Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

Wanted Lists

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Yemen’s Ministry of the Interior has put out yet another wanted list. This time of 150 leaders of the so-called “Southern Movement.” Headlining the list as this Mareb Press brief indicates is Tariq al-Fadhli.

The brief mentions a handful of other southern leaders, but the comprehensive list has yet to be made public.

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Black and white photo of a young woman resting her chin on her hand, set against a green background with circular and brain patterns.

Thinking

Why Hannah Arendt left philosophy behind to face the world

Arendt thought 20th-century philosophy had become too passive and abstract. She called for “active thinking” that prepares us to live in the real world.

Black-and-white photo showing a disc-shaped object with a shadowed underside, floating in a blank sky—an iconic image from the UFO craze.

Books

Science fiction, Project Blue Book, and the beginnings of the UFO craze

In this preview from “The Saucerian,” author Gabriel Mckee explains how the combination of fantastical stories and obscure bureaucracy launched the “space age of the imagination.”

An artist's rendering of an alien planet and a red star.

Starts With A Bang

The evidence for biosignatures on K2-18b is flimsy, at best

A Cambridge-based team claims to find molecules on an exoplanet that are only produced by life on Earth. Don’t fall for the unfounded hype.

Cover of "Target Earth" by Govert Schilling shows a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere, hinting at cosmic catastrophe. The book explores the world of meteorites, asteroids, and comets. Text reads "an excerpt from.

The Past

How scientists unearthed the cosmic catastrophe that paved the way for humanity

If an asteroid hadn’t killed off the dinosaurs, humans would almost certainly have never walked the Earth.

An astronaut stands proudly on the moon's surface near scientific equipment and a lunar lander, as the American flag waves in the background, symbolizing a pioneering USA nation.

Starts With A Bang

Science’s value, unlike NASA, cannot be destroyed by politics

After drastic cuts to the NIH, the FDA, the NSF, and the DOE, NASA science faces down its smallest budget ever. All of society will suffer.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Jabal Dukhan

News Yemen helps to explain the strategic importance of Jabal Dukhan and gives a bit more information, which is helpful since the mountain is not in my mu’ajim al-buldan.