In an unprecedented move, the Norwegian Parliament has voted to abolish the state sponsored Church of Norway with a constitutional amendment. The bipartisan measure to create a separation of church and state will officially be presented on Tuesday, reports Norway's TV2. The nation will not have an official religion, and the government will not participate in the appointment of church deans and bishops. Svein Harberg, the spokesman for the Church, Education, and Research Committee stated that the decision "is historic both for the Norwegian Church and for the politicians in Parliament." The…
Rationality
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Norway abolishes state sponsored Church of Norway - Sean Fraser - Digital Journal
RichardDawkins.net - All Content15 May 2012 | 9:50 am -
In defense of criticism (and skepticism)
Rationally Speaking15 May 2012 | 9:48 amby Massimo PigliucciMy friend Benny (who produces the Rationally Speaking podcast) really hates the word “skepticism.” He understands and appreciates its meaning and long intellectual pedigree (heck, we even did a show on that!), but he also thinks — based on anecdotal evidence — that too many people apply a negative connotation to the term, often confusing it with cynicism. (And notice, to make things even more confusing, that neither modern term has the philosophical connotations that characterized the ancient skeptics and the ancient cynics!). On the contrary, I really like the… -
Beware the Democratic undead!
Applied Rationality13 May 2012 | 8:05 amThe undead walk among us--at least the Democratic undead.Resurrecting David Parker? What was the NCDP's Executive Committee thinking?David Parker, the besieged state Democratic Party chairman, said Saturday that he would remain in his post after the party’s ruling committee voted not to accept his resignation.Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/12/3237039/democratic-party-chair-resigns.html#storylink=cpyIn the handling of allegations of sexual harassment against the party's executive director, the best you can say is that Parker botched things, spectacularly. … -
Another Blogger Jumps Into the Dualism Fray
NeuroLogica Blog15 May 2012 | 6:43 amIt has been a while since I wrote about dualism – the notion that the mind is something more than the functioning of the brain. Previously I had a blog duel about dualism with creationist neurosurgeon, Michael Egnor. Now someone else has jumped into that discussion: blogger, author, and computer engineer Bernardo Kastrup has taken me on directly. The result is a confused and poorly argued piece all too typical of metaphysical apologists. Kastrup’s major malfunction is to create a straw man of my position and then proceed to argue against that. He so blatantly misrepresents my… -
Vietnamese ‘Fire Starter’
Skeptic.com15 May 2012 | 2:05 pmChild with strange power, sets furniture alight without touching it. An 11-year-old girl, alleged to have the power to transmit intense heat, has set fire to furniture in her family’s apartment in Ho Chi Minh City without using matches or a lighter, her father claims. In a description of the phenomena, reminiscent of Stephen King’s book The Fire Starter, the father, who asked not to be named, said the family had noticed recently that the girl had the ability to make things burn without actually touching them. Du Quang Chau, director of the research centre of Radiesthesia Energy,…
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RichardDawkins.net - All Content
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Symbolism and Social Exchange Leads to Homo Sapien Expansion - Daniel Baril - Past Horizons
15 May 2012 | 10:11 pmThe disappearance of Neanderthals still remains a mystery, but paleoanthropologists are increasingly understanding what allowed their evolutionary cousins, Homo sapiens, to conquer the planet. According to Ariane Burke, Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Université de Montréal, the rapid dispersal of anatomically modern humans was not so much due to superior intelligence or improved hunting or gathering techniques, but rather to the creation of symbolic objects that allowed them to extend their social relations across vast territories. A swift expansion Homo sapiens arrived… -
Scientific evidence proves why healers see the 'aura' of people - - - MedicalXpress.com
15 May 2012 | 12:07 pmThanks to Helga Vierich for the link Researchers in Spain have found that many of the individuals claiming to see the aura of people –traditionally called "healers" or "quacks"– actually present the neuropsychological phenomenon known as "synesthesia" (specifically, "emotional synesthesia"). This might be a scientific explanation of their alleged "virtue". In synesthetes, the brain regions responsible for the processing of each type of sensory stimuli are intensely interconnected. This way, synesthetes can see or taste a sound, feel a taste, or associate people with a particular colour. -
Bullying, lies, and discrimination aren't "religious liberty" - Sean Faircloth - RichardDawkins.net
15 May 2012 | 11:53 amThe book "Attack of the Theocrats: How the Religious Right Harms Us All & What We Can Do About It" is available in audiobook, ebook & hardcopy Learn about a Ten Point Vision of a Secular America Faircloth is Dir. of Strategy & Policy with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science, US. -
Norway abolishes state sponsored Church of Norway - Sean Fraser - Digital Journal
15 May 2012 | 9:50 amIn an unprecedented move, the Norwegian Parliament has voted to abolish the state sponsored Church of Norway with a constitutional amendment. The bipartisan measure to create a separation of church and state will officially be presented on Tuesday, reports Norway's TV2. The nation will not have an official religion, and the government will not participate in the appointment of church deans and bishops. Svein Harberg, the spokesman for the Church, Education, and Research Committee stated that the decision "is historic both for the Norwegian Church and for the politicians in Parliament." The… -
Queen 'should remain Defender of the Faith' - BBC poll - Alex Strangwayes-Booth - BBC News
15 May 2012 | 4:49 amThe Queen defended the role of the Church of England in a speech at Lambeth Palace Almost 80% of people in England support a religious role for the Queen, a BBC poll suggests. In a poll by Comres to coincide with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, 79% of respondents said she still had an important faith role. Meanwhile, 73% said she should continue as supreme governor of the Church of England and keep the Defender of the Faith title first given to Henry VIII. Comres polled 2,591 people about links between the Church and monarchy. About 25% of those polled thought the Queen and future monarchs…
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Overcoming Bias
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Eventual Futures
15 May 2012 | 10:20 pmI’ve noticed that recommendations for action based on a vision of the future are based on an idea that something must “eventually” occur. For example, eventually: We will run out of coal, so we’d better find replacements soon. Earth will run out of stored energy of fossil fuels and radioactivity, so we’d better get ready to run only on sunlight. Earth will run out of place for trash, so we must stop making trash. The sun will die out, so we’d better get ready to move to another sun. There will be a race to colonize other planets and stars, so our group… -
Why Is Death Bad?
14 May 2012 | 3:50 pmShelly Kagan considers: why is death bad?: Maybe … death is bad for me in the comparative sense, because when I’m dead I lack life—more particularly, the good things in life. … Yet if death is bad for me, when is it bad for me? Not now. I’m not dead now. What about when I’m dead? But then, I won’t exist. … Isn’t it true that something can be bad for you only if you exist? Call this idea the existence requirement. … Rejecting the existence requirement has some implications that are hard to swallow. For if nonexistence can be bad for somebody even though… -
Why National Med?
14 May 2012 | 9:10 amPeople offer many noble rationales for public education, but the data suggest they were adopted to create patriotic citizens for war. I suspect a similar data analysis could show why so many nations have recently adopted national medical systems: Even as Americans debate … Obama’s healthcare law and its promise of guaranteed health coverage, … many far less affluent nations are moving in the opposite direction – to provide medical insurance to all nations. China … is on track to .. cover more than 90 percent of the nation’s residents. … Two decades ago, many former… -
Schools Are For War
13 May 2012 | 10:00 amThe main reason we had rules to force kids to attend primary school was to make obedient soldier citizens to support their nation in time of war. This effect was even stronger for democracies: Using data from the last 150 years in a small set of countries, and from the postwar period in a large set of countries, we show that large investments in state primary education systems tend to occur when countries face military rivals or threats from their neighbors. By contrast, we find that democratic transitions are negatively associated with education investments, while the presence of democratic… -
Innovation Is Random
12 May 2012 | 7:30 amA dramatic, and sad, example of how random innovation can be: A blowtorch flame is barrelling onto its surface to no effect. The egg should have cracked apart within seconds under the blistering heat. Yet after a few minutes, McCann picks it up and holds it in his hand. “It only just feels warm,” he says. He cracks it open and out dribbles a runny yolk. “It hasn’t even begun to start cooking.” That was March 1990, and this remarkable demonstration on the British TV show Tomorrow’s World was about to transform [Maurice] Ward’s fortunes. The egg itself…
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James Randi Educational Foundation
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This Week In Doubtful News
15 May 2012 | 9:00 amHere is a rundown of the top stories in pseudoscience, paranormal and anomaly news from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News. The big news this week was an outbreak of whooping cough, or pertussis. Cases have exploded in Washington state. Tragically, a baby dies in Idaho. In Australia,the ad commission required removal of homeopathic claims for pertussis. Meanwhile, anti-vaxxers are injecting misinformation into warnings about a real threat of disease spread with the upcoming Summer Olympics. For more anti-vax news, click this category link. Good news regarding the forthcoming Mayan… -
Helping Your Fellow Skeptics at the Grassroots
14 May 2012 | 12:50 pmJust a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking about grassroots organization at the SkeptiCal conference in Berkeley. While our database of grassroots skeptics' groups shows that it's easier than ever to find like-minded critical thinkers in areas all over the world, there are still plenty of gaps to fill. In the U.S. alone, there are over a dozen states with no such organizations at all. There are plenty of great resources and role models for established groups looking for a way to spread skepticism to the wider culture, but what about those of us who are starting from nothing? To help… -
Last Week At Science-Based Medicine
14 May 2012 | 9:00 amHere is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo in medicine. Plausibility bias? You say that as though that were a bad thing! (David Gorski) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/plausibility_bias/ Homeopaths criticize scientists for rejecting homeopathy because of bias against its implausibility. Good science requires considering plausibility and not wasting time and money on every crazy idea. Plausibility bias is reality bias: it’s a good thing. Homeopathy and… -
The Quack Clinic Checklist
12 May 2012 | 9:00 amI am asked almost daily about one kind of medical pseudoscience or another. The free market has produced a seemingly endless variation of medical quackery and nonsense for sale. I could never address all of them, because by the time I worked by way through the catalogue of chicanery there would be a fresh crop waiting for me. There are, however, a couple of strategies for dealing with the thousands of claims and products. The first is to lump them into categories - many dubious claims are just variations on a pseudoscientific theme, and if you understand the themes you can quickly size up a… -
Skeptic History: Spam, Spam, Spam
11 May 2012 | 9:00 amSkeptics often fill a vital role in consumer protection. This is particularly true when pseudoscience and quackery are advertised directly to unsuspecting members of the general public. Today this can occur via unsolicited commercial email, or “spam”. Anything from so-called herbal viagra to astrology readings to worthless diploma-mill degrees are commonly marketed this way. Of course, “spam” messages are well known to anyone with an email address now, but when did they start? Online histories often mark the beginning of spam as May 3, 1978, when an ad for a new…
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Rationally Speaking
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In defense of criticism (and skepticism)
15 May 2012 | 9:48 amby Massimo PigliucciMy friend Benny (who produces the Rationally Speaking podcast) really hates the word “skepticism.” He understands and appreciates its meaning and long intellectual pedigree (heck, we even did a show on that!), but he also thinks — based on anecdotal evidence — that too many people apply a negative connotation to the term, often confusing it with cynicism. (And notice, to make things even more confusing, that neither modern term has the philosophical connotations that characterized the ancient skeptics and the ancient cynics!). On the contrary, I really like the… -
Peas and quiet
11 May 2012 | 6:00 amedgecastcdn.netby Leonard FinklemanDateline: 1968. Cleve Backster, inventor of the polygraph, attaches lie detectors to some house plants and proceeds to yell at them. When his polygraphs register responses from the plants, Backster publishes a paper in the International Journal of Parapsychology (second only to “Weekly World News” in its academic rigor, I’d imagine) declaring that plants have perceptions and feelings. Thus do I have to waste at least fifteen minutes each semester explaining to students why plants don’t factor into utilitarian calculations. Thanks, Cleve.Forty-four… -
Who wants to maintain clocks?
9 May 2012 | 8:02 am4.bp.blogspot.comby Greg LinsterI recently read Brian Hayes’ wonderful collection of mathematically oriented essays called Group Theory In The Bedroom, and Other Mathematical Diversions. Not surprisingly, the book contained plenty of philosophical musings too. In one of the essays, called “Clock of Ages,” Hayes describes the intricacies of clock building and he provides some interesting historical fodder.For instance, we learn that in the sixteenth century Conrad Dasypodius, a Swiss mathematician, could have chosen to restore the old Clock of the Three Kings in Strasbourg Cathedral. -
Rationally Speaking podcast: Q&A With Massimo and Julia
8 May 2012 | 6:30 amMassimo and Julia answer listeners' questions.In this installment the topics include: how much do works of fiction affect people's rationality, Bayesian vs. frequentist statistics, what is evidence, how much blame do people deserve when their actions increase the chance of them being targeted, time travel, and whether a philosophically examined life is a better life.Also, all about rationality in the movies, from Dr. Who to Scooby-Doo. -
Michael’s Picks
7 May 2012 | 6:00 amby Michael De Dora* Are there circumstances under which it is immoral to have children? If so, why? Those are the questions Elizabeth Kolbert takes up in a wonderful new essay in the New Yorker titled “The Case Against Kids.”* In his review of Harvard University philosopher Michael Sandel’s new book, What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, Weekly Standard columnist Jonathan Last says we need to accept that economic systems impose moral values.* On a similar note, Mike Tudoreanu, writing in The Daily Collegian at the University of Massachusetts, says the idea that government…
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Applied Rationality
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Another paranoid NC birther outed
15 May 2012 | 8:41 amNorth Carolina's 8th Congressional District is now a disgraceful two-for-two: two birthers out of two Republicans still in the race. The Charlotte Observer reportsAs his competition endured criticism for questioning President Barack Obama’s birthplace, congressional candidate Scott Keadle of North Carolina took the high road last week and said he hadn’t spent “two seconds of my life thinking” about Obama’s birthplace. But that’s not what Keadle told a tea party group last month in Rowan County, N.C., during a heated primary race for the Republican nomination for North Carolina’s… -
A giant strawberry yields to progress
14 May 2012 | 6:35 amIf you've traveled down US 220 in North Carolina toward Myrtle Beach (or Rockingham or Darlington), you've seen it--a giant strawberry on the side of the road.Now that strawberry has been uprooted to make way for highway improvements.The News and Observer reportsWith wooden beams, Sheetrock and foam, Lee Berry built the world’s largest strawberry – a 20-foot monument to his homemade ice cream business, a red-and-yellow beacon so garish and eye-catching that the beach traffic couldn’t help but stop for a lick.Then state government shut him down, took his land by eminent domain, wrote him… -
Beware the Democratic undead!
13 May 2012 | 8:05 amThe undead walk among us--at least the Democratic undead.Resurrecting David Parker? What was the NCDP's Executive Committee thinking?David Parker, the besieged state Democratic Party chairman, said Saturday that he would remain in his post after the party’s ruling committee voted not to accept his resignation.Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/12/3237039/democratic-party-chair-resigns.html#storylink=cpyIn the handling of allegations of sexual harassment against the party's executive director, the best you can say is that Parker botched things, spectacularly. … -
$27.6 million in health insurance rebates coming to NC households and businesses
12 May 2012 | 11:36 amIn a just-completed study of the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that health insurers will be rebating $27.6 million on nearly 300,000 North Carolina policies in August. Nationally, the foundation estimates that $1.3 billion will be rebated on nearly 16 million policies.The MLR provisions of the ACA require insurers to spend a certain percentage of total premium revenue on actual health expenditures rather than things like advertising, administrative salaries, and profits (that the insurers refer to these health… -
Too big to fail bank loses $2 billion (so far) in bad trades
11 May 2012 | 8:51 amBloomberg reports this morningJPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said the firm suffered a $2 billion trading loss after an “egregious” failure in a unit managing risks, jeopardizing Wall Street banks’ efforts to loosen a federal ban on bets with their own money. The firm’s chief investment office, run by Ina Drew, 55, took flawed positions on synthetic credit securities that remain volatile and may cost an additional $1 billion this quarter or next, Dimon told analysts yesterday. Losses mounted as JPMorgan tried to mitigate transactions designed to hedge…
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Unreasonable Faith
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Would you die for your beliefs?
15 May 2012 | 2:08 pmBertrand Russell wouldn’t: -
When’s the Next Rapture?
14 May 2012 | 11:53 amGotta love Ricky Gervais: -
Christianity in a Meme
12 May 2012 | 4:07 pmThis might actually be the most succinct description of BibleGod that I’ve ever seen. -
The Top of the Sears Tower
12 May 2012 | 11:00 amAccording to the most reliable newspaper in the world, this plaque is on the top of the Sears Tower: -
Blog Break
12 May 2012 | 6:00 amI suspect you can see where this is going.The death of my grandfather, combined with some medical problems among the rest of my family, mean that I’m going to have to take some time off to deal with family matters. I’m not likely to be near a computer for the next week.If the silence gets too much, you can use the time to write a guest post of your own. You can submit your posts to: vorjack.unreasonablefaith@gmail.comThanks folks. Back in a week or so.Vorjack
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Skepticblog
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“The Medieval Warm Period was just as warm”—NOT!
16 May 2012 | 4:00 amAs I discussed in a previous post (April 11), the people who deny anthropogenic global warming (AGW) have many similarities to creationists. Despite the fact that the reality of AGW is supported by a 95% or greater consensus of qualified climate scientists, the critics (mostly non-scientists, or scientists in fields that do not qualify them to assess climate science) keep on repeating the same false tropes over and over again, no matter how many times they are debunked. This is analogous to the shopworn old arguments of creationists, who invariably trot out fallacious arguments like… -
Ghost Box
14 May 2012 | 7:04 amThe subculture of pseudoscientific ghost hunting continues to evolve. Have you heard of a “ghost box?” It seems all you have to do is put the word “ghost” in front of something and it becomes technical jargon for ghost hunters, and also a great example of begging the question. A cold spot in a house is therefore “ghost cold.” An electromagnetic field (EMF) detector becomes a “ghost detector.” And now a radio scanner has been rebranded as a “ghost box.” Of course no one has ever established that any of these phenomena have anything to… -
The “Tornado in a Junkyard” fallacy
9 May 2012 | 4:00 amOrder the book from Skeptic.com When you hear creationists argue their cause, sooner or later they reach into their standard litany of debunked arguments. One of their favorites (since it sounds convincing to their largely math-illiterate followers) is to point to the complexity of a molecular system or the cell or any other part of nature and “how could such a complicated system arise BY CHANCE?” The bigger implication is that they cannot fathom humans and their religious worldview being produced by anything other than a supernatural creator, so chance (as they misunderstand the… -
Atheist Nation
8 May 2012 | 4:00 amWhere in the world are the atheists? That is, in what part of the globe will one find the most people who do not believe in God? Answer: East Germany at 52.1%. The least? The Philippines at less than 1%. Predictably, strong belief shows a reverse pattern: 84% in the Philippines to 4% in Japan, with East Germany at the second lowest in strong belief at 8%. Not surprising, those who believe in a personal God “who concerns himself with every human being personally” is lowest in East Germany at 8% and highest in the Philippines at 92%. These numbers, and others, were collected and crunched by… -
Is Aura Reading Synaesthesia? Probably Not.
7 May 2012 | 7:04 amI am often asked, and wonder myself, if there are significant hard-wired and genetically determined brain differences between skeptics and new agers or conspiracy theorists (or name your favorite flavor of true believer). It can certainly feel this way when you are knee deep in a cyber-debate with someone with a radically different world-view than yourself. Obviously there is no simple answer to this question. Biological brain effects are filtered through culture, education, and personal experience, which in turn have an effect on the wiring of the brain (the brain has memory and learns from…
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Derren Brown Blog
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Video 2: Svengali – London 2012
26 Apr 2012 | 5:55 amIf anyone missed the announcements, Svengali returns to the West End for 27 performances only in 2012. Tickets are available here: Novello Theatre, London -
Take part in Derren’s new TV project
19 Apr 2012 | 12:35 pmIf you want to apply to take part in a new TV project (over 18s only) then go to http://bit.ly/I9oMoL No more info. Good luck! -
Derren Brown wins Best Entertainment and Family Award
16 Apr 2012 | 2:54 pm“Derren Brown has tonight collected the second Olivier Award of his career, winning for his mind-boggling West End hit Svengali in the Best Entertainment and Family Award category. The entertainer and master of psychological trickery was first recognised by the most prestigious of theatre awards in 2006 for his second West End outing Something Wicked This Way Comes. Since then the television star has appeared on stage in shows Mind Reader – An Evening Of Wonders and Derren Brown – Enigma before returning with Svengali, arguably his darkest show to date, last summer. When it was… -
Video: Svengali – London 2012
2 Apr 2012 | 5:33 amIf anyone missed the announcement, Svengali returns to the West End for 27 performances only in 2012. Tickets are available here: Novello Theatre, London -
Announcement from the DB Blog Team
1 Apr 2012 | 11:47 amIt’s come to our attention that some fans have received phone calls from people claiming to be us, informing people they have won tickets to Svengali. We’d just like to make it clear that these calls are fraudulent and not anyone from the DB Blog team. If you receive these calls, please pop an email through to admin@derrenbrown.co.uk with as much detail as possible so we can look into this for you. You will never receive any phone calls from myself (Abeo), Dupin or Exeo. When we do run competitions then contact comes via the official @derrenbrown.co.uk email addresses and will…
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Skepchick
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AI: Stop doing that!
15 May 2012 | 2:00 pmI feel like I spend half my online life clicking “unsubscribe” from people on Facebook. It’s annoying that Facebook automatically subscribes you to people you’re friends with and even more annoying that they even default you to opt-in on annoying people. But worst of all, Facebook thinks the annoying people are the ones I’m most interested in, so all their annoying-people updates flood my feed. How do you know if you’re annoying? If you post a lot of images you think are really funny, that’s a red flag. If a lot of those images are completely text,… -
Skepchick Quickies 5.15
15 May 2012 | 9:07 amAll-girl team wins science competition with ingenious pasteurization contraption – The team developed their invention to be used by Nicaraguan women to pasteurize their milk. Edwina Rogers – Greta Christina on the new executive director of the Secular Coalition for America: “But the problem isn’t just her denial of the political reality of the Republican Party. The problem is also with the way she denied it.” Dangers of chiropractic under reported, study finds – Edzard Ernst lead the study. Clementine Churchill eloquently pwns a sexist dude – In response… -
Review: God Bless America
15 May 2012 | 8:00 amGod Bless America is the latest film from Bobcat Goldthwait, ’80s star and present day indie filmmaker. I saw World’s Greatest Dad last year and mostly enjoyed it, and I’ve really been enjoying Goldthwait’s interviews on shows like Comedy Bang Bang, so I was looking forward to seeing his latest. (It’s in a limited number of theaters this week but it’s already available On Demand, which is how I saw it.) Minor spoilers follow but honestly there’s not much to spoil as the whole film is one-note, and it’s the note you can see in the trailer: The… -
The Most Interesting Monster in The World
14 May 2012 | 2:00 pmOriginally posted on Mad Art Lab. You guys! I am so excited about this fun little project! My main squeeze, Mr Surly Johnny Skaare helped me edit and produce a mockumercial for Death by Puppets based around one of skepticism’s most beloved creatures and pop culture’s favorite beers. It was SO fun to do! Scott Sigler did the announcer voice over. My mother, Charlene Roth and my pal, Charles Pillsbury helped make puppets. Our very own Treelobster-Steve wrote the script. I did the filming, some puppeteering and all the artsy set design. Johnny is the voice of Chupacabra. Now, let the… -
ICYMI: May 6-May 12 on the Skepchick Network
14 May 2012 | 10:00 amHelloooooo! Pull yourself out of bed, sleepy! It’s time to catch up on what happened last week on the Skepchick Network. Did you know that you are legally obligated to read all of these highlights before you get on with your day? It’s true.* Trust me. I’m a lawyer. *It’s not true. But you should do it anyway. Teen Skepchick Religion, Memes, and Circular Logic: How Religion Invades People’s Minds Aurora explores the self-perpetuating meme that is religion. Dinosaurs in Space: Why the Hell Not? What are the odds that there are intelligent space dinosaurs? Pretty…
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The Blog for WhyWontGodHealAmputees.com
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The GOP needs to embrace gays and lesbians
14 May 2012 | 7:53 pmTop GOP Pollster to GOP: Reverse On Gay Issues Below is a remarkable document. It’s a memo circulated by Jan van Lohuizen, a highly respected Republican pollster, (he polled for George W. Bush in 2004), to various leading Republican operatives, candidates and insiders. It’s on the fast-shifting poll data on marriage equality and gay rights in general, and how that should affect Republican policy and language. And the pollster’s conclusion is clear: if the GOP keeps up its current rhetoric and positions on gays and lesbians, it is in danger of marginalizing itself to… -
The biggest cross in the world
12 May 2012 | 2:59 amWhy do this? Branson Cross: World’s Largest Cross Gets Go-Ahead From Missouri Officials The “God-given vision” started out simply enough: build a 7-foot-tall cross on a mountain and invite people to meditate there with the Creator. Now, 20 years later, the cross will cost $5 million and rise nearly 200 feet once complete, making it the largest cross in the world. Complete with two elevators, developers promise free admission and an encounter with Jesus at the mammoth, monumental “Branson Cross” in Branson, Missouri. “An encounter with Jesus”? What… -
Christ’s Love in the form of discrimination
8 May 2012 | 7:29 pmNorth Carolina Passes Amendment Banning Gay Marriage Here is what Christians have to say about it: Shane Colwell, who’s studying at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, said the amendment clarified the definition of marriage. “I’m a born-again Christian, and I just believe the Bible is clear that marriage is for one man and one woman,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that anybody’s less equal than anybody else. I just think that marriage is one man and one woman.” “I think we’ve built a huge coalition across North… -
Ministers becoming atheists
6 May 2012 | 7:14 pmFrom Minister To Atheist: A Story Of Losing Faith MacBain, 44, was raised a conservative Southern Baptist. Her dad was a pastor and she felt the call of God when she was 6. She had questions, of course, about conflicts in the Bible, for example, or the role of women. She says she sometimes felt she was serving a taskmaster of a God, whose standards she never quite met. For years, MacBain set her concerns aside. But when she became a United Methodist pastor nine years ago, she started asking sharper questions. She thought they’d make her faith stronger. “In reality,” she… -
Stuff Christians Say to Atheists
4 May 2012 | 7:09 pmAn enlightening video: Which ones do you hear or say most often?
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denialism blog
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The Ethics of Eating Meat - the New York Times finalists are in
7 May 2012 | 1:23 pmThe New York Times has the results from when they posed the question, "is it ethical to eat meat?" The finalists, with one or two exceptions, are quite interesting. Certainly, when it comes to opinions about food, everyone has one, and the judges emphasized the variety of the opinions, and interestingly, the near unanimous belief that CAFOs are unethical (I'm with Pollan on that one). The only other topic at the NYT which seems to generate as much diversity of opinion, and frankly insane commentary, is child-rearing. But what I liked most about these finalists were the three writers who… -
Humane Watch puts lawyers in cages
5 May 2012 | 1:57 pmIn a brilliant parody of the HSUS shelter ads, humane watch has put sad looking lawyers in cages to emphasize that donations to HSUS do not fund shelters. HSUS is like PETA but with deodorant and suits. Hah! I love it. HSUS is PETA. It's upsetting that this fake charity has co-opted the reputation of our local humane societies, used ads depicting suffering animals in cages, then taken in millions of dollars from well meaning people to lobby for animal rights causes. Every time I see their ads I get furious. Less than 1% of their take goes to shelters. HSUS is not a humane society at all, it's… -
Higher US expenditures on cancer patients do not result in improved mortality.
13 Apr 2012 | 12:10 pmBut you'd never know that reading AEI's highly dubious contribution to the literature in this week's Health Affairs (lay Reuters article here). Consistent with their free-market solves everything and can do no wrong (cover ears and yell "nananananananana") attitude towards the broken US healthcare system, they have managed to contaminate the literature with a paper that suggests our higher expenditures on cancer are generating significant returns in patient survival. Except that it doesn't show this, and to her great credit, Reuter's Sharon Begley nails it: Cancer patients in the United… -
Jennifer Lawrence channels Katniss, says "Screw PETA"
12 Apr 2012 | 4:33 pmIn it's increasingly bizarre need to inflict it's animal rights morality on everybody, PETA's Ingrid Newkirk has criticized Jennifer Lawrence for scenes in Winter's Bone and the Hunger Games, which show her hunting and eating animals. The actress was dubbed "the coolest chick in Hollywood" by Rolling Stone, and in the magazine's latest issue she recounts her on-screen squirrel-skinning scene in the 2010 movie "Winter's Bone." "I should say it wasn't real, for PETA. But screw PETA," she told the magazine. In response to the actress's comment, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk told Gothamist,… -
Rest in Peace, Thomas Kinkade
7 Apr 2012 | 9:32 amThomas Kinkade, painter of pablum and our nation's most collected living artist, died on Good Friday. Hmmmm. Read the comments on this post...
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Scepticon
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Guess what Percentage of the World Thinks it Will End In Their lifetime?
6 May 2012 | 9:47 pmThe optimist in me (no sniggers please it’s not polite) would liked to have thought that this percentage is quite low. You know, in the barely worth mentioning category. Alas, according to a poll conducted by Ipsos the world average is about 14%. One in seven. Think about that for a second. One seventh of the world thinks they will see the end of civilisation as we know it. One prediction has only a few weeks to go before hitting the cold light of reality, it won’t be the last. Why? I don’t know – You tell me. I’ve given up, people are crazy. Filed under: Hoaxes,… -
TCM and You: Cupping
3 Apr 2012 | 4:29 pmI have noticed that Chinese massage seems to be becoming popular, and seemingly with it Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM1). At least browsing through two of the larger shopping centres in Hamilton (bring on the hick jokes) I saw massage centres offering these services. In particular cupping was advertised. But what exactly is cupping2? As with many modalities in TCM Cupping appears to be based on pre-scientific notions of blood stagnation and energy blockages3. Applying cups with a slight vacuum to the skin is meant to draw out the “toxins” which then results in improved health,… -
Monday Afternoon Movies: From Daleks to Vectron
1 Apr 2012 | 9:55 pmI was collecting up videos to drip feed when I got around to it, but figured I may as well post them all at once to liven up a Monday afternoon. Enjoy. The Great and Powerful Tyson… Dan Dennett on “Deepities”… “Vectron” from the amazingly funny Mitchell and Webb…. Levitation, I have to admit while watching this I was grinning like and idiot..it’s awesome…. Richard Wiseman amazes and astounds…. Daleks: Hitchhiker’s Guide style… Filed under: Science, skepticism Tagged: daleks, Mitchell and Webb, Neil deGrasse Tyson, richard… -
Amber Teething Beads: A Follow-Up
1 Apr 2012 | 4:29 pmOver the week or so I expect the page views for my amber teething necklace post to top 20,000 over the two blogs. Interest in the article has just kept increasing over the last year or so of it being up, as opposed to the majority of my posts which slip into internet obscurity within days. In anticipation of the occasion I thought I’d cover some of the comments that this post has gathered over the last few months. Many of the comments are along the lines of “It worked for me” and “Try it yourself”. To the first, I don’t really have much to say. I… -
Future History: Apocalypse Then
28 Mar 2012 | 3:45 pmEnd of the world predictions and scenarios abound, we have always been fascinated with our own demise it seems. Last year I covered the predictions of Harold Camping and the relatively small following he had in his advertising the apocalypse campaign. This year we have the Mayans to blame and it’s rather more wide spread than a few eccentric Camping followers. In my previous post I essentially put together and End of the World retrospective, surveying a small number of past predictions that failed. This time showcase the many predictions that still lie in our future. Behold the Future…
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kuşkucu kedi ( skeptic cat )
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14 May 2012 | 4:29 pm
14 May 2012 | 4:29 pmwell... after rather long sabbatical from my blog, I am happy to be able share some more photos of Ondarte April show.I had fours pieces. and. myself enjoying the attention while responding to the interested parties questions. -
26 Mar 2012 | 11:34 am
26 Mar 2012 | 11:34 amFinally I have some material to share with you guys. First Ondarte show was a hit. My work got surprisingly good reception. I had work style panning between marker sketches, acrylic paintings and wood carving/sculptures. All in all, it was a good educational experience. -
20 Mar 2012 | 9:53 pm
20 Mar 2012 | 9:53 pmgot to post something. So this seemed somewhat interesting shot. Yes, she was surprised when I popped out right next to her. Well... couple feet away.Stay well. -
11 Mar 2012 | 12:57 pm
11 Mar 2012 | 12:57 pmI am finally getting the hang off GoPro. Well, this day wouldn't be complete without a curious adult barracuda wanting to investigate my yellow fins up close. Nothing to chomp on here buddy! move along! ... just go slow though.. .so I can take some good video of you. Eventually I will get into posting these videos. Just a frame captures for now. Stay well. -
Seven years old camera and $20 macro lens.
9 Mar 2012 | 4:34 pmNot bad, huh? Unlucky hermit crab of the day. I pestered this poor, little being quite a while.I think I was able to make up for all that none sense when I placed a piece of banana in her little claws. Rather than pinching me, got busy with the goods in no time. Look at those beautiful brown eyes and those long, dark eyelashes. Welcome to SHOW business .....! ;) he! he! he! OK one more... Check those antennas, man!
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Small Town Skepticism
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Homeopathic Vodka - Get yours today!
9 May 2012 | 8:19 amI know I've spent a lot of time picking on Homeopathy and claiming that it is silly until I discovered this:www.homeopathicvodka.com. This could very well be the product that saves Homeopathy from ridicule.Unlike Homeopaths distorting what Homeopathy really is, the makers of Homeopathic Vodka have made this product accessible and stayed true to the teachings of the founder of Homeopathy - Samuel Hahnemann. Even better than telling you exactly what is in their product, they make it so you can make it at home - safely and effectively.Sorry for the short blog entry - I feel like without… -
Global Atheist Convention Tribute to Christopher Hitchens
19 Apr 2012 | 12:41 pm -
Like god, Psychics Work in Mysterious Ways
30 Mar 2012 | 5:31 pmRemember that murder that Robbie Thomas likes to claim he helped solve? The one that he still uses to suggest he has psychic powers? The one that he had helped, in no way, in solving? Yes, I know, that only narrows it down to EVERY SINGLE CASE that Robbie claims to have been involved in.No, remember the one that Robbie claimed, to the family, that the girl was still alive almost a week after, we now know, she was murdered? (I'll admit that might not exclude very many but it does exclude some - given that it was a female!) For those that guessed Tori Stafford,… -
That Makes Sense
3 Mar 2012 | 2:01 amI think the Million Dollar Prize from the JREF is a wonderful tool to use when confronting believers of the occult. I'm not sure they see it the same way because they often react by moving the goal posts.When it is suggested that they get tested under scientific scrutiny it is argued, by believers, that skepticism can affect performance. However, more commonly, I get the response 'psychics can't use their powers for personal benefit' (to explain why you never see the headline 'psychic wins lottery' (Jay Leno)).Assuming that were the case, we must follow those implications to wherever they may… -
Naturally Stupid - Arguments against the appeal to nature (often called the naturallistic fallacy)
1 Mar 2012 | 11:43 amWhen it comes to fallacies, one of the most commonly abused is the appeal to nature. The fallacy is often used to claim that something is "good" or "safe" simply because it is "natural" - you'll see it repeated, almost ad nauseam, in product and business advertisements.Someone simply making the appeal to nature may not be wrong about a product being "good" or "better" but the idea that something is "good" because it is natural is wrong.I was, very recently, offered a can of Jamba Juice energy drink with the claim that it is "all natural". I asked him what it contained that made it…
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The Skeptic's Field Guide
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Poisoning the Well
8 May 2012 | 4:59 pmOther Terms and/or Related Concepts Guilt by association; "they're all tarred with the same brush." Description The advocate attempts to undermine or throw doubt on the opponent's position by linking the opponent's argument to a group which is seen as suspect, a source which is denigrated by the advocate, or an idea that is unfavourably viewed. Thus the metaphor of poisoning the well. Any "water" (idea) taken from that "well" (source) is poisonous (tainted, of no value). ExampleStan Webserver (the advocate) is engaged in a dispute with Sally Cubbyhouse during a seminar on unemployment. Sally… -
Ad Hominem
3 May 2012 | 3:17 amOther Terms and/or Related Concepts Personal Abuse; Playing the Man (or person) Not the Ball; Personal Attack; Reductio Ad Hitlerum. Description The advocate attacks his or her opponent rather than the argument put forward by the opponent. When an Ad Hominem attack is used, the content of the attack does not relate to objective facts about such things as the opponent's membership of a particular group, or the profession they practise (e.g. environmentalist, lawyer). Rather, the abuse is directed at the person's character or other personal attributes. Example Phil Schnotter and Nigel… -
The Perfect Solution
30 Apr 2012 | 5:35 pmOther Terms and/or Related ConceptsSilver bullet; burden of solution DescriptionThe advocate claims that because a proposed solution, idea, or system is not perfect, it should be abandoned completely.Examples1. Radio "shock jock" Kyle Jones is angrily discussing the speeding fine he received on the way to work in the morning. "These hidden camera speed traps are complete rubbish. I got caught speeding. Big deal. Down the road, after getting the ticket, I was immediately speeding again. They don't work. People still speed. It's just government revenue raising." 2. Recent changes in the sport… -
Observational Selection
23 Apr 2012 | 7:48 amOther Terms and/or Related Concepts Selective observations; counting the hits and ignoring the misses; searching for confirming instances; observer bias; publication bias. Description This error occurs along a broad spectrum, from individuals forming their own views on a subject of very little importance, to research into sensitive and complex social issues, and even "hard sciences" such as physics. At either end of the spectrum, observations are made by people and people have unconscious (and sometimes conscious) biases. These biases influence the observations people make. When research is… -
Naturalistic Fallacy
18 Apr 2012 | 5:45 pmOther Terms and/or Related ConceptsIs/ought fallacy; Argument to nature. Description The advocate claims that because something is natural or exists in nature, it is by definition good. And/or the advocate derives 'ought' from 'is' without any compelling (and reasonable) link. Example Talk show host Grant Haggard has invited guest Riley Hardge on his show to discuss proposed gay marriage legislation. Hardge, attempts to bring up Haggard's recent arrest for public obscenity: "So Grant, you admit you were in the park that afternoon, and given you had binoculars I would normally believe you when…
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Bad Astronomy
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Big Picture Science: Antivaxxers (and updates)
15 May 2012 | 12:15 pmI do a roughly monthly segment with astronomer Seth Shostak on Big Picture Science, a radio show/podcast done by The SETI Institute. This month, Seth and I talked about the American Airlines dustup when they were planning to run an interview with reality-impaired antivaxxer Meryl Dorey. This story is a great victory for reality, and I’ve already written about the back story. Never forget: this antivax issue is more than important: it is literally life and death. Because of lowering vaccine rates, pertussis outbreaks are so prevalent health officials in the state of Washington have… -
Help find Hubble’s Hidden Treasures
15 May 2012 | 10:00 amI worked with Hubble Space Telescope data for about ten years, and one of the most amazing things about that was seeing the images fresh off the mirror. Knowing that no human on Earth had ever seen that particular object that sharply was a thrill. Not every Hubble observation gets turned into a gorgeous image, though. A lot of them don’t need to be for scientific publications, for one thing, and for another not every observation is of a targeted object for a specific purpose. Because of that, there are probably hundreds and hundreds of amazing objects — galaxies, nebulae, star… -
If the Mayans were right, it was probably about Internet comments
15 May 2012 | 7:55 amA little while back, I was at Utah State University to give a public talk about the threat from asteroid impacts and what we can do to stop them (PLUG ALERT: if you want me to come talk at your venue, my agent would love to hear from you). While I was there I was interviewed by Utah Public Radio, and that interview is online. I was also chatted up by the local TV station, KSL. I think it went OK, and they put it online as well: [You may have to refresh this page to get the video to load.] While I rather wish I had stated succinctly that even the basis of the "Mayan 2012 doomsday"… -
WANT Part XIII: Moon throw
14 May 2012 | 2:00 pmWhen I’m getting the mid-afternoon drowsies, and looking for a comfortable, warm, cozy place to take a nap, what could possibly be better than… the impact crater-scarred surface of the Moon? This may be the greatest blanket throw in the history of blankets. Who wouldn’t want to cuddle up in a little regolith? And ZOMFSM and it comes with matching pillows! And there’s a floor cushion! Supermoon, indeed. Tip o’ the spacesuit visor to Design for Mankind via Jeri Ryan on Pinterest. Related Posts: - WANT Part XII: Earth Globe Fire Pit - WANT Part XI: To boldly slice -… -
Psychedelic space station stars and cities
14 May 2012 | 12:01 pmThe view from the International Space Station is always pretty cool, but when an astronaut points the camera at the Earth’s horizon and takes a series of short exposures, adding them together gives a view right out of Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s: [Click to psilocybinate.] Whoa, man! Astronaut Don Petit took the pictures to make this composite. Basically, it’s a series of eighteen 30-second exposures added together so the motion of the ISS around the Earth makes the stars trail, the cities blur, and your mind expand, dude. The brown and green glow over the horizon is the…
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TheNESS Blog Feed
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Another Blogger Jumps Into the Dualism Fray|Steven Novella|Neurologica
15 May 2012 | 6:43 amIt has been a while since I wrote about dualism – the notion that the mind is something more than the functioning of the brain. Previously I had a blog duel about dualism with creationist neurosurgeon, Michael Egnor. Now someone else has jumped into that discussion: blogger, author, and computer engineer Bernardo Kastrup has taken me on directly. The result is a confused and poorly argued piece all too typical of metaphysical apologists. Kastrup’s major malfunction is to create a straw man of my position and then proceed to argue against that. He so blatantly misrepresents my… -
RISUG: Birth Control for Men|Harriet Hall|Science-Based Medicine
15 May 2012 | 2:00 amAccording to an enthusiastic article on the Internet, “The Best Birth Control In the World Is For Men.” It’s called RISUG: Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance. It involves a minor surgical procedure in which the vas deferens is exposed and pulled outside the scrotum by the same techniques used for a vasectomy. A copolymer, powdered styrene maleic anhydride (SMA, for which the method was previously named) combined with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is then injected into the vas deferens. The polymer coats the walls of the vas and kills the sperm as they swim by. The mechanism is… -
Ghost Box|Steven Novella|Neurologica
14 May 2012 | 7:04 amThe subculture of pseudoscientific ghost hunting continues to evolve. Have you heard of a “ghost box?” It seems all you have to do is put the word “ghost” in front of something and it becomes technical jargon for ghost hunters, and also a great example of begging the question. A cold spot in a house is therefore “ghost cold.” An electromagnetic field (EMF) detector becomes a “ghost detector.” And now a radio scanner has been rebranded as a “ghost box.” Of course no one has ever established that any of these phenomena have anything to… -
Another cancer tragedy in the making|David Gorski|Science-Based Medicine
14 May 2012 | 2:00 amI despise cancer quacks. I know, I know. My saying that is probably akin to saying that the sun rises in the east, water is wet, and Donald Trump’s hair resembles nothing in nature. You know, brain-meltingly obvious statements. It’s true, though. I despise cancer quacks. It doesn’t much matter to me whether the quack is a true believer or a calculating con artist, the end result is the same: People with cancer throwing their one best chance to survive away chasing pixie dust and promises of “natural” cures without the toxicity that is the unfortunate byproduct of… -
Dental X-rays and Brain Tumors — Oh My!|Steve Hendry|Science-Based Medicine
11 May 2012 | 8:45 amFear sells, and the media loves it. If it’s scary, no matter how tenuous the link or inconclusive the study, you are going to see it on the news. How many times over the years have you heard that your cell phone might give you brain cancer, even though it never turns out to be true? Once such a claim is made, however, it becomes lodged into the public’s psyche and is accepted as true, even after refutations and retractions are published (see Wakefield, Andrew). And so it is with x-rays. The latest scare du jour, a recent study out of Yale that claims to show a correlation between dental…
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Pro-science
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Misleading headlines
29 Apr 2012 | 1:23 pmI came across this small fluff-piece about Keira Knigthley, which has an incredible misleading headline - it seems to be pure bait to get people to read the piece. So, what's the headline? Keira Knightley wants to become Catholic When seeing that headline, you'd probably think that it is about her wanting to convert to Catholocism, or about her saying how she would like to be a Catholic because of her respect for that particular faith. Well, it is not really. Keira Knightley has said that she is desperate to become a Catholic because she would “just get to ask for forgiveness.” The… -
Reducing the risk
29 Apr 2012 | 3:44 amMeasles warning, a photo by Kristjan Wager on Flickr.The Danish National Board of Health has started a new campaign, trying to make people get vaccinated against measles, offering free vaccinations to anyone born after 1973 (people born in 1973 and earlier will have to pay a fee).The angle of the campaign is to make clear to people that measels isn't a harmless childrens' disease, but is quite dangerous.The headline of the sign is "Over 100,000 Danes can be hit by an epidemic - are you one of them?" -
It's alive!
9 Apr 2012 | 10:21 amIt turns out that I've started to miss blogging, so I guess it is time to fire up this old blog again.I expect to write some new posts during the week. -
Translations
7 Jan 2012 | 10:55 amSticker svin, a photo by Kristjan Wager on Flickr.I am currently reading Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything by David Bellos, which is about translations (NY Times has a book review of it here).While reading the book, I couldn't help think of this sticker which I took a picture of some months ago (the black one), since it is a good example of the problems with translations.The sticker was in a Danish bar, and translated into English it would be "klistermærke swine" - yes the first word would be the Danish word, since the word sticker is not Danish, but… -
Speaking ill of the dead
27 Nov 2011 | 11:41 amJerry Coyne has written a couple of posts about the death of Lynn Margulis over at his blog Why Evolution is True. The first one was rather respectful of her contributions to science and ignored her less than stellar contributions to science. The second post went into more details about her flaws.In the comment section to the first post I dared to make the statement that Margulis was not a great scientist, but rather someone who made a great contribution to science, but otherwise promoted quackery such as HIV/AIDS-denial. Or as I put it:I would think that great scientists as a minimum should…
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Skeptic.com
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12-05-16
16 May 2012 | 2:00 amIn this week’s eSkeptic: Our Next Lecture at Caltech : Dr. Art Benjamin Feature Article: Mind Matters The Amaz!ng Meeting 2012: July 12–15 in Las Vegas, Nevada Our Next Lecture at Caltech:Dr. Art Benjamin The Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician’s Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 2012 AT 2 PMBaxter Lecture Hall Teachers and parents, bring your students and kids to see the famous lightning calculator and mathemagician Art Benjamin demonstrate simple math secrets and tricks that will forever change how you look at the world of… -
Indian man accused of witchcraft is beaten, dies.
15 May 2012 | 4:30 pm -
Parents acquitted for murder after faith healing fails
15 May 2012 | 3:30 pmFaith-healing parents acquitted of murder charge. A faith-healing Washington couple accused of being criminally responsible for their teenage son’s death for failing to call a doctor have been acquitted of second-degree murder charges. Zachery Swezey was 17 when he died at his Carlton home of a ruptured appendix in March 2009. Jurors were told the couple belong to the Church of the First Born, which believes in faith healing. The Swezeys told investigators they thought their son had the flu. They also said the boy chose not to see a doctor. Tip: @blue_wode via Twitter This teenager… -
Vietnamese ‘Fire Starter’
15 May 2012 | 2:05 pmChild with strange power, sets furniture alight without touching it. An 11-year-old girl, alleged to have the power to transmit intense heat, has set fire to furniture in her family’s apartment in Ho Chi Minh City without using matches or a lighter, her father claims. In a description of the phenomena, reminiscent of Stephen King’s book The Fire Starter, the father, who asked not to be named, said the family had noticed recently that the girl had the ability to make things burn without actually touching them. Du Quang Chau, director of the research centre of Radiesthesia Energy,… -
Uncritical news piece on baby chiropractic states practice growing
15 May 2012 | 1:05 pmBabies Get Much-Needed Help From Chiropractic Adjustments. When Sydney Winkler encountered one of the biggest adjustments of parenthood, she brought 2-month-old Lily to the chiropractor. “She was really colicky, crying, fussy, we had a couple days there where she was screaming and not settled,” said the mother from Bloomington. Dr. Anne Spicer, a pediatric chiropractor at the Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington, specializes in pregnant women and babies. Dr. Spicer said fussy babies often have a misalignment at the top of the neck, which appears to the case for Lily. She…
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NeuroLogica Blog
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Another Blogger Jumps Into the Dualism Fray
15 May 2012 | 6:43 amIt has been a while since I wrote about dualism – the notion that the mind is something more than the functioning of the brain. Previously I had a blog duel about dualism with creationist neurosurgeon, Michael Egnor. Now someone else has jumped into that discussion: blogger, author, and computer engineer Bernardo Kastrup has taken me on directly. The result is a confused and poorly argued piece all too typical of metaphysical apologists. Kastrup’s major malfunction is to create a straw man of my position and then proceed to argue against that. He so blatantly misrepresents my… -
Ghost Box
14 May 2012 | 7:04 amThe subculture of pseudoscientific ghost hunting continues to evolve. Have you heard of a “ghost box?” It seems all you have to do is put the word “ghost” in front of something and it becomes technical jargon for ghost hunters, and also a great example of begging the question. A cold spot in a house is therefore “ghost cold.” An electromagnetic field (EMF) detector becomes a “ghost detector.” And now a radio scanner has been rebranded as a “ghost box.” Of course no one has ever established that any of these phenomena have anything to… -
Analytic Thought and Religious Belief
10 May 2012 | 7:16 amA series of psychological studies recently published in Science explores the relationship between analytic thought and religious belief. The studies raise a lot of issues, including how to interpret such studies, but first let me simply convey the results. In the first experiment researchers Will M. Gervais and Ara Norenzayan assessed subjects with a standard measure of analytical thought – problems in which the initial intuitive answer is incorrect and must be overridden by deeper analysis. Try to solve them yourself, they are: A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00… -
Coherent Breathing
8 May 2012 | 7:02 amLast week I wrote about earthing – the claim that being in contact with the earth (especially using products you can buy for this purpose) helps to balance your electrons and improve health. Earthing fits into a category of pseudoscientific nonsense I called “just make shit up.” This seems to be a deep and constantly growing category, limited only by human imagination, ego, and greed. The existence of claims such as this is an excellent example for why we need the rigors and methods of science – without them to ground us to reality, there is no limit to the nonsense… -
Is Aura Reading Synaesthesia? Probably Not.
7 May 2012 | 7:05 amI am often asked, and wonder myself, if there are significant hard-wired and genetically determined brain differences between skeptics and new agers or conspiracy theorists (or name your favorite flavor of true believer). It can certainly feel this way when you are knee deep in a cyber-debate with someone with a radically different world-view than yourself. Obviously there is no simple answer to this question. Biological brain effects are filtered through culture, education, and personal experience, which in turn have an effect on the wiring of the brain (the brain has memory and learns from…
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Epsilon Clue
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Church-State Separation in Norway
15 May 2012 | 4:49 pmWhøå (Google translation). The Norwegian government is expected to amend its constitution to become a more secular society: the Church of Norway will no longer be the official state religion. As I understand it, from now on the government will no longer have any say in how the church is run (and will abolish the post of Minister of Churches), and the church will appoint its own bishops and other officials. This all sounds rather… civilized and sensible, I must say. As an American, I’m not used to such things happening without a whole lot of hand-wringing, hyperbolic rhetoric,… -
Obama’s Tepid Rubicon
15 May 2012 | 7:00 amOf all the adjectives that could be applied to the current Thing Dominating The News Cycle — Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage — the most popular seems to be “tepid”. Other criticisms I’ve run across are in a similar vein: that Obama was wishy-washy, didn’t pledge any actual support for marriage equality, and generally speaking, why the hell aren’t we at the point where he could just say “Of course I’m for marriage equality! I can’t believe we have to have this conversation!” (In case you couldn’t tell, I… -
Why Is Universalizability a Good Thing?
10 May 2012 | 8:46 amBack in 2010, Greta Christina wrote a piece about liberal and conservative moral systems. At the core was a set of studies showing that while everyone shares the same core values — fairness, minimizing harm, authority, purity, loyalty, and a few others — that liberals and conservatives prioritize these values differently: liberals tend to put a higher value on fairness, for instance, while conservatives tend to put a higher value on authority. She then argues that “liberal” core values like fairness and harm-reduction are better than “conservative” ones… -
I Get Spam
7 May 2012 | 1:37 pmI don’t often get spam worth sharing, but this one is comedy gold. (See also below for post-419 comments.) From: “Mr Ronald Anthony”<mrronaldanthonys@—.—> Subject: RE: ISSUES OF FRAUD CRIME AGAINST YOU (FBI) THIS IS THE (F.B.I) http://www.fbi.gov FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Federal Bureau of Investigation J. Edgar Hoover Building 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001 FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI) Attention This the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) We are writing in response to our track light monitoring device which… -
War Is Peace. Slavery Is Oppression. Ignorance Is Strength.
5 May 2012 | 9:00 amOnce again, it seems that the word “Family” in an organization’s name can be more accurately replaced with “patriarchy”. The Illinois Family Institute didn’t like President Obama’s National Day of Prayer proclamation. No, they didn’t: President Obama’s proclamation has raised the eyebrows of some because he is thankful that we live in a country that “respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people.” Critics have noted that this point seems to fly in the face of the President’s failure to defend the Defense of…
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Bad Science
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Is this the worst government statistic ever created?
23 Apr 2012 | 2:13 pmI forgot to post this column up last year. It’s a fun one: the Department for Communities and Local Government have produced a truly farcical piece of evidence, and promoted it very hard, claiming it as good stats. I noticed the column was missing today, because Private Eye have published on the same report in [...] -
Is there statistical evidence of fraud in the Russian election data?
5 Mar 2012 | 7:14 amJames Ball sent me the data for the Russian election vote counts this morning and asked me to test whether it deviates from Benford’s law, a test that can give a hint at whether numbers are the product of fraud. Posted below is my analysis, and also a check for last digit preference, which is [...] -
The golden arse beam method.
12 Feb 2012 | 11:06 amBen Goldacre, The Guardian, Saturday 9 July 2011 Since I was a teenager, whenever I have a pivotal life event coming – an exam, or an interview – I perform a ritual. I sit cross-legged on the floor, and I imagine an enormous golden beam of energy coming out of my arse. I picture this anal [...] -
These Guardian / Independent stories are dodgy. Traps in data journalism.
30 Dec 2011 | 7:56 amHere’s an interesting problem with data analysis in general, and so, by extension, data journalism: you have to be careful about assuming that the numbers you’ve got access to… really do reflect the underlying phenomena you’re trying to investigate. Today’s Guardian has a story, “Antidepressant use in England soars“. It’s much more overstated in the [...] -
“Bad Science” is £2.49 on Kindle for the next week
4 Nov 2011 | 11:04 amBriefly: I thought this was a pricing error, but it turns out it’s deliberate, so… My book is £2.49 on Kindle for the next week or so. When it’s this cheap you might as well use it to test the Kindle app on your phone (I’m a massive Kindle dork, it helps me get more [...]
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Respectful Insolence
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Now there's some "anti-science"...
16 May 2012 | 6:30 amI'm sometimes criticized for referring to various people who are "anti-science" as, well, "anti-science." People, for whatever reason, have a hard time believing that anyone is anti-science; so when I point out how much, for example, antivaccinationists, alternative medicine believers, or creationists are anti-science, they have a had time believing it. This is particularly true because, just as antivaccinationists loudly protest that they are not "antivaccine," those who are anti-science equally loudly protest that they are not "anti-science." Such protestations are almost inevitably… -
Acupuncture and COPD? Not so fast...
15 May 2012 | 3:00 amI acquiesce. I know that I'm not going to have a lot of control over my selection of blogging material for a given day when I see more than one or two requests for an analysis of an article. So it was, when links like these were showing up in my e-mail: Acupuncture May Help Ease Symptoms of COPD Acupuncture May Be Worth a Shot for COPD: Small Study Shows Acupuncture May Help People With COPD Breathe Easier These two news stories refer to a study from Japan by Suzuki et al published online yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine entitled A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of… -
"Plausibility bias"? Try "reality bias" when it comes to clinical trials.
14 May 2012 | 3:00 amLast week, I pointed out that, when referring to a therapy and considering whether it should be tested in clinical trials, plausibility does not mean knowing the mechanism. Today, I intend to elaborate a bit on that. As my jumping-off point, I couldn't ask for anything better (if you can call it that) than an article by homeopaths published last week online in Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy entitled Plausibility and evidence: the case of homeopathy. You'll get an idea of what it is that affected Orac like the proverbial matador waving his cape in front of a bull by reading this brief… -
Your Friday Dose of Woo: Heal your genome?
11 May 2012 | 8:00 amIt's been a while since I've done a bit of Your Friday Dose of Woo, and I actually kind of miss it. It's not that there hasn't been anything that hasn't been worthy of this "honor" for a while. On the other hand, there hasn't been anything in a while that combines just the right proportions of pure woo, utter ridiculousness, and pure pseudoscience to provide the perfect "inspiration" to start me on a roll. Oh, it's out there, but for some reason I've let myself become bogged down by topics that are just too serious. It's time to lighten up, at least for a little while. So it was when I came… -
Two more tragic tales of Burzynski patients
10 May 2012 | 9:00 amOne of my newer blogging interests is the "alternative" cancer doctor named Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski. Although I had heard of him years ago, mainly in the context of his desperate patients tapping into the generosity of kind-hearted strangers to pay for his "antineoplaston" therapy, I hadn't really written much about him until very recently. About six months ago, Burzynski came to my attention because of his clinic's use of an Internet legal thug named Marc Stephens, who threatened skeptical bloggers with legal action after they had criticized the Burzynski Clinic and then later disavowed him…
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New Urban Legends
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Gay Bible
15 May 2012 | 10:00 amIs Pink Cross Publishing about to publish a gay revision of the Bible? -
Head Case
14 May 2012 | 10:00 amDo the 'giant head' moai statues on Easter Island have bodies? -
Boy Shot by Stepfather Appeal
14 May 2012 | 10:00 amAppeal claims that every time a particular message is posted, Facebook will donate 45 cents towards an operation for a boy shot by his stepfather. -
Amazon Book Order Cancellation Scam
13 May 2012 | 10:00 amScam masquerades as Amazon.com notifications of canceled orders for non-existent books. -
Taco Bell Meat
11 May 2012 | 10:00 amIs the Taco Bell chain closing due to allegations that their 'beef' is really cat and dog meat?
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Sorting out Science
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The scientific tourist #222 — Apollo 9 Command Module
14 May 2012 | 7:06 amOn display at the San Diego Air and Space Museum, it's the Apollo 9 Command Module... Continue reading → -
Carnivalia — 5/02 – 5/08
9 May 2012 | 7:55 amThe past week's science-related blog carnivals -- bit of a thin crop, but still plenty of good reading... Continue reading → -
The scientific tourist #221 — Atlantes
7 May 2012 | 7:39 amAtlantes, or Atlases, are architectural supports sculpted in the shape of a man. These atlantes are in the Museum of Anthropology and History; Mérida, Yucatán, México. These sculptures (made to support tables and altars) were found in Chichén Itzá, and … Continue reading → -
Casual Friday — tasty star, yum!
4 May 2012 | 7:24 amA star has been spotted being torn to bits and devoured by a super-massive black hole -- see the carnage! Continue reading → -
Carnivalia — 4/25 – 5/01
2 May 2012 | 7:36 amHere's the past week's crop of (mostly) science-related blog carnivals, presented for your reading pleasure... Continue reading →
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White Coat Underground
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Mothers’ Day Dinner
13 May 2012 | 7:39 pmAssortment of cheeses and fresh fruit, fresh baguette Sauteed veal, piccata style, with brown mushrooms Small brussels sprouts with burnt onion and basil Risotto with sun-dried tomato, thyme, fresh peas Five calls from answering service One mother-in-law, one mother, one father, one sister-in-law, one daughter (all relationships stated from personal perspective) No wife, last seen on camel-back in Negev desert Happy mothers’ day to all (especially a couple of my bloggy friends: one an almost-mom, a few mom’s twice over). Filed under: Uncategorized -
Another day
9 May 2012 | 7:46 pmIt’s time for PalKid to get a real baseball mitt. I got her a little pink one when she was three. We quickly forgot about it. When she remembered that Fister was the “really tall pitcher who got hurt”, I figured it was time. My wife didn’t know what to get me for my birthday because, really, I have everything I want—a good roof over my head, a job that I love, a great family (and an iPad). I’ve only had two bad birthdays in my life—one, we’re not going to talk about. The other was last year, when my wife was still in the hospital. This… -
Ethics rounds
7 May 2012 | 6:10 pmCase: A 35 year old woman comes to see you for a sore throat. It began about a week ago with fever, chills, and a tickle in the throat. The throat became rapidly worse, making swallowing painful. She feels that her “glands” are swollen. She mentions that her spouse thought there was also a rash. She has a headache. Her past medical history is negligible, having had no history of diseases other than childhood ear infections and strep throat. She has had two normal vaginal deliveries and four pregnancies that were not brought to term. She smokes one pack per day of… -
33 1/3
5 May 2012 | 10:06 amYears ago I had a turntable. It was beautiful. It was black, thin, with a molded translucent top. There were no bells and whistles, no stacker, no auto-return, just a belt-driven turntable, a tone-arm, and a needle cartridge. Playing a record was a complete sensory experience. The feel of the cardboard jacket with the slight musty smell, the often-yellowed inside jacket, and of course the faint tang of the vinyl itself. You take it out by the edges of course. You probably hold it edges in your palms, turning it in the light looking for scratches and dust, and maybe you blow on it. -
What happens when you can’t pay your doctor?
3 May 2012 | 2:04 pmFor those of you who don’t live here in the U.S., our system may seem a bit strange. Let me walk you through it (and Real Americans™, you can read along for fun). Here in the World’s Greatest Democracy, adults are expected to provide for their own medical care. For many people who are employed full time, their employer offers them a health plan, and sometimes contributes to the cost. For example, my health insurance may cost $1100/month, but my employer may pay $300 of it, so really, is that so bad? After paying my pre-tax $800/month, assuming I can afford it, I will…
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Science-Based Pharmacy
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Should you take expiry dates seriously?
10 May 2012 | 8:59 amIs is safe to take expired drugs? Are they still effective? Consider this scenario: You’re in good health and take no prescription drugs. You use the following remedies occasionally: Excedrin for the rare migraine Arnica 30CH for bumps and bruises Echinacea capsules, when you feel a cold coming on Today you look in your cupboard, and notice all three products expired last year. Would you still consider taking any of them? Why or why not? Your answer is probably influenced by a number of factors, including perceptions of risk and benefit. I’ve encountered patients who believe that… -
Gold mine or dumpster dive? A closer look at adverse event reports
30 Apr 2012 | 5:00 amAll informed health decisions are based on an evaluation of risks and benefits. Nothing is without risk. Drugs can provide an enormous benefit, but they all have the potential to harm. Whether it’s to guide therapy choices or to ensure patients are aware of the risks of their prescription drugs, I spend a lot of time discussing the potential negative consequences of treatments. It’s part of my dialogue with consumers: You cannot have an effect without the possibility of an adverse effect. And even when used in a science-based way, there is always the possibility of a drug causing… -
Weekend Reading
29 Apr 2012 | 6:31 pmPosts, columns, and other reading from the past several weeks that I enjoyed – and you may, too. From Science-Based Medicine When it comes to evaluating “alternative” medicine, Consumer Reports gets a black circle Can a chiropractor be a family doctor? Harriet Hall argues no. Cancer care in the U.S. versus Europe: Is more necessarily better? Low-Back Pain: Causes, Care, and Consequences There is the widespread but fallacious belief that herbal products, because they are “natural”, are inherently safe. The science says otherwise. Jann Bellamy points out that… -
Wobenzym N: A closer look at “systemic” enzyme therapy
15 Apr 2012 | 4:24 pmOne of the recurrent themes in alternative medicine is the practice of simplifying complex medical conditions, and then offering up equally simple solutions which are positioned as still being within the realm of science. This approach allows the practitioner to ignore all of the complexity and difficulty of practicing real medicine, yet offer nostrums that, on first glance, can sound legitimate. Science-y, even. I’ve discussed this before in non-science-based approaches to food intolerances, whether it’s using clinically useless IgG blood tests, or declaring the universal dietary… -
Dilutions of Grandeur: It’s World Homeopathy Awareness Week
12 Apr 2012 | 11:03 pmHomeopathy is nonreturnable April 10-16 is World Homeopathy Awareness Week, dedicated by homeopaths to promote an awareness and understanding of homeopathy. I think that’s an excellent idea. Homeopathy is an elaborate placebo system of sugar pills. It doesn’t work. It cannot work. If it did, physics, biochemistry and pharmacology as pharmacists know it would be false. Of all alternative medicine, homeopathy is the most implausible of them all. Based on the absurd notion of “like cures like” (which is sympathetic magic, not science), proponents of homeopathy believe that…
