The Standard Model of particle physics: The absolutely amazing theory of almost everything

The Standard Model. What dull name for the most accurate scientific theory known to human beings. More than a quarter of the Nobel Prizes in physics of the last century are direct inputs to or direct results of the Standard Model. Yet its name suggests that if you can afford a few extra dollars...

Jordan Peterson on the worst thing about Donald Trump

“might be his elevation of the troll”

Professor Jordan Peterson is often controversial but invariably offers an interesting perspective.   Here the Canadian celebrity clinical psychologist weighs in on Trump.

How do you take your Coffee?

Being in good company, I am a coffee drinker.    My favorite is a Caffè latte  - a mixture of espresso and milk (1/3 espresso).   My particular recipe uses unsweetened almond milk (so not really milk but arguably healthier).   Most of the time I use cool almond milk (sort of like an iced latte...

Glossolalia - Speaking in Tongues

This is intriguing.   A common religious belief is that some human beings extemporaneously receive a gift from God - the ability to 'speak in tongues' - to speak fluently in a new language.   This new language is also unknown - it is not any language known to human beings. Not many studies have...

Guide to Threads

Threads Comments on an article tend to split into threads of discussion.   A thread is a topic comment along with its set of reply comments.    The topic comment typically focuses on an aspect of the article and, properly done, the replies would do likewise.   The current hierarchic structure...

A Journey from a Homosexual Lifestyle to Christ

This is an article from a 'former' lesbian who found Jesus.   A few interesting comments triggered this seed.   This seems like a worthy discussion: Jesus Christ drew me to Himself in 1999.  I broke up with my partner because I was convicted that living as a lesbian was a sin and so put me...

Notes on New Moderator Functionality

Moderators now have a support system to automate most of the manual work that has taken place behind the scenes.   The new system will be largely transparent to members - especially if one is never suspended.   Most of the new functionality will only be seen (and used) by the moderators. The...

Guide to the Publisher

Why Do We Need A Publisher? NewsTalker’s underlying platform provides native support for three types of articles:  Blog, Discussion and Group Discussion.   Blogs are for authors (or columnists) to produce and publish original content.   Discussions, in contrast, are less formal.   A discussion...

Closet Atheists

The USA is one of the most religious nations on the planet.   Statistically 78% of USA citizens claim to be religious (~70% of USA citizens are Christian).   Yet, anecdotally, it is easy to observe many going through the motions - playing the role of the routine theist.   Pretending to be more...

God Would Not Use Natural Language to Communicate His Word

An excerpt from The Age of Reason regarding God using natural language to communicate His Word: If we permit ourselves to conceive right ideas of things, we must necessarily affix the idea, not only of unchangeableness, but of the utter impossibility of any change taking place, by any means or...