Yesterday, Lori Lipman Brown of the Secular Coalition appeared on The Colbert Report during Stephen Colbert’s “Better Know a Lobby” segment. You can watch the segment here.
The Colbert Report segment humorously ended with Colbert singing “God Bless America,” which coincidentally happens to be at the center of this next story about a man considering legal action against the New York Yankees after he was ejected from Tuesday night’s contest against the Boston Red Sox for trying to use the restroom during the playing of “God Bless America.”
A skeptic takes on new job as “a major component of the face” of a still unknown and presumably Wall Street company – I for one am happy knowing an ethical skeptic is in such a high position.Congratulations to Jon Blumenfeld, who “has been on and around Wall Street since 1989, as a trader and researcher in interest rates and their associated financial products. Most recently he was an Interest Rate Strategist at Bear Stearns and Co., where he was named to Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-America Fixed Income Research team for Interest Rate Derivatives in 2007. He is looking forward to starting a new career, the details of which are in the final stages of negotiation.”
Integrity’s employees regularly prayed before meetings or in branch lobbies with customers, while the bank gave 10 percent of its net income to charities.
“We felt if we prayed and obeyed God’s word and did what He asked, that He would help us be successful,” the bank’s founder, Steve Skow, told the Journal-Constitution in 2005.
Sarah Palin – creationist sympathizer – In the past she’s stated that science classes should “teach the controversy” between Evolution and Creationism. I wonder if she thinks we should also teach these equally valid controversies:
Get ready for flu season – If you’re Kim Stagliano from the “Age of Autism” blog, you probably think the flu is harmless because you never saw anyone die of the flu in Leave It To Beaver, but it’s actually responsible for 35,000 deaths a year.
Autism “Research” Institute (ARI) announces Autism TV – Sounds like a great idea, right? Wrong. There’s a reason I put quotation marks around the word “Research.” Yup, this is a front group for propagating anti-vaccine misinformation. In fact, the Age of Autism blog says they’re sponsored by the ARI. What a depressing development. But I suppose Jenny McCarthy will probably have a job again.
Arctic Ice On Verge Of Another All-time Low – “Following last summer’s record minimum ice cover in the Arctic, current observations from ESA’s Envisat satellite suggest that the extent of polar sea-ice may again shrink to a level very close to that of last year.”
Why Flies Are So Hard To Swat – “Over the past two decades, Michael Dickinson has been interviewed by reporters hundreds of times about his research on the biomechanics of insect flight. One question from the press has always dogged him: Why are flies so hard to swat? … Long before the fly leaps, its tiny brain calculates the location of the impending threat, comes up with an escape plan, and places its legs in an optimal position to hop out of the way in the opposite direction. All of this action takes place within about 100 milliseconds after the fly first spots the swatter.”
Eyes Evolved For ‘X-Ray Vision’ – “The advantage of using two eyes to see the world around us has long been associated solely with our capacity to see in 3-D. Now, a new study from a scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has uncovered a truly eye-opening advantage to binocular vision: our ability to see through things.” The article also says:
“All animals have a binocular region — parts of the world that both eyes can see simultaneously — which allows for X-ray vision and grows as eyes become more forward facing.
Demonstrating our X-ray ability is fairly simple: hold a pen vertically and look at something far beyond it. If you first close one eye, and then the other, you’ll see that in each case the pen blocks your view. If you open both eyes, however, you can see through the pen to the world behind it.
To demonstrate how our eyes allow us to see through clutter, hold up all of your fingers in random directions, and note how much of the world you can see beyond them when only one eye is open compared to both. You miss out on a lot with only one eye open, but can see nearly everything behind the clutter with both.”
And in monkey news…
Unexpected Monkey Population Found In Cambodia – “A Wildlife Conservation Society report reveals surprisingly large populations of two globally threatened primates in a protected area in Cambodia. The report counted 42,000 black-shanked douc langurs along with 2,500 yellow-cheeked crested gibbons in Cambodia’s Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area, an estimate that represents the largest known populations for both species in the world.”
The Stroop Effect – New website where you can take the color test. From a skeptical point of view, I find this test interesting because it’s an effective way of illustrating how easily the brain can be deceived. I’m reminded of the cheap trick creationist Ray Comfort frequently takes advantage of this basic psychological effect when facing a scientifically educated opponent when out “witnessing” or preaching on the street. Comfort will ask you to spell the word, “Shop.” Then after you do it, he’ll ask you what you do when you come to a green light.” After being primed with the word, “Shop” a moment earlier, most people automatically say “stop.” Comfort then uses this to knock down his straw man that you claimed some sort of infallibility. It usually impresses a crowd and makes Comfort seem as though he’s beaten you in a battle of wits even though he’s just as susceptible to the phenomenon and it has nothing to do with the debate. So if ever you want to look intellectually superior to someone before a crowd, here’s how. And here’s Ray Comfort’s Book of Tricks for your enjoyment.
Where’s Jesus Now! – If you guessed on a moth, YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!
My favorite Christian, Fred Phelps of The Westboro Baptist Church, on the DNC:
Galileo gets a statue at Vatican – I guess this is a just a small token to show there are no hard feelings over that whole having kept him under house arrest for the remaining years of his life under false pretenses. One conservative Catholic writer, Atila Sinke Guimarães dismisses the church’s mistreatment of Galileo as a “black legend” and says the scientist got what he deserved for having the audacity of being right, adding:
“The Inquisition was very moderate with him. He wasn’t tortured.”
Lesbians – A threat to national security? – Oops. Correction, only lesbian t-shirts are a threat to national security. Oooohhh! That makes MUCH MORE SENSE! Wow. They didn’t even wait until the body was cold, did they?
Anti-vaxxers dirty tactic – Orac discusses their habit of “outing” the identities of their anonymous blogger critics presumably to shut them up through intimidation.
Subliminal Learning Demonstrated In Human Brain – “Although the idea that instrumental learning can occur subconsciously has been around for nearly a century, it had not been unequivocally demonstrated. Now, a new study published by Cell Press in the August 28 issue of the journal Neuron used sophisticated perceptual masking, computational modeling, and neuroimaging to show that instrumental learning can occur in the human brain without conscious processing of contextual cues.”
Jamaican Lizard Does Push-Ups To Stay Strong – “What does Jack LaLanne have in common with a Jamaican lizard? Like the ageless fitness guru, the lizards greet each new day with vigorous push-ups. That’s according to a new study showing that male Anolis lizards engage in impressive displays of reptilian strength — push-ups, head bobs, and threatening extension of a colorful neck flap called a dewlap — to defend their territory at dawn and dusk.”
One Form Of Adult Cell Transformed Into Another – “In a feat of biological prestidigitation likely to turn the field of regenerative medicine on its head, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) co-director Doug Melton and post doctoral fellow Qiao “Joe” Zhou report having achieved what has long been a dream and ultimate goal of developmental biologists – directly turning one type of fully formed adult cell into another type of adult cell.”
Vaccines, all vaccines, are immune suppressing; that is they depress our immune functions. The chemicals in the vaccines depress our immune system; the virus present depresses immune function, and the foreign DNA/RNA from animal tissues depresses immunity. Toraldo, et al found that the chemotaxis and metabolic function of PMNs (polymorphonuclear neutrophils) was significantly reduced after vaccinations were given and did not return to normal for months. Other indicators of immune system depression included reduced lymphocyte viability, neutrophil hyper-segmentation,
and a reduced white cell count. All vaccines are immune depressing to some extent and that is the trade-off we are risking. The medical thought is that we trade a small immune depression for an immunity to one disease. Now let me repeat, we are trading a total immune system depression (our only defense against all known disease – including millions of pathogens) for a temporary immunity against one disease, usually an innocuous childhood disease. Therefore, the trade is not at all fair. Mullins puts it this way, “Are we trading mumps and measles for cancer and AIDS.”
The trade-off is not worth the risk. We are risking getting many more diseases than we are “preventing” from getting. [Later we will see that there is literally no prevention.] Another good example is the ritual of the yearly flu shot. There may be only two or three varieties of flu viruses in each shot, hence the names “Asian-Flu”, “Japanese-Flu” “Indian-Flu” or “Swine-Flu”. But there are literally thousands, may be millions of flu-causing viruses. Taking one or two does not make sense and many people report getting the flu after taking a flu shot. We do not know which variety of flu will affect us each year and in each locale. Therefore, the best method to avoid the flu is to strengthen our immune system by eating properly and getting all the essential vitamins and minerals that our body needs. Only nutrition can build and support a strong immune system, while vaccines help to tear our immunity down. Vaccines have been linked to AIDS and other immuno-deficient disorders as well.
Vaccinations depress our body’s immune functions and that keeps us open to developing many other diseases. It is very childish to think that we are going to take one flu vaccine and never get sick from the many varieties of flu that exist, especially since viruses can mutate so fast when the conditions arise. Keeping up with these fast mutating viruses can only be done by priming our immune system with good nutrition and keeping the conditions/environment for their growth minimal. In other words, pathogenic viruses will not grow where the conditions will not allow it. It is the terrain which dictates our health and not the germs/viruses themselves. Germs are pleiomorphic, meaning that they can change with their environment; rods become cocci, and vice-versa. Thinking that germs cause disease means that we are not responsible for our own health and we place that responsibility in the hands of some one who has the means to kill these germs with toxic chemicals (drugs), even if those drugs/vaccines harm our body. Vaccines prevent health!”
What is it that has led people to the belief that measles and mumps are harmless diseases? Sure, if you’re fortunate enough to live in the West, it usually is NOW. This strikes me as silly as claiming that removing bullets from guns isn’t worth it because after the bullets are removed, the gun is pretty harmless. What kind of circular insane troll logic is that? Again, the fact that in the U.S. among other nations, these once feared fatal illnesses have been made so impotent by vaccines that people don’t even remember a time when measles, mumps, rubella, and polio were even serious threats, illustrates what many others have been saying, that vaccines are now suffering from having been too successful. But had we had people back then reaching such horribly poor reasoned conclusions humanity wouldn’t have conquered any of these diseases.
The claim that “vaccines prevent health” is patently absurd as is the claim that the solution to disease is simply good nutrition combined with some abstract notion of ridding ourselves of environmental toxins. Germs and bacteria exist everywhere and are even to a large degree necessary for our own survival. And I’d very much like to know who is telling these people that one flu vaccine is all they’ll ever need to avoid the flu because no legitimate doctor I’ve ever heard of would make such an idiotic statement.
Further, the poster says, “Thinking that germs cause disease means that we are not responsible for our own health and we place that responsibility in the hands of some one who has the means to kill these germs with toxic chemicals (drugs), even if those drugs/vaccines harm our body.”
This is a logical fallacy known as argument from final consequences. Thinking that germs cause disease (which they do) only means germs cause disease. This is like the creationist who says “If we came from a monkey, doesn’t that give us permission to act like a monkey?”
“Americans might tune in to some science news, visit science museums, and even adjust their diets and prescriptions based upon the latest studies. But it’s not enough. Without anything beyond a surface-level appreciation of science, they stand far too blind when staring down something of paramount importance: The future.”
Where do you get your mercury? – Today’s issue of JAMA has an interesting study of Ayurvedic (traditional Indian) medicines. It turns out that many of them contain a significant amount of toxic heavy metals…including mercury, and much higher levels than the minute traces found in a flu vaccine. Here, we’re dealing with actual dangerous levels of the stuff.
SECULAR VALUE VOTERS! – The Secular Coalition for America is taking back the word “values” from the Religious Right.
Stephen Colbert better know an atheist tomorrow – My favorite secular lobbyist Lori Lipman Brown is to appear on The Colbert Report tomorrow night (Thursday) during the “Better Know A Lobbyist” segment.
A Christian Critique of $cientology – This is a funny piece in the way it compares the 2 remarkably similar belief systems, though to be clear, while Christianity has some cult-like behaviors, Scientology is a cult in the strictest sense of the word. And it’s important to clarify that as insanely dopey as their beliefs are, my principle criticism is of their cult behavior because otherwise they’ll just try to get away with claiming we’re just bigoted towards their “religion.”
First Prehistoric Pregnant Turtle Discovered – “A 75-million-year-old fossil of a pregnant turtle and a nest of fossilized eggs that were discovered in the badlands of southeastern Alberta by scientists and staff from the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology are yielding new ideas on the evolution of egg-laying and reproduction in turtles and tortoises.”
Hobbit-like Dwarfs: Bone Parts Don’t Add Up – “Misinterpreted fragments of leg bones, teeth and brow ridges found in Palau appear to be an archaeologist’s undoing, according to researchers at three institutions. They say that the so-called dwarfs of these Micronesian islands actually were modern, normal-sized hunters and gatherers.” Ugh, you just know the creationists are going to misrepresent this story and play it up as “proof” that evolution is wrong. Though kinda odd that the “evolutionists” discovered the error while The Discovery Institute still hasn’t spent one cent on actual research. Science is self-correcting.
Is Extinction Or Diversity On The Rise? – “It’s no secret that humans are having a huge impact on the life cycles of plants and animals. UC Santa Barbara’s Steven D. Gaines and fellow researcher Dov Sax decided to test that theory by studying the world’s far-flung islands.”
Richard Dutcher is the man in question. He used to make Mormon films. But now, Dutcher is releasing what’s being marketed as “the first R-rated Mormon movie,” which includes cursing, nudity and violence. CalledFalling, it stars Dutcher as an amoral videographer attempting to figure out his life after repudiating his faith. It’s a concept Dutcher knows well, because the father of Mormon cinema is now renouncing his religion:
“One day in prayer, all by myself, I asked myself the question: What if it’s all not true?” Dutcher recalled. “It was an earth-shaking moment of spiritual terror, such a profound experience. It was such a sense of loss. I felt my faith leaving me and never coming back.”
“At the beginning, I was proud to say, ‘Yeah, I’m a Mormon filmmaker’ because then, I was defining what a Mormon filmmaker was,” Dutcher said. “It quickly got completely out of my control. Now, no one wants to call themselves a Mormon filmmaker because you’re associating yourself with a genre that’s fallen into disrepute. It’s like having porn on your résumé.”
Before I begin, I noticed something last night about the Kim Stagliano’s anti-vaccine blog I commented on 2 days ago. This is the one where she laughs at the measles epidemic because her only knowledge of the disease seem to come from sitcoms where character developed chicken pox, which she seemed to think was the same as measles and which she seemed to be unaware was a potentially fatal disease. Maybe I’m wrong, but now it seems that she has adding “and Chicken Pox” to the title of her blog when I only recall it reading “When Did Measles Go From Entertainment To Epidemic?” Maybe I’m wrong and chicken pox was always part of the title but she must have at least gotten a pingback message informing her that someone has linked to her blog, so it’s very plausible she may have read my blog or the blog of someone else who mocked her idiocy and changed it after the fact. Not that this would change the absurdity of her blog but at least it would clarify that she does indeed understand that measles and chicken pox are 2 different diseases. Anyway, if anyone knows for sure, let me know.
Moving on.
The United States is suffering from the worst measles outbreak in a very long time, particularly in the San Diego area. This disease is prevented with a single vaccine, the MMR vaccine. The first M stands for measles. Now another easily preventable disease, mumps (the second M in the MMR vaccine) is plaguing Canada. All of this because of misplaced fears of vaccines. This time it’s mainly the result of superstitious religious thinking that getting vaccinated shows lack of faith in god. Now in his blog, Steve Novella points out the obvious inconsistency of this sort of thinking:
“I wonder if they feel it is blasphemy to wear a seatbelt, or use sunscreen, wash their hands, cook their food thoroughly, or do any of the common-sense things people should do to reduce their risk of infection or disease.”
But this brings me to a much larger logic inconsistency when it comes to religion: if god’s got a divine plan and god performs miracles to protect people from dying “before their time,” why see a doctor at all? I call this argument, The Christian Death Paradox, though it can be adapted to many, if not most other religions:
Christians hold the viewpoint that death is a positive thing so long as you’re on Jesus’ saved list, since now you’re with god in paradise. But if this is the case, why do Christians respond to death and tragedy as if these are bad things, the same way an atheist would? I morn the deaths of loved ones and view events like 9/11 as bad things because I believe that I’ll never see these loved ones again and these lives are lost forever.
Christians, on the other hand, believe they will see their fellow Christians again and that they’re going to a better place. So why don’t they react the same to death as they would if they were simply moving away and not going to see these people again for just a few years? Why do Christians even bother to go to the hospital when they’re sick if they believe death will take them to a better place? Why do they lock their doors at night? Why do they look both ways before crossing the street?
Christians still haven’t satisfactorily answered this paradox. Why oppose abortion and condemn what they perceive as the murder of babies if the babies are going to a better place? If life is just God’s waiting room and you view a fetus as a life, why not abort fetuses? If life is but a joke, why not spare already saved people (since Catholicism has recently declared there is no limbo and never was) from living it?
I asked a Christian in a text comment on YouTube why she’s so scared of dying and why she goes to such great lengths to avoid death if she is so convinced she’d go to better place? She couldn’t answer the question so employed a dodge by insisting that that’s “testing” God and only Satan tests God. Believers just believe and testing God shows they lack faith. I insisted that what I describe is not a test. If she’s so certain God exists and that she’s going to Heaven, then where’s the test? As the religious community that has developed mumps in Canada point out, taking secular medical action would be the test. And leaving your door unlocked at night is hardly suicide. to not rely on god to protect your home would be the test. Choosing to rely on god’s wisdom rather than medical science is a show of faith, not doubt. So again. I told the woman I was communicating with on YouTube to stop dodging and to just answer the question:
Why are you scared of death?
I never got an answer that was even remotely satisfying.
Alex Jones and 9/11 Falsers steal media coverage for their silly website:
I might tolerate or even encourage this sort of behavior if there was a worthwhile and non-bullshit message being promoted through such guerrilla tactics (for instance when PZ Myers broke into the “Expelled” teleconference), but not when you’re preaching an already thoroughly debunked myth. And not after going went way too far by interrupting Bill Maher’s show. These guys are just really fucking annoying. And it pisses me off that that they succeeded in promoting their insipid website on MSNBC where they pretty much blame America for every problem in the world. Fortunately, while there are a lot of people who buy this into this nonsense they’ve proven to be impotent and little more than a circus spectacle who people only stop to listen to for entertainment purposes.
Massive Galaxies Caught In The Act Of Merging – “Astronomers have caught multiple massive galaxies in the act of merging about 4 billion years ago. This discovery, made possible by combining the power of the best ground- and space-based telescopes, uniquely supports the favoured theory of how galaxies form.” Expect a convoluted denial of this fact on the Answers in Genesis website by tomorrow.
Amazon Trip Yields Biological Treasure Trove – “A group of Yale undergraduates have discovered dozens of potentially beneficial bioactive microorganisms within plants they collected in the Amazon rain forest, including several so genetically distinct that they may be the first members of new taxonomical genera.”
New Evidence Debunks ‘Stupid’ Neanderthal Myth – “Research by UK and American scientists has struck another blow to the theory that Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) became extinct because they were less intelligent than our ancestors (Homo sapiens). The research team has shown that early stone tool technologies developed by our species, Homo sapiens, were no more efficient than those used by Neanderthals.”
After receiving a Myspace bulletin informing me that it’s: “Day four of sporadic chemtrail spraying over Portland, Oregon,” I thought I’d take a few minutes to explain why I’m horribly unconvinced that this phenomena even exists and why I think this person is delusional.
So here’s why I’m skeptical of chemtrail conspiracy claims
1. Regular Contrails last only a few minutes so I’m highly skeptical of mere anecdotal evidence that they’ve lasted longer than that. I require evidence for this claim and anecdotal evidence isn’t sufficient.
2. Still photographs aren’t sufficient proof of “chemtrails” if the only physical distinction is that they last longer than regular contrails. A still photograph only shows one fraction of a second, a length of time that is sufficient for a regular contrail.
3. Even if I was presented with video footage of a long-lasting contrail, you’ve merely detected an anomaly and haven’t yet provided proof of your specific conspiracy claims. There’s got to be a least a million and one alternative explanations that should be exhausted and disproven before even beginning to consider some over-elaborate grand conspiracy theory.
4. Lastly, part of the process of disproving more likely explanations (#3) should be looking to experts in this field and asking them if they have better explanations. If you did this, you’d find out that they do:
Here’s just one just website that links to other experts’ responses: http://www.nmsr.org/chemtrls.htm
This doesn’t mean yielding to an argument from authority but it does mean that you should take the evidence presented by experts more seriously than just some yahoo on the internet with outrageous claims. Ask yourself, does the evidence for their more likely alternative explanation hold up? The answer is a resounding yes.
Barack Obama answers Science Debate 2008 questions
EPIC FAIL!
Posted by Michael Rosch 
Skepacabra 