Yearly Archives: 2007

mirrors and moonbeams

Moonlight collectorIs anyone interested in a road trip to Arizona for some moonshine? No, not that kind of moonshine. I’m talking about moonlight reflected off a five-story mirror array in the desert near Tuscon.

A Tucson-based inventor and businessman Richard Chapin and his wife Monica are behind the giant device, which gathers up and focuses the light of the moon.

The Chapins built the large, one-of-a-kind contraption that stands in the desert some 15 miles west of Tucson, Arizona, in the belief that moonlight might have applications for medicine, industry and agriculture.

“So much work has focused on the sun. We have just forgotten about this great object that has been here for billions of years, has affected us in all forms of our evolution,” said Chapin, who paid for the project with his own money.

I certainly don’t think there’s anything woo-woo about moonlight, even when concentrated, but I really do like the idea of being bathed in concentrated moonlight. Just thinking about the phenomenal distances involved in the light’s journey to you is awe-inspiring.

our own government admits that Iran isn’t developing nuclear weapons

This just in from some crazy left-wing blogger making up stories:

In a stunning reversal of Bush administration conventional wisdom, a new assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies concludes Iran shelved it’s nuclear weapons program over four years ago.

“We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program,” reads a declassified version of the National Intelligence Estimate key findings.

Oh, wait. It was ABC News, talking about a National Intelligence Estimate prepared by our very own intelligence agencies. Oh. Um…

But hey, Iran is still producing quantities of highly enriched uranium, right? And that can’t possibly be used for any other purpose, right? And just because they say they’re not producing nukes, and they actually aren’t producing nukes, that’s no reason to conclude that they won’t produce nukes, right?

Right?

Fever can unlock autism’s grip

Looks like there’s been some progress in figuring out how to reverse the effects of autism, at least temporarily. According to a recent study, some children have shown improvement while they have a fever over 100 degrees:

More than 80 percent of those with fever showed some improvements in behavior during it and 30 percent had dramatic improvements, the researchers said. The change involved things like longer concentration spans, more talking, improved eye contact and better overall relations with adults and other children.

Obviously this doesn’t help in terms of home remedies, but it does indicate that autism isn’t completely irreversible.