Paranormal Amerika

Halloween Treat - Ghost hunting Snohomish County

2009-10-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

It looks like ghost hunting never goes out of style.

A group called Research Investigations of the Paranormal Northwest also known as the Northwest Paranormal Investigation Agency (what a mouthful!) is having a grand ol' time investigating hauntings in Washington State's Snohomish County.

The local newspaper published several photos of dubious reputation. I wonder if these folks have ever tried astrophotography? Then they'd truly realize how many frustrating ghosts can mess up a treasured shot.

ID returns to its roots

2009-10-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

The intelligent design movement has no shortage of apologists who insist that the Discovery Institute has little to do with young-earth creationism.

It's pretty easy to overlook if you ignore Dean Kenyon's role in "Of Pandas and People". But I wonder how the Discovery Institute would explain their own blog's proud announcement regarding an upcoming young-earth creationist conference?

And the icing on the cake is that the conference itself notes Dean Kenyon's decades long adherence to young-earth creationism.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

StarCalc: Still around and still useful

2009-10-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

My recent review of StarCalc, a free planetarium program has been posted to the Cloudy Nights website. Check it out.

The 2009 Seattle Creation Conference

2009-10-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

On Friday evening, October 9^th, Halloween came early to Seattle in the form of the fifth annual Seattle Creation Conference. The conference was put together by the same folks who provide the inimitable CreationWiki – the Northwest Creation Network. The Northwest Creation Network is run primarily by Chris Ashcraft and his tireless efforts are a large reason why local skeptics and creationists are treated to these festivities year after year.

I hadn’t attended in quite a few years, having largely written off young-earth creationists as irrelevant and turned my attention to one of my childhood hobbies, amateur astronomy. So when I learned that the 4^th Day Alliance, a “creation astronomy” group announced their intention to provide a presentation, well, curiosity got the best of me.

Anyone with only a passing familiarity with the creation/evolution debate naturally assumes that creationist objections largely have to do with Darwin’s theory and modern biology’s fondness for the theory of evolution. Within seconds of entering the conference held at the Family Life Center Foursquare Church in Mukilteo, Washington, one would quickly put that assumption to rest. All major branches of science were under assault. It was a “take no prisoners” kind of night.

When I sauntered in, ICR lecturer Steve Austin was indulging in his specialty, “Geology and the Global Flood” and “Catastrophic Plate Tectonics”. Austin animatedly explained to his audience how the Pangaea continent didn’t break up until the Great Flood. His calculations, if you can call them that, estimated that the continents broke apart and skidded along the surface of the earth at the rate of one meter per second before coming to rest.

Hey, I didn’t make this up. He did.

One of the audience members incredulously asked Austin as to how such a break up was possible. Surprisingly, Austin cited subduction as the mechanism. This contrasts with creationist Walt Brown’s assertion that subduction is impossible and hasn’t been observed.

Such strange contradictions among various creationists pose an interesting question. It’s obvious that creationists aren’t familiar with modern day scientific research but are they even aware of each other?

One other odd thing about Austin’s lecture was his insistence that volcanic activity, and presumably earthquake activity, has been decreasing over time since Noah’s Flood. This flies in the face of others in the conservative Christian arena, particularly those enthralled by the Rapture, who insist that natural disasters are increasing as we usher in the second coming of Jesus.

Austin concluded his talk by explaining that all life could have formed in the first few days at a substantially accelerated rate before Adam and Eve took their first breaths of life. For a group who hold Genesis to such a literal interpretation, I was quite struck by how many in the creationist movement have developed an affinity for relativistic physics.

A ten minute break was announced. I milled about with the others at the voluminous book stands and noticed Donald Chittick’s latest edition of “The Puzzle of Ancient Man (2006)”. Had he finally removed all references to the Coso Artifact that had caused him such headaches years earlier? A quick scan of the book revealed that the answer apparently was yes.

Though the Discovery Institute pleads that they're not creationists, numerous books by Discovery Institute members were present including Stephen Meyer's "Signature in the Cell", which coincidentally was the topic of Chris Ashcraft's lecture on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, the representative at the ICR booth was exhorting me to take some free literature. Despite the 200+ in attendance, there seemed to be few takers. A small boy next to me peppered the ICR representative with questions about dinosaurs on the ark. The ICR person tried to reassure the boy that Noah was able to fit dinosaurs on the ark by taking the smallest and juveniles. The boy didn’t seem to be buying it but he smiled politely. There were definitely true believers in the audience, but I certainly got the feeling that there were more than a few folks who found the extraordinary claims just a bit too much to believe.

Then, it was onto the main show, “How Big Is God?” presented by Diego Rodriguez. A multimedia show of the heavens!

Fresno native Diego Rodriguez recently started a new creation astronomy group called the "4^th Day Alliance”, a clever play on the fourth day of Genesis when the Sun and the stars and the planets were allegedly created. One may reasonably ask why Diego felt the need to form a creationist group dedicated to astronomy. In an introductory email to new members, he laid out his intentions in a veritable Mein Kampf of biblical science, complete with exclamation marks and full word capitalizations:

“While most people are familiar with Charles Darwin’s theory, few realize that an even greater fight is being waged in the area of astronomy. This is because evolution, as it pertains to astronomy, doesn’t just deal with the origin of life, but with the origin of EVERYTHING! If belief in evolution is defeated in the area of cosmology and astronomy, then other forms of evolutionary belief don’t have a leg to stand on. This is why evolutionary astronomers are some of the most dogmatic philosophers in existence today. Their ENTIRE WORLDVIEW rests on the foundation of evolutionary cosmology and astronomy. This is why evolutionists often times feel most threatened by Creation Astronomy and wage the most virulent attacks against Creation Astronomers.”

And how does Diego see this battle progressing? By taking on local amateur astronomy clubs of course:

“There are literally hundreds of astronomy clubs around the country, but to our knowledge there is only ONE that is unapologetically Christian and that believes in the absolute truth of the Bible – the 4th Day Alliance. Astronomy clubs are responsible for teaching and introducing the public to astronomy. Unfortunately, 99.99% of the time they are teaching the myth of “billions of years” and false theories like the Big Bang. We need to turn this around. The only way to do this is for local Christian astronomy clubs to start springing up around the nation who will teach and inform their communities the truth about Creation Astronomy! Are you willing to join the battle? Are you willing to start a local Christian Astronomy club?”

And as with anything in life, these battles require money. So the 4^th Day Alliance has started selling local chapter affiliate kits to start your very own amateur astronomy franchise.

Rodriguez seems to think that evolutionists “wage the most virulent attacks against Creation Astronomers” but having sat through a presentation by the 4^th Day Alliance and reviewing the interviews they’ve done with creation astronomers, one cannot help but feel that these attacks are self inflicted.

A vivid example was the experience of Steve Miller, former president of the Calumet Astronomical Society. Miller was under the mistaken impression that presenting creation astronomy videos at their regular meetings would enjoy a positive reception among normal Americans who had a strong familiarity with current astronomical research. This is what could charitably be called a “faux pas”. As Miller recounted to Rodriguez, he was promptly removed from the presidency and within short order, he was out of the club. Miller now runs the Indiana chapter of the 4th Day Alliance. For a taste of what his former Calumet astronomy club members experienced, feel free to review Miller's attack on the Big Bang theory.

As a result of their previous experiences, Rodriguez is going to try something different. His strategy is to create a new set of amateur astronomy clubs dedicated exclusively to a literal six days of creation interpretation of the Bible. As the lights dimmed and Rodriguez began his “How Big Is God” presentation, an impending train wreck was immediately apparent.

With booming, emotional music and wide screen displays, Rodriguez took the audience through a multimedia extravaganza describing how big the universe really is. He started small, with the state of Texas, and with the help of numerous videos cribbed from various sources, he made the Earth seem smaller and more insignificant as his presentation wore on.

By the end, Rodriguez resorted to grave robbing Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” photo that Sagan had lobbied so hard for before Voyager had left our solar system. But that wasn’t enough. Rodriguez had also aggrandized Sagan’s declaration that that pale dot represented, “…home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.” Rodriguez added onto that unreferenced statement that this dot represented where Jesus was born, died and was resurrected. In light of the sheer scope of the universe he just spent an hour showing to the audience, the statement seemed almost laughably irrelevant.

The other odd thing about the presentation was Rodriguez’s use of light years to measure distances. It was clear from Austin’s previous presentation and the subsequent confusing discussion regarding light taking “short cuts” in space, and Russell Humphrey’s disparate time dilation theories to accommodate the seven days of creation, that creationism is in a crisis. A visit to the 4^th Day Alliance’s website’s special section on starlight and time reveals an even worse jumbled mess.

Creationists realize the growing evidence of extreme ages makes a mockery of a literal interpretation of Genesis. But their four decades long fixation on such an interpretation cannot be easily overturned overnight. And by doing so, they’ll wind up accommodating dissenters like Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe. So they resort to ever more desperate attempts to appeal to relativistic time differences, ludicrously rapid growth speeds, and “short cuts” through space and time.

If you’re an amateur astronomer and are looking for a diverting afternoon exploring the outer limits of human belief, a trip to the 4^th Day Alliance’s website is highly recommended.

Diego Rodriguez thinks that “evolutionists” are most threatened by creation astronomy but at this point I would strongly disagree. Most amateur astronomers are unaware that creation astronomy even exists due to its sheer absurdity. They assume that biblical creationists haven’t taken on astronomy since the days of Galileo. The rest of us who know of the 4^th Day Alliance are simply amused.

At the conclusion of the night, a final prayer was offered and the conference organizers checked once again to see if the heavens above would allow a star party with the telescopes Diego Rodriguez had brought along. Alas, God smote such plans with a cloudy night.

Reflection Time

2009-09-16T22:24:00.000-07:00

M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, taken on September 10th, 2009. Telescope used was an Astro-Tech AT66 on an Orion EQG mount running EQMOD. Camera used was a Nikon D50 at ASA 800. 5x5 minute exposures. Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and post processed with Photoshop CS3.

UFOs: Where are they?

2009-09-07T09:00:00.001-07:00

NBC ran a recent segment on UFOs that didn't answer any questions that haven't already been answered or debunked.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

As an amateur astronomer, I can't help but wonder, why don't I see any of them after spending countless hours watching the sky? Why is it that when I visit Cloudy Nights or a host of other online astronomy forums, no one seems to post any sightings that ordinary people report so often on a regular basis?

One possible answer is that experienced amateur astronomers readily recognize terrestrial objects that would intrigue an ordinary person. Perhaps the best and most common example are satellites that pass through atmospheric turbulence. In situations such as those, satellites can appear as small bright objects performing astounding maneuvers that airplanes can't hope to match. It's surprising that this isn't noted more often in the media.

Of course, there have been rare exceptions. In 1997, an amateur astronomer named Chuck Shramek imaged an object that lead to the horrific Heaven's Gate suicide incident in California.

I was once so intrigued by these reports that in the course of my investigations, I stumbled across Peter Davenport's National UFO Reporting Center, now located in eastern Washington. Peter's site has a plethora of eyewitness accounts of UFOs that have been seen by ordinary citizens. When I first stumbled across his site, there was an invitation to "researchers" to access his database's details for further, in depth investigations. I decided to take him up on his offer and contacted him. Peter turned me down flatly because he thought I was a "skeptic". Apparently, one has to have one's mind made up in a favorable manner before one's allowed to have access. Call me old school but when NUFORC only invites investigation before the decision's been made, there's not much value in such data.

Geocentrism and the Modern Day Astronomer

2009-09-01T21:48:00.001-07:00

Amateur astronomers familiar with Rod Mollise’s blog were treated to his surprise recently when he received a brochure in the mail touting the virtues of geocentrism. This caught Mollise by surprise but experienced watchers of creationism know that there’s subversive subculture within the creationist community that still has problems with the notion of heliocentrism.

My own introduction to modern geocentrism occurred when I was attending a slide show put on by the late Walter Lang, founder of the national Bible-Science Association. Lang’s group was one of the early forerunners of today’s creationist groups and is credited by Henry Morris for helping start the Institute for Creation Research.

With his traditional Kodachrome carousel slides in a darkened room, Lang treated me to a memorable recounting of his search for Noah’s Ark in Turkey. Others who journeyed with him included a very young John Morris, now president of the Institute for Creation Research. The slide show was a strangely intimate affair, with Lang animatedly recounting tidbits of how the trip went, much like one would experience during a family reunion, but with a decidedly paranormal flavor to it all. In all honesty, I was enthralled. Despite Lang’s completely ludicrous notions regarding Noah’s Ark, I was utterly disarmed by his charm and personality.

Afterwards, he had told me that despite the excitement of the search, he lamented that it was likely no one would ever find Noah’s Ark. We spoke for a while afterwards and I didn’t volunteer any information that I was quite a skeptic of creationism. His personal warmth and charm really drove home to me how he was able to help launch a national paranormal movement that severely conflicted with this tapestry of life normal Americans like to refer to as reality.
As we continued our conversation, I remember asking him about how creationism had changed over the centuries and he made a passing comment about how the Copernican notion of the solar system was “adopted for largely philosophical reasons.” That was a perspective I had never heard before.

“What do you mean by philosophical reasons?” I asked.

Lang came closer to me, as if he was going to disclose a revelation akin to one of life’s great secrets.

I was rather astonished as he related to me his fondness for geocentrism and how it provided a view of the universe that was more consistent with Biblical teachings. I was knocked onto my heels. When I’m speaking with folks like who embrace the outer limits of human belief, it’s usually best to stay cool and let them continue talking. Sometimes one can be amazed at how deep the rabbit hole can go.

Walter became excited at my patience with his revelation. “Most folks already dismiss geocentrism but you’d be surprised how hostile some folks around here (his creationist brethren) can be about it. They can be worse than the evolutionists! If you like, I can take you down to my basement and let you see the rest of my book collection that talks about this in more detail!”

When I arrived for Walter’s slide show, I was already prepared for an orgy of creationist rantings. But this was about as far down the rabbit hole as I was prepared to go that night. I politely declined his invitation.

Exorcism for Dummies

2009-08-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

Long time “fans” of Bob Larson’s ministry have fond memories. Who could resist his afternoon commute radio show, with callers constantly challenging his credibility, only to get quickly cut off? Sometimes the prank calls were so fast and furious one could picture Larson in his studio as a man under siege. Who could forget his sycophantic followers, updating him on the various demons wrecking their lives? And who could ever forget those electrifying phone calls involving exorcisms? – right over the phone! Good times. Good times.

Larson’s ministry attracted detractors like no other, leading to an epic battle between him and his internet nemesis, Ken Smith.

And in his never ending hunt for money, Larson upped the ante, launching local conferences at various cities.

But as Larson’s unquenchable thirst for ever increasing amounts of money continued, he left an ever increasing trail of questionable behavior and tactics in his wake. As he reached his apex, interest started to subside and yours truly noticed something odd. Larson was exorcising the same people at multiple shows. Local media in various parts of the country started to notice too and soon, Larson was having to explain how he was really helping folks cast out their demons if they kept coming back again and again. Adding to the confusion was an interview with one man who proudly boasted he was exorcised multiple times. Despite his half hearted explanations, Larson flamed out and fell back into the netherworld of washed up Christian radio ministers.

But that wasn’t the end of Larson. In a world filled with gullible, emotionally vulnerable individuals, Larson still had plenty of fertile fields to plow. So when I discovered that Bob Larson was coming to Seattle again, I had to find out if his traveling show had changed at all.

It had been ten years since I had attended a conference. The last time I attended, halfway through the lecture, Larson was rudely interrupted by a man sitting just a few chairs to my left. As Larson announced grimly that there was a demon in the room, the man’s head arched upward, and he let out a macabre, guttural scream. A scream from Hell! Larson’s bodyguards were upon him fast. They dragged the man up to the stage, pandemonium reigned, and Larson was shouting the devil out of him. This was theater at its finest.

A local television network affiliate attended a different conference on an adjacent night and who was there screaming? Yup, it was the same guy from the previous night.

It’s been ten years since I witnessed that startling event. Larson’s back, this time appearing at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bellevue.

It’s hard to remember the last time Larson was able to deliver his show in a genuine church. He blames this on the fear and cowardice of churches to stand up to the devil. But it’s more likely they’re uncomfortable with Larson’s own questionable relationship with methods and tactics of which the devil would heartily approve.
I told the folks attending with me that if Larson’s methods were the same as before, he’d spend the first hour or so bragging about his ministry, how he was under siege, and how he needed our help. Right after that would be the right time for a demon to appear. And after Larson would successfully smite the demon, money time!

We scoped the area and waited till just before the lecture to enter. Larson had the usual ten volunteers or so milling about. The room held a little less than a hundred folks. Larson came out, announced that Seattle’s commute would cause a few minutes delay, and approached the audience, shaking hands with everyone, making direct eye contact, and getting an overall feel for his targets that night.

Larson had aged, considerably, along with his attire. But once the doors closed and everyone was sitting, Larson was ready for us. Let the show begin!

Ten years ago, Larson’s first hour was considerably darker. He was a man under siege he’d tell the audience. The devil hated him. Enemies were everywhere. They wanted to destroy his ministry! And he was always just a few dollars short from having the devil shut him down.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom this time. Larson referred to his long career, his radio show, and then spent upwards of an hour bragging about how his ministry was breaking into the “secular media”. Bob was all aflutter regarding his meetings with executives from CBS, SyFy, ShowTime, Samsung Media, and a host of other groups.

Constructing this straw man of how he was going to use his ministry to covertly win the nation for Christ was pretty bland. But that’s the way he always starts. Larson recounted one incident where a camera crew asked him to pose in front of a statue depicting the Indian god Ganesh. Larson bragged to his audience that he of course refused because he regarded Ganesh as a demon. The audience nodded in agreement. Bob does a lot of international traveling. But it looks like he won’t be visiting India anytime soon.

The next part of his show, as usual, consisted of firing up the audience, getting them mad. Who better to attack than the current president, Barack Obama? Before he did any attacking though, Bob spent several minutes going on and on about how much respect he had for the president, and how his comments shouldn’t be construed as a political attack. He emphasized the nonpartisan nature of his attack twice more. It was as though he was expecting the IRS to batter down the doors any time and revoke his tax-exempt status.

Bob took a single quote from Obama, that the United States has never been and never should be construed as a Christian nation, and declared that the president “cursed our country”. No mention from Bob regarding the same declaration in the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli. Audible gasps and disgusted head shaking arose from the outraged crowd. Bob was starting to heat things up.

Bob of course took it a step further, accusing Obama of suffering from a “demon of illegitimacy” due to his unmarried mother and polygamous father. More heads nodded in agreement. A quiet chorus of “amen” arose once again.

At this point, I was getting exasperated. Over an hour had passed and there was still no demon possession. I knew from previous experience that this was the do or die moment. But then, opportunity struck. Bob decided to answer questions from the audience. As he shuffled about the room, you could see him sizing up each questioner, gazing into their eyes, asking them penetrating questions about their past.

As he was taking the last question from a young woman near me and I was gathering my things to leave, she gave Bob what he was looking for – she told him she had been demon possessed. But singing bible songs to herself would help keep the devil at bay. Bob perked up and after asking a few more questions went for the kill. “Did you ever get rid of the demon?” he inquired.

With hesitation, a grim smile, and a few tears she quietly confessed, “No.”

That was all Bob needed. Before long, she was up on stage and Bob was shouting the devil out of her, asking her what else had happened to her. After he broke her down emotionally, the poor woman let out a cavalcade of unspeakable abuse that she had suffered in the past.

Despite Bob’s shouting and demanding the demon reveal itself, I started realizing that Bob wasn’t getting what he really wanted – pure unadulterated anger. He kept telling the woman to “Get out of the way! Let me talk to it!”

Nothing fills the coffers like a bad ol’ demon gnashing its teeth and spewing rage upon Bob. But it wasn’t happening. The woman’s abusive past just caused her to whimper and tremble. Not good enough for Bob.

Out came the silver crucifix. As Bob’s assistants held the woman’s arms, Bob pressed his crucifix against her forehead, pushed his face just inches from hers and hissed, “WHAT IS YOUR NAME?!”

It was pretty clear at this point that this woman wasn’t a plant. She was a pitiful, hapless, vulnerable individual that Bob spotted as his mark of the night. She looked at him, confused, unable to understand what he was looking for.

After some time, Bob identified the demon as a Jezebel demon. Oh those uppity women! Jezebel demons!

“LET HER GO!” “WHAT IS YOUR NAME?” “YOU CAN’T HAVE HER!” “I BIND THESE SPIRITS AND CAST THEM OUT!” and so on and so forth. It was particularly amusing to see Bob “binding the spirits” as he would hold a bible over his mark’s head, and twirl furiously in a circular manner with a flourish. What a showman.

This went on for 45 minutes and honestly, it was getting a little tiring. But let’s be honest. Whatever one might think of Bob Larson, he’s an expert marketer and showman. He knows how to gauge the audience and he could tell just as well as I that this just wasn’t going well. He had to up the ante.

Bob commanded his assistants to let go of her arms. He took her hand, placed it on his throat and muttered in a leering, peculiarly suggestive way, “You’d love to kill me, wouldn’t you?” You could hear a pin drop in the room and I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with his acting abilities.

“You’d love to press that finger into my throat right now before my assistants could save me, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you? WOULDN’T YOU!?” Bob barked more taunts at her but alas, the poor woman couldn’t summon up the rage he so cravenly desired.

What followed were a few more rounds of the above, separated by brief interludes where Bob would provide some scholarly commentary to the audience as to what was happening in this person’s body.

At the end, Bob cut his losses, pressed his crucifix once more against her forehead, and shouted the devil out of her. After some gentle caresses, Bob let her go and it was onto the final act, money time!

Bob ordered his assistants to hand out envelopes to everybody. “Make sure EVERYBODY has an envelope!” “If you have an envelope, don’t just pretend to put money in it!” “If you don’t have your credit cards, rush up to your hotel room right now and get them!” Nothing different here, it was the usual shake down tactics.

I had had enough and left.

The whole festivity reeked of a pathetic farce and I wasn’t sure who disgusted me and who I pitied. Perhaps it was a combination of both. After all these years, Bob’s still grasping for that one big win, that one television project, that one last play that’ll ensure that he won’t have to schlep his way into any more hotel conference rooms anymore.

And these folks who attended could have whistled up numerous investigative reports on Bob on the internet. It wasn’t just Ken Smith who was blowing the whistle. There were local television stations who peppered him with uncomfortable questions over the years. By ignoring these opportunities, by not investigating him, they denied themselves the opportunity for true self reflection. It’s easier to blame one’s problem on magic demons.

I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that Bob doesn’t stage these exorcisms. He cultivates an environment where he has a hundred or so vulnerable individuals and then preys on the weakest of the bunch. He gives them what they’re looking for, a demonic scapegoat. And they give him what he’s looking for, money.

It’s a match made in Hell.

Money cleansers skip town with $138,000

2009-08-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

Money cleansers. That's a new one for me. Another sad case of gullible individuals in our society. I will say though I'm rather surprised that the operation didn't last longer than five weeks.

NCSE publishes latest scorecard

2009-08-11T09:52:00.001-07:00

The National Center for Science Education has published their latest findings on the state of science education in the United States, broken down into categories including biological evolution, human evolution, geological sciences, and astronomy.

As an amateur astronomer, I'm particularly intrigued when creationists target portions of the science curriculum that specifically target cosmology. In my own state of Washington, I've been pleasantly surprised to see that there's some astronomy instruction at grade 5 and includes a discussion of geocentrism and heliocentrism.

The biggest change since the last time they did these ratings in 2000 is that Kansas lurched from an F- to an A. That's quite a bit of improvement. Other states haven't fared so well in the past nine years. A good education is a never ending battle.

P.Z. Meyers reports on his little trip

2009-08-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

Well, he's done it. P.Z. Meyers has visited the first circle of creationism's hell in Kentucky.

It would be an understatement to say it comes as no surprise that he was not swayed. Meyers provides a pretty thorough account of a few displays and notes in particular the subtle racist undercurrent in the account of Noah's Flood.

The Conservative Origins of Cap and Trade

2009-08-09T08:08:00.001-07:00

The August 2009 issue of Smithsonian Magazine has a fascinating article about the origins of cap and trade. Originally conceived as a free market method to control sulfur dioxide emissions, cap and trade has been regarded as a possible way to reduce the rate of increase of greenhouse gas emissions.

An idea borne of the Reagan and senior Bush administrations, cap and trade was a compromise between the frustration of the environmental movement, and the desire to keep regulations to a minimum.

Then, as now, cap and trade was initially regarded with disdain. But as the article points out, the method has been now hailed by the power industry as an ingenious way to reduce acid rain.

The Smithsonian has the entire article online and it's certainly worth a read.

The LRO - Final nail in the doubter's coffin?

2009-08-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

Moon enthusiasts were full of high fives when the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) photographed the Apollo landing sites. Was this the final nail in the coffin for the doubters of the Apollo missions?

I had to find out. I tried contacting Bart Sibrel at the website promoting his doubts. Surprisingly, I was informed that he resigned from AFTH, LLC two years ago and no longer has anything with the organization.

Another Moon hoax proponent, Jarrah White, on the other hand is still in a heated disagreement with reality and recently posted his observations and explosive confrontation with NASA on YouTube. White was outraged to see the negative feedback of his video so he promptly shut down comment voting.

Here's the video in all its glory.