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Jarrett made a video of his car project to put an LS1 engine from a Corvette into his Mazda RX-7. Impressive!

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We live on an amazing and diverse planet with creatures that cannot just be written off as ignorant. These apes show us that our animal relatives can learn and think and have emotions and feelings. We are not that far removed from our animal cousins. I suspect there are many things we can learn about [...]

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I need to post a link to this great 14 minute talk by Dr. Michael Shermer. He is a wonderful speaker, and a champion of rational thought and skeptical thinking. Just listen and enjoy! This is a “No Bunk” zone.

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[This is how I spent the past two hours....] I was reading a thread on Evolutionblog, about something Al Franken wrote. The moderator was generalizing about “Republicans”, when his criticism should have been directed specifically at the present administration. It got me to thinking about scientists who conveniently forget about being rational and fair, in situations where it is easier to join in as a cheerleader and nay-say the other team. I worry that stereotyping and pitting one team, or political party, against another is a convenient and lazy way of dealing with an issue, when a scientific-minded person should approach each issue with facts and a critical eye.

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In a major New Yorker article, Brent Scowcroft gets down to specifics on his criticism of the War in Iraq. Scowcroft is by no means a dove, or soft on terrorism. Brent Scowcroft was the United States National Security Advisor under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. He also served as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in the Nixon and Ford administrations. He has a distinguished resume, and deserves to speak his mind. [The following includes excerpts from, The Washington Note editorial by Steven Clemons.]

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I watched a movie with a friend last night, The Power of Nightmares. I must admit, this three-hour documentary was very though provoking and the filmmaker seems to have done his homework.

Adam Curtis put together a three-part documentary that showed how Neoconservatives (neocons) and Islamic Fundamentalists may have had frighteningly similar philosophies. The neo-cons were portrayed as a small cabal who followed the teachings of Leo Strauss, who believed that there needed to be some big common myth to unite Americans and turn them away from self-centered values and moral relativism. The uniting force could be real, but in the absence of a real threat, one could be exaggerated or created. The Islamic Fundamentalists were also led by a few zealots who were convinced that a person could not be a good Muslim and also embrace Western culture. Western culture, as embodied by America, was a threat to their beliefs and after a series of events these individuals created their own culture of fear. The distinguishing difference between the neo-cons and the islamic fundamentalists was the means to their ends. While the neocons are portrayed as creating myths of the Soviet Empire or an organized terrorist network after 9/11, the Islamic Fundamentalists actually encourage violence against America and her allies as the path to reach their goals.

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RP points out that the amount of Arctic ice is shrinking [ Read here. ] What could the impact be, from such an event? This change will occur over the next hundred years and could lead to temperatures raised by 4-7 degrees. Less ice, means less light reflected into space, and more absorbed by the [...]

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The American Astronomical Society, of which I am a member, just sent out a public statement supporting the teaching of evolution (a scientific theory) in schools, and opposing the teaching of non-scientific theories such as “intelligent design”. Intelligent Design is basically re-packaged Creationism – using flawed arguments, incorrect assumptions and ultimately a faith-based argument for why the Universe is too complicated “not” to have been created by a great being. Convoluted arguments like that diminish the real beauty we discover in the Universe, and the diversity and wonder that can be supported by science and observation. Click on the link below to read more.

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Don’t expect movie plots to a) represent reality, or b) develop logically. Movies are meant to entertain us, not teach us, and Hollywood does their best to follow that edict. It is too bad that directors and producers on big budget movies feel the need to cut corners. They should realize that they can produce [...]

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