From time to time, I mention the family business I used to be involved in: Vulcan Iron Works Inc., which was in my family (with one break) for 144 years. We did a great deal of business outside of the U.S., especially for the offshore oil industry. From about 1960 until the early 1980's, offshore …
The “Dementia” of Francis Collins. Or Is It Someone Else?
New York Times reporter Gardiner Harris needs to think some things through: In contrast to the majority of scientists whose wondrous discoveries seem to inspire humility, today's advocates of scientism can be every bit as dogmatic as the William Jennings Bryans of yesteryear. We saw an example a week ago, when the New York Times …
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Stimulus Spending for Transportation at a Snail’s Pace
From here: Stimulus spending on transportation projects is expected to account for more than half the 3.5 million jobs the Obama administration says the stimulus will create or save. So far, only 7 percent of transportation stimulus funds have been paid out. (Snail image from Jürgen Schoner/Wikipedia Commons) Stimulus money for transportation projects is being …
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The Ancestor of T-Rex: Moving the Goalposts (Again) of Evolution
Just when they thought it safe to hang their hat on a theory... This fearsome T Rex, as the Tyrannosaurus is hailed in popular culture after Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park movie series, now apparently has an ancestor not much larger in size than an average human. The evolutionary downgrading was one-hundredth its size but …
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Pork Gets in the Way of Progress
This is the core problem with our government these days: Last week the Center for Public Integrity reported that almost 1,800 "special interest groups" have already hired 2,100 lobbyists and spent an estimated $45 million to lobby Congress on transportation in the first half of this year. The center, which tracks money in politics, says …
The Anti-Moon Luddites March On
The dear old Miami Herald reports the following: NASA doesn't have nearly enough money to meet its goal of putting astronauts back on the moon by 2020 -- and it might be the wrong place to go, anyway. That's one of the harsh messages emerging from a sweeping review of NASA's human space flight program. …
The Hard Sciences Aren’t Hard on Religion
I made a statement recently that some of my Christian friends may not have appreciated much: I’m one of those people who’d like to see hard science and math education become the “core” education in our schools, as opposed to the arts or social sciences, which is the case now in the Anglophone world in …
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Microsoft’s Long Decline. Another High Five for the Mac World.
From this: Apple has always only competed in the middle-to-high range of the computer market. But it was never the case, historically, that Apple sold a majority of middle-to-high-end computers. Even given that NPD’s numbers represent only retail sales, is there any reasonable doubt that Apple’s share of the non-retail market for $1,000+ computers is …
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Atheism Isn’t Self-Evident From a Scientific Education
In describing a "camp for atheists" (that's not an entirely accurate generalisation, but it's close) Ruth Gledhill notes the following: At Camp Quest, children will be led to believe that science, which forms the main substance of their instruction, is incompatible with religion and religious beliefs, not because a scientific education makes this fact self-evident …
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Making Science Into a Religion, and the Nomination of Francis Collins to the NIH
This had to happen sooner or later, and it did in Sam Harris' op-ed piece for the New York Times: One can only hope that these convictions will not affect his judgment at the institutes of health. After all, understanding human well-being at the level of the brain might very well offer some “answers to …
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Positive Infinity 