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A reader wrote to say that he considered the following Fox News hedder deceptive …

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Extraterrestrials on Earth: Scientists find outer space stuff at South Pole

Well, it turns out,

ET isn’t out there … he’s already here.

[In our junk DNA, like that super-smart scientist says? But do we even have that much junk DNA for them to hide in any more? Oh wait, that’s a different stream of consciousness …]

Scientists have discovered travelers from beyond our solar system buried under the ice of the South Pole — not living creatures or space beings but tiny, extra-terrestrial particles known as neutrinos.

“Extra-terrestrial in this context means coming from outside the solar system,” Olga Botner, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Uppsala University in Sweden, told FoxNews.com. “For the first time ever we now have evidence for a flux of high-energy neutrinos from outside the solar system.”

Now they tell us, eh?

purple space alien

Fox is certainly a serial offender in this area, but probably not worse than MSNBC:

Is “Habitable planets, hype-able planets,what the diff?” (Fox) documenting a worse example than the one documented at “Is faith in the space aliens a duty? Are doubts anti-science?” (MSNBC)

Best suggestion to our gentle reader: Treat popular science media as light entertainment on these subjects, and worry mainly when nonsense starts to invade TED talks, for example.

There should be some venues that strive to be nonsense-free, just for the sake of variety.

But what do readers think? Who’s the most fanciful? Nominations welcome.

Comments
Of related note to TEDx videos is this interesting video that I recently watched:
Science vs God: Bryan Enderle at TEDxUCDavis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn7YQOzNuSc
Here are a few notes to go along with Bryan Enderle's very thought provoking video: As to the empty space in an atom which Enderle talked about:
Just how small is an atom? - Jonathan Bergmann - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQP4UJhNn0I
And although, despite the atom being shown to be 10^-14 empty space, it was still presumed, in both the Bryan Enderle video and the Jonathan Bergmann video, that the nuecleus and electron are 'solid' material particles. But that presumption simply is not so. For anyone who still believes that atoms are composed of little billiard ball type particles (i.e. Reductive Materialism as it was conceived of by ancient Greeks and only recently overturned last century), the following images and the last part of the following video will cure you of that false materialistic notion:
Photographs of atoms, produced by the scanning tunnel microscope http://physics.unipune.ernet.in/~spm/images/image.gif http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/files/us-flinte/stm15.jpg Uncertainty Principle - The 'Uncertain Non-Particle' Basis Of Material Reality - video and article http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4109172
In this following video,,,
Is information the basic substance of the universe after all? (With video of various 'fields') July 23, 2013 https://uncommondescent.com/informatics/is-information-the-basic-substance-of-the-universe-after-all/
in the video the narrator lists these fields ‘co-mingling with one another’:
1. Magnetic Field 2. Electric Field 3. Gravitational Field 4. Electron Field 5. Higgs Field 6. Quark Field 7. Gluon Field
the narrator also states,
‘in fact every type of elementary particle has its own field’:
But what are these elementary particle fields made of? John Archibald Wheeler held that these elementary particle fields are composed of information:
"it from bit” Every “it”— every particle, every field of force, even the space-time continuum itself derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely—even if in some contexts indirectly—from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits. “It from bit” symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has a bottom—a very deep bottom, in most instances, an immaterial source and explanation, that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes-no questions and the registering of equipment—evoked responses, in short all matter and all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and this is a participatory universe." – Princeton University physicist John Wheeler (1911–2008) (Wheeler, John A. (1990), “Information, physics, quantum: The search for links”, in W. Zurek, Complexity, Entropy, and the Physics of Information (Redwood City, California: Addison-Wesley))
Anton Zeilinger, who (with his team) has many breakthroughs in quantum mechanics under his belt, has followed in Wheeler's footsteps by insisting information, not material particles, are the foundation of reality:
Why the Quantum? It from Bit? A Participatory Universe? Excerpt: In conclusion, it may very well be said that information is the irreducible kernel from which everything else flows. Thence the question why nature appears quantized is simply a consequence of the fact that information itself is quantized by necessity. It might even be fair to observe that the concept that information is fundamental is very old knowledge of humanity, witness for example the beginning of gospel according to John: "In the beginning was the Word." Anton Zeilinger - a leading expert in quantum mechanics
In fact, both Wheeler's and Zeilinger's contention, that reality is at its foundation is 'information theoretic' is pretty convincing because it is now shown that 'material' atoms can be reduced to quantum information and telepoted. In fact, all the 'material' atoms of an entire human body can, theoretically, be reduced to quantum information and teleported to another position in the universe:
Quantum Teleportation of a Human? - video https://vimeo.com/75163272
and as Ms. O'Leary (News) has wisely noted previously:
“But information is fundamentally relational”
Thus, since information is 'fundamentally relational' then this 'relational' fact provides a resolution for why reality coheres as a whole. Pastor Joe Boot puts the mystery, that is inexplicable for materialism, this way:
"If you have no God, then you have no design plan for the universe. You have no prexisting structure to the universe.,, As the ancient Greeks held, like Democritus and others, the universe is flux. It's just matter in motion. Now on that basis all you are confronted with is innumerable brute facts that are unrelated pieces of data. They have no meaningful connection to each other because there is no overall structure. There's no design plan. It's like my kids do 'join the dots' puzzles. It's just dots, but when you join the dots there is a structure, and a picture emerges. Well, the atheists is without that (final picture). There is no preestablished pattern (to connect the facts given atheism)." Pastor Joe Boot - quote taken from 13:20 minute mark of the following video: Defending the Christian Faith – Pastor Joe Boot – video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqE5_ZOAnKo
Verse and Music:
John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. Steven Curtis Chapman - Lord of the Dance (Live) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDXbvMcMbU0
bornagain77
November 23, 2013
November
11
Nov
23
23
2013
05:50 AM
5
05
50
AM
PST
Of related note to TEDx videos is this interesting video that I recently watched:
Science vs God: Bryan Enderle at TEDxUCDavis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn7YQOzNuSc
Here are a few notes to go along with Bryan Enderle's very thought provoking video: As to the empty space in an atom which Enderle talked about:
Just how small is an atom? - Jonathan Bergmann - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQP4UJhNn0I
And although, despite the atom being shown to be 10^-14 empty space, it was still presumed, in both the Bryan Enderle video and the Jonathan Bergmann video, that the nuecleus and electron are 'solid' material particles. But that presumption simply is not so. For anyone who still believes that atoms are composed of little billiard ball type particles (i.e. Reductive Materialism as it was conceived of by ancient Greeks and only recently overturned last century), the following images and the last part of the following video will cure you of that false materialistic notion:
Photographs of atoms, produced by the scanning tunnel microscope http://physics.unipune.ernet.in/~spm/images/image.gif http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/files/us-flinte/cover7.tif http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/files/us-flinte/stm15.jpg Uncertainty Principle - The 'Uncertain Non-Particle' Basis Of Material Reality - video and article http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4109172
In this following video,,,
Is information the basic substance of the universe after all? (With video of various 'fields') July 23, 2013 https://uncommondescent.com/informatics/is-information-the-basic-substance-of-the-universe-after-all/
in the video the narrator lists these fields ‘co-mingling with one another’:
1. Magnetic Field 2. Electric Field 3. Gravitational Field 4. Electron Field 5. Higgs Field 6. Quark Field 7. Gluon Field
the narrator also states,
‘in fact every type of elementary particle has its own field’:
But what are these elementary particle fields made of? John Archibald Wheeler held that these elementary particle fields are composed of information:
"it from bit” Every “it”— every particle, every field of force, even the space-time continuum itself derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely—even if in some contexts indirectly—from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits. “It from bit” symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has a bottom—a very deep bottom, in most instances, an immaterial source and explanation, that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes-no questions and the registering of equipment—evoked responses, in short all matter and all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and this is a participatory universe." – Princeton University physicist John Wheeler (1911–2008) (Wheeler, John A. (1990), “Information, physics, quantum: The search for links”, in W. Zurek, Complexity, Entropy, and the Physics of Information (Redwood City, California: Addison-Wesley))
Anton Zeilinger, who (with his team) has many breakthroughs in quantum mechanics under his belt, has followed in Wheeler's footsteps by insisting information, not material particles, are the foundation of reality:
Why the Quantum? It from Bit? A Participatory Universe? Excerpt: In conclusion, it may very well be said that information is the irreducible kernel from which everything else flows. Thence the question why nature appears quantized is simply a consequence of the fact that information itself is quantized by necessity. It might even be fair to observe that the concept that information is fundamental is very old knowledge of humanity, witness for example the beginning of gospel according to John: "In the beginning was the Word." Anton Zeilinger - a leading expert in quantum mechanics
In fact, both Wheeler's and Zeilinger's contention, that reality is at its foundation is 'information theoretic' is pretty convincing because it is now shown that 'material' atoms can be reduced to quantum information and telepoted. In fact, all the 'material' atoms of an entire human body can, theoretically, be reduced to quantum information and teleported to another position in the universe:
Quantum Teleportation of a Human? - video https://vimeo.com/75163272
and as Ms. O'Leary (News) has wisely noted previously:
“But information is fundamentally relational”
Thus, since information is 'fundamentally relational' then this 'relational' fact provides a resolution for why reality coheres as a whole. Pastor Joe Boot puts the mystery, that is inexplicable for materialism, this way:
"If you have no God, then you have no design plan for the universe. You have no prexisting structure to the universe.,, As the ancient Greeks held, like Democritus and others, the universe is flux. It's just matter in motion. Now on that basis all you are confronted with is innumerable brute facts that are unrelated pieces of data. They have no meaningful connection to each other because there is no overall structure. There's no design plan. It's like my kids do 'join the dots' puzzles. It's just dots, but when you join the dots there is a structure, and a picture emerges. Well, the atheists is without that (final picture). There is no preestablished pattern (to connect the facts given atheism)." Pastor Joe Boot - quote taken from 13:20 minute mark of the following video: Defending the Christian Faith – Pastor Joe Boot – video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqE5_ZOAnKo
Verse and Music:
John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. Steven Curtis Chapman - Lord of the Dance (Live) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDXbvMcMbU0
bornagain77
November 23, 2013
November
11
Nov
23
23
2013
05:49 AM
5
05
49
AM
PST

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