astazangasta

I've read both perspectives with regard to terraforming Mars - that the lack of a magnetic field means the solar wind will quickly strip away any atmosphere that forms around Mars, or that an atmosphere would be relatively stable on at least a scale of millions of years, and we would easily have time to replenish any losses due to the solar wind. So which is it? How violent is the solar wind really?

Many people oppose abortion on ostensibly religious grounds. However, I'm not familiar with any specific Biblical prohibitions on the subject (compared to, say, eating shellfish, which is quite explicit). What are the grounds on which abortion is rejected?

TSA now requires passengers on US flights to individually bag, I suppose because of that absurd "mixing liquids to blow up planes" plot from a few months ago. How does this in any way increase safety? As it turns out, that whole scare was based on faulty chemistry:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17/flying_toi...

So what is the rationale behind the TSA regulations? Is it needless scare-mongering, as I suspect, with no brains behind it? Or is there a good reason for it?

A number of global warming skeptics allege that global warming is a "billion-dollar industry" and exhort me to "follow the money". I can see quite clearly that Exxon-Mobil has posted record-breaking profits in the last few quarters, but what companies are making billions off fears of climate change?