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Tag Archives: spirit

Delving into the Bigfoot Aliens who built the Pyramids in Giza

ImageThe Science Channel and Animal Planet have some excellent science and nature programming that I enjoy watching with my son. It makes me happy to see his interest piqued by Big Cat Diaries or How It’s Made or The Wonders of the Universe.

ImageBut it troubles me that sometimes these shows will end and immediately something about Bigfoot’s Ghost comes on. The positive effect of quality program rapidly erodes when juxtaposed against pseudo-science hogwash and I’m not sure how to handle it other than to constantly talk to him about what good science looks like compared to a well choreographed hoax or wild goose chase. ‘Does the Loch Ness Monster really control the US Stock Market?’

‘We may never know….’

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Explore an expanding Universe and a shrinking Intellect back to back on the science channel

‘But wait!’ you say.’Isn’t there some merit to asking the question? I mean, we don’t know for sure do we?’

Of course. The robot overlords may actually be the ones who keep making us forget where we left our car keys. But is it really the most likely answer? Maybe you weren’t paying attention when you put them down because you also had groceries, your iPhone and a couple of old coffee cups in your hands when you came home.

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Gad Zooks! A ghost bite!

Do we have no way of sorting out probable causes from improbable ones?

Discovery Communications, owners of The Science Channel, The Discovery Channel, TLC and other media outlets offers this mission statement:

 

dcimissionstatement

Hey, Ghostbusters was entertaining and engaging. But was it enlightening?

 
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Posted by on February 28, 2014 in Uncategorized

 

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Dawkins and Chopra

Unfortunately, I missed the live stream of a debate between Richard Dawkins and Deepak Chopra this weekend. I made the faulty assumption that I would be able to view / listen to it later, but for some reason that I don’t understand, youtube has blocked replay of this event in the United States. I’ve been assured that there was nothing particularly groundbreaking in this event…

Chopra says, “Blah blah, quantum, blah blah blah, consciousness, other way of knowing…”

Dawkins replies, ” What in God’s name are you talking about?”

A clip of a prior interaction between the two can be found at:

As my previous post hints, there is a problem in the communication of science to the public. It may be added that there is a deep valley between the way that scientists speak and the way that the public – or more importantly, the way some public personalities like Chopra- speaks.

Dawkins can be heard in the video clip above trying to make sense of Chopra’s language. Is he speaking in metaphor or does he mean to speak literally?

 
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Posted by on November 11, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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