Science and Fiction

Kyle XY: What's the Frequency, Kyle?
Another one of those family bonding episodes I enjoy so much. Kyle and Amanda finally kiss, don't worry no sparks or explosions.
We Mr. Trager's father although he was in a coma and died. Coma Trager still manged to send Kyle some ESP pictures that helped reconcile the overly religious man with his "science" son.

I personally don't see a conflict with God and science as the last two Popes agreed that evolution and man's scientific theories are real. Oh well crazy zealots always exist.

Jessi is an unfeeling woman hater. She jumped Lori.

Nova: NOVA|science NOW
This is a spin-off of the great PBS show Nova hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson of the American Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately this was the last of five episodes I should have blogged about it sooner. Every episode has three or four quick science stories.

This episode talked about the causes of the other five mass extinctions in Earth's history. It was in part due to a great volcano that released CO2 in massive numbers. It is more complicated and not as clear cut but the show does explain it well.

The other segments included creepy robots, the 1918 Flu, and recovering papyrus notes.
The flu segment was particularly well done showing in a cartoon how a virus has certain "keys" to unlock our cells and a second set of keys to leave the cell. Each virus has different keys and the ones for the Bird Flu are kind of limited, while the one for the 1918 Flu worked great. If the Bird Flu would mutate and gain a new set of keys we are doomed.

The papyrus stuff was nice they used cameras and filters to uncover a certain bible passage about Christ that is the oldest ever known.

Wide Angle: Dishing Democracy
Impressed by the Nova episode I watched this show and it was also great. A story about the Arab version of The View. Four women from different backgrounds talking about hot issues. The most interesting woman was the lady who wore the scarf and is a Saudi. She knows that 15 of the 19 terrorist on 9/11 were Saudi and all 19 were well to do(richer than the average man). She hates to see in the news that only the poor are terrorist and wonders if poverty was not the problem could it be religion. Of Course.

In Saudia Arabia women can't vote, leave the house unscarved, and 95% of them don't work. Yet the men are still so angry the blow up things.

Shaq's Big Challenge: The final fitness test
All the kids did okay with the guys doing slightly better than the girls with one good exception.

Chris B. this 11 year old lost 77 pounds and went from round to strong. He made a dramatic change, I believe with his family's help he changed his eating habits from traditional foods to equally tasty healthy food, he is from a Cuban background and his mom learned to cook healthier but with the same Cuban flavor.

"Science is a fluid thing, it's not set in concrete,"
said Charles Haas on a recent news story about a re-identified Titanic passenger.