Denialism

Category: Cranks

  • Crank Trifecta Complete

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in ,

    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…

  • Crank Convergence

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in

    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…

  • I could have told him that

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in , ,

    Richard Black investigates the common crank claim that science is just an old boys network designed to throw sweet, sweet grant money at their friends. Guess what? The evidence of this conspiracy is lacking. I anticipated having to spend days, weeks, months even, sifting the wheat from the chaff, going backwards and forwards between journal…

  • Global warming crankery from co-founder of the weather channel

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in ,

    Just watching CNN, and saw them mindlessly parrot the latest rant from a crank. In this instance it’s the founder of the weather channel John Coleman, now a San Diego meteorologist, who peels off a doozy. It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It…

  • Doctors are conspiring to convince you you’re sick!

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in , ,

    How do doctors decide what is healthy and unhealthy? Do they arbitrarily decide on risk factors to line their pockets – creating false epidemics as Sandy Szwarc at Junkfood Science suggests? Or, is there actually a science, called epidemiology, that is the basis for health recommendations? As I’ve said repeatedly, one of the sure signs…

  • How not to be taken seriously

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in ,

    I think I’m going to have to add a new behavior to the crank HOWTO based on the latest campaign by troofers to get attention by disruption. First it was Bill Maher: Who I think handled it right. Now Bill Clin-ton.Bill also does a pretty good job with the kooks. But it has me thinking…

  • How to triage nonsense

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in ,

    Both Orac and MarkCC have been having a blast tearing to shreds virtually every aspect of the latest nonsensical piece by Dennis Byrne based on this idiotic study at JPANDS. One thing struck me in the two analyses, was MarkCC’s emphasis on the idea of triage in assessing the scientific literature. This is fundamentally a…

  • Denialists should not be debated

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in , , , ,

    Orac has brought up the interesting point that debating the homeopaths at U. Conn might not be a good idea. On a related note, in a post derriding attacks on consensus I was asked by commenters if isn’t it incumbent on science to constantly respond to debate; to never let scientific questions be fully settled.…

  • Attacking consensus – a sure sign of a crank

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in

    Sandy Szwarc continues to wage her war against the “obesity myth”, and has fallen into the classic crank trap of the attack on scientific consensus. It’s right up there with attacking peer-review as a sure sign you’re about to listen to someone’s anti-science propaganda. She cites this article at the financial times by John Kay…

  • Uri Geller makes a comeback!

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in , ,

    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…