Gonzo Science

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2010-05-19T15:46:00.001-05:00

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Science: Organic Food Better For You

2006-03-04T22:13:00.000-06:00

The billionth study to show this.

Killer Rabbit

2006-02-22T11:00:00.000-06:00

Echoes of Jimmy Carter's tale of the swimming attack rabbit. Curious.

Cheneygate: The Official Timeline

2006-02-20T20:14:00.000-06:00

New! Carbon Monoxide Meat

2006-02-20T15:17:00.000-06:00

Get it while it's (looking) fresh.
Dig the cattleman at the end of this article scratching his head and wondering if the public wants more transparency in this kind of decision. Asshole.

More about Cheney by the AP

2006-02-19T20:49:00.000-06:00

Frustration among scientists at Bush administration: US science dominance on wane

2006-02-19T20:34:00.000-06:00

how to think

2006-02-18T15:06:00.000-06:00

Study shows effectiveness of unconscious mind in problem solving. Many "conscious" decisions are made by only considering a subset of information which is considered incorrectly.

The Cheney Shooting Conspiracy

2006-02-15T14:45:00.000-06:00

What the hell happened? Was Cheney drunk and philandering? Was it attempted murder? Why the coverup?

Two Air Marshalls Caught Smuggling Cocaine

2006-02-14T15:16:00.000-06:00

One of them ex-DEA. Hell of a drug war you people are running here.

Dead woman appears to man in dream, solves own murder

2006-02-13T16:22:00.000-06:00

Or was it just intuition. Either way, hell of a diceroll.

Things good for body, good for brain too?

2006-02-02T19:17:00.000-06:00

The wonder of science.

Diana Conspiracy Theories Gain Ground

2006-01-30T22:43:00.000-06:00

When the science that makes up the foundation of the official version of events is called into question, conspiracy theorists take note. Driver of Diana's car NOT drunk?

Speaking of 9/11

2006-01-30T21:23:00.000-06:00

Modern steel building collapses mysteriously in unprecedented accident. Natural causes are assumed. No one would suggest that the fact it's unprecedented requires us to be suspicious. A once in a lifetime accident is one thing. Preset charges are another. And in the case of the Trade Towers, there seems to be those little puffs of smoke that shoot out like charges being blown just as the towers go down. Combined with fire-fighters' testimony of otherwise mysterious secondary explosions, it seems like a lock for a case of conspiracy.

Maybe 9/11 was a clusterfuck. Maybe al-Quaida hijacked the planes and crashed them, but the Mossad knew about it and planted and blew the charges, and Bush either knew all, part, or none of the plan but in any case got that memo and probably thought, "Bring it on," in this, this best-case scenario for Bush of incompetence and deriliction, Bush who had just slashed the anti-terrorism budget.

Even assuming the Bush administration didn't do it themselves, and even disregarding their wrongheaded and botched response to it, one can still argue that the terrorists could have been caught beforehand using the robust anti-terrorism budgets of the previous radioactive administration. And probably using normal law-enforcement techniques and respectin' civil liberties. So, as far as Bush goes, it's malfeasance or incompetence, take your pick. 9/11 might not have happened without him either way.

Want to stress the moral equivalence of setting the charges himself and letting it happen to get his Pearl Harbor moment. They are the same.

Jim Fetzer 9/11 Conspiracy in the News

2006-01-29T18:59:00.000-06:00

Japan's Apollo Mission

2006-01-17T17:13:00.000-06:00

A ship with a drill 30 stories high is aiming to make it to the mantle of the earth for the first time. They are going to drill in between tectonic plates to penetrate the crust.

(Cue the giant monster.)

Ant Culture

2006-01-11T22:21:00.000-06:00

Ants assume teacher-pupil relationships.

We are just going to have to permanently assume that all forms of life pretty much all do the same stuff. Animals and people = the same.

Great Link re: Breaking Developments in Bush's "Snoopgate"

2005-12-26T21:39:00.000-06:00

FISA court meeting early January to discuss/get briefed. Will they be satisfied with the administration's explanation? One of them has already resigned over it, in what's turning into a full-blown Constitutional Crisis. This is going to make a great movie someday.

Some Implications of the Intelligent Design Trial

2005-12-23T23:05:00.000-06:00

Link to Great Analysis of Split in the GOP

2005-12-23T22:54:00.001-06:00

It's the noninterventionist conservatives vs. the neocons. But is this split as deep as the split in the democratic party, the interventionist democrats vs. the anti-war left?

Shorter National Geographic Article: Bigfoot USED to exist

2005-12-19T22:24:00.000-06:00

...but there's NO WAY Bigfoot still exists...right?

Narwhal Tusks Are Giant Sensors

2005-12-15T17:23:00.000-06:00

Whoa.

Bees Recognize Human Faces

2005-12-13T15:27:00.000-06:00

...with 1/1000th of the brain size of a person, how do they do it?!?

Animal cognition continues to amaze us, and to embarrass scientists who said such things were impossible. Nyah nyah, you unimaginative bastards!

New Solar System Object Has F***ed Up Orbit

2005-12-13T14:54:00.000-06:00

Too circular, considering it orbits well out of the plane of the ecliptic. Scientists consider that it must have had a close encounter with another large body to throw it out of the plane of the ecliptic, but then by rights its orbit would be less circular, ie more elliptical. A circular orbit is thought to be a calm, quiet one, but here we have this new object which has a calm, quiet orbit, even after it has been violently ejected from the solar system. What gives?

The answer, as all Velikovskians know, is that there MUST be a way to circularize a crazy orbit, probably involving forces other than gravity - OR, involving properties of gravity we don't yet understand.

I predict a LOT more of these objects will be found, and someday science will have to properly grapple with these weighty questions...

NASA still wedded to Plutonium powered space missions

2005-12-07T11:14:00.000-06:00

...even as the Europeans have gone solar. Could there be industrial/military influence? Naah.

Sturgeon in the gloom

2005-11-25T22:19:00.000-06:00

...and these are only six-footers, not 20-footers....

great pictures of lampreys

2005-11-24T21:17:00.000-06:00

seiches: underwater waves

2005-11-24T00:31:00.000-06:00

Seismic lake monster explanation.

skeptical response to seismic theory

2005-11-24T00:12:00.000-06:00

They say no correlation down to a certain level. But beneath that level could still have the physical effects.

Seismic explanation of Loch Ness sightings

2005-11-23T23:56:00.000-06:00

Map of faulting and copper-bearing lodes in Upper Michigan

2005-11-23T23:26:00.000-06:00

Paranormally relevant to all the wierd shit that goes on over there.

Lake Superior Cryptozoology

2005-11-23T23:17:00.000-06:00

Good picture in here of Loch Ness as a narrow channel

2005-11-23T22:47:00.000-06:00

Great Loch Ness Stuff; Geology etc.

2005-11-23T22:36:00.000-06:00

skeptical ness stuff: explanations

2005-11-23T22:10:00.000-06:00

Loch Ness Cross Section; Rock Outcroppings Discovered

2005-11-23T21:50:00.000-06:00

A bit about the folklore of lake monsters

2005-11-23T21:38:00.000-06:00

The Lake Erie Monster

2005-11-23T21:31:00.000-06:00

...with location names of sighting areas.

Good Champ Article

2005-11-23T21:22:00.000-06:00

...including info about Lake Champlain.

Good article about Ogopogo in Lake Okanagan

2005-11-23T21:10:00.000-06:00

Homepage of the Lake Erie Monsterhttp://www.monstertracker.com/index.cfm

2005-11-22T19:51:00.000-06:00

Maps of Monster-Infested Lakes of North America

2005-11-22T19:43:00.000-06:00

Lake Monsters of the Great Lakes?

2005-11-22T19:37:00.000-06:00

Not many, but a few fragmentary reports...

Required Reading for Monster Hunters

2005-11-22T19:30:00.000-06:00

Possible explanation for reports of lake monsters in Loch Ness and Lake Champlain: underwater waves that afflict such long, narrow, deep lakes.

Glow in the dark meat

2005-11-16T16:45:00.000-06:00

Nothing to be alarmed about say the authorities.

Blamed on luminous bacteria.

But what's going to happen whent that jellyfish gene gets loose, the one they use in genetic engineering to make things glow?

Lichens survive space conditions

2005-11-12T21:15:00.000-06:00

Lends support to theory of panspermia.

Exhaustive article about how torture doesn't work, how the FBI lost control of interrogations to the dipshit CIA, and how it all happened.

2005-11-06T19:25:00.000-06:00

More good news about cannabis

2005-10-26T19:16:00.000-05:00

Stops lung cancer DEAD!

More good news about pot: grows new brain cells

2005-10-14T10:30:00.000-05:00

4:20 dude!

GM contaminates soil with modified genes for 15 years

2005-10-09T18:07:00.000-05:00

No shit. Too bad the shit is planted everywhere. Proof that co-existence is impossible. It's them or us.

Mammoths wiped out by supernova?

2005-10-04T11:27:00.000-05:00

Catastrophism is alive and well.

Nuclear: Most Horribly Mismanaged Technology of All Time

2005-10-02T18:05:00.000-05:00

Supposedly well-run nuke waste plant in England is actually a catalog of nuclear horrors. No surprises here! Why anyone would expect any different from the nuke industry is beyond me. It is a failed concept and needs to be scrapped. Anyone who thinks we need nuclear is ignorant/on the payroll.

Astronomers Stunned to Find "Beginning of Universe" Populated With Old and/or Huge Objects That Are Impossible Under Big Bang Assumptions

2005-09-29T22:25:00.000-05:00

Hmm.

"Global Dimming" Conspiracy Theory

2005-09-28T18:04:00.000-05:00

Another Confession of JFK Assassination-Related Activity

2005-09-18T19:24:00.000-05:00

If true.

RIP Hermann Bondi

2005-09-18T13:55:00.000-05:00

Co-creator of the Steady State theory of the universe, which people will come back to as the Big Bang theory continues to fail.

Origin of Life: Easy One

2005-09-16T10:35:00.000-05:00

Turns out molecules start replicating faster and better than anyone thought (anyone but us, that is...).

Perfect Example of an "Arp Object"

2005-09-14T16:55:00.000-05:00

Which is to say, some astronomers have discovered a quasar, and nearby it are a disturbed galaxy and a cloud os smoke between the quasar and the galaxy. Arp always described these scenarios as ejections of the quasar by the galaxy. Now these astronomers are faced with a choice: do they recognize the elephant in the room? Sadly, no. They are simply worried about the (yawn) dark matter implications of it all.

Megadose of Vitamin C Good Against Cancer?

2005-09-13T19:30:00.000-05:00

You don't say.

Paleontologists keep finding bigger flying dinosaurs

2005-09-13T18:46:00.000-05:00

Problem: they are too big to fly. Solution: Earth used to be smaller, with less gravity.

Trap-Busting Chimpanzee Culture Discovered

2005-09-13T18:00:00.000-05:00

Animal cognition continues to be underestimated. Soon these chimps will be submitting a list of grievances.

Electric Stars

2005-09-10T10:46:00.000-05:00

The Velikovskians in the plasma physics community are at it again.

The Evidence Keeps Rolling In That Comets are Chunks of the Exploded Asteroid Planet

2005-09-08T17:48:00.000-05:00

Signs of liquid water found in comet data. Scientists asking, "Gee, how did liquid water form in a comet?"

Answer: the comet used to be part of a planet.

Greenpeace alleges IAEA is whitewashing Chernobyl

2005-09-06T15:24:00.000-05:00

What are the odds.

Human Remains Fed to Cattle Cause of Mad Cow Disease?

2005-09-05T15:05:00.000-05:00

Whoa!

Psi Researchers: Methodical, Careful

2005-09-01T16:47:00.000-05:00

These folks are not loosey-goosey, they want to get it right. Rupert Sheldrake brought this up a few years back: many psi/psychic experiments are better designed than the experiments of accepted science. And still they don't get no respect.

Chupacabra Captured?

2005-08-26T15:55:00.000-05:00

It looks pretty pathetic really - not like the humanoid alien or terrifying wolf-like creature that has been supposed. More like a hairless chihuahua. (View slideshow.)

Tasers: The Lethal Non-Lethal Weapon

2005-08-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

Chimps Have Language

2005-08-26T15:38:00.000-05:00

Animals - seemingly more intelligent every time someone does a study. Time to stop underestimating our fellow inmates on this godforsaken rock.

Amazing GMO News Resource

2005-08-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

This month's "Non-GMO Report."

Iran Could Drive Us Out of the Gulf

2005-08-21T23:51:00.000-05:00

This fascinating article just came to our attention. Turns out the technology called the "aircraft carrier" has become obsolete (aka floating death trap). This due to certain Russian-made supersonic cruise missiles, of which Iran has hundreds. The Argentines sank two British Warships years ago with similar missiles, and they only had five of the missiles to work with.

Fascinating Article About Latest DNA Research

2005-08-18T15:35:00.000-05:00

DNA's amino acid vocabulary is limited by DNA's stability. They exist in balance, and probably evolved in a hot environment, which as Tommy Gold tells us, was probably several miles underground, and other planets lkely harbor such subsurface biospheres too.

Invaluable Link to E. Howard Hunt Information

2005-08-16T17:11:00.000-05:00

In the process of doing research for our upcoming Reader column (more about the Plame leak case), we came across this biographical webpage of E. Howard Hunt, one of the most militant, viciously anti-communist cold warriors the US ever touched with a ten-foot-pole. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Nixon bad-guy, JFK assassination suspect, and democracy-subverting wingnut, E. Howard Hunt.

John Dean on Plame Leak Case

2005-08-13T10:31:00.000-05:00

"It'll be a cinch," is the upshot.

A curious line in here though, when Dean states, "Even Nixon never set up a hit on one of his opponents' wives."

It's entirely likely, in our view, that Nixon had something to do with the airplane crash that killed E. Howard Hunt's wife. Surely John Dean is aware of the possibility, if he doesn't actually know all about it. Is he being coy by writing this? Is he telegraphing that he actually knows something he won't reveal?

Great article: "How to Prosecute the Plame Case"

2005-08-13T10:01:00.000-05:00

Argues that, contrary to popular opinion, finding Rove guilty of actual treason is going to be a piece of cake.

Autism unknown among the Amish, who don't vaccinate ... hmmm

2005-08-12T19:03:00.000-05:00

"Triple asteroid system"

2005-08-12T18:54:00.000-05:00

i.e., an asteroid with two moons.

Link to our Reader article predicting Rove et al. have made themselves targets for assassination by CIA

2005-08-12T18:38:00.000-05:00

Amazing Link for Plame Leak Freaks

2005-08-12T15:42:00.000-05:00

Check it: everyone involved and how they were involved, and it is a lot of them. Every fact referenced with links to the news sources.

String Theory

2005-08-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

Ha ha - not really about string theory, but about scientists beginning to translate - finally - the mysterious knotted string writing of the Incas.

Chinese Mad Scientist Spreading GMO Rice around China with NO Safety Tests or Environmental Impact Study

2005-08-07T16:09:00.000-05:00

This well-connected scientist also stands to profit from doing so. The Chinese authorities have not been able to stop him thus far. Let's hope this is not the Chernobyl of genetic pollution happening right before our eyes. Rice is China's staple crop after all; if anything goes wrong, they're fucked. The guy thinks he's Johnny Appleseed but what if he's Typhoid Mary instead?

Saturn X-Ray Anomaly: Score Another for Van Flandern

2005-08-07T15:37:00.000-05:00

The juicy part of this article comes at the very end where we find out Saturn's rings reflect almost no x-rays from the sun, which means the rings must be made up of particles no smaller than grains of sand, or the solar x-rays would be broken up and scattered more. Hate to say it y'all but this plays right into the hands of rogue astronomer Tom Van Flandern, who asserts the rings are young, temporary structures. Assuming the rings are from a breakup event, as Van Flandern does, we would not expect small pieces. The establishment however assumes that gradualist, non-catastrophic forces are at work, and that Saturn's rings are an ancient, more permanent feature. But then we would expect smaller pieces in our rings, because they would have had more time to collide and smash each other to bits.

Good analysis of the dangers of Intelligent Design

2005-08-07T14:57:00.000-05:00

This column argues that it's bad economics to water down science when American kids are already lagging behind in science. It reminds one of the big Japanese car factory that was being lured into Alabama or somewhere with all these lavish tax incentives and stuff, but the car company decided to go to Canada instead because their workers are literate and take less money to train. Someday we may figure this out if it keeps happening: education is important. Science is important. Doing these things RIGHT will translate into $. Keep Inteeligent Design in Sunday School, in philosophy, in social studies where it belongs. But it is not science. We ourselves are no fans of the current powers-that-be in biology. But the default option is not Intelligent Design. The default option is better science.

Intelligent Design is vulnerable on the basis that it opens the door to the question of whether or not God is an alien. Since there is nothing in ID that rules this out, a line of attack could be developed whereby one links Intelligent Design to Von Daniken. Aren't they trying to say the same thing? And doesn't it weaken the ID people to take the sheen off their god like that, to reduce Him to an advanced alien species?

Of course, complicating matters, there is SOME reason to SPECULATE about the need for a scientific theory of "what if life as we know it was physically engineered by aliens." But then the question becomes, "Who engineered the engineers?" And there one must say, it was either a.)God, b.)the aliens are the ones who evolved, and then went on to engineer life elsewhere, or c.) time is infinite and life is eternal and HAD no beginning.

"b" and "c" are the ones that can possibly be explored scientifically.

The question, "Was God created by Super-God?" cannot be scientifically resolved.

Because if you are going to insist upon being able to say that God has always existed, and is therefore the explanation for life, then you must grant me the right to say that life has always existed, and therefore needs no god.

The question of life is not resolved yet. Even if the answer IS "a.) God," it certainly hasn't been shown scientifically in the slightest, and displays strong evidence against. So there we might fault God for mismanaging His resources.

Next up in math class: "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

Scientists for Hire Divulging Data to Highest Bidder

2005-08-07T14:38:00.000-05:00

Wall Street mini-scandal.

Another CIA Officer, Like Plame, Lost Job After Clash With Bush Admin. Over WMD

2005-08-06T22:08:00.000-05:00

This sure firms up the circumstantial case.

Allowable Levels of Plutonium in Water Were Set in 1976 Based on 1950s Science

2005-08-04T15:30:00.000-05:00

File under "Thanks For Nothing, EPA; Your Dalliances With Industry Have Sold Us Down the River."

Photo of Titan's Surface Looking very Earth-Like

2005-08-03T22:21:00.000-05:00

The article I found this at admitted that life is a tiny possibility for methane generation, observing that Titan is "very cold." But as per Dr. Tommy Gold and his notion of the deep hot biosphere, we would suggest that Titan's likely mass of seething microbial life finds it much more hospitable deep underground. They thrive on the heat, chemical reactions, and are protected from impacts to boot. Meanwhile their farts are detectable to our instruments.

Regarding Methane on Titan

2005-08-03T22:02:00.000-05:00

When you think of methane, what's the first thing you think of? Answer: cows. Not so for rocket scientists, who look for geophysical explanations and such. But masses of critters are part of, and shape, geophysical landscapes. Biological explanations are uselessly left off of the table. The linked article goes on and on about all the methane on Titan but never once mentions that, if we had gotten the same methane data on Earth, we would recognize it as a sign of life. Get holistic, y'all!

Organic Farming Better for Environment

2005-08-03T11:01:00.000-05:00

Shocking.

Attention Afficionados of Reality: Bin Laden/Hussien Both Proteges of Reagan

2005-08-02T21:44:00.000-05:00

Read, weep.

More clues that Mars harbors life

2005-08-02T11:29:00.000-05:00

Upshot: More methane than there should be. Note that there is also a buttload of methane on Titan and Jupiter and I think Saturn too, all candidates for life. None of this comes as a surprise; all predicted years ago...

Aspartame in Diet Pepsi Linked to Pepsi Spokesman Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's Disease

2005-07-31T15:04:00.000-05:00

Not a surprise.

Link to our Reader story about comet-smashing and the Big Bang

2005-07-30T15:59:00.000-05:00

Link to our Reader Story About the Possibility That the Sun Has a Solid Surface

2005-07-30T15:51:00.000-05:00

Pretty picture in this one.

Bay of Pigs to be considered as US act of terrorism?

2005-07-30T13:46:00.000-05:00

Temperature in hell today: a bit cooler.

Activities of Psychedelic Psychologist Stanislov Grof in Russia

2005-07-30T13:35:00.000-05:00

Trying to develop protocols for psychedelics usage in medicine. Good luck Groffy!

Tenth Planet Discovered

2005-07-30T08:19:00.000-05:00

Bigger than Pluto, way far out in the Kuiper belt (which Tom Van Flandern points out is probably the remains of one or more exploded planets, like the asteroid belt). Dips way beneath the ecliptic at a crazy angle. Is it a planet, a Kuiper belt object, or a giant comet?

Velikovskians would say this the kind of object that occasionally wanders into the middle of the solar system, has its orbit circularized somehow, and becomes a new planet, but not before wreaking havoc throughout the solar system ... the Velikovskians say Venus is such a former giant comet, which supposedly settled into its present orbit just a few thousand years ago.

Could something like that actually happen? Well, leaving aside the issue of circularizing an elliptical orbit, looking at this new planet's crazy, comet-like orbit gives me the eerie feeling of being haunted by Velikovsky's ghost. Wild speculation dept.: could a Van Flandern style planetary explosion have caused a Velikovskian style catastrophe? Although we don't like to mention them in the same breath (mainly to avoid conflating the two), there is some overlap. They focus on many of the same anomalies.

Non-Native Species Get Ass Kicked by New Zealand

2005-07-28T15:00:00.000-05:00

File under "good news about the environment (if it's not too late already)." An exciting article about adventurous and glamourously-set pest-eradication efforts. These folks are clearing introduced rodents (rats and mice) from remote New Zealandy islands, using hi-tech methods like GPS to coat these islands just so with rat and mice poison. They go island to island - which all have non-native mice and rats, which were accidentally introduced in the Captain Cook days, one presumes. Each island is GPSed into a grid, and an airplane drops poison bait. Then teams go in and get all the nooks and crannies, to make sure every possible alien rodent on the island has access to the goods. I suppose it is concievable the mass use of rodent poison will eventually be shown to have an environmental effect, but them's the breaks in this case, it seems. These people are cleaning up someone else's mess; one can't fault them too much for using what's available, especially since they are being so effective. The introduced vermin feed on baby birds, and in the wake of vermin eradication, the native bird species are rebounding. Go New Zealand!

Senator Clinton Steps In It

2005-07-27T20:00:00.000-05:00

Off-topic, but innarestin and juicy.

Rove's Affair

2005-07-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

Reported by a blogger no less. What the fuck have the "journalists" of the country been doing this whole time, to get scooped by a BLOGGER? But that's not real journalmalism!!