television
oracknows | August 26, 2009I realize that I've gotten into one of those runs where it seems that all I blog about is anti-vaccinationist loons, but, before trying once again to take a break from the madness, I had to go to the well one more time because this looks a bit frightening:
NBC News' Matt Lauer will take an unprecedented look at the emotional debate surrounding vaccines and the suggested link to autism on Sunday, August 30 at 7 p.m. ET with "Dose of Controversy." In the one-hour Dateline, Lauer speaks exclusively with Dr. Andrew Wakefield, whose 1998 medical study was the first in the world to suggest a…
grrlscientist | August 18, 2009tags: Walk On The Wild Side, animals, behavior, humor, streaming video
Walk On The Wild Side is a brand new comedy series that seeks to provide a long overdue forum for the views and opinions of the animal kingdom [1:54]
awild | August 3, 2009Swooping from the top of a saguaro down to the desert floor: Howard Bourne swings the crane while Martin Dohrn drives the camera. Tucson Mountain Park.
What was I doing in Arizona last month?
Thanks for asking. I was helping a film crew wrangle harvester ants for an upcoming National Geographic documentary. The crew, an all-star cast of nature cinematographers including Martin Dohrn, Howard Bourne, and Gavin Thurston, is still in the field- you can follow their progress by blog. The program is tentatively titled "Planet of the Ants" and should be on television in 2010.
If there's one…
oracknows | July 27, 2009Last week, I expressed my surprise and dismay that the Atheist Alliance International chose Bill Maher for the Richard Dawkins Award. I was dismayed because Maher has championed pseudoscience, including dangerous antivaccine nonsense, germ theory denialism complete with repeating myths about Louis Pasteur supposedly recanting on his deathbed, a href="http://oracknows.blogspot.com/2005/12/bill-maher-anti-vax-wingnut.html">hostility towards "Western medicine" and an affinity for "alternative medicine," a history of sympathy to HIV/AIDS denialists, and the activities of PETA through his…
oracknows | July 23, 2009The only thing he's left out is a takedown of Nazi analogies. After all, Nazis wanted universal health care, too, except that they wanted to guarantee the health of the volk more than any individual:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Health Care Reform
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor
Joke of the Day
oracknows | July 21, 2009Ever since Jenny McCarthy hitched her fading star to the anti-vaccine movement and managed to get Oprah Winfrey to go along for the ride, she has become the public face of the anti-vaccine movement. Unfortunately, there hasn't been nearly as much blowback as there should be in the mainstream press, although bloggers have been all over McCarthy's promotion of the worst lies of the anti-vaccine movement and advocacy of autism quackery. Then I came across this the other day:
I'm of two minds on this. While it's a good thing to see cartoonists ridiculing Jenny McCarthy and Oprah for their…
oracknows | July 20, 2009...as the last Virgin Mary sighting in a bird turd smear on a pickup truck.
At least this time around, we're back to more conventional "Virgin Mary in a tree"-type sightings:
(Click on image for video.)
Of course, this time around, I have to wonder if the guy who cut the tree down is having a little fun with the faithful.
oracknows | July 19, 2009While we're on the subject of pareidolia, it turns out that Mitchell and Webb have taken this topic on as well...
Awesome.
grrlscientist | July 15, 2009tags: The Magic Behind Harry Potter 6, interview, celebrity gossip, funny, streaming video
This is a streaming video of the new Harry Potter movie: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This Special contains cast interviews and exclusive footage of the new movie. [Part 2/5] [10:15]
Part 1
sciencepunk | July 12, 2009The much anticipated revival of BBC's popular science slot (last held by Tomorrow's World) looks imminent with this trailer for Bang Goes the Theory. At a glance, it looks like Blue Peter crossed with The Gadget Show, which could fit the bill nicely - even if it's not something I'd watch myself personally.
Science on TV is a mixed bag these days, as I pointed out in the Guardian a while back. On one hand we have fabulously expensive and epic documentaries such as Planet Earth, while at the other end of the spectrum, there's "entertainment television with a science motif" such as the…
oracknows | July 1, 2009Remember Sharyl Attkisson?
She's the CBS reporter who can really bring home the crazy when it comes to vaccines and autism, laying down some serious crankery (complete with many logical fallacies) and hit pieces on Dr. Paul Offit. Indeed, at times she gives Mike Adams a run for his money when it comes to laying down the pseudoscience and crankery. Worse, she appears to be in bed with at least one of the bloggers at the antivaccine propaganda blog Age of Autism for the purpose of bringing antivaccination lunacy to the masses by assisting them in smearing Voices for Vaccines. Indeed, aside from…
oracknows | June 25, 2009Unfortunately, I saw this coming, although I had thought that it might be a few more months. Farrah Fawcett has lost her three year battle with anal cancer:
Farrah Fawcett, an actress and television star whose good looks and signature flowing hairstyle influenced a generation of women and bewitched a generation of men, beginning with a celebrated pinup poster, died Thursday morning in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 62 and lived in West Los Angeles.
Her death, at St. John's Health Center, was caused by anal cancer, which she had been battling since 2006, said her spokesman, Paul Bloch.
To an…
oracknows | June 23, 2009Last week, I wrote about the FDA's warning about the zinc-containing "homeopathic" cold remedy known as Zicam. Basically, Zicam was approved without testing to show it to be both safe and efficacious because it slipped in using an old 1938 law that allows homeopathic remedies to bypass the usual process for FDA approval. Too bad that, due to the zinc in Zicam, it can cause anosmia, or the loss of the sense of smell.
Stephen Colbert, of course, thinks it must be the Democrats who are plotting against one of Rush Limbaugh's main sponsors:
The Colbert Report
Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Zicam…
grrlscientist | June 19, 2009tags: BBC America, natural history, nature programming, television, entertainment, education, streaming video
I just wanted to let you all know that every one of you with a television is the subject of my enduring envy because I just learned from Nicole Wetzold that my favorite radio news and television programming source has done it again: BBC is now bringing all of its natural history content together under one brand, BBC Earth. This programming is available in the United States on BBC America. As a taste of what to expect, here is a video they sent me to share with you. It is a tiny bit of…
grrlscientist | June 18, 2009tags: BBC America, natural history, nature programming, television, entertainment, education, streaming video
I just wanted to let you all know that every one of you with a television is the subject of my enduring envy because I just learned from Nicole Wetzold that my favorite radio news and television programming source has done it again: BBC is now bringing all of its natural history content together under one brand, BBC Earth. This programming is available in the United States on BBC America. As a taste of what to expect, here is a video they sent me to share with you. It is a tiny bit of…
oracknows | June 10, 2009"Empowerment."
What a grand word! After all, who doesn't want to be "empowered"? Certainly not me. Perhaps that's the reason why it's become the new buzzword in a movement known as "patient-centered" care. Old fart that I am, I'm a bit puzzled by exactly what that term means. After all, I've always thought I have been practicing patient-centered care, ever since my first days in medical school, but apparently these days it means something different, at least if this article from a few days ago in the New York Times is any indication. It's an interview with Dr. Donald Berwick, who advocates…
grrlscientist | June 9, 2009tags: The Ant Whisperer, ants, hymenoptera, pheromones, EO Wilson, behavioral ecology, sociobiology, evolution, streaming video
Because I do not own a television, I was thrilled to find that Lord of the Ants, the Nova program that aired on PBS tonight, is freely available as a streaming video. This program describes some of EO Wilson's amazing discoveries about ant communication, behavioral ecology and evolution [52:23]
oracknows | June 1, 2009Last week I wrote a bit about what I've been tempted to call Oprah's War on Science but settled for the title of a documentary called The Oprah Effect. The reason, as I have mentioned before, is that arguably there is no single person who does more to promote pseudoscientific and dubious health practices than does Oprah Winfrey. I was happy to learn that more people are questioning Oprah's promotion of outright quackery than I recall ever having seen before.
It wasn't always so. Oprah Winfrey is an extremely powerful media figure, having been the host of the highest rated syndicated talk show…
oracknows | May 29, 2009I don't much like Oprah Winfrey.
I know, I know, it's a huge surprise to anyone who reads this blog, but there you go. Over the last four years, I've had numerous reasons to be unhappy with her, mainly because, as savvy a media celebrity and businesswoman as she is, she has about as close to no critical thinking skills when it comes to science and medicine as I've ever seen. Arguably there is no single person in the world with more influence pushing woo than Oprah. Indeed, she puts Prince Charles to shame, and Kevin Trudeau's is a mere ant compared to the juggernaught that is Oprah's media…
oracknows | May 27, 2009I'm a bit envious of Dawn Crawford. Why am I envious? She has a badge of honor I have yet to obtain.
Jenny McCarthy has blocked her on Twitter.
Darn. I'm going to have to see if I can get Jenny to block me too.