Skepticism
aardvarchaeology | August 28, 2007It is with mixed feelings that I note that Seed has recruited an archaeologist for its Seed Salon dialogue feature ("yesss!"), and that the one they've chosen is Mike Shanks ("nooo!").
Now, why would anyone dislike Mike Shanks? Well, because of, in one word, post-modernism. I read Shanks's dreadful 1987 co-authored book Social Theory and Archaeology, and nothing I've seen of his activities since has suggested that he has become any less of an obscurantist jargon-spewer, academic joker and opponent of rationalist science. He's archaeology's equivalent of Jacques Lacan, whom Noam Chomsky…
pharyngula | August 22, 2007Scienceblog's own Tara Smith, with Steve Novella, has an article in PLoS on HIV Denial in the Internet Era. It describes some of the major players among the HIV deniers, and most importantly talks about their tactics. It's useful even if you aren't at all involved in that branch of biology or invested in that particular argument: one section is titled "Portraying Science as Faith and Consensus as Dogma" and that certainly struck a chord with me — that is one of the most common creationist arguments, as well.
tsmith | August 21, 2007Since there are already several threads on HIV running, and I'm loathe to have another, I'll post this up for consumption but leave the comments for one of the other threads. While I was in New York over the weekend, PLoS Medicine published an article authored by myself and Steven Novella (also of the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe): HIV Denial in the Internet Era.
denialism | August 21, 2007It's so embarrassing when scientists use poorly-constructed studies to blithely reinforce societal stereotypes. Today, LPH at Second Innocence brings us the latest example.
A new study by scientists from Newcastle University gives substance to the old adage 'Pink for a girl, blue for a boy'.
Evolution may have driven women's preference for pink, according to the study published today.
'The explanation might date back to humans' hunter-gatherer days, when women were the primary gatherers and would have benefited from an ability to home in on ripe, red fruits. Culture may exploit and…
aardvarchaeology | August 18, 2007China's interest in the natural resources of Africa has ballooned lately and received much media coverage. Apparently, the last time somebody was that interested in metal ores and scrap, they were Germany in the late 1930s. This political force field across Africa is now, of course, being dressed up in cultural finery, including the manipulation of historical perceptions.
Under the leadership of Admiral Zheng He, China enjoyed a brief era of transoceanic power with insanely huge ships in the early 15th century. These efforts were apparently terminated because the Chinese failed to reach…
aardvarchaeology | August 17, 2007I sometimes make reference here to how godless Swedish public discourse is, particularly compared to the fundie-infested US situation. Here's a good longer piece about this issue by Jerker (it's not a funny name in Swedish, being simply a dialectal version of Eric) of Allotetraploid, also partly available in an English translation by Felicia of Life Before Death.
(No wonder God hates Sweden. We don't like him much either.)
[More blog entries about atheism, agnosticism, religion, politics; ateism, agnosticism, religion, politik.]
tsmith | August 16, 2007A reader pointed this out to me awhile back, and it's just too absurd not to mention. You may or may not be familiar with Gary Null. He's a self-proclaimed "natural living" guru, and the writer/director of the recent HIV denial documentary, AIDS Inc.:
AIDS, Inc. is a film about the multi-billion dollar AIDS industry, and how it profits from continuing fears and misconceptions about the disease....Could it be that after so many years of research, and so much money being spent, that the entire orthodox medical establishment has been wrong about AIDS, or even worse, has sought to profit on a…
denialism | August 15, 2007It's up on Google video - and embedded here. Enjoy!
H/T Factition and Bad Science.
pharyngula | August 15, 2007Thanks to Blake for mentioning this: you can watch Dawkins' The Enemies of Reason, part 1, on Google Video right now. Yay!
pharyngula | August 15, 2007David Colquhoun, author of DC's Improbable Science page, has written a fine criticism of the New Credulity (I know, it's no more "new" than the New Atheism) which he presents as a symptom of an age of endarkenment.
The past 30 years or so have been an age of endarkenment. It has been a period in which truth ceased to matter very much, and dogma and irrationality became once more respectable. This matters when people delude themselves into believing that we could be endangered at 45 minutes' notice by non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
It matters when reputable accountants delude…
pharyngula | August 13, 2007Richard Dawkins has stirred up a new nest of critics, and they're actually getting space in the media. This time, it's an astrologer complaining about those damned skeptics.
Evidently hoping to prove astrologers are know-nothings, Dawkins' interview started with a lengthy grilling about astronomy - the precession of the equinoxes, sidereal and tropical zodiacs, Kuiper Belt objects. There was the usual objection to astrology dividing people into 12 Sun signs, and my usual reply: that's eight more than the Myers-Briggs personality test used by commerce. Actually, astrology's basic personality…
pharyngula | August 6, 2007The atheists, skeptics, and secular humanists of Fresno have formed up and consolidate, and now they're looking for a name for their group. Since, in the absence of an infusion of God's creative will, they couldn't possibly come up with an idea of their own, they've started a contest to come up with an appropriate label for their nest of elitist vipers in the bosom of Christendom. Can someone here think of a good name?
aardvarchaeology | August 4, 2007Registration has opened for The Amazing Meeting 5.5, a skeptical conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on 25-27 January 2008. The conference takes its name from skeptical godfather James (The Amazing) Randi, who will preside over the event together with Hal Bidlack. The theme of the meeting is Skepticism & Activism. Among the speakers are 9/11-conspiracy skeptic Mark Roberts, Skepchick founder Rebecca Watson, anti-psychic campaigner Robert S. Lancaster and sf author Michael A. Stackpole.
I'm going to TAM 5.5 as an emissary of the Swedish Skeptics Society (Vetenskap och Folkbildning) and…
denialism | August 1, 2007Welcome to the 66th meeting of the International Society of Skeptics.
Abstracts from attendees:
Straw Men and Circular Reasoning
Author: Skeptico
Introduction The problem of debunking crop circles persists despite many previous valiant efforts (See Sagan, C.S. Demon Haunted World).
Results In this study the author evaluates current research into the formation of crop circles. Relying on faulty evidence and circular reasoning, current proponents fail to elevate crop circle formation from hoax to alien conspiracy.
Conclusions Crop circles remain convincing evidence of extraterrestrial life…
denialism | July 31, 2007
What is it about reporting on pot that makes people so Puritanical? Today I read in the Guardian Cannabis joints damage lungs more than tobacco - study.
A single cannabis joint may cause as much damage to the lungs as five chain-smoked cigarettes, research has found.
Is that so? Let's take a look at the data.
The authors of the article compared smokers to fairly heavy marijuana users - based on the mean smoking exposure of the groups (54.2 joint years compared to 23 pack-years for the smokers both with a mean age ~42-46) the group was clearly smoking multiple joints a day over decades…
denialism | July 31, 2007Just a reminder, I would like all submissions to the 66th Skeptics Circle by today.
pharyngula | July 30, 2007I never get stalkers like this. What is the secret of Phil's animal magnetism?
(via Depleted Cranium)
denialism | July 30, 2007
A lot of people are talking about a new study showing a 40% increase risk of "psychosis", which I first heard news of in this story, from the Daily Mail:
A single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 percent, a disturbing study warns.
The Government-commissioned report has also found that taking the drug regularly more than doubles the risk of serious mental illness.
Overall, cannabis could be to blame for one in seven cases of schizophrenia and other life-shattering mental illness, the Lancet reports.
Something sounds a little off. Let's see what this Lancet…
denialism | July 26, 2007I couldn't resist when I read this Guardian story about Oscar, the death predicting cat.
When the two-year-old grey and white cat curls up next to an elderly resident, staff now realise, this means they are likely to die in the next few hours.
Such is Oscar's apparent accuracy - 25 consecutive cases so far - that nurses at the US home now warn family members to rush to a patient's beside as soon as the cat takes up residence there.