The sad thing is that if it was *real* news I don't think anyone would be at all surprised...

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4133&n=2

It is clever. Here's the title, so you have SOME idea what he's talking about:

"Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity with New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory".

And it is pretty well done, actually.

Evangelical Scientist would be a cool job title!

It is wonderfully well done. Send it out straight I think people will fall for it.

If people fall for it it's a commentary on those gullible people, not the likelihood of the article. I've seen some Onion articles that I totally would have bought in a legit paper, but not this one.

That's not to say it isn't well written or funny, because it is both.

People will fall for it. They should do a one on how the sun revolves around the earth too. I am sure plenty of people still think that.

Overall a very good Onion this week, indeed.
http://theonion.com

"Rumsfeld Makes Surprise Visit To Wife's Vagina"

"U.S. Intelligence: Nukehavistan May Have Nuclear Weapons "

"Iraqi Cop Moonlighting As Terrorist Just To Make Ends Meet"

That's a great parody.

I really like this part: "The laws [of gravity] predict the mutual force between all bodies of mass, but they cannot explain that force."

This is of course true, science does not know what gravity or any of ethe other elemental forces really are. They are just mysterious forces of an unknown origin.

Scientifically literate parody - such a rare thing. This is even better than the stuff in the JIR.

"They should do a one on how the sun revolves around the earth too."

Many uneducated folks believe the urban legend that Europeans thought the earth was flat before Columbus. (Hint: they didn't - Columbus disputed the measured circumference of the earth, which had been well known and undisputed since 200 BC. As it happens, Columbus was wrong and the public was right - the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan was not really 2400 miles.)

Rich, do you listen to skepticality? They did a show on that topic a while back.

I used to have a subscription to the print edition of The Onion. It's a great thing to leave lying around the house or office.

We had visitors once and I'd left an issue on the coffee table. The story showing had the headline

God Answers Boy's Prayers
"No," says God

Heh.

Philo

Eric, no. I've seen skepticality listed in the itunes podcast list, but I haven't subscribed. The Columbus thing is just one of those things that I've known since I argued with my grade school teacher about how she didn't know what the hell she was talking about.