Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
The following news article has surfaced … The Taliban on Sunday announced plans to disrupt Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for September 18. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told reporters that the balloting is just for the benefit of the foreigners who he says are occupying the country. And he urged the Afghan people to boycott … Read more
Here is this weeks collection of science news stories that triggered my “Hey, that’s cool” detector. As always, if I’ve missed anything that is truly cool, then drop a comment and I’ll do an update that includes a hat tip you. The most obvious big news story this week was Stephen Hawkins declaring that we … Read more
Click to see a larger image on the Guardian web site … From Today’s Guardian …click here … This image, provided by NASA, shows volcanic cones on Mars that are similar in size and shape to cones found in Iceland where hot lava has run over wet ground. The heat from the lava boils the … Read more
Once again we have yet another example of how barbaric the Islamic regime in Iran is. There are reports that they have sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani – the 43-year-old Iranian woman who faces execution after being convicted of adultery – to 99 lashes in prison for “spreading corruption and indecency”. So what exactly does that … Read more
Lets first of all start with a few words from George Dvorsky’s blog – Sentient Developments, where he wrote this great description of Diane’s TED talk (above) … In this TED talk from 2009, cognitive deprogrammer Diane Benscoter talks about her efforts to help people leave cults. At the age of 17, Benscoter joined The … Read more
This one blows my mind … you can click on the picture for a high resolution image … This beautiful emission nebula is visible as an extremely faint and large shell around its star. It might give the impression that its a fragile and delicate soap bubble decorating the havens, but in reality it has … Read more