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Politics Tuesday: And Lest You Think We're Not Going Anywhere ...

Posted by Jack Sterne, jack@oceanchampions.org As I talked about earlier, last November millions of voters changed the face of Congress, and conservationists made headlines for playing significant roles in the elections. We're now starting to see some of the fruits of those efforts in the ocean arena For instance, this week alone, lawmakers in both the House and Senate are set to vote on several ocean bills including: -HR 1205 (Rep. Faleomavaega): Would reauthorize The Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 and create a coral reef task force and expand the coral reef conservation program. The…

Psych Problem #2: Cooking the Books

Lisa Bero Critics of the FDA drug-trial process have often complained that the drug companies are free to publish only the trials that are flattering to their cause (that is, only those that show effects above placebo and relatively low side-effects). As explained in Wired Science, UC San Francisco health policy expert and Cochrane Collaboration co-director Lisa Bero has been picking this process apart: The difference between what drug companies tell the government and doctors suggests that they're cooking the books, which could mislead doctors making prescriptions. Of 33 new drugs…

Weekly Dose of Cute

I was going to try and do something non-furry to continue to explore cuteness on other branches of the tree of life, but this little guy just made my heart melt and I couldn't, in good conscience, post anything else. HT ZoobornsThis adorable little cub is a Black Jaguar, born on April 14th in Peru. Jaguars, Panthera onca, are the third largest cat species and the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The black color is due to a dominant but rare allele, and black moms can have black or spotted babies. They live in Mexico and much of Central America, extending as far south as Argentina…

Want to get involved in high level science policy? Here's what you need to know.

If you've ever wondered what kind of knowledge base is required to become involved at high levels in science and technology policy, you might want to watch a Senate confirmation hearing sometime. Earlier today, Drs. John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco sat down in front of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Dr. Holdren is President Obama's nominee to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) - a job that's better known as the Presidential Science Advisor. Dr. Lubchenco has been selected as the Administrator of the National Ocean and…

I've got a hunch that NASA's getting a new Administrator soon.

Apparently, NASA administrator Mike Griffin is a complete bonehead. There's really no other way to describe his recent interactions with the Obama transition team. From an Orlando Sentinel report: NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is "not qualified" to judge his rocket program, the Orlando Sentinel has learned. In a heated 40-minute conversation last week with Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator who heads the space transition…

How To Ruin A Cityscape

I wasn't able to blog this when I first saw it in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Dec. 19, but it annoyed me so much I hung onto the paper and saved it for a time when I could. The typical traffic light is roughly the size of a large table fan. The hardware necessary to switch a signal from green to amber to red in a fail-safe way can probably fit into the space of an old desktop computer. So why does Philadelphia need to install control boxes as big as refrigerators to operate its traffic lights? Thank you, Department of Homeland Security. Requirements for specific kinds of surveillance…

Behe and the California Creationism Case

Last week, I reposted four old articles that I wrote back in 2005, when a group representing a number of Christian schools in California filed a lawsuit against the University of California claiming that UC's rejection of several of their courses was illegal "viewpoint discrimination." In a more recent post, I mentioned that there's a hearing on motions for summary judgement scheduled for later this month. I also mentioned that the Christian schools claim that all they are doing is "adding a religious viewpoint" to "standard course material." It doesn't take a genius to see that the "…

Christian theology in the news

PZ Placeholder at Pharyngula is reporting that evangelical churches in Kenya want to shut down the rich human fossil exhibit at the Kenya national museum. He's concerned that a rich heritage of all humanity will be Talibanised (remember the Buddha statues in Afghanistan?). From what I know of African religion, churches there tend to be more conservative than western churches, but I doubt Kenya will accede to their requests. Despite Arap Moi's previous dictatorship there, it's now a democratic nation not based on religion. More encouraging for me is that the current Australian federal science…

Top Psych/Neuroscience posts from ResearchBlogging.org

Here are my picks this week for the best psychology/neuroscience posts on ResearchBlogging.org. Who feels pain after surgery...LONG after surgery? As many as 50 percent of patients report pain long after surgery. Healthskills examines a paper exploring some of the reasons why. Speaking of pain, how do you study whether overweight people feel "less full" than average-weight people? Have them swallow a condom and inflate it in their stomachs. Eew! Scicurious examines the science. Kids know Batman doesn't play with Spongebob, but do they keep the imaginary worlds they make up for games separate…

Expectorated!

A real journalist reviews a media conference held for the new pro-ID film Expelled: Freedom of expression is unseemly at an Expelled press conference. There was no give-and-take, no open marketplace of ideas, in fact, scarcely any questions at all. Ruloff and Stein batted one softball after another out of the park from those posed by Paul Lauer, a representative of the film's public relations firm. Questions from non-employees had to be submitted by email. Lauer (or somebody at his firm) screened them. I'm not sure whether Thomas Aquinas handled media inquiries this way. I'll have my…

Australia goes Gitmo

An Indian doctor working in Queensland, where I live, whose cousin was involved in the failed bombing plot in the UK, was detained apparently because he lent his prepaid SIM card to the cousin. He was held without charge or bail for 13 days, under a magistrate's orders, which is barely acceptable. But the Australian Federal Police leaked information to the media that incriminated him. Then he was brought before a magistrate, who allowed him bail. Got that? The legal system worked to assess his alleged crime and the evidence offered to support the charge, and a magistrate decided the charge…

Encyclopedia Brown returns

Let's consider this a post-script to Dave's recent and well-received Children's Book forum, though one that stretches the boundary of a "science" posting (and calls into question my placement of it under "culture wars"). But I did post a comment at Tara's contribution to the Children's book post at Aetiology (here), though never got around to doing so here. So Encyclopedia Brown is back and more political than you might remember, with Encyclopedia Brown And the Mysterious Presidency of George W. Bush. This is sort of an advertisement I've gotten myself into, but the material's worth it.…

Homosexuality, philosophically speaking...with some Foucault for good measure

Janet, as seems to be the norm, has another interesting thread going on at Adventures in Science and Ethics, about searching for biological bases for homosexuality. I did an interview for The Believer recently with a historian and philosopher of sexuality, Arnold Davidson, who's at the University of Chicago (and the University of Pisa too, actually). The interview hits on the subject at hand by putting questions about science and sexuality into historical context. It's an interesting piece, I think. Go, go. Go check it out. Look at that, twice linked in a mere three lines. And as for…

What is Nerdcore?

Nerdcore is a new genre of music created by nerds for nerds. Feel that music underrepresents your strong feelings about your +2 Chain Mail...well now you have no need to fret. Nerdcore is what happened when people who know what a Hidden Markov Model is started rapping about it. I hadn't heard about this until today but I have been perusing about and some of this stuff is just fantastic. Here is a description from Wired Magazine: Tupac and Biggie, move over. A new hip-hop feud is brewing that glamorizes not guns and 'hos but Java and secure encryption algorithms. While gangsta rap is seen…

Confessions of a professional cheat

You can't get much more cynical than this article by a fellow who churns out term papers for incompetent students. He gives some examples of how awful their writing is, and talks about the formulaic approach he takes to writing everything from term papers to Ph.D. theses…and it's more than a little depressing. I do a lot of work for seminary students. I like seminary students. They seem so blissfully unaware of the inherent contradiction in paying somebody to help them cheat in courses that are largely about walking in the light of God and providing an ethical model for others to follow. I…

A poem: Aubade by Philip Larkin

This was brought to my attention by a reader on the alt.fan.pratchett group in response to an evangeliser there. Below the fold, it really asserts how I think of death (and identifies me thus as an Epicurean). Aubade I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In time the curtain-edges will grow light. Till then I see what's really always there: Unresting death, a whole day nearer now, Making all thought impossible but how And where and when I shall myself die. Arid interrogation: yet the dread Of dying, and being dead, Flashes afresh to hold and…

Best of ET 2008

I's an ego thing, sure, but it's also a handy way of seeing what one did this past year. Here are what I think of as the substantial posts of Evolving Thoughts from 2008. Sorry for the lateness - it's a longish list. I (and my guest blogger) have been real busy this year... Religion and Creationism Desecration, blasphemy in public, and manners Why are there still monkeys? Can a Christian accept natural selection as true? Does religion evolve? The heat of religion The religious we have always with us Agriculture and the rise of religion The origins of agriculture now extended Darwin, God and…

The road to hell

In the final chapter of Terry Pratchett's Eric, the wizard Rincewind and the boy Eric are climbing out of hell on steep steps. He looked down at the broad steps they were climbing. They were something of a novelty; each one was built out of large stone letters. The one he was just stepping onto, for example, read: I Meant It For The Best. The next one was: I Thought You'd Like It. Eric was standing on: For The Sake Of The Children. "Weird, isn't it?" he said. "Why do it like this?" "I think they're meant to be good intentions," said Rincewind. This was meant to be a road to Hell, and demons…

Peace in our time!

I have been called, for my denial of outright atheism, a Chamberlainist. Well I never felt so much like Neville Chamberlain today as I walked through the corridors of the Seat of Learning* with a contract from the publishers for my book Species: A history of an Idea. I felt like shouting as I waved it, "Peace in our time!" except that the corridors are empty and I'd have felt like a right loon doing that. As has been noted recently, by the way, Neville Chamberlain noticed that his rapprochement with Hitler had failed and rearmed Britain for the coming war, and responded to Hitler's…

Older Americans using alternative medicine; not telling docs

This is a recipe for disaster: a demographic prone by need to polypharmacy, also using supplements, etc., without informing their primary care provider. A joint study by AARP and NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine reveal that nearly three-quarters of patients over age 50 do not discuss their use of complementary and alternative medicines and other over-the-counter medicines with their doctors. "We know that people 50 and older tend to be high users of complementary and alternative medicine, but this study was the first to explore gaps in communications regarding…

Are you writing a vampire novel, too?

Last night before bed, I downloaded and started to read a light piece of fluffy fiction, one of these urban fantasy novels that are so popular right now. I won't name it because I really just want to complain about a phenomenon I'm seeing a lot of in this whole genre, as much as I've read, anyway. The driving conflict of this story is supposed to be the horror of the undead: the protagonist is both tainted with the curse of partial undeadness and trying to protect friends from being similarly afflicted. This is a reasonable premise for a fantasy novel, and could make for a good story. However…

Even the musically untrained respond differently to new symphonic movements

A new study of brain responses to music has found a striking difference in brain activity when a symphonic movement ends and the next one begins, compared to other parts of the musical work. A team led by Vinod Menon (and including This Is Your Brain on Music author Daniel Levitin) played excerpts from the symphonic works of English composer William Boyce while while monitoring the brain activity of the listeners. Make sure you follow the link to the original press release for an amazing video showing brain activity as one movement ends and the next begins. Boyce was chosen because his works…

Modeling a real brain

A rat's brain has millions of neurons, each with up to 10,000 connections to other neurons. This "simple" animal's neural network is mind-bogglingly complex. Yet a Swiss laboratory has achieved remarkable success duplicating a vast region of a rat's brain using a supercomputer. They still have a ways to go, however. The computer currently has 10,000 microprocessors, each representing a single neuron in the rat's brain. To duplicate the entire brain they'll need a computer 2,000 times bigger. Their ultimate goal is even more ambitious: to create a model of the human brain, with its hundred…

Are prizes a better way to fund research than grants?

Suppose you're a granting agency, and you have $1 million to spend to help foster research in your area of interest. Would you be better off giving ten grants for $100,000 each, in hopes that one or more of the funded projects might produce results, or just announce a $1 million prize -- to be awarded after a researcher achieves the desired goals. Instead of gambling on whether the discovery can be made, you let the researchers do the gambling -- and you only have to pay if they produce the goods. The Wall Street Journal's David Wessel discusses the growing trend of offering prizes instead of…

What are the causes of infantile amnesia?

Over at Developing Intelligence, Chris Chatham has a fascinating discussion of infantile amnesia, which he tantalizingly terms a "myth." Chris cites research demonstrating that infants can and do remember things, even stories read to them in the womb: 3-day-old infants were capable of distinguishing a particular passage (from Dr. Seuss's "Cat in the Hat") that had been read to them twice daily for the last 6 weeks of gestation from similar passages (matched for word count, length, and prosody). What's more, these infants preferred the familiar passage even if spoken by someone other than…

Casual Fridays: Almost significant

Nonsignificance is the bane of every researcher. They know they've got an effect, but those darned statistics prove otherwise. In cognitive psychology, the standard for significance is p < .05, which means, essentially, that there's a 5 percent chance that the results are simply due to chance, instead of revealing a bona-fide phenomenon. For this week's Casual Friday, try as I may, I just couldn't find a significant effect. The idea was straightforward enough. We based our design on a really cool study from Gillian Rhodes' lab, which found that by repeatedly exposing viewers to fatter-than…

Flash-lag demos galore!

The flash-lag effect is difficult to explain, but amazingly cool to see. Over at Mixing Memory, Chris has a great post where he links to two examples of the phenomenon and discusses what might be causing it. Cool, isn't it? I can't resist linking to one more example, created by none other than CogDaily's own Greta Munger. Here are her instructions for seeing the illusion: "Take a look at the movie below, and decide whether or not the blue flashed object is exactly aligned with the end of the gray rod. To start the movie, click on the rod." Greta discusses the illusion further in this post.…

Apparently conflicting results on obesity and mortality

The Washington Post has an article claiming that being just a few pounds overweight can lead to premature death: The 10-year study of more than 500,000 U.S. adults found that those who were just moderately overweight in their fifties were 20 percent to 40 percent more likely to die in the next decade. Another study involving more than 1 million Korean adults, also being published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, produced similar results. Meanwhile, Jake at Pure Pedantry has uncovered a report claiming just the opposite: In a review of the studies published on the subject,…

The Catholic Church: Sowing grim joylessness wherever they go

The Catholic church has announced a few requirements for the papal visit to the UK: The 100,000 Roman Catholics expected to attend the pope's open-air "great mass" in Glasgow have been urged by their cardinal to endure the "sacrifices" the event will involve. Tens of thousands of pilgrims in Glasgow will have to get to next Thursday's event at Bellahouston Park on public transport after their private coaches were cancelled. Umbrellas have been banned, there will be no seating provided, and pilgrims will have to stay in the park for at least five hours on security grounds. … "At the great…

Evolution, Climate Change, and the Nature of Science

Over at Real Climate, Raypierre has an exceedingly enlightening post about the similarities and differences between attacks on evolution and attacks on global warming. As someone who has explored both areas extensively--and who has also found striking similarities, if also some differences--I think he gets almost everything right. Almost. You see, there's one philosophical point that bugs me. Raypierre strains the entire discussion through an attempt to explain what constitutes science, and on this matter he takes guidance from Judge Jones' already famous opinion in the Dover evolution trial…

Can you guess my facial expression?

Take a look at this photo: What emotion would you say I'm expressing here? Let's make this one a poll (make sure you answer before you read any farther): In 1872, Charles Darwin argued that facial expressions must have evolved just as surely as eyes or noses (you can read an excerpt from his work on emotional expressions in Greta's book The History of Psychology: Fundamental Questions). Later research has shown that there are several universally understood facial expressions, and that these expressions can be defined and described specifically so that anyone can imitate them and make their…

On Sacrificing Reproductive Fitness For Career Advancement...

As Natalie Angier rightly points out, women are making tremendous strides in science and engineering earning 40 percent of U.S. doctorates in 2006 (up from eight percent 50 years ago). But we've still got a long way to go in terms of leveling the playing field after graduation. Angier references a recent survey of 160,000 Ph.D. recipients that found 70 percent of male tenured professors were married with children while only 44 percent of their female counterparts were. Further, twelve years or more after receiving doctorates, tenured women were more than "twice as likely as tenured men to be…

The science media make my head hurt

First, read this parody of science journalism. It's the template for just about every science story you'll find in a newspaper, and it's so depressing. Second, imagine something even worse. Hint: it's the media's coverage of every scientific "controversy" you might think of. It takes a few of the tropes mentioned in the parody, like "shift responsibility for establishing the likely truth or accuracy of the research findings on to absolutely anybody else but me, the journalist" and "quotes from some fringe special interest group of people who, though having no apparent understanding of the…

David Baltimore Hails ScienceDebate2008 in AAAS President's Address

I'm not going to Boston this year for the AAAS meeting--Sheril will be my eyes and ears--but I didn't have to be there to hear about what Nobel laureate David Baltimore said during his president's address yesterday. He began by prominently highlighting ScienceDebate2008. Here is an excerpt from his remarks: We have a Presidential election coming. Science and technology have played at best minor roles in the primary campaigns. Now that we have a limited candidate pool, it is time for our community to be heard. A debate on science has been proposed and some 15,000 people and many organisation…

The Science of Kissing

Ah, February... that very special time of year for celebrating the one we love (or bemoaning the greeting card industry). While flipping through the month's Scientific American, I came upon this article about 'Why We Kiss' and immediately found myself intrigued. Now I expect most of us hope to experience the 'ever-elusive, out-of-the-ballpark-home-run, earth-shattering, perfect kiss,' but what exactly is it? How does it happen? Wait a sec, this is ScienceBlogs for goodness sake, so let's dissect this one carefully and get down to exploring the science of kissing... Why do we kiss? It's…

Life Aquatic

Craig McClain--scibling, intrepid deep sea explorer, and all around cool guy over at Deep Sea News has provided a great reminder of how vast oceans are... Randomly place a point on our planet and it would be deep sea. In our daily activities so far removed from this environment, we begin to think all the earth is like our tiny, little corner. We begin to think this is all there is. By volume, land makes up only 0.5% of the earth and the shallow seas 21%. The deep is 78.5%. That thin, little red strip at 0.5% represents the part we've explored. Every day will yield something new as we…

Whoever said a Green Potato Chip was a Bad Thing?

Student Post by Stephanie Gold Today, it seems that everywhere we go we hear about companies and retailers trying to do something for the environment. Whether it's Wal-Mart installing solar panels to power everything from the store lighting to the refrigerator section or a small local grocery store installing energy saving light bulbs, it is clear that retailers are beginning to focus on environmental issues across the globe. Some argue that these companies are "going green" because they understand the severity of the global warming problem while others insist that they are motivated by the…

Scheffel's Megatherium

In considering the history of science, it is easy to think of scientific discovery and debate as distinct from the rest of culture. Academics picked away at fossils and squinted at the eyepieces of microscopes in isolation, and only in exceptional cases did science jump the cultural barrier to challenge cherished beliefs. This is nonsense, and even though arguments over scientific minutiae may have been restricted to journals and learned societies, there have been many times when scientific discoveries have stirred great public interest. One way to get at the interaction between science…

A herd of Moeritherium?

A progressive "march" of elephant evolution as portrayed in Ingersoll's The Life of Animals. From left to right Moeritherium, Palaeomastodon, Gomphotherium ("Trilophodon"), Mammut americanum (American mastodon), Elephas maximus (Asian elephant). Every now and then I like to browse through old popular-audience books about evolution. Given that I am writing such a popular book myself I enjoy looking back to see how other authors have approached the same task. In some cases I have come away quite impressed, but other times it seems that some authors of old used such platforms to give their…

Warnings from The Fossil Record: Higher CO2 and Temperature Link to Mass Extinctions

Fossils always have interesting stories to tell, and two studies by prominent scientists in the field suggest this one may not have a happy ending... Today's Seattle Times reports that in Earth's 520+ million year history, four of the five major extinctions are linked to warmer tropical seas. Warmer seas, by the way, are indicative of a warmer planet. Now the trouble is, research suggests our home terra may reach the same level of extinction-connected warming in about a century if we don't curb greenhouse gas emissions. In the British study, Mayhew and his colleagues looked at temperatures…

Brave New World: Making Sense of Information Overload

It's certainly no wonder lots of folks seem confused over the significance of climate change. I recently discussed media driven alarmism, but there's an equally relevant modern pressure that has enormous implications on our individual and collective attention span. At the touch of a laptop, iphone, or blackberry, we are exposed to a limitless sea of information without the proper time to process it all. We've developed into an extremely fast-paced society that has the tremendous capacity to quickly exchange ideas at rates never before experienced by our species. Welcome to the…

'I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.'

* Friday Trivia: Who Said That? * On Tuesday, I explained it's Hip to be Geek, but there's another side to the academic life that's more difficult... the moving part. Those of us pursuing the sciences have this pesky habit of skipping around the globe from one pursuit to the next driven by curiosity to understand the natural world. We love what we do, but it's bittersweet. While whisking off to the next exotic (or not so glamorous) locale is quite a romantic notion -- the thing is, somewhere along the way all this traveling makes home a confusing concept. As you read this, my good friend…

APS 2008: Doing algebra -- it's the little things that count

Quick, solve this problem 3 + 5 * 7 = ? If you still recall high school algebra, you'll remember that you should be doing the multiplication problem first. So the answer would be 35 + 3, or 38. But if you just punch the numbers into your calculator (or if you haven't had occasion to do algebra since the ninth grade), you might do the addition problem first and come up with a different answer. But even when people are reminded about the algebraic solution to the problem, when the numbers are grouped together a little differently, it has a significant impact on whether they're able to solve the…

Man cannot live on science alone - or - Poem O' the Week

I like posting poems from time to time. They remind me that at one point I had an interior life that did not involve anxiety over tissue culture. Anyway, the poem of the week is by Billy Collins, a personal favorite. His work is always direct but insightful -- like prose-poetry until it isn't, when he hits a note of sublimity where only that word will do. (Click on any of the images to enlarge). Study in Orange and White by Billy Collins I knew that James Whistler was part of the Paris scene - the cafe awning and the wicker chair - but I was surprised when I discovered the painting of his…

Chris Mooney on Pacifica Radio

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of hearing href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Goodman" rel="tag">Amy Goodman interview href="http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/about.php">Chris Mooney about the subject of his new book, href="http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/2007/07/storm_world_tour_beginsweather.php" rel="tag">Storm World.   It was a segment from href="http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/11/1343232&mode=thread&tid=25">Democracy Now!  I won't trouble you with a synopsis, you can watch/hear/read it yourself: Listen to href="http://play.…

Bill Moyers on Iraq

Maybe I will turn on the TV next week: face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"> href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003574260">'Devastating' Moyers Probe of Press and Iraq Coming By Greg Mitchell April 19, 2007 NEW YORK (Commentary) The most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq will appear next Wednesday, a 90-minute PBS broadcast called "Buying the War," which marks the return of "Bill Moyers Journal." E&P was sent a preview DVD and a draft transcript for the…

More Telecommuting

Perhaps a minor issue in terms of national priorities: the Senate is considering a bill that would make nearly ll federal employees eligible for telecommuting. face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"> href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/29/AR2007032902043.html">Senators Push for More Telecommuting By Stephen Barr Washington Post Friday, March 30, 2007; Page D04 face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Two senators think it's time for more federal employees to be telecommuting. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) have introduced a bill…

Random Bullets of Bodily Functions

Warning: Do not read on if descriptions of women's natural bodily functions makes you queasy. Last night as I was changing a diaper, I was suddenly debilitated by intense abdominal pain the likes of which I hadn't experienced since, oh, say, labor. The pain was sharp enough that I barely managed to get Minnow dinner and to bed, and I did beg Fish to come home from work early in case it progressed to vomitting. (I ate a place with "local color" for lunch.) Eventually the pain eased, and the cause revealed itself. My period returned overnight. Mind you, I shouldn't complain because it's been…

Child development is a step function?

Yesterday, after reading all your comments on my last post, and contemplating the sheer inanity of having so little evening time to myself (and my work and the housework...), I decided that we would try a new course with Minnow. Fish and I discussed it and we agreed that after we put her down at night, when she woke up we would do our best to comfort her in her crib as long as it wasn't escalating to screaming. If screaming commenced, we would pick her up, calm her down, and put her back down. We would try this for some gradually increasing number of hours (starting with 2) and then resort to…

The wages of pseudoscience

I completely missed the disgraceful hokum the Animal Planet channel aired last week, Mermaids: The Body Found, a completely fictional pseudodocumentary dressed up as reality that claims mermaids exist. You can watch it now, though, until Animal Planet takes it down. It's genuinely awful. Total nonsense, gussied up with more nonsense: would you believe it justifies the story with the Aquatic Ape gobbledygook? Brian Switek has torn into it, and of course Deep Sea News is disgusted. How could the channel have so disgraced themselves with such cheap fiction? Here's the answer: ANIMAL PLANET…