Journey through a Burning Mind

Why Intelligent Design is not science (and they admit it!)

Stavros — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:10:55 +0000

From "Talk Reason" and Michael Luciano I became aware of how the Discovery Institute (DI) -one of the most visible Intelligent Design (ID) think tanks and propaganda machine, defines Intelligent Design. The Discovery Institute and other ID proponents have been trying to persuade us that ID is really a scientific theory -nevermind they make no testable predictions and only rely on negative evidence. Instead of tackling this claim (which has been discarded a million times before) Luciano pretty much lets the DI "scientists" demolish it themselves!

xkcd: Apocalypse?

Stavros — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:50:34 +0000

Is it me or xkcd comics become more and more obscure? Paul Erdos would give out monetary prizes to whoever would provide solutions to unsolved mathematical problems. Are those students in the comic trying to claim their prizes? Anyone with a better explanation?

Reminder: sign the statement to keep libel laws out of science!

Stavros — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:08:35 +0000

A reminder for all of you to sign the statement to keep libel laws out of science -in a campaign initiated by Sense About Science, and just as the signatories have surpassed 10,000. It is vastly important to keep scientific debates free, especially within the public health domain. Scientists and science journalists (damn, anyone for what [...]

A “plethora” of evidence for chiropractice

Stavros — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:02:30 +0000

Ah yes. The British Chiropractic Association has finally released the "plethora" of evidence that support their non-bogus treatments, and that put Simon Singh in his place. Indeed, BCA has produced an immense list of... 29 references. A very interesting sidenote: the BCA, contrary to their previous habits, has locked this particular document and disabled copying! My naughty mind thinks this is probably to make life for their critics difficult. They were expecting a huge response -ridicule to be more precise, and for some reason decided to make themselves look even more foolish...

Death by homeopathy…

Stavros — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:49:36 +0000

This might be old news to some of you, but with all the things going on lately I didn't have much time to update the blog. When I read this one it shook me hard. It has happened before of course, and will probably happen again, but it just makes me stop to think how completely unnecessary such a death is: a nine-year old baby died of eczema (!) because her parents opted to treat her with magical water instead of proper medicine!

Keep the Libel Laws out of Science campaign

Stavros — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:07:56 +0000

So it seems that Simon Singh will fight on against the British Chiropractic Association by appealing! This is only good news and I hope that he will be successful in his efforts. A large number of (rational) people stand behind Simon at this point, and "Sense About Science", kicks off a campaign to stop the ridiculousness that is the libel law in England, and especially when it steps on our freedom of speech. As I have said before, when a science writer is sued for criticizing a health organization, things are crazy indeed...

Interpreting the facts the Creationist way…

Stavros — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:58:10 +0000

Well worth to listen to this podcast and then follow the discussion at Panda's Thumb. It's a debate between Michael Schermer (editor of the Skeptic magazine) and Eric Hovind (err, young earth creationist and son of Kent Hovind, the bastion of rationality and honesty). Particularly funny conclusions can be drawn from this debate...

If you are worried you might burn some brain neurons from listening to a Hovind family member, I have two things to tell you: first, you are of course right :-) and second, just move on and read my summary of Hovind's opinions...

Does science require atheism?

Stavros — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:42:17 +0000

In the atheist camp, there are two fundamentally different approaches to countering religious propaganda, irrationality and their attacks on science: the Dawkin-esque full out attack, and the milder "let-the-evidence-do-the-talking" technique that people like Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education have adopted. Richard Dawkins obviously doesn't like the latter "soft" approach and he has repeatedly made himself clear on that respect, lately by criticizing Scott for being too accommodative.

For Simon Singh and free speech! (or else “bogus, bogus, bogus”)

Stavros — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:31:22 +0000

bo·gus (boh-guss), adj.
Counterfeit or fake; not genuine: bogus money; bogus tasks.

And may I add bogus treatments in the list of examples? Or will I get sued for using tht term -evidently not as simple or innocent as we might have thought. I kid you not (as our beloved Sarah would say at the other side of the Atlantic), you can actually find yourself in deep waters if you say the 'b' word. Simon Singh got in a lot of trouble for using it... Thankfully a large number of rational people and supporters of free speech reacted. Jack of Kent being one of them, organized an evening of support for Simon. But let's pause here and try to take things from the beginning...

Skeptics’ Circle in a ferret’s cage…

Stavros — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:14:09 +0000

The latest Skeptics' Circle is posted over at the Ferret's Cage. Go on and have a look -a decent collection of educating, skeptical, and amusing posts...

Trick or Treatment: Simon Singh to talk tonight at Goldsmiths

Stavros — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:45:52 +0000

Simon Singh is to give a talk tonight at 6pm at Goldsmiths, University of London, entitled: "Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine (and the Media) on Trial".

The Amazing Meeting in London: Sold out in hours!

Stavros — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:41:15 +0000

Unfortunately, I didn't even have a chance to try, let alone register, for The Amazing Meeting 2009 which is to be held in London (first time outside the US). Registration opened at 11am today, a frenzy followed (apparently), the site went down overwhelmed by the congestion, and tickets were sold out in a matter of hours.

Science and Faith

Stavros — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:34:58 +0000

Does science require faith? Are the big theories of science founded on faith-based assumptions? What's wrong with evidence-free beliefs?

Debate: Alternative medicine does more harm than good

Stavros — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:32:10 +0000

"This house believes that complementary and alternative medicine does more harm than good". That was the motion of yesterday's debate, as proposed by Simon Singh. Supporting him was Prof. Michael Baum; opposing him were Prof. George Lewith and Prof. David Peters. Get ready for a debate high on fallacies, low on logic, and with hot tempers!

Bad news from the vaccine-front in Australia

Stavros — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:58:31 +0000

From Phil Plait I learned that Australia is also hit by the antivaccination movement, and, suddenly, infection rates have risen and now even deaths from totally preventable diseases have started to appear...

ClubAC30: 5 years of shoegazer and post-rock

Stavros — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:15:11 +0000

Happy Birthday ClubAC30: 5 years of shoegazer, post-rock, electronica, and experimental music -of the highest quality! I have personally spent lots of magic moments since I first "discovered" ClubAC30 back in May 2005. So here is a small sample of them in no particular order.

Hitchens is having some fun with a religious nut

Stavros — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:46:14 +0000

I though with the Easter and all, this is a very relevant post :-) There is this guy, a radio show host at Wretched Radio, Todd Friel. He seems to be a devout Christian that takes the bible at face value. He also likes to play games, namely, "what if" games, where a guest is asked to play along in hypothetical scenarios that Todd creates. The scenarios you will listen to, are based on biblical fairy tales, like "what if the god has actually created you, wouldn't he then have rights on you?" and other kinds of such fantasies -nevermind the fact that Todd himself really believes these stories.

Raise your awareness: World homeopathy awareness week

Stavros — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:18:31 +0000

For the 2009 World Homeopathy Awareness Week, I am re-posting my piece from last year. This year's awareness week is focused on allergies -a very common claim of homeopaths but with no evidence to back it up (as always).

Homeopaths: fallacies, lies, and dangerous advice

Stavros — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:11:13 +0000

Since this is the World Homeopathy Awareness Week, I might be spending more time on this particular well of credulity. I will also re-post my piece from last year's week. But today, I'll be talking about Melanie Grimes, a homeopath who writes for HealthNews as a health "expert". The irony though is painful -you will soon see that if "expert" was to be used in the same sentence as Melanie, then that would be: "Melanie Grimes is the exact opposite of a health expert". So let's start the fun, shall we?

Alternative medicine debate at Guy’s hospital

Stavros — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:43:55 +0000

A debate on complementary and alternative therapies will take place at Guy's hospital on the 28th of April. The motion of the debate is 'this house believes that complementary and alternative therapies do more harm than good', proposed by Simon Singh and Prof Michael Baum.