tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35204074803491637742024-09-26T18:44:46.334-04:00Separating fact from fictionBart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520407480349163774.post-29786697773889138962013-09-02T03:15:00.000-04:002013-09-02T03:16:56.574-04:00

The so-called 'health-food' – which is more correctly called the novelty-food or quack-food industry – industry has a lot to do with making money, and essentially nothing with food and even less with health. That's not a secret, but a given. Nevertheless, lots of people choose to believe what they like to hear while closing their ears and brains to what they need to hear. A lot of nonsense is

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520407480349163774.post-4310518508151857812013-04-13T19:59:00.001-04:002013-04-13T20:11:21.095-04:00

I recently bought a software license for Adobe Acrobat XI Pro. This version does have a few minor evolutionary improvements in comparison with older versions, but that is not the subject here. The subject is a small message that appeared today when I started Adobe Acrobat XI Pro, as can be seen in the picture. It struck me, because of the sheer uselessness of it. Anyone who has bought a scanner

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520407480349163774.post-7331870787079776582012-10-23T10:19:00.002-04:002012-10-23T10:20:07.391-04:00

During the 3rd presidential debate on Monday, 22 October 2012, Mitt Romney told the viewers that Syria is Iran's way to the sea. That claim is wrong. Presidential debates are held to enable the viewer to make up her/his mind about which candidate to vote for. They are an opportunity to asses the candidates' knowledge and to get an insight into what and how they think. In the last of the

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520407480349163774.post-80196456484419877582012-10-18T09:24:00.000-04:002012-10-23T10:20:24.137-04:00

Mitt Romney's story about "binders full of women" has had quite an impact on the Internet. There is a slight problem with it however: it is not true. A nice example of why evidence matters. The first thing I had to think of when Mitt Romney told the story about the 'binders full of women' was what is arguably the best sitcom ever made, the unsurpassed 'Yes, (Prime) Minister'. In the

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520407480349163774.post-41090584783290046382012-02-21T02:56:00.001-05:002012-02-21T03:04:28.798-05:00

In the previous article, I presented the Monty Hall Problem, a famous problem in elementary probability, based on "Let's make a deal", a television game show of years gone by. If you haven't read that article, what follows is likely to make little sense. It would therefore probably be better to read that article before continuing to read this one. As a reminder, here is a video clip presenting

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520407480349163774.post-28105513717285406412012-02-20T10:25:00.001-05:002012-02-21T03:04:41.943-05:00

How often have you heard this: "It's just common sense"? Probably far more often than you care to remember. Common sense is often seen as a sort of innate intuition that leads us to the correct conclusions only a moron would deny. However, as I will show in this and the following article, common sense can also lead us to the wrong conclusions, indicating that common sense is not to be trusted.

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520407480349163774.post-89863765326214038972012-02-11T13:55:00.002-05:002012-02-14T10:19:05.533-05:00

David Suzuki in 2009 I just finished watching the documentary MS Wars: Hope, Science and the Internet, presented by the indomitable David Suzuki in the CBC's "The Nature of Things" series. I loved this documentary. The issues involved are intense, painful and devastating for patients, and fascinating for science. All the issues were presented in a fair and balanced non-sensationalist and

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520407480349163774.post-32984992404937295792012-01-30T01:34:00.000-05:002012-02-14T10:19:36.097-05:00

For millennia, humanity has lived in ignorance and fear for just about anything and everything. Like any animal, we lived in holes, in nests, largely unprotected from both the environment and predators. The world must have seemed a terrifying place in those days. Earthquakes, volcanoes, thunder and lightning, disease that struck without warning, hunts that went well, hunts that went no so well,

Bart B. Van Bockstaelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14689331945672800561noreply@blogger.com4