inkbluesky

Academic protest Pope

 Lecturers and students at a prestigious university in Rome want a planned visit by the Pope to be cancelled as they object to his position on Galileo.

Pope Benedict XVI is to make a speech on Thursday at La Sapienza university.

Sixty-seven academics have signed a letter saying the Pope’s views on Galileo “offend and humiliate us”.

They say he condoned the 1633 trial and conviction of Galileo for heresy. The astronomer had argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

Everyone knows that the earth is inside a glass sphere that that god carries around in the pocket of his favorite pair of khakis.

downtown snow 

I never have liked Chris very much, New study blames Columbus for syphilis spread 

“What we found is that syphilis or a progenitor came from the New World to the Old World and this happened pretty recently in human history,” said Harper, whose study appears in journal Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases.

She said the study lends credence to the “Columbian theory,” which links the first recorded European syphilis epidemic in 1495 to the return of Columbus and his crew.

“New” world in this case would mean South America. This is not the absolute end of the story as scientists in the article caution while they have strong indications of this scenario of events, they’re doing more research.