April 1, 2013
I still think that list is pretty incomplete, the RationalWiki has more, but it's interesting to see a potential internal ideological conflict as Adams sides with big business and the fossil fuel industry to suggest CO2 is the best gas ever. While he doesn't appear to directly deny CO2 is a…
March 29, 2013
It's a sad day for the reality-based community, within the critiques of Jane Goodall's new book 'Seeds of Hope' we find that in addition to plagiarism and sloppiness with facts, she's fallen for anti-GMO crank Jeffrey Smith's nonsense.
When asked by The Guardian whom she most despised, Goodall…
March 20, 2013
For those disturbed by the evils of the hospital chargemaster as exposed by Brill's piece in time, Uwe E. Reinhardt's proposed solution is a must read.
While the hospitals are never going to charge the uninsured the same rate as they charge medicare (and probably be less forgiving the more they…
March 18, 2013
Two links today for denialism blog readers, both are pretty thought provoking. The first, from Amy Tuteur, on the newly-released statistics on homebirth in Oregon. It seems that her crusade to have the midwives share their mortality data is justified, as when they were forced to release this data…
March 2, 2013
There's been an interesting edit in Marc Bittman's sugar post, as he has now changed his tune on the PLoS one sugar study, now Bittman acknowledges obesity too is important. That was big of him, it is after all, the most important factor. Maybe my angry letter to the editor had an effect, but he'…
February 28, 2013
The New York Times made big news with reports that the New England Journal of Medicine study on the beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet showed it could dramatically reduce the rates of heart attack and stroke. But this study has major issues that bear directly on whether or not physicians…
February 28, 2013
Diet seems to be all over the New York Times this week, with an oversell of the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, and now Mark Bittman, everyone's favorite food scold, declaring sugar is the culprit for rising diabetes. His article is based on this interesting new article in PLoS One and begins…
February 26, 2013
I've known about this effect for a while as I've been variously accused of being in the pocket of big pharma, big ag, big science, democrats and republicans etc. Now Stephan Lewandowsky, in follow up to his "NASA Faked the Moon Landings – Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax." paper, has used…
February 25, 2013
Steven Brill's extensive piece in Time has generated a good discussion once again on why Americans pay so much more for health care than other countries, and while I agree with most of his critiques, he seems to have gotten overly hung-up on the hospital chargemaster.
Readers of this blog know I'…
February 15, 2013
It's fascinating when you catch the start of a new bogus claim enter the denialsphere, bounce from site to site, and echo about without any evidence of critical analysis or intelligence on the part of the denialists. A good example of this was an article by Heartland Institute's contributor to…
January 30, 2013
Go by and check out Matt's second response on gun control.
I think this response is a good argument. After all, my arguments are correlative. It is impossible to do randomized controlled trials on whole countries after all.
I would ask a few questions in response to this rebuttal, however.…
January 28, 2013
I was bewildered by this LA times article over the weekend describing the latest tactic of the DOMA defenders planning to argue before the Supreme Court, that is, that marriage is necessary for heterosexuals only because of the possibility of accidental child bearing.
Marriage should be limited…
January 28, 2013
For shameless self promotion this morning I present Chris on NPR discussing Google's new disclosure of the rules it uses to share information with government authorities.
January 17, 2013
I was curious to see what kind of defense Matt would put on against my suggestion of additional regulations to address the problem of gun violence and homicide in the US, and I was a bit disappointed to see that the response is largely a "no problem" argument. I had actually come into this debate…
January 16, 2013
Matt has posted his first response in the gun control debate, expect my rejoinder by Thursday or Friday after we have time to process the President's announcement this morning on gun control.
January 9, 2013
Given that Matt and I are both gun enthusiasts, scientists, and bloggers, and we're both interested in something being done to prevent mass shootings such as in Newtown, Aurora, and almost one dozen other locations in just the last few years, we decided to host a more formal debate on the issue. I'…
December 28, 2012
Sorry, things will be quiet for a week. Cranks, please don't start crying censorship. I'm just not going to be available to moderate comments until the 6th.
December 18, 2012
See here for why existing assault weapons bans are just pointless demagoguery. There is no functional difference between the assault version and non-assault version of the same rifle.
December 17, 2012
Matt Springer has written a post Against the gun control that won't work, and he correctly points out that previous gun control efforts have been little more than shameless demagoguery, including the totally-worthless assault weapons ban. People must understand that the previous major legislation…
December 15, 2012
Crazy Luddite Libertarian Mike Adams is following his usual script, ghoulishly using the school shooting in Newton to pillory his usual bogeymen he blames for anything. True to form he is blaming psychiatry and medications for the school shooting. What was it I said yesterday?
At some point it…
December 14, 2012
As anyone who reads my blog or Orac's knows, Mike Adams, the "health ranger", is a deranged individual who denies HIV causes AIDS, promotes some of the most absurd quackery in the world, and also is such an all around crank you can rely on him to wax conspiratorial about almost any dramatic news…
December 14, 2012
It's gratifying to see news agencies get it right, when climate change denialists leaked the IPCC draft report and cherry picked a single sentence out to suggest an increased solar component, no one fell for it. To their credit, the journalists have gone to the source who said:
He says the idea…
December 5, 2012
I was recently pointed to this post by Edward Clint which purports to show Rebecca Watson using the 5 tactics of science denialism during her talk "How Girls Evolved to Shop" which was critical of evolutionary psychology at Skepticon.
I watched her talk, found it entertaining, informative,…
December 3, 2012
I'm very disturbed to see the amount of exposure that Dr. Oz has credulously given to gay conversion therapy quacks. Via Ed I read Warren Throckmorton's coverage of the disaster on Oz's show, with the reversion therapists lying and contradicting their own previous statements about the therapy,…
December 3, 2012
We've mocked Vox Day in the past for his creationism, his sexism, and his general stupidity which is of course matched with the usual crank traits of egotism, and unshakeable certainty. Today though, I he's apparently gotten even worse, endorsing white nationalism and defending the anti-Obama…
November 26, 2012
I'm going for shameless self promotion today, sorry. Listen to my appearance on "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" discussing conspiracy theories. I almost never respond to press inquiries since I don't think I'm qualified to talk about many things as an expert, but wacky internet conspiracy…
November 15, 2012
Via Ed I see that Christopher Monckton, the fake expert in climate change who has been repeatedly told by Parliament to stop calling himself an Member of the House of Lords,, claims he's the inventor of a magical disease cure of HIV, MS, flu and the common cold, and recently a birther, has now…
November 14, 2012
While I realize Joe Walsh lost his election bid, it is still worth emphasizing that his infamous statements about abortion are false, especially considering efforts like those in Ohio to pass a "heartbeat bill". Abortion is sometimes necessary to save the life of the mother. Via the Irish Times…
November 7, 2012
I'm so proud of my home state for affirming equality for all in the ballot box rather than in the courts. I was born and raised in Maryland, although I've spent more of my adult life in Virginia, one of the big things I've noticed in the divide between the two states (and I love both of them) is…
November 1, 2012
From Revkin I see yet another attempt to misunderstand the problem of communicating science vs anti-science.
The author, Dan Kahan, summarizes his explanation for the science communication problem, as well as 4 other "not so good" explanations in this slide:
He then describes "Identity-protective…
