denialism | July 3, 2007The 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 UCLA researcher was the intended target.
A gasoline-filled device was discovered Sunday by the car outside the Westside home of Dr. Arthur Rosenbaum, who is chief of pediatric ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. The device did not ignite despite evidence of an attempt to light it,…
denialism | July 2, 2007I 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 considered opinion of the DI, UD etc., that it is never acceptable to discriminate against a professor in a tenure decision based on their ideas?
Now, Tara shows me the answer to my question in her post Why deny only one part of science? IDists branch out into AIDS denial.
I think my question is…
denialism | July 2, 2007Many 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! It will be at the top of the page all week.
denialism | 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 a movie that contains more truth than any he has made so far. I went in with a skeptical mind, knowing the issues that face the practice of medicine in the United States in this new millennium, how easy they can be discussed inaccurately or flippantly and how medicine was once practiced in this…
denialism | June 29, 2007We'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 commenters find cause to disagree with him repeatedly. Wait, I know what to do about this - here's the card.
Those fundamentalists (controlling the country) who call them un-American, evil, sinful and hell-bound? Well, they're just
And the problems atheists have? Those aren't real problems like with…
denialism | June 29, 2007The 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 banned despite the physical implausibility of using a liquid explosive to bring down a plane. If these scumbags were planning on making a pen-bomb or a bra-bomb we're going to end up going naked through security for no damn good reason.
denialism | June 29, 2007Take 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 enclosure.
The chimps, which were interacting with humans who had not given them food, spontaneously helped the humans by reaching across and helping them get the stick.
The experiments were carried out among 36 chimpanzees at a sanctuary for the animals in Uganda.
Anthropologists cite altruism as…
denialism | June 29, 2007Name 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 many more are looking for homes at the Charlottesville-Albermarle ASPCA. You can find all sorts of pets to adopt in your area from Petfinder or just look at pictures of kittens. While I was there they had piles of kittens. It was pretty unbelievable. I should have taken pictures for Cute Overload…
denialism | 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.
denialism | June 28, 2007David 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 effect. Throughout the Autism Omnibus proceedings we've seen the best case for a link and it's a joke. The measles PCRs linking gut samples from autistic kids to "chronic measles infection" from the MMR jab were false positives. At every single point when this problem has been studied it's been…
choofnagle | June 28, 2007Another interesting article in the Times discusses shining the light on pharmaceutical industry gifts to doctors. What's interesting about it is that shows another example of how industry self-regulatory principles often have holes (here, a lack of "detail") that leave the problem to be addressed unaddressed.
In the privacy field, the most notable example of this was the IRSG Principles, which allowed databrokers to sell personal information to anyone they deemed "qualified," and surprise, surprise, even criminals were "qualified" to buy Social Security Numbers. But back to doctors:
In…
denialism | June 28, 2007Back 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 be damned, they just want to see science with egg on its face so they can prove that they are being persecuted.
Well lately, Uncommon Descent has been doing a pretty incredible job of sticking to this script. First we have Dembski, insisting upon the persecution of ID abroad, because the Germans…
choofnagle | June 27, 2007So, Apple releases Itunes 7.2, complete with the ability to download DRM-free, high-quality MP3s. However, these MP3s contain all sorts of personal information in the metadata, thus allowing tracking of who possesses the files. The solution? Privatunes, a program provided by a French company that erases the personal information from the metadata.
The best part? How the French justify the protection of privacy. I love it:
5 reasons to erase private information from my legally acquired iTunes Plus library:
1. Am I still a child who needs his pencilcase and schoolbag tagged with my name?…
choofnagle | June 27, 2007An article in today's New York Times shines some light on drug industry gifts to doctors. Pretty interesting stuff:
Vermont officials disclosed Tuesday that drug company payments to psychiatrists in the state more than doubled last year, to an average of $45,692 each from $20,835 in 2005. Antipsychotic medicines are among the largest expenses for the state's Medicaid program.
Over all last year, drug makers spent $2.25 million on marketing payments, fees and travel expenses to Vermont doctors, hospitals and universities, a 2.3 percent increase over the prior year, the state said.
The number…
denialism | June 27, 2007The 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 Massachusetts General Hospital are lumped into the broad national average category when perhaps they deserve better (we can't tell), and no doubt many other hospitals deserve a lesser ranking. In the next round of evaluations, the Medicare program ought to make public every institution's mortality…
denialism | June 27, 2007And 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-help nonsense that proposes powerful new physical laws about the universe. In this case, the Law of Attraction. That is, that "like attracts like". Translated into self-help, it means that positive thinking makes things happen, always, every time. It is a law after all.
Now, people like me who…
denialism | June 27, 2007The 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 had filled the restaurant's outdoor patio. As our group walked past the tables, one of my friends said, "This terrifies me." I don't know if she was reassured later by the chilly April, but we are all supposed to be terrified of the weather now.
It's just as stupid when people who are concerned about…
denialism | June 26, 2007I'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 4 Jesus" banner case -- a split decision that limits students' free speech rights.
Joseph Frederick was 18 when he unveiled the 14-foot paper sign on a public sidewalk outside his Juneau, Alaska, high school in 2002.
Principal Deborah Morse confiscated it and suspended Frederick. He sued, taking his…
denialism | June 26, 2007The 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 that it sees no place for either on the science curriculum.
It has also defined "Intelligent Design", the idea that life is too complex to have arisen without the guiding hand of a greater intelligence, as a religion, along with "creationism".
...
The petition was posted by James Rocks of the Science,…