Blogs / Bad Astronomy

Utah is only one state over, so when I see a website that tells me a fragment of a comet will hit it on March 1 of this year, I sit up and take notice.

Then I see the flashing text. The multiple colors. The GIANT FONT. The URL: satansrapture.com. Well, still. It can’t be all wrong can it? And then I see the title: "BIBLE CODE PREDICTIONS 2010".

Oh. I guess it can be all wrong.

OK, Utah, you can rest easy. I’m guessing March 1 will come and go with no comet impact, fragment or otherwise. The Bible code is a long debunked piece of antiscience garbage, basically just people looking at random patterns until they find one that kinda sorta if you squint your eyes and plug up your ears and yell LALALALALALA looks like it might say something sorta correct.

Maybe.

Anyway, I wouldn’t normally link to such low-level and obvious nonsense, but no matter how silly a doomsday claim is, there will always be people out there who take it seriously. So just in case, here you go: there are no scientific predictions that a comet piece will hit Utah, and the Bible Code is total 100% fictitious nonsense.

Unless… hmmm. The Earth is hit by about 100 tons of cosmic debris every night. A lot of that is from comets, small (and I mean small) bits of fluff shed off of previous comet passes. And if you live in Utah and go out March 1, you’re sure to see at least one or two shooting stars…

So maybe that website is right!

Or not. I’m guessing not.

I don’t usually do this, but TechyDad left such a great comment on my post about the antics of antivax founder Andrew Wakefield, I have to reproduce it here for all to see.

Talking about the inherent contradictions and cherry-picking that go on in the alt-med purveyors’ heads, TechyDad says:

Gotta love the disconnect. If pharmaceutical companies make any money off of vaccines, it’s "Big Pharma’s injecting us with chemicals to make money!!!"

Now if a homeopath or an "alternative therapy" company makes money off of their "treatment" it’s “They’re such wonderful people helping to treat these awful conditions!”

If a single batch of a single vaccine is recalled for a tiny problem they shout "See!!??? Big Pharma’s trying to pump us full of unsafe toxins!!!!"

If a company comes out with an outrageous sounding "alternative therapy" for some disease, they say "They say it works right here. It’s alternative and alternative is always good."

If a homeopath says Treatment X doesn’t work they say "It must not work because he’s a homeopath and thus is fighting against the Medical Establishment."

If a physician says Treatment Y doesn’t work they say "It must work and the Medical Establishment is suppressing it."

In other words, they’re right, science is wrong and all evidence will be cherry picked and skewed until their view is supported.

Nailed it in one.

Reproduced here with permission from TechyDad.

Captain Disillusion is the reigning superhero of skepticism, and his video exploits are legendary.

Of course, he’s also a filthy liar, saying I don’t like cats:

[Shh! I have to say I like cats, because if I don't then my cat will steal my breath in the middle of the night and kill me.]

Click through to see the rest. He’s funny. And Bolingbrook Babbler somehow caught wind of this as well, to my chagrin. Of course, it’s one of the few MSM outlets that gets quotes from me right…

Just so’s you know, the NYC Skeptics and NESS are throwing a big skeptic meeting in New Yawk called the Northeast Conference on Science & Skepticism, and registration just opened. This will be a really fun event with lots of cool people like George Hrab, Jamy Ian Swiss, the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe wackos, and apparently someone named D.J. Grothe who is also apparently the President of JREF.

Oh yeah: Randi will be there too! You can see the entire speaker list here.

I really really want to go to NECSS, but I don’t know if my schedule will allow it. Be assured that if I can, I’ll let y’all know here. And if so, see you there!

I’m very pleased to hear that TAM London DVDs are now available for pre-order!

W00t!

They have 12 hours of skeptical and scientific wonderfulness on them, including performances by James Randi, Richard Wiseman, Brian Cox, Ariane Sherine, Simon Singh, Jon Ronson (who wrote Men Who Stare At Goats), as well as exclusive interviews, backstage footage, and lots more.

To give you an idea of what it’s all about, event organizer Tracy King (whom I thank very much for putting this together) has posted a preview on YouTube:

Yeah, you want this. And proceeds go to the JREF, so it’s a good cause, too! So go! Get yer DVD!

These. Are. Brilliant.

Dear Media, Dear Homeopathy, and Dear Astrology are three polite letters written by, um, Science. Well, really, "the personification of the abstract concept of Science, just to clarify," as he says in his own letters.

These are funny, dead on, satirical, clever, and dagnabbit I’m ticked I didn’t think of this first. Oh well. To be honest, I’m just glad someone did. Oh– they are ever-so-mildly not safe for work, but just for language, not content.

These won’t convince any believers, of course. But they do make excellent points, and they’ll help rally the troops, I think. That’s pretty important too! I hope he writes more.

Well, I assume he’s a low mass star since he was in Red Dwarf. Anyway, Skepchick Rebecca Watson rides in a car with Robert Llewellyn and they talk skepticism and such. It’s an enjoyable video, with some NSFW language.