Progressives and liberals delight in any sort of pseudoscience that implicates the right wing, especially if it can claim their political opposition has a brain defect or some sort of 'control' fetish.They don't like it at all when anything psychological makes them look less moral. And they really don't like Jonathan Haidt - because he is a liberal, atheist social psychologist and therefore should only go after conservatives. He confesses he once thought of conservatism as a “Frankenstein monster,”, an ugly mishmash of Christian fundamentalism, racism and authoritarianism.
On June 23rd, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing, a contest at Bletchley Park, where Turing was key in cracking the Nazi Enigma code during World War II, saw Eugene Goostman win the biggest Turing test ever staged.Except Eugene is not a person, it is a chatbot with the 'personality' of a 13-year-old boy in the Ukraine.The Turing test is what Turing considered a threshold for believability, an evaluation of machine intelligence; a machine that fooled humans into thinking it was human 30 per cent of the time will have beaten the test.
Poor NASA. Even since a Democrat took over as president the world is convinced Americans are imperialists bent on flexing their muscles in areas like...disaster relief.Disaster relief and humanitarian assistance are just two of the 'sinister' things critics in Thailand contend NASA may secretly be involved in under the guise of monitoring the atmosphere as part of the "Southeast Asia Composition, Cloud, Climate Coupling Regional Study". The project will use satellites, aircraft and ground missions to study how air circulation during the monsoon affected the climate and air quality in South and Southeast Asia.
What, a herd of cattle were poisoned by cyanide in Texas?? The culprit had to be a genetically-modified form of Bermuda grass! Stupid scientists are out to kill us all with their right-wing, corporation-y greed.Only if you get your science from CBS. Or Sierra Club. Or gullible commenters here on Science 2.0.
The Canadian military has it tough these days. The legends of World Was II are only 50,000 strong and in a government that basically does not think very much of them.Oddly, they are being tasked with saving the environment in Canada.Canadian Forces Base Suffield, Alberta., is in a quiet tug-of-war with the oil and gas industry. Last year by the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board to approve 47 non-routine natural gas well applications by energy giant Cenovus.So along with what is traditionally been considered the core mission of any military - preparation for combat - they are being forced to juggle government mandates, environmental issue and monitor industrial concerns.
Fundamentalist extremists don't like anything that looks like it didn't come from their religious texts. And they tend to blow stuff up that they don't like.Five years ago, the Taliban blew the face off a towering, 1,500-year-old rock carving of Buddha, called Jahanabad Buddha, which was etched high on a huge rock face in the 6th or 7th century in northwest Pakistan. Hard-line Muslims have a history of targeting Buddhist, Hindu and other religious sites they consider heretical to Islam. Six months before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Taliban outraged the world by dynamiting a pair of 1,500-year-old Buddhist statues in central Afghanistan.
Did Roman influence extend to the farthest reaches of Asia? Maybe it was the other way around and Japan or its trading partners were common in Europe.Either way, glass jewelry of Roman design has been found in the Fifth Century "Utsukushi" burial mound in Nagaoka, near Kyoto, Japan, researchers said Friday.
For science credibility about biology, who means more?
The Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill is still working its way through the courts. The US government is pressing ahead with its $18 billion legal action despite the oil giant’s $7.8 billion settlement with 110,000 Gulf of Mexico businesses and individuals after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.The US government is also investigating whether there are criminal charges to be brough.Here are some graphical factoids from a group representing affected people and businesses. BP also faces challenges from the states of Louisana and Alabama, shareholder lawsuits in Houston and counter-claims between BP and its former Deepwater partners including Transocean.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is enjoying increasing popularity all over the world - to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each year, making it Big Business. Yet there are concerns. Two molecular genetics studies show that the treatments can be harmful, as well, because not all of their ingredients are listed, or even legal, some can cause cancer and proponents often simply do not know what they are doing when making combinations.
