Skeptical Reporter @ 2013-09-13

Skeptical Reporter for September 13th, 2013 Would you board flight 666 to HEL on Friday the 13th? For superstitious travelers, that might be tempting fate. But Finnair passengers on AY666 to Helsinki – which has the 3 letter designation HEL – don't seem too bothered. Friday's flight is almost full. "It has been quite a joke among the pilots", said veteran Finnair pilot Juha-Pekka Keidasto, who will fly the Airbus from Copenhagen to Helsinki. "I'm not a superstitious man. It's only a coincidence for me." The daily flight AY666 from Copenhagen to Helsinki falls on Friday the 13th twice in 2013. Friday the 13th is considered bad luck in many countries and the number 666 also has strong negative biblical associations. Some airlines, like Scandinavian Airlines, take these fears seriously and don't have a row 13 on board. However, the negative connotations are a relatively new phenomenon for northern Europeans, and Finnair and other regional carriers like Norwegian and Estonian Air keep row 13. "Less than 100 years ago, the number 13 did not have this sinister meaning; it's quite recent in the north," said Ulo Valk, professor of comparative folklore at the University of Tartu in Estonia. This year is on track to be the worst for measles in more than a decade, according to new numbers released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And people who refuse to vaccinate their children are behind the increasing number of outbreaks, health officials say. There were 159 cases of measles in the United States from January 1 through August 24, according to the CDC. If that trend continues, there will be more cases in 2013 than in any year since 1996, when some 500 cases were reported. Measles cases in the United States numbered in the hundreds of thousands before the advent of vaccination, and dropped dramatically throughout the 1960s. The disease was thought to have been eradicated in 2000, but the numbers have recently crept back up, largely because of visitors from countries where measles is common and because of vaccine objectors within the United States. Nearly two-thirds of the reported cases happened in three outbreaks in communities where many people don't vaccinate their children for religious or philosophical reasons. "This is very bad. This is horrible. The complications of measles are not to be toyed with, and they're not altogether rare", said Dr. Buddy Creech, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. On September 11, 2013, Kentucky's governor Steve Beshear announced that he "plans to implement the new Kentucky Next Generation Standards under his own authority". The announcement follows on the heels of the Kentucky legislature's subcommittee vote that the standards are deficient. The adoption of the standards was recommended by the state department of education and the state board of education, as well as Kentuckians for Science Education, the Kentucky Paleontological Society, the Kentucky Academy of Sciences, and the Kentucky Science Teachers Association. A deputy press secretary for the governor explained that Beshear "views these standards as a critical component in preparing Kentuckians for college and the workforce. Therefore, as provided by law, he will implement the regulations notwithstanding the finding of deficiency". NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott, who taught physical anthropology at the University of Kentucky applauded Beshear's decision. "It's a good day for science education in the Bluegrass State," she said. "There's no doubt that the Next Generation Science Standards are a tremendous improvement on Kentucky's existing state science standards, especially when it comes to evolution and climate change. Kentucky's schoolchildren deserve to learn about these topics in a way consistent with the consensus of the scientific community". Friends and family of the late Sara Niethe are outraged by a psychic's claim she solved the case of her murder....