http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/a...rrectness/

EXCERPT: [...] While political correctness may have begun as a method to improve the language or clarify ideas and possibly offer more gentle methods of discussing subjects, it has as of late turned into an entirely different creature where no longer are there plentiful examples of “how to say things,” rather it has grown to become a force of “what not to say” altogether.

What happens when the scientific method butts heads with political correctness and who should be the winner? That answer depends on where you stand on the issues. However, more and more they are butting heads and those who stand for the scientific method are not only losing out to those on the political correctness side, there are a growing number of cases where scientists are not just giving into the political correctness they are empowering it.

Take for example the most current case where Nobel laureate, English biochemist, Tim Hunt [...] Within days he was forced to resign or face being sacked according to his wife, Professor Mary Collins, “I was told by a senior that Tim had to resign immediately or be sacked.”

This battle between science and political correctness is most disturbing in its lack of use of the scientific method, and since it has now hit home in the field of science itself, what this may mean for the future of science itself is now in jeopardy.

[...] The situation modern scientists are creating is a realm of not being allowed to make “ill advised” comments, even when they might bear truth. If that is the point we have come to can any claim to still be scientists anymore?

Irony is not abandoned in this situation when writers like Anne Perkins at The Guardian ask the same question, “Tim Hunt, where’s the science in your prejudice against women?” and then offers not a single example of science in her article. However, Ms. Perkin's question is the exact right question for everyone who cares about science to be asking. Shame is a rational choice, not science, and scientists must ask themselves is this the time to forfeit the scientific method in order to appease people's emotions or agendas? In regard to Mr. Hunt, the answer has already come in the affirmative....

http://unveilingthereality.com/2015/05/3...rs-filter/

EXCERPT: [...] This post is about filtering lies, or incorrect reasoning looking correct. Demagogy is a set of techniques well known by politicians and the media. I do not think a single reader would get scared if I say that most of the media serve hidden (or not that hidden) interests. We live times with an overdose of information, being that “information” a mixture of real facts, not contrasted facts and spurious interpretations of the real facts. Is there any way to defence ourselves from this polluted fallout?

In my opinion, most of us are lacking in logical tools to analyse information, what make us easy targets for politicians, the media and other people using demagogy around. This post is about developing what I call “the Schopenhauer’s filter”, a tool to screen statements for lies, demagogy or logical mistakes....

https://omnireboot.com/2015/h-r-gigers-d...ing-world/

EXCERPT: [...] Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger was a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor and set designer. He felt at home in places we would flee from and lived his life among the very things we fear. Giger's style and thematic execution were influential. His design for the Alien movies were inspired by his painting Necronom IV and earned him an Oscar in 1980. His books of paintings and [...] frequent appearance of his art in OMNI magazine continued his rise to international prominence.

[...] Giger pioneered using the airbrush as an artistic medium. His style and thematic execution blends realistic human bodies and surrealistic machines—a combination he called “biomechanic” —a style which has fueled the look and feel of nightmares for decades. Giger’s best work remains his original designs for Alien. [...]

Despite his extreme talent, Giger often suffered from anxiety [...] Throughout his life, H.R. Giger inhabited the world of the uncanny, a dark universe on the brink of many an abyss. It was only through art that this amiable, modest and humorous man was able to keep his fears in check. Giger was merely the bearer of dark messages, charting nightmares, drafting maps of the subconscious, and molding primal fears....

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2015/0...dont-know/

EXCERPT: My opinion about medical marijuana has been fairly consistent. First, the claims made by its advocates for it far exceed the evidence for its benefit [...] it is herbalism in that medical marijuana advocates make grandiose claims for using their favorite “drug” in its plant form rather than doing the standard thing that modern medicine does with natural products and try to isolate the active compounds, in this case a class of molecules known as cannabinoids.

Second, although medical marijuana might have some minor utility in relieving the symptoms of chemotherapy in cancer patients, contrary to the claims of people like Rick Simpson promoting hemp oil as a cancer cure, his believers who provide anecdotes, and a large number of advocates who believe it is the next big thing in treating cancer, cannabis does not cure cancer.

The bottom line: Purified cannabinoids have some promise for medicinal uses, but medical marijuana itself has little evidence to support its use and serves mainly as a politically palatable “foot in the door” for advocates to get their favorite drug legalized, and I say this as someone who thinks that marijuana should be legalized for recreational use.

I hate to say, “I told you so,” but I told you so. No, wait. I love to say “I told you so,” at least when the evidence is on my side. This time, it comes in the form of a systematic review and meta-analysis hot off the presses yesterday in JAMA looking at medical marijuana.....

http://www.livescience.com/51335-greek-u...irits.html

EXCERPT: Ancient supernatural practices may explain why two Grecian graves contain skeletons that are pinned down with heavy objects and rocks, almost as though people wanted to trap the bodies underground, a new article finds.

Archaeologists have known about these two peculiar burials since the 1980s, when they uncovered the graves along with nearly 3,000 others at an ancient Greek necropolis in Sicily. But a new analysis suggests the two graves contained so-called "revenants," dead bodies thought to have the ability to reanimate, leave their graves and harm the living — essentially an ancient version of zombies...

An African-American invented the Mop

EXCERPT: The mop is a patented invention that is part of social history as well as the evolution of house wares. Thomas W. Steward, an African-American inventor, was awarded Patent Number 499,402 on June 13, 1893, for inventing the mop. His creation joined a long list of household equipment invented by African-Americans. The roster includes the eggbeater, yarn holder, ironing board, and bread-kneading machine. Steward's deck mop, made of yarn, quickly became well used for household and industrial cleaning. A wringing mechanism made the process of mopping and cleaning the mop easier and faster....

- - - - - - - - -

A Spaniard invented the Mop

EXCERPT: Mopping is a bit of a national obsession in Spain, so it's just as well that Manuel Corominas, an engineer in the air force, designed a device to get Spanish women off their knees. On a trip to the US in the 1950's, he observed how the Americans washed the floor: with a flat mop that you wrang-out through rollers in a bucket. With the help of his friend, Emilio Bellvis, a mechanic at the Zaragoza air base, he set up the company Rodex and went into mop production.

According to [...other sources...], however, it was Bellvis who designed the mop and bucket as we know them. One night in 1965, he apparently sat bolt upright in bed and said to his wife something along the lines of: I have seen the future of kitchen floors and they are to be washed using a bucket with a slatted funnel and a conical-shaped mop that's much easier to squeeze. In January 2005, the daily online newspaper 20minutos.es printed a series of letters between Corominas and various members of the Bellvis family disputing who was the “real” father of the mop.....

- - - - - - - -

A woman invented the Mop

EXCERPT: “He recently texted me at I think 4 in the morning, and he was like, ‘I think I want to make a movie about the woman [Joy Mangano] who invented the Mop. You want to do it?’ I was like, “Yeah,’” she recalled. “I can just imagine David looking at somebody mopping and being like, ‘Yeah, that's my next screenplay.’”

- - - - - - - -

Kevin Smith invented the Mop

EXCERPT (from transcript of Clerks [1994]) ... Dante: "Ma'am, ma'am, I'm sorry! Please wait a second, ma'am..."

The customer is gone. Dante's pursuit stops at the counter. Dante turns on Randal.

Dante: "Why do you do things like that? You know she's going to come back and tell the boss."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mop

EXCERPT: "The Mop" is a novel by Alan Simpson, first published in 2012. Though told in the style of the narrative Great American Novels, this unusual contribution to the world of literature explores one man's journey as a Sex shop clerk in Sydney’s thriving Red-light district. [...] Alan begins his career in Disco Heaven, Sydney’s ultimate gay porn store, where he comes face to face with The Screamer -- a perverted masturbating regular and is taken under the wing by Mike, Disco Heaven’s charming manager. Alan also meets his nemesis -- the #### mop. It is hate at first sight....

http://www.universetoday.com/119831/gene...interview/

EXCERPT: Fierce commercial and international political pressures have forced the rapid development of the new Vulcan launcher family recently announced by rocket maker United Launch Alliance (ULA). Vulcan’s “genesis” and development was borne of multiple unrelenting forces on ULA and is now absolutely essential and critical for its “transformation and survival in a competitive environment” moving forward, according to Dr. George Sowers, ULA Vice President for Advanced Concepts and Technology, in an exclusive interview with Universe Today.

[...] Faced with the combined challenges of a completely changed business and political environment emanating powerfully from new space upstart SpaceX offering significantly reduced launch costs, and continuing uncertainty over the future supply of the Russian-made RD-180 workhorse rocket engines that power ULA’s venerable Atlas V rocket, after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Sowers and ULA’s new CEO Tory Bruno were tasked with rapidly resolving these twin threats to the firms future well being – which also significantly impacts directly on America’s national security.

“Our current plan is to have the new Vulcan rocket flying by 2019,” Sowers stated.

Whereas ULA enjoyed a virtual US launch monopoly for many years, those days are now history thanks to SpaceX....

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/ja...mad-images

EXCERPT: To many Muslims, any image of the prophet Muhammad is sacrilegious, but the ban has not always been absolute and there is a small but rich tradition of devotional Islamic art going back more than seven centuries that does depict God’s messenger.

It began with exquisite miniatures from the 13th century, scholars say. [...] they show almost every episode of Muhammad’s life as recounted in the Qur’an and other texts, from birth to death and ascension into heaven.

Intended as private aids to devotion and prayer, these detailed scenes were made for both Sunni and Shia worshippers, and surviving examples can be found in dozens of major museum and library collections.

They also laid the foundations for a popular, if minority, tradition of devotional and inspirational images that still exists today, from icons cherished in homes to a five-storey government-commissioned mural in the heart of Tehran and even to revolutionary street art in Cairo – although the prophet’s face is obscured in both those public drawings.

[...] many Muslims and non-Muslims have argued that Islam has always banned any representation of the prophet [...] This position is rarely challenged, perhaps because the existence of images of Muhammad is little known [...] But their obscurity frustrates experts who see them as a rich part of Islam’s artistic heritage and resent the misconception that the only depictions of the prophet are mocking or racist creations by non-believers....