Richard Dawkins has an irrational hatred of religion and zealotry is always creepy but when he remains rational, like in this talk with Deepak Chopra about Chopra's claims that quantum theory can heal people, there is no one better."It's a metaphor," Chopra says, before backtracking and speaking some mumbo jumbo about the observer effect and that physicists say it's possible to do ... well, I don't know what it will do.  And neither does he.

Peter Woit writes: Stephen Hawking has a new book out this week, called "The Grand Design" and written with Leonard Mlodinow, in which he effectively announces that he has given up on the traditional goals of fundamental physics in favor of anthropic arguments invoking a multiverse.Instead, tired old M-theory is getting the nod.   But there is also the issue of the potential damage caused by this to the cause of science funding in Britain ...

Part of the NSF and NFL's 10-part "Science of NFL Football" series.   This one on projectile motion.  Lester Holt is clearly out of his skin doing this stuff but it's good NBC is - they can always get Garth Sundem or someone else from Science 2.0 to do the color commentary if this catches on.

I've never seen high heels with flippers before, but that is what is great about the Internet ...I am betting there are more readers of this site who have worn flippers than high heels but the odds are with me in contending none of you have worn both at the same time.Manolo's Shoe Blog has the details, including solving the mystery of who the designer was. 

The popular web-based RSS reader and news aggregator Bloglines will discontinue service on Friday, October 1. The Ask.com team that operates the site has essentially said that social media sites like Twitter and Facebook killed it.

Camille Paglia, America's foremost cultural critic, demolishes a sort-of, modern-day, fabricated icon:She told a magazine with messianic fervour: “I love my fans more than any artist who has ever lived.” She claims to have changed the lives of the disabled, thrilled by her jewelled parody crutches in the Paparazzi video.andAlthough she presents herself as the clarion voice of all the freaks and misfits of life, there is little evidence that she ever was one. Her upbringing was comfortable and eventually affluent, and she attended the same upscale Manhattan private school as Paris and Nicky Hilton.and 

A quest to get Barack Obama to shout his commitment to solar power from the roof tops - by re-installing vintage solar panels at the White House - ended in disappointment for environmental campaigners today.Yet it isn't right for him but is right for you, so subsidies for solar power will again be in the next round of 'stimulus' funding.   Let's get those solar power installers back to work!

You would think a guy would be grateful, but a paper from Cornell graduate student, Christin Munsch, says something entirely different.

A federal appeals court ruled today that federal financing of embryonic stem cell research could continue while the court considers a judge's order last month that banned the government from underwriting the work

The Today show wants to bring science to the masses - football fan masses, that is.   Enjoy Lester Holt stumbling over velocity vectors in this clip below!