Denialism

Month: October 2007

  • Will the ID cranks ever tire of the appeal to consequences?

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    MarkH
    in

    Short answer, no. The latest is Dembski laughing with glee at the latest bigoted ramblings of James Watson who apparently has gone and said Africans are stupid and that’s why Africa suffers. This is not the first, or last time that Watson will say something dumb, offensive, and backwards. Like some people who have received…

  • TRUST Seminar: Need Credit? No Identity? No Problem!

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    Chris
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    I’m doing the TRUST Seminar at Berkeley this week. Here’s the info and abstract. Date: Thursday, October 18, 2007 Time: 1:00 PM (lunch will be served) Location: 540 A/B Cory Hall ABSTRACT: In synthetic identity theft cases, an impostor creates a new identity using some information from a victim that is enhanced with fabricated personal…

  • The Road to Sildenafil – A history of artifical erections

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    MarkH
    in ,

    The inability to achieve erection has been a source of consternation for men for, well, a really long time. But the recent history of treatments for impotence, wait, I mean Erectile Dysfunction, oh no, now they’re calling it Male Sexual Dysfunction, represents a medical revolution. In the last 100 or so years, we’ve gone from…

  • Say Goodby to a Hack

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    MarkH
    in

    Chris DeMuth, the head of AEI, is announced he’s stepping down from the position in the WSJ Op-Ed page (article free here – at AEI). His farewell is a call to crankery: Every one of the right-of-center think tanks was founded in a spirit of opposition to the established order of things. Opposition is the…

  • 9/11 cranks sure are paranoid – of each other

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    MarkH
    in

    One of the latest discussions going on at the 9/11 conspiracy sites is the big question of who are the 9/11 disinformation agents being paid by the government to spread lies and confusion about the events of 9/11. George Washington gives the simple 5 d’s of disinformation to help you figure out who the splitters…

  • Uri Geller makes a comeback!

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    MarkH
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    Watching 30 Rock and the Office tonight I kept on seeing this commercial for a new show called “Phenomenon”. The story goes: The search for the impossible begins…there are those who claim special powers, but only one can be called the greatest. Now, the mind of Uri Geller, and the mastery of Chris Angel will…

  • Obesity – Primary vs. Secondary prevention

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    MarkH
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    I will never forget the very first patient history I ever took. Part of medical school training is they send you onto the wards to gather patient histories and physicals so you learn to gather information effectively as a clinician. My first patient history was on a woman about 35 years old on the orthopedics…

  • Skeptics’ Circle Number 71

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    MarkH
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    The Infophile has this week’s circle up at Infophilia. He has presented the posts in the context of logical puzzles, practically daring us to use our brains rather than just spoon-feeding us the skepticism. See if you can figure them all out!

  • The Short Memory of HIV/AIDS denialism

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    MarkH
    in

    Greta Christina has sent me this link to her wonderful essay discussing the short memory required for HIV/AIDS denialism. It is really a fantastic essay, personal and well-researched, and it covers a very important point. A lot of the anti-science attitudes we see are from people have no memory of what things were like before…

  • Two articles on building immunity in kids

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    MarkH
    in

    The first from the NYT discusses the fallacy that childhood illness somehow builds up the immune system making them healthier adults. Rather, it emphasizes correctly, that exposure to lots of harmless antigens seems to be the key to making kids less susceptible to asthma and allergies, not exposure to harmful ones. In other words, let…