Monthly Archives: June 2012

I was almost abducted by aliens

Every now and then a news story comes along that makes me want to repost this particular thing I wrote a long time ago. And it has happened again. First, the news story:

National Geographic Channel has run a poll in which they found that 36% of Americans “believe UFO’s exist.” This is in line with previous results. There are other findings as well, but one item is new. The survey asked people who would do a better job of fighting off Aliens if they come to earth and, well, wanna fight. Obama killed Romney on that question.

So just keep that in mind when you are in the voting booth, America.

The last time something came up that wanted me to repost my story, it was this:

Nineteen former pilots and government officials … told reporters their questions can no longer be dismissed …”We want the US government to stop perpetuating the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth, conventional terms,” said Fife Symington, former governor of Arizona… “Instead our country needs to reopen its official investigation that it shut down in 1969,” Symington told a news conference. [source]

OK, so, now for the original story about how I was almost abducted by aliens. Continue reading I was almost abducted by aliens

I Am A Secular Woman

Secular Woman is a organization that just formed, and is currently filing for 501(c)(3) status. I just joined it and you should to. Here’s the mission statement:

Mission

The mission of Secular Woman is to amplify the voice, presence, and influence of non-religious women.

Vision

Secular Woman envisions a future in which women without supernatural beliefs have the opportunities and resources they need to participate openly and confidently as respected voices of leadership in the secular community and every aspect of American society.

Values

Humanism

We embrace human-centered ethics informed by reason and science. We reject dogma, superstition, pseudoscience, and religious authority as sources of morality and truth.
We hold that all human beings are entitled to freedom from others’ religious ideologies in living their lives, engaging with service providers, and interacting with government.

Health & Sexuality

We support every person’s right to bodily and sexual autonomy. Gender expression, sexual orientation, and matters of intimacy are for individuals to determine.

We view age-appropriate, comprehensive, medically accurate health and sex education as vital to responsible decision-making by young people.

We oppose all attempts to criminalize or limit access to comprehensive reproductive services such as contraception and abortion.

We affirm that everyone has the right to feel safe, confident, and secure in their personal and emotional interactions. We oppose harassment, bullying, objectification, and other forms of aggression both physical and non-physical in all settings.

Family & Relationships

We hold that each person has the right to seek happiness through consensual relationships that enhance their lives.

We support full marriage equality nationwide.

We embrace diverse concepts of family and parenthood. Love and security come in many forms.

Feminism

We abhor the use of religion as a justification for the oppression of women.

We insist that women have basic and human rights that are equal to those enjoyed by men, including equal opportunity and equal pay for equal work.

We hold that women are entitled to full and equal participation in all levels of government.

Secular Community

We desire a secular movement enriched by the presence and influence of many kinds of people. We wish to be instrumental in increasing gender diversity within the secular community.

Turns out, Obama totally stole the idea of Obamacare!

… the hazzards of sickness … should be provided for through insurance. This should be [charged to] the industries the employer, the employee, and perhaps the people at large … Wherever such standards are not met by given establishments, by given industries, are unprovided for by a legislature, or are balked by unenlightened courts, the workers are in jeopardy, the progressive employer is penalized, and the community pays a heavy cost in lessened efficiency and in misery. What [European country] has done in the way of old age pensions or insurance should be studied by us, and the system adapted to our uses, with whatever modifications are rendered necessary by our different ways of life and habits of thought.

That was Teddy Roosevelt in 1912.

What’s the difference between Teddy Roosevelt’s health care plan and Obama’s health care plan? There is only one important difference. Obama got it done.

How old does a toddler have to be before it stops trying to kill itself?

This looks like one of those questions that pops up when you start typing a query into a Google Search Box, but it is really a question asked rhetorically by Claudia Sawyer on my facebook status where I made mention of the fact that toddlers will put anything you give them in their mouth (even after that “putting everything in their mouth” phase is over … they still do it enough that you can’t give them knives or sandpaper, believe it or not).

And there actually is an answer to this question and it comes from science. The answer is about five years old, and here’s why: Continue reading How old does a toddler have to be before it stops trying to kill itself?

Sirens of Titan Less Impossible than Previously Thought

Just so you know, scientists do not seem to be able to detect the difference between a 3 foot and a 30 foot deformation of the surface of a planetoid body that is about one and a half billion kilometers away, and we know this because NASA’s Cassini space ship had to actually go all the way to one of Saturn’s moons, Titan, to discover that the tidal deformation of the surface is more like 30 than 3 feet in magnitude. This, in turn, strongly suggests that Titan has an ocean of some kind under its surface. Thus, the Sirens. The Sirens of Titan.

NASA provides us with the following artists reconstruction of what they think Titan would look like if it was a slice of watermelon: Continue reading Sirens of Titan Less Impossible than Previously Thought

Waldo Canyon and Other Colorado Fires

We expected increasing wildfire activity with global warming, and we’ve got it.

The Waldo Canyon Fire has been burning since June 23rd and as of this writing is essentially out of control, with about 5% of it “contained.” Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. A friend of mine is on house watch as we speak, as various members of her family and her friends from the region have fled the area and are scanning news images for evidence of anything standing (or not) in their neighborhood. Approximately 300 homes are reported to have been burned down yesterday, I have not herd any reports from today. Continue reading Waldo Canyon and Other Colorado Fires

Antonin Scalia pulls a cdesign proponentsists goof

Antonin Scalia wrote a dissenting opinion for today’s Obamacare decision; the majority opinion upheld the Affordable Care Act. But, it appears that Scalia thought he was in the majority at the time he wrote the opinion, used terminology appropriate to that situation (referring to the other opinion as the dissent) and then forgot to change the text.

This is a little scary for two or three reasons. One, it looks like this may have been a very close decision. If Romney is elected, the USA might as well fold up shop. Two, Antonin Scalia and his staff are on drugs or something. Three, if the Supreme Court can mess up the language of documents that control the law like this, cats will soon be sleeping with dogs.

The astonishing details are here at Brad DeLong’s blog.

Really scary thing seen in space

This is like an episode of Dr. Who. A star erupted and vaporized the atmosphere of a nearby planet. Holy crap. Details:

JUNE 28, 2012: An international team of astronomers using data from the NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has made an unparalleled observation, detecting significant changes in the atmosphere of a planet located beyond the solar system. The scientists conclude that the atmospheric variations occurred in response to a powerful eruption on the planet’s host star, an event observed by NASA’s Swift satellite. This artist’s rendering illustrates the evaporation of exoplanet HD 189733b’s atmosphere in response to the powerful eruption from its host star on Sept. 7, 2011. Hubble detected the escaping gases, and Swift caught the stellar flare.

Whoa.

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photo of outer space by write_adam

Obama Care Was Not Trashed By SCOTUS

UPDATE: Here’s the full text of the decision.

Amy Howe of the SCOTUS Blog writes:

In Plain English: The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn’t comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding.