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Skeptic Summary #140

Bush-league lawyers, earthiness, more of the same, not-so-good news, the solution, Nessie and more!

150 Bush lawyers from Pat Robertson’s law school - Just barely passing the bar for Jesus.

Earthlike planet - Fun with numbers!

We’ve been waiting for this - Or have we seen it already?

Editor’s Choice: Too good to be true? You bet - A stunning rebuke of science, or a hoax?

Be part of the solution!

Loch Ness Live Cam - Here is one that Michelle found. She especially liked the “Sounds of Nessie, the Loch Ness Moster - click here to listen!” link. Go figure…

Sunday: How to introduce skepticism to K-6; Derek (of Skepticality) on gardening duty; rotten medical insuerance policies; featured link: truthpizza.org; “the five fists of science”; gardening in spite of dammage by dogs; the music equivalent of IMDB. Also: Leonard Cohen (and other artists visiting Buddhist monks) — how much spirituality is real and how much is promotion? Spring weather; teaching kids new stuff — sometimes harsh is necessary; chamomille tea in Boulder; the Simpsons.

Wednesday: Computer problems plauged the start of the night: problems with McAfee, video cards, and clicking on that little X which seems to close chat altogether. Once everything was finally working, chat switched over to Scientology. The group (club, religion, cult, baby-eaters, whatever) had come to the Virginia Tech campus just after the shooting in an attempt to spread their (out of this) world views and beliefs. After they were kicked off campus, they moved to Blacksburg’s main street, and began their harrasment all over again. Boron10 returns from tour, and the topic immediately switched over to wastful government spending. Talk of global warming inspired this week’s poll of trying to solve the CO₂ problem. Let’s just hope we didn’t waste too much energy on it, because, well, have you seen our ideas? Kilik makes yet another short visit to the SFN, under a different name, and promptly gets banned once again. If he would mix up his posting style a bit, it might actually be difficult to spot him. The night wrapped up with Iraq, Virginia Tech’s grading policy for this semester, and summer plans.

Come chat with us.

Archereon
Adeesh

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Ale’s Well with the World: A yeasty discussion of the science of malt and hops

Bad Science

The Big Bang Machine

Pompous git solves the problem of induction… with Jesus!

U.S. Officer at Iraq Detainee Center Faces Charges

What’s New by Bob Park

Where has all the antimatter gone? VELO seeks the answer

Got some skeptic news items? Send them to us, and we’ll think about adding them.

Games, Gods & Gambling: a History of Probability and Statistical Ideas, by F. N. David.



“The development of gambling techniques led to the beginning of modern statistics, and this absorbing history illustrates the science’s rise with vignettes from the lives of Galileo, Fermat, Pascal, and others. Fascinating allusions to the classics, archaeology, biography, poetry, and fiction endow this volume with universal appeal.”

— Book Description

Forum Topics:

1. Political hacks water down global warming report (450 views)
2. Religion versus vaccines — sound familiar? (353 views)
3. Baghdad Tech massacre (328 views)
4. Olympic myth? (276 views)
5. Owl on the dollar bill… (269 views)
6. Trivial questions (241 views)
7. VA Tech: evil, fear, good ol’ days, & other myths (228 views)
8. Earthlike planet (227 views)
9. Too good to be true? You bet (205 views)
10. Be part of the solution! (175 views)

Articles:

1. Evolving a Venom or Two (354 views)
2. Miracle Thaw — The Bogus Miracle (91 views)
3. Cold Reading (59 views)
4. Evidence Cited as Hard Proof of the Existence of Satanic Cults (50 views)
5. Kent Hovind is a Big Phony! (50 views)
6. The Bible Answer Man (47 views)
7. Skeptic Summary #139 (45 views)
8. Miracle Thaw Tray (43 views)
9. The Bible’s Bad Fruits (41 views)
10. Skeptic Summary #92 (41 views)

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