The billboard went up Sunday on eastbound Memorial Boulevard near Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
Rationality
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RichardDawkins.net
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Atheist group takes message to Lakeland via billboard
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm -
Stand up, stand up, against Jesus
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmCivility has its uses, but we should not be afraid of satire and mockery as weapons against religious power -
Scientists decode genome of domestic horse
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmAn old grey mare named Twilight has provided an international team of researchers with the entire genetic code of a domestic horse. -
Happy Saganseve, Everybody
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmCarl Sagan's Last interview on Charlie Rose -
The new crybaby theists
4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmHaving lost the power of the gun in the West, apologists of religion have a new weapon: being offended.
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Overcoming Bias
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Pride Is About Status
5 Nov 2009 | 4:40 pmWe used 3 different … [ways] to test whether the nonverbal expression of pride sends a functional, automatically perceived signal about a social group member’s increased social status. Results suggest that the pride expression strongly signals high status, and this association cannot be accounted for by positive valence or artifacts of the expression such as expanded size due to outstretched arms. … The pride expression is a fairly specific signal of high status. … [It] sends a message that is distinct from that of happiness,… [and] also appears to be distinct… -
FDA Blunders
5 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amPopping into the office on a recent Saturday, I overheard Alex Tabarrok practicing a talk, with fascinating details on FDA history. From FDAReview.org: Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the FDA brought hundreds of court actions against nutrition manufacturers for making health-related claims for their products. Under threat of law, food manufacturers were even prevented from labeling the fat, cholesterol, or other nutritional content of their food! (Later such labeling was allowed, and with the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 nutrition labeling became mandatory.) The FDA… -
Sports Signals
4 Nov 2009 | 11:50 amSports leagues are cracking down hard on athletes who look smug after making a good play. Football: A crackdown on excessive touchdown celebrations … has moved from the National Football League to college football and now to high school football games across the country. In the Washington area this fall, a wide receiver from 13th-ranked McNamara was flagged for pointing to the sky after a touchdown, and a Gwynn Park defender was penalized for pointing up at the sky after intercepting a pass. … “What’s happening is in the old days, there was a certain level of… -
Pondering Panspermia
3 Nov 2009 | 7:15 amOver the last few days I’ve neglected my duties to obsessively browse the last seven years of three journals: Astrobiology, International Journal of Astrobiology, and Origins of Life. In the process I’ve become converted to a more expansive version panspermia – life here probably originated outside our solar system. I’ve also learned: panspermia is no longer a marginalized view. It may not yet be the majority opinion, but it shows up often in journal articles and conference proceedings, if not in summaries intended for wider audiences. My interest in panspermia… -
All Hail William Napier
2 Nov 2009 | 7:40 pmWilliam Napier was born in 1940 and got his Ph.D. three years after his B.S., in 1966. After a career as a professional astronomer, he published his first book of fiction in 1998, at the age of 58, and published three more over the next five years. But I still would not have heard of Napier had I not read his two brilliant 2007 Astrobiology papers, published when he was 67. The first argued comets were a likely origin of life: A single comet of radius 10 km … contains [about] as much clay … as … early Earth. … Our Solar System is surrounded by about 1011 comets…
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James Randi Educational Foundation
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Ray Versus The Universe
6 Nov 2009 | 8:37 amTwenty five hundred years ago, the Chinese tactician Sun Tzu was a busy guy. He has a lot more free time now, but it was crazy back in the day. When not jotting poems about his kitties onto bamboo strips and ribbing Confucius for being ‘too preachy', Sun Tzu managed to churn out his masterpiece The Art of War. That book contains the following axiom: Know your enemy and know yourself, and win a hundred battles without a single loss. At least I assume that's what it contains. I've never even been able to get beyond the second chapter (that's the one on Bo Staff maintenance) without nodding… -
Carl Sagan Day: November 7
4 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmIf you're anywhere near southern Florida on Saturday, November 7, then you need to get yourself over to the Broward College, which is holding the very first celebration of Carl Sagan Day! It's in honor of Sagan's birthday, which is on November 9th. He would've been 75 this year. Sagan inspired a generation of astronomers, and in reality a whole generation of people to look at the sky and appreciate the -- yes, I'll say it -- cosmos. Celebrating his life is a great idea, and the folks at Broward College have a full day planned (the schedule is online in PDF and Word formats). A lot of good… -
A Direct, Specific, Challenge From James Randi and the JREF
4 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmNOTE: This notice first appeared in Oct, 2008, but given recent events in Iraq, we've decided to show it again. - Jeff Wagg This notice is directed to Cumberland Industries, UK. The ADE651® device, a totally fraudulent product, is advertised as described ahead, by Cumberland Industries, who we have contacted at Cumberland Industries UK LTD 11 Murray Street Camden London NW1 9RE, UK -
When Antiscience Kills: Dowsing for Bombs
4 Nov 2009 | 10:39 amWe at the JREF are no fans of pseudoscience, as you may imagine. Dowsing is a practice that falls squarely in that field. It's the idea that you can detect an object -- usually water, but sometimes gold, or people, or whatever -- using a y-shaped branch, or copper tubes, or some other simple device. Dowsers never really have a good explanation of how their devices work, but they tend to claim 100% accuracy. However, the JREF has tested dowsers many, many times as part of our Million Dollar Challenge. Not to keep you in suspense, but the money still sits in the bank. In other words, time and… -
Miracle or Child Abuse?
3 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmIn Russia, thousands of Muslims are flocking to see a baby who has verses from the Koran mysteriously appearing on his body: I'd like to be very clear here: this is not pareidolia, our ability to see patterns in random objects. The verses are clearly there, and not just random. As one pilgrim said, "It's proof that Allah exists, that he is all-mighty..." However -- and perhaps this is just me here -- it seems far more likely that instead of an actual miracle, someone is maybe, y'know, writing the verses on the baby. The mother says the baby is cranky when the words appear, which (if she's…
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Rationally Speaking
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David Chalmers and the Singularity that will probably not come
5 Nov 2009 | 11:39 amDavid Chalmers is a philosopher of mind, best known for his argument about the difficulty of what he termed the “hard problem” of consciousness, which he typically discusses by way of a thought experiment featuring zombies who act and talk exactly like humans, and yet have no conscious thought (I explained clearly what I think of that sort of thing in my essay on “The Zombification of Philosophy”).Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing Chalmers in action live at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He didn’t talk about zombies, telling us instead his thoughts… -
Massimo's picks
1 Nov 2009 | 9:01 am* There is yet another book out there on one of my favorite nut jobs: Ayn Rand.* My book review of Logicomix, a graphic novel about Bertrand Russell and the quest for the logical foundations of mathematics.* Another book review by yours truly: The Simpsons and Philosophy, The D'oh! of Homer.* Warwick University, in the UK, has instituted a position for the public understanding of philosophy. Imagine that!* It's time for moral class with philosopher Michael Sandel, now available on PBS and on the web.* More Americans believe in haunted houses than global warming. Sad, but not surprising.* Jon… -
Cable news: who cares?
28 Oct 2009 | 5:23 pmThe recent news coming out of the perennial war of ratings among cable news channels was shocking, I tell you, just shocking: CNN, which three decades ago invented the whole business of cable news, is now dead last in terms of prime time viewership!The numbers speak clearly: in October, CNN averaged 211,000 daily viewers aged 25 to 54 (the people who matter, because they have money and the inclination to buy what the advertisers sell), against 221,000 of HLN (formerly known as Head Lines News, ironically, a CNN spinoff!), 250,000 of MSNBC, and a whopping 689,000 for Fox.Things don’t look… -
Massimo's picks
24 Oct 2009 | 9:01 am* Believe it or not, some Republicans can even vote against the prosecution of rape crimes. Watch the Jon Stewart commentary.* Can you be good without God? A million New Yorkers are.* The Big Apple has a new Coalition for Reason.* Jon Stewart interviews Jennifer Burns, author of a new book about Ayn Rand.* Plagiarism software identified a new play by Shakespeare (he wasn't cheating...).* The year's biggest hoax is not the child in the flying balloon, it is how our money is being embezzled by White House supported Wall Street interests.* On "suggestive evidence," a different philosophical look… -
On the scope of skeptical inquiry
21 Oct 2009 | 9:01 amThere has been much discussion lately on this blog and elsewhere about the relationships among skepticism, atheism, and politics. I have roundly criticized Richard Dawkins for extending scientific skepticism into areas that are more properly the domain of philosophical analysis, as well as Penn and Teller and Michael Shermer for doing the same with politics to support their libertarian views. Of course, even a cursory reader of this blog will easily find my own pieces about religion and politics, which may make it seem like I’m a sinner throwing stones at my fellow skeptics.In reality, this…
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Applied Rationality
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Census shenanigans blocked
5 Nov 2009 | 11:06 amThe Washington Post reportsSenate Democrats Thursday blocked a GOP attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are U.S. citizens.The proposal by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter was aimed at excluding immigrants from the population totals that are used to figure the number of congressional representatives for each state. Critics said Vitter's plan would discourage immigrants from responding to the census and would be hugely expensive. They also said that it's long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of… -
This is the best the Republicans could offer?
5 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amLast Friday, Rep. Boehner, the Republican minority leader, promised "over the coming days, you're going to hear an awful lot about the specifics of what we would do to lower the cost of health insurance in America and really do this in a step-by-step gradual process."In the same interview, Rep. Boehner went on to discuss differences in the Democratic and Republican approaches to expanding coverage and addressing pre-existing conditions, saying Most of the 36 million that they say they're going to cover already have access to some type of government program, or even their employer program, or… -
U.S. lags further behind in infant mortality
4 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amThe Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have released figures that show that infant mortality rates in the U.S. exceed many other countries in the world. In the latest CDC analysis, which uses 2005 data, the U.S. ranked a disappointing 30th. So much for our world-leading medical expenditures buying us better health outcomes. The United States international ranking in infant mortality fell from 12th in the world in 1960, to 23rd in 1990 to 29th in 2004 and 30th in 2005. After decades of decline, the United States infant mortality rate did not decline significantly from 2000 to 2005.Some have… -
Lunch with Paul Krugman
3 Nov 2009 | 11:09 amI type this post with the hand that just shook Paul Krugman's hand...Krugram is in town to give a talk as part of the Bryan Lecture Series. He also gave a lecture on the current economic crisis this morning at UNCG and then went out to lunch with faculty from the Economics Department.The talk this morning began with a discussion of how the trends in world output in the current crisis initially mirrored those from the late 1920s but subsequently recovered (unlike the earlier decline). Krugman then moved on to discuss how the failure of the financial system, especially the "shadow banking… -
Sickening employment policies
3 Nov 2009 | 5:21 amThe New York Times reports this morning on how the spread of H1N1 and other illnesses is assisted by crummy sick leave policies.Public health experts worried about the spread of the H1N1 flu are raising concerns that workers who deal with the public, like waiters and child care employees, are jeopardizing others by reporting to work sick because they do not get paid for days they miss for illness.Firms clearly face a dilemma with these policies. On the one hand, sick leave helps to curb the spread of illnesses among employees, possibly raising output (or at least reducing losses associated…
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Skepfeeds-The Best Skeptical Blogs
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Putting God out of the ethics business
6 Nov 2009 | 9:24 amREAD THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT PSYCHOLOGY TODAY By now you may have heard about or seen the “good without God” posters in the subways of New York City and elsewhere. Media outlets from the New York Times to Fox News have characterized them as ads promoting atheism. Yet while the campaign aims to reach out to nonbelievers, it also raises a broader issue–something most people seem to have missed. The obvious meaning of “good without God” is that atheists can be good people. But a closer look reveals a more universal message: people can be good regardless of their… -
Stand up, stand up, against Jesus
6 Nov 2009 | 9:21 amREAD THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT THE GUARDIAN Religious teachings promise us much — eternal life, spiritual salvation, moral direction, and a deeper understanding of reality. It all sounds good, but these teachings are also onerous in their demands. If they can’t deliver on what they promise, it would be well to clear that up. Put bluntly, are the teachings of any religion actually true or not? Do they have any rational support? It’s hard to see what questions could be more important. Surely the claims of religion — of all religions — merit scrutiny from every angle, whether… -
Behold the Jesus Venn Diagram
3 Nov 2009 | 1:54 pmClusterflock brings us this cutie: Posted in Skepdude Tagged: Jesus -
Swine flu: Eight myths that could endanger your life
29 Oct 2009 | 8:59 amREAD THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT NEWSCIENTIST The second wave of the swine flu pandemic is now under way in the northern hemisphere. Case numbers are climbing fast and in some places vaccination has begun. So what’s the big deal? The virus hasn’t evolved into the monster that some feared and most cases are mild. Were all those pandemic warnings just scare-mongering? The Butcher family of Southampton, UK, wouldn’t say so. In August, their daughter Madelynne, 18, became sick and short of breath after returning from a holiday. Two weeks later, she died in hospital. Neither… -
U.S. opposes bid to bar religious defamation
28 Oct 2009 | 4:03 pmREAD THE FULL ARTICLE AT MSNBC.COM WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Monday came out strongly against efforts by Islamic nations to bar the defamation of religions, saying the moves would restrict free speech. “Some claim that the best way to protect the freedom of religion is to implement so-called anti-defamation policies that would restrict freedom of expression and the freedom of religion,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters. “I strongly disagree.” Clinton said the United States was opposed to negative depictions of specific…
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Unreasonable Faith
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Ray Comfort Look-Alike Teaches English
6 Nov 2009 | 10:00 amIf you were wondering where Ray Comfort got his career started, now you know: Okay, maybe it’s not really R — quick, flee, there’s a drunken man in the house! (via) -
Usually The Husband’s Fault?
6 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amI remembered this quote the other day from an old book I read from when I was a Christian: If a couple has been married for more than five years, any persistent disharmony in their marriage relationship is usually attributable to the husband’s lack of understanding and applying genuine love. (Gary Smalley, If He Only Knew, 73) It seems that stems from the perspective that the husband is the “leader.” In fact, Smalley acknowledges that the husband is biblically “responsible for the disharmony in [their] home.” Do you agree or disagree that it’s usually the… -
Uncomfortable Moment During the Announcements
6 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amby VorJack Awkward: A priest in the Diocese of Scranton has been removed as administrator of three Throop parishes after he inadvertently displayed four photos of what a diocese spokesman called “minimally attired adult males” before the 8 a.m. Mass at St. Bridget’s Church on Oct. 25. The Rev. Edward P. Lyman was using his personal computer to project an informational DVD about the diocesan Annual Appeal fundraiser when he accidentally showed the “inappropriate personal photographs” that were stored on his computer, according to a diocesan statement read at the… -
Catholic Church Spends $550,000 to Repeal Gay Marriage Law in Maine
5 Nov 2009 | 11:13 am(via) -
Jesus Appears on Pickup
5 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amIt looks like the homeless man sticker I applied and removed is still confusing the minds of simple people: Jim Stevens says he’s not particularly religious and is clueless about why an image resembling Jesus Christ keeps appearing on his pickup. Stevens — of Jonesborough — says nearly every morning, an image that looks to him like the face of Jesus Christ has appeared in the condensation on the driver’s side window of his Isuzu truck. A Johnson City Press photo of the truck showed a facial image. Stevens said when he first saw the image, he figured it would evaporate and not…
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Skepticblog
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More Fun with Manga
5 Nov 2009 | 1:00 amThe Manga Guide to Calculus People always used to make fun of me for learning calculus, on my own, for fun. For some reason my formal educational track always managed to swerve around calculus and I missed out, leaving me forever jealous of my friends who knew what integrals were. And so it was with some nostalgia that I recently opened a package from No Starch Press and found The Manga Guide to Calculus inside. Now you don’t have to be a complete dork to study calculus on your own; you can do it simply for the fun of enjoying manga (Japanese comic art). The regular reader may recall… -
Miracle baby or child abuse?
4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amIn Russia, thousands of Muslims are flocking to see a baby who has verses from the Koran mysteriously appearing on his body: I’d like to be very clear here: this is not pareidolia, our ability to see patterns in random objects. The verses are clearly there, and not just random. As one pilgrim said, "It’s proof that Allah exists, that he is all-mighty…" However — and perhaps this is just me here — it seems far more likely that instead of an actual miracle, someone is maybe, y’know, writing the verses on the baby. The mother says the baby is cranky… -
A Skeptical Triumph Over Medical Flim-Flam
3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amSkeptic Bruce Flamm, M.D. is vindicated in his drawn-out court case On Friday, October 24, 2009, a California Court of Appeals vindicated Dr. Bruce Flamm, an OBGYN physician and professor at the University of California, Riverside, and member of the Skeptics Society, by throwing out a defamation lawsuit filed against him by a man who claimed to have proven that prayer can increase pregnancy rates in women trying to conceive. Back in 2001, the Journal of Reproductive Medicine published a study by three Columbia University researchers claiming that prayer for women undergoing in-vitro… -
Spooky
2 Nov 2009 | 5:07 amHave you ever had the chills? You know, the frights, spooks, willies, nerves, jitters, heebie-jeebies? Do you get these feelings when you have to enter a dark room alone, or if you find yourself on a lonely street at night? Even the most hardcore skeptic can still be frightened by dark or scary places. One does not have to believe in ghosts to be a little apprehensive about staying in a large medieval castle alone through the dead of night. Sure, being rational is a distinct advantage, as we skeptics can reassure ourselves that there is nothing to be afraid of. However, sometimes it seems… -
Death Becomes Us
31 Oct 2009 | 3:11 pmA Quiet Moment at Heritage Square: Los Angeles 2009 Last weekend I took a few hours to go back in time and see up close and personal an era where death and the hereafter had an integrity and tradition that barely exists in my celebrity drenched neighborhood of Hollywood. I left behind the moral nihilism of Los Angeles for a beautiful afternoon of walking through the fall leaves on a time-warped cul-de-sac that has been relocated and restored from the crowded vistas of downtown and moved onto a few square blocks of peace and reverence. It was a grand Halloween muse that managed to steer…
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Derren Brown Blog
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Awesome new book blog: Free book giveaway
6 Nov 2009 | 3:08 amWhy Do We Read is a new book blog founded by our good friend Jo Reader. We get quite a few emails asking for reading material and books to help stimulate your brains. Well WDWR is the perfect place to get them. In fact a good chunk of the books we recommend have at some point come from them. They do concentrate on a lot of the subjects we do here as well – so you’ll see the familiar names like Richard Wiseman and his wonderful books, Carl Sagan and James Randi – plus also a few more including the fabulous Atheist Guide to Xmas featuring our very own Derren Brown. We’ve sent them… -
New Tour Dates: Birmingham, Liverpool, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Wimbledon, Stoke and Glasgow.
6 Nov 2009 | 2:13 amPhillis would personally like to apologise to all those who emailed asking about other locations – we really didn’t know 100% and so I just couldn’t confirm things, sorry to leave you all in suspense. The waiting has now paid off and if you live in the locations listed above you’ll be happy to hear Derren is coming to town. In total 17 more dates are added including Wimbledon for those of you near London and more Glasgow dates for our lovely friends in Scotland. I have now been told that there is the possibility of a few more venues. But again I must state – we… -
Making smarter rats, getting brain cells to communicate for longer
6 Nov 2009 | 1:23 amThe bumper sticker reads “My rat is smarter than YOU.” Transgenically-enhanced Hobbie-J –- named after a clever rat in a Chinese cartoon book – may not be smarter than you, but she appears to be smarter than the smartest known breeds of rat. According to Science Daily, Hobbie-J was able to remember novel objects, such as a toy she played with, three times longer than the average Long Evans female rat, the smartest rat strain. Hobbie-J was also better at remembering which path she last traveled to find a chocolate treat. Researchers from the Medical College of Georgia and East China… -
US army rejects “dousing” bomb detection kit as completely useless
5 Nov 2009 | 6:35 pmDespite major bombings that have rattled the nation, and fears of rising violence as American troops withdraw, Iraq’s security forces have been relying on a device to detect bombs and weapons that the United States military and technical experts say is useless. The small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is being used at hundreds of checkpoints in Iraq. But the device works “on the same principle as a Ouija board” — the power of suggestion — said a retired United States Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, who described the wand as nothing more than an… -
Coops is at it again.
5 Nov 2009 | 9:56 amNot content with his job as the Mr Browns trusty assistant, Coops has taken to re-editing Family guy and is not applying for a job at Disney. Follow him on Twitter @lordcoopy where I’m sure you’ll find out about more of his shenanigans.
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Skepchick
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The Science of Beauty Contraptions
7 Nov 2009 | 1:26 amFrom the ever-amusing Sarah Haskins: -
AI: It’s MY wall now
6 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmHere in England we have a folk hero, the stuff of legend. A man of mystery, whose true identity is known only to some. A maverick, inspiration for many, loved by millions, hated by other millions. Someone who transcended his (alleged) working class roots to achieve fame, fortune and the accolades of both the professional world and the public. He’s an artist whose works have featured in record-breaking exhibitions, reproduced worldwide on posters, merchandise from bags to t-shirts, and in best-selling books. He’s one of Britain’s best loved, most controversial artists. Graffiti… -
Comment o’ the Week!
6 Nov 2009 | 11:00 amI can’t argue with the majority. About a dozen people all nominated jynnan_tonnyx for this simple and yet very true statement: 29 jynnan_tonnyx // Nov 5, 2009 at 10:13 am I propose a new rule: from now on, anyone who worships a dude who spent His entire adult life hanging out with a dozen other guys, was known to be kissed by them and wash their feet, and is frequently portrayed in a nearly-nude S&M glamour shot, isn’t allowed to have a problem with gay people. Sound fair? It sure does! Congrats, jynnan_tonnyx, you get to choose next Wednesday’s Afternoon Inquisition. Send… -
Skepchick Quickies 11.6
6 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amTeacher claims fingerprinting is the mark of the beast – “A 22-year veteran kindergarten teacher in the Texas Bible Belt could lose her job for refusing, on religious grounds, to give fingerprints under a state law requiring them.” From Mark. Tips for kids on how to avoid the flu – Presented by a rapping doctor. Phrenology: Feel my head! – Great set of photos of old phrenology heads. The boxed set of tiny heads is my favorite. From Vanessa. Jenny, I got your number – Michelle has a child with celiac’s disease and therefore knows a lot about the… -
Telekinesis Revealed on Science of Scams
6 Nov 2009 | 12:15 amIn his new YouTube series Science of Scams, Derren Brown attempts to win our skeptical hearts back after all that NLP bullshit (and, as Sid reminds me, that really horribly pathetic lottery trick “explanation”*). Personally, despite the occasional dumb explanation, I’m on Team Derren and I like that he’s using his talents to educate through YouTube. *This link has the original lotto trick if you haven’t seen it, plus a few videos from people explaining how (they think) he did it. Here’s my favorite of them (don’t click if you don’t want the…
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WhyWontGodHealAmputees.com
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How Christians make excuses to rationalize their belief
5 Nov 2009 | 4:37 pmThe video’s title is, “Why Does God Create Some People With Disabilities?” It shows how ridiculous Christians can get when they try to reconcile their belief in a “loving God” with the reality of our world. A normal, non-religious person understands reality. God is imaginary. Therefore, God doesn’t create anything. People have disabilities because the chemical process that builds people in the womb and maintains them after they are born is flawed in many ways. It often makes mistakes, and there are many mistakes wired in from the start. For example, as many… -
Dismantling religion
3 Nov 2009 | 4:14 pmLittle by little, modern society will dismantle religion because religion is nonsense. Two examples: 1) LAPD to cut ties with group linked to Boy Scouts 2) Italy school crucifixes ‘barred’ Each small act like this moves us closer to a religion-free society. -
Creationists fight back with a new term - we are now evolutionists
2 Nov 2009 | 4:59 pmCreationists, apparently, are tired of getting put in the creationist box. So they are fighting fire with fire by creating a new box and a new term to go with it: the evolutionist. You can see the use of the new term here: Interesting but logically unchallenging [#2020] I just want to ask you some questions. I’m assuming you’re an evolutionist. That makes scientists gravityists too. And atomists. And photonists. And quarkists. And… By the way, Christians are no longer the only creationists. There are now Islamic creationists too, as described by Richard Dawkins in this… -
Ginobili’s bat needs to be checked for rabies
2 Nov 2009 | 4:06 pmOne thing you learn from reading Whywontgodhealamputees.com is that bats often have rabies. See “The miracle of Jeanna Giese” in Chapter 5 for details. Therefore… Ginobili’s bat needs to be checked for rabies. -
Facepalm - 68% - Goblins and Ghosts and Things That Go Bump in the Night
1 Nov 2009 | 4:37 pm68% - Goblins and Ghosts and Things That Go Bump in the Night According to a 2007 Pew Research survey, two-thirds of Americans (68%) completely or mostly agree that angels and demons are active in the world (and not just on Halloween). Just 14% completely disagree with this idea. Among religious groups, Mormons (88%), evangelical Christian (87%) and members of historically black churches (87%) are the most likely to agree that angels and demons are active in the world. Jewish Americans are by far the most likely to disagree that these spirits stalk the planet (73% disagree with 52% completely…
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Fallacy Files
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Where's the Harm?
Here it is... -
What's New?
The Multiple Comparisons Fallacy. I haven't added it to the Taxonomy yet; that is to come.... -
Check it Out, Too
Britain's "Guardian" newspaper has a fascinating history of the birth and growth over the last ten years of the estimate of the number of prostitutes trafficked into the U.K.... -
Always Read the Fine Print
Ben Goldacre's latest "Bad Science" column deals with a slanted debate about a slanted movie... -
Q and A
I've been hearing this sort of argument made recently by right-wing pundits: Obama is a good speaker. Hitler is a good speaker. [More or less implied conclusion:] Obama is Hitler (or like Hitler)....
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Tony Youens Skeptical Website
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Negative Feedback
The most useless items on eBay? -
Chris Robinson - living the dream
The dream world of a psychic -
Religious persecution
It's them doing the persecuting -
Calling all psychic detectives
Can any of them find Madeleine McCann? -
Joe Power II
"Inaccurate" doesn't do him justice
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Denialism Blog
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Don't Even Give them Your Zip Code Anymore
31 Oct 2009 | 9:46 amConsumers who have asked me whether they should give their zip code at the register have been getting bad advice! I was under the misimpression that zip-level data was only being collected for demographic research purposes (to determine where stores should be located, and advertising directed, on a mass scale) and thus said that no harm came from revealing the zip. No longer. Here's a summary of data practices at William Sonoma, according to a recent California case (Pineda v. Williams-Sonoma Stores Inc., Cal. Ct. App., 4th Dist., No. D054355). Giving the zip code allows the store to… -
Google's Leadership on Privacy
21 Oct 2009 | 7:27 pmFor some time, I've been trying to better understand Google's worldview on privacy issues. The culture of companies fosters different privacy values and sensitivities, and the signals sent by those at the top shape how the organization itself conceives of and addresses privacy issues. In wrestling with this, I read every article discussing Google and privacy in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, resulting in a paper titled, Beyond Google and Evil, How policy makers, journalists and consumers should talk differently about Google and privacy. In last week's New Yorker, which is… -
Gawker: The Best Blog on the Internets on the Worst Oped Page
16 Oct 2009 | 1:14 pmAlex Pareene has given voice to what many longtime Post readers believe: Fred Hiatt needs to be axed. Under editor Fred Hiatt, the Post op-ed page has gone completely off the rails. They picked up Bill Kristol after the Times dumped him for being not just wrong but boring and lazy. They openly allow George Will to lie, to straight-up lie, without fact-checking or corrections, because we all know reality is open to different "interpretations" and if a prominent columnist writes something patently untrue the best response is to then publish a "true" column by someone else as a counterpoint,… -
New Blog Endorsement Guidlines Released by FTC
6 Oct 2009 | 10:14 amBloggers, under new guidelines issued by the Federal Trade Commission, you must disclose gifts or payments for products that you review! Also your endorsements cannot be false or misleading! The FTC's release advises: The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that "material connections" (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers - connections that consumers would not expect - must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other "word-of-mouth" marketers. -
Strange New Art Game
5 Oct 2009 | 7:31 pmI'm a fan of Jason Nelson's I made this. You play this. We are enemies. He's just released his newest game, Evidence of Everything Exploding, described as: ...Using documents, both historical and little-known from B. Gates, NASA, James Joyce, Dadaism, Neil Gaiman, Fidel Castro, the Pizza Box Patent and many others, the game explores those strange moments where history turns or doesn't, where unusual forces collide to create or topple storylines, possible futures. Complete with matchbook death rewards, strange marked up text and curious prophecies, The madness of the pages meets the madness of…
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Skepticon
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TXT Language Redeemed
5 Nov 2009 | 12:16 pmWorking in a laboratory, as I do, abbreviations and acronyms are a way of life. Seriously, if we had to enunciate all of those chemical names, procedures and tests work would grind to a halt. Even so I find myself despising TXT speak, reducing otherwise comprehensible words to single letters, whole sentences becoming a jumble of alphanumeric sequences drives me crazy. And what’s up with “BayB” it’s the same letters in a different order, what do you gain by that?! (Deep Breath) Even so, perhaps I’m overly harsh on users of this emerging dialect, perhaps we should… -
Twitter, The End Of The World as I Know It
2 Nov 2009 | 11:24 amAlright, up until this point I have viewed the phenomenon known as Twitter to be the vacuous outgrowth of a shallow internet culture and considered it beneath contempt accordingly. That said we should always allow ourselves the opportunity to change our minds with evidence, with this in mind I have been persuaded to give Twitter a try. After only a few hours and having made only a single twat* I still like it better than Facebook. Hopefully this new tool will help me bring to you, my reader, interesting info in a timely manner. Currently the average time between something coming up on my… -
Backing Up Evolution
2 Nov 2009 | 12:14 amI’ve said it before and no doubt I’ll say it again but we know science works because it makes predictions that we can then measure against the universe and determine if the models we have created to describe it are accurate or not. One of the more successful models is the theory of evolution by natural selection. A criticism levelled against the theory of evolution by detractors is the claim that new information can not be introduced into the system, only taken away. This is actually false but lets consider how we might tackle this question scientifically First, the underlying… -
Beware the Demons!!!!!*
1 Nov 2009 | 11:41 amCatching up on blogs from over the weekend this one on the Center For Inquiry blog particularly stood out in the category of conspicuous displays of crazy. Beware of demons in your Halloween treats. I try not to do posts that are just “Look at this other Blog” but this one was too good. *And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head.’ — Terry Pratchett,Maskerade Posted in Psychological, Religion, Sciblogs, skepticism Tagged: center for inquiry, demons, halloween, Other -
Can Torture Ever Be Justified?
25 Oct 2009 | 8:45 pmI don’t think I would be going out on too much of a limb if I observed that most of us find the idea of torture to be repellent. As social creatures it is natural for us to shy away from inflicting harm on our fellows, empathy stays our hand when ruthlessness might otherwise help us achieve our personal goals. This holds true both in normal social interactions and in the extreme situations of conflict. It requires a significant expenditure of effort for us to overcome our inbuilt aversion to causing pain. Even so torture can be rationalised as being for the “greater good”…
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Skepticat
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The Men Who Stare At Goats - In Theaters Today
6 Nov 2009 | 7:54 amThe Crazy Rulers Of The World - Episode One: The Men Who Stare At Goats -- 48 min 50 sechttp://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=38921299CF1DC975Episode One of Jon Ronson's three-part TV documentary The Crazy Rulers Of The World (2004). Ronson's book The Men Who Stare At Goats (which accompanied the documentary) has now been turned into a Hollywood movie starring George Clooney.Read The Men Who Stare at Goats on Google BooksRonson talks to Jim Channon, Albert Stubblebine, Guy Savelli and other figures associated with a secret US Army unit founded in 1979 called the First Earth… -
Regarding the Change in Domain Name
5 Nov 2009 | 1:00 amAs you undoubtedly didn't notice the URL for this blog has been changed from skepticcat.blogspot.com to www.skepticcat.com ... It was a vanity thing, what can I say? At any rate, I have been led to believe that this vain action on my part should not cause any links to this blog to be broken and that the RSS Feeds (if any) should update themselves to reflect the new URL. There may be instances where older links to specific posts may run into this rather disconcerting error message:I say disconcerting because, while replete with: misspellings, poor-grammar, creative-punctuation, awkward-syntax,… -
The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend
5 Nov 2009 | 12:01 amThe Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend -- 1 hr 3 minhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492459/In 1605 a group of English Roman Catholics (who would be called 'extemists' or 'terrorists' today) attempted to assassinate King James I and his Parliament as the first stage in a coup d'etat which would lead to the restoration of Catholicism as the national faith. Their plan was to detonate a huge stock of gunpowder in the cellars beneath the Palace of Westminster (which were available for rent in those days). Fortunately - or not, depending on your point of view - the plot was betrayed before it could… -
Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot
5 Nov 2009 | 12:00 amGuy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot - 28 min http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1784792634788226531Nick Knowles explores the facts and the fiction behind the legendary Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. -
'C' For Cookie
4 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amC For Cookie -- 2 min http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9rzMaAucI4Movie Trailer Spoof of V for Vendetta. What happens in a futuristic world where the consumption of cookies is controlled by the government?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BovQyphS8kA
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Skeptic Zoners
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Darwin’s Bulldogs At Dragon*Con
30 Oct 2009 | 9:51 amThe episode out today on the Skeptic Zone podcast features a panel discussion from the Science Track at Dragon*Con – called “Darwin’s Bulldogs, Teachers on the Front Lines”. This panel was proposed by the moderator Matt Lowry, who is a high school physics teacher and a part-time Physics and Astronomy college professor. Joining him was myself, C. Kevin Barrett (a writer and biological anthropologist), Martin Bridgstock of Griffith University and author of the forthcoming book ‘Beyond Belief: Skepticism, Science and the Paranormal‘, Barbara Drescher, a cognitive… -
Skeptic Zone Live! 2GB Radio, Tune In For The Saturday Show!
23 Oct 2009 | 3:02 amYes, there’s a new video on the Skeptic Zone page – and you can hear presenters Richard Saunders and Dr Rachie on Sydney Radio! Here’s the details, which you can catch world-wide: www.2GB.com – Sydney Talkback Radio! 8pm – 9pm on Saturday nights Sydney time – here’s the live web-cam for the studio they’ll be recording in. Expect to see Richard be particularly flamboyant (has he packed his feather boa?) and Rachie laughing her laugh for the sake of science and reason. Here’s the equivalent times, world-wide for Saturday 8pm - Melbourne… -
Facebook Page Fun And Help Us Help You in this Halloween Season!
11 Oct 2009 | 10:03 amOur Facebook Page! Hello to all our listeners and thanks so much for being a part of making the show fun and informative! By the way – seen all the vodcast films we’ve got on the Facebook page? Go check out Dr Rachie standing on George Hrab and Richard Saunders helping out with the ‘Twitter Song’ at Dragon*Con! Recently we’ve done two great episodes, #50 and #51 – with insights and information on a number of pro-skeptic activist groups. They’ve included skeptic-parents, skeptics in the pub (both new and established, world-wide), teachers, blog-groups… -
Skeptic Zone’s Token Skeptic Blog /Pod /Con Round-Up!
2 Oct 2009 | 7:07 amFirstly, Skeptic North is the first blog to have a truly pan-Canadian scope. They have a great team of Canadian skeptic authors from across the country and from a wide-range of backgrounds, both academic and professional. Their site is skepticnorth.com and you should check out the blog interview with Junior Skeptic’s Daniel Loxton, by Skeptically Speaking host Desiree Schell. The Skeptic Zone is a big supporter of the Parsec award winning 365 Days of Astronomy. Reports include May 14th with Tiffany Day, Kylie Sturgess on July 1st and now Richard Saunders has contributed an episode for… -
Live Skeptic Zone Audience [Flickr]
27 Sep 2009 | 12:51 pmskepticzone posted a photo: Spot anyone you know?
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Small Town Skepticism
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If only facts spoke for themselves...
29 Oct 2009 | 8:09 amBefore I get into my posting, let me apologize to religious people - but not all religious people, the ones that practice it privately and don't let it affect their logical thinking when it comes to other aspects of life. Having said that, people making decisions based on non-existent sky deities are silly, don't get me wrong. The decision to support an organization that preaches the existence of a sky fairy is mind-boggling. Apparently that doesn't piss me off as much as people speaking (preaching) with authority on things which they are ill-informed. I don't have a problem with a person… -
Paul Morden Gets It Right: There is no God
28 Oct 2009 | 7:32 amPaul Morden is a reporter at our local paper, The Sarnia Observer. He recently posted a column about being too lazy to get the H1N1 vaccine. As much as I can understand the lack of desire for people to wait in line to get the flu shot, unlike the virus itself, the wait won't potentially kill you.In Paul's column, he speaks about being able to get anywhere in our city in about 10 minutes. We don't have much traffic (though right now, we have lots of construction) and our pedestrian traffic hardly slows turns at intersections. He says "We treat having to wait for a pedestrian to clear an… -
Really Paul? That's the craziest part of the religion?
27 Oct 2009 | 6:32 amAs, I'm sure, many of you have already heard, Paul Haggis has left the Church of Scientology after 35 years. Paul Haggis was born in London, Ontario - about an hour from where I call home and is known for writing and directing films such as "Crash" and writing "Million Dollar Baby". Having another member of the cult (Scientology is definitely a cult) leave is a good thing - having some of the darkest and deepest crazy ideas exposed is even better. Unfortunately, however, Paul sees "homophobia" as the craziest part. Admittedly, being against Prop8 or against equal rights for all humans is… -
Bonnie Kearns' Letter to the Editor
26 Oct 2009 | 10:11 amAs a primer, check out BBC News (UK) and their article on "Anglicans ponder Rome invitation".Bonnie Kearns (the person who submitted the following letter to the editor of our local newspaper) points out the oddity of the Church being led by men (As Bill Maher says in Religulous (and I paraphrase) "and by men, I mean people with penises") - oh, and the obvious part about religion being oppressive.A STEP FORWARD FOR MANKIND?Sir: I've been following the news about the reconciliation between the Anglican and Catholic churches. Hallelujah, hallelujah, for now after many years they are coming… -
Chatting With Mormons!
23 Oct 2009 | 11:58 amI just received an email from a blog regular and, I have to admit, chatting with Mormons (Mormons? What's the extra "m" for?) does look like fun!He claims he was on the About.com "Atheism" site and saw an ad for Chatting with Mormons and was tempted (by the devil, obviously) to visit it.Here's his chat transcript: (Though I suspect if time was spent on planning the direction of the conversation, one could have endless amounts of fun! Sure, take that as a challenge!)(The top of the chat says: You are speaking with Kerry, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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The Skeptic's Field Guide
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Posting to Blogger using Google Wave via Posterous...
1 Nov 2009 | 2:24 amPosting to Blogger using Google Wave via Posterous... I have been lucky enough to get a google wave invite and wanted to test it out as a blogging tool. Unfortunately the Blogger robot "bloggy" isn't working, so I thought I'd try this work around. Anyone with a wave account who wants to wave me, I'm theojclark@googlewave.com via google-wave-robot Posted via web from theojclark's posterous -
Humbug now google "searchable"
18 Oct 2009 | 4:15 pm -
Podcast - Tutorial 34: Psychoanalysing Tool
26 Sep 2009 | 7:21 pmIt’s been a while, but we’re finally back with another, albeit short, episode. Courtesy of Dr Phil - we have a couple of fallacies for you to test yourself on. Listen Now: Powered by Podbean.com Or download: -
An interview on Righteous Indignation Podcast
16 Sep 2009 | 12:10 amI was recently the subject of an interview, all about, you guessed it, fallacies. It was for Righteous Indignation Podcast, the official podcast of www.BadPsychics.co.uk. You can download / listen here: http://parafort.com/ri/?p=285 Many thanks to Trystan and Michael for the entertaining time I had with them chatting via Skype. Also many thanks for not discussing the cricket. We recorded the interview during the 4th test, when Australia were giving England a thorough thumping. I may have gloated about this at some stage during the recording.... Not that I believe in karma, but England since… -
Artistic License
6 Sep 2009 | 11:56 pmAs a self-described artist I have discovered an excellent way to avoid cleaning up my own messes.I have produced a series of laminated cards like the one illustrated and I merely place the label on the mess. Nobody dares touch it, especially in cafes, restaurants and the like in art galleries.
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Bad Astronomy
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Reminder: Carl Sagan Day
6 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pmA quick reminder: the Carl Sagan Day celebration will be at Broward College in southern Florida on Saturday! Speakers include James Randi, Jeffrey Bennett, David Morrison, and me. There will be lots of stuff for kids and astronomy enthusiasts of all ages. Check my blog post from Monday for more info. Also, there will be a reception that night at 8:00 p.m. as well. Requested donation is $10. I hope to see some BABloggees there! -
Pray this doesn’t get passed
6 Nov 2009 | 11:00 amI was going to write about how Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and John Kerry (D-MA) were trying to somewhat slimily slip a provision into the health care bill about paying for prayer-based health services, but then wouldn’tyouknowit, Steve Novella (who apparently does not need to sleep or eat or breathe) beat me to it. Besides his take-down of the odd and wholly unrealistic beliefs of Christian Scientists, I’ll note that is has been pretty definitively proven that prayer doesn’t work in healing. So not only is this provision unconstitutional, it’s just an all-around bad… -
Careidolia
6 Nov 2009 | 9:30 amOK, I know that some people see the face of their religious icons in random things. I’ve written about this a zillion times. And I know that sometimes it’s just pareidolia, our tendency to see faces in random objects. And I know that people will think it’s a miracle, when really it’s the end-product of thousands of generations of the evolution of our pattern-seeking abilities. But then there’s stuff like this: a guy is "clueless" about how the face of Jesus appeared on his truck window, and why it persists day after day. Oh, I have a clue. It’s… -
The Universe Has Us in Its Crosshairs
6 Nov 2009 | 7:00 amLooking for something to do this weekend, and for the next month? Are you anywhere near New York City? Then I am very pleased to let you know that a group of artists there have created an exhibit based on my book, Death from the Skies! The exhibit is hanging at the ABC No Rio site, and runs from now until November 25 (actually it started last week). The viewing times are Sundays 1:00 – 3:00pm and Wednesdays & Thursdays 4:00pm – 7:00pm. This is very cool, and I am deeply honored they based their work on my book. I was contacted by artist Brian George about it some time ago. -
LRO sees a Moonslide
5 Nov 2009 | 9:08 pmThe hi-res Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s camera captured a pretty cool image of a (what I’m guessing is an ancient) landslide on the Moon. Check this out: [Click to embrobdingnangate.] The slide is down the steep slope of a crater called Marius, located in Oceanus Procellarum, a vast smooth-surfaced area on the Moon (generally called "maria" — singular is "mare" — and easily visible to the naked eye). The crater itself is pretty old; the floor is covered with the same smooth surface as the mare around it, so it predates Oceanus Procellarum which we…
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The Skeptics Guide - The Rogues Gallery
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Rotten Eggs, Flatulence, and Suspended Animation
6 Nov 2009 | 7:36 amWe recently received the following email about suspended animation: A Big hello to SGU from Darwin Australia, I am writing in to seek your opinion on something I came across on a paranormal and believers pod cast…As painful as it is to listen to them, in the interest of being a good skeptic I find it compulsory to get both sides of the story. They mentioned a possible development in mans quest to cheat death itself. They reported that there could be a way to shut down your body and organs and reanimate them without any ill effects. Of all things, by using poison gas. A biologist named… -
Fantasies Are Good For Your Math Skills
2 Nov 2009 | 11:06 amWho says skeptics should not indulge themselves in fantasies? Stoic, rational, logical, critical, evidence-based, scientific are just a few of the adjectives that help define us. But in the context of skepticism, you seldom hear a skeptic embracing fantasy as a practical tool on our skeptical utility-belts. It’s time to make room for a new tool: fantasy sports. Yes, fantasy sports is being utilized in classrooms, and is apparently playing a big role in helping students achieve higher math scores. According to a University of Mississippi research report presented back in September, math… -
‘Tis The Season
26 Oct 2009 | 7:55 amI love the autumn season, and I’m sure it is because I reside in Connecticut. The foliage is especially bright this year. We had a wet and cool summer which has historically translated into a very colorful and picturesque landscape. The smells of autumn are in full bloom. Home fireplaces have been lit, and there is this ‘crispness’ to the air that is distinctive of a New England fall day. The sights and smells of autumn inevitably mean that Halloween is rapidly approaching. And for those of us in Connecticut, it is the time of year in which we help lead a parade of ghost-hunting… -
Annual Halloween Report
23 Oct 2009 | 6:38 amSo how’s your Fall/October/”Ramp-Up to Halloween” going? My October fun this year has been a bit of a mixed bag. I was convinced over the summer that my partners and I would resurrect our professional haunted corn maze this year. Everyone was motivated and psyched to get going including the land-owners, me and my 2 partners, the Larson Farm people, even the mayor of New Milford. We even had a lease that was ready to be signed. The only oily smear in this otherwise clear puddle of water though was the punk who was currently leasing the land. Apparently, he didn’t want… -
An Epidemic of Fear
20 Oct 2009 | 8:50 amWired Magazine has written an excellent piece summarizing the current vaccine controversy. They take the exactly correct editorial stance - unreasonable fear surrounding vaccines, stoked by an ideological anti-vaccine movement, is hurting vaccine compliance, reducing herd immunity, and putting us all at risk. We criticize bad science reporting often, so we also make a point to praise good science reporting when it occurs. I also hope this article represents a trend - mainstream journalists realizing where the real story is - unscientific hysteria causing harm. The article does give a good…
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The NESS Blog
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Rotten Eggs, Flatulence, and Suspended Animation|Bob Novella|Rogues Gallery
6 Nov 2009 | 7:36 amWe recently received the following email about suspended animation: A Big hello to SGU from Darwin Australia, I am writing in to seek your opinion on something I came across on a paranormal and believers pod cast…As painful as it is to listen to them, in the interest of being a good skeptic I find it compulsory to get both sides of the story. They mentioned a possible development in mans quest to cheat death itself. They reported that there could be a way to shut down your body and organs and reanimate them without any ill effects. Of all things, by using poison gas. A biologist named… -
Well That Didn’t Take Long – Another Dystonia Case Follow Up|Steven Novella|Neurologica
6 Nov 2009 | 6:24 amI have been blogging this week about the Desiree Jennings case – the 25 year old woman who is telling the media that she developed a neurological disorder known as dystonia two weeks following a seasonal flu vaccine. However, the video of her movement disorder that was made public was not, in fact, consistent with the diagnosis of dystonia or any organic movement disorder, and therefore it is highly unlikely that her symptoms were a vaccine reaction. Every movement disorder specialist or neurologist who viewed the videos and voiced their opinion agreed that the signs she was displaying… -
What’s the right C-section rate? Higher than you think.|Amy Tuteur, MD|Science-Based Medicine
6 Nov 2009 | 12:00 amEditor’s Note: Dr. Mark Crislip has been kidnapped by anti-vaccinationists. Fortunately, we have sent our black Illuminati, pharma-funded, vaccine-wielding helicopters to rescue him, but unfortunately, as a result of his trauma, his usual Friday post is likely to be delayed either until this afternoon or Saturday. In any case, fortunately for us our latest addition to the SBM crew, Dr. Tuteur, was willing to fill in on short notice; so here she is. Dr. Crislip will post by tomorrow. To whet your appetite for his patented sarcasm, let me just say that he will be having a little fun with… -
Paying for Prayer in Health Care|Steven Novella|Neurologica
5 Nov 2009 | 5:08 amAs the health care debate rages in Washington, one of the fears is that the behemoth bills that are being passed around might contain hidden provisions that can cause great mischief. While there is a sense of urgency about passing a bill (any bill) there is something to be said for taking the time to pick over the details of such important policy. Case in point – Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has slipped in a provision to the bill that would require reimbursement for prayer services. Although not mentioned by name, it is thought that the provision is aimed at Christian Science prayer. -
The Tragic Death Toll of Homebirth|Amy Tuteur, MD|Science-Based Medicine
5 Nov 2009 | 12:00 amMore than 10,000 American women each year choose planned homebirth with a homebirth midwife in the mistaken belief that it is a safe choice. In fact, homebirth with a homebirth midwife is the most dangerous form of planned birth in the US. In 2003 the US standard birth certificate form was revised to include place of birth and attendant at birth. In both the 2003 and 2004 Linked Birth Infant Death Statistics, mention was made of this data, but it was not included in the reports. Now the CDC has made the entire dataset available for review and the statistics for homebirth are quite remarkable.
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Pro-science
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Helping people helping others
4 Nov 2009 | 10:00 amEver so often someone sends me something they thought I might want to share with my readers. Most of the time, it's some kind of money making scheme or something, but on rare occasions, it's actually something worthwhile.Today was one of these occasions.I was made aware of this collaboration between the Fresh Air Fund and OneSightOne out of four school children in the U.S. has vision problems, and 86% do not get their vision checked before age 12.Many Fresh Air children do not have access to affordable vision care. Glasses break, are too expensive to replace, or are never prescribed in the… -
Want to avoid errors? Sleep more
1 Nov 2009 | 1:20 amI thought this was pretty well established science, but apparently it's not. A new study has found that sleep deprivation can negatively affect information processing.A study in the Nov.1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that sleep deprivation causes some people to shift from a more automatic, implicit process of information categorization (information-integration) to a more controlled, explicit process (rule-based). This use of rule-based strategies in a task in which information-integration strategies are optimal can lead to potentially devastating errors when quick and accurate… -
The stupidity ... it burns! D'Souza edition
31 Oct 2009 | 6:59 amI haven't been posting in a while, so I thought that I would look a little around on the internet, and see if I could find something to write about. I came across a few things, but nothing that really made me think "that'll work". Until I came to an article titled What Really Riles Muslim Extremists? by Dinesh D'Souza. Jackpot.Let the fisking begin.More insurgent bombings in Iraq. More Taliban strikes in Afghanistan. What's up with these people? Just Wednesday, a deadly car bomb exploded in Peshawar, Pakistan, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad. Is Islam the… -
Alien snakes invading the US
15 Oct 2009 | 9:57 amNational Geographic reports that alien (as in non-native) snakes threaten to invade the lowest third of the US according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Alien Giant Snakes Threaten to Invade Up to 1/3 of U.S.Nine species of giant snakes—none of them native to North America and all popular pets among reptile lovers—could wreak havoc on U.S. ecosystems if the snakes become established in the wild, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (pictures of giant snakes mentioned in the study).These snakes come to the US as pets, but when they became too hard to maintain, their… -
Vegetarian spiders
15 Oct 2009 | 9:36 amWe all know that spiders eat insects, or the occasional bird or small rodent, but it now appear that there exist a breed which is vegetarian, or at least partly vegetarian.The 60-Second Science podcast over at Scientific American has more on this: Odd Spider Prefers SaladScientific American also has an article about the subjectUnusual Spider Species Passes Up Live Prey for PlantsOf the 40,000-plus spider species known, only a few nibble on plants—typically, as a dietary supplement of nectar or simply as an accidental ingestion of pollen. A new paper, published online today in Current…
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Skeptic
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Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs
6 Dec 2009 | 1:00 pmEvolution, Extinction, and the Future of Our Planet Donald R. Prothero’s science books combine straightforward research with first-person narratives of discovery, injecting warmth and familiarity into a profession that desperately needs a more appealing approach to nonspecialists. Bringing his trademark style to an increasingly relevant subject of concern, Prothero links the climate changes that have occurred over the past 200 million years to their effects on plants and animals, especially contrasting the extinctions that ended the Cretaceous period, which wiped out the dinosaurs, with… -
Bright-Sided
15 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pmHow the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal 19th-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to “prosper” you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments… -
The Tangled Bank An Introduction to Evolution
1 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pmZimmer, an award-winning science writer (New York Times, Discover), takes readers on a fascinating journey into the latest discoveries about evolution. In the Canadian Arctic, paleontologists unearth fossils documenting the move of our ancestors from sea to land. In the outback of Australia, a zoologist tracks some of the world’s deadliest snakes to decipher the 100-million-year evolution of venom molecules. In Africa, geneticists are gathering DNA to probe the origin of our species. In clear, non-technical language, Zimmer explains the central concepts essential for understanding new… -
Whole Earth Discipline An Ecopragmatist Manifesto
26 Oct 2009 | 7:00 pmNOTE SPECIAL DAY/TIME FOR THIS LECTURE: Monday, October 26 at 7:00pm According to Stewart Brand, a lifelong environmentalist (and creator of the Whole Earth Catalog) who sees everything in terms of solvable design problems, three profound transformations are under way on Earth right now. Climate change is real and is pushing us toward managing the planet as a whole. Urbanization — half the world’s population now lives in cities, and 80% will by midcentury — is altering humanity’s land impact and wealth. And biotechnology is becoming the world’s dominant engineering tool. In light of… -
09-10-26
26 Oct 2009 | 2:30 pmIn this eSkeptic: obituary: Farewell to Norman Jay Levitt (1943–2009) feature article: Science: A Four Hundred Page Hissy-Fit Farewell to Norman Jay Levitt (1943–2009) It is with much sadness that we report the death of Norman Jay Levitt on Saturday, October 23, 2009, due to heart failure. His wife of 38 years, Renee Greene Levitt, reported the news to friends and colleagues of Norman, and announced that a memorial service will be held on Sunday, November 1 at 1:30 PM at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, 630 Amsterdam Avenue at 91 St. She also asked that in leu of flower memorial…
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Genomicron
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Pfffffffffft!
6 Nov 2009 | 5:20 amFrom the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology comes a press release describing a paper in Nature about bacterial evolution… Bacteria Expect the Unexpected Organisms ensure the survival of their species by genetically adapting to the environment. If environmental conditions change too rapidly, the extinction of a species may be the consequence. A strategy to successfully cope with such a challenge is the generation of variable offspring that can survive in different environments. Even though a portion of the offspring may have a decreased chance to survive, the survival of the… -
10,000 genomes.
5 Nov 2009 | 10:57 amLots of genomes going to be sequenced. Some of the members of the group are colleagues at Guelph. Very cool. That is all. Genome 10K: A Proposal to Obtain Whole-Genome Sequence for 10 000 Vertebrate Species Genome 10K Community of Scientists The human genome project has been recently complemented by whole-genome assessment sequence of 32 mammals and 24 nonmammalian vertebrate species suitable for comparative genomic analyses. Here we anticipate a precipitous drop in costs and increase in sequencing efficiency, with concomitant development of improved annotation technology and, therefore,… -
Another, um, good reason to care about genome sizes.
30 Oct 2009 | 11:41 amYou denizens of the science blogosphere probably will have heard about the, shall we say, “questionable” article by Donald Williamson (and communicated by Lynn Margulis) in PNAS, in which he claimed that insect larvae arose via hybridization between non-metamorphosing ancestral insects and Onychophora (velvet worms). Maybe this sounds silly to you. Me too. It also sounded silly to Hart and Grosberg (2009), who thoroughly debunk the hypothesis using data that were already easily available. You can read a play by play of the refutation over at Jerry Coyne’s blog Why… -
Nature vs. hype.
29 Oct 2009 | 2:17 pmFrom today’s Nature, an editorial entitled Mind the spin: Scientists — and their institutions — should resist the ever-present temptation to hype their results. [skipping to the money quote...] …the temptation for scientists and their institutions to spin their research to the media, or to go publicity-mongering, is always there. And — as illustrated by the excessive public-relations campaign surrounding Ida, a fossil presented as a missing link in human evolution — too many in the media will buy into the initial hype. Such behaviour is corrosive to the process of… -
Isn’t email supposed to save us time?
27 Oct 2009 | 6:59 amMe: Isn’t email supposed to save us time? is a post from Genomicron.
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NeuroLogica Blog
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Well That Didn’t Take Long – Another Dystonia Case Follow Up
6 Nov 2009 | 6:24 amI have been blogging this week about the Desiree Jennings case – the 25 year old woman who is telling the media that she developed a neurological disorder known as dystonia two weeks following a seasonal flu vaccine. However, the video of her movement disorder that was made public was not, in fact, consistent with the diagnosis of dystonia or any organic movement disorder, and therefore it is highly unlikely that her symptoms were a vaccine reaction. Every movement disorder specialist or neurologist who viewed the videos and voiced their opinion agreed that the signs she was displaying… -
Paying for Prayer in Health Care
5 Nov 2009 | 5:08 amAs the health care debate rages in Washington, one of the fears is that the behemoth bills that are being passed around might contain hidden provisions that can cause great mischief. While there is a sense of urgency about passing a bill (any bill) there is something to be said for taking the time to pick over the details of such important policy. Case in point – Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has slipped in a provision to the bill that would require reimbursement for prayer services. Although not mentioned by name, it is thought that the provision is aimed at Christian Science prayer. -
It’s All In Your Head
4 Nov 2009 | 5:36 amThe recent discussion of the Desiree Jennings case has prompted speculation and misinformation about the nature of psychogenic illness. I therefore thought it would be useful to discuss the concept of psychogenic illness in general. The following is cross-posted also at Science-Based Medicine. ____________________ I have never used those words to a patient or about a patient. I have also never heard a colleague use any similar term to a patient. And yet on many occasions I have had patients ask me, “So you’re telling me it’s all in my head?” The concept of what are… -
Anti-Science at the Daily Mail
3 Nov 2009 | 5:16 amYes, I know – it’s the Daily Mail. My UK friends tell me this is little more than a rag, not to be taken seriously. But it’s popular enough, and may in fact represent the attitudes of a portion of the public, that sometimes we have to address the claims that are made there. In that way it is like the Huffington Post – a hopeless rag (at least when it comes to science) that sometimes needs a response. This time the Daily Mail has published an incredible anti-science and anti-intellectual rant by reporter Andrew N Wilson. The article is a discussion of the firing of… -
Dystonia Case Follow Up
2 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amIn an interview for the SGU Christopher Hitchens told me that typically, after publishing a story, only then do people contact him that he should have spoken to in the first place. My humble blog has nothing of the reach of Hitchens’ writing, but it is still occasionally the case that after posting a blog I am contacted by people I really wish I had spoken to before I finished writing it. For example, on Friday I discussed the case of Desiree Jennings, the 25 year old woman who claims to have developed dystonia 10 days after receiving the seasonal flu vaccine. I reported that all of the…
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Epsilon Clue
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Colbert Endorses BillDo?
6 Nov 2009 | 9:45 amThis will not come as news to some of you, but ε-Clueful Reader Fez pointed out the blurbs on Bill Donohue’s new book, Secular Sabotage. The most surprising one is the last one, by none other than über-pundit Stephen Colbert: “Wake up, America! The secular minority has cut the brake cables on America’s In-God-We-Trust-Mobile™! Not even all 43 of our Christian presidents can save us now.” Which raises a question: does BillDo not realize that Colbert’s act is just a act, or whether he’s catering to those of his readers who don’t realize that… -
Mockery Works, Apparently
31 Oct 2009 | 5:36 pmAccording to several sources, Kimberly Daniels wrote an article for Pat Robertson’s site entitled The Danger of Celebrating Halloween, with such tidbits as: The danger of Halloween is not in the scary things we see but in the secret, wicked, cruel activities that go on behind the scenes. These activities include: Sex with demons Orgies between animals and humans Animal and human sacrifices Sacrificing babies to shed innocent blood Rape and molestation of adults, children and babies Revel nights Conjuring of demons and casting of spells Release of “time-released” curses… -
BillDo on Sex Ed
28 Oct 2009 | 10:32 pmYesterday, BillDo blew a gasket over the use of the phrase “opposite-sex marriage” in the New York Times. Which is, I suppose, his function in the great circle of life. But then he went on to say: Here’s how it will play out in the classroom: kindergartners will be told that some adults choose same-sex marriage and some choose opposite-sex marriage. There is no moral difference—it’s just a matter of different strokes for different folks. Not mentioned, of course, will be that some male-on-male sex practices are dangerous. This brings up some questions: how should one talk… -
Previewing bit.ly Links
26 Oct 2009 | 12:17 pmWhat I learned today: if you want to see where a bit.ly link points, without actually looking at the page, append a plus sign to the URL. That is, if someone points you at http://bit.ly/abcde, then http://bit.ly/abcde+ will give you the long URL. -
Is David Berlinski Redecorating His Home?
24 Oct 2009 | 12:24 pmFor those who don’t know, David Berlinski is one of the Disco Tute’s pet “scientists”. If you’ve seen the movie Expelled, he’s the one who spent his entire interview practically lying on his couch, spouting airy nonsense filled with sesquipedalian words. The IDists love him because in addition to being an evolution denialist, he’s also a secular Jew (or so he claims), which means they can use him to prop up the idea that ID isn’t religious dogma. He’s also appeared on the Intelligent Design the Future podcast six times in the past month,…
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A Photon In The Darkness
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A “Made for Court” Study?
24 Oct 2009 | 2:05 pmThis month, the journal Neurotoxicology published a study about vaccines, mercury and neurolgical delay: Hewitson L, Houser LA, Stott C, Sackett G, Tomko JL, Atwood D, Blue L, Railey White E, Wakefield AJ. “Delayed acquisition of neonatal reflexes in newborn primates receiving a thimerosal-containing Hepatitis B vaccine: Influence of gestational age and birth weight.” Neurotoxicology. 2009 Oct 2. [Epub ahead of print] The full text of this article has been thoughtfully provided by the folks at “Thoughtful House” in Austin, Texas. Normally, when I read a scientific… -
Deductive Mis-reasoning
16 Sep 2009 | 4:56 pmAt least once a day, I find myself confronting the aftermath of deductive reasoning gone wrong. Deductive reasoning is defined as “an argument (or reasoning) where the conclusion follows logically (or is a logical consequence) of its premises”. Many people - especially in ‘Blogland - are of the opinion that if their conclusions (or assertions) follow logically from their premises, that their conclusions must be true. Unfortunately, that is not so. Deductive reasoning (or deductive arguments) - according to the rules of Logic - can be either valid (if the conclusions are… -
Read this ‘blog or the author gets it!
4 Aug 2009 | 9:11 amIn Mel Brooks’ comedy film Blazing Saddles (1974), there is a scene where Bart (played by Cleavon Little), the newly appointed black sheriff of Rock Ridge, is surrounded by a lynch mob. Seeing no way out, he points his pistol to his own head and shouts “Hold it! Next man makes a move, the n****r gets it!” After a few moments of quiet confusion, one of the mob leaders says, “Hold it, men. He’s not bluffing.” and lowers his rifle. Classic comedy, but not so funny when, as so often happens, life imitates art. A few days ago, I had a commenter who made an… -
Just call me “Captain Buzz-Kill”
24 Jul 2009 | 4:17 pmOver the years that I’ve been writing this ‘blog, I’ve often been accused of keeping people from “curing” or “helping” their autistic children. I’ve always wondered what they meant by that, since I’m not doing anything I know of to prevent people from seeking whatever treatments they want for themselves or their children. All I’m trying to do is give people information. If they are already happy with the information they have, if they have already found “The Truth”, all they have to do is ignore me. It’s really that… -
Autism and MMR (More Measles Rubbish)
8 Jun 2009 | 3:08 pmA reader sent me a comment from a parent of an autistic child. This parent had been told that their child’s “measles titre” was “five times normal”, which was offered as an explanation of why this child had autism. I assume that this information was provided by some form of “health care practitioner”, most likely of the “alternative” genre. The parent’s comments made it clear that they had also been told that this “elevated titre” was due to the MMR vaccine. Let’s deconstruct that argument. Measles Titres - what are…
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Bad Science
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The Nutt Sack Affair (part 493)
6 Nov 2009 | 4:06 pmBen Goldacre, Saturday 7 November 2009, The Guardian Obviously it’s pleasing to see, in the storm of commentary over Professor Nutt’s sacking, that everyone outside of politics now recognises the importance of scientific evidence in devising laws. But a strange reasoning twitch has appeared, in the arguments of politicians and right wing commentators. Science can tell [...] -
Political woo
30 Oct 2009 | 4:03 pmBen Goldacre, Saturday 31 October 2009, The Guardian. Every now and then it’s fun to dip into the world of politics and find out what our lords and masters are saying about science. First we find Brooks Newmark, Conservative MP for Braintree, introducing a bill to reduce the age for cervical cancer screening to 20. The [...] -
This is what the Spectator sent when they cancelled their Aids denialism extravaganza
28 Oct 2009 | 5:24 amI’m at a conference (on communicating evidence to patients with… GERD GIGERENZER!!!) in Frankfurt and late for lunch, but I thought it might amuse you to see the language the Spectator are using. From: Events [mailto:events@pressholdings.com] Sent: 26 October 2009 12:19 Subject: URGENT – [...] -
Aids denialism at the Spectator
23 Oct 2009 | 4:01 pmBen Goldacre, Saturday 24 October 2009, The Guardian. A lot of strange stuff can fly in under the claim that you are “simply starting a debate”. You may remember the Aids denialist documentary House Of Numbers from 3 weeks ago. Since then, it has received many glowing outings. The London Raindance film festival explained that they [...] -
Behold the jot of evidence
17 Oct 2009 | 3:40 amBen Goldacre, Saturday 17 October 2009, The Guardian For those with the finances to try to silence their critics, this has been a week of spectacular own goals. Trafigura has loudly advertised the report on the dumping of toxic waste in Africa by taking out a super-injunction through Carter-Ruck. And on Wednesday Simon Singh, the science [...]
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Respectful Insolence
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Desiree Jennings "cured" of her "vaccine-induced dystonia"?
6 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amRemember how I promised that I'd do my next installment of my blogging Suzanne Somers' pile of idiocy, namely her own book, before the end of the week? Plans change, and neurons melt, which they did in response to reading the first several chapters of Suzanne Somers' book. Don't worry, though. I'll definitely try to get back on track with my--shall we say?--extended multipart review by Monday. Sometimes, though, when you're blogging, news drives what you do, and news is driving my decision to forego the pleasure and pain of the next installment of my "fun with Suzanne Somers" series, at least… -
An Age of Autism commenter destroys yet another irony meter
5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmriley'smom is very unhappy with Amy Wallace: I wrote Ms. Wallace a private email. I intentionally wrote it directly to her private email and DID NOT post it in the comments section of Wired Mag. I asked her about her one sided-biased interview with Mr Offit and asked if she planned to NOW do a fair and balanced report as many were questioning her porfessional reasoning. I also asked her how it felt to be one of Offit's whores...that perhaps she and Amanda Peet should get together and compare notes on how Ms Peets career was doing since she joined the Offit band wagon. I received an email back… -
The 123rd Congregation of the Skeptics' Circle...
5 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmThe 123 Congregation of the Skeptics' Circle will now come together over at Blue Genes, in which Simplicio is schooled in skepticism. Sort of. Go. Read. Don't be like Simplicio. Next up to host the Skeptics' Circle will be Beyond the Short Coat. Start getting your skeptical blogging skills wound up to participate in this biweekly orgy of skepticism! Read the comments on this post... -
The anti-vaccine movement, cranks, and "pseudo-expertise"
5 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amOver the last week or so, I've been confronted full bore with cranks, staring down the barrel, if you will, of a crank shotgun, one barrel being the anti-vaccine movement in general (with J.B. Handley and his misogyny being the buckshot, so to speak) and the other being Suzanne Somers and her despicable cancer quackery. Indeed, over the last five years, I've subjected myself to some of the most outrageous bits of unreason, conspiracy mongering, and pseudoscience. Be it the anti-vaccine movement, quacks, 9/11 Truthers, Holocaust deniers, creationists, or any of a variety of other bits of… -
Has Desiree Jennings' VAERS report been found?
4 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmThe other day, I wrote about an unfortunate young woman named Desiree Jennings, who claimed to have had a rare neurological disorder known as dystonia as a complication of being vaccinated for seasonal flu, when it appears that her condition is likely to have at least a strong psychogenic component and is unlikely to be due to the vaccine. Despicably, the anti-vaccine group Generation Rescue tripped over itself to exploit Jennings' case and use it as "proof" that vaccines are dangerous and, by extension, that their fantastical claims that vaccines cause autism are plausible. Even after…
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Science After Sunclipse
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Currently Reading
4 Nov 2009 | 11:13 amJean-Daniel Bancal and Romualdo Pastor-Satorras, "Steady-State Dynamics of the Forest Fire Model on Complex Networks" (arXiv:0911.0569). Many sociological networks, as well as biological and technological ones, can be represented in terms of complex networks with a heterogeneous connectivity pattern. Dynamical processes taking place on top of them can be very much influenced by this topological fact. In this paper we consider a paradigmatic model of non-equilibrium dynamics, namely the forest fire model, whose relevance lies in its capacity to represent several epidemic processes in a general… -
Readings in Elitist Bastardry
3 Nov 2009 | 10:54 amThe most recent Carnival o' ye Elitist Bastards is now sailing the global ocean of discourse. Also, my SciBling Bora Zivkovic recently interviewed me about science and fiction. For those who missed it, the questions and responses can be read here. Read the comments on this post... -
How to Reject a Paper: Advice from a Chain Letter
3 Nov 2009 | 10:17 amI got forwarded this from someone who got forwarded this from someone whose sister's former roommate got it from Al Gore. Today CBSG continues with its pointers for budding scientists with the second part on serving as a peer reviewer for papers and grants. Okay, you've decided that you are going to reject a manuscript. The naive reviewer might think that it is enough to simply state the reasons for the rejection as clearly and succinctly as possible. But this overlooks a major issue: ensuring that the authors do not know that it is you who rejected the manuscript. Because the peer review… -
No, I Haven't Entirely Forgotten that I Have a Blog
2 Nov 2009 | 6:35 amI Love xkcd from NoamR on Vimeo. Read the comments on this post... -
Book News
28 Sep 2009 | 8:44 pmThree book-related items up today: First, a hearty congratulations to Brian Switek, whose book, now titled Written In Stone, is set to be published next fall! If the sample chapters I saw a few months back are any indication, Brian's book will be a superb addition to the science lover's bookshelf. Second, Tom Levenson will be speaking at MIT next Tuesday, 6 October, about his recent and much appreciated book Newton and the Counterfeiter. The event will be held, so they tell me, at 19 o'clock in room 6-120. Third, on top of everything else I'm trying to do (like get a career started), I've…
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Snopes - New Urban Legends
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Free Meals for Veterans
7 Nov 2009 | 7:00 amRestaurant chains are offering free meals to U.S. military personnel in conjunction with Veterans Day. -
20/20 Revision
6 Nov 2009 | 7:00 amWas ABC News' 20/20 co-anchor John Stossel fired for trying to air a piece critical of health care reform? -
Foxumentary
5 Nov 2009 | 7:00 amWhat happened to the FOX News documentary on Barack Obama? -
HR 615
4 Nov 2009 | 7:00 amWould a House bill require members of Congress to participate in a public health care plan? -
Noah Biorkman
4 Nov 2009 | 7:00 amNoah Biorkman, a 5-year-old boy battling cancer, wants to receive Christmas cards.
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Sorting Out Science
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Casual Friday — thermite welding
6 Nov 2009 | 5:44 amToday you get a "two-fer" -- two videos showing the process of thermite welding... -
Carnivalia — 10/28 – 11/03
4 Nov 2009 | 5:48 amThe last week's bumper crop of (mostly) science-related blog carnivals... -
Scientific tourist #96 — Nike Ajax
2 Nov 2009 | 5:18 amThis week's image comes to you from the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamagordo, New Mexico -- it's a Nike Ajax anti-aircraft missile on its launcher... -
Casual Friday — world’s smallest working model train layout
30 Oct 2009 | 5:20 amThe world's smallest working model train layout, all of 0.125" x 0.2" across -- a model of a model... -
Carnivalia — 10/21 – 10/27
28 Oct 2009 | 4:42 amThe past week's crop of science-related blog carnivals...
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The Lay Scientist
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Scapegoat science
6 Nov 2009 | 2:41 pmThe financial crisis of 2008 was heralded as the end of the West's love affair with free-market capitalism. The combined crashes of banking industry and real estate market should have been the final nail in the coffin for the unbridled power of corporations, who for decades have flaunted all social responsibility in search of profit. Why is it then, as we see the dust slowly settling, that nothing appears to have changed? <!--break--> In contrast, science has come increasingly under fire - from the joking (but only just) "end of the world" reports at last year's switch-on of the Large… -
On Angry Mobs and Science Activism
6 Nov 2009 | 8:30 amThere’s been a lot of talk lately about angry mobs. When Jan Moir wrote a viciously homophobic attack on the recently deceased singer Stephen Gately and his grieving friends and family, she was confronted by an angry mob. When ace lawyers Carter-Fuck attempted to gag the Guardian’s reporting of a parliamentary question, the censored information was carried along the information super-highway on virtual placards by an angry mob. When Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand committed the crime of offending a man famous for offending the Spanish, the Daily Mail acted as the seed around which an… -
The Pod Delusion #8
6 Nov 2009 | 2:12 am__________________ See archives and the latest from skeptical podcast The Pod Delusion! -
Swine Flu Vaccination: Let’s Keep it Nice and Simple Shall We?
5 Nov 2009 | 11:06 amThere has been so much published about H1N1 swine flu in recent months that despite my keen interest in the topic (being an infectious diseases clinician involved with determining policy and strategic pandemic flu planning in my own hospital as well as looking after clinical cases), I can barely keep up with the medical aspects of the disease, never mind the rest of the information. But, as is ever the case, much of the other material that is in the public’s eye seems to be based on uninformed opinion and comment, rather than scientific facts. One of the more mendacious bits of opinion… -
The 123rd Congregation of the Skeptics' Circle
5 Nov 2009 | 6:46 amThe latest Skeptics' Circle is finally here, written by yours truly! By way of a teaser, I'll relay the first few words. *Hypnotic voice* As you read them you can feel the need to find out more rise up within you...breathe deeply...relax...and follow the link. Academician: Welcome, one and all, to the 123rd meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle. Hat tip to one of the most important men ever to stand up and say ‘Er…hang on’ for tonight’s theme... Head on over to Blue-Genes.net to find out more. We have an excellent cast including James Cole (a fellow Lay Science writer), several posts from…
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WhiteCoat Underground
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A pox on your house? How fighting one disease brought back another
5 Nov 2009 | 2:06 pmSome were surprised to read that after a pro basketball player swatted a bat out of the air, he had to have rabies vaccinations. This is not a surprise to many medical folks who have had to give rabies prophylaxis after bat exposures. Most of the few human rabies cases in the U.S. are transmitted by bats, although raccoons are more often diagnosed with the disease. Because rabies is fairly easy to transmit and nearly always fatal to humans, we are very aggressive about prevention. Rabid wild animals can have unusually aggressive behavior and can transmit rabies to humans and to their pets. -
Cruel and unusual
4 Nov 2009 | 10:46 amNo matter how you feel about incarceration, it's a dangerous business. Inmates have high rates of serious transmissible diseases which aren't turned into the warden when they are released. Around 2.5 million people are held in American correctional facilities. HIV rates for imprisoned men 1.6% and for women is 2.4% (compared to about 0.4% among Americans as a whole). About 4.5% of inmates reported sexual victimization. Of the facilities that provide hepatitis B vaccination, 65% target "high risk" groups only. Tuberculosis rates are also very high. This is just a sampling of the… -
"Mind affects body": what a new Science placebo study tells us
4 Nov 2009 | 10:23 amAs I've written before, the placebo effect is a rather messy phenomenon. It usually refers to the difference in outcomes in a study that are not due to the intervention but to multiple other variables associated with being in a study. More colloquially, "placebo" often means a positive effect seen from the administration of a biologically inert substance. There's a bit of a buzz brewing about a recent brief communication in Science. The report used fMRI to look for physiologic correlates to pain responses that were attenuated by an inert substance. (For the purposes of this discussion, I'll… -
Dear Bigot
3 Nov 2009 | 5:38 pmThank you for polluting my in box with a hateful, lie-filled chain letter. It took me all of ten seconds on the internet to find the truth behind your lie and thereby discover what a tool you are. I'm sure it would have seemed natural to you that because we share an ethnic identity I would give you a pass on this one---I won't. My wife and I are not raising our daughter in a household of hatred, but of love. She will learn to love and respect everyone, and even to reach out to those, who like you, may not at first seem deserving of such a precious gift. My daughter is surrounded by people of… -
Faith healing in health care reform---blogs had the story first
3 Nov 2009 | 11:17 amThe mainstream media is finally catching on to a disturbing story--the insertion of faith-healing and other non-scientific practices into health care reform. Health bloggers have been on this story for a while, showing us that Senate Bill 1679 currently contains language that would require support for faith healing practices: The essential benefits provided for in subparagraph (A) shall include a requirement that there be non-discrimination in health care in a manner that, with respect to an individual who is eligible for medical or surgical care under a qualified health plan offered through…
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Science-Based Pharmacy
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Should We Maintain an Open Mind about Homeopathy?
2 Nov 2009 | 7:20 amNo. It is considered unethical for modern medical practitioners to sink to this kind of deception that denies the patient his or her autonomy. Secondly, by opening the door to irrational medicine alongside evidence-based medicine, we are poisoning the minds of the public. Finally, if we don’t put a brake on the increasing self-confidence of the homeopathic establishment, they will cease to limit their attention to self-limiting or nonspecific maladies. More, from Michael Baum and Edzard Ernst, writing in this month’s American Journal of Medicine, here. Posted in updates… -
The Physics of Homeopathy – Finally Explained!
28 Oct 2009 | 5:58 amThis has to be seen to be believed. It’s the physics of homeopathy – as explained by a an optometrist who dabbles in homeopathy. Watch it – but I take no responsibility for the brain cells that will rupture upon viewing. We discovered a few days ago that even the light reflecting off Saturn can made into a remedy. When groups lilke naturopaths claim that homeopathy is science, what does this say about their ability to provide reality-based health care? And why do pharmacists continue to enable this antiquated practice by selling homeopathic products in pharmacies? Go… -
Autism Quackfest Hits the Media
27 Oct 2009 | 6:10 amIt was bound to happen. And I’m glad to have done my part. I’ve been blogging since August about the questionable judgment of the SickKids Foundation for their support of rank pseudoscience at the upcoming AutismOne Conference, Changing the Course of Autism. It’s now a national story in Canada. Tom Blackmore, of the National Post, weighs in today: Controversial autism conference got funds from Sick Kids A branch of Toronto’s renowned Hospital for Sick Children is being criticized for funding an autism conference whose organizers champion the discredited belief that… -
Homeopathy Harnesses the Power of Saturn
25 Oct 2009 | 7:46 pmAs I’ve blogged before, homeopathy is a pre-scientific practice without any basis in reality. Nevertheless it continues to be embraced by non-scientific practitioners like naturopaths and homeopaths. One of the underlying principles of homeopathy is the “proving”. The proving is the process by which a homeopathic remedy’s “profile” is evaluated. The proving determines which remedy will be appropriate for which symptoms. From Wikipedia: At first Hahnemann used material doses for provings, but he later advocated proving with remedies at a 30C dilution, and… -
H1N1 Antivax Paranoia
25 Oct 2009 | 2:50 pmAll my illusions that Canada is free of anti-vaccination zealots (antivaxxers) disappeared this week as the H1N1 vaccine was approved in Canada. After starting an H1N1 information page on Facebook (please join) it’s been an ongoing challenge to respond to the antivaccine comments – comments that are incorrect and often deliberately misleading. This is quite time consuming, so my schedule for posts on this blog has been delayed. I’ve also been blogging at the new SkepticNorth blog on topics that aren’t purely pharmacy related. This week I blogged about the role of…
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PodBlack Cat
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The Mind Boggles… Skeptic Zone At Mind, Body, Wallet Festival!
6 Nov 2009 | 10:12 pmDon’t forget to join the Facebook group for the Skeptic Zone podcast - we have DOZENS of vodcast documentaries and films that we take and we’re always open to having people join us on our adventures. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDJ5ME9dZwY ShareThis -
Little Kitten - Hey Jude (…By A Computer Scientist)
5 Nov 2009 | 12:36 am… I’m thinking this might start a fight… thanks, Gazza! Click for larger version of the flowchart. ShareThis -
Little Kitten - Hey Jude
4 Nov 2009 | 9:28 pmShareThis -
Get Into It Like Neil Gaimain - LOMOVEMBER In Perth
4 Nov 2009 | 1:03 amNeil Gaiman has one - and if you’re in the Perth CBD this weekend, you can learn how to do it too! Firstly, what is it? From the Lolmovember site: A camera originally designed by Russian Professor Radionov for use during the cold war, Lomo’s purpose was for spy games and international espionage. However, the camera failed its inventors intentions, when it was deemed not precise enough, light enough or small enough for Russian secret agents to carry on assignment (even though the camera is not much larger than a cigarette packet)… “New Generation Lomography” was… -
Cassandra - Redux
3 Nov 2009 | 6:56 amA little while back (’Cassandra‘), I was worried about how well skeptics worked with teachers and the education system and how seriously they took the need to interact with them as fellow stakeholders. This is why. Thanks, Dr Ben Goldacre. ShareThis
