Denialism

Month: November 2007

  • Disingenuous? Stupid? Both?

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    MarkH
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    Let’s talk about Uncommon Descent for a moment. One of the recurring complaints we’ve been hearing from the evolution denialists there is this refrain that whenever a evolutionary explanation for a result gets reevaluated, it’s a sign that we “Darwinists” are somehow being dishonest and fitting any data to the theory of evolution. Evolution, therefore,…

  • Ack! ChopraWoo!

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    MarkH
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    Usually Deepak Chopra’s nonsensical writings at the Huffington post about mind-body healing are so vague and bland I don’t bother addressing them. The mind controls the body, the mind is powerful, blah blah blah, who cares right? Well, today Chopra pulled back the curtain and we see the crank within. It’s a reminder that behind…

  • Holocaust Denier David Irving at Oxford – A report

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    MarkH
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    I actually had thought the debate with holocaust denier David Irving and racist Nick Griffin at the Oxford Union had been canceled, but via Deborah Lipstadt’s blog it turns out they made the mistake of giving the man an outlet for his nonsense. An account is offered by attendee Jonny Wright that I think supports…

  • Crank Trifecta Complete

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    MarkH
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    It’s funny, but the crank use of the recent reevaluation of global AIDS statistics by the UN reminds me of a sign you see driving towards Charlottesville from DC. It’s faded wooden thingy that says, “Get the US out of the UN”. About 5 miles up the road is a derelict-looking building with what looks…

  • O Pangloss!

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    MarkH
    in

    Can I tell you how boring I find the fine-tuning argument? Paul Davies is the latest to use it and in the NYT no less. Davies’ argument depends on whether you believe his initial assertion that science fundamentally rests on faith: The problem with this neat separation into “non-overlapping magisteria,” as Stephen Jay Gould described…

  • Don’t Give Your Friends Fees this Holiday Season!

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    MarkH
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    This may be obvious to the smart readers of Scienceblogs, but let me state this just for the purpose of explaining the waste that is gift cards. You might think giving cash as a gift is tacky, but the nice thing about cash is that it doesn’t expire, incur fees, or become impossible to combine…

  • What was in Criss Angel’s envelope?

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    MarkH
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    I watched the season finale of phenomenon – the show in which mentalists compete to see who is the next “phenomenon” – and Criss Angel did skeptics everywhere proud with the contents of the envelope.

  • 74th Skeptics’ Circle – Med Journal Watch

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    MarkH
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    Med Journal Watch has it up. I must admit some sadness that yet again one of my skeptic colleagues has fallen for Sandy Szwarc’s nonsense though. People, figure this out, she’s not a real skeptic. They don’t make blanket statements like this: Hearing that a study found some food, exposure or physical characteristic is associated…

  • Crank Convergence

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    MarkH
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    Keeping quiet for the last few days has given me the advantage of seeing patterns in my firefox tabs. I see news stories in my feed that I’m interested in, open them in tabs and figure maybe I can blog about them later. Well, the result of doing this for the last week has led…

  • Reprogramming adult cells into pluripotent stem cells – what do these new results mean

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    MarkH
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    You guys might have noticed I’ve been quiet lately, that’s because I’ve scheduled a thesis defense and am under deadlines. However, I couldn’t let these two (1) papers(2) on reprogramming of human adult cells into stem cells slip by without some comment (NYT piece here) These reports are a follow-up on landmark animal studies that…