Category: Follies of the Human Condition

Safe and Effective Skeptical Activism – The 10:23 Campaign

At 10:23AM on 30 January 2010, the 10:23 Campaign staged a mass overdose of homeopathic “medicine” to protest the sale of homeopathy products in Boots pharmacies, especially under the Boots brand name. The event generated a considerable amount of media attention and increased public awareness of the nature of homeopathy, although it has not yet succeeded in getting Boots to disavow homeopathy.

Spending on homeopathy by the government and private individuals is medically indefensible. Furthermore, wasting money on medically ineffective water and sugar pills at a time when local NHS trusts regularly run out of funds, and education and scientific research budgets may be slashed is ridiculous. Therefore, I am a strong supporter of the 10:23 Campaign’s goals and want nothing more[1] than to see them succeed.

But[3] I have concerns about the safety and efficacy of the 10:23 Campaign’s approach, which I have helpfully categorized as Economic, Philosophic, Scientific, Pedagogic, and Safety. Continue reading “Safe and Effective Skeptical Activism – The 10:23 Campaign”

Pick Your Battles

There is an American rugby* song that includes the call and response:

Cantor: Is everybody happy?
All: You bet your ass we are!

One would think that this describes the whole world’s response to the successful rescue of 33 Chilean miners that had been trapped underground for over two months.

Some atheists, however, are grumpy that a politician (the president) in an overwhelmingly Christian nation (Chile) thanked God for the safe rescue of all the miners instead of enumerating the many individuals whose heroic, hard work made the rescue possible. True, this statement is theologically dubious and somewhat inconsiderate. . .

. . .but, I’m going to let you in on a little something I learned at the rugby parties after matches my team lost: Being grumpy when everyone else is partying does not make people want to talk to you.

*By which I mean bawdy, drinking songs sung by inebriated American college rugby clubs at festivities to celebrate the completion of poorly played matches.

Dear Pew Research Forum. . .

Dear Pew Research Forum,

Your US Religious Knowledge Survey has made a big splash in the news media – especially with the conclusion that atheists/agnostics know more about religion than theists and folks who just don’t care. Thank you for pushing many people I know to the level of completely unbearable from their previous position of mildly bearable when I’m drunk. Continue reading “Dear Pew Research Forum. . .”

Stuxnet and Our Sci-Fi Reality

We’ve come a long way since computer worms were just random acts of destruction created by overeager college students. They’re now the means of highly targeted, possibly state-sponsored cyberwarfare:

A powerful computer code attacking industrial facilities around the world, but mainly in Iran, probably was created by experts working for a country or a well-funded private group, according to an analysis by a leading computer security company.

The malicious code, called Stuxnet, was designed to go after several “high-value targets,” said Liam O Murchu, manager of security response operations at Symantec Corp. But both O Murchu and U.S. government experts say there’s no proof it was developed to target nuclear plants in Iran, despite recent speculation from some researchers….

U.S. officials said last month that the Stuxnet was the first malicious computer code specifically created to take over systems that control the inner workings of industrial plants.

Once again, sci-fi is hard pressed to beat reality.

Science Journalism At Its Finest

Martin Robbins at The Guardian demonstrates how to cover a hot scientific finding:

In the standfirst I will make a fairly obvious pun about the subject matter before posing an inane question I have no intention of really answering: is this an important scientific finding?

The whole thing is hilarious, including the links at the end. And consider yourselves warned not to read this hunched over your laptop while sipping a hot beverage, as liquid damage is generally not covered by laptop warranties.

The sad thing is that Robbins is dead-on.

(Hat tip to Climate Progress.)