RTFA: http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/the-pseudo…

Welcome to a special edition of Nobel Intent. Beyond keeping you familiar with the comings and goings of modern science, we have consistently expressed concern regarding science education and the public understanding of science. Key to that understanding are the basic features of science, such as how scientific concepts are formulated and tested and why they typically produce a better understanding of the natural world than alternative approaches.

But science can be a tricky thing to define, and it’s sometimes easier to contrast it with some of the arguments that pose as science. Unfortunately, most of those issues are entangled with implications that keep the basic question—is this science?—obscured by emotional responses. Thus, the science of climatology has become entwined with political, economic, and policy issues. The science of evolution conflicts with the political and religious goals of some individuals. Even basic scientific questions about the nervous system get embroiled in family and personal health issues when topics like autism and radio frequency radiation are broached.

That’s why a special edition of the journal Homeopathy appears to be a gift, allowing us to look at science and psuedoscience without getting entangled with politics and religion. Homeopathy claims to be a form of medical practice that’s based on the principle that “like cures like.” Given a set of symptoms, a homeopath will identify an herb or chemical that causes similar symptoms. Following a predefined ritual, the homeopath performs a series of dilutions of that chemical that continue well beyond the point where there should be no molecules of it left—the final solution is essentially well-shaken water.

Totally cool – these folks usually review computing gear.

RTFA: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295805,00.html

A woman accused of running a high-end Washington prostitution ring says the U.S. government may be targeting her because Muslim men used her escort service before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In court papers filed this week, Deborah Jeane Palfrey said she might have to divulge classified information to defend herself against racketeering charges. She said the information possibly including the identities of customers from the Middle East could have national security implications.

She is asking a federal judge to schedule a secret hearing to discuss the information.

Everybody is pulling the “national security” card. This reasoning appears to be a little contrived.

RTFA: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/OTIII/

The head of the Galactic
Confederation (76 planets around
larger stars visible from here)
(founded 95,000,000 yrs ago, very space opera)
solved overpopulation (250 billion
or so per planet — 178 billion on
average) by mass implanting.
He caused people to be brought to
Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H Bomb
on the principal volcanoes (Incident 2)
and then the Pacific area ones
were taken in boxes to Hawaii
and the Atlantic Area ones to
Las Palmas and there “packaged.”
His name was Xenu. He used
renegades. Various misleading
data by means of circuits etc.
was placed in the implants.
When through with his crime Loyal Officers
(to the people) captured him
after 6 years of battle
and put him in an electronic
mountain trap where he still
is. “They” are gone. The place (Confed.)
has since been a desert.

L. Ron Bumquist’s first sketched notes about scientology.