Month: August 2007
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If you want to prevent abortions write your senator and congressmen now
Multiple news outlets have been reporting on the sudden increase in cost for birth control prescriptions at health centers on college campuses. The cause? Health experts say the price bump for college students was inadvertent — a byproduct of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, a federal law that went into effect in January. The…
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If you’re going to pull the Galileo Gambit – try to remember who Galileo was
From the “my god these people are dumb files” is this clip from last night’s History Channel documentary 9/11 conspiracies. Ha! Good stuff. Don’t worry, they’re replaying it Saturday night in case you missed it, but it apparently has the troofers up in arms. In more 9/11 troof news, Popular mechanics has an update to…
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HIV/AIDS denialism covered in PLoS!
Our very own Tara Smith and Steven Novella have teamed up to write an excellent paper covering the state of HIV/AIDS denialism in the Public Library of Science. I love the article, and Tara and Steve do a great job covering all the critical aspects of denialism inherent in the HIV/AIDS denialist movement. Starting with…
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Pink is for girls and Blue is for boys?
It’s so embarrassing when scientists use poorly-constructed studies to blithely reinforce societal stereotypes. Today, LPH at Second Innocence brings us the latest example. A new study by scientists from Newcastle University gives substance to the old adage ‘Pink for a girl, blue for a boy’. Evolution may have driven women’s preference for pink, according to…
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Vox Dei Bait
The debate is churning along at Monkey Trials, and I have to say it’s pretty interesting. Hatfield is doing a great job in this titanic struggle between data and “raw intellect”. Check it out.
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So many sciencebloggers, so little time
As any scienceblog reader now knows, we all met up in NYC this weekend. I met many of my sciblings for the first time, including Orac, Tara, PZ, Chris Mooney and the lovely Sheril, Grrl, Zuska (we hatched an evil plot muahaha), Mo, Kemibe, Bora, Janet, Shelley, Rob Knop, RPM, Jake and Kara, Jason, Mike…
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Bad news for lying “Family Values” associations
One of the problems with denialists is that they simply can’t accept that science doesn’t conform to their ideology. For instance, it’s not enough to just be morally opposed to abortion, the anti-choice organizations have to misrepresent risks of the procedure, including promoting the false link (NCI) between abortion and breast cancer. Recently, Talk to…
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Pirate Surnames?
The Telegraph reports on surnames which may indicate a pirate heritage. With all that pillaging and looting, it could be one of the bloodiest reunions in history when descendants of six of Britain’s famous pirates are invited to a get-together. People with the surnames Morgan, Rackham, Bonny, Read, Kidd or Teach, are being invited to…
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Mike Adams Demands the Media Stop Lying About Vitamins (then lies about vitamins)
I can’t resist, Adams thinks he has a real winner with this study’s null results on vitamin C & E. As we’ve shown, Newstarget’s claims of the medical benefits shown in this study reflect, a poor understanding of p values, and a willingness to ignore data showing increased risks from beta-carotene. However, convinced of an…