A prolific writer right up until his last hour, Martin Gardner will always garner more shelf space on in my library than almost any other. R.I.P. Mr Gardner.

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On a related note, this morning I had the somewhat voyeuristic opportunity to “listen in” on an Evolution vs. Creation debate currently festering within the church of my childhood. What a long distance I have travelled!

In this hour of Radiolab: an unflinching look at tumors. A close examination of these anatomical aberrations reveals surprising stories of evolution, immortality, and maybe…God? Say hello to the growth that killed Ulysses S. Grant, and get to know the woman whose cancer cells changed modern medicine.

Totally Tumors

Read the full article. This is my new favorite of his posts.

There are few living souls on this earth that I’d rather meet than Krista Tippett–the brilliant (and beautiful) journalist, author and extraordinary host of the NPR radio program Speaking of Faith. In Krista’s words

What most Americans want, whether they are religious or not, is for the religious voice in our public life to be more constructive — to reflect the capacity religion has to nourish lives and communities.

Recently, she’s been on a bit of a science bender, producing some of the most thought-provoking, intelligent, meaning-of-life-exploring programs available. 
One of these, Mathmatics, Purpose + Truth, “sounds depths I had never considered before” (a phrase Krista uses to describe the latest book penned by the interviewee, Janna Levin). I’m placing A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines along side Einstein’s God on my “Currently Reading” shelf, and adding this podcast to my new “monthly recharge” list (more on that later).

It is then with considerable amuzement that I listened to the recent rebroadcast of a 2007 program Heart and Soul: The Integrative Medicine of Dr. Mehmet Oz. In Krista’s probing questions, you can observe the early subtle signs of the skeptic that I believe she is gradually becoming. I may be wrong on this. And I would love the opportunity to dig deeper into her amazing mind.

Dr. Mehmet Oz? No one can touch Steven Novella‘s  air-tight rational analyses and his response to the Oz interview is no exception. He takes him to task, summarizing his utterances as “abject scientific nonsense.” (Steven is another great mind on my would-love-to-meet list)

So, Jeff Bertholdi — Mr Bentvision – put your money where your youtube is and take me up on this bet. I’ll fly out there and buy you dinner in 2029 if Ray is wrong. You do the same if he is right. Have we got a bet?

I have two strikes against me as a skeptical thinker: (1) I live in the U.S. of A. and (2) I was raised by direct descendants of both the Puritans as well as one of the early co-founders of the Seventh Day Adventist church. Consequently, in disproportionately large numbers, I am surrounded by loved ones (and others) who are “Believers” when it comes to personal “miracles” having completely logical explanations.

So it is deeply refreshing whenever I come upon a well-crafted treatment of rational thinking prepared expressly for the average but open-minded (oxymoronic though that may be) curious mind. Last Thursday, while driving to work, listening to the excellent Bob Edwards show on XMRadio, I heard portions of an interview with Robert Krulwich discussing his show RadioLab hosted by WNYC. What a find! RadioLab (now in its sixth season — cannot believe I’ve not heard of it before) has as its tag line “On a Curiosity Bender”. I love it.

To my beloved miracle-believing friends: I implore you to listen to “Stochasticity“.

Yesterday at work, someone sent out a spam-o-gram to the entire company with a forwarded urban legend heavily suggesting a supernatural connection behind the Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences. I replied back (adding the proper ‘Not Work Related’ subject tag) with a link to Stochasticity. While several immediately replied and dropped by with “Thank You!”, I suspect several others were silently offended.

One day, I am sure, this will no longer be such a delicate topic.

(Mark Martinez)

In last week’s Technology Review, a “Full Color Screen that Bends” is described. This, of course, it the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for on the road to Verner Vinge’s foolscap — from which this blog is named.

“This family was effectively illiterate. Sure, Miri bragged that many books were visible any time you wanted to see them, but that was a half truth. The browser paper that Reed had given him could be used to find books online, but reading them on that single piece of foolscap was a tedious desecration. It was remarkable foolscap, though. It really did support teleconferencing: Dr. Aquino and the remote therapists were not just invisible voices anymore. And the web browser was much like the ones he remembered, even though many sites couldn’t be displayed properly.”  
— Rainbow’s End

Even the most jaded anthropocentric observer cannot deny the miniscule role of humanity in the bigger picture of Life on Earth (’till now, of course).  Click, and zoom in to “homo sapiens”.