pseudoscience
clock | January 15, 2007It appears that Ed Cone gets some commenters who desperately need to tune in next time Skeptic's Circle comes around! They defend this crap (and, in turn, attack Randi of all people) in the comment thread! Oy vey! Some people still believe in spoon-bending and are vehemently defending it in a public forum with no sense of shame! What woo!
clock | December 9, 2006Mark points out to this amazing example of innumeracy:
Yup, it is 25 minutes long and it is frustrating as hell. And there is no resolution in the end.
To make a long story short, the guy went to Canada and before the trip he asked Verizon what his charge would be while there. He was quoted 0.002 cents per kilobyte. When he came back, he found out he was charged at the rate of 0.002 dollars instead. A nice, clean 100-fold difference.
He got on the phone (and recorded these 25 minutes of the conversation) and went through one rep to another, tryng, in vein, to get them to understand…
clock | December 7, 2006Or the Carnival of the Godless? You can mine this site for ideas. Ooooh, scientific materialism! Scary! Papa Jeebus, protect me, please, because I am a coward!
jlynch | November 19, 2006Bob Henderson is an 80 year old retired electrical engineer who thinks "Albert Einstein was a dunce." So convinced is he of this that he has written a third book on the subject: Einstein and The-Emperor's-New-Clothes Syndrome: The Exposé of a Charlatan. Notes the AZ Republic:
Henderson was, and is, qualified to be asking these questions because his work was science. He says he graduated second in his class from the University of Arizona in 1950 with a degree in electrical engineering. He then worked for RCA in New Jersey before returning home to work at Motorola. Some of his work was in the…
clock | November 18, 2006If you are interested in the saga of the Bosnian pyramid, it may be difficult for you to follow it as the members of the Anti-Pyramid Webring write mainly in some version of Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian language. But now, they have started a new, central blog for posts in English - the APWR Central. Contributors are needed.
clock | November 15, 2006An oldie but goodie (June 12, 2005) debunking one of the rare Creationist claims that encroaches onto my territory.
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I got homework to do. PZ Myers alerted me to an incredible argument that the existence of circadian rhythms denies evolution!
bryanm, the proprietor of the aptly-named The Narrow blog, describes himself as "...nobody who wants to tell everybody that there is somebody who can save anybody." In other words he is a know-nothing who keeps bothering everybody trying to push his idea that there is this non-existent being who…
clock | November 14, 2006You may have heard about the crazy "discovery" of a pyramid in Bosnia, the scientific nonsense about it and the political heat it provoked. I have covered the story last winter and spring in a lot of detail (see my posts from December 07, 2005, January 30, 2006, April 17, 2006, April 22, 2006, April 29, 2006, May 02, 2006, May 07, 2006, May 13, 2006, May 16, 2006, June 02, 2006 and June 07, 2006), but have lost touch since then. And a lot of stuff happened in the meantime. The members of the Anti-Pyramid Webring have been pursuing the story with vigor and I'll try to catch up with them and…
jlynch | November 11, 2006Wilkins had hit a good one here: the Evolution Crackpot Index. Rumor has it that the denizens of Uncommon Descent, ISCID and suchlike score in the high thousands.
clock | November 4, 2006Just in case you have, as a child, heard the myth that ducks' quack does not produce an echo, and have never outgrew the myth (possibly by never even thinking about it ever since), a potential IgNobel winner for next year has been published and, yes, ducks' quacks produce echoes. Shelley has the details of the experiments and the link to the sound-file of the quack and the echo. Ah, the power of the scientific method! Though alternative methods have been proposed:
Now, the question remains: which echo-chamber does the duck prefer: its Left Wing or its Right Wing?
clock | November 1, 2006One of th efirst posts on Circadiana, just defining what the blog was about (January 17, 2005):
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When I first took a class on Biological Clocks (eleven years ago), the instructor explained why biorhythms are not science. This was done with such fun, and as aside, I did not take it seriously. I did not realize I was supposed to study this exercise in Baloney Detection. I was surprised when I saw the question on the first mid-term exam, asking us to debunk biorhythms point-by-point. I lost several points there. I have learned since then to pay…
clock | October 30, 2006Archy sums it all up in An object lesson in Wiki research. Nice to see a professional historian take a look at history of pseudoscience.
clock | October 25, 2006...and no means to get back! See how that happened on the latest Skeptics' Circle - On a Mission from God, up on Left Brain/Right Brain. Then use the Quackometer (the last link at the bottom of the carnival) to rate the quackiness of the claim debunked in each post.
clock | October 25, 2006It's been a year since this first appeared (September 21, 2005). I wonder if the "academy" is still open or what are they studying there....
This I learned from Eric:
How to become an astrologer
For those few remaining stubborn hold-outs who still cannot read Serbo-Croatian, here's a quick translation:
Institute for Astrological Research and Education "Johannes Kepler" recently opened in Belgrade. The goals of the Institute are to support the research in astrology, academic approach to astrology, and to aid astrologers and astrology in gaining social status.
The Institute is not a part of…
clock | October 17, 2006Razib and commenters are commenting on this article which appears to be 19th century SF-fantasy repackaged as "serious science" about the future evolution of the human species. Actually, the article is so silly, Razib does not even want to waste time on it and points out only one of the obvious fallacies of the argument, the one about skin color. On the other hand, Lindsay does a thorough and delightful fisking that you may enjoy!
I don't even know in which 'channel' to put this post. I guess it is "biology" but only nominally... as we do not have a "nonsense and having fun with it"…
clock | October 14, 2006John bemoans the state of science journalism, with some added history of the Atlantis hypothesis.
clock | October 12, 2006You can read and LISTEN TO the 45th Edition of the Skeptic's Circle at The Inoculated Mind
jlynch | October 11, 2006So said Eeyore. But equally, it could describe this - Dembski has noticed the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Society, and so wants to be like Dawkins:
Anybody who is willing and able to upgrade the look, feel, and functionality of this site (Uncommon Descent) to match that of the Dawkins site will receive three of my books autographed. What a deal. Think it over.
Wow.
clock | October 5, 2006Bill Bailey reports that an organization called 'Screening for Mental Health' offers free screenings for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). But then, they push drugs on people they "diagnose". The only problem - SAD is not treated with drugs!!! It is a circadian disorder, treated with light therapy and behavioral therapy. Quacks!
jlynch | September 30, 2006Dembski breathlessly announces the latest front in the ID war on science - they've been unable to convince any relevent scientists, so they go straight to the children:
The Darwinists have had your young people long enough to shape, subvert, and corrupt. Send them to www.overwhelmingevidence.com and mobilize this sleeping giant! The old guard is not going to change. The hope of the future lies with our youth. The new ... site is modeled on Xanga and Myspace and aimed at concentrating the power of youth to throw off the indoctrination that is being shoved down their throats by groups like the…