Illinois primary primary results

Update: Romney 54% Santorum 28% with only 16% in, this race has been called, but it hardly matters. The delegate math in Illinois is about as confusing as it gets. But what it boils down to is your vote for Romney or Santorum doesn’t count toward the primary, your vote for their designated delegates in your district is what matters. And you can vote for more than one candidate’s delegates. It’s pretty crazy. [Read more…]

The Goldilocks zone and fairy tale earth

The primeval earth and smoggy sky with an enormous crescent moon at twilight as they may have appeared a mere billion years after formation.

Read an old astronomy text and you might see mention of a Goldilocks zone, the distance between the earth and sun, where the blessed earth is not too hot and not too cold. More recent work has shown this is a modern day fairy tale, the early earth was actually too far away. By rights the oceans should have been solid ice, the earth a lifeless, barren snowball. But it wasn’t. A new study confirms one big reason why the earth stayed so unseasonably warm early on: [Read more…]

Why are you atheists so angry?

Well, I’m not an angry atheist, in fact I’m positively cheerful, especially given my future fate as hot coal in hell –{rimshot!}. But fellow FTBer Greta Christina has a book out by the same name, and thanks to the good godless folks at Dirty Heathen Publishing , you can have it on your Kindle in two shakes right here:

This accessible, personal, down-to-earth book speaks not only to atheists, but to believers who want to understand the so-called “new atheism.” “Why Are You Atheists So Angry?” drops a bombshell on the destructive force of religious faith — and gives a voice to millions of angry atheists.

Syria near collapse?

Tweets were flying last night that Internet and cell phone communications had been severed in Damascus amid reports of intense fire-fights between pro-government forces and Syrian rebels over the weekend. The scattered reports and rumors are fueling speculation that the end of the brutal Assad regime may be nigh: [Read more…]

Apple off the hook: Haven’t we seen this before?

The drama playing out with Apple’s working conditions and a report on same feels very familiar. To recap, Apple has been under fire for some time for the unethical and dangerous working conditions in their over seas factories, particularly in Asia. A writer and off-Broadway performer posted a story about Apple’s practices and then had to retract it when it turned out some of the details were embellished. And now … [Read more…]