I know I have posted on this in the past, but there are now available large high-res photos on the Chaiten volcano (with the lightening and what not) at the Big Picture website.

Chaiten Volcano

While on the topic I do recommend popping over to the Big Picture every now and then, they have some great news photography at a higher resolution than you will find elsewhere.

Pharyngula is a science blog by PZ Myers, and he does not take much liking to the suggestion that Alzheimer’s is caused by extraterrestrials.

I can see why a scientist would not be a great fan of the article:

Dr. Salla specifically documents Manipulative Extraterrestrials that use mind control weapons technologies, that interfere with human cognitive functions. Could Alzheimer’s be a side effect of an alleged interference in human cognitive functions?

…Dr. Salla, Dr. Lash, and other learned researchers suggest that such human conditions as Alzheimer’s and Dementia may be appreciated by becoming aware of Manipulative Extraterrestrial interference against human free will.

…The Bible itself in pre-translated forms, as presented by Biblical scholars, actually contains specific warnings against these apparent Manipulative Extraterrestrials, who have apparently sought to interfere in human cognitive/neurological processes.

It would appear that aliens are “Archons” are manipulating our minds, causing diseases and we were warned in the bible before the aliens manipulated our minds to remove the references in later bibles.

Where are these ideas coming from? Searching on the name Dr John Singh turns up another interesting article, also on the website of “The Canadian” this one entitled Totalitarianism as a Manipulative Extraterrestrial Ruse:

…research on the Gnostics, suggests that Manipulative Extraterrestrials called “archons” as “trojan horses”, seek to infiltrate human institutions. David Icke’s testimony inspires consideration on whether signs of activity, that is voided on basic human decency do not suggest the work of an alien intruder, operating in a mimicked human form, using the simple technology of virtual reality…Adolf Hitler, another dictator that ruled over Nazi Germany, in the same era of Joseph Stalin, has been documented as acting as an operative of Manipulative Extraterrestrials, in the perpetration of Crimes Against Humanity, which include the Holocaust. Adolf Hilter has been historically documented as being a member of the UFO oriented Thule society, before his rise to power.

The David Icke reference is an interesting one, but for the moment continuing with the current path the presentation of these articles on a seemingly mainstream paper’s website does seem a bit funny. Admittedly I haven’t heard of it, but I have heard of the Australian, and this seems comparable? Looking at the front page, the first article is about Obama, uh oh….

Hitler became infamous for talking “hope” and peace through “non-aggression packs”, as he prepared for the violence of invasion and “Blitzkrieg” (lightening war).

“Hitler? Are you kidding me?” you might ask. But, who in Germany during the 1930’s in a time of sought democratic renewal, would have predicted the that Germany would start a World War, under a dictatorial government, that would seek to use concentration camps? “Concentration camps? We don’t have those.” Well, that’s not what the evidence suggests, according to investigative journalists that notably include Alex Jones. Mr. Jones and others allege such camps are ready and waiting to accept “designated occupants”

I should note that the article is also written by Dr John Singh. I suddenly realise we are in woo-woo territory. When you scroll down the articles, an awful lot of them seem to involve extraterrestrials:

Manipulative extraterrestrials and mind control

Capitalism: An alien ideology from who were as human being [sic]

Hurricanes and the Bermuda Triangle

Ethical Extraterrestrials and the maturation of the galactic culture

Florida: UFO’s, extraterrestials and the parachutist

(I would also note a number of articles about transgender issues. Go figure).

So we are talking about a UFO website with links to Gnosticism and thus to broader Conspiracy Theory issues. Which provides the link to David Icke, who, on googling, turns out to be a leading proponent of conspiracy theories. From his wikipedia article:

At the heart of Icke’s theories is the view that the world is ruled by a secret group referred to as the “Global Elite” or “Illuminati,” which he has linked to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, while not denying that these are an anti-semitic hoax. In 1999, he published The Biggest Secret, in which he wrote that the Illuminati are a race of reptilian humanoids known as the Babylonian Brotherhood, and that many prominent figures are reptilian, including George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, Kris Kristofferson, and Boxcar Willie.

This is great, you want your conspiracy theories Big and Beautiful. The Jews running the world was a bit simple, and the ET’s going around re-writting the bible and giving us all headaches is not really up there. But George Bush and the Queen being secret reptilian humanoids, now that is a conspiracy theory you can love. We are in Dr who territory with that one.

I always kind of knew these theories were out there, but to see them all out there so blatantly makes you pause. Kind of like running bare foot into bindies in the grass and having to back out very slowly. In this particular case there is also a big turd with the bindies:

David Icke is coming to Melbourne in April 2009! Truth Movement Australia is putting on an event- you can book tickets now!

Some elements of the Right in the US have been distressed by the neutral point of view of Wikipedia that they have created a new wiki: Conservapedia.

in the description of Conservapedia it is described as

Conservapedia is a clean and concise resource for those seeking the truth. We do not allow liberal bias to deceive and distort here. Founded initially in November 2006 as a way to educate advanced, college-bound homeschoolers…The starting point for increasing your knowledge, your faith and the well-being of you and those around you is to understand concepts better…No other encyclopedic resource on the internet is free of corruption by liberal untruths.

In How Conservapedia Differs from Wikipedia, they identify some of the key differences:

We do not attempt to be neutral to all points of view. We are neutral to the facts. If a group is a terrorist group, then we use the label “terrorist” but Wikipedia will use the “neutral” term “militant”.
We do not allow liberal censorship of conservative facts. Wikipedia editors who are far more liberal than the American public frequently censor factual information. Conservapedia does not censor any facts that comport with the basic rules.

This makes for a sometime bizarre website that can at times be hilarious as their entire view of the world is shifted rightward. There are lots of pages to see this, for example the page on Evolution, which manages to have pictures of not only Charles Darwin, but also Lysenko, Stalin and Hitler.

To give an example of Conservapedia I thought it might be worth having a look at the Barack Obama page to see what they say.

The first problem is in the first paragraph:

In 2007, Obama was the most liberal Senator.

This was certainly the conclusion of one magazine, there of course have been counter arguments to this claim, but to Conservapedia, because it fits their ideological view it is now a fact. In contrast Wikipedia reports this “fact” thus:

the National Journal ranked him as the “most liberal” senator based on an assessment of selected votes during 2007.

IT goes downhill from there:

Obama has declared himself to be a Christian, yet he never replaced his Arabic name with a non-Arabic one as many do casting doubt on his politically self-serving claim.

The implication here is that anyone who does not Anglicise their name is suspect in conservapedia’s view.

Obama downplays his Islamic background by claiming that his Kenyan Muslim father was a “confirmed atheist” before Obama was born, but in fact less than 1% of Kenyans are atheists, agnostics or non-religious.

This is an attempt to make Obama’s claim suspect, but of course there are 32.5m Kenyans, so there are 325,000 atheists in Kenya, it is not so unlikely his father was one of those.

Obama wore an American flag lapel pin after 9/11, but later stopped wearing it without adequate explanation.

We are now descending into quite clear distortions of the truth, for Obama did provide an explanation for not wearing a lapel pin:

You know, the truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest, instead I’m gonna’ try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.

It is only Conservapedia which has somehow classified this an not “adequate”. Certainly, this type of editorialising is not within the rules of Wikipedia, which is why it is biased against conservative “facts”.

And of course the article goes on in a similar vein. In many ways it is funny, but also quite disturbing.

I thought it would be a good idea to make a comedy about Global Warming, it would surely be a good way of getting at the topic.

But now I have found out that Someone Stole My Idea!

http://www.sizzlethemovie.com/

Club Troppo praise the website 3 Quarks Daily, and I can only second that motion and advise you to visit the site.

Flickr the photo blog is a an interesting site, full of often wonderful photos. One way I found is to check the Flickr blog. These are a couple of photos I found on there.

Link. Photo by Flickr user Phil H used under a Creative Commons license

Link. Photo by Flickr user Froots used under a Creative Commons license

Two great bloggers in the US are Matt Yglesias and Ross Douthat who are both staff writers for the Atlantic Monthly Magazine (a magazine I recommend that you read, you can get it at most good newsagents, the only problem is the cost. I would subscribe, but am already over budget on magazine subscriptions). Matt is the nominal lefty and Ross the nominal Righty. They both recently participated in a roundtable at the Atlantic, and I cannot decide which one looks more professional, attractive and.or authoritative. What do you think?

The beauty of the interweb thingy is that it allows people to specialise in really quite narrow topics and let the whole world know about it. Some people are concerned about the in appropriate use of the lower case ‘l’ rather than ‘L’, and have started a website to highlight the problem:http://lowercasel.blogspot.com/