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BP Oil Leak: Good News, Bad News

First the good news, then the bad news. Well, first the bad news that precedes the good news. BP has put a cap on the well, but a crucial test of the cap was delayed because of an unexpected leak. But basically, this is good news, the cap is on. The cap is not closed ... the well is still gushing oil. But once they close the third of three valves on the cap, the well will be sealed. Then over coming weeks or months, relief wells in the same oil deposit can extract enough underground oil to make this well less of a threat. But ... There is a possibility that this could go terribly wrong.…

Are women "bailing out" of IT?

Or are they being pushed out, but blamed for it? A blog post in on Womensenews.org, raises interesting issues. One woman characterized in the post loved her job in IT while working in the Washington D.C. area. The work environment was diverse, she felt comfortable, productive, respected. Then.. ... a move to a company in the Midwest changed that. "I don't know if it was the company or the geography, but I could hear and feel the hostility," she said. Jones said even if a woman had been a team leader on a project, when it came time to meet with a client, she would be relegated to a…

Did funny e-voting determine South Carolina election? Or was it race?

Here's one theory: Earlier this week, Pickle Monger pointed us to the very, very bizarre story of Alvin Greene winning the South Carolina Democratic primary despite being broke, unemployed, holding no campaign appearances or rallies, and having raised no money. No one knew who the guy was, basically, until after the election happened... which is certainly quite strange. Also, once the news came out and the press scrambled to figure out who the hell this guy was, it came out that he's facing felony charges for obscenity. ... Of course, there are many different theories as to why Greene won…

Happy Birthday Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle will always be remembered for his Sherlock Holmes tales, including four novels and numerous short stories serialized in The Strand and/or published in various collections. However, Doyle was at least as prolific (probably more) in the area of spiritualism, and according to the London Times obituary published at the time of his death on July 7th 1930, he was tired of Holmes and preferred to be remembered for his books on the spooky ghostly stuff. From that obituary: Sir Arthur claimed to have had conversations with the…

Bon Voyage HMS Beagle

It is on this day, May 22nd, 1825 that the HMS Beagle left Plymouth England on its infamous First Voyage. The Beagle was built at the Woolwich Dockyard (launched 11 May 1820) named after the breed of dog. The Beagle was the first ship to sail under the newly constructed London Bridge. However, as there was no great need for this ship in service, she lay moored in storage until this first voyage some five years after being finished. The Beagle The first voyage was rather interesting, as you probably know: First, she underwent a major operation that converted her from a brig to a barque…

Newly Released Hiroshima Photographs

On August 6th, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan by the United States Army. The bomb successfully exploded instantly killing about 80,000 people and destroying a majority of the physical structure of the city. Someone with a camera took a series of photographs of the post-bomb carnage. The film exposed by this photographer was brought to a cave outside of town, where it was later discovered by US serviceman Robert Capp. Capp had the film developed and hung on to the images until 1998, when he donated the film to the Hoover Archives with the provision that the photos…

How to totally muck up any effort to enhance national security . The bush way.

We all know torture is bogus. There is no scenario in which we will torture the guy with the launch codes for the missile aimed at the orphanage. That whole scenario is just a bunch of crap. However, torture has been used, by American officials, and since we do have, despite BushCheney's best efforts, something left, even if tattered and torn, of our constitution, it is likely that captives who were heavily tortured at Gitmo (or elsewhere) will have to either be set free or to have important charges dropped against them. That is likely to happen with what we presume are many inmates who…

Race and Racism Redux

I had a plan, to get on board with Sciencwoman, who is putting out a series of posts on Racial Diversity, Race and Racism, with a post on this topic. However, Friday was a tough day, Saturday was a no-blogger (because of something else I was doing that I'll tell you about later), I don't remember a thing about Sunday, I had a late meeting Monday, and I'm teaching tonight. So I have not had time to spend the effort this post needed. (Aren't you glad I don't usually write blog posts telling you what I had for breakfast and why I blogged more or less on a given day?) But I still want to get…

In LInux, you can...

Update every single piece of software on your computer, including your system, by: Click once on a little orange button, Click on the button that says "Install Updates" Enter your security code. Sit back and have a beer. Or, if you like, keep using your computer. Later, you'll get a message that it is all over. that's it. Unlike, say, Windows Update, this applies to all of the software that is installed on your system,* regardless of vendor, system vs application, etc. Here is what does NOT happen when you do he updates: You are not asked to close ANY software. None. Zero. ZIp. Nada…

What Happens When The Cables are Cut?

And, why were they cut? An interesting analysis of the effects of the cut or damaged undersea cables is available, and conspiracy theories about the reason for this event begin to emerge. There is no way that the damage to four undersea cables in the same region of the world is a coincidence. Well, OK, maybe it is a coincidence. But there may be a connection. One suggestion is that these cables were cut in preparation for an invasion of Iran, or at least, the insertion of special forces to carry out some covert activity. What a dumb idea that is. Another possibility is that the weather…

Is this part of the official Cephalopodmas celebration?

Oh! Respectful Insolence uncovers more woo-woo nonsense, a scheme called Global Orgasm that urges everyone to get it on on one particular day. The intent is that the participants concentrate any thoughts during and after orgasm on peace. The combination of high-energy orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention may have a much greater effect than previous mass meditations and prayers. The goal is to add so much concentrated and high-energy positive input into the energy field of the Earth that it will reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world.…

I'm conflicted over this news

Since a whole bunch of you have been sending me this and posting it in my comments, I don't see how I can avoid mentioning it. Apparently it's being reported on The Superficial, Celebitchy, and People.com that Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy have broken up. I must admit that it's hard not to feel a bit of schadenfreude over this and wonder if maybe Jim Carrey was getting tired of the whole anti-vaccine scene, as The Superficial suggested: I can only assume this has everything to do with Jenny McCarthy being completely shot down by the medical community only to continuing claiming a Playboy…

Annals of "I'm not anti-vaccine," part 1

Kent Heckenlively shows us why AoA is "not anti-vaccine": Bruesewitz v. Wyeth has the potential to move all that in a new direction. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act simply states, "No vaccine manufacturer shall be liable . . . if the injury or death resulted from side-effect that were unavoidable even though the vaccine was properly prepared and was accompanied by proper directions and warnings." What does that mean in plain English? The example I've always heard used in reference to such a standard is dynamite. Now we all know what dynamite does. It blows up. So, if you light…

Pssst. Want a thousand dollars?

Take the geocentrism challenge from Catholic Apologetics International! They're offering $1000 to the first person who can prove that the earth revolves around the sun. They claim that good Catholics really do have to believe that the earth is the center of the universe. Scripture is very clear that the earth is stationary and that the sun, moon and stars revolve around it. (By the way, in case you're wondering, "flat-earthers" are not accepted here, since Scripture does not teach a flat earth, nor did the Fathers teach it). If…

"Alternative" cancer tests

The new UPSTF recommended guidelines for screening mammography of healthy women have opened up a can of worms whose consequences have not played out yet, indeed, likely will not play out for a long time. Coming in rapid succession after the announcement of the UPSTF guidelines was a study that suggested that low dose radiation from mammography may put young women with breast cancer-predisposing BRCA mutations at a higher risk for breast cancer. A consequence of the USPSTF recommendations is that politicians have pounced on it as "proof" that President Obama really is preparing death panels…

24 hours later...

It's been more than 24 hours since I received my H1N1 vaccine, and so far the only problem I've had is a bit of a sore arm. (Maybe I shouldn't have had the nurse use the left arm again, as that's where I got my seasonal flu vaccine, too. On the other hand, I am right-handed.) Sadly, I have not become autistic, despite having had all that mercury, formaldehyde, and witches brew of "toxins" injected "directly into by bloodstream." I guess it's just not to be. I did notice one "side effect," though. Shortly after I received my vaccine yesterday morning, I received an urgent call to the clinic…

Quackery at the University of Toronto, redux

Three weeks ago or so, I expressed dismay at what I perceived as an autism quackfest being held at the University of Toronto. Worse, that quackfest had been partially funded by a grant from a very prestigious children's charity, The SickKids Foundation, which in response to complaints about its sponsoring the autism quackfest known as AutismOne/Autism Canada 2009 Conference, wrote a limp and pusillanimous form e-mail that it sent to everyone who complained. It was truly disappointing to see that an organization that should be supporting science-based research into the treatment of children's…

More dubious acupuncture research

Believe it or not, I happen to be on vacation this week. Fear not, it's a stay-at-home vacation (sometimes the best kind) and therefore my vacation doesn't mean I'll stop blogging. In fact, I consider blogging to be part of my recreation. What my vacation does mean is that I will probably slow down a bit and not do posts that force me to do a lot of background reading. It also means that, because I went to an actual rock concert last night (something I haven't done in years), not only did I sleep in a bit and therefore not have that post that usually goes up here by 8 or 9 AM, but I didn't…

File under: "You can't make stuff like this up"

When you don't have the facts on your side, can't get published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, and have consistently failed to make a case for your hypothesis, what do you do? Well, if you're a real scientist, you might just finally pack it in, admit that you were probably wrong, and move on to another scientific question or to another hypothesis about the same question to investigate. Not "intelligent design" creationists. To them, it doesn't matter just how bad their arguments are, how untestable and incoherent their hypothesis is, or how obvious it is that they are simply…

Who knew Hitler was a die-hard Cowboys fan?

It's Superbowl Sunday. Even someone who's not much of a football fan and who doesn't really care much one way or the other about either team can't help but get caught up in the hype a little bit. In any case, there seems little point to doing any serious blog posts today, given that (1) it's a weekend and traffic plummets on the weekend and (2) it's Superbowl Sunday, which leads me to expect that traffic will be even lower than a typical Sunday. Oh, and also because I just learned that Hitler was a Cowboys fan: I've posted a parody of this particular scene from the German movie Downfall…

Religious crazies on parade

Thanks, PZ. Thanks a lot for posting what has to be one of the stupidest, most vile examples of an idiotic religious nut that I've seen in a long time. It was so bad that it has to be seen to be believed: It hurt my brain just to look at this smug, smarmy twit gloat over his belief that Richard Dawkins (and Heath Ledger, for that matter) are now (in the case of Heath Ledger) or will be (in the case of Richard Dawkins) burning in hell for all eternity. It's guaranteed to raise your blood pressure--unless you're a hateful bigot as well. Thankfully, B-grade horror movie sound effects that…

The 78th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle: Still high from the chelation

It's that time again. The Skeptics' Circle has once again descended upon the blogosphere to try to do battle with the rampant credulity therein and by bringing a whiff of skepticism and critical thinking into what is, sadly, a free-for-all of posting first and asking questions later. Hard as it is to believe, the Circle has been existence for three years now, and, in fact, the very first edition first appeared on February 3, 2005 on the blog of its founder, St. Nate, who sadly has given up blogging and, even more sadly, has deleted his blog so that it has now become a spam blog. Over the…

Takin' care of business: A triple dose of...well, you don't want to know

I've been very remiss in featuring what has become, from a very early point in this blog's history, its de facto mascot. Maybe it's because he's just been so busy being BEOC (Big Enema on Campus), or maybe it's a bit of laziness on my part. Or maybe having a giant walking Fleet's enema bottle representing this blog hits a little too close to home when it comes to the usual content here. Whatever the reason, it's time to catch up with what the Big E has been doing since August, which, unbelievably, was the last time he made a new appearance here. (Recycling old Thanksgiving pictures doesn't…

Cool! A new argument for dualism!

At least, that is, it's new to me. Austin Cline summarizes a report in The Philosophers' Magazine by Michael La Bossier: [R]ecent studies of cloned animals reveal that current cloning techniques produce animals that are as distinct in their personalities as animals produced by Ânatural means of reproduction. Texas A&M, which has been on the forefront of animal cloning, has found that cloned pigs differ from each other in, among other things, their food preferences and degree of friendliness towards human beings.… Given that the clones are genetically the same and are typically raised in…

Correction

In this post I stated: The New York Post found someone [Kyle Smith] with less knowledge of science than Tim Blair to review An Inconvenient Truth. I was wrong. Tim Blair has less knowledge of science than does Kyle Smith. Smith made a correction: "Correction: an earlier version of this review incorrectly linked lead and smog to global warming." Blair, on the other hand, cannot grasp the meaning of "altering the balance of energy between our planet and the rest of the universe." Read his confused comments in this thread as we try to explain radiative forcing to him: what approximate area…

You call it lying, CEI calls it earning a living

Iain Murray, one of the masterminds who made the CEI ad that claimed that Al Gore produced as much CO2 as the state of Kentucky, discovers that Gore, on net, produces no CO2: Al Gore justifies his enjoyment of a carbon-intensive lifestyle in a speech in the UK: He said he was "carbon neutral" himself and he tried to offset any plane flight or car journey by "purchasing verifiable reductions in CO2 elsewhere". Translation: I am rich enough to benefit from executive jets and Lincolns because I pay my indulgences. All you proles have to give up your cars, flights and air conditioning. Now in…

Molecular machines!

If you've ever wondered what the heck Behe was smoking when he claims there are literal trucks trundling about on literal highways with literal traffic signals inside of cells, well, I don't have an answer for you…but there is a wonderful Flash movie that will show you the Inner Life of a Cell so you can see what "molecular machines" look like, more or less. It's a spectacular show. What you'll see is the series of events that transpire when a lymphocyte encounters a cell surface signal that triggers emigration out of a capillary and into other tissues; it zooms rather abruptly from a…

How to comment

I welcome comments here, especially from people who disagree with me. There is one rule that I ask commenters to follow -- please do not make personal attacks on other commenters. Such comments tend to cause discussion to degenerate into a slanging match so I will usually delete or disemvowel them. If you think some other commenter is dishonest or stupid, you should show us, by presenting evidence and letting the rest of us make up our own minds rather than telling us. Trolls are posters who try to disrupt the discussion by posting specious arguments, inflammatory comments or off-topic…

Columbia Journalism Review on Lancet Study

Lila Guterman writes in the Columbia Journalism Review about the dismal reporting of the Lancet study: Last fall, a major public-health study appeared in The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, only to be missed or dismissed by the American press. To the extent it was covered at all, the reports were short and usually buried far from the front pages of major newspapers. The results of the study could have played an important role in future policy decisions, but the press's near total silence allowed the issue to pass without debate. ... Reporters' unease about the wide range…

2,000,000

I demand the sum of.....two MILLION visits! Muhahahahahaha! Yes, I know I did that bit before, but I liked it so much that I wanted to do it again. Sometime yesterday, this blog hit another milestone. Sometime yesterday morning, Respectful Insolence⢠recorded its 2,000,000th visitor. Unfortunately, "sometime yesterday" was while I was at work, and, due to pesky duties like meetings, I was unable to record the 2,000,000th visit for posterity, as I did for my 1,000,000th visit. That was on January 22, 2007. To reach the 1,000,000 mark took 2 years, 1 month, and 11 days. To go from 1,000,…

I know Halloween is coming up soon and all, but...

...I am as appalled as my fellow ScienceBlogger Mark over this horrifically credulous article on ghosts on This Old House at CNN.com. Here's a small taste, which comes after a long discussion of how to choose a "good" ghost inspector: If natural explanations cannot be found, and it's determined that there is indeed a presence in your house, the investigators will likely suggest you get in touch with a family minister so he or she can come to the house and to pray for the soul of the spirit that is present. This is not an "exorcism," but simply an attempt to get the ghost to leave in peace. If…

Extreme Evangelism?

Did anyone else get this spam from "Extreme Evangelism", or am I just special? What if I told you that you could hold an event for your community and that 90% of the people who attended would be unsaved. What if I then told you that in most communities at least 1000 people would show up. And what if during that event on average 100 people would give their heart to Jesus??? How long does it take your church to get 100 people saved? Think of the church growth possibilities! Its an outdoor event so even churches without large facilities can participate! Now what if I were to tell you that our…

No, I...am...Doom!

This one seems to be going around the ScienceBlogs, bunch, and, given the nature of the test and my having collected comics for over 30 years, there was no way I could pass it up. The results are, of course, utterly expected. Bow before your better! Bow before...Doom! Your results: You are Dr. Doom Dr. Doom 91% Apocalypse 82% Magneto 66% Mr. Freeze 64% Lex Luthor 64% Juggernaut 54% Venom 53% Dark Phoenix 53% The Joker 52% Green Goblin 50% Two-Face 46% Kingpin 41% Catwoman 39% Poison Ivy 37% Mystique 26% Riddler 23% Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity. Click…

Krugman on Gore Derangement Syndrome

Paul Krugman offers an explanation of Gore Derangement Syndrome So if science says that we have a big problem that can't be solved with tax cuts or bombs -- well, the science must be rejected, and the scientists must be slimed. For example, Investor's Business Daily recently declared that the prominence of James Hansen, the NASA researcher who first made climate change a national issue two decades ago, is actually due to the nefarious schemes of -- who else? -- George Soros. Which brings us to the biggest reason the right hates Mr. Gore: in his case the smear campaign has failed. He's taken…

Lott, Levitt and Freedomnomics

David Glenn reports: The economist Steven D. Levitt's colleagues at the University of Chicago might be tempted to cancel their classes and wander down to Chicago's federal courthouse on October 1. That's the date that has been set for the trial in John R. Lott Jr.'s defamation suit against Mr. Levitt. At a status hearing on Wednesday, a federal judge penciled in the trial date and ordered the parties to complete their discovery process by the end of July. You'd think that Lott would have given up since all has left is the claim that he was libeled in a private email, but I guess not. In…

AEI Reaps the Whirlwind

Back in July I mentioned that the AEI was offering $10,000 to scientists for a "review and policy critique" of the new IPCC report. This month the Guardian caused all kinds of grief for the AEI when they described these payments as bribes. David Roberts and Andrew Dessler tell the story and what it means. They conclude that the payments weren't bribes, but: What they do not acknowledge is that the conservative movement has squandered its credibility on the subject of climate change. After years of efforts to deny or obfuscate mainstream climate science -- driven by ideology, fossil-fuel…

Why are people surprised about the Lancet numbers?

Taylor Owen at Oxblog on the reaction to the Lancet studies "The principal question is why are we so surprised that this level of conflict would result in such levels of excess mortality? I would argue it is a direct result of our sanitised view of war. We consider the costs of war to be limited to direct conflict casualties. Bombs killing our soldiers, bullets killing insurgents, end of story. This of course if only the beginning, excess death levels tell the other side. The failure to provide humanitarian protection has real human costs, far beyond those directly killed by munitions. And…

Paper claims human CO2 emissions are negligible

The latest paper being touted by the global warming skeptic crew is by a couple of petroleum engineers named Khilyuk and Chilingar and concludes The current global warming is most likely a combined effect of increased solar and tectonic activities and cannot be attributed to the increased anthropogenic impact on the atmosphere. Humans may be responsible for less than 0.01°C (of approximately 0.56°C (1°F) total average atmospheric heating during the last century) But what is the basis for this conclusion? Well, they work out total man-made CO2 emissions and ... Recalculating this amount…

Meanwhile, on another planet

Glenn Reynolds, Nov 21: IRAQ: "So far this month, the civilian casualty count is well below the casualty count in October and below the six-month average. The security force casualties reduced 21 percent over the past four weeks, and are at the lowest level in 25 weeks, he said." Associated Press, Nov 20 Gunmen shot and killed a television comedian Monday who was famous for mocking everyone from the Iraqi government to U.S. forces to Shiite militias to Sunni insurgents. Walid Hassan's slaying came as the Iraqi death toll rose to more than 1,300 for the first 20 days of November - the highest…

Flypaper for illiterates

Tim Blair isn't going to let go of his claim that Richard Garfield criticised the Lancet study. He offered this quote: "I'm shocked by the levels they (the investigators) reached," said Garfield. "Common sense, gut level, says it is hard to believe it could be this high. We don't know how many have died, we just know it's a lot. ... Right now, the only other option is to stay in the dark." Garfield isn't criticising the study. Sven explained it for Blair: Garfield is saying that 1) you can't depend on your gut for a measurement of this scope and scale, because it truly defies "common sense…

Glenn Reynolds was against photoshopping before he was for it

When John Lott was caught using a sock puppet, Glenn Reynolds declared that he wasn't going to mention it on his blog because it wasn't "actual news". Later he chastised Greg Beato for doing a photoshop of Lott as Mary Rosh and downplayed the sock puppetry as "weird", rather than wrong: Greg Beato, who sometimes takes it upon himself to lecture me on fairness and decorum, has demonstrated his commitment to fairness and decorum by photoshopping Lott in drag and conflating Bellesiles' false claims that a critic had forged emails attributed to him, with Lott's use of a pseudonym in chat groups…

From the depths of the Midwest, I call all skeptics!

Even though I'm on vacation, I would be remiss if I didn't post a reminder to all skeptics and skeptical bloggers out there that the latest edition of the Skeptics' Circle is due to be posted this Thursday. It's being hosted by Joseph at Immunoblogging (although he tells me by e-mail that he may use this carnival as a kickoff to a new blog that he is working on, which would be cool if he pulls it off; you may notice that there hasn't been a post on his present blog in three months--either way, I'll post the link here on Thursday, as always). In any case, it's not too late to submit examples…

Other ScienceBloggers weigh in on the Cherrix case

Given how much I've written about the Abraham Cherrix case, I would be remiss in not pointing out some posts by fellow ScienceBloggers: 1. First, Abel Pharmboy discusses how this might all come down to a failure of communication between Cherrix's doctors and Cherrix and his parents. While this is probably true, I'm not sure that any amount of communication and empathy would have changed Cherrix's mind. Abel also makes some good points about "natural" therapies in cancer. I would also agree with him that it is important to be as nonconfrontational as possible when a patient insists on…

An anti-ID initiative

I got this in my e-mail the other day that may be of interest to folks interested in countering the pseudoscience of "intelligent design" creationism: I would like to announce the birth of CommentsOnID, a Pile-blog and ask for support. A Pile-blog is a blog intended to offer unmoderated comments and trackbacks space, related to blogposts from blogs where moderation/censure or even absence of comments and trackbacks is the rule. This particular Pile-blog concerns pro-ID blogs/blogposts. It was setup to circumvent the censorship practiced at the time by Dembski and DaveScot and now by Denyse O'…

Monckton error count is conserved

Gareth Renowden notices that Monckton has corrected the misattribution on his graph. Unfortunately, Monckton has preserved the number of errors in his graph by replacing that error with another one. (And yes this graph appeared in his presentation to the Heartland conference. I also see that Monckton has now written an 18 page document on the commie plot against him. The villain in Monckton's fantasy is Lawrence Krauss. I imagine that Monckton thinks Krauss looks like the picture on the right. Some highlights: First, [Krauss] approached The Guardian, which reliably supports every Leftist…

Washington Post rejects the concept of objective facts

I didn't write about George Will's recent global warming denial piece, because his numerous errors have been well documented. Even Nate Silver joined in. But I can't let the latest development pass. The Washington Post has refused to make any corrections to his column. Why not?: Alan Shearer, the Washington Post Writers Group editorial director, told the Wonk Room that he looked into the accuracy of Will's claim that "According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979": We have plenty of references that support what George…

The secret climate change war

Naomi Oreskes and Jonathan Renouf have a fascinating article in the Sunday Times about the secret climate change war in the early 80s: Even today few people have heard of Jason. It was established in 1960 at the height of the cold war when a group of physicists who had helped to develop the atomic bomb proposed a new organisation that would - to quote one of its founders - "inject new ideas into national defence". So the Jasons (as they style themselves) were born; a self-selected group of brilliant minds free to think the unthinkable in the knowledge that their work was classified.…

Survey: climate scientists agree that humans are causing warming

Robert Lichter reports on a survey of American climate scientists commissioned by STATS at GMU. Some of the findings: In 1991 the Gallup organization conducted a telephone survey on global climate change among 400 scientists drawn from membership lists of the American Meteorological Association and the American Geophysical Union. We repeated several of their questions verbatim, in order to measure changes in scientific opinion over time. On a variety of questions, opinion has consistently shifted toward increased belief in and concern about global warming. Among the changes: In 1991 only 60…

The benthic bacteria spoof

Daniel Cressey summarizes the story of the spoof paper that pretended to prove that global warming was caused by benthic bacteria rather than humans. He also has an interview with the author of the spoof. David Thorpe, who helped set it up, explains why he did it on his blog. Fooled were such folks as Benny Peiser, Ron Bailey and Rush Limbaugh. Global warming skeptics have offered excuses for those fooled. Roy Spencer said: Even though the hoax was quite elaborate, and the paper looked genuine, a little digging revealed that the authors, research center, and even the scientific journal the…

The 46th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle: On a mission from God

The Skeptics' Circle has been hosted in many places and in many forms, but leave it to Kev at Left Brain/Right Brain to bring it to the one place that it's been hosted before. We're talking Heaven, people. Naturally, the assembled skeptics were a bit disconcerted by this particular venue, as amusingly recounted by Kev: It was one of the greatest moments of my life. Persuading a bunch of Skeptics' to affirm their belief in the blood of Jesus in order to attend a conference in Heaven. Admittedly, they didn't look very happy about it, but it worked. Skeptics' in Heaven. Marvellous. Once the…