oracknows | June 27, 2007You may have noticed that I haven't commented much on Michael Behe's recent book, The Edge of Evolution, other than to bemoan its presence in the Evolution section of the University of Chicago Barnes & Noble. I have, however, read with some amusement some of the reviews. The most recent is one by--who else?--Richard Dawkins in the New York Times. Because it's behind the Times Select pay wall, I'll just give you a couple of the best quotes. First, he dismisses Behe's most famous book, Darwin's Black Box:
In "Darwin's Black Box," Behe simply asserted without justification that particular…
oracknows | June 27, 2007It was with sadness that I saw fellow medical blogger Dr. Charles' announcement that he is taking a break ("perhaps a long break," as he puts it) from blogging. He points out that he's been at it for almost three years.
My first thought was that I was sad to see him go and hope that he eventually finds his way back to the blogosphere.
My second thought was: Geez, in blogosphere time, I've been at this a long time now.
I started blogging in December 2004, which means that I'm rapidly approaching three years at it. Dr. Charles was actually one of the first bunch of medical blogs that I…
oracknows | June 27, 2007Please take a moment to head over to Majikthise and pay your respects to Lindsay, whose father, Barry L. Beyerstein, died yesterday.
Dr. Beyerstein was a prominent skeptic and very active in the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He also served as chair of the Society of B. C. Skeptics, not to mention being a member of the Executive Council of CSI and serving on the editorial board of The Skeptical Inquirer.
He was only 60 years old.
Many moons ago Lindsay suggested to me in an e-mail that I get in contact with her father to become involved in the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental…
oracknows | June 27, 2007J. B. Handley never ceases to amaze me how much he is willing to torture me with his abuses of science, never mind his childish attempts to annoy me by cybersquatting domain names that he thinks I want. So there I was, all set to blog about a rather amusing homeopath that I've come across, when what comes to my attention, whether I want it to or not?
Yes, hot on the heels of its reinvention of itself from being all about mercury all the time to a kinder, gentler entity making an intentionally much more difficult to test and falsify hypothesis that, oh, by the way, lots of other "environmental…
oracknows | June 26, 2007If you're not into the ins and outs of applying for NIH funding, this one may be a bit too wonky for you. I'm linking, however, to a rather interesting discussion of how to go about getting funding from the NIH in this presently hostile funding climate. One spot-on point is this in reference to letters of support from mentors:
A senior study section member in the audience confirmed this - but added that the letters must clearly demonstrate that the mentor (or whoever) has read the R01 and helped refine the narrative ... a glowing letter of support appended to an unfundable narrative backfires…
oracknows | June 26, 2007The Autism Omnibus trial continued last week, which was devoted primarily to the government's case. Consequently, there were a variety of real experts, as opposed to the pseudoexperts called by the prosecution last week. With only the occasional hiccup, they are taking serious bites out of the plaintiff's case, as documented on a near daily basis by Autism Diva and Kevin Leitch. Today, I want to focus on Day Eight of the testimony, not so much to beat up on those claiming that vaccines cause autism (although there's plenty of opportunity to apply some much deserved Respectful Insolence⢠to…
oracknows | June 25, 2007Finally, there's a word for a feeling that many people have no doubt experienced many times:
Some call it "phantom vibration syndrome." Others prefer "vibranxiety" -- the feeling when you answer your vibrating cellphone, only to find it never vibrated at all.
"It started happening about three years ago, when I first got a cellphone," says Canadian Steven Garrity, 28, of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. "I'd be sitting on the couch and feel my phone start to vibrate, so I'd reach down and pull it out of my pocket. But the only thing ringing was my thigh."
Though no known studies have…
oracknows | June 25, 2007Longtime readers of this blog may recall Pat Sullivan, Jr. He first popped up as a commenter here two years ago, when I first dove into applying skepticism and critical thinking to the pseudoscientific contention that vaccines in general or the thimerosal preservatives in vaccines cause autism. He's a true believer in the mercury militia and, even to this day, posts on his blog about the unsupported belief that vaccines cause autism somehow. Eventually, he "outed me"--and no doubt will do so again when he notices traffic coming in from this post (yawn). In any case, I haven't really thought…
oracknows | June 24, 2007I can't argue with this:
An embodiment of the mystery, danger and freedom of the music itself, the crotch has occupied a central role in a stirring rock performance.
Of course, the crotch today remains a valuable weapon in the rock arsenal, as exemplified by the current wave of tight pants bands rehashing the Kinks/The Who sound of the 60s and 70s. More and more women are also mobilizing their crotches as well for the good of the rock. Take Peaches, for example. In recent years, the famed Electroclash chanteuse has turned her crotch into something of a cottage industry for photos, song lyrics…
oracknows | June 24, 2007This story's being sent about as an example of stupid criminals, Ã la News of the Weird, but I just view it as a sign of the times:
Bellacino's Pizzeria closes at 9 p.m. That's when one of the employees left work out a back door, where his car was parked. He was approached by two teens armed with a gun, who demanded his wallet and his car keys.
The employee wisely gave both up.
The suspect jumped into the victim's car, but he couldn't get it started, because it didn't have an automatic transmission. It was a standard shift with a clutch pedal.
The victim ran back into the pizzeria and called…
oracknows | June 24, 2007From The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, specifically the chapter The Shadow of the Past, in which Gandalf responds to Frodo's statement that Gollum is an enemy who deserves death:
Deserves it? I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it.
I sometimes wonder if reading that quote as a youth was a seed that ultimately lead to my changing my mind…
oracknows | June 24, 2007Ever think you have the worst job?
Take a gander at these worst jobs in science.
A couple of examples:
Job #10: Whale feces researcher.
Job #5: Coursework carcass preparer.
Maybe it's just me, but several of these jobs don't sound that bad.
Except the whale feces researcher.
oracknows | June 23, 2007After attending the ASCO Meeting in Chicago over two weeks ago, I can't believe I forgot to post about this. More than two years ago, back in my favorite city (Chicago), a vision of the Virgin Mary appeared. It appeared, oddly enough, as such visions are wont to do, in a rather mundane spot. Specifically, it appeared under a freeway overpass where W. Fullerton Avenue passes under the Kennedy Expressway.
As I was heading to the airport on my way out of the city, traffic happened to be better than I had expected, leaving me with some time. I decided, therefore, to head back to the area and see…
oracknows | June 23, 2007This one's been floating around ScienceBlogs and the blogosphere in general; so I thought, what the hell? (Oh, wait, did my use of the word "hell" affect my rating?) In any case, this sounds about right:
Mingle2 - Online Dating
You'll be happy to know that I don't really plan on trying to "evolve" to rate a PG-13 or R rating. I really see no need, although sometimes the comments probably earn such ratings. On the other hand, I won't shy away from "adult" content if I consider it sufficiently important that I want to blog about it.
oracknows | June 23, 2007There are lots of medical discoveries today that are breathlessly hyped far beyond what their actual benefits are likely to be. This, apparently, is not a new phenomenon, as this story shows.
(Click on the pictures above for larger images of all four pages of the article, which appeared in 1939.)
On the other hand, given the advances in medical care that have come about because of X-rays, such as radiographs, CT scans, nuclear medicine scans, and the use of radiation to treat cancer, this story is actually not exaggerating all that much. Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be a clue…
oracknows | June 22, 2007The Cheerful Oncologist, noting my recent post about the relapse of Abraham Cherrix's lymphoma in the lung, has done an analysis from--of course!--an oncologist's viewpoint. Given that I don't treat lymphoma, other than doing the occasional lymph node biopsy to diagnose it, his viewpoint is well worth reading.
He quite correctly points out that Abraham's reasoning, where he observes that his tumor has "only" recurred in one place and concludes that what he's doing is working is the fallacy of moderation. He points out that for Hodgkin's lymphoma (and, I personally would add, for all cancer…
oracknows | June 22, 2007In my rigid, Western, scientific way of thinking, things generally have a beginning, a middle, and and end, the arrow of time marching relentlessly onward. However, it occurs to me that this is the very last edition of Your Friday Dose of Woo of its first year. Last June, when I started this, almost on a whim, I had no way of knowing how it would take on such a life of its own. Indeed, I fear that all the woo to which I subject myself on a weekly basis may be having an effect. I'm ceasing to see life as a straight line any more; such rigid thinking no longer suits me.
Instead, like the more…
oracknows | June 21, 2007I've written extensively before about Starchild Abraham Cherrix, the (now) 17-year-old who was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease when he was 15 and who, after one course of chemotherapy, refused any further evidence-based medicine in favor of the quackery known as Hoxsey therapy. His refusal led to a big legal battle in Virginia, and the court ultimately (sort of) compromised, letting Abraham go to Mississippi to be treated by a radiation oncologist with taste for alternative medicine named Dr. R. Arnold Smith, who would give him low dose radiation and an unconventional variety of…
oracknows | June 21, 2007Has it really been two years?
Amazingly, it has indeed. On June 16, 2005, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. deposited the biggest, steamingest, drippiest (not to mention stinkiest) turd I had as yet seen in my then young blogging career, specifically an article published simultaneously by both Salon.com and Rolling Stone entitled Deadly Immunity. Along with David Kirby's Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Mystery, which had been published a couple of months earlier, RFK, Jr. arguably did more than almost anyone else besides the aforementioned David Kirby to…
oracknows | June 21, 2007Here, on this summer solstice, a traditional time of great importance for woo, I bet you need a shot of skepticism, don't you? Fortunately, mcsquared over at Relatively Science has your back with the 63 Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle. As he puts it: ..."if you are in the Northern hemisphere this will be the longest edition of the skeptics' circle and conversely if you are in the Southern hemisphere it will be the shortest." Longest or shortest, it's yet another collection of the best skeptical blogging of the last fortnight. (OK, I know it's not as pithy an introduction as you're used to,…