Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology. Comment policy: say what you want, but back it up with an email address. I don't like anonymous trolls.
David Sloan Wilson is asking Huffington Post readers if they want a science section at the Huffington Post. I always think science sections are good things...except when the blog lets Deepak Chopra say crazy things about evolution:
Deepak Chopra, over at the Huffington Post, has some absolutely ridiculous things to say about evolution (PZ Myers holds his nose and refutes Chopra here). What Chopra says is so inane (oxygen has intelligence?) that one's brain just locks up. Unfortunately, this silliness isn't limited to Chopra, and is far too common. One of the comments on his post sums up the frustration I feel when faced with tin-foil helmet idiocy (italics mine):
"In my next post I will offer a picture of how these questions might be answered." [Chopra]Don't bother. We've learned through experimentation that they CAN'T be answered. Every time we list the answers, or more often have to explain how the particular question is nonsense, the question just gets asked again. You're doing it right here -- ignoring the many books that have been written about the subject to repeat the same tired, ignorant points over again.
Actually, you've gone further than that. Some of the questions you raise here have such overwhelmingly obvious answers that one can only assume you're ignoring them on purpose. No one is that deficient in logic.
Please, please, drop the subject. Go back to wondering if anyone has ever really looked at their hand, man.
Bob Munck, I have no idea who you are, but you are a beautiful human being. Thank you.
So, should the Huffington Post have a science section?
And nobody tell Orac....
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Comments
Actually, the antivaccination bias of HuffPo editorials concerns me even more than letting twits like Chopra have free rein. After all, it's a public health matter; discouraging vaccination will result in the return of vaccine-preventable disease. We have David Kirby and Deirdre Imus ranting about "toxins" in vaccines, etc. This has been a problem since the very beginning of the HuffPo "blog."
Posted by: Orac | March 23, 2008 11:32 AM
It could be a good thing if they hired some, I dunno, actual scientists to write in their science section. But somehow I don't see that happening.
Posted by: Joshua | March 23, 2008 1:38 PM
Strong agreement with Orac, although I use Huffington posts anti-vaccination attitude as a convenient example of how pro-science/anti-science doesn't break down really on US conservative/liberal lines, I can do that just find without them adding dedicated coverage of their junk.
Posted by: Joshua Zelinsky | March 23, 2008 3:25 PM
A Huffington Post science section?
Well, it's a nice thought, but I don't see them putting up anything credible in that department. Would it really change if they opened up a section for it?
Posted by: Spook | March 23, 2008 7:29 PM
Where did you find Bob Munck's comment? Chopra's HuffPo post says 0 comments, and this comment isn't on Chopra's intentblog.com cross post. Google doesn't find Munck's comment either.
Posted by: DaleP | March 24, 2008 10:49 AM
Memory Hole?
Posted by: Rev. Bigdumbchimp | March 28, 2008 2:17 PM