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MSN Lies About the Oregon Shootings

In this story.   Here is the headline: Probe in college slayings peers into Web rants and possible religious rage Here is the lede: The gunman who cut a deadly path through a college campus appeared armed for an extended siege, a report said Friday, as investigators probed deeper into suspicions the shooter may have been driven by religious rage Later in the story we learn that no one believes the shooter was motivated by religious rage.  Rather, he was motivated by anti-religious rage and singled out Christians for death.  MSN’s writers and editors are shameless, utterly shameless.    

Homo Naledi as new species now questioned at Berkeley

Here: Bones of Contention: Why Cal Paleo Expert is So Skeptical That Homo Naledi Is New Species … Amid all the hoopla and confetti, however, a growing number of scientists are advising caution. They’re not denying the importance of the find; the fossils, they say, are invaluable. But they contend that the bones may not represent a new species. The evidence these skeptics point to suggests that the finds may actually be bones from Homo erectus, the earliest known hominid to manifest the general proportions, stance and gait of modern humans. H. erectus had a long tenure on the planet, living from about 2 million to 70,000 years ago. The species was widely distributed (from Africa to East Asia and Read More ›

The problem with Tayler’s, “Make them shut up about God . . . “

Dr Torley has recently responded to Tayler’s Article as headlined. On a day when news is still somewhat emerging about a mass murder on a community College campus where those who affirmed that they were Christians were shot in the head, it is important to take up the issue, especially in light of the underlying, all too patent, New Atheist/Evolutionary materialism and fellow traveller concept that they have cornered the market on reasonableness and responsibility. We cannot neglect the assertions of Dawkins and co, that Bible-believing Christians are ignorant, stupid, insane or wicked. That lines right up with the sub-title of Tayler’s Salon post: “The right-wing’s religious delusions are killing us—and them.” Nor is the obvious immediate trigger, the attacks Read More ›

Further to: There are millions of habitable planets… no

Here. But now this: It is most likely that we are the only living beings in our galaxy, according to an esteemed former Nasa scientist. William Borucki, who played a large part in finding other potentially hospitable planets during his role as chief investigator for the US space agency’s Kepler mission until his retirement in 2015, said that the evidence points to us being alone, in our galaxy at least. Definitely don’t blast off just yet. See also: Don’t let Mars fool you. Those exoplanets teem with life! and How do we grapple with the idea that ET might not be out there?

Millions more planets theoretically habitable?

The first clue for caution is this should be the title: Theoretical astrophysicists have discovered that millions of planets are more habitable than we realized The authors, led by Jérémy Leconte, a postdoctoral fellow at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, built a three-dimensional climate model and found that a thin atmosphere would allow a planet to break free of rotational lockup and spin as it rotates around the star. Scientists previously thought that only a large atmosphere could create a significant spin but, according to Leconte, thin atmospheres may have a larger rotational effect, because they allow more light from the star to reach the planet’s surface. This solar heat drives wind to create Read More ›

Brain cells have different lineages?

From ScienceDaily: Our brain cells have different genomes from one another. The study shows for the first time that mutations in somatic cells — that is, any cell in the body except sperm and eggs — are present in significant numbers in the brains of healthy people. These mutations appear to occur more often in the genes a neuron uses most. Patterns of mutation allow researchers to trace brain cell lineages. … The study, published Oct. 2 in Science, shows for the first time that mutations in somatic cells–that is, any cell in the body except sperm and eggs–are present in significant numbers in the brains of healthy people. This finding lays the foundation for exploring the role of these Read More ›

Claim: Viruses are alive

From ScienceDaily: Study adds to evidence that viruses are alive Until now, viruses have been difficult to classify, said University of Illinois crop sciences and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology professor Gustavo Caetano-Anollés, who led the new analysis with graduate student Arshan Nasir. In its latest report, the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses recognized seven orders of viruses, based on their shapes and sizes, genetic structure and means of reproducing. B21″Under this classification, viral families belonging to the same order have likely diverged from a common ancestral virus,” the authors wrote. “However, only 26 (of 104) viral families have been assigned to an order, and the evolutionary relationships of most of them remain unclear.” Part of Read More ›

Why some think aliens real

From Business Insider: We’re all made of heavy atoms forged in the explosions of supermassive stars. This not only connects us to the universe, but highlights the possibility of alien life, explains famed astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson: “These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems — stars with orbiting planets. And those planets now have the ingredients for life itself.” More. If you believe this, put your affairs in the hands of a trustee.

BBC asks, why we are only humans still alive

From BBC News: Rewind to 30,000 years ago. As well as modern humans, three other hominin species were around: the Neanderthals in Europe and western Asia, the Denisovans in Asia, and the “hobbits” from the Indonesian island of Flores. The hobbits could have survived until as recently as 18,000 years ago. They may have been wiped out by a large volcanic eruption, according to geological evidence from the area. Living on one small island will also leave a species more vulnerable to extinction when disaster strikes. We do not know enough about the Denisovans to even ask why they died out. All we have from them is a small finger bone and two teeth. Notice how the BBC story is Read More ›

Sex can explain evolution?

Part of O’Leary for News ongoing series here. Then there is Darwin’s theory of sexual selection, with its famous exemplar: the peacock’s tail. An illustration may help us see why reasonable persons continue to doubt. Picture a triplex: Tom, a world class cribbage addict in Apartment A, does no work and has no money (apart from social assistance and charity). Dick, in Apartment B, works eight shifts a week in trucking, so has no trouble paying his bills. Harry, formerly in Apartment C, went off and became a multimillionaire (legally) in packaging and shipping for the software industry. Does work alone explain Harry’s success? Did he work a thousand times harder and more often than Dick? Is that even possible? Read More ›

Baker’s dozen: 13 questions I’d ask an aspiring atheist politician

Jeffrey Tayler has written an article in Salon, titled, Make them shut up about God: The right-wing’s religious delusions are killing us—and them, in which he lists some questions he’d ask politicians of faith: Sample questions to be put to pietistic contenders for the White House: What makes you believe in God? Do you hear voices? See visions? Do you believe God answers your prayers? If so, please provide objective evidence. Why is, say, the Bible or the Torah better than the Quran? Does not the eternal hellfire the supposedly merciful Jesus promised sinners epitomize Constitutionally prohibited cruel and unusual punishment? If you consider the Bible a reliable guide for your personal life, may I ask if would you slaughter Read More ›