Month: May 2007
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Denialists’ Deck of Cards: The 6s, “Stifles Innovation” and “Technology Can’t Be Regulated”
Competition is magic. But this argument must be amplified! How? Easy, appeal to “innovation.” The denalist will argue that the intervention will stifle innovation. Typical 6 of Hearts arguments include “this is just a tool,” and “you’re banning technology.” Next is the 6 of Diamonds, a somewhat contradictory but still widely-used argument–that technology “can’t be…
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60th Skeptics Circle
At Infophilia. In particular I like Conspiracy factory’s anecdote about anecdotes.
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Reading Comprehension – it’s important
Not to harp on Uncommon Descent today, but their seeming inability to see words that they don’t like gives the appearance of no reading comprehension skills whatsoever. Take for example their read of this New Scientist article on cute little marsupials. Let’s first quote from the article:
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Don’t Screw with T.J.
DaveScot, crank extraordinaire at Uncommon Descent, has made the mistake of talking about Thomas Jefferson now that there is UVa representation on the Scienceblogs. He makes the argument that because the constitution only dealt with federal separation of church and state (before the reconstruction amendments of course) that established religion was perfectly ok in the…
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The Wall Street Journal, A Denialist Debunker?
I’m a real fan of the Wall Street Journal. I read it on the BART every morning, to the displeasure of my knee-jerk co-passengers. Why is the Journal awesome? Because days like today, you find reporting showing how branding is often an illusion, how cheaper printer cartridges are actually more expensive, and how formaldehyde is…
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Denialists’ Deck of Cards: The Third Hand, Competition is Magic
A denialist does not soft pedal competition. It is a religious term. It is frequently employed, because any market can be described as competitive, regardless of the facts or the myriad factors that practically limit choice. Competition solves all problems. Period. If competition doesn’t solve the problem at issue, then it isn’t a problem, or…
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Denialists’ Deck of Cards: The Ace of Clubs, “Our Rights”
Allow me to jump ahead in the Denialists’ Deck of Cards, in light of Verizon’s claim that giving customer records to the National Security Agency is protected by the First Amendment: “Communicating facts to the government is protected petitioning activity,” says the response, even when the communication of those facts would normally be illegal or…
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Denialists’ Deck of Cards: The 5 of Spades, “Delay Tactics”
Delay always benefits the denalist. At this point, any number of delay tactics can be employed to wait and see whether consumer education will solve the problem that doesn’t exist.
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Beware the bashers of peer review
I’d like to hear from some other sciencebloggers and science readers what they think reform of peer-review should look like. I’m not of the opinion that it has any critical flaws, but most people would like to see more accountability for sand-bagging and other bad reviewer habits. Something like a grading system that allows submitters…
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Denialists’ Deck of Cards: Consumers Want It, Or They Don’t Know What They Want
The spectacle manifests itself as an enormous positivity, out of reach and beyond dispute. All it says is: “Everything that appears is good; whatever is good will appear.” – Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle You’ve argued that consumer education can set individuals free. Now argue that because something exists, people must want it.…