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Dave Thomas (skeptic)
David E. Thomas (born 1953) is a scientist and software engineer best known for his scientific skepticism research and writings. He is a graduate of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and his skeptic work covers the Roswell, New Mexico, Roswell and Aztec UFO sightings, the Bible code, global warming, the 9/11 Truth movement and chemtrails. Thomas is frequently published in Skeptical Inquirer magazine. Thomas currently works at the Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) at New Mexico Tech and is an adjunct instructor of psychology and education there. Education and awards Thomas is a graduate of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics and a master's degree in mathematics. He received the Brown Award, New Mexico Tech's highest undergraduate award, in 1979, the Langmuir publication award as a graduate student, and the National Center for Science Education's Friend of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CSICon
CSICon or CSIConference is an annual list of skeptical conferences, skeptical conference typically held in the United States. CSICon is hosted by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), which is a program of the Center for Inquiry (CFI). CSI publishes the magazine ''Skeptical Inquirer.'' History 1983–2005: CSICOP conferences CSICon's current format stems from 2011, but similar conferences by CSI (until 2006 known as CSICOP, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) go back as far as 1983, when the first was held at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY). The second international CSICOP conference, themed "Paranormal Beliefs: Scientific Facts and Fictions", was held at Stanford University in 1984. The third, the first European CSICOP conference, was held at University College London in Britain, themed "Investigation and Belief". Throughout the 1980s, the European readership of the ''Skeptical Inquirer'' was increasing, whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Drosnin
Michael Alan Drosnin (January 31, 1946 – June 9, 2020) was an American journalist and author, best known for his writings on the Bible Code, which is a purported set of secret messages encoded within the Hebrew text of the Torah. Drosnin was born in New York City. After graduating from Columbia University in 1966, he worked as a journalist for ''The Washington Post'' (1966–1968) and ''The Wall Street Journal'' (1969–1970). ''Citizen Hughes'' Michael Drosnin's first book, ''Citizen Hughes: In His Own Words – How Howard Hughes Tried to Buy America'', a biography of the American businessman Howard Hughes based on documents which had been stolen in 1974 and subsequently tracked down by Drosnin, was published in 1985. ''The Bible Code'' Series Drosnin began researching the Bible Code in 1992 after meeting the mathematician Eliyahu Rips in Israel. Rips, Prof. Eliyahu"Public Statement by Dr. Eliyahu Rips, Professor of Mathematics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel" as repub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genetic Algorithm
In computer science and operations research, a genetic algorithm (GA) is a metaheuristic inspired by the process of natural selection that belongs to the larger class of evolutionary algorithms (EA). Genetic algorithms are commonly used to generate high-quality solutions to optimization and search problems by relying on biologically inspired operators such as mutation, crossover and selection. Some examples of GA applications include optimizing decision trees for better performance, solving sudoku puzzles, hyperparameter optimization, etc. Methodology Optimization problems In a genetic algorithm, a population of candidate solutions (called individuals, creatures, organisms, or phenotypes) to an optimization problem is evolved toward better solutions. Each candidate solution has a set of properties (its chromosomes or genotype) which can be mutated and altered; traditionally, solutions are represented in binary as strings of 0s and 1s, but other encodings are also possible. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intelligent Design Movement
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the pseudoscientific Article available froUniversiteit Gent/ref> idea of intelligent design (ID), which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." Its chief activities are a campaign to promote public awareness of this concept, the lobbying of policymakers to include its teaching in high school science classes, and legal action, either to defend such teaching or to remove barriers otherwise preventing it. Forrest 2001"The Wedge at Work: How Intelligent Design Creationism Is Wedging Its Way into the Cultural and Academic Mainstream"/ref> The movement arose out of the creation science movement in the United States, and is driven by a small group of proponents. — Barbara Forrest, 2005, testifying in the ''Kitzmiller v. Do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Panda's Thumb (blog)
''The Panda's Thumb'' is a blog on issues of creationism and evolution from a mainstream scientific perspective. In 2006, ''Nature'' listed it as one of the top five science blogs, and Mark Pallen has called it "the definitive blog on the evolution versus creationism debate". It is written by multiple contributors, including Wesley R. Elsberry, Joe Felsenstein, Paul R. Gross, Nick Matzke, and Mark Perakh, many of whom used to have complementary blogs at ScienceBlogs before it went defunct. The blog takes its name from The Panda's Thumb, the pub of the virtual University of Ediacara, which is named after the book of the same name by Stephen Jay Gould, which in turn takes its title from the essay "The Panda's Peculiar Thumb",Gould, S. J. (1978)"The panda's peculiar thumb."''Natural History'' 87 (Nov.): 20–30. which discusses the Panda's sesamoid bone, an example of convergent evolution. See also * Rejection of evolution by religious groups Recurring cultural, po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creationism
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'the belief that the universe and living organisms originated from specific acts of divine creation.'" In its broadest sense, creationism includes a continuum of religious views, Haarsma 2010, p. 168, "Some Christians, often called 'Young Earth creationists,' reject evolution in order to maintain a semi-literal interpretation of certain biblical passages. Other Christians, called 'progressive creationists,' accept the scientific evidence for some evolution over a long history of the earth, but also insist that God must have performed some miracles during that history to create new life-forms. Intelligent design, as it is promoted in North America is a form of progressive creation. Still other Christians, called theistic evolutionists' or 'ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemtrail Conspiracy Theory
The chemtrail conspiracy theory is the erroneous belief that long-lasting condensation trails are "chemtrails" consisting of chemical or biological agents left in the sky by high-flying aircraft, sprayed for nefarious purposes undisclosed to the general public. Believers in this conspiracy theory say that while normal contrails dissipate relatively quickly, contrails that linger must contain additional substances. Those who subscribe to the theory speculate that the purpose of the chemical release may be solar radiation management, weather modification, psychological manipulation, human population control, biological or chemical warfare, or testing of biological or chemical agents on a population, and that the trails are causing respiratory illnesses and other health problems. The claim has been dismissed by the scientific community. There is no evidence that purported chemtrails differ from normal water-based contrails routinely left by high-flying aircraft under certain atmo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
September 11 Attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the Northeastern United States to California. The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and the third plane into the Pentagon (the headquarters of the United States military) in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane was intended to hit a federal government building in Washington, D.C., but crashed in a field following a passenger revolt. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and instigated the war on terror. The first impact was that of American Airlines Flight 11. It was crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan at 8:46 a.m. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03, the World Trade Center’s S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coast To Coast AM
''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 1988 until 2003, and is currently hosted by George Noory. The program is distributed by Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, both as part of its talk network and separately as a syndicated program. The program now airs seven nights a week from 1:00–5:00 a.m. Eastern Time Zone. It appears on over 600 affiliates, and has repeatedly been called the most popular overnight show in the country. History In 1978, Art Bell created and hosted ''West Coast AM'', a late-night political talk/call-in show on Las Vegas radio station KDWN. In 1988, Bell and Alan Corberth renamed the show ''Coast to Coast AM'' and moved its studios from the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas to Bell's home in Pahrump. After Bell's retirement, the show was hoste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Punnett
Case Ian Punnett (born March 3, 1960) is an American radio Broadcasting, broadcaster, author, professor, and Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal deacon. In the early to mid 1980s, Punnett hosted the WLRW morning show in his college town along with Val Wallace. Punnett co-hosted ''Ian and Margery'' with his wife on KTMY in Minneapolis-St. Paul and was the regular Saturday night host of the widely syndicated paranormal-themed ''Coast to Coast AM'', created by Art Bell. On December 3, 2011, Punnett announced that due to increasingly acute tinnitus, he would temporarily step down as regular Saturday night host of ''Coast to Coast AM'', being replaced by John B. Wells: effective January 2012, Punnett would host the show one Sunday per month. In July 2013, Punnett ended his radio hosting career in order to begin studies for a doctoral degree. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2017, he returned as an occasional guest host of Coast to Coast AM in 2018 and became a faculty member and c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Trade Center (1973–2001)
The original World Trade Center (WTC) was a large complex of seven buildings in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. At the time of their completion, the Twin Towers—the original 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower) at ; and 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower) at —were the tallest buildings in the world. Other buildings in the complex included the Marriott World Trade Center (3 WTC), 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC, and 7 WTC. The complex contained of office space. The core complex was built between 1966 and 1975, at a cost of $400 million (equivalent to $3.56 billion in 2022). The idea was suggested by David Rockefeller to help stimulate urban renewal in Lower Manhattan, and his brother Nelson signed the legislation to build it. The buildings at the complex were designed by Minoru Yamasaki. In 1998, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey decided ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conspiracy Panel At CSICON
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agreement secret from the public or from other people affected by it. In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of people united in the goal of usurping, altering or overthrowing an established political power. Depending on the circumstances, a conspiracy may also be a crime, or a civil wrong. The term generally implies wrongdoing or illegality on the part of the conspirators, as people would not need to conspire to engage in activities that were lawful and ethical, or to which no one would object. There are some coordinated activities that people engage in with secrecy that are not generally thought of as conspiracies. For example, intelligence agencies such as the American CIA and the British MI6 necessarily make plans in secret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
