I may have to start a series of these types of posts, where I link to people who have done work I would do if I had more time. But here you go.
1) Skepchick Chelsea tells us why August is Immunization Awareness Month. September, of course, is Point Your Finger and Make Rude Noises at Jenny McCarthy month.
2) Creationist goofball and banana-lover Ray Comfort doesn’t understand a single thing about science. Surprised? I wasn’t, and neither was Jon Voisey, the angry astronomer.
3) A Kovacs and I were interviewed at Balticon by Paul Fischer for the ‘con’s podcast. We talk space travel, skepticism, JREF, DRM, Trek, and Kim Kardashian. Yeah, you read that right.
4) I promised one more Comic Con post. It’ll go up in the morning.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
“September, of course, is Point Your Finger and Make Rude Noises at Jenny McCarthy month.”
So what makes that different from any other monfh.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
People on Comfort’s blog were applauding him for his work in that “debate”, read as “intellectual titan steps on very loud and annoying insect”.
July 29th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Umm… What?
I think I’ll have to read up some more on this Ray Comfort guy. (And admit that I haven’t heard of him before now.)
July 29th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
@Ken B.
Ray Comfort teamed up with former child-star Kirk Cameron for a video series called “The Way of the Master.” In it, they attempt to disprove evolution by means of deceit, subterfuge, ignorance, and arrogance. Comfort actually says that through his teachings, you don’t have to be an expert on anything to refute it. He’s the ultimate in anti-expert: he is so ignorant in evolution that he could make the argument that since bananas fit in human hands so well, it disproves evolution. This despite the fact that bananas as we know them were tinkered by humans.
For his part, Cameron has defined evolution as a species being a cross between two unlikely species. His main argument: to paraphrase “If evolution were true, you should find a half-duck half-crocodile. Here’s a picture of a ‘croco-duck.’ No one has ever seen one. Therefore evolution is about as credible as my current acting career.”
So, don’t expect too much intellectual honesty from Comfort. In fact, don’t expect much honesty. Heck, don’t even expect an quark of intellect. Pretty much, just sit back with some buddies and MST3K his videos.
July 29th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I will follow the blog.
July 29th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Anyone who likes bananas can’t be all bad. But Ray Comfort pushes it very close to all.
July 29th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
“I think I’ll have to read up some more on this Ray Comfort guy”
Go to youtube and search for: atheist nightmare banana, it’s hilarious.
July 29th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
haha I just saw the Ray Comfort video. Reminded me very much of something Hitchens wrote in “god is not great” about his bible teacher/ nature instructor saying something about god being kind and generous to have made all the trees and grass green – a colour that’s “most restful to our eyes”, according to her. Ha.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Argh, I didn’t even know you were at Balticon, or I might’ve gone.
July 30th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Yay! Go thunderfoot
July 30th, 2009 at 5:37 am
Damn, you were at Balticon? This was the first time in years I didn’t go!
July 30th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Speaking of Jenny McCarthy, a new article on Salon.com dissects the crackpot health ideas that come out of Huffington Post, with prominent mention of the the anti-vaxxer crowd and Mr. Jenny McCarthy (Jim Carrey.)
excerpt: “The Huffington Post’s most famous unscientific stand is against childhood vaccines. From what seems like its first day on the Internet, the site has played host to the anti-vaccine movement, granting center stage to the movement’s most prolific and outspoken proponents, such as author David Kirby, Jenny McCarthy’s pediatrician Jay Gordon and detox advocate Dierdre Imus, wife of shock jock Don Imus. (It should be noted the site promoted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2005 article “Deadly Immunity,” jointly published by Rolling Stone and Salon, which accused the Centers for Disease Control, and other health agencies, of covering up the links between autism and vaccines. The article was widely criticized by the medical community and required both publications to make numerous corrections of fact and analysis.)”
http://www.salon.com/env/vital_signs/2009/07/30/huffington_post/index.html
July 30th, 2009 at 7:17 am
I like the response to Comfort’s banana “theory”, the pineapple! See, it’s shaped so it fits easily into the human…oh, wait. Well, it has a nice surface that is comfortable to ho–hmm….well, it also has this tab at the top for easy openi–.
see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HW06Wz_R74
July 30th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Bahdum:
You see? He was right! The banana proves “intelligent(?) design”.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:32 am
14. Ken B:
I guess bananas WERE constructed just for humans, so we should make it illegal for gorillas to eat them, since they don’t bother to peel bananas, they just eat the whole darn thing, skin and all. Of course, they are more herbivore than carnivore,,,
It’s really amusing when the irrational ones among us try to claim science as supportive of their beliefs, when they have absolutely no comprehension of either scientific methodology or the evidence based system that supports knowledge acquired by that method.
Trying to teach pigs to sing or the irrational to think has pretty much the same result for the teacher but it can be instructive to the more reasonable observer who just doesn’t know,,,
GAry 7
July 31st, 2009 at 11:49 am
first the creationist of course he do’sent know science he thinks evelotion is a conspircy in fact he probly never read a science book (I think he dos’nt know other interpertions of the bible ether) second the vaccines as I said Jenny Macarthy is not a doctor nor dose she have an MD so don’t listen to her she is unqulified to be giveng medical advice one more thing monkeys love bananas so if they were made for humans why do they eat them?