Could the “Roswell Incident” of 1947 have been more than the crash of an American balloon-borne sensor system?   According to a relatively new claim it was in fact the crash of a secret Soviet spy aircraft.  The idea that the Soviet Union might attempt to conduct aerial reconnaissance flights over the US in the late 1940’s does not seem that far fetched until you read the entirety of the claim being made.

Via Yahoo News (includes video clip of Daily Show Interview)

New book says USSR was behind Roswell UFO
By Claudine Zap

Is truth stranger than conspiracy-theory fiction? A new book on Area 51 that’s already generating a ton of buzz says there was no alien spacecraft that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Instead, Stalin did it–maybe.

According to Annie Jacobsen, the reporter who authored “Area 51,” the spaceship was actually a Soviet spy plane that came down during a storm. Jacobsen claims it was filled with bizarre-looking, genetically engineered child-sized pilots. Then-Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was hoping, Jacobsen alleges, that the news would cause widespread panic in the U.S.

The story gets even stranger: The leader of the USSR had apparently been inspired by the 1938 radio adaptation of the HG Wells story “War of the Worlds,” produced by Orson Welles. The broadcast triggered panic in some listeners who tuned in and mistook it for a real-life alien invasion. (Though later students of the episode claim that the media of Welles’ day vastly exaggerated the scale of public alarm over the broadcast.)

And those ET-looking aviators? They were scientific experiments created by the “Angel of Death,” Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, for the USSR after the war. The flight was piloted remotely, according to accounts in the book, and was filled with a crew of “alien-like children.”

According to Jacobsen’s source, a retired engineer who was put on the project in 1978, the look of the human experiments could explain the alien conspiracy theories: “They were grotesquely deformed, but each in the same manner as the others. They had unusually large heads and abnormally shaped oversize eyes.”

Is any of this true? There’s no way to prove it. Documents surrounding the Roswell incident are still classified–as is virtually all information related to the mystery spot.

Still, lack of proof hasn’t exactly stopped the book from sparking speculation on the media circuit and on the Web. In the last day, Yahoo! searches skyrocketed 3,000 percent for “area 51 book.” And the tome is penned not by a crackpot conspirator, but a respected journalist.

Even the New York Times gives her credence, writing in its review: “Although this connect-the-dots UFO thesis is only a hasty-sounding addendum to an otherwise straightforward investigative book about aviation and military history, it makes an indelible impression. ‘Area 51′ is liable to become best known for sci-fi provocation.”

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In general, scientists try to use terminology that is clear, straight forward and describes what something is in a way that avoids confusion.  Unfortunately, there are times that terms can be deceptive or downright misnomers.   This can happen for any number of reasons.  Often it is because something is believed to be something that it is not and even after the error is corrected the name sticks.   Other times categories may broaden as more is learned or things once considered related may diverge. There may be more complex historical reasons.

Unfortunately, these terms can make things very confusing, especially for those who are new to an area of study.

A few examples:

Haemophilus influenzae - A pathogenic bacteria which has absolutely nothing to do with true influenza, a viral infection. In 1933, the bacteria was incorrectly identified as the cause of influenza. The name apparently stuck, even after the mistake was identified.

Heavy Metal – This term is commonly used for toxic metal elements. The term is accurate for poisoning by metals like mercury or lead, which are heavy. However, it is also used for other types of metal poisoning, such as beryllium poisoning are also considered to be “heavy metal poisoning” even though beryllium is not heavy at all. In fact, the weight of a metal has nothing to do with its toxicity. Bismuth, for example, is heavier than lead, but non-toxic.

Because of the confusion over this term, IUPAC has taken the unusual step of suggesting that the term no longer be used and instead be replaced with the more accurate and straight forward “toxic metal.”

High Frequency/Shortwave Radio - HF radio uses frequencies between three and thirty megahertz, corresponding to a wave length of anywhere from 160 to about 10 meters.    By most current standards this is not high at all and the length of the waves is quite long.   Cell phones use frequencies of at least 800 mhz with wave lengths of less than one meter.  Indeed, most modern broadcasting, networking and other wireless devices use much higher frequencies.

It is therefore possible to have a statement that, on the surface seems to make no sense at all, such as “When you’re dealing with really low frequencies, such as with an HF radio system, it’s common to have inductively loaded antennas.”

The confusion comes from the fact that, at one time, the most important frequency range for radio communications was in the 300 kHz to 3 Mhz region.  This was thus dubbed the “Medium Frequency” range.  Frequencies up to 30 Mhz were considered to be “high.”  As technology evolved, however, even higher ranges started to be used.  These were dubbed “Very High Frequency” and then “Ultra High Frequency,”  finally, needing more extreme adjectives there was “Extremely High Frequency.”

But EHF is really not extreme by current standards, and VHF is more like “medium frequency,” while HF is considered “low.”   Confusing, isn’t it?

Bluegreen Algae – Not algae at all, but actually a type of bacteria.

Nutritional Calorie – Actually one thousand physical calories.

Fossil Fuel – Though fossil fuels are produced by the decomposition of ancient biological material, the process is not related to fossilization, which is the mineralization of biological material.

Cold Cathode – Most cold cathodes actually operate at an elevated temperature from the environment.  They’re not actually “cold.”  They just don’t have an independent heater.

Geomagnetic North Pole – The magnetic pole of the earth is actually equivalent to magnetic south of a magnet.  It’s all rather confusing.   A bar magnet has a “north pole” and a “south pole.”   Since opposites attract, if a bar magnet is placed in the magnetic field of another magnet, the north pole will point to the south pole of the larger magnetic field.   The “north pole” of the earth is the direction to which the “north pole” of a magnet will point, and therefore is actually magnetic south.

Any additional examples would, of course, be appreciated!

While the world was obsessing over the problems with cooling the cores at severely damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, there are a few things that seem to have gone all but unreported.

This is a terrible situation that goes far beyond the nuclear plant issues.

• As of this posting, at least 2,800 Japanese are confirmed dead. The actual number of dead is unknown.   Many thousands more are missing and feared dead.  Estimates of the actual dead range from ten thousand to more than twenty thousand.  In some areas, half the population is missing and feared dead.
• The number of seriously injured is unknown, but believed to be enormous.   Japanese hospitals are flooded and many hospitals have sustained serious damage and are left with limited or no water or electricity.
• Infrastructure has been destroyed.   Numerous sewer and water systems in Northern Japan are so damaged that major sections will need to be completely rebuilt.   Telecommunications links are severed.  The electrical grid has been severely damaged with transformers, power stations and transmission lines destroyed.   Trains are unable to run because of destroyed track and highways are damaged, making it difficult to transport victims to safety and get supplies to the damaged areas.   Even outside the area directly effected by the quake, power shortages may cause rolling blackouts and energy rationing.
• The number of Japanese left homeless has been reported in he millions. Some of those displaced will likely be able to return to homes that are severely damaged, but recoverable.   However, the total number who have completely lost their homes and all their property is unknown and may be hundreds of thousands or more.
• Hundreds of thousands of Japanese businesses have been destroyed.   Even large businesses like auto makers have seen extensive damage. Millions of workers may be out of a job.
• Reconstruction estimates are now up to 180 billion US dollars and may increase.   The scope of this event is so large that it is almost impossible to fix a single cost to it, as it is so large it exceeded the limits of conventional market economics and could undermine the monetary system of Japan.   Insurance companies and financial institutions are in danger of being wiped out along with retirement funds and other savings.
• Though it has hardly been reported in the media, dam failures have destroyed thousands of structures.
• The crisis has exceeded the ability of japan to provide temporary housing, food and other supplies.   Many are without food or water.
• Refineries are severely damaged, some resulted in huge fires and discharges of oil.
• With sewer and water systems destroyed, thousands of bodies washing in from the sea and huge areas flooded, Japan faces a sanitary and ecological disaster that may dwarf Hurricane Katrina.   The tsunami that followed the quake inundated sewage treatment plants, chemical storage facilities, gas stations and industrial areas.   The level of chemical and biological contamination remains unknown.  Meanwhile, fires are dumping huge plumes of smoke into the atmosphere.

The New York Times has a very sobering gallery of before and after satellite images of the areas hit by the quake and tsunami.

Meanwhile the media is having a field day with the nuclear reactors.   Though the plant was damaged heavily, this is the least of Japan’s problems.

I fear that the continued obsession with the nuclear reactor situation may lead to precious resources and attention being diverted from those who need it most.

A little bit off topic, but here’s a great example of why things are not always quite what they seem on television.    By picking the right sequence of shots and editing it together cleverly, you can make something seem much different than it is.

The following infamous outtakes are from a commercial for Paul Masson wines staring Orson Welles.   While Welles may have been one of the best actors and directors of our time, by the end of his life he was a raging alcoholic.   In the takes bellow he was quite obviously tanked.   It was filmed in the late 1970’s.

And here’s the final product.   Welles came back to the studio (presumably a bit more sober) to do the voice-over for the final commercial. Yet the visual portion of the ad is entirely from the original takes.  No new video was taken.

A lot of classic editing tricks can be seen here. Notice that while the voice of Welles and background music and sounds imply a continuous scene, the actual footage of Welles never lasts more than a few seconds before cutting away. Other scenes of the party and the wine fill the time while Welles actual appearance on camera is very brief. Still, it’s amazing they were able to salvage anything from the takes with a drunken Orson Welles.

I found this article, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Vaccines, today while thumbing through the Tuesday “Science Times” on the history of vaccination especially as it relates to the founders of the United States. Many conspiracy theorists and anti-vaccine groups will invoke the names and quotes of the founders of the US to justify their message of “freedom from vaccines.”

In fact, this notion is not only scientifically but also historically flawed. Many of the founders of the US were extremely strong supporters of inoculation, which at the time existed in a manner far less refined and safe than today. Yet despite its primitive nature, inoculations were seen as a critical measure for protecting health and represented one of the first major public health initiatives in the United States.

Benjamen Franklin stands out as one of the biggest promoters of inoculation. Franklin was both a politician and a scientist, who helped document the safety and effectiveness of inoculation. Franklin was personally touched by the loss of his four year old son who died of small pox having never been inoculated.

He would later state:

In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way, long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation.

This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it, my example showing that the regret may be the same either way and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.

I’d recommend taking Franklin’s advice. In case you didn’t know, he has a reputation for being a rather wise man.

Yet another major scientific report has been released by the United Nations regarding the long term effects of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in 1986.   The report really states a lot of what we already know:  the full effects of the event on the health of the region are very difficult to impossible to gauge with complete confidence, and while there may be some cancer incidence associated with it, which cancers would have occurred on their own and which are radiation-related is impossible to determine individually.

The report did cite a statistically significant increase in thyroid cancer (no surprise there), which has since plateued and is expected to decline in the years to come.   Thyroid cancer is rarely fatal and is especially associated with exposure to the fission byproduct iodine-131.   The report also notes that twenty eight of the early responders with the highest doses of radiation likely died as a result of that radiation.   This not the general population of the area but the first responders to the scene, some of whom received near fatal doses of radiation.

You can read the whole report here.

A brief summary from 1 focus:

UN releases new report on health effects from Chernobyl disaster
Vienna. A UN scientific committee on Monday released a new report on human health ramifications from the 1986 Chernobyl accident in the then Soviet Union, Xinhua informed.
A total of 134 plant staff and emergency workers suffered acute radiation syndrome (ARS) from high doses of radiation, according to the report compiled by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).
In the first few months after the accident, 28 of them died, the report said, adding Skin injuries and radiation-related cataracts were among the most common consequences in ARS survivors.
Although another 19 ARS survivors had died by 2006, those deaths had different causes not usually associated with radiation exposure, the report said.
The report also said that radiation doses to the general public in the three most affected countries — Belarus, Russia and Ukraine — were relatively low, and most residents “need not live in fear of serious health consequences.”
However, the severe disruption caused by the accident resulted in “major social and economic impact and great distress for the affected populations,” the report pointed out.
The disaster, the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, occurred in April 1986, at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 130 kilometers from Kiev, now capital of Ukraine. The reactor was destroyed in the accident and considerable amounts of radioactive material were released to the environment.
UNSCEAR was established by UN General Assembly in 1955 to review sources of ionizing radiation and the effects on human health and the environment.

While the report does indicate the possibility of upwards of four thousand cancer deaths as a result of the radiation exposure, it should be noted that this is entirely hypothetical and based primarily on the linear non-threshold model of radiation exposure. That said, even if it is true, it would make the death toll of Chernobyl mercifully low compared to the number of deaths in other large industrial accidents or those killed each year as the result of burning coal.

That said, there remains enormous suffering in the region that the Chernobyl accident has come to stigmatize. Having been branded as a people without a future and a place tainted beyond all redemption, the region has seen crushing economic and social depression. Every day, babies are born in the area with severe birth defects and developmental disorders. It is not the radiation that has caused this but poor prenatal nutrition and that most insidious and unnoticed of plagues, fetal alcohol syndrome. As the world continues to point and gawk at those labeled as the victims of nuclear energy, the people of Ukraine and Belarus have been made to suffer an unending stigma and misplaced pity. Drug and alcohol abuse is epidemic.

It is long past due that the groups with a vested interest in demonizing nuclear energy move past this event and stop making it a self-fulfilling prophecy. They are the cause of the social and economic devastation, not the event itself.

Homeopathy is not exactly the kind of thing that one tends to associate with things like logic, accuracy or sanity, but this statement from a new homeopathy page really took my breath away.   The site is like most homeopathy sites:  a lot of claims about how the “skeptic” movement is corrupt and run by big evil corporations and how homeopathy is good medicine and supported by volumes of evidence.

Via “Extraordinary Medicine”

The skeptical movement is an offshoot of the Communist Party. (Really: see the top two links below.) Its top organizers were hired by pharmaceutical company and medical industry representatives to recruit malcontents in bars to spread hate propaganda against non-conventional medical systems. One of the first such skeptic groups referred to itself as “Skeptics in the Pub”. Not surprisingly, their rants against Homeopathy sound like the drunken cacophony of soccer hooligans.

A “who’s who” tour would not be complete if we neglected to mention Sense about Science. This group features a prominent spokesperson who is an advertising “consultant” to pharmaceutical and oil companies. It’s been scrubbed from their website as of this writing, but they get large donations from Big Pharma.

It’s impossible not to encounter ties to the prevailing medical industry among any of the individuals or groups who currently identify themselves with the skeptic moniker. The mainstream media, which depend on advertising revenues from pharmaceutical companies and are always in search of a scandal are often co-opted by business interests that have little regard for the welfare of the average individual.

Sir, I am not and have never been associated with the Communist Party!

Seriously, I’m not a communist. Not that I feel the need to defend myself against such a ridiculous allegation, but I’m just not.  I’m a member of multiple skeptic organizations, but I’m not a communist.

Most skeptics I know are also not communists. In fact, skeptics come from just about all political persuasions. There are certainly many libertarian skeptics, and many who would be considered to be social progressives, modern fiscal conservatives or something else. There are some who are legitimately supporters of socialism, and a few who are unabashedly pro-communism. I have not met any self-described skeptics who are supporters to hardcore, rigidly-enforced Marxism, but I can’t say that they don’t exist.

Whatever the case, the notion that the skeptic movement is at all related to communism is preposterous.

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It’s often claimed that there’s some spectacular new technology, miraclel cure or secret that is being suppressed to keep profits of a certain industry from suffering. It’s one of the most common claims in “alternative” medicine, with the big pharmaceutical companies being blamed for keeping down the truth about cancer cures or natural treatments that would result in huge losses. Another common claim is that the oil industry is responsible for stopping technologies that would allow cars to be powered by water or increase gas mileage ten-fold from seeing the light of day.

Such claims tend to ignore some big problems with the whole idea of a conspiracy to keep down a technology. For one thing, companies and industries have tried to stop the proliferation of competing technologies before and have failed. At best, expensive lawsuits and lobbying have managed to stifle adoption for a short time, but have never kept a truly revolutionary technology from seeing the light of day. It’s impossible to keep information about something big and beneficial contained, especially these days and once it gets out, the incentive to implement it will always exceed the incentive to keep it under wraps.

Above all else, despite the fact that there are companies and industries which would suffer losses, there are others that would reap enormous rewards. Many of these companies and sectors are extremely powerful in their own right, and taken together represent a very powerful force whose own self-interest offers motivation to oppose the suppression of such technologies.

Does anyone really think that Walmart Corporation would continue to happily pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year to fuel their delivery trucks if they could just as easily be fueled by water? Would the massive corporations continue to happily pay billions and billions in worker health plans and lost productivity knowing that homeopathy was capable of solving every health problem known to man?

Lets consider a few common claims and who exactly stands to gain or lose if they were really true.

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You may have heard that a few followers of doomsday christian sects have been talking a lot about May 21st of this year.   They say that this day will be the end of the world, or rather, will be the beginning of the end times, which they expect will take a few months and be complete later this year.   According to them, the 21st will be the date of the “rapture,” an event that some Christians believe will occur before the end of the world, despite the fact that it’s not actually in the Bible – at least not explicitly.

On this website, you can find the logic which is used to arrive at the date of May 21 2011:

JUDGMENT DAY: MAY 21^st, 2011
We know that the year 2011 is the 7000^th year from the flood. We also know that God will destroy this world in that year.  But when in 2011 will this occur?

The answer is amazing.  Let’s take another look at the flood account in the book of Genesis:

Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Faithful to His Word, God did bring the flood 7 days later in the 600^th year, on the 17^th day of the 2^nd month of the calendar aligned with Noah’s lifespan.  It was on this 17^th day of the 2^nd month that God shut the door on the ark,  securing the safety of its occupants and also sealing the fate of everyone else in the world outside of the ark.  They would all now certainly perish in that worldwide catastrophe.

Genesis 7:16,17 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.

Earlier it was mentioned that the church age came to an end in the year 1988 AD.  It so happens that the church age began on the day of Pentecost (May 22^nd) in the year 33 AD. Then 1955 years later, the church age came to its conclusion on May 21^st, which was the day before Pentecost in 1988.

The Bible teaches that the end of the church age would occur simultaneously with the beginning of the great tribulation:

Matthew 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

On May 21^st, 1988, God finished using the churches and congregations of the world.  The Spirit of God left all churches and Satan, the man of sin, entered into the churches to rule at that point in time.  The Bible teaches us that this awful period of judgment upon the churches would last for 23 years.  A full 23 years (8400 days exactly) would be from May 21 ^st, 1988 until May 21^st, 2011.  This information was discovered in the Bible completely apart from the information regarding the 7000 years from the flood.

Therefore, we see that the full 23-year tribulation period concludes on May 21^st, 2011.  This date is the exact day that the great tribulation comes to its end, and this is also the most likely landing spot for the 7000 years from the flood of Noah’s day.

Keep in mind that God shut the door on the ark on the 17^th day of the 2^nd month of Noah’s calendar.  We also find that May 21 ^st, 2011 is the end of the great tribulation period.  There is a strong relationship between the 2^nd month and 17^th day of Noah’s calendar and May 21^st, 2011 of our Gregorian calendar.  This relationship cannot be readily seen until we discover that there is another calendar to consider, which is the Hebrew (or Biblical) calendar.  May 21 ^st, 2011 happens to be the 17^th day of the 2^nd month of the Hebrew calendar.  By this, God is confirming to us that we have a very correct understanding regarding the 7000-year timeline from the flood.  May 21 ^st, 2011 is the equivalent date to the date when God shut the door on Noah’s ark. Through this and much other Biblical information, we find that May 21 ^st, 2011 will be the day when God takes up into heaven His elect people. May 21^st, 2011 will be Judgment Day! This is the day God shuts the door of salvation on the world.

In other words, in having the great tribulation period conclude on a day that identifies with the 17^th day of the 2^nd month of Noah’s calendar, God is without question confirming to us that this is the day He intends to shut forever the door of entry into heaven:

John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

The Bible is very clear that Christ is the only way into heaven.  He is the only portal into the glorious kingdom of heaven.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Once the door (Jesus) is shut on Judgment Day, there is no more salvation possible on earth:

Revelation 3:7 …These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

The Bible teaches that on May 21^st, 2011, only true believers elected by God to receive salvation will be raptured (taken up) out of this world to meet the Lord in the air and forever be with the Lord:

1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

All the rest of mankind (billions of people) will be left behind to experience the awful judgment of God, a horrible period of 5 months of torment upon earth:

Revelation 9:3-5 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

Hmmm… I wonder, did they remember to account for the transition between the Julian and Gregorian calenders? For the fact that leap years do not occur on years divisible by 100 but not 400? And when does judgment come? Is it as soon as the 21st happens at the International dateline? Or is it staggered based on time zones? Perhaps God just makes it easy and uses Greenwich Mean Time.

But seriously, does anyone really believe this? Apparently so.

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Recently a friend of mine posted the following message on her Facebook account:

2011 is just going to suck just as much as 2010. i hate the whole idea of this “new year” optimism bullshit. just sayin

Wow. It’s sad to see someone really that down about the current period of time.   I suppose I’m not surprised.  I do know that I tend to look at the world a lot differently than most people, who don’t really ever to stop and think about how great it is that we have the Haber-Bosch Process or that, thanks to showers, toilet paper and anti-perspirant, most people no longer walk around with severe body odor.

I admit it’s easy to get down about the state of things these days. The economy is in the worst shape it’s been in in a long long time. China is becoming more and more dominant of a world power. Unemployment is high. The National Debt of the US is climbing at an alarming rate, while in some other other countries (Greece, Spain, Ireland) it’s climbing even faster. Crime has risen in many countries that had previously experienced reductions. NATO troops are stalemated in Afgahnistan, and Pakistan is looking more corrupt than ever. Energy prices are rising.

Yet I submit that right now, if you live in the US, Canada, Australia, Western Europe, Japan or any other fully industrialized modern country, life is actually really good right now. Perhaps it’s not as good as it was a couple of years ago, but it’s a hell of a lot better than at any other time in human history. If those who lived a few generations back could see how we lived today they’d be shocked by the near paradise that exists. Seriously.

It’s easy to forget, but here are a few reasons why 2011 does not suck:

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