Skepticism
tsmith | August 5, 2010Interesting post today at juggle.com, showing the evolution of a conspiracy theory akin to a game of telephone. Interestingly, it starts with an article in Wired by author (and former Scienceblogger) Johah Lehrer. Lehrer wrote an article on the effects of chronic stress on health outcomes, and one researcher's work to develop something akin to a vaccine to mitigate the stress effects. Sounds reasonable, no?
Next, the Daily Mail picked up the article, and focused on the "stress vaccine" angle.
Finally, the folks at Alex Jones' Prison Planet--who've never met a conspiracy theory they didn't…
pharyngula | August 2, 2010In addition to summarizing my talk in Vancouver, the Crommunist also reports on godless CFI skeptics participating in the Vancouver gay pride weekend. I don't understand…how is it we amoral fiends lacking an objective source of cosmic ethics always seem to come down on the right side of the civil rights issues of our time?
aardvarchaeology | August 2, 2010Swedish author, dramatist, director, comedian etc. Hans Alfredson once said that the brain is an organ with which we think (tänker) that we think. The Swedish word used here does not mean "believe": it means "cogitate". So, since my teens I've read this as a lovely materialist aphorism about how everything that goes on in our heads is actually just simulated in wetware. Our brains help us compute the illusion of cogitation.
Now I find that Alfredson was actually translating something that Ambrose Bierce said in his Devil's Dictionary (1911): "Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think…
pharyngula | July 31, 2010This is an appalling story. Those "Girls Gone Wild" videos are already about the sleaziest things you'll find advertised on mainstream TV: they are basically made by getting young women drunk to reduce their inhibitions and than urging them to expose themselves for 'fame' and titillation, and convincing them to do something stupid in front of a camera. Usually it's a case of consensual stupidity (which should never be arousing, except for the fact that even sober guys can be awfully mindless about that sort of thing), but sometimes it crosses the line into assault.
STLToday reports that the…
aardvarchaeology | July 29, 2010In the early 15th century, Imperial Chinese mariners under the eunuch admiral Zheng He made great voyages of discovery in enormous ships. Then the Hongxi Emperor decided that what they had found on far shores was underwhelming, the whole fleet was scuppered and the Chinese paid no further attention to seafaring. In 2007 I discussed a silly story about alleged descendants of Zheng He's non-eunuch crew in Kenya who had suddenly remembered their Chinese heritage, which was convenient since the Chinese were interested in local mining rights.
Now the Guardian has news about the Kenya - Zheng He -…
gregladen | July 27, 2010I've significantly expanded the search domain (or is that range?) of the Evolution ... not just a theory anymore Skeptical Search Engine. Click here to give it a try. Look up stuff like "ghost" and "vaccine" and "fluoride" and see what you get. Let me know if you think I'm missing any important sites.
pharyngula | July 26, 2010This is true, but cruel:
It made me think…there would be a lot more vegans in the world if they could each declare one special exemption. I think "I'm a vegan, except when it comes to bacon" would be a very common phrase, just like "I'm a skeptic, except when it comes to religion."
Mmmm, bacon.
gregladen | July 25, 2010Did you know that it is a fallacy that poor people have more babies than other people? I'll be discussing this topic next Friday at 6PM Mountain Time on Skeptically Speaking Talk Radio, with Desiree Schell, in the next installment of "Everything You Know is Sort of Wrong" (This is part of the Falsehoods discussion.)
Speaking of fear, Barry Glassner, author of The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things, will be the main (and live) guest on Friday's show. I'm looking forward to that.
Also, last friday's show on The Science of Sleep with Kimberly Cote is now up in…
pharyngula | July 23, 2010At last, word of Phil's secret media project has leaked out: he's got a Discovery Channel show about how the universe is out to get him, called Bad Universe. It's got debunkings of astronomical myths and bad movie tropes, and most importantly, it's got explosions.
I'll watch that.
(via Skepchick)
gregladen | July 22, 2010Where all the crap on the Internet is excluded, so your results are from the kind of sites you actually want to use as sources of information?
CLICK HERE and bookmark that page!
pharyngula | July 20, 2010I've been getting slapped upside the head with this "dick" meme that's roaring through the skeptic community lately, largely because it seems that any time someone makes a generic criticism of rude, abrasive, confrontational critics of foolishness, the audience all thinks of the life-size poster of PZ Myers they've got hanging on their bedroom door back home. It's a little annoying. Everybody seems to imagine that if Granny says "Bless you!" after I sneeze, I punch her in the nose, and they're all busy dichotomizing the skeptical community into the nice, helpful, sweet people who don't rock…
pharyngula | July 19, 2010Once again, the Huffington Post features front page quackery. In this case, it's a ridiculous article that accuses dermatology of being a conspiracy to make doctors rich; you know that stuff about UV damage to the skin inducing melanoma? It's all made up by doctors who are in the pocket of the vast sunscreen industry.
I don't link to Huffington Post anymore, so you'll have to settle for Peter Lipson's deconstruction.
pharyngula | July 17, 2010The lineup for SkeptiCon 3 just keeps getting better and better — James Randi and Sam Singleton are going to be there now, too. One other important feature of this meeting: every time I mention one of these posh meetings with the fancy-pants speakers, someone looks at the registration fees and swoons theatrically at the cost. That won't happen here.
It's free.
You'll have to get there somehow, but that shouldn't be a problem. There are lots of flights into Springfield, Missouri because it's the gateway to Branson, the old-timey c'ntry western entertainment capitol. Just think, you'll get to…
pharyngula | July 16, 2010Feeling bored? Not enough creationists turning up on Pharyngula? Do you need some fresh meat? There's a whole field of sheep on the Natural Therapy Pages on Facebook who are unaccustomed to skeptical wolves! A few sample messages there:
Tony Gyenis Susanne and I are bringing tuning forks and channeling to a whole new level. I am presently the only Tuning Fork practitioner in Canada that I know of working in the 6th dimension. We love the fact that we are working with group healing to empower large numbers of people. We will start in Ottawa, Canada and move this across the country and then…
pharyngula | July 15, 2010Rachel Roberts says, "I don't know how, but homeopathy really does work". Oh, I thought, let's give it a try and hear why. But then I was five paragraphs in and getting nothing but this inane anecdote about how when she was 21, and she was at this party, see, and this lady said she used to have some ailment of an unspecified nature and then she took two sugar pills and zip-zap-alakazam, a couple of days later, she was cured!!! Of what, I don't know. Could have been a cold. Coulda been terminal pancreatic cancer. Coulda been the Zombie Plague, and the lady could have been green and dead with…
pharyngula | July 14, 2010That's the latest news, anyway: radio masts operated by the Vatican have been implicated in an increased incidence of cancers nearby.
It is such a juicily evil story — it would just fit the Pope's Bond villain image so well — but, and I really, really hate to defend the Vatican, I don't buy it. Sorry. I know it's my mission to smack the Catholic church around, but this is a case where I just find it highly unlikely.
I have not read the report; all I've seen so far is the accusation, the small numbers (19 deaths in 23 years) and the excessive charges — 6 people are being investigated on…
pharyngula | July 13, 2010Barbara Ehrenreich critiques positive thinking — and blames some of our problems on it. There's a lot of truth here, and it's also entertaining to watch.
pharyngula | July 13, 2010The Australian Vaccination Network is an awful little organization that exists to spread fear and disinformation about vaccines, under the pretense of caring about children. They're getting an official comeuppance, though: the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission has put together a report condemning AVN. They're announcing that AVN's claims are inaccurate and misleading, and further, that AVN harasses people. There's a terrible story at that link of a couple whose child died miserably of whooping cough…and Meryl Dorey, head of AVN, responded by demanding medical records and…
pharyngula | July 12, 2010So don't call her Dr McKeith. She hasn't earned it. Also, it irks her something fierce when you question her title.
If you're an American, you have something you can take real pride in: you've probably never heard of Gillian McKeith. I hadn't. Apparently, she's a prominent woo-peddler in the UK, with her face and various encomiums plastered on magic chlorophyll pills and dong-distenders and ingredients for superfoods that will make your hair grow and your liver do backflips. She also writes popular books that make outrageously silly claims about medicine and science. She also claims to have a…