More entertaining bits from our media and some college basketball tidbits...

Sports topics are further down, but there's another topic in the news I find very interesting....and some of it ties in with discussions that frequent the message boards.

You can't help but note that people seem to fall into two groups...

--those that believe just about everything they read in the press and defend the press as honest and doing their job...and even argue strongly that it's their job to run with inaccuracies and extreme opinions and bias...
..the gullible...

--and those who read and decide if what they read is accurate, incorrect, biased, or just plain dishonest and wrong, thus using their brain to analyze what they read instead of just swallowing everything hook, line, and sinker.
..the skeptics...or thinkers...


So -- when you hear anyone talk about what is the real job of people who write for newspapers, they always start with...
...to get people talking -- to
"stir the pot", then - it's
"to sell newspapers" or increase interest and readership, because that's what drives how much money they can charge for ads, and thus that's the main thing that determines their earnings...
Then somewhere buried deep in all that is the honest, and responsible requirement to say what is correct and not add a whole bunch of hype and flat-out stupidity.


Case in point -- no topic in the news for the past year has generated so many laughably incorrect headlines and stupid statements, than the NASA release on Thursday about the recently discovered single celled organism that appears to utilize arsenic biologically.
Someone needs to do a scientific analysis on how a simple topic in a news release can trigger so much fiction, imagination, speculation, and downright fairy-tale inaccuracy in what supposed "professional news people" report!

A million different articles have appeared since yesterday's NASA release....and I am going to just pick a couple to cite how a little knowledge with a reporter sure seems to be a dangerous thing...


--here is the original article's abstract -- the actual report of what's been discovered..an organism that can use arsenic in certain protein structure where ordinarily phosphorus would be.
It's an oddity, but not a whole lot different than those organisms that live at the bottom of the sea in volcanic vents, or that live deep inside the Yellowstone geysers and mudpits....
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2010/12/01/science.1197258.abstract


--Here's one of many, many reporters that morphed that into ..
"Arsenic-based life form discovered"
http://www.newsherald.com/articles/life-89038-arsenic-form.html

.........but the organism is NOT arsenic-based at all, any more than we are phosphorus-based (recall, the arsenic just replaces phosphorus in certain proteins). The organism is still a standard carbon based life form that utilizes arsenic in some of its protein structure. Various forms of life use LOTS of different elements such as iron, calcium, magnesium, cobalt, copper, zinc, iodine, selenium, manganese, etc...
And most of these elements are otherwise extremely toxic -- even much MORE toxic than arsenic, if ingested by humans and other life forms...but organisms find a way to use the individual molecules safely inside their very innate protein structure.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=202269#post202269


--Here's a major news organization, ABC News, whose writer says...
"Life that Thrives on Arsenic"
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/life-space-life-lives-off-arsenic/story?id=12291373

....but it does no such thing....it doesn't thrive on arsenic any more than we thrive on phosphorus....
And given where the organism thrives at all -- the bottom of a salt-lake in California where virtually no other life exists...it seems the organism simply gets by utilizing what it can...not exactly thriving, as it doesn't appear to be viable just about anywhere else.


--Here's one that says "Microbe That Eats Arsenic Found"
http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/bacteria-eats-arsenic-alien-life-101202.html

...but of course it is a single celled organism, it doesn't eat anything, and it sure doesn't eat arsenic any more than we humans eat phosphorus or sulfur!!


--One of the CNN reporters went with
"NASA creates new arsenic based life form"
http://blog.seattlepi.com/zennieabraham/archives/230479.asp

...wow, this is kinda getting close to the "John Wilkins verbals to Iowa State"
or "Jim Les Buyout" level of horrible journalistic inaccuracy....
NOBODY created any life form, Dan!!!


--This one is the one I find the most humorous...
"We May be Overlooking Life"
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/46863/

...the exact line is.."in our search for life in space, we may have overlooked planets that don’t contain these elements but that actually have life, with these forms of life using elements different from what we have previously thought of as life-creating materials."

...say what???... We haven't ruled any planet in or out yet for several reasons..
first we haven't been to many -- even if you count probes...
and they all have the same elements as ours anyway....has anyone found a planet that has no phosphorus or carbon yet? Have we found such a weird element-deficient planet and stupidly crossed it off the list in our search for all those life forms out there??
Baloney -- the only simple fact in all of man's search for life anywhere is this...
there is none yet found other than the wealth of it on earth...but some folks think it's out there everywhere and so let's not be crossing any planets off the list yet.

Anyway...this isn't a new concept at all....it's long been thought life can survive with different elements in its structure...
Even Star Trek episodes revolved around silicon-based life forms...
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/siliconlife.html

...but it's all conjecture, and anyway, this discovery isn't arsenic-based anyway.


--this finding has absolutely nothing to do with outer space, other worlds, or alien life forms...
so NASA's efforts, and the lap dog rehashing by all the media of the connection between GFAJ-1 (the organism's official designation) and all this alien life form crap -- is pure and simple stupidity and an effort to fool the public with what they really have.
And why might anyone associated be interested is duping the media and those who are gullible?? Politics -- pure and simple as well.
They want to alter public perception and they want to generate the need for their own jobs, because the government has NASA funding cuts right on the front of the table!
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/12/02/nasa-bush-cuts/

So why is NOBODY actually reporting this story accurately?? Well, you can decide...
but I think it's a mix between the media being so gullible and going for stuff like the alien life form angle, because they just really aren't good journalists and they don't check facts and they readily print inaccurate hype.
Then there's a clear desire to twist whatever's happening in the news so it sells better...(even they admit that's one of their motivations).
Most of the facts in this story are obscure, boring, dry, and uninteresting...but that wouldn't sell. So let's say we have a germ that came from outer space that eats arsenic or is arsenic-based as contrasted to our own carbon-based nature.



Now, a review of a few college basketball tidbits.......from the past couple nights.......
In the SIU loss -- Justin Bocot continues to struggle...what's up??
...again Wednesday... 1-4, just 2 pt, 1 reb, 1 asst

Carlton Fay was 0-7 from 3-pt...his 3-pt shooting pct. This year it's hanging at 13%. Fay is a big man and can score inside, so what gives?
Think of this...Carlton Fay has only about 300 career rebounds...
He has FEWER career rebounds that even Andrew Warren has!

Creighton's Kenny Lawson -- 5 pts, 1 reb, and 0-2 from 3-pt again?? Same idea as CFay -- doesn't Kenny know he's a post player??

Well travelled ex-Decatur Christian Beas Hamga - played 1 minute and was scoreless...
The once 5-Star recruit will end his career with about 40-50 points at this pace.

Eddren McCain's old Reserve teammate - high scoring Cedric Jenkins...is at Southern Miss..
has only gotten in 3 games, and has a total of just 3 pts, on 1-6, all 3-pt attempts..

Did you know the word Quinnipiac is officially supposed to be pronounced
"quin - ip'py - ack" with accent on the middle

Did you know the word Maccabi
is officially pronounced..
"Muh - cob'by" with accent on the "cob"

UNI got only four pts off the bench last night -- so much for arguments about their depth....

At Memphis...they have tightened their rotation...and ex-Saluki commit Drew Barham is the odd man out, and is being benched...
Didn't play at all last night, and played only 2 minutes or less in each of their last 4 games, except got 15 min in garbage time vs. Tennessee-Martin...
Barham is demonstrating that he is NOT a good 3-pt shooter..
He hasn't made one in the last 6 games (0-8 in that interval)
and is only shooting 8.3% (yes less than 10%) on this season and over his 2 year Memphis career -- 27.9%

Whazzup -- Dayton loses to ETSU??
TWO losses in a row, and narrow wins before that over Savannah State (61-59) and Mount St. Mary's..
and when they played Cincinnati, they got pummelled by 34 points (68-34)!!!
They are picked as a TOP 40 Team!!
http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/40-dayton-2010-11-basketball-preview-168801

Could Brian Gregory's recruiting and coaching possibly be questioned?? Heck -- they are playing no better than BU is playing, and yet Dayton is at FULL STRENGTH and has gobs of higher rated 4-Star and even 5-Star players!!!


Indiana's 6-game winning streak against all extra-soft cupcakes came to an end playing their first road game at Boston College..
88-76
Matt Roth got in for 3 minutes...and this was all it took for the Hoosier fans to be shocked back into reality...
Many, when they were 6-0, despite the easy, all home-schedule, were thinking possible upper half finish in the Big Ten and maybe an NCAA bid...
Now most IU fans realize they are going to be bad this year and are simply looking forward to when all their young, highly rated recruits will be getting there...
BUT ---
that's not 'til 2012!!! They have almost nobody now, and nobody coming in next year, so they won't have any of that 4-Star or 5-Star talent until 2012...
and if it takes a year or so for them to blossom (knowing many like Jurkin and Perea who are African imports take a while to star in college) then Tom Crean will be in his 6th or 7th year there before the IU fans are actually hanging any expectations on him...
Whoa...remember -- had JL not gotten to th Sweet Sixteen by his FOURTH season at BU, then surely he'd be gone by now, right?? But Tom Crean is being granted 6-7 years just to get a winning record??

Lastly ...Jeremy Fears was cut from his pro team in Poland..