Friday, May 27, 2005

Having become increasingly fed up with and frustrated by creationist crap over the last few months (note, to the right, my current tagline), I was very glad to see this excellent list of 15 refutations to creation "science" from Scientific American today. A handy guide when one wishes to dismiss such destructive silliness.

Posted @ 1:33 PM

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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

It might sound like the funny subplot to a West Wing episode, but sadly it's real: NASA is being sued by a Russian astrologer named Marina Bai who claims the agency's Deep Impact mission will damage the psychic fabric of space.

According to a statement issued through Bai's lawyer, when the Deep Impact probe crashes into Comet Tempel 1 on July 4th of this year, it will "disrupt the natural balance of forces in the universe" and thereby infringe "on her spiritual and life values as well as the natural life of the cosmos."

Bai is seeking to force NASA to abort the mission. Not surprisingly, she's also looking for some cash. She wants punitive damages equal to the cost of the endeavor, roughly $300 million.

I can't decide if Bai is a charlatan looking for publicity or just deeply confused and deluded. Either way, I'm sure any disruption in the natural balance of her own life will be purely the result of self-fulling prophecy.

Posted @ 2:56 PM

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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Great news from Comedy Central: The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert is getting his own half-hour program* starting this fall. The Colbert Report will immediately follow and be closely linked to Jon Stewart's Daily. They may even do one of those "tosses" that the cable news nets do, like Larry King throwing it to Aaron Brown between their respective programs.

Where Jon Stewart skewers news shows, Colbert's new effort will take on the trappings of the commentator-driven genre, spoofing the Hannitys and O'Reilly's of the world. Given that Colbert has been doing this on The Daily Show for years, I'd say it's high time he was given the chance to try it on his own.

Will it work? Ask me this autumn. But I have immense faith in Colbert's talents, and given that this new show will be done by Stewart's own production company, it's certainly got the right pedigree.

If nothing else, it means Jon Stewart won't have to pimp shows like Crank Yankers at the end of his broadcast anymore. That in itself is a major blessing.

*NYT link - reg. req. or bugmenot

Posted @ 6:34 AM

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