Skepticism/Critical Thinking
oracknows | March 10, 2006As a skeptic, when discussing psychics and how there is zero scientific evidence for the existence of psychic powers, I often come up against the attitude that says, "What's the harm if people believe in psychics?"
What's the harm indeed? Have your palm read, and it's kind of fun, but you generally don't take it all that seriously. The same is true of psychic readings, which, for most people, seem to be more a form of entertainment than anything else, given how little stock most people put in them. The prevailing attitude out there seems to be that, if people are willing to give up their…
oracknows | March 6, 2006Curse you, Mark and David Geier.
I'm getting tired of having to subject my scientific and critical thinking skills to the assaults on science and reason that you routinely publish in dubious journals to use as weapons in your apparently never-ending crusade to extract as much money as possible out of vaccine manufacturers and the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Dissecting your pseudoscientific claims causes me pain, not so much that I'm driven to take a hiatus from blogging, as Matt was by Kent Hovind's creationism, but almost.
I had hoped to let this cup pass, given how much I've…
oracknows | March 5, 2006
So, what do you do when those pesky scientific facts won't line up with your beliefs, be they beliefs that evolution doesn't explain the diversity of life, that mercury causes autism, that global warming isn't happening, or whatever your faith-based scientific belief might be?
Click on the image, and White House Situational Science Advisor tells you exactly how to avoid such annoying conflicts.
Best quote: "Situational science is about respecting both sides of a scientific argument, not just the one supported by facts."
Heh.
oracknows | March 2, 2006An excruciatingly large 29th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle has been posted at the Huge Entity. As usual, the skeptical blogosphere has come through, and Danieru has managed to corral the best skeptical blogging out there in, of all things, Mu-Haiku form, as he says:
In prose nor dialectic,
equality you'll find,
but semantic perspiration,
of testosteron-ic kinds.
Today's sceptical enquiries,
their beauty will astound,
an inner neutral wonder,
in Haiku can be found.
But please whilst idly glancing,
debating inner scathings,
think to yourself in half-rhyme:
Where are all the sceptic ladies?…
oracknows | March 1, 2006A while back, I wrote about Airborne, the "herbal" concoction designed by a schoolteacher that is touted as preventing colds and the flu if taken preemptively or lessening their severity if taken early on in the course of a cold. I concluded that there was no evidence that it did what Victoria Knight-McDowell, a schoolteacher and the creator of Airborne, claims. Now the company itself seems to be admitting as much. It turns out that the company commissioned a study to "prove" Airborne's efficacy, and its results did seem to show a mild positive effect on colds. Unfortunately, the study was…
oracknows | February 26, 2006Ya gotta love it. Whether it be the Virgin Mary under a freeway overpass on W. Fullerton Avenue in Chicago or on a window in Perth Amboy, NJ, or the face of Jesus on a shell, on the wall of a shower, on a sand dune, a potato chip, or (my personal favorite) a pierogi, it would seem that human capacity to attribute miracles to the tendency of the human brain to see images in patterns is never-ending.
This time, Jesus has appeared to a man in Connecticut, who, according to this story, is selling holy hardware on Ebay. (Where else?):
MANCHESTER, Conn. Feb 26, 2006 (AP)-- Thomas Haley was…
oracknows | February 23, 2006While I'm busy plugging blogs I like, I thought I'd mention that A Photon in the Darkness is another one of my favorite skeptical blogs. Lately, in all the turmoil over my move to ScienceBlogs, I failed to mention two good pieces that Prometheus has posted in the last few days:
Why anecdotes aren't data (I suspect this one will really annoy a certain lurker who occasionally likes to trash me on his blog)
and
Opinions are like...; everybody's got one
Of the two, the second is my favorite, because he does quite a nice takedown of the apparent belief among many alternative medicine devotees (and…
oracknows | February 23, 2006Good news!
One of my favorite skeptical bloggers, Matt at Pooflingers Anonymous, has ended his blogging hiatus. I was sad to see him announce in early January that he was leaving the blogosphere , and I'm happy to see that he's back in business.
It turns out that the constant intense exposure to the rampant credulity of creationists like Kent Hovind and the writers of the Evolution Cruncher had made him fear for his critical thinking skills and even his mental health. (I warned him about it at the time, but would he listen? Nooooo!) He had to take a break just to recover.
Now he's back,…
oracknows | February 14, 2006Here is the second in a series of links to essential classic Respectful Insolence from Orac's old blog. In a continuing series of posts, for the benefit of new readers (and a trip down memory lane for old readers), I now present:
The Galileo Gambit
What is a theory?
Breast cancer "dormancy"
Public speaking
"Short scientific talks for dummies"
I guess this is what passes for creationist "humor"
80 years later, nothing has changed
Get me a barf bag!
The Virgin Mary appears
A field guide to biomedical meeting creatures, part 1: Any questions? (Also see part 2: Poster time!)
Professor Rubinstein…