Denialism

Month: September 2007

  • What do Ayn Rand and Kevin Trudeau have in Common?

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    MarkH
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    The NYT had a piece on the life and times of Ayn Rand yesterday, and I just couldn’t get over these two paragraphs. For years, Rand’s message was attacked by intellectuals whom her circle labeled “do-gooders,” who argued that individuals should also work in the service of others. Her book was dismissed as an homage…

  • Global Warming as a Threat to Global Health – Review in Nature

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    MarkH
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    Nature has a review this week on the Impact of regional climate change on human health(1) that is an interesting read. Contrary to the previous article we discussed which suggested what I think is a non-existent link between climate change and chronic disease, this article discusses the very real likelihood of increased acute mortality from…

  • Dobson Latches onto Ex-Gay study – Exaggerates Results

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    MarkH
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    Why can’t people just be bigots and not demand science reinforce their bigotry? James Dobson is promoting the Exodus Ex-Gay study (reviewed by Jim Burroway here). You remember the study? The one where they ignore all the people that dropped out? The one where success also included chastity, or merely staying with the program despite…

  • You Know You’re in Trouble When Alan Keyes is Your Hero

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    MarkH
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    I’m sad I missed the “Values Voters Presidential Debate”, but I’m not alone. All the first-tier presidential candidates skipped it as well. The big winner was apparently Mike Huckabee according to the World Nut Daily, he apparently was the most hateful of them all. But the nuts are clearly upset at being snubbed by the…

  • The Right to Trial…By Elves

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    Chris
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    The Journal’s James Hookway informs us that a trial court judge in Manila, Judge Floro, has an interesting set of consultants: three elves, only visible to the judge himself! Belief in this trio has caused the country’s supreme court to intervene and fire the judge. …Mr. Floro, 54 years old, has become a media celebrity.…

  • Verizon: It’s OUR Network

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    Chris
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    Mark is totally outperforming me on this blog for many reasons, but my newest excuse is that I went to Austin for the weekend to see the Austin City Limits Festival. W00t!!1! So, I’m going to be covering some divine articles that appeared over the weekend. First up: Verizon, it’s OUR network, baby! The Journal…

  • Science blog survey

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    MarkH
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    Shelly asks us to take part in her survey on science blogging. She wants to know who is reading science blogs, what do they want, what they don’t want, and how science blogs can influence awareness of science. Help her out, and take the survey.

  • I knew it was just a matter of time

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    MarkH
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    I knew eventually some crank would find John Ioaniddis’ work and manage to misrepresent it against science, well, the first to bat are the HIV/AIDS cranks. Fresh off this bizarre declaration from Harvey Bialey that he’d won the war against HIV science and is now going home, they’re back on the horse and using Ioannidis…

  • OTA Thread II

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    MarkH
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    Let’s keep this ball rolling. On Friday we started talking about the importance of the OTA It used to be, for about 20 years (from 1974 to 1995), there was an office on the Hill, named the Office of Technology Assessment, which worked for the legislative branch and provided non-partisan scientific reports relevant to policy…

  • Crank Science Alert

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    MarkH
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    Box Turtle Bulletin has been tracking the latest ex-gay study that purports to show a 30-50% efficacy in making homosexuals into heterosexuals through the Exodus ex-gay ministry. Initial problems with the study which went to a Christian publisher rather than peer review – the authors Stanton L. Jones and Mark Yarhouse (of Regent University have…