But first, some news of the day. President Donald Trump seems to be losing control on all fronts.   Yesterday, the House adopted an Iran War resolution ( which therefore does not mean all that much ) to rein in Trump. Congress and the courts have forced Trump to pull back the $1.8 billion fund to compensate his allies. The Epstein files continue to lurk. The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the NBA finals, 105-95. Haven't said much about Major League Baseball, which is about 38% into the season, with almost four months left.  From Google AI, the top pitchers are: Cristopher Sánchez (Phillies): Leads the majors with a microscopic ERA among qualified starters. He made national headlines by racking up an incredible scoreless-innings streak, showcasing devastating command with his changeup. [ 1 , 2 ] Jacob Misiorowski (Brewers): The "The Miz" has been utterly electric, leading all of baseball in total strikeouts and routinely lighting up the ...

Chances are that a lot more people in the world believe that God had some role in the creation of Humanity than the scientific version, which begins with the Big Bang.  As such, then, God is the most popular choice for First Contact, or interaction with an extraterrestrial.  Actually, he has no competition in this vote because no intelligent life form has yet ever made contact, as confirmed by any reliable source. This might well be my shortest posting, for what would be the point of confirming or refuting the title?  Well, this gives me another opportunity to compare religion with science. I start with  Global Religion 2023 , a 26-country Global Advisor survey by Ipsos. These countries were all reasonably developed, with 46% of the respondents believing in some form of Christianity.  Only 7% Buddhist, 6% Muslim, mostly Sunni, and 4% Hindu.  Interestingly enough, 29% with no religion or not religious. India, Turkey, Japan and Thailand were surveyed, but the...

Scientist today are still not sure if any virus is actually alive.  Bacteria, yes, and so too humans.  All living forms are mostly water, from 60% in us to more than 90% in some plants. You might have thought that life needs oxygen, and most of us on Earth do.  However,  some bacteria, such as  E. coli , can survive on pure hydrogen .  This is crucial, for there is only 0.1% oxygen in the universe, but 92% hydrogen.  Thriving life has been found at a  temperature above the boiling point of water . In 1877  Giovanni Schiaperelli  of Italy mapped Mars, showing oceans and canals.  Somehow this nomenclature was mistakenly interpreted by some as evidence of life.   Percival Lowell  of the U.S. in 1894, from observation he made, suggested that those canals were created by intelligent Martians to move water from ice caps.  H.G. Wells in 1898 then published  War of the Worlds ,  launching a new genre of science...