Tonight the ABC News program Nightline Primetime will be featuring a segment called Beyond Belief: Psychic Power.

I happened to have the opportunity to go to attend the taping of a portion of this program. It’s actually a bit of a long story but they needed 12 men to participate in a psychic evaluation. I volunteered but it turned out they had more than 12 as it was (additional persons were called in case someone could not make it.) Thus I became an “alternate” and ultimately was not used for their evaluation group.

However, I still did get to hang around and help out a bit in the psychic evaluation, which was done by the James Randi Educational Foundation as part of their Million Dollar Challenge. Several self-proclaimed psychics were tested to see if they could read the test subjects accurately. I can’t actually tell you if any won the million dollars. You will have to watch to find out.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this show. Although it’s hard to tell what it will be after it is finally edited, the producers and reporters were generally very friendly to the skeptical side of the story. It’s a rarity to have skeptic organizations made a part of any media report on the paranormal and when they are, they usually are only given a chance for a token comment. In this case, skeptics were a major part of the production and the producers were extremely accommodating of the JREF’s protocol to assure the tests were valid and properly controlled.

I feel very privileged to have been a part of this production.  You *might* even see me in the background when the psychics are being lead into their interviews.  I don’t know if the footage with me in the background is actually going to be used.

The show will be airing at 10 PM Eastern, 9 Central in the US.

Check local listings outside these time zones.  If you are outside the US, the episode will likely be available after it airs.

Finally, for what it’s worth, if anyone happens to come out and claim the psychic tests were rigged, then all I can say is that I’ll attest to the fact that they were not.   Documentation of this can be provided, of course, but I’ll also say that I was there, I saw the items being places in envelopes and the sequestering of the test subjects.   Everything was double and triple checked, agreed upon protocols were followed to the T.

There is a segment of the show where a psychic works with pictures of persons in sealed envelopes.   Each picture was placed in two folders and then in the envelope.   *I* personally put them in the envelopes.  This was witnessed and verified by an ABC news producer, production assistants and members of the JREF staff.   They were then sealed and placed in a secure area until they were used.   This is how the challenge is always done:  extreme measures are taken to make sure it’s unquestionably valid.

Every once in a while (and more often recently) it’s announced that the US government will have to delay or suspend a program or payment because the necessary funds were not allocated to continue its operation or pay for necessary supplies.   This is often the result of partisan bickering and the inability of politicians to agree on necessary appropriations legislation.   In other cases, it’s caused by a clerical error.

The government tends to follow very rigid rules for how funds are allocated, so such budgeting problems can force program suspensions.   Simply having the money is not good always good enough.   A program must also have the approval to spend it and, in some cases, there must be contracts or procedures or suppliers to spend it on.

Of course, it does not just happen in the US; it happens elsewhere too.

A rather amusing story of this type recently came from India.

Via the IndianExpress:

Delay in tendering leads to shortage of homeopathy medicines
Despite having funds for buying medicines for hospitals, the state’s homeopathy department is still to finalise the procedure for drug purchase. While the department is struggling to prepare the rate contracts for drugs, the hospitals are facing constant drug shortage, with no purchase done since April.

A budget of Rs 2.5 crore was approved by the state government for the purchase of homeopathic drugs in the year 2011-12 and the fund of Rs 2.65 crore was granted by the Central government for the same, right in the beginning of the financial year.

However, the tender process for purchase of these drugs is still to be completed. In fact, the directorate of homeopathic medicine has cancelled one tender after opening the technical as well as financial bids, while the retendering process is still on.

The first tender this year was advertised in May. However, due to certain technical flaws, the entire bidding process was cancelled, said V Prasad, Director, Homeopathic Medicine.

However, claims the director, the procedure of retendering is almost complete. “Once the first tenders were cancelled, we immediately went for retendering. Both the technical and financial bids for the second tender were also opened last week,” said Prasad.

Maintaining that the department is doing its best to finalise the process of preparation of rate contract, the director said that within a week, the list of selected bidders will be sent to the government for approval. The approval is done by the High Purchase Committee, which is expected to meet in this month, said Prasad. After the tenders are finalised, the rate contract will be prepared and orders for purchase of the required drugs will be placed.

A shortage of homeopathic medicine? Can’t they just dilute what they have to make more? Oh right, it would cause the medicine to become more potent and could result in an overdose. (sarcasm)

At least it makes me feel a little better knowing that the US government is not the only one with idiotic spending habits. Apparently India has a whole damn department tasked with purchasing magical water from quacks. The statement “Rs 2.5 crore” is an Indian idiom meaning 25 million rupees. It seems that this news story applies to the purchasing of homeopathic preparations within the state of Utter Pradesh. Thus, the budget for such purchases is 25 million rupees from the national government plus an additional 26.5 million rupees from the state government for a grand total of 51.5 rupees for this one state of India. That is just over one million US dollars or about .8 Euro. Still quite a bit considering the this is only one state in India containing less than 1/5 of the national population and the national budget for all healthcare is only about 4.35 billion US dollars a year.

It’s also quite amusing to see that this is actually being taken seriously, as if the shortage of empty pills and overpriced water were some kind of emergency. The press is even reporting it with an apparent straight face.

I do not mean to trash India in this respect, of course. India does have many legitimate, intelligent, honest medical professionals. For those who do practice real medicine and are trying to make a difference in the lives of those in need, this kind of idiocy is enormously frustrating. (I know, I’ve talked to a few of them.) There are indigenous efforts within India to bring a measure of healthy skepticism to medical care, but they face an uphill battle. Homeopathy has become deeply entrenched, and the government of India recognizes it officially as a form of medical care.

Homeopathy isn’t actually Indian in origin, of course. Despite having taken hold in India to a greater degree than just about anywhere else in the world, the lunacy of homeopathy was established in India by of the Victorian-Era British colonists.   It is both ironic and tragic that the quackery of homeopathy would continue to thrive in India and undermine good healthcare even long after the country gained its independence.

I find it absolutely stunning that there are groups today who use violence and blatant disregard for the law in an attempt to stop technological advancements.   It’s an almost religious fury that labels certain fields of science and technology as evil and so dangerous that they must be stopped by any means necessary.  It’s as if they are cursed or embodied with black magic and for those who are so fearful, no action to stop them is too extreme.

It ranges from weedwackering the genetically engineered crops they fear so deeply to sending bombs to terrorize, injure  or kill.

Via the Miami Herald:

Mexico: Anti-technology group sent college bomb

MEXICO CITY — An anti-technology group calling itself “Individuals Tending to Savagery” was responsible for a package bomb that injured two university professors just outside Mexico City, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

The explosion at the Monterrey Technological Institute’s campus in the State of Mexico on the outskirts of the capital Monday injured two professors, one of whom was involved in robotics research. Neither suffered life-threatening injuries.

Mexico State Attorney General Alfredo Castillo said at a news conference that the group’s involvement was identified from a partially destroyed note found at the scene.

Castillo said the group opposes experiments with nanotechnology and has staged attacks on academics before.

“The ITS is a movement that, in accordance with its ideals, opposes any development of neo- or nanotechnology anywhere in the world, and they are linked to attacks in several different countries of Europe, including Spain and France,” Castillo said.

He confirmed that the package had been disguised with labels from a well-known express package service, but did not say which one.

A manifesto signed by the group and posted on a radical website said: “We have no remorse, our aim was precisely for the guards to deliver the package to the intended professor,” who it identified as Oscar Camacho.

…

The ITS statement said Camacho’s “police impluses” to inspect the package triggered the detonator, adding that “there is no doubt that curiosity killed the human.”

The statement said nanotechnology and other technologies damage nature and native species and contribute to natural disasters.

It appears that the group in question is a kind of anti-industrialization movement with similar beliefs to the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. Essentially, such groups believe that mankind is best left in a primitive tribal state, living off the land in a hunter-gatherer or subsistence lifestyle. While such societies do tend to result in very low life expectancy and high infant, maternal and childhood mentality, this is not necessarily seen as being negative by members of such movements, as humanity is usually seen as being a problem in and of itself, one which is best kept in check through such attrition. The philosophy also takes a page from Amory Lovins, seeing low technology and primitive, tribal lifestyles as somehow being more honorable or honest than modern technological societies.

Of course, this philosophy does have a major problem: given the choice, humans will generally tend to prefer a safer, easier lifestyle and given the option for leisure or comfort will take it. Not only this, but humans tend to be inventive and will develop new ways of doing things, including tools and technologies and refine and improve those technologies. Even if you took all technology away from human kind, we’d start to invent it again. Hence, the use of violence and intimidation to try to stop this from happening.

Such groups tend to be especially fearful and intolerant of any technology that they see as especially unnatural or which ignorance has bread fear over.

Sound familiar?

Nanotechnology is an especially exciting area of science which also has a number of anti-technology and green groups scared. It combines aspects of chemistry, materials sciences and computer and mechanical engineering. It may also include aspects of biology and atomic physics.

Basically, nanotechnology is the use of atoms and molecules to construct nanoscopic structures capable of acting as machines or of presenting useful physical properties by virtue of their structure. The push to nano-scale structures came in part from the desire of computer chip designers to push technology to creating the smallest possible functional electrical circuits. It also grew out of the availability of technologies like the scanning-tunneling electron microscope.

Of course, such concepts are not entirely new either. Chemists and materials scientists have long understood the importance of molecular structure in determining the properties of a material. Nanoscopic “machines” already exist in nature in the form of proteins and enzymes. The semiconductor industry has also long used molecule-level engineering to produce special materials for use in electronics.

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Every year I hear this same bullshit and it never irritates me less:

Via NPR:

Nuclear Power Criticized On Hiroshima Anniversary
On Saturday, Japan commemorated the 66th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima, but the ceremony was different this year.

In March, a massive earthquake triggered a meltdown at the Japanese nuclear plant in Fukushima. The plant continues to leak radiation in the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl. Saturday’s ceremony focused on the nuclear attack on Japan in 1945, but the country’s ongoing nuclear disaster loomed large.

The atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m., killing 70,000 people instantly. As the bell tolled Saturday, most people froze, closed their eyes and put their hands together to pray.

Cicadas roared in the trees overhead.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan remembered the dead from long ago, then he spoke of Japan’s most recent atomic tragedy.

“I deeply regret believing in the security myth of nuclear power and will carry out a thorough verification on the cause of this incident,” he said.

The “security myth” was the Japanese government’s pledge that it could control the atom. Officials said the same forces that leveled Hiroshima could be harnessed to power this resource-poor nation. Most Japanese believed it for years.

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, a poll showed that 70 percent of Japanese now want nuclear power phased out.

After Saturday’s ceremony, anti-nuclear activists took their cause to the streets of Hiroshima. They drew a direct line between the two atomic events separated by more than six decades.

One group of activists peeled off and headed to the Chugoku Electric Power Co. The company has been trying to build a plant 50 miles from Hiroshima for the past three decades. Local resident have been fighting the whole time. Saturday, they shook their fists at the granite walls of the company’s headquarters.

Toshiyasu Shimizu, a member of the Kaminoseki town council, says fighting the plant has felt lonely at times.

“People, including those in the neighboring town, were not interested. But now they see nuclear power as their own problem, so there has been a dramatic difference,” he says.

After all these years, Shimizu says, he feels like most of the country is beginning to agree with him

They’re not the same:

Lets get something straight:  Nuclear weapons are not nuclear power reactors and nuclear power reactors are not nuclear weapons.  Power reactors don’t produce the kind of material usable for weapons and are operated by different entities for different purposes.   Many nation states have nuclear power programs but do not have nuclear weapons.  Conversely, a nuclear power program is not necessary to produce nuclear weapons.   The US, for example, amassed hundreds of weapons in the 1940’s and early 1950’s, yet the first electricity producing commercial reactor was not operational until 1956, long after the weapons program was well established.

Both nuclear weapons and nuclear power reactors use nuclear fission.  That is the extent of their similarities.  Yet not even this is quite the same, since weapons use fast fission of a supercritical mass of material without a moderator, while reactors use a continuous thermal-spectrum reaction in low enrichment material.    Fission is a fundamental source of energy as broad and natural as fire and nuclear energy is as broad a category of energy as chemical energy and even more fundamental to nature.

On Ionizing Radiation:

Nuclear weapons produce radioactive fallout.  Nuclear power plants also produce radioactive material, although except in the case of catastrophic failure, it is contained and sequestered.   None the less, it would be a mistake to see radiation as some kind of evil entity unique to artificial nuclear reactions or uniquely dangerous.   ANY kind of energy can be deadly if it is not contained and exists in sufficient quantity.   People have been killed by the loss of containment of high pressure steam or heat.  Others have died when insulation breakdown exposed them to electricity or when a machine flew apart and the mechanical energy bashed their skull in.  Historically, if you actually look at how many lives are lost, the failure of proper containment of radioactivity is quite low in deaths per gigawatt hour.

Ionizing radiation is also a fundamental force of nature, just as other forms of energy are.  It is part of the electromagnetic spectrum and exists with or without human activity.  It’s produced by stars, lightning bolts, natural radioisotopes and other sources.   It is also produced by humans, in many cases intentionally to produce medical images or destroy tumors.   Medical radiation has saved countless lives.   Its dangers exist only as a product of its missus.  Just as a medical laser or scalpel can heal or harm.

Finally, most of the deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki had nothing to do with ionizing radiation.  Most died as a result of heat, overpressure or trauma falling debris.

Why is it, we that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the focus of so many memorials, so many demonstrations and such intense media attention when much greater loss of life has gone largely forgotten?

This is photograph shows a Japanese city that has been completely destroyed.  Only a handfull of scattered concrete or stone buildings stand and they are gutted and empty.   However, this is not Hiroshima.  This is not Nagasaki.   This is Tokyo.   Tokyo, which was never subjected to nuclear attack was largely reduced to cinders and rubble.  More than 50% of the enormous city was completely destroyed.   The total number killed during the Second World War in Tokyo is unknown.   The official counts top 100,000, but in reality, it was probably far more.

Tokyo was destroyed by a combination of conventional high explosive bombs and incendiary bombs.   It was the incendiary bombs that caused the most damage.   The destruction of Tokyo was accomplished by several B-29 bomber raids, with each attack involving dozens or hundreds of aircraft, up to 520 bombers in some cases.   During the Second World War, the US developed highly effective tactics for the use of incendiary bombs.    These included the use of high explosive bombs to blow open roofs and break apart buildings followed by wave after wave of incendiary bombs, packed with super hot burning white phosphorus and sticky napalm, which would splatter onto structures and anything else in the area and create a nearly unstoppable inferno.

Especially effective against cities with many wood structures, firebombing produced a man-made firestorm, a massive city-wide blaze that firefighters could do little to stop.   The flames would become so violent they would form tornado-like vortexes of flames that engulfed whole structures.   The heat could melt glass and crack concrete.   All organic material in the area became fuel.    For those unfortunate enough to be caught in the flames, there was no escape.   In most fires, victims die of smoke inhalation, but in these firestorms, people could be burned to death before they could take many breaths.   Some bodies were cremated on the spot, others were burned beyond recognition.   A few managed to escape the heat and flames in cellars or other sheltered areas, only to suffocate due to the flames consuming all available oxygen.

But Tokyo was not alone in being leveled by firebombs.   There were many more.   At least 25,000 died in the firebombing attacks on Dresden alone.   Hundreds of thousands more, mostly civilians died due to explosive and firebombing of Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Milan, Kobe and elsewhere.   In Japan alone, more than 50 cities were destroyed or heavily damaged by bombing.  Of course, such raids were not limited to the Allied side of the war effort.   The Luftaffa laid waste to Rotterdam, Stalingrad and Warsaw.   Bombing of London, Belfast and other British cities was intended to destroy the cities and kill hundreds of thousands or millions.   It was only due to advanced radar and highly effective air defense, combined with the limited bomb loads of German aircraft that saved the British Isles from similar destruction, though thousands of lives were still lost.   The Japanese also engaged in massive aerial bombardment in China, the Philippines and elsewhere in the Pacific.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be understood not as isolated events but within this greater context of strategic bombing of World War II.

The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed large portions of the cities and killed tens of thousands.   This is really no different than the other air raids of the era, except that it was done with only one aircraft and one bomb.  It took a fraction of a second and not days.   It used a different technology.   Otherwise, it was no more deadly or devastating than conventional bombing.

Of course, the ethics and effectiveness of citywide bombing can be debated. At the time, precision bombing was not available in any large scale and the destruction of urban areas was considered the most effective way of both forcing an enemy to consider surrender and destroy their ability to make war. The Second World War was the last true example of total war, where the entire economies and industries of world powers are shifted completely to making war and as such, are considered targets in their own right.

So perhaps we should ban fire, since that has proven to be a much more horrific weapon.   It’s killed scores more than nuclear weapons.  It’s easier to acquire, nations are more prone to using it, it is just as indiscriminate, perhaps more so, it kills in a mercilessly painful manner, it’s environmentally destructive and it can easily get out of control and cause more damage than had been planned.

Of course, fire also powers everything from automobiles to candles and even the cells in our body use a form of low temperature, enzyme-catalyzed combustion in cellular respiration.

Finally, why I like nuclear explosions:

(Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb)

To most the image of a nuclear explosion is one of horror and destruction.   There’s certainly good reason for this.  The idea of such a device being used against humanity, to destroy cities and end lives is a horrific one.   Nobody would want to see a modern nuclear weapon used in anger.  The consequences would be a nightmare.

Yet a nuclear explosion is also something else.  It is a release of energy, a huge release of energy.   That’s really all that an explosion is.   Explosions can be used for fighting wars or for fireworks, mining, seismic sounding, explosive welding and any other number of purposes.  Nuclear explosions are huge because of the density of the energy source they tap.  They use the most fundamental type of energy in the universe and do so with very high efficiency.

Nuclear bombs are by far, the most energetic devices humans have ever created.   And unless there is a source of antimatter in large quantities for the taking, they will be the most energetic devices humans have ever created.   The largest bombs produce more energy than all humanity produced for thousands of years yet they could fit in your garage.   When set off, they are the greatest expression of humanity’s ability to harness the forces of the universe to produce energy – so much energy they transform huge areas of the atmosphere into plasma and create shockwaves that travel around the earth.  Large nuclear explosions can create their own weather systems, move mountains or carve enormous chambers under the earth’s crust.

It’s a nearly cosmic level of energy.  It has no upper bounds, as explosives can be built using the Teller-Ulam design to any size.   This is humanity’s great step toward something almost unimaginable.

While fallout concerns have greatly limited peaceful nuclear explosions on earth, the potential is even greater beyond this planet.  Nuclear explosives could potentially change the orbit of asteroids, mine asteroids and comets and propel spacecraft to a significant portion of the speed of light.

On earth, nuclear explosions have proven as awe-inspiring as they are destructive.   They are the only example of humanity seeing the effects of unrestrained thermal fusion up close.  The elements einsteinium and fermium were first observed in the fallout of a nuclear blast. The power of nuclear explosions has helped unlike the secrets of the ionosphere, the earth’s crust and fundamental properties of matter.

It is simply energy: A huge amount of energy. Whether it is destructive depends on how it is used.  Like all forms of energy, it has dangers and can be a weapon.  It also has much greater potential.

You may have read a couple of weeks ago about Greenpeace attempting to halt research by CSIRO on genetically modified wheat, which had been engineered to produce end products with a lower glycaemic index.    They did this by writing a letter which they then sent out to be signed by a number of “prominent” scientists, who weren’t all that prominent and not all of whom were really scientists.  They didn’t actually mention that Greenpeace was behind the letter but it ended up coming out anyway.

Not surprisingly, the letter didn’t end up stopping the research nor did subsequent attempts to seed the press with fear-mongering reports of dangers of genetic engineering.

It should be noted that the project they were trying to stop was pure research and not actually aimed at producing products for human consumption, at least not in the near term.   The wheat had been grown experimentally for a few years and is currently undergoing study in laboratory animals.   This is expected to eventually lead to human trails, but that’s not something that CSIRO has immediate plans for.

The wheat was being grown in relatively small and isolated patches on test fields that are some distance away from other wheat crops and in fields that are partially enclosed by a plastic barrier.   Some anti-GMO activists have claimed that the very existence of such crops endangers the world food supply, since rogue genes could be carried away as pollen to fertilize other crops.    CSIRO does take precautions against this, despite the fact that it’s not a very realistic fear.  Most wheat is grown from new seed, not from seed produced by the previous seasons crop, so even if it had been fertilized by pollen from the test fields, it would not actually result in the genes being brought into new crops.    Also, considering the general distribution and distances, it’s just not a very likely thing to happen.  Nor would it really make much difference even if it did.

Most Australians seemed to understand that CSIRO was proceeding with an abundance of caution and that the wheat was being grown as part of a scientific study with the aim being to better understand the potential of genetic engineering of this type with the potential that it could be applied to future food crops – assuming it is safe, which all current research would indicate it is.    After all, who could possibly oppose scientific research on such an important area of study?

With the public and politicians unwilling to buy into Greenpeace’s fear-mongering, they went to plan B:  weedwacker the whole damn crop.

Yes, that’s exactly what they did.

And if that’s not bad enough, in complete defiance of what they apparently stand for, they used a two-stroke gasoline powered weedwacker.   They could have used one powered by electricity and charged by solar cells or a wind turbine.   They could have dispensed with the weed wacker and used a human-driven sickle.   But no, they used one that runs on gasoline and produces smog.   Who woulda thunk???

In broad daylight and with no attempt to hide their destruction, Greenpeace proclaimed they were standing up against the evil scientists and doing the right thing for humanity and mother nature.   They broke into the research compound, destroyed the entire crop and then had the audacity to post pictures of it on their blog.   Apparently they felt their crimes were so noble and justified that nobody would dare call them on it and actually prosecute the organization for these acts of vandalism.

They were wrong.

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A few months ago, a law requiring cell phones sold in San Fransisco to carry a warning label failed to pass the city council. Now it seems they are trying again. It may sound a bit odd that a city would require this – things like product safety are usually legislated on the national level. This is, however, San Fransisco, and so they’re a lot better than everyone else and want us to all know that they’re much more progressive and special, and also, their farts don’t smell. (that was sarcasm, in case you didn’t catch that)

This time the law is likely to pass, because everyone supports it, since if they don’t, it proves that they are just a shill for the evil big corporations that want to eat your children.

Via PC Magazine:

San Francisco Gives Cell-Phone Radiation Law Another Try

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has approved a bill that would require a warning at stores that sell cell phones about the possible hazards of cell-phone radiation.

Last June, the City of San Francisco tentatively approved a bill that would have required merchants who sold cell phones within the city of San Francisco to display the “Specific Absorption Rate,” an FCC-mandated specification of radiation, next to the phones. Failure to comply would result in fines of between $100 to $300.

The bill approved this week would amend that bill with new provisions. Interim Mayor Ed Lee must still sign it into law.

In July 2010, however, the CTIA filed suit against the city, arguing that officials had no right to hand down regulations on an issue already addressed by the Federal Communications Commission.

There has been no definitive link that scientists have found linking the radiation emitted by cell phones to cancer. In late May, the World Health Organization classified mobile phones as a possible risk for a specific type of cancer in humans.

….

The new bill would mitigate the 2010 bill by proposing instead that customers would be notified of the dangers of cell-phone radiation, which would represent a strengthening of the law, as it includes an educational component, said Supervisor John Avalos.

“We are amending this ordinance…that would instead of having a rating per make and model of cell phone at point of sale, we would have a sign that merchants would provide in the stores close to the cell phones,” Avalos said. “I would say that cell phone emit radio frequencies and that they would also have to provide at the point of sale — they would have to provide at the point of sale a document sharing — to share with buyers on how to protect themselves from radiofrequency emissions.

“Those measures you can take to protect yourself, include using a headset instead of having the phone next to your ear, or keeping the cell phone in a casing that is less conductive of radiofrequency and there are other measures as well,” Avalos said.

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Yet again, a story about what can only be described as obsolete, inferior and downright dangerous transportation is receiving a lot of attention. It would seem to be describing some kind of future where common people have taken up the challenge of making sustainable transportation. In reality, this is no future any sane person would want.

Via the New York Times Blog:

People-Powered

Can’t get there from here? “Transport: A Survival Guide,” the summer 2011 issue of Colors, the magazine published by Benetton, asks us to imagine the day when the planet’s oil supply finally runs out. Vividly photographed and accented with fact-rich footnotes, it offers alternatives that are largely grass-roots and low tech: a boat made of Styrofoam and plastic bottles or tricked-out bicycle taxis (complete with radios) from Kenya, or the profusely decorated, three-wheeled motorcycle carts called chakdas (complete with instructions on how to make them) from Gujarat, India, that can carry up to 15 passengers. But there are also rickshaw-pulling robots made by a farmer who lives in a village outside Beijing and a solar-powered car designed by an inventor in Jiangjiang, China. The car may look like a tin can covered with solar panels, but when the inventor took it out for its first test drive in 2008, he passed a line over a mile long of drivers waiting to get into a gas station.

Lets take a closer look at what the actual “alternative” transportation proposed:

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If you happen to be at involved at all in the organized skepticism community, then you likely know about “elevatorgate.”   Basically it’s a rather unfortunate series of events involving Rebecca Watson, Richard Dawkins and others.    I’m intentionally not linking to the quotes (you can find them easily on Google if you so choose) but I will paraphrase the situation:

Watson was at a hotel for some conference she spoke at.  She stayed out late, going to the bar or whatever.  Then, at 4 AM she went back to her room, taking an elevator.   Some guy from the conference was on the elevator.   He tried to strike up a conversation.  He said he found her interesting and suggested she might want to come back to her room for a cup of coffee.  She declined.   They exited the elevator and that was that.

Now according to Watson this made her very uncomfortable.  It was an elevator, which is the quintessential (if not factually supported) place for rape to occur.  She was a woman and he a man and our society is one in which women are most often the victim of sexual assault and men most often the aggressors.   It was forward and the act of inviting a woman back to your room in a hotel has some obvious undertones (even if it didn’t necessarily mean anything other than he actually wanted to have some coffee.)

Richard Dawkins took Watson to task on this with some rather sarcastic comments which seem to be intended to point out that she really wasn’t a victim of anything and in a world where women are having their genitals cut in Africa, can’t drive cars in much of the Middle East, are sold into slavery in the Middle East and Southeast Asia and where many places still operate in a near-feudal manner, Watson is not really in that bad of shape and should just get over the fact that someone asked her an awkward question in an elevator, which probably was not the best venue.

What followed was a lot of really far-out feminists coming to Watson’s defense and attacking Dawkins.  They said he didn’t understand because he was a heterosexual Caucasian male from a privilege background, while Watson is a … heterosexual Caucasian female from a privilege background.   They repeatedly said how men “Just don’t get it” – that women live in a world of terror where every guy they encounter is a potential rapist and where the very act of making a social invitation means they must fear that you are planning on assaulting them.   Some either didn’t get Dawkin’s sarcasm and disgust for the culture of victim-hood that has permeated western society or thought he was somehow putting down women who actually do suffer horrible acts of violence by asking those who were asked to coffee to grow some thicker skin.

Of course, I’m a man so I can’t ever understand this.  Somehow others can know what I can understand but I can’t understand what they can.   Somehow they know what my background is and my life experiences but I don’t know there experiences.   And also, apparently every woman knows “what it’s like to be a woman” because there is only one single experience of being a woman, it’s not like, they are all different or anything, or like there is no one ‘anywoman’ who can tell you what the experience is for all XX chromosome members of humanity.

Oh and if you see a paradox here, that just proves you’re already a bigot and a rapist.

But before going into this any further, there’s a question nobody seems to have asked:  DO RAPES ACTUALLY HAPPEN IN HOTEL ELEVATORS?

Sure, they have happened.  In the history of human race and the billions of hotel stays that have been made, they have happened.   But lets get something straight:  people have also been struck by meteors on at least two occasions.

As Wattson suggested, if you Google “Hotel Elevator Assault,” you will find plenty of pages, but then take a closer look.  Many of them are about how to avoid it, some of them are about her and others simply have all three words together in the same page, such as “Kobe’s accuser said after the assault, she went to the hotel elevator” or “The alleged attacker was seen on a security camera exiting the elevator on the 11th floor.”

But what about actual occurrences of women being raped or assaulted in hotel elevators.   Is it common?   Sure, it’s commonly feared.   People fear dying because of nuclear power plant accidents too.  People fear having their throat slit by an intruder in their bed at night.   Yet these are pretty small risks.

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What the hell are Greenpeace and similar groups going to be thinking about this?   It seems like they may have been hit by a genuine conflict that even their spineless leadership can’t slip around.

Via the Associated Press:

Traces of radiation found in 2 whales off Japan
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese whalers caught two animals along the northern coast that had traces of radiation, presumably from leaks at a damaged nuclear power plant, officials said Wednesday.

Two of 17 minke whales caught off the Pacific coast of Hokkaido showed traces of radioactive cesium, both about one-twentieth of the legal limit, fisheries officials said.

They are the first whales thought to have been affected by radiation leaked from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant since it was hit by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

“The levels are far below the limit, and the meat from the catch is safe for consumption,” Fisheries Agency official Kosei Takekoshi said.

One of the minkes had a cesium reading of 31 becquerels per kilogram, and the other 24.3 becquerels, compared to the legal limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram for highly migratory marine products.

The 17 whales were caught off the shores of Kushiro city — a main coastal whaling hub — during an April 25-June 10 expedition.

The agency has not previously surveyed radiation in whales, so no comparison is available before and after the Fukushima crisis.

The government has banned fishing around the coastal nuclear plant. Local government and fisheries officials have been monitoring radiation in seafood along the coast weekly.

What must they be thinking??

“We hate whaling, because people like whales and it gives us good publicity to harass whalers. But whaling provides evidence of “radiation” and people are really scared of radiation. We hate nuclear power a real lot. Whaling is bad because whales are natural and cuddly. But whaling is good because it gives us more radiation headlines to scare people. But it kills whales. But the whales are radioactive so they don’t belong in the environment anyway. But it’s wrong to kill them. But it’s wrong to irradiate them. But doing so makes nuclear power look bad.

Whales are natural. But radioactive whales are a danger to nature. But whaling is more human intervention. But human intervention is okay as long as it somehow hurts nuclear energy’s future.”

And by the way: One would expect some radioisotopes to be found in marine life as a result of the discharges from Fukushima. This is not unexpected. It’s also a trivial amount of radioactivity.

NOTE: NO BODIES WERE ACTUALLY FOUND

Numerous media reports indicated that a mass grave containing children “may have been found” (just like cell phones may cause cancer.) It has since been confirmed that no bodies were found. No grave was found. There was no evidence that a violent crime had been committed on the property

Here’s basically what happened:

Police in Texas were contacted by a self-proclaimed psychic who indicated that they had information, presumably from a psychic vision, which indicated that a mass grave containing thirty or more dismembered bodies could be found at a home in Hardin, Texas, about 70 miles from Houston.  The caller never gave their name but called at least twice.   It’s worth noting that there are no reports of 30 missing persons in the area or of ongoing kidnappings or anything else which might lead authorities to believe they were looking for a mass murderer.   None the less, the tip was apparently taken seriously.   It has been reported that the called seemed to know details of the property and the interior of the house.

The local sheriff’s office investigated and found that nobody was home at the house and the occupants had not been seen in about two or three days.  This is by no means sinister.  The couple who owned the home are long haul truckers and are often away for several days.  Their 16 year old daughter had also lived in the home until recently.   Background checks of the home owners came up clean and neighbors said that they never saw anything suspicious.   The owner was eventually tracked down – he was in Georgia on a trucking route and expected to be back in a few more days.

Police checked out the property and noticed an unpleasant smell in the back yard.   As it turns out, this was just uncollected garbage.   They also noted what appeared to be blood on the back porch.  The blood apparently was left from an incident that occurred about two weeks prior.   The ex-fiance of the couple’s daughter had apparently had some kind of domestic dispute in which he got drunk and slit his wrist in a suicide attempt (or possibly not a real suicide attempt so much as a dramatic act).  He didn’t die, but left quite a bit of blood which the home owners had tried to clean up, although it seems traces were left.   Of course, police were able to verify this as the incident had been reported and an ambulance called.

None the less, police were able to get a search warrant for the property.   At least 15 police vehicles were on the scene.  They searched it, brought in cadaver dogs and found…. nothing.   Surprise?   No, not really.

Thankfully, the daughter of the owners was located and able to get to the scene with the keys to allow investigators in, thus avoiding a broken down door.

And to make matters worse:

Despite the fact that no bodies were found, it seems that there was some confusion over whether there was a tip about bodies or whether they were actually found.  A number of news outlets jumped the gun and reported that 30 bodies had been found in a mass grave.

Such as this press outlet, which is a fairly typical example of how this was reported in the US and around the world today:

Mass Grave Full Of Childrens bodies
There’s been a gruesome discovery in the United States.

A possible mass grave has been uncovered in Texas with up to 30 bodies reportedly found at the rural property east of Houston.

Many of the bodies are reportedly those of children who have been dismembered.

It’s believed US federal agents received a tip off from the public.

They want to search the home on the property but so far , the FBI says the residents have been “unco-operative’.

CNN Initially reported (before retracting the story):

At least 20 bodies, including those of children, have been found at a home in Hardin, Texas, a federal official told CNN. Officers are securing the scene, the official said.

Now, why this really really really bothers me:
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