I’m a little late to the game here, but a new skeptic blog has started up called Skeptic North, chock full o’ Canadian rationality. It’s a group blog with skeptics participating from all over the Great White North.
They just posted a very good slamming of the nonsense that is naturopathy, and if they continue to post such thorough and straight-forward articles, they’ll be a great force for the side of good.
TAM London was last month, but has created a lasting impression: Skepchick Rebecca Watson and Neil Denny (from Little Atoms) interviewed a bunch of people at TAML, including speakers and audience members. It’s a fun listen.
Not only that, but there have been lots of followup posts and articles about it:
Oh, that Bill Maher. It’s time to change his show’s name to "Antireality Time". Because when he talks vaccines, he wanders into major woowoo territory.
But there is one thing I want to mention. My favorite part is when Maher says:
I agree with my critics who say there are far more qualified people than me — its [sic] just that mainstream media rarely interviews doctors and scientists who present an alternative point of view.
First off, that’s total baloney. Go watch the news and other talking head shows; they often have people talking up the "alternative" (that is to say, wrong) point of view when it comes to vaccines. And if these people aren’t certified physicians, what does that tell you? Maybe you’ll come to the correct conclusion that the overwhelming majority of physicians think antivaxxers are full of it.
And second, about talk shows not having "alternative" viewpoints — and this is critical — why should they? When the weatherman talks about lightning in your area, should he give equal time to the Zeus theory?
Feh. Maher digs himself deeper every time he talks about this. Some people hold him up as an icon of skepticism, but it’s simply not true. A lot of non-believers love his ideas and attitude when it comes to religion, which is fine, but it doesn’t translate to his other beliefs, especially when it comes to real medicine. What he does isn’t skepticism, it’s dogma, and just as dogmatic as the religions he mocks.
Last week I posted about Adam and Jamie on Craig Ferguson’s TV show. I also found this little gem, where he talks about Apollo deniers. The whole thing is funny, but the space stuff starts at 3:00.
Back in August, I have a talk at Gnomedex, a conference about the intersection of technology and people. It’s thrown by my old buddy Chris Pirillo. My talk was on skepticism, and I posted some video from it a month ago. However, the audio quality wasn’t great.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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