denialism | September 6, 2007I was surprised to see this article in the International Herald Tribune suggest that global warming might cause increased incidence of cardiovascular death. In particular one statement struck me as being somewhat absurd.
On the sidelines of the European Society of Cardiology's annual meeting in Vienna this week, some experts said that the issue deserved more attention. It's well-known that people have more heart problems when it's hot.
During the European heat wave in 2003, there were an estimated 35,000 deaths above expected levels in the first two weeks of August. In France alone, nearly…
choofnagle | September 4, 2007Opportunity knocks for all of you creative people out there! PETA is holding a blog advertisement contest! This could be fun. Perhaps we could have our own countercompetition in the comments? PETA is offering a $500 gift card to the winner. For our contest, I'd totally be willing to take you out for some hot dogs. Let the competition begin! Here's my first shot:
Go Vegan! Who Needs B12 anyway?
Or
Go Natural: Eat Meat!
denialism | September 4, 2007Here's an excellent opportunity to use the hive mind to look for classic techniques of deception for political benefit on the question of the "surge".
Reading the news stories about the progress in Iraq, I can't help but notice a certain partisan nature to interpretation of events. You have the conservative Washington Times saying The Surge is Working, meanwhile, the liberal Washington Post (although as supporters of the Iraq war I feel this designation is non-descriptive for WaPo) indicates the results are at best mixed. We have a GAO report indicating poor performance with only a bare…
denialism | September 4, 2007Genomicron has an excellent description for how to write a terrible popular science story. I agree 100%. And when he hit #10, I had to cheer.
10. Don't provide any links to the original paper.
If possible, avoid providing any easy way for readers (in particular, scientists) to access the original peer-reviewed article on which your story is based. Some techniques to delay reading of the primary paper are to not provide the title or to have your press release come out months before the article is set to appear.
Damn right. It's the internet age, it's not only possible, but easy to include…
denialism | September 4, 2007Also this weekend we also made beer. So it's time for another alcoholic photo-essay, this time on beer homebrewing and a brief history of beer in America.
It all starts with a beautiful mixture of malted barley. Here's about 20 lbs of barley, in Rick's recipe there is a mixture of light and dark grains, all imported from Germany, in a Rubbermaid cooler which homebrewers have found handles hot temperatures well. Beer is made from 4 ingredients, water, malted barley, hops and yeast (though not part of the final product - used for the fermentation).
In this country, before prohibition,…
denialism | September 3, 2007This was a good weekend spent making lots of different kinds of booze. A long hot summer led to some really nice chardonnay grapes at the parents' farm.
It wasn't a large yield, but the sugar, or brix were really high, hopefully yielding a nice end product. If you want to see how we make white wine, more pics are below the fold.
The first step is really easy. Starting early in the morning, before it gets too hot, you go out with clippers and start the harvest, chucking the grapes into containers called "lugs".
Then you get anyone willing to be helpful to start cleaning and sanitizing…
denialism | September 2, 2007
For a scene of pure hilarity and joy, get ye over to Uncommon Descent as they try spin the rejection of a "Evolutionary Informatics Lab" by Baylor University.
Yesterday, the Baylor University administration shut down Prof. Robert Marks's Evolutionary Informatics Lab because the lab's research was perceived as linked to intelligent design (ID).
Hah. Perceived as linked? It probably doesn't help to have Dembski linking it as his one example of an ID research program. That's a little damning. Continued:
Robert J. Marks II, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at…
denialism | August 31, 2007I think Naomi Oreskes is being charitable when she calls denialists "contrarians", but to each their own. Stranger Fruit has her response to the latest nonsense being spread by these liars.
They've tried this before, and it was swatted down rapidly, basically the only way they can show any significant disagreement with the consensus on global warming since 1990 is to lie and dissemble. This time appears no different.
Maybe that's why they're cranks. They just keep cranking out the same nonsense over, and over.
denialism | August 31, 2007This is an accurate depiction of what is happening in my head when I see this commercial.
And you know, this idea that applying an analgesic to your forehead is just about the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Your forehead and your brain are separated by a thing called your skull, and they're even on different branches of the carotid artery. Headaches do not occur on your forehead, even if that's where you feel the pain referred.
denialism | August 31, 2007Leave it to AEI writing for the WSJ editorial page to allege a grand conspiracy of the government against pharmaceutical companies. Their proof? The government wants to compare the efficacy of new drugs to older ones to make sure they're actually better.
The reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (Schip), created in 1997 to cover children from lower-income families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid, is up for renewal this fall. Tucked into page 414, section 904 of the House bill is a provision to spend more than $300 million to establish a new federal "…
denialism | August 31, 2007Granville Sewell describes the UD approach to science - in a word, quit early.
In any debate on Intelligent Design, there is a question I have long wished to see posed to ID opponents: "If we DID discover some biological feature that was irreducibly complex, to your satisfication and to the satisfaction of all reasonable observers, would that justify the design inference?" (Of course, I believe we have found thousands of such features, but never mind that.)
If the answer is yes, we just haven't found any such thing yet, then all the constantly-repeated philosophical arguments that "ID is not…
denialism | August 30, 2007Ed Brayton's discussion of the historical validity of claims of Thomas Jefferson's support of a "Christian Nation" is illuminating.
Turns out, it's a myth. A story passed down third-hand to a pair of people who were under 10 years old when it happened (and substantial cause to misremember), and inconsistent with Jefferson's writings and known activities.
Further, the cherry-picking to suggest he attended services in Capitol each Sabbath day is downright hysterical. Read it, it's golden.
denialism | August 30, 2007The NYT reports on the differing wait times between high-cost cosmetic procedures in dermatology, and low-cost potentially life-saving screenings for melanoma and other skin cancers.
Patients seeking an appointment with a dermatologist to ask about a potentially cancerous mole have to wait substantially longer than those seeking Botox for wrinkles, says a study published online today by The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
Researchers reported that dermatologists in 12 cities offered a typical wait of eight days for a cosmetic patient wanting Botox to smooth wrinkles, compared…
denialism | August 30, 2007Reading You Are Dumb's take on Ben Stein and expelled, I found out they have a blog for the movie! I'm so excited, because it's clear that Ben Stein, in his introductory post, shows he's done his research and read the Crank HOWTO. Check it:
Some of the greatest scientists of all time, including Galileo, Newton, Einstein, operated under the hypothesis that their work was to understand the principles and phenomena as designed by a creator.
Really? Their hypotheses included God each time? That's shocking. Continued.
Operating under that hypothesis, they discovered the most important laws…
denialism | August 30, 2007Everybody head over to Aarvarchaeology for the 68th edition of the Skeptics' Circle.
And while you're there help me figure out what this picture is all about.
denialism | August 29, 2007In a scathing attack on what he calls "gunpoint medicine", Mike Adams attacks the medical establishment for their supposed ability to imprison patients, force treatments on people against their will and generally be very very evil.
Health officials in Lawrenceville, Georgia have arrested and jailed Francisco Santos, a teenager who tried to walk out of a hospital and go home after being diagnosed with TB (tuberculosis). Instead of allowing him to leave the hospital, health authorities arrested and jailed the teen, throwing him in into a 15 x 20 foot isolation chamber and not allowing him to…
denialism | August 28, 2007Sounds like Fisk had a stroke and started buying into Troofer nonsense this week. I'll get right to the relevant passage and in honor of Mr. Fisk I think we'll Fisk it.
But - here we go. I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11. It's not just the obvious non sequiturs: where are the aircraft parts (engines, etc) from the attack on the Pentagon?
It's so embarrassing when journalists just don't look before they leap. No airplane parts at the pentagon? Really? This is still a question for him? The no plane nonsense is so silly that even the…
denialism | August 28, 2007Ok, I can't resist. What do people think of Larry Craig's arrest for ostensibly soliciting sex in a men's room? He's denying he did anything wrong.
Tuesday, in his first public statement on the arrest, the Idaho Republican said he did nothing "inappropriate."
"Let me be clear: I am not gay and never have been," said Craig, who has aligned himself with conservative groups who oppose gay rights.
However, I don't think he has plausible deniability here. From the police account:
A police officer who arrested him June 11 said Craig peered through a crack in a restroom stall door for two…
denialism | August 28, 2007There's a nice little article in the Washington Post on mice in research. It's interesting the things you learn from a piece like this. For instance, I never realized the origin of the black 6 line was from essentially a hobby breeder in New England. I also like the little slide show of various mouse strains. I recognize most of them, in particular, the ob/ob obese mouse (he's easy to pick out).
Light stuff but interesting for those who do mouse work. And I couldn't resist making an lolmouse:
denialism | August 28, 2007Props to Nick Anthis and PZ for addressing the animal rights vs animal welfare issue in science.
In particular this statement from PZ, "Once we've defeated the creationists (hah!), we're going to have to manage the next problem: well-meaning but ill-informed animal rights activists."
That sounds about right. If things in the United States follow the trends in Europe and Britain, the long-term and far more dangerous threat to biological science will be animal rights extremism. There is good discussion in both of these articles so check them out.