14. november 2002

First and Late Nancy Pelosi (D) was elected minorty leader in the House of Representatives today, making her the first woman to lead a political party caucus in the U.S. Congress. And the first female president in the US is due around 2102. 9:42:35 PM    comment []

Now Listening To... Eyes Adrift - Pasted Just awesome! You can't miss this! Thanks to George. 6:23:04 PM    comment []

Bin Laden is Alive: What Next? Robert Fisk, one of the westerners who know the most about Osama Bin Laden, makes some chilling interpretations of the latest tape from the world's most wanted terrorist. 4:55:15 PM    comment []

Does Prayer Heal? Wired is on the roll with articles about the relationship between science and religion. The latest article in the series is a biography of the late psychiatrist Elisabeth Targ, who once published apparently amazing results showing that prayer helped AIDS patients. Targ became a believer, but Po Bronson is able to show where her conclusions went wrong without diminishing her work. 3:15:06 PM    comment []

Amazing Images of the Sun! A poster at Slashdot and George pointed me towards a series of amazing new photos of the sun. 2:53:12 PM    comment []

China's Secretive Leadership "Everything that is known about the way [Chinese] politics is conducted at the highest levels suggests that flattery, friendship, nepotism and favouritism count far more than policies or ability." (The Economist) During the 21st century, China may emerge as the world's second most powerful economy, and may eventually come to challenge the United States as a super power. The citizens of the world's most populous nation has no more say about their leadership than anyone in the west. The state is ruled by the word of one man, and that man will in the next years be Hu Jintao (picture), described as an "uninspiring bureaucrat." 2:21:41 PM    comment []

Bill Gates Honoured with Eight Foot Condom "An eight-foot tall condom greeted Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on Thursday during a visit to an Indian city, a tribute to mark his generosity in fighting AIDS." (CNN/Money) Well, it's not Micro, and it's not Soft. 1:00:46 PM    comment []

Convergence of Nonsense and Journalism Wired, normally one of my favourite online zines, have printed an article called God and Science in Merger Talks?. It is one of the most ill-informed and outright stupid articles I have read on this topic in quite some time, and I am quite surprised to find this tripe in Wired. Gregg Easterbrook, the author, makes an odd comparison between speculative theories in science and supernatural claims in religion, in effect asserting they are one and the same. What he fails to say is that a speculative theory in science is presented as a speculative theory, while in religion it is presented as The Truth and believe-it-or-we-chop-your-head-off. He also fails to say, or for what I know he may be ignorant about, the fact that when scientists speculate, it is not science unless it can be tested. And that is the whole, massive difference between religion and science: the former hates criticism, the latter invites it. When I read the article, I was just waiting for the compulsory reference to the unbelievably lame "anthropic argument," which I have written about earlier. Easterbrook almost redeems himself when he says some half-intelligent things about the controversies between fundamentalism and evolutionary biology, but then he ends the article with a few throughly braindead paragraphs about neo-creationism, aka "Intellgent Design", as if that was anything like a reconcilation between science and religion. Indeed, it is more like a an attempted takeover of science by dogmatic religion. And that seems to be the enterprise Easterbrook supports: capitulation of reason to dogmatism. 12:59:17 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2002 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.12.02; 02:50:57.