July 14, 2007
MarkCC takes down this idiotic analysis from AEI that appeared in the WSJ Friday.
I saw this curve yesterday on their editorial page and thought, what kind of idiot would fit a curve to an obvious linear regression? Not really having math expertise I dismissed it as probable crap, and moved on.…
July 13, 2007
Does Tim Slagle strike anyone else as being a crank?
I feel like we should lend Orac a hand. He's had to deal with the anti-global warming denialism from this guy all on his own. Let's do a take down of this wise man's approach to global warming science.
Let's start with this genius article "…
July 13, 2007
We've discussed the incompetence of cranks in their critical reasoning skills, and their inability to think about science in a lucid or productive fashion. But have we tried to help them? Have we moved beyond caddy criticisms and actually bothered to extend a hand to our fellow man? Clearly not…
July 12, 2007
Hey Luskin. This is what a genetic fallacy actually looks like.
The Darwinists devoutly desire to avoid the true history of their creed, and usually the media assist in the cover up--unknowingly, I would like to think. The "Inherit the Wind" trope that is monotonously employed by journalists--not…
July 12, 2007
Make no mistake about it, the promoters of alternative medicine are denialists. One of the more stunning examples of their denial of the efficacy of evidence-based medicine appeared in Newstarget with the headline The false gods of scientific medicine revealed: It's a cult, not a science by Mike…
July 11, 2007
Sounds dirty doesn't it? But the homobigot fake family values group, the Family Research Council, is dead serious about keeping teh gays out of baseball games.
This past Sunday, at the San Diego Padres baseball game, what was advertised as a "Free Floppy Hat Night" for kids under 14 turned out to…
July 11, 2007
Casey Luskin doesn't like that evilutionists equate Intelligent Design Creationism with, well, creationism. I'm sobbing.
But in a perfect example of how cranks like using the tools of logic to make their point, and then fail, he suggests that the assertion that ID = creationism is an example of…
July 11, 2007
The laptop is fixed..er...or rather was never really broken. Somehow the kitten managed to kill the cord, and the loose ac power inlet was an incidental finding.
One new power cord later (for the life of me I can't figure out how she did it) I've got my precious back.
Some key denialism links…
July 10, 2007
I need my laptop.
Last week, the power input, which was getting loose, finally decided to become fully disconnected. It might have had something to do with the kitten hanging from the power cord. And sadly, when I consulted the repair people I am told the only solution is to replace the entire…
July 5, 2007
An alert reader noticed that when he performed a Google search on 'Sicko', guess who pops up in the sponsored links? Why, our good friends at AEI, a denialist organization second only to CEI, but since they have a lot of the same people working for both it's really just academic which one you're…
July 4, 2007
I'm vacuuming. Not because it's something I only do on the 4th, but rather because Chris H is coming to town!
So, if you want the shock of seeing more than one Hoofnagle in the same place you should try to find us in Charlottesville. It's not hard, we'll likely be at the Bistro drinking.
July 3, 2007
To Neurophilosophy our newest Scibling.
Go say hi. I command it.
July 3, 2007
It's Ruthless Reviews coverage of the Creation Museum's opening.
I'd just like to say that I don't condone dressing up like a mentally disabled person before interviewing Ken Ham. And I don't find it funny, at all, to mock somebody for their religion. Even if they think dinosaurs are vegetarian…
July 3, 2007
The LA Times reports.
The FBI and the Los Angeles Fire Department are investigating an anonymous claim that animal rights extremists placed an unexploded incendiary device found under the car of a prominent UCLA eye doctor last weekend. The incident was similar to one last year in which another…
July 2, 2007
I officially retract my question to Luskin as it has been answered. When I last asked my question of Luskin in regards to their assertion that the denial of tenure to Guillermo Gonzalez was a matter of "academic freedom", I really wanted an answer to it. My question was:
Mr. Luskin, is it the…
July 2, 2007
Many thanks to those who sent in entries. If people get a stunning idea in the future I'll always accept more banners and put them in the shuffle if they send them to me. But today's winner is this stunner from Patrick of Dog Opus. Be sure to check out his graphic-design blog.
And here it is!…
June 30, 2007
I went to see Michael Moore's Sicko last night and it is truly worthy of being seen by every American. I say that knowing how many feel about Michael Moore and his tendency towards spectacle. I hope that people can set aside whatever prejudice they have towards Moore and see this movie.
This is…
June 29, 2007
We've had another framing fight on scienceblogs today. Here's the timeline:
Nisbet beats up a strawman of Atheists comparing themselves to women or blacks or gays in terms of civil rights struggle, and then asserts there are no violations of atheist civil rights - they're just unpopular. The…
June 29, 2007
The British have foiled another terrorist attack.
This makes me think of two things. Using the military for what should be done with police and investigative work is nuts. And I really hope they weren't planning to use some common item one might carry on an airplane.
We've already had fluids…
June 29, 2007
Take that Egnor!
Altruism -- helping another with no expectation of personal reward -- was once thought to be a uniquely human trait, The Times of London reported. However, in recent experiments, chimpanzees repeatedly helped humans who appeared to be struggling to reach a stick within the animal's…
June 29, 2007
Name this cat.
She appears to be a a Russian blue with silver coat, green eyes and mauve footpads. Although being a shelter cat, this could be pure accident. Her first google search was RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. And so far names in the running go from the simple Gray to Lucia.
It's kitten season, and…
June 28, 2007
Anyone want to go see sicko with me? It's playing in Charlottesville tomorrow night and I plan on catching a 7:30 showing on the downtown mall.
June 28, 2007
David Kirby asks us to move the goalposts one more time on the vaccines-cause-autism question.
Epidemiologic studies have shown no link. The Institute of Medicine has looked at the evidence for the link between mercury and autism and found it to be specious. Thimerosal has been removed, to no…
June 28, 2007
Back when we wrote the Unified Theory of the Crank one of the main things we discussed related to crankery is their inability to recognize competence in others. As a result, cranks tend not to mind the crankery of others, since they see themselves as opposed to a scientific orthodoxy. Consistency…
June 27, 2007
The New York Times writes an editorial about hospital rankings based on mortality of medicare patients from cardiac disease, and not surprisingly, misses the point on metrics of patient survival comparisons between hospitals.
Famed medical institutions like Johns Hopkins, the Cleveland Clinic and…
June 27, 2007
And actually doesn't make a hash of it. If CNN actually dedicated this much effort to all their journalism, people might actually emerge from their site more informed than when they showed up - a rare occurrence.
For those of you who haven't heard of "the Secret", it's the latest woo-laden self-…
June 27, 2007
The pathetic thing is that it's the same old tripe. Emily Yoffe writes "Gloom and Doom in A Sunny Day" and rehashes the same tired old anti-GW tripe.
We start with the use of an idiotic example of misunderstanding climate change to mock global warming:
It was a mild January evening, and people…
June 26, 2007
Boingboing puts it eloquently:
June 26, 2007
I'm deeply saddened by the results of the most recent Supreme Court decision on the free speech rights of students. The so-called "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case was decided in favor of the school.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court ruled against a former high school student Monday in the "Bong Hits…
June 26, 2007
The Brits have decided that Intelligent Design creationism, is well, creationism. It will not be allowed in science classes in the UK.
The government has announced that it will publish guidance for schools on how creationism and intelligent design relate to science teaching, and has reiterated…
