Denialism

Month: July 2007

  • Skeptics’ Circle Number 66 – Request for Abstracts

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    MarkH
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    I’m putting out my request for nominations for the 66th Skeptics Circle, to be held Thursday August 2nd (eight days from now). I’d like to have entries in by Tuesday July 31st at the latest. Either self-promote some of your own entries or recommend others’ you’ve enjoyed to mark at denialism dot com.

  • The Independent needs its environmental credentials to be taken away

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    MarkH
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    Between electronic “smog” and their incessant bleating that every weather event is due to global warming, I have come to the conclusion that the Independent, with stories like this one, are trying to bring down the science of global warming from the inside. It’s official: the heavier rainfall in Britain is being caused by climate…

  • Two links for today

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    MarkH
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    Gene Sperling in the WaPo points out that holding the NIH budget flat is like a cutting our budgets as inflation forces budget cutbacks. He forgets to mention the wasted expense of the NIH roadmap and the significant portion of the intramural budget devoted to security, but otherwise he’s dead-on. The steady ramping of funding…

  • Storm World

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    MarkH
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    I’ve been reading Chris Mooney’s Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming for the last week or so, and I’ve got to say, this is excellent science writing. A book on science for the non-expert reader should accomplish 5 things. It should let you know the history of the field and its…

  • This is why you should never source Wikipedia

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    MarkH
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    So, who has heard of the Rife Machine? It is a quack device that purports to destroy diseases by homing in on their resonant frequency, and disrupting them with radiofrequency (RF) waves (like a soundwave shattering a wine glass). I’ve met true believers of this stuff before, and there is little you can do to…

  • Need another fix?

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    MarkH
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    Now that all of you have burned through the 7th Harry Potter book like GWB with an 8-ball of coke in the 70s, what is left for you to do? How to combat that remorseful feeling of being out of such perfectly fluffy literature? Well here’s an open thread to discuss those other series which…

  • I Am Special / I Am Special / Look at Me: Generation Self-Esteem II

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    Chris
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    I know that my earlier post on Gen Y kids was a bit bogus. There are huge generalizations and no real data in the argument. But I’m going to stir the pot more by posting portions of an earlier column by Jeffrey Zaslow on Generation Y that has a bit more anecdote and information about…

  • As if I needed another reason to love Barbara Ehrenreich

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    MarkH
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    Writing for HuffPo, Charlottesville’s own Barbara Ehrenreich takes on positive psychology. I have to remember to drop by sometime with a cake and welcome her to the city, even if it is a year too late. She addresses something very annoying about the belief that positive thinking is a universal good (and provides a backhanded…

  • Generation Self-Esteem

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    Chris
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    The Wall Street Journal continues its campaign against Generation Y with an article by Jeff Zaslow that tries to explain why so many young people act with such a sense of entitlement. It pins the blame on, among other things, California, indulgent parenting, and consumer culture. But I suspect that the culprit is the last…

  • Welcome a new Scibling

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    MarkH
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    The Angry Toxicologist is here! He’s already got a bunch of posts up and he’s clearly a man after my own heart. Show him some love.