Dinosaur! (eggs)

"Treasure Trove" of dinosaur eggs found in southern India.

Tags: news
Mood: enthralled

Evidence mounts for water in pockets on or under the Moon's surface, as well as formed via reactions with solar wind.

Stream of Evidence from 3 Spacecraft Indicates That the Moon Has Water: Scientific American

Good riddance - it was a slap in the face to every one of us who were dinosaur-loving kids

Dinosaur Adventure Land*, the creationist theme park, will be seized to pay back the $430K owed to the federal government.

On Kent Hovind, its founder:

Saying he was employed by God and his ministers were not subject to payroll taxes, he claimed no income or property.

* - Not to be confused with Dinosaur Land of Winchester VA. Dinosaur Adventure Land is in Florida. While DL-of-VA's a little ratty in places, and inexplicably persist in exhibiting King Kong along with the dinosaurs, at least they use words like "evolution" and "hundreds of millions of years ago".

Tags: atheism, news
Mood: pleased

As linked to by Chris, Higgins, and *everywhere*.

If you haven't read this already, you need to.

2.5 billion dollars spent (with no results) by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, an organization that has a severe case of confirmation bias, not to mention conflict of interest (many of the board members are practitioners of the practices under review).

To sum up:

• Dismissing out-of-hand such things as anecdotal/alternative remedies or correlations such as immunizations/autism? Bad. (not to mention arrogant)
  
• Spending a bit of money to methodically investigate claims to weed out the false from the true, in hopes of increasing medical knowledge and treatment options? Good.
  
• Repeatedly running trials until you get the result you want, and dismissing overwhelming data that refutes your view? Insane and/or Criminal, take your pick.

Tags: news
Mood: determined

uh-oh...

Scientist Stephen Hawking 'very ill'

Tags: news
Mood: worried

Sweden slipped under my radar...

Sweden will allow gay couples to be legally married starting in May.

Also, somewhere along the way, I missed Norway legalising same sex marriage...

Tags: gay marriage
Mood: happy

Marriage equality on the horizon

Will NY become the 5^th state to support marriage equality? We'll find out this summer...

Tags: gay marriage
Mood: hopeful

Let's go Vermont!

Vermont likely to pass bill legalizing same sex marriage, but will they have a veto-proof majority?

Hey, Gov. Douglas: if you're so concerned about this "distraction", and want to get back to focusing on the economy, how about you just sign the flippin' legislation so VT can get back to economic matters as quickly as possible?Tags: gay marriage, news
Mood: hopeful

CA/Prop 8 rally/protest

For those on my friends list who don't know already:

Saturday there will be a rally in all 50 states and abroad in support of gay rights and same sex marriage, and to protest the outcome (or from my PoV, that it was even on the ballot) of CA's Prop 8.

Find your location, come out, make your voice heard.

Washington DC's will be at 1:30 pm at the reflecting pool.

Tags: gay marriage
Mood: determined

Friday Snippets

I found a great quote on one of the message boards today. The only thing edited was the punctuation:

The idea of 'god' is just a limitation we place, as a species, on our imaginations...

Also, glittachris let me borrow his netflixed NOVA program on the "Intelligent Design" (i.e., Creationism) vs Evolution court battle in Dover PA. I'm halfway through it, it's pretty good. I really should try to intersperse some quality public TV documentaries in between my space operas & Wonder Woman (in her satin tights! Fighting for her rights! And the old red white & blue! ).

Also, just for fun: The harder I work, the luckier I get.

Heads up Montgomery County

Doesn't putting anti-discrimination legislation up for referendum kind of defeat the point?
Tags: news
Mood: embarrassed

Wow.

I think I had heard John McCain was married before, but I never knew the backstory.

In lunchtime surfing, I came across it.
Tags: news