Posts tagged as:

skepticism

“Scientifically Unsupportable”

March 16, 2010
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Last Friday, special masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims released their findings on the second phase of the Omnibus Autism Proceedings, and found no evidence of a causal link between autism and thimerosal in vaccines. (The first phase, decided last year, addressed the claim that the MMR vaccine caused autism. ) Test cases [...]

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Try Reason, Not “Everything”

March 5, 2010
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Last week Time magazine published “The Autism Debate: Who’s Afraid of Jenny McCarthy?” As much as I’d like to rant about her, as I’ve done before, instead I’ll call your attention to this paragraph, buried halfway into the article:
There are dark murmurings from scientists and doctors asking, Was her son ever really autistic? Evan’s [...]

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Irresponsible and Dishonest

February 2, 2010
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Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about Andrew Wakefield’s falsification of data linking vaccines and autism, calling his behavior “irresponsible and criminal.” Last week the General Medical Council, the British medical licensing body, arrived at the same conclusion:
In reaching its decision, the Panel notes that the project reported in the Lancet paper was [...]

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Chocolate, or Shinola?

October 21, 2009
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Taza Chocolate sent me an email today announcing the availability of this year’s Special Edition Stone Ground Chiapan Chocolate. I’ve tasted last year’s edition (is “edition” really the appropriate description for a short-run foodstuff?), it’s definitely good chocolate, but the stuff costs $9.50 for a three-ounce bar. I’ll buy a bar or two this year [...]

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Science and the Deity

October 20, 2009
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Not the Deity, Mr. Deity. If you haven’t heard of him, visit his web site and get caught up on his doings.
Recently he’s been looking for a science advisor, and may have found one in PZ Meyers, biologist and writer of the blog Pharyngula: “Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal.”
Meyers seems [...]

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Mahlon Hoagland: 1921-2009

September 25, 2009
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He worked with James Watson and Francis Crick. He discovered transfer RNA and amino acid activation. He was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. His name was Mahlon Hoagland, he passed away last week, and you have never heard of him. I had never heard of him until a series of unlikely circumstances brought us [...]

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Science is Real

September 1, 2009
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Who knew that the Johns Linnell and Flansburg – aka They Might Be Giants – were pro-science skeptics? I didn’t until I placed an order for their new CD/DVD Here Comes Science on Amazon, where I saw this video:

I was so impressed I transcribed the lyrics:
Science is real
From the Big Bang to DNA
Science is real
From [...]

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That’s My Kid Too

June 30, 2009

Michael Goudeau, writer and producer for Penn & Teller: Bullshit! and co-host of PennRadio, has written an excellent article for the James Randi Educational Foundation. That’s My Kid Too is his response to an anti-vaccination documentary that could have been directed by Leni Riefenstahl.
Goudeau, like me, responds the only way we know how:
You see that [...]

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Thinking About Rethinking Autism

June 17, 2009

“Autism. It’s all over the media. The conversation is focused on causation and cure. It’s time to change the conversation toward hope, support, respect and understanding. The facts are not sexy. So, we got someone who is to explain them.”
Using a hot babe to direct attention to autism issues is a stroke of genius. The [...]

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Singh for Your Science

June 5, 2009

Simon Singh, British author of Fermat’s Last Theorem, The Code Book, and Big Bang, is being sued by the British Chiropractic Association for daring to suggest that there is no evidence supporting the use of chiropractic to treat childhood conditions.
He is, of course, correct. Chiropractic is utter bullshit with no theoretical framework to support its [...]

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