Neural Gourmet » Leo

Carnival of the Liberals #71: Talking Points Edition

Leo — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:13:09 +0000

The latest edition of Carnival of the Liberals was just posted a few minutes ago by Ames at Submitted To A Candid World. Ames found it impossible to choose just ten and decided to make #71 an extended edition. Hey, we’re all for creative breaking of the rules! Next up on August 27th is Washington Interns Gone Bad so keep those submissions coming.

Also, a little public service announcement for a long time friend of CotL. Montag from Stump Lane wrote to inform us that there’s a new addition to the blogosphere — Mustard Mellon featuring the artwork of none other than Montag’s own little offspringlings. If you’re into neo-primitive duct tape sculpture and stop motion Lego dioramas (and who isn’t?) then Mustard Mellon is the blog for you!

Want to break into the White House?

Leo — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:26:51 +0000

Apparently all you need are a photocopier, spare credit card and a paperclip. Security researchers at the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas demonstrated Friday Friday how to easily duplicate the keys to Medeco “high security” locks. Medeco’s locks protect the White House, Pentagon, embasies and other sensitive locations. Marc Weber Tobias, one of the researchers, said, “Virtually all conventional pin-tumbler locks are vulnerable to this method of attack, and frankly nobody has really considered it or looked at it before.“

Amtrak can’t handle increasing ridership

Leo — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:52:12 +0000

It’s what could be considered a best of times, worst of times scenario for Amtrak. Rising fuel costs mean that Amtrak ridership is steadily increasing. Yet Amtrak can’t keep up after decades of slashed budgets and neglect. Actually, it sounds downright dismal if Amtrak doesn’t get needed funding. According to Amtrak CEO Alex Kummaut, it’ll take upwards of a decade and $3 billion to replace Amtrak’s current rolling stock, including the 20 Acela trains. Yet later on in the article he dismisses out of hand the idea of creating high speed rail. Depressing.

About perchlorate on Mars

Leo — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:15:35 +0000

A teleconference was held today at JPL to discuss the recent intermediate findings by the Phoenix Mars Lander’s science team of perchlorate on Mars. JPL has posted the MP3 audio of the telecon, and you can find the referenced images here. You can also subscribe to JPL’s podcast feed to keep up-to-date on the science as it evolves. What does it all mean though? Well, not much. The science team seems pretty confident the perchlorate wasn’t from contamination of Phoenix’s instruments by the third stage rocket booster, but it’s still an intermediate result and needs to be confirmed. Perchlorate doesn’t mean Mars couldn’t support life, but it would be different from the way everyone was looking at it before. For instance, in the Atacama desert of chile, organic matter and microorganisms coexist with perchlorate.

For more about the Phoenix Mars Lander, please read our exclusive interview with Phoenix (Part 1 and Part II).

Free membership to the American Humanist Association

Leo — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:15:41 +0000

This is very cool. The American Humanist Association is offering a free on-line membership. Just go here and select “Free Trial! Online-Only Membership” from the drop-down menu, click “Add to Cart” and complete the checkout process. While you don’t get all the benefits of belonging to the AHA, you do get “exclusive access to the Humanist Online and Free Mind Online (coming soon), in addition to up-to-the-minute news on AHA activities and programs.” Oh, and you can help swell the ranks of one of the finest secular organizations out there as well as being able to proudly tell everyone that you belong to a national Humanist association. Thanks to Friendly Atheist and Skeptigator for the tip.

Phil Plait new president of JREF

Leo — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:42:21 +0000

For anyone who might have missed it, James Randi announced that the “Bad Astronomer” Phil Pait will be the new president of the James Randi Educational Foundation. This is really exciting news as we all wondered who Randi would pass the torch to. I can’t think of a better person for the job than Phil. Congratulations guy!

Carnival of Space #65

Leo — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:09:02 +0000

Get your fill of space related blogging with the latest Carnival of Space at 21st Century Waves.

X Files poll taps top UK conspiracy theories

Leo — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:18:46 +0000

In a recent poll, almost half of Britons believe that Area 51 exists to secretly investigate aliens and nearly forty percent believe that the U.S. government orchestrated the attacks on the World Trade Center towers and Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Are Britons really this nutty as a citizenry?

Probably not. Although reported by respected papers like The Guardian and The Scotsman, the poll was conducted online as part of a viral marketing campaign for the new X Files movie I Want To Believe. Although one might argue that fans of X Files are more inclined to be conspiracy minded, thus skewing the results of the poll, one wonders if perhaps this poll inadvertenly gives a metric of the top conspiracy theories amongst the credulous.

Of course, one wonders if the recent spate of news stories promoting Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell’s beliefs in a U.S. government coverup of alien contact aren’t also part of the viral marketing campaign for the new X Files movie. Now that’s a conspiracy theory I could buy into.

Here’s the top 10 conspiracy theories as identified by the poll…

Area 51 exists to investigate aliens (48%)
9/11 was orchestrated by the US government (38%)
Apollo landing was a hoax (35%)
Diana and Dodi were murdered (32%)
The Illuminati secret society and masons are trying to take over the world (25%)
Scientologists rule Hollywood (17% )
Barcodes are really intended to control people (7%)
Microsoft sends messages via Wingdings (6%)
US let Pearl Harbour happen (5%)
The world is run by dinosaur-like reptiles (3%)

Tip o’ th’ hat to Liberal England for the links.

92nd Skeptics’ Circle

Leo — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:57:41 +0000

The latest meeting of skeptic bloggers is taking place over at The Lay Scientist’s pad. Another round-up of some of the best skeptical writing on these here intertubes.

Carnival of the Liberals #70

Leo — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:37:30 +0000

The inimitable Gracie has posted the latest edition of Carnival of the Liberals at Cult of Gracie. Yet another great carnival in a long line of great carnivals. Posts this time ran the gambit from talking about the hypocrisy of McCain’s adultery to comic books (although, believe me, this comic isn’t funny).

So head on over and get your biweekly fill of the best liberal blogging around. As an added bonus, be sure to tune in to Cult of Gracie radio tonight at 9PM to hear Gracie talk about some of the very same issues covered in this biweek’s Carnival of the Liberals. Also, keep those submissions coming via blogcarnival.com. The next Carnival of the Liberals is in two weeks time at Submitted To A Candid World.