Yes. Yes, they do…and far more people believe in astrology than you might think. A Gallup poll showed that about 1 in 4 American, Canadian, and British people believe in this stuff. As you may have suspected, more women believe in astrology than men do.

Although I wouldn’t have included extraterrestrials as part of a paranormal poll, the results pertaining to astrology are interesting. Take a look at these graphs:

(Source: www.gallup.com)

The human race has advanced so far and yet there is no shortage of ignorance. The phenomenon of silly beliefs such as astrology are a sad reminder of this fact. This type of pseudo-science not only holds society back, but it is morally wrong and deceitful.

Astrology is a business. There’s a reason you find it in newspapers. It’s been shown to increase circulation of newspapers, so for the sake of money, they include them. Ironically, these publications are still called “news”-papers and not “whatever-makes-money”-papers.

The scam artists who call themselves astrologers get paid a lot of money to prey on peoples’ insecurities. Even some stock market scam artists get scammed by the astrology scam. “Financial astrology” is the practice of using stars and planets as a guide to investing. Sounds pretty stupid, but it exists.

Ironically, the Google Ads on this page will probably be for horoscopes or something…SMH

This practice, known as crowdsourcing, will allow anyone with an Internet connection to assist with two main games tasks:

1. Mapping the surface of Mars by matching detailed high-res photos onto larger, less detailed photos of the general location, taken from higher altitudes.

2. Counting the craters in undocumented photos. You won’t have to count really tiny craters just yet (NASA plans on doing that later), but simply count the larger craters that you find in the photos you’re provided.

When I tried my hand at NASA’s “Be A Martian” website, I found counting the craters to be a lot simpler than mapping the photos…that is until I was given a photo with over 40 craters in it.

They’ve tried to make the site into a Web 2.0 online social network, but Microsoft’s typical bulky coding slows things down a little bit. I can’t help but wonder how much faster and better designed the site would be if NASA had just partnered with Google, Apple, or…honestly…anyone but Microsoft.

Aardonyx celestae had many characteristics of two-legged herbivore dinosaurs, but also could drop down on all fours and move about like the huge sauropods that would evolve later on. This distinct feature is thought to have contributed to what later allowed the sauropods to become the largest dinosaurs that ever existed. The bones in the forearms of Aardonyx celestae would interlock when it walked on four legs, a feature that it’s descendants all had, and it allowed it to be able to safely support it’s weight.

Despite limb proportions that showed Aardonyx celestae to be mostly bipedal, meaning it mostly walked on two legs, it had already developed several features that would become evident in sauropods. The femur (thigh bone) had straightened out for strong vertical weight support, the backbone developed specialized bracing-joints to strengthen it, the feet had flattened and became more robust, the jaw had a wide gape, and of course, the previously mentioned forearm bones that interlocked.

These findings were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a peer-reviewed journal based in London, England. If you want to read the full report, click here.

So remember, if you ever find yourself arguing with someone who believes that no transitional fossils exist, Aardonyx celestae is yet another example you could politely point them to ;)

Dr. Bonnan talks about Aardonyx celestae:

Aardonyx celestae FACTS:

• discovered in Free State, South Africa
• lived in early Jurassic era (roughly 195 million years ago)
• grew to 7m (20ft)
• fossil specimen believed to have died early at 10 years old
• “Aardonyx” means “Earth Claw,” named because the earth filled claws were amongst the first bones discovered of the specimen
• “celestae” is derived from Celeste Yates, the fossil preparator for the team that made the discovery
• the research team included Dr. Adam Yates, Dr. Matt Bonnan, Dr. Johann Neveling, Dr. Anusuya Chinsamy, Marc Blackbeard, and Celeste Yates

I still remember when I first saw the original Moon Landing hoax conspiracy theory videos. I must admit, they were very convincing at the time, especially without testing the claims. Soon after the allegations were made that NASA didn’t go to the Moon, but rather shot the footage inside a studio, people started analyzing the Moon Landing hoax.

Before we get to the analysis of the conspiracy theory, here’s a recent photo taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Currently in a 50 km high orbit around the Moon, it snapped this photo of the Apollo 17’s lunar module descent stage. Even the flag is visible.

It’s also worthy to note that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter had previously taken photos of all the Apollo mission and Surveyor landing sites, but the images were taken from a farther distance than the recent photograph of the Apollo 17 landing site. Because of this, there is hardly anything distinguishable in those photographs.

Anyway, this photo is kinda grainy, but considering that the “photographer” is currently in orbit around the Moon, it’s very plausible that it is what they claim it is.  Most hardcore conspiracy theorists would need more evidence than that however.

Well, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. MythBusters, with a little help from www.clavius.org, actually took on the challenge of testing the claims made by the hoax theorists.

Here’s video of the MythBusters’ team taking on the challenge:

Unparallel Shadows:

Moon Reflection:

Footprint:

Flag waving:

Retroreflector:
]]> http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/11/03/another-nail-in-the-moon-hoax-coffin/feed/ 0 http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/13/cave-of-crystals-1000-ft-below-mexican-desert/ http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/13/cave-of-crystals-1000-ft-below-mexican-desert/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:44:11 +0000 Mr. Monkey http://www.monkeylog.com/?p=94

Discovered while drilling in a lead and silver mine, this “Cave of Crystals” lies nearly 1000 feet below the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico. The giant crystals dwarf humans, with the biggest one measuring 37.4 feet long. Up to 170 huge crystals can be found in this impressive cave.

The crystals were formed from groundwater saturated in calcium sulphate which began flowing through the cave millions of years ago as it was heated by an intrusion of magma about a mile below.

The magma began to cool around 600,000 years ago and the minerals started to precipitate out of the water. The crystals grew to be massive over time, until miners, unknowingly, drained the cave in 1985.

Although the pictures might be deceiving and give off the impression that the cave is cold, the temperature is actually around 45 degrees Celsiues (113 degrees Fahrenheit) with nearly 100% humidity.

]]> http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/13/cave-of-crystals-1000-ft-below-mexican-desert/feed/ 1 http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/13/montreal-scientist-plans-chicken-saurus/ http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/13/montreal-scientist-plans-chicken-saurus/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:23:21 +0000 Mr. Monkey http://www.monkeylog.com/?p=75

The thought of creating anything dinosaur-like instantly brings up thoughts of Jurassic Park. However, Hans Larsson of McGill University is taking a different approach. He’s attempting to reverse the effects of evolution and create chicken’s with features of their dinosaur ancestors.

Larsson claims the idea sprung up during a conversation with his colleague, Jack Horner, a famous paleontologist and a technical adviser on Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.

Birds are thought to have descended from dinosaurs, as they have similar features and so-called “transitional fossils” have been found supporting the idea. Recent research done on a four winged dinosaur named Anchiornis huxleyi, provided further evidence for this idea. World famous paleontologist, Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing claims that the nearly complete fossil specimen allowed confirmation of the theory that dinosaurs are the ancestors of modern day birds.

Hans Larsson is looking to evolutionary “switchpoints” he could manipulate to turn back the hands of time and give chicken’s features such as a longer tail, teeth, and clawed fingers. Funding for the project is provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

For the first time, a spider has been found that eats mainly a vegetarian diet, making it the 1st out of about 40,000 species of spiders to do so.

Bagheera kiplingi, a type of jumping spider found in parts of Central America, including Mexico, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, had originally been discovered in the late 1800s.

“At that time in history, all the [naturalists] had was a tattered dead specimen,” said the head of the study Christopher Meehan, a biologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Meehan and his colleagues studied Bagheera kiplingi from 2001 to 2008 and found that the spiders mainly ate the protein and fat rich buds from acacia plants. This accounts for over 90% of the spider’s diet.

The acacia plant is also home to several species of Pseudomyrmex ants, that they have a symbiotic relationship with. The ants aggressively protect the plant, which provides them with their source of food and shelter. Some species of ants will cut away competing plants and hunt down herbivores, including the Bagheera kiplingi, to protect the acacia plant.

The Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping spider, avoids the ants by jumping from thorn to thorn. The “vegetarian” spider will also occasionally eat the ants larvae or cannibalize each other, mainly during the dry season.

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