Virtual Toronto

I just found this: the Virtual City of Toronto combines maps and camera views. It should be good for urban planning or just getting a feel for the city.

Their "About Us" page says:

VirtualCity seeks to connect our users to their surroundings through the latest in innovative new mapping technologies. Visitors to our site are able to view major metropolitan areas through seamless digital landscapes encompassing GIS-accurate street-level photography, as well as search business names and view their actual storefront.

VirtualCity���s photographs are collected via mobile communication centers equipped with high-definition video cameras and the latest in global positioning technology. GIS-grade GPS, accelerometers to sense increases and decreases in acceleration, and gyro meters to sense directional changes, all tie into the vehicles��� computer bus to sense each full rotation of the wheels, while custom software compares these readings 10 times per second to create extremely accurate location data regardless of degraded GPS or "urban canyons.���

Millions of photographs are taken of each metropolitan area, giving our users the unique ability to stroll through selected streets, viewing points of interest before they ever leave their computer. In addition, we allow our users to traverse maps traditionally and find detailed directions complete with time and mileage summaries.

There is also a Virtual Montreal.

Astronauts flew while drunk

Later today, NASA is releasing a report that says astronauts flew while drunk in spite of a rule that prohibits them from drinking for twelve hours before a flight. It might have been "only for test flights."

Hot shots!

They think well of themselves. It might be part of a risk-taking culture of test pilots.

Why does Germany hate Scientology?

Slate magazine has an article with this interesting topic.

Some German officials believe Scientology's ideology is rooted in a kind of political extremism—a bit of a sensitive area for Germany since World War II. They also argue that Scientology is not a religion but a business, since local churches operate like franchises of the main organization.

The article adds this interesting bit of news:

While Germany is Scientology's most outspoken critic, other European nations have also been suspicious of the U.S.-based movement. France considered banning the church in 2000, saying in a government report that "when such organisations disrupt public order and violate human dignity, measures should be taken to dissolve them." A few weeks ago, a Russian court shut down a Scientology center in St. Petersburg, saying that the group didn't have a license for its "auditing" and "purification" activities.

What meat inspectors look for

If you eat meat, you should know about meat inspection. That is a health service in which federal inspectors (all two of them) inspect all slaughterhouses to ensure that only healthy animals are sold as food. This interesting link shows some of the things that meat inspectors are looking for: meat inspection for general pathological conditions.

I found a picture of a liver affected by Fusobacterium necrophorum bacteria (see Lemierre's Syndrome in previous post).


And here is the accompanying text:

Judgement : The judgement of animals and carcasses affected with abscesses depends on findings of primary or secondary abscesses in the animal. The portal of entry of pyogenic organisms into the system is also of importance. The primary abscess is usually situated in tissue which has contact with the digestive tract, respiratory tract, subcutaneous tissue, liver etc. The secondary abscess is found in tissue where contact with these body systems and organs is via the blood stream. The brain, bone marrow, spinal cord, renal cortex, ovary and spleen (Fig. 31) may be affected with secondary abscesses. In judgement of the carcass, the inflammation of the renal medulla and contact infection in the spleen and ovaries must be ruled out. A single huge abscess found in one of the sites of secondary abscesses may cause the condemnation of a carcass if toxaemia is present. In pigs an abscess is frequently observed in the jaw and in the spine. Spinal abscesses in pigs are commonly caused by tail biting (Fig. 32). The bacterial agent from the tail penetrating the spinal canal could be arrested in the lumbo-sacral and cervical spinal enlargements, initiating an abscess formation.

Inspectors should differentiate the abscesses in the active and growing state from the older calcified or healed abscesses. In domestic animals, the primary sites of purulent infections are post-partum uterus, umbilicus or reticulum in ���hardware disease���. Secondary abscesses are frequently observed in distant organs. Small multiple abscesses may develop in the liver of calves as a result of infection of the umbilicus (���sawdust liver���, Fig. 33). Carcasses with such condition should be condemned.

The animals affected with abscesses spread through the blood stream (pyemia) are condemned on antemortem if the findings of abscesses are over most areas of the body and systemic involvement is evident as shown in elevated temperature and cachexia.

On postmortem examination, the carcasses are condemned for abscesses, if the abscesses resulted from entry of pyogenic organisms into the blood stream and into the abdominal organs, spine or musculature. An abscess in the lungs may require condemnation of the lungs and an passing the carcass if no other lesions are noted. Liver abscesses associated with umbilical infection require condemnation of the carcass. If no other infection is present the abscess is trimmed off and the liver may be utilized for human or animal food depending on the regulations of the respective country. Multiple abscesses in the liver require condemnation of the organ.

The audience for this guideline is meat inspectors in developing countries. English might not be their first language. I wonder if the Food and Agriculture Organization would be interested in a plain language rewrite, considering that all Web pages are now supposed to be accessible to the general public--and that means using very readable language.

Lemierre's Syndrome

I am watching a TV program on The Learning Channel about a disease that puzzles many doctors: Lemierre's Disease or Lemierre's Syndrome. It starts with a sore throat, fever, great lethargy, and bodily weakness; but that is followed by high fever, stiffness, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, and blood infection.

It's called a "forgotten disease," because it is now very rare: less than one case per million people. So it's often not recognized.

Before antibiotics, Lemierre's disease was fatal in about 90% of cases.

The cause is a bacterium, usually one of the genus Fusobacterium. The bacterium infects the throat but it causes an inflammation of the jugular vein. That causes a blood clot in the jugular. Pieces of the clot break off and take the bacterium to other places in the body, causing a variety of serious and mysterious symptoms.

The first patient developed a brain abscess in the left temporal lobe; she had to have brain surgery. Her head was held still by a frame while the surgeon did CAT scans to find the extent of the abscess and minimize the damage. At that point I remembered that I knew some technical writers who wrote the manuals for the probes and imaging software that are used in brain surgery. It's nice to be helping out behind the scenes.

Friends can make you fat

Close friends gain weight together--even if they live apart. A new study shows that if a friend gains weight, you're 57% more likely to gain weight. Family members have a similar, but lesser effect. Neighbours have none. And this isn't a small study. It's an analysis of more than 12,000 people over more than 30 years. Researchers knew who were spouses, who were siblings, who were neighbours, who were friends, and what they weighed.

The same seems to occur for weight loss, but fewer people lost weight.

The Twelve Kinds of Ads

According to Slate, there are only twelve kinds of ads in the world. This video is supposed to teach you to recognize and resist them all.

Humans are changing the climate

"Canadians prove that humans are causing climate change"

The Globe and Mail newspaper has published a brief summary of research by Environment Canada.

Humans are directly affecting global rainfall patterns and have been doing so for most of a century, according to a new study that gives the first solid proof that people are causing critical climate change.

Researchers from Environment Canada say their analysis of global data shows rainfall has effectively shifted away from the region immediately north of the equator — including sub-Saharan Africa, southern India and south east Asia — and moved north to Canada and Europe, and south to the tropics below the equator.

And the main cause behind the global change is human activity, say lead authors Xuebin Zhang and Francis Zwiers, from Environment Canada.

“It's the first time that we've detected in precipitation data a clear imprint of human influence on the climate system,” Mr. Zwiers told The Globe and Mail.

“Temperature changes we can cope with. But water changes are much more difficult to cope with. That will have economic impacts, and impacts on food production, and could ultimately displace populations.”

The scientists gathered global rainfall data from 1925 to 1999, and then compared it to 14 complex computer climate models.

The rainfall data confirmed what the scientists had speculated could occur thanks to human activity, and in some cases the weather changes went beyond what scientists had predicted.

The Boneyard 1

Welcome to The Boneyard 1, the blog carnival of all things to do with paleontology. This first edition is hosted by Laelaps.

LOL icons of evolution

As inaccurate as the old "onward and upward" theme of evolution might be, it lends itself to amusing twists.

BBC: "Flood leaves 350,000 homes dry"

An alert BookCrosser noticed this headline: "Flood leaves 350,000 homes dry" when the British Broadcasting Corporation wanted to say that flooding in Gloucestershire had interrupted water purification services. It has since been changed to "Floods bring chaos..."

Some 350,000 homes in Gloucestershire will soon be without water because of flooding at a treatment works.

Tens of thousands of homes are without tap water and supplies in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury will run dry in hours, Severn Trent Water said.

About 600,000 people could lose electricity if flooding overwhelms defences around a key substation.

Humanist Symposium 5

The Humanist Symposium is a collection of articles from a humanist point of view.

The man who lives with turtles

Richard Ogust saves endangered turtles, and has 1200 in his Manhattan apartment.
The trade in turtles, including endangered species, from Vietnam to China for food markets has been 15,000 tons per year for many years. Richard Ogust bankrupted himself caring for rescued turtles.

Carnival of the Godless 71

Aarvarkaeology hosts Carnival of the Godless 71. It is a compendium of articles about religion and atheism.

The Dirty Greek has an article about the polytheistic roots of Christianity.

LOLcats: physics

This is my favourite LOLkitten:

Cute kittens for adoption - now with pictures

The two feral kittens are settling in nicely and are just a little more skittish than hand-reared kittens. We have two cats already or we would keep these ones. They are happy together. For more pictures, see my personal blog.

Kinetic sculptures

Take a look at this wonderful video of kinetic sculptures.

They are not the ones illustrated, which are merely pleasant mobiles.

Stem cells heal damaged heart

Wired tells of a case where a young man. with a heart damaged by a nail shot from a nail gun, had two choices: an experimental stem-cell procedure or a heart transplant. He chose the former. He was given medicines to encourage his own blood to make stem cells. Those cells were filtered out and injected into his heart, where they repaired much of the damage.

Christian terrorist is on the loose

After sending another volley of threatening e-mails, Christian terrorist Michael Korn has sublet his apartment; his long-suffering wife has quit her job (one guess as to who's supporting whom), and gone on the run. He's been saying that university professors are child molesters for teaching about evolution.

"What can we say to a man who tells you that he would rather obey God than men, and that therefore he is sure to go to heaven for butchering you? Even the law is impotent against these attacks of rage; it is like reading a court decree to a raving maniac. These fellows are certain that the holy spirit with which they are filled is above the law, that their enthusiasm is the only law that they must obey."
—Voltaire, 1764

Here's a link to an earlier article with Korn's picture.

First moon landing was 38 years ago

This is the 38th anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon.

Thanks to the commenters at Pharyngula, here's a link to "What we learned from the moon rocks."

Friday cephalopod art: Octopus Car Wash

I found this rotating cephalopod adorning the entrance of a car wash in Madison, Wisconsin.

Steam leak in New York

A broken steam pipe in New York caused momentary panic among the residents, who are naturally shy of another terrorist attack.

Viking hoard found in Yorkshire

A father and son walking with a metal detector have found the largest Viking hoard discovered since 1840. Their find is a large bowl containing more than 600 coins and some jewellery buried by Vikings around 930 CE.

(hat tip to LotStreetWiz for sending me the link)

Rare giant squid washes up in Australia

I missed this a week ago: One of the largest specimens of Architeuthis ever recorded has been found on a beach in Tasmania.

OK, so I'm not really a Pharnygulite

I'm someone who's interested in science. I found some good explanations of scientific subjects on Pharyngula. And I found a lot of information echoed about, and decrying, the current wave of anti-rational and anti-intellectual fervour in the U.S.

The name Denyse O'Leary popped up. I visited her Web site to see what she was saying about Stuart Pivar's new book, and found a rant against Pharyngula and "Pharyngulites." I left a comment, but I don't know if it will be published since all comments there must be approved by the blog owner. So I'm reproducing it here:

Denyse,
A set of pretty pictures about how something might happen is not a theory. A theory is a well-tested an explanation of a mechanism. A hypothesis is a guess at how something might happen, based on what we know. A hypothesis suggests experiments that we might try. If a hypothesis passes a few experiments and none disprove it, we can start thinking of it as a tentative theory. But, in the case of morphogenesis, we already know that limbs do not form by pinching off from a torus - they bud from the embryonic body. We also know quite a lot about how Hox genes help to guide formation of limbs by providing chemical gradients that informs cells of where they are in the body. (Please forgive any over-generalization as I am not a working scientist.}

However, Mr. Pivar's self-labelled theory does not take into account what we already know. Instead, he draws some elegant pictures that have no basis in reality. He does not have a theory. He does not have a hypothesis. He has a Wild-assed Guess.

When you get the book, don't forget to look up the people quoted as reviewing it to find out whether they actually said what was quoted or whether it was taken out of context or fabricated or some combination thereof.

It's very funny that Mr. Pivar thinks there are too few genes to account for morphology. I just finished reading a 14-year-old science popularization book, recapping the research of the 1970s and 1980s, which explains that each gene has from one to twenty other genes which promote and regulate its activity, telling it when to turn on or off. Mr. Pivar might be interested in reading it -- it's called "The Secret of Life" by Joseph Levine and David Suzuki.

As a fellow Torontonian, I hope that you can inject a little more objectivity and rationalism into your articles.

UPDATE: Here's what was quoted:

Here's the other one:

As a fellow Torontonian, I hope that you can inject a little more objectivity and rationalism into your articles.

Well, fellow Torontonian, don't move to my neighbourhood, there's a dear. What YOU mean by "objectivity and rationalism" is "behaving like the pharyngulite mob." Some of us have standards.

Way to miss the point, Denyse!

Dolphin use of tools

A few dolphins in Australia's Shark Bay have been observed using sponges plucked from the sea bottom to protect their noses while they search for food. In 1997 researchers proposed this as the first known use of tools by dolphins. The behaviour seems to be learned from their mothers:

Working with DNA from dolphins in Shark Bay--1 male sponger, 12 female spongers, and 172 nonspongers--the researchers found that all but 1 of the spongers shared markers in the DNA of their mitochondria, cellular organelles inherited exclusively from mothers. Despite examining 10 scenarios of inheritance, both for mitochondrial DNA and DNA from cell nuclei, the researchers were unable to explain genetically the observed female-biased pattern of sponge carrying.

Fleeing spiders warn of fire

Shades of Harry Potter II, where departing spiders were a sign of trouble: A young woman noticed spiders leaving the floor above and appearing in her light fixtures. She was afraid of spiders, so she left her room and got into bed with her sister. The next time someone opened her bedroom, it was on fire.

Tangled Bank #84 at Voltage Gate

This fortnight's roundup of science writing, Tangled Bank 84, is called "Science in Ancient Greece." It's hosted by Voltage Gate.

Kittens!

If you are in the Greater Toronto area, or anywhere from the Niagara Peninsula to Oshawa or up to Barrie, I have two very cute kittens that need adopting. They are skittish because their mother raised them in my dad's backyard, but they are settling down nicely. They are short-haired, grey boys about eight weeks old. See my personal blog for news and pictures of similar kittens.



UPDATE: We kept the kittens and they have turned into very sweet small cats.

Punctuated equilibrium: butterflies evolve rapidly to avoid disease

Grrlscientist at Living the Scientific Life has written a detailed report on butterflies that evolved rapidly to avoid bacteria parasites. The summary: only males are susceptible to this bacterium. In 2001, most males were killed in the egg: only 1% of butterflies in populations on Samoan islands were males (sex ratio 1:100). By 2005, the butterflies were still infected but the sex ratio was back up to 1:1 on two of the islands. The males had evolved a suppressor gene. By 2006, butterflies on another island had developed this mutation.

It took only ten generations for the butterflies to make this change.

Usability as a virtue

Vincent Flanders writes about the biggest recurring mistakes in Web design:

Mistake # 3. Mystical belief in the power of web standards, usability, and tableless CSS.

There is nothing wrong with Web Standards, Usability, and tableless CSS except they’re being touted by…guess who?…people who offer web design services specializing in…guess what?…Web Standards, Usability, and tableless CSS.

These are simply tools. Remember, nobody gets excited about the tools used to build a house ("Please tell me what brand of hammers you used!"). People get excited about how the house looks and performs.

Yes, Web Standards can make your site search engine friendlier, reduce bandwidth, etc. Usability is also very important but in an interview in 2004, usability guru Jared Spool puts everything in perspective:

I learned quickly that business executives didn’t care about usability testing or information design. Explaining the importance of these areas didn’t get us any more work. Instead, when we’re in front of executives, we quickly learned to talk about only five things:

1. How do we increase revenue?
2. How do we reduce expenses?
3. How do we bring in more customers?
4. How do we get more business out of each existing customer?
5. How do we increase shareholder value?

Notice that the words ‘design’, ‘usability’, or ‘navigation’ never appear in these questions. We found, early on, that the less we talked about usability or design, the bigger our projects got. Today, I’m writing a proposal for a $470,000 project where the word ‘usability’ isn’t mentioned once in the proposal.

When we work with teams, we teach them to follow the money and look for the pain. Somewhere in [the] organization, someone is feeling pain because they aren’t getting the answers they want to one of the questions above.

Charles Darwin's obituary

Read what Charles Darwin's colleagues thought of the man and his work.

Republicans and racism

The NAACP - the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - invited nine Republican presidential candidates to a forum to express their views. Of the nine, one showed up: the anti-immigrant candidate Tom Tancredo.

They had already invited all the Democratic candidates and had them all show up.

It's a message about whom they consider to be worth addressing.

Jeffrey at Frameshop had the story.

(Hat tip to Pandagon.)

Galaxy Zoo

New photos of deep space, from the Hubble Space Telescope and others, have multiplied the number of known galaxies. You can join in the work of classifying images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey by visiting Galaxy Zoo.

...which harnesses the power of the Internet - and your brain - to classify a million galaxies. By taking part, you'll not only be contributing to scientific research, but you'll view parts of the Universe that literally no-one has ever seen before and get a sense of the glorious diversity of galaxies that pepper the sky.

The human brain is much better at recognising patterns than a computer can ever be. Any computer program we write to sort our galaxies into categories would do a reasonable job, but it would also inevitably throw out the unusual, the weird and the wonderful. To rescue these interesting systems which have a story to tell, we need you.

This is a new service, so lend a hand!

Notable trees

"Gather" has an online article about "Sentinel trees." Their photo reminds me of some sugar maples on property I co-owned in Tweed. Unfortunately the marriage broke up and we sold the land. Maybe ours wasn't quite as spreading. But make the horizontal spread a little less and you have the idea.

I think that venerating notable trees would make a good, educational part of the environmental movement

De-scenting a skunk

A veterinarian on the Dead Runners' Society occasionally posts about his work. This was a propos of meeting skunks while running:

I've dealt with several skunks in my profession. Skunks can make good pets if descented. Their personality is similar to cats: equal parts friendly and aloof.

Just to see if I could do it I agreed to descent a skunk. The owner had called every vet in four states before reaching me. When I said yes she made the long drive from eastern Kansas. As she held the tail down, (tightly!) I injected an anesthetic. When it was out we took it to the barn for the surgery. I planned for the worst by wearing a plastic face shield and a plastic rain poncho with hood.

The scent glands are two bulbs, one on each side of the anus and interposed with the sphincter. In a ferret, the glands are smaller than a pencil eraser. In this skunk, each gland was larger than a golf ball. But the procedure was essentially the same as for a ferret. Working in the barn in summer, the flies got pretty aggressive as I was removing the first gland. It went so well I thought it was safe to go back to the clinic to do the next gland in my surgery. While removing the second gland I nicked the gland and the secretion exploded onto the face shield. The stuff ate into the plastic shield and I had to remove it to be able to see. It also ate into the poncho but nobody would enter the surgery to help me get it off. So with tearing eyes I continued the procedure, blinking furiously and trying not to gag at the odor.

I finished the surgery. The skunk lived. As soon as it was done I took off the poncho, my shirt and jeans and ran to my office. The office has a shower. After running out of hot water I got out and into scrubs. While I was showering the staff gingerly put all my clothing in a garbage sack, sealed it and threw it in the dumpster. Wearing surgical masks to blunt the odor they scrubbed the wall behind where I sat during the procedure. It had been doused as well.

For several weeks I had the skunk odor trapped in my sinuses. Every client entering the building asked. "Skunk?"

The skunk went back to Kansas and we got Xmas cards from the owner, showing the skunk playing with her granddaughter. Occasionally I get a request to descent another skunk. So far nobody has wanted to pay the $1000 fee. The first time someone agrees, I'll say that's per side. And if anyone wants to pay $2000 maybe I'll do it.

My books have arrived!

In a burst of enthusiasm after reading the Sciencebloggers' reviews of Natalie Angier's books The Canon and Woman: an Intimate Geography, I ordered both of them along with Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great. They all arrived yesterday. It will take me a little while to get around to them, after Talk Talk Talk by Jay Ingram and Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink. But now they're in the queue or, as some people say, on Mount To-Be-Read!

Curses! Foiled again!

Biology professors at the University of Colorado have been receiving pamphlets, letters, and threatening e-mails from an apparent religious nut. The Discovery Institute, with its usual subtlety, questions the reportage of the Denver Post and the statements of the Boulder police force and suggests that someone is attempting to smear religious people and it's probably an Evil-lutionist ("Thou Shalt Not Lie to the Police"). That bit of information was rightly called contemptible by PZ Myers in his blog reaction: "The Colorado threats and the despicable slander of the DI".

Well, guess what! The culprit has been identified, and he's a religious nut: Menachem Korn, or Michael Korn as he signs himself, a messianic Jew turned rabid Christian. (See "CU biologists get death threats.")

According to a reprint of the letter posted online, the threat reads: ���every true Christian should be ready and willing to take up arms to kill the enemies of Christian society.���

���EBIO (evolutionary biology) professors are terrorists against America and intellectual and spiritual child abusers of their young and impressionable students the EBIO department not only blasphemes God, who is invisible, but it blasphemes His Only Begotten Son and our Messiah, Jesus Christ, which is more unforgivable for all these reason all God-fearing and Truth-loving persons must say, They must go!���

CU officials won't name a suspect, but numerous sources close to the case say the letters - as well as a barrage of threatening e-mails - were signed ���Michael Korn.���

Menacher ���Michael��� Korn is a 49-year-old Israeli national and former Messianic Jew who says he was baptized into Christianity in the Sea of Galilee seven years ago and is now on a mission to convert Jews and Muslims. His blog, JesusOverIsrael. blogspot.com, references CU-Boulder specifically and says he lives in Denver...

Several sources say Korn has distributed flyers on campus and has barged into offices of biology professors and administrators in the past year.

But in recent days the threatening e-mails and letters have occurred with increasing frequency and intensity.

On Friday an e-mail sent to CU-Boulder's evolutionary biology department bore the subject line ���a final CU Boulder EBIO appeal��� and repeated the line ���every true Christian should be ready and willing to take up arms to kill the enemies of Christian society.���

That line, as well as ���they must go,��� have been repeated in a number of communiqu��s, said a source.

Most, but not all, of the threatening letters were left in the Ramaley Biology Building at CU-Boulder.

The anti-evolutionary communication began one year ago, when someone left a book in the campus mailbox of Jeffry Mitton, chair of CU-Boulder's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department.

Mitton said the book was entitled ���The Evolution Fact Book.��� (An Internet search revealed Korn is the author of the book.)

Mitton said the book didn't worry him.

���It was just one of these sorts of things that is put out by creationists just declaring that there is no evolution,��� Mitton said. It contained no threats.

Last fall, however, Mitton started receiving e-mails and pamphlets.

���Those became much more personal,��� he said. ���It referred to specific biologists, but not by name.���

Oh, goodie! A religious nut with escalating threats of violence. We don't expect any trouble from them!
I'm waiting to hear the retraction or apology from the Discovery Institute's Robert Crowther.
--hat tip to Pharyngula for "Colorado kook identified"

Why is this worm different from all other worms?

I have to hand it to PZ Myers - he has the most fascinating science articles. In this one he tells us about a worm that does not have common ancestry with other worms, but instead seems to have developed separately from myxozoans and cnidarians.

Canadian Science Writers' conference

The national science writers' conference was in London, Ontario, this year - an easy distance for me but I missed it because I was busy. Here's a note about it from Discovery Channel: Peter McMahon on science writers' conference.

Skeptics' Summer Bash today and tomorrow

Thanks to Larry Moran at Sandwalk, here's the information for the Skeptics' Summer Bash. It's at the Centre for Inquiry, 216 Beverly Street in Toronto. That's just north of College Street and west of University Avenue.

Summer Skeptics Bash, in honour of Friday 13th, featuring world renowned paranormal investigator Joe Nickell (July 12-13)

In honour of Barry Beyerstein (1947-2007), author, Professor of Psychology at Simon Frasier University, Chair of the Society of B.C. Skeptics and Fellow of the CFI Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP)

1. FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER DINNER $5 (FREE for Friends of the Centre) Thurs, July 12, 7pm

Featuring screening & debunking of the paranormal-plugging “What the Bleep do We Know?” with physics PhD candidate Edward Ackad

2. SUPERSTITION BASH, Friday, July 13

Featuring a full day of activities, including a presentation by world famous skeptical investigator Joe Nickell at 6pm and