This is where the damn video *would* be embedded if WP wasn't being such a pain in the ass. So click it for the link.

…because, as we all know, “dogs can sense paranormal activity”.  How does Pixie pick up on paranormal… perterbances? (Ok I just made that word up for the sake of alliteration) Well, according to her owner, when Pixie senses a ghost she will demonstrate unusual body language or behavior such as:

• Stopping unexpectedly
• Sniffing the air
• Barking
• Agitation

Hmmm…wow…that’s iron clad. I mean what Jack Russell Terrier would ever possibly display those unusual signs unless paranormal activity was involved?? Come to think of it, my cat senses ghosts, too! Only she does it by running across the floor for no reason and random crotch-grooming.

Watch the whole video for some great examples of confirmation bias. The only thing I was amazed at was how these people are able to convince themselves that this dog’s TOTALLY NORMAL BEHAVIOR is actually some sign of supernatural ability. Wowzers.

by Travis Peterson

Recently I spent a week in an ICU watching a fantastic team of highly trained doctors and nurses use every technology at their disposal to keep my mother alive after a blood clot in her brain nearly killed her. Machines that help her breathe, feed her, and monitor every vital system in her body. Doctors prescribing drugs to thin her blood, control pain, and reduce swelling. Nurses keeping track and filtering data, while simultaneously fawning over her as if she was their own mother.  A well oiled machine-made possible by science.  This is the good side of medicine.

The day after I got home my wife handed me an envelope she got as an insert in the bottom of a shopping bag (not a good start, I know).  The envelope was very thick with the word “Chiropractic” on the outside.  Knowing that not all Chiropractors subscribe to the more fantastical claims of Straight Chiropractic, I fought off the urge to roll my eyes and opened the envelope.  What I found inside was nothing short of astonishing.  The list of procedures included laser therapy, body chemistry diagnostics, heavy metal testing, Ion foot baths and ear candling.  After reading the seven pamphlets of incredible claims (evidence of which the  references and studies failed to validate) included in this packet-o-crapola, I remembered a phrase my father says, “A man is as good as the company he keeps.”  If this is the company Chiropractic keeps, then I know all I need to know.  Modern medicine is flawed and incomplete, but when you see the best and the worst at the same time, then the false balance people give to pseudo medicine is painfully clear.

Harun Yahya is an Islamic creationist website with all kinds of wacky nonsense. I particularly enjoyed the children’s story of Charles Darwin & his Magic Barrel, which proposes the idea that Darwin thought all life came from a barrel or something. Seems like a pretty easy strawman to refute. So why did they need 70 pages to do it in? What kid is going to read 70 goddamn pages of this crap? Hell, I fell asleep after three.
(Sister sites include the disturbing, http://www.truthsforkids.com/ and  http://www.for-children.com/evolution01.html <–This one has cute pictures of kittens & ducklings next to the words, “Evolution is a lie!” Subtle.)

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Here is a link to a creationist dinosaur quiz for kids. I failed it. And if you’re a thinking person you should too.

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Amongst this website’s many tacky rotating gifs is what appears to be a triceratops on a leash being led by a caveman. There are many creationist activities for kids including crossword puzzles & coloring pages with lots of depictions of cavemen petting dinosaurs to ensure your dumbed down child never gets into college.

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Of course Answers in Genesis has a plethora of creationist propaganda for the kiddies. For just $18.99 you can purchase douchebag creationist extraordinaire, Ken Ham’s D Is For Dinosaur book & DVD set or Dinosaurs of Eden. “Young children will learn the true history of the world from creation to Christ to the coming Judgment.” The coming Judgement. Let me stress this is targeted at 2-7 year olds. Yes, what could go wrong with reading a story about the end of the world to a small child at bedtime?

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Kids for Truth is a pretty slick interactive website built for brainwashing. It includes many dynamations like this one in which they have the balls to declare, “Creationism is supported much better by the scientific evidence than evolution.” And you’re just a kid, so you’ll believe it, right? Of course you will…now go play with your Experience the Plagues coloring book.

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Found this one on the “Kid Explorers” section of Christiananswers.net, it’s called Kids, what to do if your teacher is an evolutionist. Better title: The Fast Track to Bringing the Shame of Dover, PA to Your Town.

Oh Christ, there’s SO MANY MORE…

Creation Response Team for kids

Creation for Kids A two-hour “mini-seminar” for those 9 to 15 years old

Dinosaur No More by Little Talkers  “Dinosaurs died out in the flood which God sent upon sinful man.”

Creationism Encyclopedia For Kids

*bkewww*  That was the sound of my brain exploding.

Seen over at Pharyngula (of course it was)

by Brianne Bilyeu aka biodork

This is the coolest thing you will learn today. Or if you already knew this, then it’s the coolest things you’ll be reminded of today. From Wikipedia:

 

The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom “Friday” is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia a concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning “Friday”), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning “thirteen”) attached to phobía (φοβία, from phóbos, φόβος, meaning “fear”).

Try saying either of those 13 times in row.

Wikipedia breaks down the history of why Friday the 13th might be considered to be an ominous day. 13 is an unlucky number in numerology, and it seems that Friday developed a rotten reputation centuries ago, though that perception has probably mellowed since the advent of the weekend. The modern day observation of “bad things happening” on Friday the 13th can probably be pinned on confirmation bias and selective memory. The wikipedia article lists some data for the rate of accidents on days designated Friday the 13th.

Probably the most amusing Friday the 13th story going around today is Life magazine’s photo journal about a meeting of the Chicago Anti-Superstition Society from December 13th, 1940.

Life originally attended the Friday the 13th party in 1940, and this is a collection of photos taken at the time. The ASS (wait, maybe that shouldn’t be abbreviated) party involved the flaunting of a lot of superstitious nonsense over a lot of delicious adult-looking beverages. Was this one of the first Skeptics in the Pub?

Also, check out CSI’s (The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) webpage on superstition. They have compiled a library of superstitions and list ideas for activities and games to play at a Superstition Bash like the one hosted 72 years ago by the Chicago Anti-Superstition Society. Hmmm…the next Friday the 13th is in April…that could be plenty of time to plan a party, mwahahaha!

by Brianne Bilyeu aka biodork

The Hubby and I are crawling our way through Star Trek: The Next Generation – all of ‘em. Thank you, Netflix. Star Trek: TNG is well-known for its emphasis on rationality and humanism; it promotes science, exploration, critical thought and solving mysteries by examining evidence and facts. It advocates acceptance – and at the very least, tolerance – of different types of people, dress, attitudes and cultures. We’re in the thick of season four right now, and I recently saw three episodes in a row that really drove home how rational and skeptical The Next Generation was, and which inspired me to do a write-up on one particular episode, The Devil’s Due.

I watched TNG as a teenager, but this is the first time I’ve watched it since becoming aware of the skeptics movement, so I’m seeing the show in a whole new light. Or maybe just with a brighter light.

Episode 13: The Devil’s Due
Air Date: February 4, 1991
Director: Tom Benko
Writers: Philip Lazebnik, William Douglas Lansford

Ardra, The Devil of Ventax II. Image Source

The Ventaxians are convinced that their world is coming to an end. In the distant past, their ancestors signed away their freedom and possession of the planet to the Devil – in this culture called “Ardra” – in exchange for 1000 years of peace. At the start of the episode, 1000 years have passed since the signing of the contact, and there have been warnings of Ardra’s coming: tremors and claims of visions of the devil.

The Enterprise has answered a distress call from Ventax II sent by a planet-based Federation science team; their lab had been overrun by panicked doomsday-preaching Ventaxians. Upon the away team’s arrival on the surface, Ardra herself appears to the crew and the Ventaxian leader to claim “her planet”. Ardra is able to instantaneously change her appearance, to cause tremors to start and stop at her command, and she even makes the entire Enterprise starship disappear!  But Captain Picard smells a phony. He describes Ardra as being a flim flam artist to his crew, and accuses her of being a fake in front of the Ventaxian leader. Picard convinces Ardra to settle the dispute through arbitration by offering himself up to be her slave should he lose.

During the trial Picard attempts to prove Ardra a fake, and she attempts to prove that she is the Devil. In the end Picard and his crew are able to discover the source of her “powers”: a cloaked starship and fancy holograph and transporter illusions. They reveal Ardra’s trickery for the Ventaxian leader by taking over her ship and “stealing her powers”. We learn that the woman posing as Ardra is a notorious scam artist known throughout the sector. She is arrested by the Ventaxians and the Enterprise leaves with another mystery neatly solved and stored away in a captain’s log for future generations to review.

Wikipedia calls out this episode as an illustration of Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law: “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” and notes that the leader of the science team on Ventax is named “Dr. Clarke”.

I knew that these modalities had to be taught (though, as clinical trials have shown, made-up bullshit is equally effective), but I’d assumed that these were almost exclusively special institutions dedicated to woo and fly-by-night operations, certainly not well know, well-respected, accredited universities. Centers of learning have an obligation to hold themselves to the most rigorous educational standards because they are responsible for shaping the minds of the future generation. Classes like these treat those minds like garbage cans, filling them with any old rubbish. Teaching homeopathy, reflexology, acupuncture and the like as valid, effective healing practices is tantamount to teaching creation alongside evolution. These practices have been thoroughly debunked and yet they are offered as credit-worthy courses. Last I checked, I do not attend Hogwarts, but still my school is teaching magic. Properly framed, these topics could make for an interesting course; one that shows the evolution of medicine from a pre-scientific era to now. Examining the evidence and support put forth by the practitioners and believers would be a fantastic lesson on evaluating evidence and logical fallacies. However, this is, unfortunately, not the case.

Born of my desire not only to promote rationality and counter the promotion of pseudoscience, but also to do my small part to help save lives (potentially), I wrote to the dean of academics and the head of the college in which this subject is taught.

“This program offers courses that espouse dubious and fraudulent medical treatments as legitimate means of healthcare. It concerns me that our fine institution of higher learning is standing behind such notions. It is intellectually dishonest and unethical to do so. By offering these courses, the University of Minnesota is lending credence to these practices, the outcome of which is putting the health and wellbeing of people in danger and even, in many noted tragic cases, costing individuals their life. These practitioners take advantage, not only of the accreditation offered by the school, but also of the research conducted to sell the public the validity of their practices.”

(A selected portion of my e-mail to President Bruininks)

When I wrote the former president of the university, his reply, though timely, was disappointing: “The Center for Spirituality and Healing is a part of the Academic Health Center and has gained national distinction for its research by the National Institutes of Health.” It was a polite brush-off, but a brush-off nonetheless. I voiced my concerns to the highest levels of the university, but to no avail. My voice alone isn’t enough to change policy, but with enough support I believe we can restore sensibility to our little corner of the world.

Post-script:

While preparing to write this post, I found that the Masonic Cancer Center. Their page which covers complementary and alternative medicine discusses, but does nothing to discourage, the use of acupuncture, aromatherapy, shark cartilage and Laetrile to name a few. Promoting these treatments to such an at-risk group as cancer patients is reprehensible and it’s things such as this that demonstrate why we must campaign to remove woo from our schools.

by Benjamen Johnson

A few days ago I pondered:

…how am I going to relate concepts like confirmation bias or correlation versus causation to my children? They’ll be lucky if formal schooling will introduce them to these concepts before college (even then it’s iffy). I think the seven year old mind can grasp these concepts if they are explained properly and the sooner they learn them the less baggage they will have to throw away when they do embrace them.

To address this issue, I started by giving a simple analogy of anomaly hunting that related it to a jigsaw puzzle. Continuing on that track, today I thought I’d present one of the best (and most entertaining) examples on TV about the correlation equals causation fallacy.

First a bit of background: Ned Flanders panics because he sees a bear on the street. So the whole town overreacts and demands the city to do something about it. They over-respond to the townspeople’s concerns in classic fashion by creating the Bear Patrol. The scene starts with homer outside proudly watching the bear patrol canvas the city.

Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm.
Lisa: That’s spacious[sic] reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, dear.
Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Oh, how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn’t work.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: It’s just a stupid rock.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don’t see any tigers around, do you?
[Homer thinks of this, then pulls out some money]
Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
[Lisa refuses at first, then takes the exchange]

– Quoted from the Simpsons Archive [Much Apu About Nothing]

I don’t think I could come up with a better example and I’m not the only person who’s used this to demonstrate that correlation doesn’t imply causation. Criticalthinking.org.uk uses it as an example in a course on critical thinking: The Unofficial Guide to OCR A-Level Critical Thinking.

I think I’m going to watch this episode this afternoon with my kids.

by Benjamen Johnson

Yesterday I listened to the latest For Good Reason podcast, where D. J. Grothe was interviewing A. J. Mass, author of How Fantasy Sports Explains the World. While following AJ explain how fantasy sports and skepticism intersect, it really hit home to me that unless you can simplify the tools of skepticism and relate them in a way someone can apply them to their own life, their eyes will glaze over until you start talking about something they do care about.

This lead me to thinking, how am I going to relate concepts like confirmation bias or correlation versus causation to my children? They’ll be lucky if formal schooling will introduce them to these concepts before college (even then it’s iffy). I think the seven year old mind can grasp these concepts if they are explained properly and the sooner they learn them the less baggage they will have to throw away when they do embrace them.

I’ll start with anomaly hunting, but first some guidelines:

• Rather than use definitions, I’ll use try to use analogies.
• I’ll pick topics and examples from everyday life, not skepticism topics like ghosts and conspiracies.
• I’ll try not to condescend to my audience, I want the explanation to be simple yet universal. It should apply to a seven or seventy year old.
• I’m not looking for an analogy that correlates 100%, just something good enough to get the point across — it is an analogy after all.

So here’s my example for anomaly hunting:

Imagine you are putting together a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle of a yellow happy face. You place the last piece and you discover there’s still a piece missing. You look at the incomplete puzzle and conclude that since it’s missing part of its smile it can’t possibly be a happy face, it’s a sad face. Even though all the rest of the mouth pieces form a smile, you are convinced that if you find the missing piece, you’ll prove your theory that it is a sad face.

It sounds absurd when you put it this way, but then again if you step back and take a look at the anomalies that some people pick to support their theories, they are no less absurd. All the rest of the pieces of the puzzle point to one conclusion, but they ignore them and concentrate on the one piece that is a mystery.

I know it’s not perfect, but again my goal in this exercise is to get the general concept across.