2017 Nobel Prize – Peace

If you want to know about this year’s winner, just jump around my preamble by scrolling down. “Peace” is perhaps the joker in the Nobel pack because this is the award that has often resulted in what can be best described as WTF moments. The other awards are worthy of attention because they spotlight work … Read more

NPS lifts ban on bottled water after demonstrating that it worked

water bottle ban

The US National Park Service strives to take the most reasonable evidence-based stance possible for all decisions and policies. I have a personal example that involves a chat with an NPS employee, a student volunteer who was in a second season of taking people caving. I don’t mean a walk, but instead putting on all … Read more

Picking a decent Healthcare solution … what would you do?

Healthcare

There is a healthcare game to play here via the New York Times, but first a bit of preamble. Because I live in the UK and have personally experienced the UK’s National Health Service I have a rather obvious bias. This perhaps also comes with strong feelings of hostility towards UK conservative political wet-dreams that … Read more

Was 9/11 a controlled demolition?

9/11

The TL;DR; answer is no 9/11 was not the result of a controlled demolition. For a slightly longer explanation read on. There are numerous YouTube clips and various websites that promote the idea that the collapse of the twin towers was not in any way related to the fully fueled commercial airliners being flown into … Read more

PRRI Poll: US religious landscape undergoing dramatic transformation

A massive new survey from PRRI reveals seismic shifts in the religious landscape within the US. The report is based on findings from the single largest survey of American religious and denominational identity ever conducted, based on interviews with more than 101,000 Americans from all 50 states conducted across 2016. The report includes detailed information about … Read more

Apparently only 92% of Atheists are Atheists

atheists

Back in 2007 PewResearch did a comprehensive Religious landscape survey. That was then updated with a repeat poll in 2014. You can find all the online results here. There you can drill down into the specific details for any demographic. As a quick summary, here are the overall results … Life has of course moved … Read more