Choccy's blog
Goldacre: 'Argument is about capitalism, not food '
Ben Goldacre points to the analogies between the 'organic' food argument and the BigPharma vs homeopathy/'alternative medicine' - mainly that all niches will be filled under capitalism.
Ben Goldacre, of Bad Science fame, reports on the Soil Association's response a recent Food Standards Agency (FSA) report on organic food. Goldacre says the FSA's report shows "that organic food is no better than normal food, in terms of composition, or health benefits".
I blame the parents!
Popular media coverage often lays the blame for youth problems at the feet of parents. New report shows that contrary to received opinion, parents actually take greater interest in what their kids are up to now and monitor their activities more.
You know what it's like, you turn on a radio phone-in show or watch some soapbox commentator on TV talk about the rise of 'anti-social crime' or 'youths misbehaving' and you don't have to listen longer than two minutes before someone embarks on a hysterical rant with 'you gotta ask, where are the parents?' and starts whinging about the 'DeCl1Ne oF f@mILee VaLeWs!1!!!1!'.
MMA and straightedge - nazis fuck off
Don't you hate it when you're into stuff and complete pieces of shit are into it too?
This is a just a rant about something that's bugged me recently - the appearance of openly neo-nazi bands using straightedge as part of the platform for their poisonous message.
Hoax academic articles, media meddling, and problems with 'open access' as it exists.
Some recent hoax articles are demonstrating the flaws in the control of information and particularly academic publishing. A recent hoax demonstrates that, so long as you are willing to pay, you can get anything published, even computer generated mumbo-jumbo. And if you can't pay, you either don't publish, or the company owns the product of your labour. Open access isn't as open as it seems.
Not quite as lol-worthy as the 'Sokal hoax' but certainly a nice effort is the story of a recent hoax paper submitted to, and accepted, by an open-access information science journal.
Ben Goldacre 'Steal This Chapter'
Joseph K's 'favourite liberal', NHS doctor and science writer Ben Goldacre has written about bullshit medical research, bogus science reporting, the placebo effect, and everything else from postmodernism to evolutionary psychology.
He's just made available the missing chapter from his Bad Science book, in case anyone's interested.
My legend avatar Boris and UK creationism
My legend avatar, Boris the Creation Dinosaur, was in G2 yesterday in The Guardian. Even his cousin, Denver the Last Dinosaur, didn't get in G2.
Boris the Creation Dinosaur gets a full page devoted to himself (p.6) in the 6-page feature on creationism in the UK in yesterday's Guardian G2 article Defying Darwin. Unfortunately he isn't on the web version of said article.
Anti-vaccination crap undermines attempts to eradicate measles
A paper in medical journal The Lancet last week shows that poor vaccination uptake in some European countries has lead to measles outbreaks across Europe, with just five countries in Europe accounting for 85% of cases. The growing 'exportation' of measles from Europe to regions thought to be clear of measles has undermined immunity elsewhere and setback the worldwide eradication program.
After the previous discussion of the measles outbreak in Cheshire, a timely paper in The Lancet last week highlighted how daft anti-vaccination nonsense is.
Revisiting the Scopes 'Monkey Trial' - radio feature
In 1925, teacher John T. Scopes was tried in Dayton, Tennessee, for teaching evolution in a science classroom. Stephen Jay Gould pointed out a number of misconceptions relating to the trial, and radio feature this week revisited the small town that became known for one of the most famous trials in US history.
In 2008, the year that marked the 150th anniversary of Darwin and Wallace's ideas on evolution by natural selection first being presented, at least seven US states experienced legal challenges to evolution (most of which died) being taught in the science classroom, and in the past decade, many more states have seen teachers subjected to the whims of creationist lobbyists on school boards.
Old public guidance clips
A host of old public servic announcements detailing everything from the Do & Don'ts of Dating, Going Steady, and how to avoid being a drop-out.
EduKaTe yur Branes!1!!1!!
Everyone's seen those amazing 1950 public information broadcast clips, like Duck and Cover (how to survive a nuclear attack) - the kind that were parodied by Harry Enfield in the early 90s.
Islam and Science
BBC Four's 3-part series 'Islam & Science' starts tonight, and presenter, physicist Jim Al-Khalili, begins by discussing 'the language of science'.
In an article today, he also discusses the work of who he considers the 'first true scientist', al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham:
[i]without doubt, another great physicist, who is worthy of ranking up alongside Newton, is a scientist born in AD 965 in what is now Iraq who went by the name of al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham.
Darwin 2009
2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin Of Species. Last year saw the anniversary of Darwin and Wallace's ideas first being presented to the Linnaean Society in London. Books, events, magazines, radio shows have already been marking these anniversaries and even two movies are in the works. Here's a list of some of them, by no means exhaustive...
2008 already saw the 150th anniversary of Darwin and Wallace’s papers on natural selection being jointly presented to the Linnaen Society in London.
Creationism in the science classroom - 29% of science teachers say 'yes'
More than a quarter of science teachers polled by Ipsos MORI think creationism should be taught in the science classroom.
Ipsos MORI reports 'Teachers Dismiss Calls For Creationism To Be Taught In School Science Lessons'.
