Now on ScienceBlogs: Surgical masks versus respirators for flu protection
An irregular exploration of the struggle between the power of rational discourse and the scientific method on one hand, and the forces of superstition and dogma on the other. Mostly regarding climate change, though.
James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
The Demon-Haunted World:
Science as a Candle
in the Dark,
by Carl Sagan
(A
review)
The Doubter's Companion:
by John Ralston Saul (Excerpts)
Skeptic Magazine: www.skeptic.com
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal: www.csicop.org
A poem by Yehuda Amichai:
The
Place
Where We Are Right
The Meaning of the
Island of Doubt
By doubting we come to inquiry; and through inquiry we perceive truth.
--- Peter Abelard
Undisguised clarity is easily mistaken for arrogance.
-- Richard Dawkins
As for evolution, it happened. Deal with it.
-- Michael Shermer.
"There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things
which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand.
Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving, and
tiny blasts of tinny trumpets, we have met the enemy, and not only may
he be ours, he may be us."
--Walt Kelly
Category: medicine
While most media commentators obsess over the "news" that Diane Sawyer will be replacing Charlie Gibson on ABC World News, there are at least some observers who remain more concerned with content. The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne weighs in this...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:04 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: medicine
The news that embryologists can get back to the business of finding cures of debilitating diseases, and that science will no longer be held hostage to fundamentalist fervor should be welcomed.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:57 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: medicine
For presidential contenders to even hint that there might be cause for not vaccinating is irresponsible in the extreme.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:25 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: medicine
Just in case you needed a reminder of what's wrong with America:...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:06 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: medicine
I feel compelled to help spread this a widely as possible, in hopes of doing my bit to inoculate the country against the threat posed by a McCain presidency.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:31 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: medicine
Many of us here at ScienceBlogs like to point out that most"alternative" medicines are basically placebos masquerading as the genuine article.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:59 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: medicine
In a world in which ends can be measured. some, though not all, means are justified.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:46 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: medicine
A little press-commentary comparison shopping is in order following the recent news of a breakthrough in the effort to produce stem cells without using embryonic cells. I promise this won't take long. First, the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer, who announced...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:26 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: medicine
So Michael Moore the documentarian takes on CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta the medical science guy in the former's first appearance on the network in three years, arguing that the latter committed libel by claiming the filmmaker "fudged the facts" in...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 12:25 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: medicine
What about the consequences of planting yet another abortive seed of hope in the minds of parents desperate to find a reason for the incredible hardship that is autism?
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:00 AM • 39 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
