May 25, 2007
Since today is apparently LOL day (my favorite being LOLpresident) I decided we should create a new category.
Here's my first three for LOL Creationists!
Send me more, I'll put up the best ones.
May 24, 2007
The 61st Skeptic's circle is at Skepchick's.
It's a special towel day version. In particular I like Orac's coverage of anti-peer review attitude among cranks.
Like I say, beware the bashers of peer review.
May 24, 2007
Both Nature and the LA Times this week have articles cautioning against labeling animal-rights extremists "terrorists" in the US. The justification that they're using is that the groups in question, ELF and ALF, are not terrorists because so far they've only destroyed property, and haven't managed…
May 24, 2007
Given that the NYT piece on the Creation Museum was such fluff, I was gratified to read the LA Times' more rigid take.
HE CREATION MUSEUM, a $27-million tourist attraction promoting earth science theories that were popular when Columbus set sail, opens near Cincinnati on Memorial Day. So before the…
May 24, 2007
How dare Al Gore open his mouth and say things! Here comes the Cato Institute to the rescue, featuring denialist Pat Michaels (Also see Sourcewatch).
What were Gore's great gaffes worthy of scorn from the esteemed think tank?
First he suggested dramatic increases in sea level if significant ice…
May 23, 2007
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote this article Monday on a recent effort to encourage gay and lesbian couples in San Francisco to foster children. The problem?
They uncritically cited Paul Cameron and his bogus research which is just self-published bigotry and hatred, with no scientific validity…
May 23, 2007
Seed magazine profiles the recent work from John Ioannidis, author of the groundbreaking article "Why most published research findings are false".
I've written about him before in several contexts and the importance of understanding this research. The counter-intuitive thing is how much his…
May 22, 2007
People with good reasoning skills don't fall for stupid things like spun arguments and advertising.
I always suspected that if we taught a basic reasoning class in public schools in which kids were taught about logic and critical thinking it might lead to a decrease in the efficacy of advertisement…
May 22, 2007
This new paper from Stem Cells is a wonderful example of the potential of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) to treat diseases like Type I diabetes.
The reason type I diabetes is such an obvious target for hESC therapy get a little complicated, but I'll walk you guys through this paper, and recent…
May 22, 2007
It just makes it too easy to show your dishonesty.
UD continues to harp endlessly about Gonzalez' tenure case as they have nothing else to do, like original research. But I have to give them a piece of advice. If you're going to cherry pick, either don't cherry pick the first line of an article,…
May 21, 2007
They were just at a charity walkathon.
They left you a message. Didn't you get it?
May 21, 2007
Has anyone else seen that Al Jazeera's mainpage has a section devoted to conspiracy theories? It prominently features 9/11 conspiracy garbage about WTC7 which has been debunked.
This is something that is neglected about 9/11 conspiracy mongering. When 9/11 denialists like William Rodriguez…
May 21, 2007
With nothing of any substance to actually talk about, like bench research, original ideas etc., the evolution denialists continue to harp on Guillermo Gonzalez, the ISU professor who failed to get tenure.
However, my question for Casey Luskin remains unanswered. They have accused science of a…
May 21, 2007
Who are the global Warming Denialists?
A tougher question is, in a discipline as complex as climate science, how do you tell who the legitimate skeptics (those that ignore the reporting at the Independent for instance) are versus who are the denialists?
Again, it's simple, because denialism is…
May 19, 2007
"Heliocentrism is an Atheist Doctrine".
I've just got to say, wow. I read it at first thinking, "hey, this is hysterical satire", then I read the comments and thought, "wow, these guys are dedicated - this is pure performance art!" Finally, I started going through the archives with a sinking…
May 18, 2007
As I sit here, trying to write a paper, I found this article entitled "How to write consistently boring scientific literature" very interesting. (via The Annals of Improbably Research"
I'm afraid it's behind a paywall, so I'll summarize their findings.
Here's their table that summarizes their…
May 18, 2007
There is no other explanation for her eulogy for Falwell entitled, I kid you not, "Jerry Falwell -- Say Hello to Ronald Reagan!"
In her impassioned defense of Falwell's most egregious statements, from blaming 9/11 on atheists and gays, to accusing Tinky Winky of being a gay recruiter, she proves…
May 17, 2007
Evolution news and views on me
That's fascinating logic: apparently the widespread feeling that it is "sensible" to remove individuals of a particular viewpoint does not necessarily mean there's a "conspiracy" to remove individuals with a particular viewpoint.
Mr. Luskin, is it the considered…
May 17, 2007
PLoS has an intriguing article providing additional reasons why the thermodynamic arguments against evolution are more than silly. It's called the maximum entropy production (MEP) hypothesis, and John Whitfield describes why life is actually may be favored by the second law of thermodynamics.
At…
May 17, 2007
What kind of family value is lying? That's the foremost question in my mind when I consider the family values organizations that use false research, lies and denialism to justify their agenda of disparaging contraception, sex education, homosexuality, and exaggerating the dangers of abortion.
In…
May 17, 2007
WaPo shows us how a good conspiracy theory can never die. It's depressing. We're probably going to be hearing from 9/11 troofers for the rest of our lives.
The new evidence that Kennedy was killed by someone on a grassy-knoll or the Cubans or whatever is that the metallurgical analysis that was…
May 16, 2007
A must read from Slate on Oprah, the Secret, and the American excess of wishful thinking - starting with a lovely story about a woman who stopped taking her cancer meds because of the secret.
I find the Secret to be pretty typical idiotic woo, that taken to its logical conclusions becomes dangerous…
May 16, 2007
Or at least "Darwinism" whatever the hell that means these days. I guess they couldn't keep quiet all day. UD's new argument is an easily dismissed straw man. It goes like this.
Scientists discover fruit flies put in a sensory-deprivation chamber,instead of flying around randomly, or in a…
May 16, 2007
You know the most obnoxious thing about 9/11 conspiracy theorists? They make idiots like Jonah Goldberg look right about something.
Goldberg, who as far as I can tell has never made an accurate prediction, finally has figured out a great way to make Democrats look bad rather than just embarrass…
May 16, 2007
This is good. I'll get some writing (non-blog) done. However I'd like to pose the rare political question based on the coverage of last night's debate. Everyone from CNN to the National Review is all atwitter over Giuliani's brash response to the question about whether the first Gulf War might…
May 15, 2007
Here's an interesting article in BBC which suggests that more hysterical messages on climate change might fall on deaf ears.
Professor Mike Hulme, of the UK's Tyndall Centre, has been conducting research on people's attitudes to media portrayals of a catastrophic future.
He says strong messages…
May 15, 2007
A fun thing about reading things on the ID sites and then actually checking primary sources is how bizarre Uncommon Descent is as an information filter. I guess this would be an example of the dreaded "framing" of science which I don't want to fight with my sciblings over. Take for example their…
May 14, 2007
All the evolution denialists are up in arms because one of their own, Guillermo Gonzalez, was denied tenure. It's persecution they cry! Let's write a letter to ISU they cry! And now Denyse O'Leary says, "It's a conspiracy!"
How tiresome. Could a kind reader make me an animated gif of a man…
May 14, 2007
"It's just murder...It's really just that simple."
-Anthony Fauci on the HIV/AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg
I think that one of the clearest examples of denialism, and of the harm that anti-scientific attitudes can have, is in HIV/AIDS denialism. But who in this day and age can continue to promote…
May 11, 2007
Happy Mother's Day this weekend! In honor of the day I'd think we should talk about divorce myths. I was scanning the Family Research Council blog and they repeated the commonly-believed myth that half of all marriages end in divorce. But what is the evidence this is true?
*Updated with…
