Skepticism/Critical Thinking
oracknows | October 26, 2006The 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…
oracknows | October 22, 2006A "reality" television show is being developed in Israel that has to be about the biggest misnomer I've ever heard. You see, infamous fake "spoon bender" Uri Geller is doing a televisions show in which he seeks an "heir" to his psychic/telekinetic throne:
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - After four decades of bending spoons, halting clocks, reading minds, and penning metaphysical thrillers, Uri Geller is seeking a paranormal protege.
A reality television show being produced in Israel, where Geller grew up, will feature 10 contestants vying for the title of "heir" to the world-famous celebrity psychic.
"…
oracknows | October 20, 2006I had considered putting Your Friday Dose of Woo on hiatus this week. It seemed rather superfluous. After all, for whatever reason, whatever confluence of strangeness, this blog has read like Your Friday Dose of Woo for nearly the entire week. I mean, come on. I started out fisking that über-woo Deepak Chopra on Monday, and then, not satisfied with one deconstruction of Choprawoo, I took him on again on Tuesday! Then, not content that enough woo had been dealt with on the blog this week, for whatever reason, yesterday I decided to write about what is arguably the ultimate in woo (at least in…
oracknows | October 18, 2006Due to long delays because of rain on the East Coast that resulted in an air traffic delay and a lot of hanging out for hours at O'Hare airport waiting for the delay to be lifted, I never managed to write anything for today. (I was tempted to spend the $6.95 for wireless while waiting around. Unfortunately, the wireless in the part of O'Hare where I was stranded had a really weak and fluctuating signal. I couldn't even manage to get it to accept my credit card information, and thus decided to bail on that idea.) By the time I got back, it was late, and I was way too exhausted to write…
oracknows | October 17, 2006...check out Ed Brayton's masterful fisking of some truly awful anti-evolution "arguments."
Note especially the way that the two bloggers who run the site, when faced with criticisms of their mangling of facts and attributing "holes" in evolutionary theory that really aren't, simply repeat the same fallacious arguments again and again in the comments and keep calling evolution a "conjecture" that is not supported by facts, even though it is arguably the best-supported theory in the history of science.
It's truly depressing to see such astonishing ignorance coupled with such overweening…
oracknows | October 17, 2006It seems like only yesterday that I was fisking yet another piece of seriously irritating woo from that expert purveyor of woo, Deepak Chopra. In fact, it was only yesterday that I was fisking part two of Chopra's woo-filled The Trouble With Genes series. As I mentioned in my previous fisking, I had thought that Dr. Chopra might lay low for a while, and was surprised that he popped up again so soon.
So color me even more surprised that Chopra wasted no time in wading back in again with yet more of his tradmark brand of woo (which I like to call Choprawoo) in a post entitled The Trouble With…
oracknows | October 16, 2006Alright, I'll come right out and admit it up front. There was no part one to this piece. Well, there was, but it wasn't on this blog, and I didn't write it. PZ did in response to some really idiotic arguments from ignorance that Deepak Chopra (or, less pleasing to Dr. C, here) displayed as part of an "argument" (and I use the term loosely) that there is some mystical other quality that explains life other than genes. He paraded a litany of arguments that so conclusively demonstrated that he had no clue about even the basics of molecular biology that I as a physician cringed and hid my head in…
oracknows | October 14, 2006Here we go again.
The "scientists" at the Discovery Institute seldom miss an opportunity to shoot themselves in the foot by making specious arguments that anyone with a reasonable understanding of evolution can shoot down. It doesn't take an evolutionary biologist to thoroughly dismantle most of the "scholarship" that flows from the DI (which is indeed fortunate for me, given that I am not an evolutionary biologist). Leave it to the North Koreans, with their recent apparently successful test of a nuclear explosive device, to give the intrepid Don Quixotes over in Seattle the excuse to tilt at…
oracknows | October 12, 2006I'm afraid that I have been a bit remiss in my duties as the coordinator of the Skeptic's Circle. You see, today was a travel day, and I was heading to Chicago on business. Unfortunately, the Skeptics' Circle link was not posted very early this morning before I left (probably due to the fact that it was even earlier in California, the abode of our current host, The Innoculated Mind. But it's worth the wait. You see, this edition's host, Karl Mogel, has done something that's never been done with the Circle before. He's put together the first combined Skeptics' Circle/podcast with the 45th…
oracknows | October 11, 2006This would be hilarious if it weren't for what it says about critical thinking skills:
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German lawyer hopes to drum up more business by pursuing state compensation claims for people who believe they were abducted by aliens.
"There's quite obviously demand for legal advice here," Jens Lorek told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. "The trouble is, people are afraid of making fools of themselves in court."
Lorek, a lawyer based in the eastern city of Dresden who specializes in social and labor law, said he hoped to expand his client base by taking on the unusual work.
He has…
oracknows | October 10, 2006File this under the "You Learn Something New Every Day" category. Apparently, ghosts can be horny little buggers, and a "ghostbuster" named Syed Abdullah Alattas, founder and chief investigator of Seekers Malaysia, has been investigating:
GHOSTS have sex. This is the claim of Syed Abdullah Alattas, founder and chief investigator of Seekers Malaysia.
"We are doing research to find out their habits, behaviour, how they have sex and such," he said.
Syed Abdullah said some texts on religion also mentioned naughty and randy ghosts. Dressed in a red T-shirt, a black leather vest and leather gloves…
oracknows | October 6, 2006The 45th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is due to appear on Thursday at The Inoculated Mind. The deadline is Wednesday; so get your best skeptical blogging sent to Karl. Instructions for submission, along with Karl's personal take on the Circle, including areas that he hopes to emphasize, are here; more general guidelines, applicable to all Meetings of the Circle, are here. Karl promises a unique format to present the Circle:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to hammer out the finest skeptical blog post or dig through your blogs for something that didn't get the attention it…
oracknows | October 6, 2006I've said it before, and I'll say it again: There's a reason that I don't get seriously into blogging about politics that much, and this week reminded me why bigtime. For one thing, political bloggers are a dime a dozen, meaning that you have to be really, really good to distinguish yourself from the chattering hordes. (Or you have to be rabidly right or left wing.) Also, I like to think that I've carved out a nice unique niche in the blogosphere for myself in the world of skepticism, critical thinking, and the debunking of quackery. Were I to wander too far astray from those topics that my…
oracknows | October 4, 2006Pareidolia is everywhere, as you know. We see Jesus or Mary on trees, pieces of toast, and on sheet metal.
Finally, though, through the wonder of science, we finally see some Jesus pareidolia in a molecular biology lab!
Are you ready for Jesus on a polyacrylimide gel used to separate proteins?
I consider it a most holy sign that Alex's next attempt at an immunoprecipitation will be a success.
oracknows | October 3, 2006I knew there was a reason that I don't often blog about politics, and yesterday reminded me of it. Maybe I should have just launched another enthusiastic debunking of the distortions and outright false information put out by antivaccination advocates like Dawn Winkler. Instead, I thought it might be educational to return to a topic that I haven't revisited in a while, so-called HIV/AIDS "dissidents." These cranks resemble antivaxers in their fast-and-loose approach to and cherry-picking of the data, along with some outright misrepresentations of studies.
They're at it again.
This time around…
oracknows | September 28, 2006It was a late night in the O.R. last night; so I didn't get to spend my usual quality blogging time. However, it occurred to me. In honor of being called a "pharma moron" on Whale.to, coupled with all the antivaccination lunacy that's been infesting the comments of this blog, only to be tirelessly countered by certain regulars here, I thought I'd repost a blast from the past that I somehow missed reposting when I was on vacation last month. Yes, it's my piece about the "pharma shill" gambit. It appeared originally on August 11, 2005. I think its reappearance now is particularly appropriate,…
oracknows | September 27, 2006Yes, it's that time again! This time, the Skeptics' Circle comes to us by way of Sweden. In fact, it comes to us by way of a Swedish archeologist named Martin Rundkvist, and he's rounded up a fine collection of skeptical blogging that should serve as your antidote to the woo that so permeates the blogosphere, the Internet, and, yes, our society. So join Martin for the 44th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle. It's appeared a few hours earlier than usual, but, then, Sweden is 6 hours ahead of my particular time zone.
Next up is The Inoculated Mind, and, given his taste in podcasts, I'm expecting a…
oracknows | September 25, 2006It's coming fast.
In fact, it's almost here.
Yes, the Skeptics' Circle, the blog carnival for afficianados of skepticism, science, and critical thinking, is due to appear at Salto Sobrius on Thursday, September 28. That means you only have two days to get your best skeptical blogging together to submit to Martin if you want to be included in this week's festivities. Guidelines can be found here.
oracknows | September 24, 2006Thanks to Norm, I recently found out that Richard Dawkins now has a web page (the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science). Certainly, any self-respecting skeptic would have to add that one to his sidebar, which I've now done. Even though I don't always agree with the vociferousness of some of Dawkin's views, he is vigorous defender of science and critical thinking. (I also like where he has placed Ann Coulter on his website.) Thanks to the generosity of our Seed overlords in using their contacts with the book industry, I was greeted upon my return from North Carolina with a nice…