Announcements
oracknows | April 11, 2007The latest Grand Rounds, that blog carnival for medicine and health care issues, has been posted at the ironically named (I hope) Dr. Dork. Check it out.
oracknows | April 8, 2007Pediatric Grand Rounds is now up over at the abode of one of my favorite medbloggers, Flea. This time around, Flea has chosen a rather--shall we say?--unusual theme around which to organize the festivities.
oracknows | April 6, 2007Time flies once again, and, seemingly so soon after the last successful Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, the next one is fast approaching. This time around, it's going to be hosted at Geek Counterpoint. So get your entries to Lorne by Wednesday, and then join us for yet another entertaining edition of every skeptic's favorite blog carnival. At least I hope it's every skeptic's favorite blog carnival; if it's not, believe me, we're working on it.
As is my wont, I'm also pointing out that we're always looking for hosts. If you've hosted before and think you might want ot host again or if you'…
oracknows | April 4, 2007The latest Change of Shift, the blog carnival for nursing, has been posted at Emergiblog. Enjoy!
oracknows | March 29, 2007Although I'm rather puzzled by the reference to zebras spilling their plastinia, I can't argue that, once again, Martin has come through with another great collection of skeptical blogging as he hosts the 57th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle. Your duty, should you decide to accept it, is to head on over there and check it out. You won't regret it.
Next up is Geek Counterpoint, who will be hosting on Thursday, April 12. If you're a blogger with a skeptical bent, it's time to start thinking about subjects or claims that could use a little critical thinking applied to them. Also, if you think…
oracknows | March 26, 2007The latest Pediatric Grand Rounds has been posted at Musings of a Distractible Mind, delivered in Tom and Jerry style.
Gee, obviously, Dr. Rob isn't aware that Tom and Jerry are a nefarious Jewish plot to corrupt Muslim youth. After all, an Iranian "expert" tells us this is so.
oracknows | March 24, 2007Time flies, and it flies really fast. Once again, that blog carnival of lucid critical thinking, the Skeptics' Circle, is almost upon us. It's scheduled to appear on Thursday, March 29 at the blog of fellow ScienceBlogger Martin at Aardvarchaelogy. Martin hosted the Circle a while back, before he joined the ScienceBlogs collective, and did a fine job. So, if you're a blogger with an interest in skepticism and critical thinking, send Martin your best work by Wednesday, and then come back here on Thursday to enjoy the fruit of his (and your) labors!
Finally, as always, if you think you have…
oracknows | March 24, 2007Here's wishing a belated blogiversary to Holocaust Controversies! On its first blogiversary, Nick has posted a cautiously optimistic analysis on the reason why Holocaust denial is losing its potency and increasingly being abandoned, even by the far right, as the completely ludicrous lie that it is.
I have no illusions that Holocaust denial is going away any time soon, but it does seem to have lost some of its influence, and here's hoping that, as long as deniers spew their lies, Sergey, Nick, and Andrew over at Holocaust Controversies and organizations like The Holocaust History Project will…
oracknows | March 22, 2007I've been remiss about this (mainly because I've been aware of it for a few days now), but it turns out that Mark and Chris Hoofnagle have started a rather promising-looking blog, Denialism.com. It's a blog dedicated to discussing six main areas:
HIV/AIDS Denialism
Global Warming denialism
Creationism/Intelligent Design Denialism
Holocaust Denial
Anti-Vaccination denialists
Animal testing denialists
Hmmm. Looks like they're muscling in on my territory a bit, although I seldom write about global warming for the simple reason that I don't know as much about it as I know about other topics.
Oh,…
retrospectacle | March 20, 2007Sorry for the lack of blogging or comment response, but me and my sinuses have not been the best of friends lately. I think it *may* have had something to do with St. Paddy's Day (so my doc says) but I think thats just utter nonsense. Obviously.
Anyway, its been me, Zithromax, Gaterade, and lots of horrible daytime TV.
Hopefully tomorrow my Superman pills will kick in, but if you want to leave me a fun link to cheer me up, well, we behind piles of Kleenexes salute you.
oracknows | March 18, 2007Yesterday, at the end of a post about the fallacious statements about evolution that Dr. Mike Egnor, a Professor of Neurosurgery, has been routinely serving up at the Discovery Institute, I made a challenge. I think I'll repeat it daily for a while until we see if he's up to answering it. It should be a very easy challenge for him to meet, given the number of times that he has made the two assertions that I plan to challenge him about.
Here are the two assertions that Dr. Egnor has made on more than one occasion, but most recently on Friday, and I'll quote him directly:
In fact, most research…
oracknows | March 14, 2007it's that time again! The 56th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle has been posted over at Science Natura. Join Shalini as she tries to avoid the credulity of the masses, with varying degrees of success.
Next up is fellow ScienceBlogger Martin at Aardvarchaeology for the next time around on March 29. Start getting your skeptical articles ready and join us there in a fortnight.
Finally, if you're interested in hosting sometime, check out the schedule and guidelines and what is involved in hosting, and then drop me a line at oracknows@gmail.com.
sporte | March 14, 2007From NWABR:
Would you like to integrate ethics into your science classroom, but aren't sure which topics to address or teaching methods to use?
Do you feel that ethics is important to include in science education, but feel uncomfortable with your own lack of background knowledge?
Have you observed how students' motivation to learn content increases when science is discussed within its social and ethical context?
Come to the Ethics in the Science Classroom workshop and learn more!
Who is this for? Secondary Science Teachers
Program dates: July 16-20, 2007 (participants may arrive July 15…
retrospectacle | March 14, 2007 Like most nerdlets, the concept of pi has always fascinated me: a number, yet undefinable, infinite. Of course, there was also the supurb movie Pi by Aronofsky, which only furthered its cult status. So rejoice pi-lovers, for today is Pi Approximation Day. This day is also Einstein's birthday and according to Wikipedia, is the day MIT mails out acceptance letters. Wow, and I thought I was nerdy. If you'd like to know how to properly celebrate Pi Day, why just go here.
Well, I do have one other confession to make. Which is, I always wanted a tattoo of the symbol pi, but I always chickened out…
oracknows | March 10, 2007I didn't realize it, but today's the first anniversary of my first (and, as far as I know) only admitted blogchild, Good Math, Bad Math. Head on over and wish Mark a happy anniversary. He's filled a vitally needed role in the skeptical blogosphere, taking down questionable claims that rely on bad math for their rationale. (One of these days, I have to get him to host The Skeptics' Circle; maybe he can put a mathematical spin on it.)
It turns out that Mark may well someday surpass me (these days, some weeks his traffic passes mine, something that seems to happen with more and more frequency).…
sporte | March 10, 2007It must be spring. Summer course announcements are popping up everywhere and this site is no exception.
Last Friday, I posted an announcement about our summer bioinformatics course in Alaska, June 27-29th.
This week, I have a couple more conferences to announce. Naturally, I'll be at both of them, leading hands-on workshops for college and high school teachers in using the technology.
Today, I want to tell you about the Bio-Link Summer Fellows Workshop, June 4th-8th Berkeley, CA
I became involved with Bio-Link ten years ago when I was running the biotechnology program at Seattle…
oracknows | March 9, 2007Yikes! It's almost upon us again. (Time seems to be going really fast these days.) Yes, next Thursday, March 15, the Skeptics' Circle will be arriving yet again to do battle with the credulity that pervades the blogosphere. So, if you are a skeptical blogger and like to apply your scientific and rational skepticism to various claims, head on over to the next host blog, Science Natura, and get your submissions in by Wednesday. The guidelines for submissions are here.
And, as always, if you think you have what it takes to host a Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle on your own blog, have a look at…
retrospectacle | March 9, 2007Yep, PZ's half a century old today, so go wish the old coot some birthday cheer. Mmmmmmmm fried squid.......