A more sophisticated form of underwear bomb has been developed, but the CIA has thwarted an attempt to deploy it to blow up a US based plane.

The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Dec. 25, 2009. [it has] a more refined detonation system…

… the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector.

But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.

The bomber, who was with an al_Qaida affiliate based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target when the FBI wen in and grabbed the underwear. It is not clear if the would-be bomber was wearing, or otherwise near, the underwear at the time it was seized, but that would have been a hella wedgie.

NPR and other outlets are reporting this.

The current disposition of the bomber him or her self is not being reported at the moment.

As you know, Edwina Rogers, a long term Republican strategist, adviser, and spokesperson, was appointed to the position of Executive Director of the Secular Coalition of America. There has been some concern about this appointment because,in the view of many (myself included) most of the organizations associated with the SCA are liberal or progressive leaning.

There are two conversations I want to tell you about regarding this issue. The first is one I had with SCA Chief of Staff Eliza Kashinsky. I only have a brief comment or two to make related to that conversation. First, I do think it is reasonable to assume that the SCA hired Edwina Rogers because they wanted to hire someone who knew what they were doing in the lobbying game. Personally, I’m very glad if indeed that was their strategy, becuase I don’t assume that rising through the ranks of skepticism, humanism, and atheism in and of itself qualified one to be a great lobbyist. So going to the pros is a good idea. Another thing that came out of that conversation was my specific request for two things, and I eagerly hope these happen.

I asked about the SCA’s plans to include climate change in their move to make real science the basis of policy in Washington and elsewhere, but there was not a clear answer. Pursuant to addressing what might be some ambiguity in this area, I asked Eliza if she would in turn ask Edwina Rogers to have a meeting very soon (by phone or not) with Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education, in order to discuss that issue. I let Genie know about this so she could expect the call.

The second thing I asked for was to have Edwina include on her list of items to bring to the various members of congress she would be speaking to a serious request to sign the Science Pledge.

The second conversation I wanted to alert you to is the one Greta Christina just posted on her blog. That is here.

There are some concerns. I think it would be much better if Edwina simply acknowledged that Republicans, as a party, have some of the positions Greta asks her about. Edwina claims that the Republicans don’t really have a “party position” on abortion. That is incorrect, and easily checked. For instance, here is the Republican Party position on abortion as printed on their web site, from the 2008 platform: Continue reading Edwina Rogers and the Secular Coalition of America →

Discussed: The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science–and Reality, which I’ve got my copy of and am now reading, and The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion which I’m probably never going to get to.

Continue reading The Republican Brain on TV →

Andrew Wagner has been missing since Thursday. He was last seen near Virginia, MN and he drives a very distinctive car, a 1964 Red Volvo 122s. See the poster below.

People are very concerned about Andrew’s state of mind and well being based on communications with others during the week last week. If you have any info at all please call 218-749-6010, St. Louis County dispatch.

Tom Levenson will be on Skeptically Speaking later today, talking about his book Newton and the Counterfeiter.

We had a hella storm come through the Twin Cities last night. Some hail, some wind, but piles of lightning. And then this happened in Dinkytown: Lightning struck a high power line, which fell across a couple of parked cars and stayed “live.” The live line heated up the pavement on the street enough that it caused a buried gas line to explode.

I’m pretty sure there are details we don’t know yet. Perhaps there was already a leak and the gas that caught on fire was already out of the pipe. Perhaps the lightning grounded through the gas line and that is what sparked the fire. Either way it totally freaked the fire department guys. They’ll be talking about this for a while!

Ever see anything like this before?

Details here.

“Excuse me, waiter…”

“Yes?”

“I’ve got a lot of French fries here. I wonder if you could bring me a little extra ketchup?”

“No.” Continue reading Did you hear about the Ketchup Shortage? →

Atheist Voices of Minnesota: an Anthology of Personal Stories got a nice review here.

Check it out. Atheist Voices of Minnesota: an Anthology of Personal Stories is an anthology that includes a lot of your favorite bloggers, including several from here on FTB. A local paper (I assume it’s a paper, I only see it on the web) covered it:

Farmington man helps atheists find a voice
It’s not always easy being a nonbeliever. In a society where personal faith is still important to many, people who identify themselves as atheists often worry how they’ll be perceived if friends, family or employers find out they don’t believe in God……

Bill ….[has] been active in the Minnesota atheist community for the past three years, but there are still members of his family he wouldn’t want to know about his lack of faith.

…um … Bill …

Last year he founded a publishing company, Freethought House, specifically to publish a collection of essays by Minnesota atheists. Money from sales of the book, called Atheist Voices of Minnesota, will benefit the group Minnesota Atheists.

“I’ve gotten a lot out of this community,” said Lehto, who got involved with local atheists through a group on networking website meetup.com. “This is kind of a way for me to do something for the community that uses my skills and knowledge. I don’t think there’s been anything done like this.”

And so on and so forth. Check it out.

Did you ever have something you thought was pretty interesting happen to you, but then when you try to explain it to someone else, they kind of half listen and don’t come close to getting what you are saying, and you realize part way through that it really isn’t that interesting unless you are the person it happened to? Do you know what bloggers do when they experience this?

They blog it! Somebody out there’s gonna relate! Continue reading Stoned and Confused →

Thank you to all the bloggers and others who jumped immediately on the Heartland Institute for putting up horribly offensive billboards equating scientists with the scientist/mathematician killing terrorist Unibomber. I have heard unofficially that Heartland will be taking down those billboards.

We’ll see.

more details:
Continue reading Heatland to Take Down Unibomber Billboard UPDATED →

…. comparing holocaust survivors to Hitler? Hmong refugees to Pol Pot? Well, maybe not exactly but there is a structural similarity.

People at the Heartland Institute have very little to do with science and very little experience in that area of academics. Otherwise they would remember the Unibomber days, when everyone was worried about the packages they were receiving in the mail, but especially those in mathematics. Now, the Heartland Institute has a billboard campaign with a picture of the Unibomber on it, making the claim that only very fringe people, such as the Unibomber, still “believe in global warming.” This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Anthropogenic Global Warming is real, it is recognized as real by science, and those who deny its reality are, in fact, the ones on the fringe.

Continue reading Comparing mainstream scientists to the Unibomber is like … →

Have a look at this story.

The first blind patients to be fitted with electronic eye implants in a UK clinical trial have regained “useful vision” only weeks after surgery….

The implants are basically little camera chips that get hooked up to the neural circuitry in the eye. The results are not normal human developed vision, but the patients can see stuff.

Having gotten your attention with that remarkable story, let me remind you of this:

Dining In The Dark: Hope for Retinal Disease

Thank you very much.