Was it you who posted/linked to a theory here last week, about parallel universes

...sounds like something I might do....

on NPR yesterday they were talkingabout how to make a universe. Is it sad that I kept thinking , but where would you put it?

They were supposed to post signs in the building lobby telling us which elevators were in use while they repair the collapsing ceiling.

Not so much with the signage today.

Finally, bomb-sniffing bees!

Scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have rather splendidly announced the immediate availability of the bomb-sniffing bee, Reuters reports.

The boffins declared they'd "trained honeybees to stick out their proboscis when they smell explosives in anything from cars and roadside bombs to belts similar to those used by suicide bombers". The terror-busting insects can "recognise substances ranging from dynamite and C-4 plastic explosives to the Howitzer propellant grains used in improvised explosive devices in Iraq", according to researchers.

The plan is, as Haarman explained, to deploy the bees in "hand-held detectors the size of a shoe box", and train security operatives in their use.

It is funny, but I've got to say some "science" stuff I read really needs quotation marks. Was it you who posted/linked to a theory here last week, about parallel universes (or something along those lines). While my first thought was, "Cool!" my second thought was, "And that's science as opposed to faith, just how, exactly?"

I would call parallel universes and extra dimensions speculation not science. There is no experimental evidence that they exist and until there is, there is no reason to think they are reality. It can be interesting to speculate what the math may imply, but a theory that cannot be subjected to experiment isn't in the realm of science. I would say if a scientist is claiming something without any empirical evidence to be true, then that is faith. If a scientist is just claiming that something is implied but not provable, then it's just speculation based on science.

The boffins declared they'd "trained honeybees to stick out their proboscis when they smell explosives in anything from cars and roadside bombs to belts similar to those used by suicide bombers".

I wonder if they'll get a lot of false positives for people carrying flowers....

I would call parallel universes and extra dimensions speculation not science.

I'd say it's potential science. I mean, there is some really wacky theoretical physics out there, but not all wacky ideas can be legitimately supported by a mathematical model that takes what we currently know about the real world into account. The ones that do are still contingent upon experimentation, but they're not just pulled out of the collective quantum ass.

Something without empirical evidence you mean, Gud? Otherwise, I'm with you.

Sometimes I just do not get my subconscious. I watch Dexter, Masters of Horror, and all sorts of scary movies all the time without disturbing my sleep, but last night's episode of The Class resulted in a nightmare about me as a kid being locked in the car with a huge demonic cicada.

Jesse, on HIMYM the voice of the mom was Megan Mullally.

HIMYM: Even though that was my first instinct, upon re-listening I wasn't so sure.

In other comedic news, Jim Lehrer was great on Colbert last night.