On Scientology.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=zllYkNu1sl4
I am looking forward to this.
Category: Skepticism
Top 10 Astroturfers According to One Reporter
My fellow gunnies are ecstatic over Sheryl Attkinson’s list of top astroturfers because the Demanding Mommies topped the list.
Here’s the problem. Scrolling down Attkinson decides to include several science blogs because they are – horror of horrors – pro-vaccine.
I’m sorry, but while I don’t agree with them politically, the skeptical blogs Attkinson mentions are hardly astroturfers. If anything, most of them are just as grassroots as the gunny blogs.
So, I’m sorry Ms. Attkinson, your list is garbage. Your reporting on “Fast and Furious” has been excellent, but your stance on vaccines is coloring your judgement. Worse, you’ve succumbed to the lies and propaganda of the anti-vaxxers who have caused as much death and destruction as the politicians behind “Fast and Furious.”
Friday Quote – Phil Plait
I’m tired of ignorance held up as inspiration, where vicious anti-intellectualism is considered a positive trait, and where uninformed opinion is held up as fact.
Phil Plait
Or where emotion is held up as proof.
Barbarians At the Gate
Over the past twenty-four hours, I’ve heard a lot of varying commenting. Many going off on Islam. I’m not going to repeat that most Muslims are peaceful. It really comes down to whether you are a civilized person or a barbarian. Currently, many – maybe most – of the barbarian cultures in the world today worship their magic sky-daddy as Allah.
Worse, the powers that be seem to have two responses to the barbarians: cower or emulate the barbarians.
Proving once again that we are on our own. The barbarians are inside the gates. Be prepared.
Cyber-Security People Believe That Sony Hack Was Inside Job
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve heard from many in the “white/gray-hat” side of IT security that the Great Sony Hack of 2014 was most likely from an inside source. And here’s another one.
Of course, the FBI, being the great and mighty FBI, is still blaming the Norks.
Friday Quote- Dara O’Briain
Just because science doesn’t know everything doesn’t mean you get to fill in the gaps with whatever fairy tale most appeals to you.
Dara O’Briain, comedian
Friday Quote- Isaac Asimov
I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe in anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.
Isaac Asimov, science fiction writer
The emphasis is mine.
Friday Quote- Brian Cox
The problem with the world today is that everyone believes they have the right to express an opinion AND have others listen to it.
The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to express an opinion, but crucially, that opinion may be roundly ignored, even be made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably NONSENSE.
Friday Quote – Neil deGrasse Tyson
I’m optimistic. I see no longer people accepting fuzzy thinking in the world. The change is not that people aren’t still saying under-informed things. The change is that if you’re in power and you say something under-informed, there are people out there with a voice who will take you to task for saying so.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson
The marketplace of ideas is truly a wonderful thing.
Friday Quote – Steven Novella
When someone looks at me and says “I know what I saw,” I am fond of replying “No, you don’t.” You have a distorted and constructed memory of a distorted and constructed perception, both of which are subservient to whatever narrative your brain is operating under.
Dr. Steven Novella, neurosurgeon and skepticism advocate