Some REALLY good news!

For a change, we have some really good news. My absolute favorite beverage is not only good for me, it may actually be better for me than water!

Read all about it here!

Antibiotic resistance increasing

Comes now this worrying piece of news from the BBC.

We are already to the point where anyone who uses antibacterial soap (outside of a clinical setting) is committing a crime against humanity. These soaps need to be outlawed for general public use as soon as possible.

The next step is that anyone who is prescribed an antibiotic will have to report to a clinic or pharmacy every day to be given that day's dose. Failure to appear should result in an automatic arrest warrant.

Perhaps before we get to that point, we need to criminalize the overprescribing of antibiotics. Doctors who prescribe antibiotics for known viral infections must be stopped.

Forget global warning. The real danger to humanity is bacterial, and we're working for their side!

No Concrete Proof ...

Scientists in Sweden are reluctant to say that there's any proof that Global Warming (at least on the scale the popular culture believes) is even occurring, let alone that humans are somehow causing it.

Click here to read the article.

Expelled - The Movie

Norma and I went to see Expelled last night.

My reactions: It was pretty good, but it could have been great.

Ben Stein is an incredibly intelligent man, but he resorted to Michael Moore-like tactics in his film. He made himself look stupid on one occasion in particular, and made the people who didn't agree with him look stupid on a number of occasions.

In one particular case, he was talking to a scientist with a definite naturalistic worldview, and asking about how life began from some goo. The scientist said that one theory (among many) is that the molecules necessary for life were attached to crystals as they grew. In any case where crystals grow, there are "mistakes", and these "mistakes" could account for certain molecules getting together in particular ways. OK, I'll agree that this is patently stupid, but it doesn't bolster Mr. Stein's argument in any way when the film cuts from this interview to a clip of a fortune teller gazing into a crystal ball. It's a blatant attempt to make the scientist appear goofy, which he did quite well on his own.

The link between a naturalistic paradigm and the horrors of Nazi Germany was explored in great (if somewhat graphic) detail, and it's probably that part that earned the film a PG rating. Still, it was nothing adults shouldn't see. In fact, it is precisely the sort of thing adults need to see.

I'm still digesting what I saw. I won't recommend against seeing the film, I just feel that it could have been done with a bit more class. Mr. Stein has seen too many Michael Moore movies, I fear.

PS: I used my CB&G gift certificate yesterday to buy two books:
The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel
Darwin's Black Box by Michael J. Behe
I'm already a third of the way through Strobel's book. Expect a review soon.

Is there any hope for more nuclear power in the US?

Is there any hope for more nuclear power in the US? Probably not, as long as the news outlets are so biased against it.

Exhibit A:
Headline on CNNMoney website: "Nuclear Plant Shutdown Causes Massive Florida Power Outages"
Excerpt from the actual story: "A problem with the electrical grid in Florida caused power outages stretching from Miami up almost to Jacksonville that affected as many as 3 million people Tuesday and caused a nuclear plant to automatically shut down ..."
Truth: A problem outside the nuclear generating facility caused instability in the electric grid, so the power plant shut down (safely) as a precaution. The headline doesn't just give the impression that the plant was at fault, it blatantly says so.

The fact is that most Americans have an irrational fear of nuclear power. The amount of radiation release in the Three Mile Island incident was less than is released in the average chest X-ray. And Chernobyl ... well, that reactor was not built to any reasonable safety standard. The reactor building was not even encased in concrete. FAR more radiation occurred in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from the Chernobyl incident than from the one at Three Mile Island.

And here's something I didn't know: One big concern with nuclear power is the waste. Fortunately, most of the waste can be recycled and used for medical and other beneficial uses. France, which generates a huge percentage of it's power with nuclear plants, stores all of it's waste in a small room. We can't do that in the USA thanks to Jimmy Carter. He was concerned that terrorists and other countries might use waste to make bombs, so he outlawed ALL recycling of nuclear waste. Didn't make any difference. The bad guys have found many cheaper sources of what they want.

Until laws and attitudes change, we have little hope for the inexpensive, clean and safe power that the nuclear option offers.

There's an EXCELLENT article in this month's Imprimis magazine on the future of nuclear power in the USA. Well worth the 5 minutes or so it takes to read it.

A major meterologist on global warming

I have long been a "fan" of Dr. William Gray. Well, OK. Not a fan, but at least I know who he is. He's recently spoken out about global warming and the effects humans have on it. A brief story about it appeared on Focus on the Family's Citizen Link website. Good reading, and good to hear that Dr. Gray has his head screwed on straight. I always thought he did.

That blurb on the FotF website references an organization called Cornwall Alliance. I had not heard of that group, but their website is worth a look, especially for Christians who care about God's creation but remain skeptical about how much damage we humans do to it. It's here.

Another venerable institution loses it's luster

It was bad enough when Focus on the Family's Dr. Dobson announced that he's willing to let radical liberals like those supported by moveon.org run our country. My respect for the man and the institution he built has moved down from 100% for the first time ever.

Now, hard on the heels of that shocker comes word that Al Gore is one of the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. What Gore's work has to do with peace is beyond me. What his work has to do with truth is an even deeper mystery.

The Nobel Peace Prize committee has made some stupid blunders in it's history, but this ranks right down there with the worst.

What is this world coming to?

I still walk the earth...

... but I've been lax at posting lately. I just looked, and the last post I made was while I was in San Francisco. Bad.

I get a little magazine called "Imprimus" from Hillsdale College. It is on my "must-read-immediately" list when it comes in each month. It's only a single article, usually about 4 pages, on a topic of current interest. If you don't get it, you should. It's free. If you can't find out how to get it, let me know and I'll have them add you to the list.

This month's issue is on the Global Warming situation. I was going to write about it here, but my buddy Wes did such a good job that I'll just point you to his blog. I'm lazy that way. He even went to their website and got the entire article and quotes it!

Click here to read it!

The Midnight Sun

It's one thing to know a fact. Sometimes, it's quite different to experience it.

Matt has just returned from Canada. He told a story about the first morning up there. He woke up to bright sunshine from outside. Looking over, he saw his friend Clifford sitting up on his sleeping bag with a confused look on his face. Clifford was staring at his watch. When Matt asked what was wrong, Clifford said something must be wrong with his watch, since it was indicating barely 5:00am, and it was light outside. As Matt and Clifford talked about it, one of the other guys on the trip (who had been up there on past trips) piped up and said, "Hey, guys! You're in Canada! It gets light early up here. Go back to sleep!"

I remember Vicki (a friend who lives in Anchorage) talking about playing ball games well into the late hours during the summer, since the sun doesn't go down until late. It makes sense, and I know how it happens, but it's still a jolt to really LOOK at the numbers. So, here are some sunrise/sunset times from yesterday, June 21:

Anchorage: Sunrise - 4:22am. Sunset - 11:43pm. That means that (if it's fairly clear) it won't get dark until well after midnight! But hold on, it gets more interesting ...

Fairbanks: Sunrise - 2:59am. Sunset - 12:48am. That's having the sun above the horizon for 21 hours and 49 minutes every day!

The real shocker was looking up the numbers for Barrow: Sunrise: None. Sunset: None. Daylight: 24 hours, 00 minutes. And, tacked onto the bottom of the climate report in a most matter-of-fact manner was this little note: "The next sunset is August 3rd."

(Just for the record, all times are from the National Weather Service's daily climate reports.)