I've talked about a few things regarding vaccines in recent posts, but certainly not enough. With the flu season upon us and the threat of a deadly epidemic, disseminating information on the flu and the vaccines is more important than ever now and, more importantly, dispelling the myths about seasonal flu and swine flu vaccines ( Read more... )

Last night I was arguing with an antivaxxer and he was pulling the toxin gambit with this list from Mercola.com, a known quack website (which will cockblock you with an ad to make you sign up to read the crap, but you can see most of the list behind the ad) The toxin gambit is the idea that there are DEADLY CHEMICALS in vaccines that Big Pharma is ( Read more... )

Remember that creation v. evolution pamphlet I sent away for by people who had ads on Scienceblogs? Well, it arrived some weeks ago, and boy... it's every bit as painful as I expected. The first paragraph of the first page just smack you across the cheek:

Why has evolution become so widely accepted, and why has the Bible come to be viewed with ( Read more... )

It's more likely than you think. Mark of the Calladus Blog offers this great idea:

This is an unbelievably perfect opportunity to do the fieldwork necessary to create an audio "walking tour" of the museum for future secular visitors. Many museums have these sorts of audio tours, where the listener is guided step by step through the museum and ( Read more... )

Here's a selection of videos I've watched over the past week, and they're pretty cool:

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In catching up with Skeptoid, I heard Dunning's episode on Coral Castle, a unique construction created by Edward Leedskalnin throughout his life. It's made of giant blocks of stone, so big and heavy that people say he couldn't have done by himself, a la ( Read more... )

Richard Wiseman is a really coolly awesome Australian skeptic who, among many other things, likes to demonstrate the kooky ways in which our senses and brains operate, like through optical illusions and magic tricks. And in his latest video he makes his head disappear -- with the help of our natural blind spot of course:

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Wow. That's incredibly ( Read more... )

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And the playlist.

It's obviously from several years ago, but it's Randi meaning it's incredibly awesome. He discusses his adventures in skepticism and uncovering frauds, which include some great clips of him on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, and the million dollar challenge, which, even though it's ending next year, nobody has claimed. He also ( Read more... )

... the fuck is this?

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This ALMOST makes me want to splurge and go to TAM 7. As if Randi, the SGU, Penn & Teller, the Mythbusters, Phil Plait, Michael Shermer, Captain Disillusion, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. didn't already make me want to go. Man why does Vegas have to be sooo expensive...

Apparently according to the British Homeopathic Association, this week it's Homeopathy Awareness Week, and much like Dr. Steven Novella has already done, I would like to make people aware of homeopathy. However, Dr. Steve has done such a bang-up job already, and I encourage you to read his post. In fact it's so good I really don't know how to make ( Read more... )

Here's Randi to talk about it:

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I really wanna go one of these days, they always sound fun AND they have a collection of some living role model for me. Unfortunately, Vegas is expensive -- REALLY expensive, and unless I wanna board with several other people I don't know in a room (not likely), it's simply out of my price range. Maybe I'll save up ( Read more... )