The ID Update

Today, we are happy to share with you our 2009 Progress Update which covers the highlights of the 2009 fiscal year (a calendar year) and some information about what we are working on now. As you may recall, last year we published our first full Progress Report to update our community on our mission, our achievements, and our hopes for the future.

How Obama Let Down Mr. Spock

Back in 2008 I wrote on Near Death Experiences (NDE’s).  I have an interest in this topic as I have frequent exposure to near death; my wife has a predilection for watching Judge Judy.  Since 2008 there have been a few studies on the topic of NDEs as researchers try and find evidence that consciousness transcends the brain, if that is what a NDE represents.

An ongoing series of postings about the latest, cutting-edge research in physical sciences, engineering, and related sciences, brought to you by the staff of Physics Today Online

I went to the library and took a look at a book by James Patterson. It was pretty much the literary equivalent of a TV cop show. I couldn't really see myself reading it all the way through, but it was better-written than I'd expected. It's hard for me to see why Patterson wants to keep doing it (even if his coauthors are doing most of the work at this point). But I suppose that, once you're on the bestseller list, it's a bit addictive and you want to stay up there.

We discussed here, Kevin Carey replies here.

Today, we are happy to share with you our 2009 Progress Update which covers the highlights of the 2009 fiscal year (a calendar year) and some information about what we are working on now. As you may recall, last year we published our first full Progress Report to update our community on our mission, our achievements, and our hopes for the future.

As is obvious, the administrative hearing on John Freshwater’s appeal of the decision of the Mt. Vernon Board of Education to terminate his employment as a middle school science teacher did not resume on Sept 10, as had been previously hoped. The hold up is Freshwater’s request that the Ohio ...Pleiotropy found this 9 hours ago on pandasthumb.org Find more top science news, videos, and blogs on ScienceBlips: Life Science

Detroit Free Press asks, Just how big a mess is the gulf oil spill? and provides some comparisons, such as “If you took the oil spilled in the gulf and converted it into gasoline, that would produce 58.6 million gallons of gas — the amount American drivers burn every three hours and 43 minutes. It’s enough gasoline to fill the tanks in nearly 3.7 million cars.

I know we have been focusing on the vaccine issue extensively, but this is crunch time and the anti-vaccine forces are relentless. We are now facing a regular seasonal flu spiked with the H1N1 pandemic. Our best weapon against morbidity and mortality caused by the flu is information, and yet the public is being barraged with misinformation designed to encourage poor choices and thereby result in maximal morbidity and mortality.
I confess I was never impressed with FDR’s famous quip, “All we have to fear is fear itself,” – I think there is plenty else to fear. But his sentiment is very appropriate to the current situation – fear mongering around the seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines is what we have most to fear.
And of course, as is almost always the case, accurate information is complex and requires a nuanced understanding. This creates uncertainty, which is easy to exploit to manufacture unreasonable fear.

Would you like to live in an authentic Victorian house - without updates?

Folks, a few people who were subscribing to the NERS feed via ScienceBlogs ...

The software industry has used Manny Lehman's research to excuse endless maintenance fees to fix bugs that shouldn't exist

I don't know when was the last Page Rank Update exactly, But when I accessed my PayPerPost account, I was overwhelmed by the number of available Opps for me to grab. When I checked the Pr of this blog, I was really glad that it went a notch higher from PR 2 to PR 3 this year.This is really a great new year for this blog... I hope my other blogs will soon have even a PR of 1... I just hope that

Apple plans to unveil new software for the smart phone this week.

Etwa 13.000 Menschen werden in Deutschland Jahr für Jahr mit der Diagnose Schizophrenie konfrontiert. Mediziner wie Thomas Nickl-Jockschat von der RWTH Aachen versuchen herauszufinden, welche Genvarianten zu der Erkrankung beitragen und wie die Störung sich im Gehirn auswirkt.

This just in from the Red Planet: Mars rover Opportunity has set a longevity record as it attempts a marathon trek across dangerous terrain; meanwhile, Spirit is in peril from the advancing Martian winter. Despite their troubles, both rovers remain in the hunt for new discoveries. Details are provided in today's story from Science@NASA.

Good old Voyager 2; she takes a licking and keeps on ticking. I just had a chat with project scientist Ed Stone, and he's "optimistic" that they'll fix her problem and get her back her usual work of returning data from beyond the edge of the solar system. The mission has zeroed in on a flipped or bad bit in the flight data system being the likely culprit for the spacecraft's current problem with formatting science data properly. Remember that ....

 Update: As loathe as I am to give any positive nods towards the JREF forum, this thread is interesting... for what it's worth. 

International Journal of Clinical Practice