Yet Another Web Site

The Jesus Christ Action Figure: with Walk-On-Water Action!

(via APS - What’s New by Bob Park - April 16, 2004)

HAFNIUM-178: JUST WHEN YOU THINK LIFE CAN’T GET ANY SILLIER.

The cover of Popular Mechanics for May proclaims the dawn of the age of atomic airplanes powered by miniature nuclear reactors. These are not old-fashioned fission reactors. These are the new “quantum nucleonic reactors,” a.k.a. hafnium-178 isomer reactors. The problem with fission reactors was that they required too much shielding. The problem with the hafnium-178 reactor is that it doesn’t exist. Carl Collins at U. of Texas, Dallas, claimed to be able to trigger decay of the hafnium-178 nuclear isomer with x-rays. That would be a miracle, but several other groups found it just doesn’t happen. That detail was left out of the Popular Mechanics story, which contains nothing beyond the New Scientist story a year ago (WN 15 Aug 03). The hafnium-178 isomer avalanche now seems destined to join hydrinos, zero-point energy, gravity shields, cold fusion and all the other free-energy fantasies that only work for believers. In the paranormal world this is known as “the investigator effect.”

Here’s a well-documented flip flop list from the Center for American Progress. kos has a summary.

This post has been moved.

(via Daily Kos)

On Sept. 11, 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to outline a Bush administration policy that would address “the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of yesterday” — but the focus was largely on missile defense, not terrorism from Islamic radicals.

The speech provides telling insight into the administration’s thinking on the very day that the United States suffered the most devastating attack since the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. The address was designed to promote missile defense as the cornerstone of a new national security strategy, and contained no mention of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or Islamic extremist groups, according to former U.S. officials who have seen the text [...]

The text also implicitly challenged the Clinton administration’s policy, saying it did not do enough about the real threat — long-range missiles.

Or even after 9-11:
I remember Todd Akin on the radio a day or two after 9-11 saying the attacks clearly demonstrated the need for missile defense.

(via Leoville)

In honor of April 1: Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time

Now I can join WEIGHT WATCHERS!