Tara C. Smith
Associate Professor, lab rat (microbiologist/infectious disease epidemiologist) and occasional blogger, full-time nerd.
tsmith
Posts by this author
September 12, 2006
Via Orac comes Skeptico's takedown of Barnes' numerous misuses and abuses of logical fallacies he claims the "HIV orthodoxy" employs. For a lawyer, he sure hasn't had much training in logic, it would seem.
September 11, 2006
It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.
--Oscar Wilde
It's hard to believe that it's been five years since the collapse of the…
September 10, 2006
The newest edition of Pediatric Grand Rounds is up over at Breath Spa for Kids.
Additionally, don't forget that the latest edition of Animalcules will be up later this week at Viva la evolucion!. Because of some scheduling issues for this month's host, it'll be up on Sunday the 17th instead of…
September 10, 2006
In the comments to this post on creationists'/HIV deniers' (mis)use of statistics, several people have been trying to argue that because overlapping membership in the two groups is limited, my comparison of the two is false. I explained:
It's the *tactics* that are the same in both groups:…
September 8, 2006
Oh, and for the record:
How the heck I got that nerd score without building my own computer or knowing my current IP address, and admitting I prefer Windows, I haven't a clue...
September 8, 2006
It's been a busy week over at Panda's Thumb. Three additional reviews of Jon Wells' Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design are up:
First, PT's resident lawyer Timothy Sandefur writes about Wells' misleading characterizations of legal cases involving intelligent design.…
September 7, 2006
Drug-Resistant TB in South Africa Draws Attention From U.N.
The World Health Organization will hold an urgent meeting this week to seek ways to deal with deadly strains of tuberculosis that are virtually untreatable with standard drugs.
The meeting, in Johannesburg on Thursday and Friday, comes…
September 7, 2006
So, Janet's thrown down the gauntlet, noting that "the time has come to see just how high those geek flags fly." She's already collected a bunch of them here, so for my own, I'll submit a few anecdotes. First, admittedly, I know jack shit about computers, so I absolutely lose in that category.…
September 6, 2006
I swear, it's so hard to tell sometimes what's sincere and what's parody. There's some really good stuff, like the classic Landover Baptist or WinAce's organisms that look designed. There's the sincere-but-looks-like-a-parody, like Dr. Dino or Answers in Genesis. Then there's stuff that just…
September 6, 2006
I mentioned previously a pending proposal in Ohio to reinsert "critical analysis" language into the school standards (see this post and this follow-up). Over at Panda's Thumb, RBH has a post updating the situation:
The "critical thinking"/teach the controversy template proposal takes a legitimate…
September 5, 2006
So, the buzz on ScienceBlogs today is science blogger hot or not. It cracks me up that a few people have mentioned me and thanks y'all, but I was always more comfortable with my identity as a quiz bowl nerd anyway (and apparently a picture on technorati was the inclusion criteria, which I never…
September 5, 2006
You may remember earlier in the summer that several ScienceBloggers mentioned a cartoon contest called Science Idol, looking for submissions of political cartoons with a science theme. Well, the finalists have been posted, and you can vote for your favorite.
September 5, 2006
This week's edition of Grand Rounds, the weekly compendium of medical blogging, is up over at Clinical Cases and Images.
Other carnival news:
The next edition of Pediatric Grand Rounds is scheduled for September 10th,and hosted by Shinga of Breath Spa for Kids. Because of the time difference to…
September 5, 2006
Eleven of the worst places in the country to vote, and Ohio gets three spots. Ah, nostalgia for home...
September 4, 2006
Minnesota has a new group: Minnesota Citizens for Science Education (MnCSE).
They already have an excellent website put together, and have an event upcoming on November 11th:
Science Education Saturday
November 11, 2006
Bell Museum of Natural History
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM.
Some of the most popular…
September 4, 2006
Regular readers are very familiar with my refrain that many science deniers use the same tactics: bad arguments, quote-mining, appeals to authority, castigation of originators of respective theories, etc. etc. Another common thread is the complete bastardization of statistical analysis. Mark Chu…
September 4, 2006
Last week I mentioned how poverty and poor health go hand-in-hand. The United Nations is well aware of this fact, and has a number of lofty goals they're encouraging countries all over the world to work toward:
Goal 1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
Goal 2. Achieve Universal Primary…
September 3, 2006
coturnix is featuring a microbial theme this week at A Blog Around the Clock; check it out for some recent and classic posts on the topic.
September 1, 2006
As Steve subtly reminds me, the latest edition of Circus of the Spineless is up at Sunbeams from Cucumbers, wherein Steve makes the argument that CoS is way better than a normal circus. You be the judge.
And while I'm plugging posts elsewhere, I'll note that two new posts are up on Panda's…
September 1, 2006
Peer pressure is a terrible thing.
See Steinn's, Bora's, and the instigator's, Josh's, and make your own here.
August 31, 2006
... Poverty and poor health are intertwined, experts say
So, yeah, the headline is a no-brainer, but the article is worth reading and makes many good points--and notes that fewer and fewer of us can say that "poverty doesn't affect us":
An analysis of poverty rates and health published in the…
August 31, 2006
While I'm plugging carnivals today, I'd be remiss not to mention the latest Skeptics' Circle over at Immunoblogging. Joseph is back, at least temporarily, after a zombie-induced hiatus, so check it out and say hello.
August 31, 2006
I have an article up over at Skepchick on Science for kids. These are just a few things I did as a kid, or do with my kids, but feel free to chime in with other suggestions.
August 31, 2006
A new Tangled Bank is up over at Epigenetics News. Check it out for the best science blogging of the past two weeks.
August 30, 2006
Yesterday's New York Times had an excellent story on the discovery of the human papilloma virus as the cause of cervical cancer, and ultimately, the development of a vaccine against it. It's also a good lesson in how, while solid evidence triumphs over anecdotes, even folk stories can be useful…
August 30, 2006
Mark Perakh reviews yet another chapter of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. In this particular chapter, Wells argues that "Lysenkoism is now rearing its ugly head in the US, as Darwinists use their government positions to destroy the careers of their critics."…
August 29, 2006
As has been mentioned elsewhere on ScienceBlogs, Ohio creationst Deborah Owens Fink is facing a challenge for her seat on Ohio's school board this coming November 7th. Fink has been one of those who, when I've contacted the Board members to urge them to support good science, I've not even…
August 29, 2006
In the ongoing collection of rebuttals to the new Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design, check out Andrea's review of Wells' chapter on molecular biology.
August 28, 2006
Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. coturnix and others are collecting strories from around the blogosphere on the aftermath in New Orleans and elsewhere; the cleanup effort (still ongoing, barely begun in some areas); rebuilding (likewise; lagging far…