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Skeptic Summary #162
By The Staff
Posted on: 10/20/2007
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Criminal actions, torture, relativity's Waterloo, following a trend, old Behe, go see Bob and more!
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Week ending October 20, 2007 (Vol 4, #39)
Welcome to the Skeptic Summary, a quick week-in-review guide to the Skeptic Friends Network and the rest of the skeptical world.
Forum Highlights:Crime or military action? - No one learns from past mistakes, even if they only occurred 30 some years ago.
Mukasey won’t say if “waterboarding” is torture - Perhaps we can torture it out of him.
New movie: Relativity “only a theory” - This is the sequel to “Gravity only a suggestion.”
Editor’s Choice: LOLSkeptix - IM IN UR FORUMS EDITING UR POSTS
From the Archives: Behe babble - ID discussion from your friends at SFN. Kil’s Evil Pick:Want to meet “Bob” Dobbs, that LIVING GOD WHO WALKS THIS PLANET EARTH IN HUCKSTER’S SHOES?
This is the place where you will have “More Fun Than You Really Wanted.”
It’s time for you to submit to slack at The Church of the SubGenius.
Do click on to everything in sight. Follow the links. Watch the videos.
Slack off… SkeptiQuote:In science it often happens that scientists
say, “You know that’s a really good argument;
my position is mistaken,” and then they would
actually change their minds and you never
hear that old view from them again. They
really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as
it should, because scientists are human and
change is sometimes painful. But it happens
every day. I cannot recall the last time
something like that happened in politics or
religion. — Carl Sagan |
Chat Highlights:Sunday: There was no Sunday chat.
Wednesday: Ricky was not there, but wherever he was, I’ll bet his ears were burning. Same goes for Dave. Anyhow, I am having trouble with TIME WARNER CABLE, so I used an old dial-up connection for chat. There was some discussion about TIME WARNER CABLE and how bad it really is. Apparently I am not alone in my disdain for TIME WARNER CABLE. I’m sure a lot of very funny and sometimes important subjects were talked about in chat, but I hate TIME WARNER CABLE. And even if the problem is sorted out by next week I will still hate TIME WARNER CABLE. A good time was had by all and yet TIME WARNER CABLE sucks!!!
Come chat with us. New Members This Week:Newf
mn2000
Locke
RichStrong
Big Daddy Bob
Nick
Jansinnet
Humanoid
poojapatra
(Not a member? Become one today!)
Elsewhere in the World:One Universe, Under God
Skepticality #063 — Where Do We Go From Here? Op-Ed and Interview: Daniel Loxton
The Skeptic’s Dictionary Newsletter 84
Threats — the homeopathic panacea
What’s New by Bob Park
Got some skeptic news items? Send them to us, and we’ll think about adding them. Book of the Week:The Haunted Observatory: Curiosities from the Astronomer’s Cabinet, by Richard Baum.
“For many centuries observers of the night sky interpreted the moving planets and the surrounding starry realms in terms of concentric crystalline spheres, in the center of which hung the Earth — the hub of creation. But with the discoveries of Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton, astronomers were suddenly struck by a momentous truth: the solar system was neither small nor intimate, but extended an unfathomable distance toward countless even more distant stars. The endless possibilities of these astounding developments fired scientists’ imaginations, leading both to further discoveries and to flights of fancy.
While newly discovered facts are important and interesting, the quaint curiosities and spectral “ghosts” that led scientists astray have a fascination of their own. This is the subject of astronomer Richard Baum in this elegant narrative about the mysteries and wonders of celestial exploration. The fabled “mountains of Venus,” a “city in the moon,” ghostly rings around Uranus and Neptune, bright inexplicable objects seen near the sun, and the truth behind Coleridge’s “Star dogged Moon” in his famous poem about the Ancient Mariner — these are just some of the intriguing twists and turns that astronomers took while investigating our starry neighbors. Baum vividly conveys the romance of astronomy at a time when the vistas of outer space were a new frontier and astronomers, guided only by imagination and analogy, set forth on uncharted seas and were haunted for a lifetime by marvels both seen and imagined.”
— Book Description
This Week’s Most-Viewed Pages:Forum Topics:- Rejoice Republicans, the Savior approacheth (4,257 views)
- We’d invite Hitler to speak, says Columbia dean (1,205 views)
- Money can buy (almost) anything! (737 views)
- Jenna Bush answers your questions (413 views)
- Crime or military action? (298 views)
- Really creepy illusions (284 views)
- 9/11 was an inside job! (281 views)
- Is Pear Cable right for the Randi Challenge? (277 views)
- Bible and slavery (240 views)
- Klutzo the Christian Clown busted (239 views)
Articles:- Fundamentalists Hate Noah’s Ark (2,051 views)
- Evolving a Venom or Two (449 views)
- The Bible’s Bad Fruits (193 views)
- Questioning the Validity of False Memory Syndrome (129 views)
- Miracle Thaw — The Bogus Miracle (81 views)
- Cold Reading (49 views)
- Kent Hovind is a Big Phony! (47 views)
- Preaching that Anti-Evolution Propaganda (39 views)
- Skeptic Summary #161 (37 views)
- Scientific Truth (30 views)
There were 10,289 daily visitors this week.
More issues of the Skeptic Summary can be found in our archive.
The Skeptic Summary is produced by the staff of the Skeptic Friends Network, copyright 2007, all rights reserved.
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