December 6, 2007
Well today is my thesis defense day. For those who are unfamiliar with the process, this is how it works at least at my university.
When you start out in a lab you do the experiments your boss tells you to do, with the goal of picking up a project. This usually involves taking up where another…
December 6, 2007
I don't need to cover this latest nonsense from David Kirby about vaccines and autism as Orac has already done so nicely.
However, I would like to point out a few examples of why anti-vax is a prime example of denialist argument.
For one, Kirby is such a promiscuous goal-post mover, I'm floored.…
December 6, 2007
You guys are so damn lucky. I want Al Franken to run in my state. That race is going to be a total blast. Not to say a showdown in Virginia between Mark Warner and one of the incompetent former Republican governors that bankrupted the state in the last decade won't be entertaining, but a Franken…
December 6, 2007
Speaking of libertarians, reading the JCI this week I came across this wonderful review of Richard Epstein's new book, "Overdose: How excessive government regulation stifles pharmaceutical innovation".
We've discussed Epstein, and his ilk before. The libertarians that routinely attack the FDA as…
December 6, 2007
The stupidest essay ever entitled "The Death of Main Street: Are big chains to blame, or is excessive regulation? " courtesy of Reason magazine. This stuff rivals creationist drivel for sheer stupidity.
Briefly, Balko argues small businesses fail because regulations price them out of business,…
December 3, 2007
If anyone has been deluded into thinking HIV/AIDS denialism isn't dangerous or deadly, all one has to do is look at the fruits of their labor on the AIDS myth exposed message boards. Their latest monstrosity is to convince an HIV positive mother to refuse medical care and testing for her and her…
December 1, 2007
Today is World AIDS day, and it's important to take a minute to discuss HIV and AIDS since this blog addresses HIV/AIDS denialism.
While the the UN made a mistake overestimating world HIV/AIDS statistics (it is good news and not for the reasons cranks like) Estimates of new HIV transmission in the…
November 30, 2007
Let's talk about Uncommon Descent for a moment. One of the recurring complaints we've been hearing from the evolution denialists there is this refrain that whenever a evolutionary explanation for a result gets reevaluated, it's a sign that we "Darwinists" are somehow being dishonest and fitting…
November 27, 2007
Usually Deepak Chopra's nonsensical writings at the Huffington post about mind-body healing are so vague and bland I don't bother addressing them. The mind controls the body, the mind is powerful, blah blah blah, who cares right? Well, today Chopra pulled back the curtain and we see the crank…
November 27, 2007
I actually had thought the debate with holocaust denier David Irving and racist Nick Griffin at the Oxford Union had been canceled, but via Deborah Lipstadt's blog it turns out they made the mistake of giving the man an outlet for his nonsense. An account is offered by attendee Jonny Wright that I…
November 27, 2007
It's funny, but the crank use of the recent reevaluation of global AIDS statistics by the UN reminds me of a sign you see driving towards Charlottesville from DC. It's faded wooden thingy that says, "Get the US out of the UN". About 5 miles up the road is a derelict-looking building with what…
November 23, 2007
Can I tell you how boring I find the fine-tuning argument? Paul Davies is the latest to use it and in the NYT no less. Davies' argument depends on whether you believe his initial assertion that science fundamentally rests on faith:
The problem with this neat separation into "non-overlapping…
November 22, 2007
I watched the season finale of phenomenon - the show in which mentalists compete to see who is the next "phenomenon" - and Criss Angel did skeptics everywhere proud with the contents of the envelope.
You may remember his fight with the paranormal fraud we talked about last time. It started when…
November 21, 2007
Med Journal Watch has it up.
I must admit some sadness that yet again one of my skeptic colleagues has fallen for Sandy Szwarc's nonsense though. People, figure this out, she's not a real skeptic. They don't make blanket statements like this:
Hearing that a study found some food, exposure or…
November 21, 2007
Keeping quiet for the last few days has given me the advantage of seeing patterns in my firefox tabs. I see news stories in my feed that I'm interested in, open them in tabs and figure maybe I can blog about them later.
Well, the result of doing this for the last week has led to a couple of nice…
November 21, 2007
You guys might have noticed I've been quiet lately, that's because I've scheduled a thesis defense and am under deadlines. However, I couldn't let these two (1) papers(2) on reprogramming of human adult cells into stem cells slip by without some comment (NYT piece here)
These reports are a follow-…
November 16, 2007
Sometimes people wonder why the skeptic types get all worked up over a behavior that is usually seen as at-worst harmless. Ben Goldacre explains why, in one of the best, and clearest articles on the problem of homeopathic medicine.
This is exactly what I said, albeit in nerdier academic language…
November 14, 2007
Richard Black investigates the common crank claim that science is just an old boys network designed to throw sweet, sweet grant money at their friends. Guess what? The evidence of this conspiracy is lacking.
I anticipated having to spend days, weeks, months even, sifting the wheat from the…
November 13, 2007
Jeanette Winterson offers her "defence" in the Guardian, and I can't wait for Ben Goldacre to rip into it.
She starts with this classic argument from anecdote:
Picture this. I am staying in a remote cottage in Cornwall without a car. I have a temperature of 102, spots on my throat, delirium, and…
November 13, 2007
BarryA drops this idiot bomb on us:
Obviously, by definition, materialists cannot point to a transcendent moral code by which to measure moral progress. Indeed, it is difficult for them to account for moral progress at all because if materialism is correct, the "is" in a society defines the "…
November 12, 2007
BarryA at Uncommon Descent talks about a startling finding using this tool the blog readability test.
Thanks to one of our commenters for pointing out this website that calculates the reading level of blogs. Just for fun I inserted UD and it came back "High School," which means that the general…
November 12, 2007
So nothing special for today, I'm too busy with meatworld, but you might enjoy these two links:
Teen sex has been wronged by a puritanical society - it appears teens who have sex earlier are less likely to become delinquents (however I suspect it ignores that they are also more likely to get…
November 10, 2007
Mark at Boing Boing proposes an excellent new name for Intelligent Design creationists - "cdesign proponentsists". It's in honor of this wonderful observation from "Of Pandas and People" the creati ... I mean cdesign proponentsists textbook:
This is one of numerous examples of their dishonesty in…
November 9, 2007
Just watching CNN, and saw them mindlessly parrot the latest rant from a crank. In this instance it's the founder of the weather channel John Coleman, now a San Diego meteorologist, who peels off a doozy.
It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global…
November 9, 2007
Multiple news sources have been covering this recent article in JAMA (1) which provides epidemiological evidence that being overweight (but not obese) may decrease the risk of some illnesses, while not increasing one's overall mortality from cardiovascular disease.
Given that we've talked about…
November 8, 2007
Holford Watch has a form letter for us to fill out for this week's version of the circle.
My favorite from this week is Action Skeptic's essay, which I think describes a character flaw common among cranks. That is, it's not so important for them to operate with scientifically valid rules of…
November 6, 2007
Just giving everyone a heads up. If you're an atheist and you're starting to get a little demented make sure someone is there to protect you from religious people with an axe to grind. The story of the so-called turning of Antony Flew is sad, and really very cruel, as IDers and religious…
November 5, 2007
As either evidence that you can convince idiots of anything to get high, or that police don't have a sense of humor, check out the Smoking Gun's coverage of this police bulletin warning of a new drug - Jenkem.
The hilarious part? The drug is supposedly created by fermenting human sewage in the sun…
November 5, 2007
From Cectic of course.
November 5, 2007
It's the latest idiotic attack on the science of global warming, Joe Queenan tells us it was great for the Vikings! Why the LA Times publishes this crap is beyond me.
So the argument is, the Vikings had a merry old time the last time it was warm like today, therefore, why worry? Global warming…
