The pyramids of Egypt – and in particular, the Great Pyramid of Giza – are among the most puzzling and contentious productions of human endeavor. In fact, one argument is whether the pyramids were built by humans or by aliens. The reasoning seems to go: “I don’t know how they could have built the pyramids. Therefore, it must have been aliens.” Such reasoning is wearisome; I’m going with “forgotten technology.”
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In 1908, a worker at a gravel pit in Piltdown, England, found pieces of a skull. The discovery attracted the attention of a collector named Charles Dawson, and paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward. These men found additional pieces of the skull at the site, as well as a jawbone apparently belonging to the same creature. The creature seemed to have a brain around two thirds the size of a human’s, while its jaw was similar to that of a chimpanzee’s. It was called “Piltdown Man.”
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The Beresovka Mammoth was found in Siberia in the early 20th Century. Its body had been relatively well preserved, frozen for about forty thousand years in the frigid tundra. There were a few mysterious facts that puzzled researchers.
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Most of us admit that we don’t know everything. However, we usually feel certain about some of our facts. We may think they’re obviously true, or that they’re so certain that everyone accepts them. I want to challenge this assumption.
Continue readingMan dies after winning roach-eating contest in Broward :
The contest was to win a python from a pet store.
You know, it’s one thing to drop dead after running a marathon. Even if you didn’t finish, if you got close to the end people will generally give you credit for trying. They figure, “well, he dropped dead, but he was doing something really hard.” At least, that’s how I figure it when I read about the annual “people dropping dead during or after marathon” stories. They always say that the guy was young, in good health, they can’t figure out why he dropped dead. I’ll tell you why: running is bad for you. But I digress…
When you drop dead after eating too many roaches, you don’t get any respect at all. This guy will be remembered long after his death, much longer than if he had survived the roach-eating contest. He’ll always be, “Isn’t he the guy who dropped dead after eating a gazillion roaches?” What a claim to fame.
And he didn’t even get the python.
This is probably one of the least urgent matters that still manages to trouble me…
Continue readingThere is a quotation that is going around, attributed to physicist Albert Einstein. It goes:
Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.
Einstein never said it. It is a quote by Darryl Anka. About the only statement in this quotation that is accurate is that it’s not philosophy. It certainly isn’t that; nor is it physics. It’s bullshit. As physicist Wolfgang Pauli said, “It’s not even wrong.”
Continue readingAccording to this article, a lifeguard was fired for saving someone’s life. Supposedly, by abandoning his post to run to the rescue of a drowning swimmer, Thomas Lopez endangered the lives of the people Lopez was supposed to be watching.
Continue readingAt long last, physicists at CERN in Europe have found something that looks like the elusive Higgs Boson, also called the God Particle. It seems to me that the physicists themselves are pleased, but not ecstatic. It seems to be the media who are waxing poetic about this particle.
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Cold Fusion
In 1989, chemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann reported that they had achieved cold fusion. “Cold fusion” refers to a type of nuclear reaction that takes place at temperatures far below the several million degrees that are usually required for the reaction. It’s not known whether cold fusion is possible. When the report came out it garnered enormous media attention. Fusion would be a source of cheap and relatively safe energy. Any process that could generate fusion energy – cold or otherwise – is big news.
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