiday special?  Didn't think so.
(click on the video once playing to see full screen, as well as move on to parts 2-7)

Vaccine Wars - Destroy The Destroyers

    I have to admit being a little surprised that the right things are actually happening in the anti-vaccine movement saga.  Sometimes I become so pessimistic about the irrational state some people are prepared to live in, that I become discouraged regarding the likelihood that reason will prevail over issues such as this particularly deadly strain of misinformation.  When you're dealing not just with irrationality, but rather irrationality that KILLS, you'd better take it seriously and do everything you can to fight against it.  With this story, we'll have more ammunition to fight the good fight… it just keeps getting better and better.

    The founder of the anti-vaccine movement, the effect of which has caused the deaths of many children, has had his original paper voided and "retracted."  Following the ruling last week by the GMC, which found Wakefield guilty of unethical misconduct, the Lancet decided to review his original paper (the article that years ago sparked the vaccine scare).  Upon its review, they found inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and flat-out lies.  The Lancet's editorial remark explains:

Following the judgment of the UK General Medical Council’s Fitness to Practise Panel on Jan 28, 2010, it has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al1 are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation.2 In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were “consecutively referred” and that investigations were “approved” by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false. Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record.

    With this retraction, the original basis for the claim that vaccines cause autism has been thoroughly and completely discredited.  It is up to us to publicize the matter until it makes us sick.  This is no small task, but we shouldn't backpedal when it comes to using every auspicious resource that comes our way.  Our campaign, if it is carried out effectively and relentlessly, WILL SAVE CHILDREN'S LIVES, and there is nothing wrong with feeling a little righteousness over that.

      

    Propagate the story as much as possible.  Link to other blogs.  Share it with your friends and family, and get the word out…  Because the other side has started spinning this - as could have been predicted.

UPDATE:  I have just posted a rebuttal to another sophistic vaccinidiot screed, written by David Kirby, that was today published on the Huffington Post.  (Again, let me remind people that the Huffington Post is a huge blog, and does not publish or pen these positions themselves, so direct your disdain towards the author, not the Post).  This is the type of rational-sounding argument that were up against - the kind that sounds superficially plausible until, of course, you examine it further and it breaks apart like a house of cards.  Consider posting comments there as well to combat the inevitable anti-medical arguments that will fly voluminous.  Here it is my quick remark, reposted:

      Your lot can claim conspiracy all you want.  The evidence is absolutely against you.  The original basis for the vaccine scare has been thoroughly discredited, and all you can do is try and spin the fallout.  Scientific consensus aside, the logic behind the vaccine autism link is the essence of a sophism.

      A real medical researcher is swayed by evidence.  That's why Wakefield's co-authors retracted their papers voluntarily a long time ago when they were shown contradicting evidence.  Wakefield lied about ethics board approval, as the Lancet has just revealed, omitted huge conflict of interest disclosures  and what's more, there is some reason to believe he faked his data initially.

      You propose no evidentiary mechanism for your allegations whatsoever.  Your irresponsible and unscientific scare tactics have had the effect of real damage and death from, but not limited to, decreased herd-immunity.  Preventable diseases are on the rise.

      For lack of shame you defend pseudoscience, and ideas without evidentiary basis.  You lionize a corrupt researcher.  For lack of shame.

Other coverage:

The Wall Street Journal

Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy

The Guardian

Life Is Beautiful

The Kalalau Valley lies hidden along the inaccessible Na Pali Coast of Kauai.  The valley is the largest on the island.  Those magic shapes and mountains rise six thousand feet to cut the sky.  They were carved over millions of years by massive rains, landslides, and the crushing weight of the volcano, relentlessly working away at what was once a comparatively featureless shield volcano. (This picture was taken with an average digital camera, it REALLY does look like that.  The mist seen wafting up the valleys is from a really vicious shore-break.)

I Am Sad For The Sad Fish Who Is Always Sad

(Photo: CATERS)   ----    Read Full Article in the Telegraph (UK)

Atheist Eve - Childish Dissonance

Great point, Atheist Eve!

Life Is Beautiful

A cloud-fall cascading over a 5,000 ft. cliff, covered in emerald jungle, on a moonlit night in Kauai...  We always imagine strange extraterrestrial planets with otherworldly beauty, but look here on Earth and you will find it all before you.
Taken on a recent trek through the jungles and swamps of Kauai.

Homeopathy: 10.23 Protest - The Little Protest That Could!

      I just keep seeing more and more about what the global, even if modest, overdose protest has wrought!  As skeptics, we sometimes have a tendency to be quite pessimistic when it comes to predictions of success in defeating the irrational beliefs that surround us daily.  Well, the 10.23 protest is one awareness-raising activity that has really hit the headlines - and gotten results!
      One of the many articles which I came across, from New Zealand's Scoop Independent News, uses sober, no-nonsense language to describe the outcome of the protest:

Homeopaths Admit Expensive Concoctions Just Water

A public mass overdose of homeopathic remedies has forced the New Zealand Council of Homeopaths to admit openly that their products do not contain any "material substances". Council spokeswoman Mary Glaisyer admitted publicly that "there´s not one molecule of the original substance remaining" in the diluted remedies that form the basis of this multi-million-dollar industry….  The NZ Skeptics, in conjunction with 10:23, Skeptics in the Pub and other groups nationally and around the world, held the mass overdose in Christchurch on Saturday to highlight the fact that homeopathic products are simply very expensive water drops or sugar/lactose pills. A further aim was to question the ethical issues of pharmacies, in particular, stocking and promoting sham products and services.

the article continues in this tone to cover the irrational and unscientific basis for homeopathy.  So what is the message we should take?  That these publicity events work.
      Much of the woo in this world thrives, in spite of reason, on an uninformed public.  Raising awareness, in this case about homeopathy, does seem to have an impact in the media.  And the media is what we should be conquering, first and foremost.  Let's make it laughable to believe nonsensical things and through their ridicule, save lives.  Can we not also consider having protests against the exemptions and discriminatory treatment that churches and religious organizations receive under the law, or else against evangelical incursion into government?  These are only some of many well worthwhile causes that the scientific and skeptic community should be considering, yet I've seen nothing of vocal, publicity generating events.