The anti-science circus continues in Louisiana. Thanks to Zack Kopplin and others, the bill to repeal of the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) almost got out of committee (a 3-2 vote against). It’s an insidious bill that allows public school teachers to use “supplementary materials” to criticize “evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and […]
One of my friends went to Harvard’s graduation ceremony last Thursday, and I asked him who the main speaker was (the speaker at my own ceremony, when I got my Ph.D. there, was Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn). When my friend replied, “Oprah Winfrey,” I about fell over. Oprah Winfrey? That peddler of woo, lachrymose feel-good guru, promoter […]
I had some hopes for Pope Francis, but of course that was stupid. He’s the head Catholic, for crying out loud, so how wonderful can he be? At any rate, there were two Popeish incidents of note this week. First, Francis inadvertently exorcised demons from a young man! As Newsmax.com reports: Is Pope Francis an […]
I suspect, though, that Larry Moran would consider this an appropriate textbook in an astronomy course. . . h/t: A tweet from Dr. Brooke Magnanti via Matthew Cobb.
by Greg Mayer Curtis Brainard, editor of The Observatory, the Columbia Journalism Review‘s online science journalism section, has a nice article up tracing the role of the news media in encouraging and spreading anti-vaccination pseudoscience, including the role of the disgraced British physician Andrew Wakefield, and the fear mongering of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (The […]
UPDATES: In a move reminiscent of that “letter from 800 scientists who deny evolution,” Deepak has responded to Chris Anderson by assembling letters from more than a dozen “accredited scientists and the broader community of concerned professionals,” all of whom want TED to promulgate Sheldrake-ian and Hancock-ian woo to the public. The theme of many […]
In this 7-minute video, James Randi announces the annual “Pigasus Awards,” which are described in detail, along with the requirements for winning, at the James Randi Educational Foundation. I won’t divulge the winners in print, except for the “Refusal to Face Reality” award won by the infamous Dr. Oz. Oz has now set a record, […]
Oh boy, get ready for an explosion of wrath from Sheldrake-ians, woomeisters, and other pseudoscience boosters who are ready at a moment’s notice to cry “censorship.” My inbox is yearning for the hate mail! Alert reader Jay just informed me that TED has revoked the license for the entire upcoming TEDx West Hollywood event, that […]
Here are excerpts from the bios of the production team for TEDx’s execrable April Event. Cringe-makingly named “Brother can you spare a paradigm? Making the quantum leap”, it will be forever be known as “WooFest” (see my posts here and here). These come from a comment by alert reader Jon H, and include half of the eight people involved […]
I don’t want to bang on about this too long, but the more I look at the TEDx West Hollywood event, the more disturbed I become. As you know, the Rupert Sheldrake and Graham Hancock videos from TEDx Whitechapel were deemed scientifically weak and sequestered to a Site of Bad Science by the TED administrators. […]
