SITE MOVED

THE CONSTANT SKEPTIC UPDATE SITE HAS CHANGED TO WORDPRESS:

http://www.constantskeptic.com/wordpress

sorry for the inconvenience... but self hosting is a lot better than blogger hosting

Alberto Strengthens, Networks Salivate

Alberto strengthens, but I'm still skeptical about this
one, probably just a lot of rain... wind speeds are right
around 85... it has strengthened and regained it's center,
which was not expected to happen... I predict Category 2
when it hits sometime tomorrow on the northern gulf coast.

The longer it lingers over the gulf, the greater chance it
has of strengthening to a Cat 3 or even 4, which of course
the news media is hoping will happen. They are salivating
in their mobile new units right now waiting and watching
for any sign of destruction.

Take my advice, shut the doors, lock the shutters, unplug
the TV and hope for a tidal wave to wash away all the evil
networks out there. Don't forget your scuba gear and
canned food.

The threat posed by bad television and misinformation is
way worse than any destruction a hurricane could
muster.... for misinformation destroys the fabric of
rational free thinking which is the only hope we can have
for humanities sustainable progress in the coming years.

Oldest book to be deciphered using same technique as Judas Gospel

Associated Press Athens, June 1, 2006
A collection of charred scraps kept in a Greek museum's storerooms are all that remains of what archaeologists say is Europe's oldest surviving book - which may hold a key to understanding early monotheistic beliefs. More than four decades after the Derveni papyrus was found in a 2,400-year-old nobleman's grave in northern Greece, researchers said Thursday they are close to uncovering new text - through high-tech digital analysis - from the blackened fragments left after the manuscript was burnt on its owner's funeral pyre. Large sections of the mid-4th century B.C. book - a philosophical treatise on ancient religion - were read years ago, but never officially published.

Now, archaeologist Polyxeni Veleni believes U.S. imaging and scanning techniques used to decipher the Judas Gospel - which portrays Judas not as a sinister betrayer but as Jesus' confidant - will considerably expand and clarify that text.

The scroll, originally several metres of papyrus rolled round two wooden runners, was found half burnt in 1962. It dates to around 340 B.C., during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.

"It is the oldest surviving book, if you can use that word for a scroll, in western tradition," Veleni said. "This was a unique find, of exceptional importance."

Greek philosophy expert Apostolos Pierris believes the text may be a century older.

"It was probably written by somebody from the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras, in the second half of the 5th century B.C.," he said Thursday.

Anaxagoras, who lived in ancient Athens, is thought to have been the teacher of Socrates and was accused by his contemporaries of atheism.

"I believe some 10-20 percent of new text will be added, which however will be of crucial importance," said Veleni, director of the Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum where the manuscript is kept. "This will fill in many gaps, we will get a better understanding of the sequence and the existing text will become more complete," Veleni told The Associated Press.

Meteor evidence found in Antarctica - 250 million years old

A massive crater in Antarctica may have been caused by a meteor that wiped out more than 90 percent of the species on Earth 250 million years ago, a geologist said. The 300-mile-wide crater lies hidden more than a mile beneath a sheet of ice and was discovered by scientists using satellite data, Ohio State University geologist Ralph von Frese said WednesdayJUne 7, 2006. This image shows the thickness of the Earth's crust across Antarctica . Thicker crust appears red. The location of the Wilkes Land crater is circled (below right of center). (AP Photo/Ohio State University) (AP)

Cholesterol Myths exposed? Or wackos?

Uffe Ravnskov's The Cholesterol Myths - Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease (2000) is the bible of cholesterol contrarianism. (Henceforth, the author will be referred to as UR.) These contrarians call themselves skeptics but their goal is not to examine all the evidence and think critically about it in the large context of our medical knowledge. Their goal is to cherry pick data to support their contention that low cholesterol is bad for you and high cholesterol is positively good for you. A diet high in saturated fats is never unhealthy, in their opinion. Not everything they say is false. Much of it is true. But everything they say is taken out of context to support their contention.

Joel M. Kauffman, a cholesterol contrarian, exemplifies the claims and methods of these folks. He wrote in Skeptic [vol. 12, no. 2]: "Cholesterol is highly protective against cancer, infection and atherosclerosis" and "high TC [total cholesterol] and LDL levels are beneficial at all ages." These are extraordinary claims and could be deadly, if taken seriously. It is hoped that no reader of Skeptic will throw away his or her cholesterol-lowering medications after reading these claims. Kauffman's source for this claim is a paper by UR: "High Cholesterol May Protect Against Infections and Atherosclerosis." Kaufmann changes UR's "may protect" to "are beneficial" and adds "cancer" for good measure. This kind of looseness with the facts is something to look for when reading the cholesterol contrarian literature.

This is the first installment of a "review" of UR's book. I use scare quotes because I do not plan to point out the good and the bad in the book. I plan to focus only on the bad. Part 1 of this review will cover the foreword, the introduction, and chapter one. But first let me assert that I agree with the contrarians that there is not a strong body of peer-reviewed published research that shows that a person who eats a low-fat diet is guaranteed to have low cholesterol which will prevent that person from getting atherosclerosis which in turn will prevent that person from getting a heart attack. Nor is there strong evidence that a person who eats a high-fat diet is guaranteed to have high cholesterol and get atherosclerosis and die of a heart attack as a result.

all of this taken from The Skeptic's Dictionary:
http://www.skepdic.com

Tropical Storm Alberto

Tropical Storm Alberto is expected to remain a tropical
storm or weaken when it hits the Gulf Coast, thanks to
lots of wind shear tearing apart the storms center. As of
right now there is only a 5% chance of it strengthing to
hurricane force.

Quote of the Weekend

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to
our liberties than standing armies. " - Thomas Jefferson

First Hurricane of season heading for Gulf Coast

First tropical storm of the season.. looks like it is going to strength to a hurricane by Monday, for right now its sustained winds are around 35 mph. read more about it here: http://www.weather.com

Fixing United States perception in the world

Arab-American Corporate Summit - An initial Arab-American Exchange will take place in New York in Fall of 2006, bringing together 50 YAL members with top executives from the U.S. private sector, to establish growth opportunities for qualified interns from the Middle East. This is the first summit of its kind, intent on building international bridges of mutual understanding and respect through business-led actions and initiatives.

from - Keith Reinhard

http://www.businessfordiplomaticaction.org

Scientists can't identify mysterious alien red cells

As bizarre as it may seem, the sample jars brimming with cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis's laboratory in southern India may hold, well, aliens.

In April, Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University, published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space Science in which he hypothesizes that the samples -- water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis's home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001 -- contain microbes from outer space.

Specifically, Louis has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures about 10 microns in size. Stranger still, dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA yet still reproduce plentifully, even in water superheated to nearly 600 degrees Fahrenheit . (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250 degrees Fahrenheit .)

So how to explain them? Louis speculates that the particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria adapted to the harsh conditions of space and that the microbes hitched a ride on a comet or meteorite that later broke apart in the upper atmosphere and mixed with rain clouds above India.