Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

Thursday’s loose ends

The National warns that it is midnight in Yemen with this editorial.

Laura Kasinof has this piece in the Christian Science Monitor, in which I weigh-in with my thoughts on the accuracy of the recent claims that al-Qaeda in Pakistan is relocating to Yemen.

I promised a bit more information this morning on the surrender of Nayif al-Harbi, but I was busy most of the day with another project and ran out of time to track down more details. But I did a quick check of the list of 85 suspects that Saudi recently put out and his name is not on it. So neither ‘Alwan nor al-Harbi (who is from the same tribe, al-Harb, which is quite large, as al-‘Awfi) were on the list. This could suggest any number of things, from questionable Saudi intelligence to growing numbers of Saudis headed south – I tend to favor the latter explanation over the former.

Starts With A Bang

The unsurprising non-detection of intelligent aliens

Life arose on Earth very early on. After a few billion years, here we are: intelligent and technologically advanced. Where's everyone else?

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High Culture

Does science fiction shape the future?

Six visionary science fiction authors on the social impact of their work.

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13.8

The key problem with the “brain in a vat” thought experiment

Even with the best technology imaginable, you'd probably never be able to exist as a consciously aware brain in a vat.

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13.8

A cosmic coincidence: What eclipses tell us about Earth

Total eclipses are a product of a strange and almost eerie cosmic coincidence — one that makes Earth an even rarer world in the galaxy and, by proxy, in the Universe.

Starts With A Bang

If photons have mass, could they explain dark matter?

Our Universe requires dark matter in order to make sense of things, astrophysically. Could massive photons do the trick?

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Guest Thinkers

Yemeni Government’s Statement

It has been a long day for Yemen watchers, but before I sign off for the evening I wanted to post the important paragraph from a statement from Yemen’s embassy […]