denialism | November 27, 2007It's funny, but the crank use of the recent reevaluation of global AIDS statistics by the UN reminds me of a sign you see driving towards Charlottesville from DC. It's faded wooden thingy that says, "Get the US out of the UN". About 5 miles up the road is a derelict-looking building with what looks like Santa Claus dressed as a confederate soldier carrying the battle flag, so you get a feel for the general sentiment of the area. For those outside the US, it might be helpful to understand this problem to know that a big part of the hatred is based on the belief of some fundamentalists that…
denialism | November 23, 2007Can I tell you how boring I find the fine-tuning argument? Paul Davies is the latest to use it and in the NYT no less. Davies' argument depends on whether you believe his initial assertion that science fundamentally rests on faith:
The problem with this neat separation into "non-overlapping magisteria," as Stephen Jay Gould described science and religion, is that science has its own faith-based belief system. All science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way. You couldn't be a scientist if you thought the universe was a meaningless jumble of…
choofnagle | November 23, 2007This may be obvious to the smart readers of Scienceblogs, but let me state this just for the purpose of explaining the waste that is gift cards. You might think giving cash as a gift is tacky, but the nice thing about cash is that it doesn't expire, incur fees, or become impossible to combine with other forms of payment. All those disadvantages are present in gift cards, and according to Consumers Union, those hassles resulted in $8 billion in unused gifts. Best Buy is even counting unused gift cards as a source of revenue: "...in its fiscal 2006 annual report, the retailer Best Buy…
denialism | November 22, 2007I watched the season finale of phenomenon - the show in which mentalists compete to see who is the next "phenomenon" - and Criss Angel did skeptics everywhere proud with the contents of the envelope.
You may remember his fight with the paranormal fraud we talked about last time. It started when Angel offered 1 million dollars of his own money to who could tell him what was in an envelope, thus demonstrating their psychic power. The psychic fraud, Jim Callahan, and Uri Geller got all upset and called him closed-minded, yada yada. Good times were had by all.
Luckily Callahan got kicked…
denialism | November 21, 2007Med Journal Watch has it up.
I must admit some sadness that yet again one of my skeptic colleagues has fallen for Sandy Szwarc's nonsense though. People, figure this out, she's not a real skeptic. They don't make blanket statements like this:
Hearing that a study found some food, exposure or physical characteristic is associated with a 5% to 200% higher risk for some health problem seem like a frightening lot. It's easy to scare people half to death by citing relative risks that sound big but aren't actually viable. Such modest risks (RR=1.05 - 3.0) don't go beyond a null finding by more…
denialism | November 21, 2007Keeping quiet for the last few days has given me the advantage of seeing patterns in my firefox tabs. I see news stories in my feed that I'm interested in, open them in tabs and figure maybe I can blog about them later.
Well, the result of doing this for the last week has led to a couple of nice crank convergences.
The first is this crank attack on scientific consensus from John West at ID the future. It follows a pretty standard crank script. First a misstatement of what scientific consensus means
Should the consensus view of science always prevail? Darwinists often claim science…
denialism | November 21, 2007You guys might have noticed I've been quiet lately, that's because I've scheduled a thesis defense and am under deadlines. However, I couldn't let these two (1) papers(2) on reprogramming of human adult cells into stem cells slip by without some comment (NYT piece here)
These reports are a follow-up on landmark animal studies that we discussed previously that showed that expressing 4 genes in cells obtained from adult animals you could induce them to form embryonic stem cell (ESC) like cells that researchers dubbed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells). At the time we noted several…
choofnagle | November 20, 2007In today's New York Times, Doreen Carvajal reports that cosmetic companies are scrambling to come into compliance with a 2009 ban on the use of animal testing for cosmetics in the European Union. 27 member economies strong, the EU can pass such rules, and watch the industry innovate to reach the goal of more humane treatment of animals.
As the 2009 deadline approaches, European regulators issue periodic tallies of the number of laboratory animals potentially spared by alternatives to animal tests, across all kinds of industrial uses. Part of the pressure for alternatives also stems from…
choofnagle | November 19, 2007Although we discussed this issue earlier, I can't help to point to a new segment on 60 Minutes exploring the issue of whether big chain restaurants should have to disclose the amount of calories in their food products (Video).
The denialism from the industry on this issue is pretty clear, but what's interesting about the segment is the explanation of consumer biases that prevent the market forces from addressing this problem. One of the most basic forces here is optimism--consumers don't think bad things will happen to them, generally, and in this context, optimism translates into seriously…
choofnagle | November 19, 2007
The Predatory Lending Association (PLA):
...is dedicated to extracting maximum profit from the working poor by increasing payday loan fees and debt traps. The working poor is an exciting, fast growing demographic that includes: military personnel, most minorities, and a growing percentage of the middle class.
Hat Tip: Concurring Opinions.
choofnagle | November 17, 2007The Southeast is having serious water shortages. Just look at Lake Lanier, the main water source for Atlanta.
Ouch!
So, what do you do when you live in Palm Beach, FL, there is a water shortage, fines for washing your car or watering your lawn except during specified hours, and serious enforcement efforts in place? The Journal's Robert Frank tells us:
...According to the rules, residents who put in "new landscaping" can water three days a week, instead of the usual one, for 30 days after the planting. Once that period ends, homeowners can plant yet again -- and resume the thrice-a-week…
denialism | November 16, 2007Sometimes people wonder why the skeptic types get all worked up over a behavior that is usually seen as at-worst harmless. Ben Goldacre explains why, in one of the best, and clearest articles on the problem of homeopathic medicine.
This is exactly what I said, albeit in nerdier academic language, in today's edition of the Lancet, Britain's biggest medical journal. These views are what homeopaths are describing as an "attack". But I am very clear. There is no single right way to package up all of this undeniable and true information into a "view" on homeopathy.
When I'm feeling generous, I…
denialism | November 14, 2007 Richard Black investigates the common crank claim that science is just an old boys network designed to throw sweet, sweet grant money at their friends. Guess what? The evidence of this conspiracy is lacking.
I anticipated having to spend days, weeks, months even, sifting the wheat from the chaff, going backwards and forwards between journal editors, heads of department, conference organisers, funding bodies and the original plaintiffs.
I envisaged major headaches materialising as I tried to sort out the chains of events, attempting to decipher whether claims had any validity, or were…
choofnagle | November 13, 2007Malcolm Gladwell has an interesting piece in this week's New Yorker concerning criminal profilers, individuals who try to determine who a criminal is based on characteristics of the crime. The idea of criminal profiling has become very popular, with many television shows and movies based on the idea that a psychologist could divine the identity and motives of a killer. Gladwell explores whether these profilers really predict anything well, and in the process, compares the basic tricks used by psychics to criminal profilers:
A few years ago, Alison [author of "The Forensic Psychologist's…
denialism | November 13, 2007Jeanette Winterson offers her "defence" in the Guardian, and I can't wait for Ben Goldacre to rip into it.
She starts with this classic argument from anecdote:
Picture this. I am staying in a remote cottage in Cornwall without a car. I have a temperature of 102, spots on my throat, delirium, and a book to finish writing. My desperate publisher suggests I call Hilary Fairclough, a homeopath who has practices in London and Penzance. She sends round a remedy called Lachesis, made from snake venom. Four hours later I have no symptoms whatsoever.
Dramatic stuff, and enough to convince me that…
denialism | November 13, 2007BarryA drops this idiot bomb on us:
Obviously, by definition, materialists cannot point to a transcendent moral code by which to measure moral progress. Indeed, it is difficult for them to account for moral progress at all because if materialism is correct, the "is" in a society defines the "ought."
Gosh, given that the cdesign proponentsists are all about science they do spend a hell of a lot of time criticizing materialism. Until they get their god-o-meter up and running it seems as though that this is a fundamental conflict between their stated beliefs and practice. But that's nothing…
choofnagle | November 12, 2007Have you ever forgotten to pay a bill and received a call about it on your cell phone? Ever wonder how they got your number? Well, you may have given it to them, but if you didn't, they probably bought it from a commercial data broker, a company that sells personal information to businesses and law enforcement. Many of these companies exist, the most prominent are Choicepoint, Lexisnexis, Merlin, Tracersinfo, and Experian. They essentially operate search engines with proprietary information, and for a small charge, will sell all sorts of information about you.
But how did the data broker…
denialism | November 12, 2007BarryA at Uncommon Descent talks about a startling finding using this tool the blog readability test.
Thanks to one of our commenters for pointing out this website that calculates the reading level of blogs. Just for fun I inserted UD and it came back "High School," which means that the general discussion at this blog is at a high school level. I then inserted Pandas Thumb and it came back "Elementary School."
Make of this what you will.
Interesting, when I insert pandasthumb.org I get College/Post Grad. Oh wait, I forgot, the people at UD are morons. They put in Pandasthumb.com, an…
denialism | November 12, 2007So nothing special for today, I'm too busy with meatworld, but you might enjoy these two links:
Teen sex has been wronged by a puritanical society - it appears teens who have sex earlier are less likely to become delinquents (however I suspect it ignores that they are also more likely to get knocked up). This makes sense to me though. Why bother with drugs, crime, and other delinquent behavior when you've got sex?
Second we have news that Chiropracters might also be useless for back pain. Ouch, now that hurts. The last thing left to chiropractors that seemed to have any validity (…
choofnagle | November 11, 2007Here's a fun one from the archives--Modern Drunkard Magazine's advice on how to beat an intervention. It includes this gem:
Counter Attack
Now that you've blunted their savage assault, it's high time to launch your own vengeful attack. The only people bold enough to conduct an intervention are those who consider themselves very close to you, so you most likely will know more than a little about their habits. And everyone, even Mother Theresa, has bad habits. Attack these flaws with a strident, yet deeply concerned tone.