Catholics Stole my Sequel!

December 16, 2009 in Atheism, News | No comments

It’s being widely reported and touted as a victory by the Catholic League that the film “The Golden Compass” the first in the adaptation of Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy will not get a sequel due to pressure from the Catholic church.

Now this may or may not be the case, there were certainly boycotts and lots of toys being thrown from the prams of the religious right but there may be other reasons for the film not being made. What does stink however is the Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League’s gloating over the matter.

Pullman has been widely quoted in Britain taking aim at me for my alleged “triumphalism.” The accusation is accurate. I am positively gloating. Cheers, everyone!

Yes, hooray for stopping children from thinking for themselves.

From the Catholic League’s own “about us”:

What is the Catholic League?

The Catholic League is the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization. Founded in 1973 by the late Father Virgil C. Blum, S.J., the Catholic League defends the right of Catholics – lay and clergy alike – to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination.

Motivated by the letter and the spirit of the First Amendment, the Catholic League works to safeguard both the religious freedom rights and the free speech rights of Catholics whenever and wherever they are threatened.

Arguing for free speech whilst gloating over your perceived victory in denying it to others makes you look a bit stupid.

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Dark Energy: What Science Tells Us About the Hidden Universe

December 10, 2009 in Astronomy, Cosmology, Science, Video | No comments

Bit of a long video this one but fascinating stuff if you’ve any interest in cosmology.

I do like the idea of “Science at the Theater”, there are loads of public lectures in London so I really should make an effort to see a few more.

Berkeley Lab’s Oct. 26 Science at the Theater event, “Dark Secrets: What Science Tells Us About the Hidden Universe,” was a smash hit: more than 600 people packed the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and over a hundred people had to be turned away.

No mystery is bigger than dark energy — the elusive force that makes up three-quarters of the Universe and is causing it to expand at an accelerating rate. Join a panel of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists who use phenomena such as exploding stars and gravitational lenses to explore the dark cosmos.

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NHS Wastes £10 Million on Homeopathy

December 3, 2009 in Bad Science, News | No comments

I noticed that the Health Minister is stating that homeopathy should remain available on the NHS despite there being absolutely no evidence of it’s efficacy being greater than placebo.

What really caught my eye though were the figures quoted for money spent by the NHS on making water and sugar pills available to us.

After some hard questioning from the committee, Mr O’Brien revealed up to £10 million was spent on homeopathic treatments by the NHS last year, despite no evidence they were effective beyond placebo.

£10 million for medicine that contains no medicine.

Homeopathists claim that water has memory and that dilute solutions of substances that cause symptoms can cure those same symptoms. That’s not all though, the solutions are ridiculously dilute, so much so that homeopathic medicines don’t actually contain an active ingredient…it’s the water’s memory of those active ingredients that cures you. Why then does the water forget all the other stuff it’s no doubt had in it that could affect the medicine? Where do they get this pure, untouched, memory free water from to start with?

I’d say it’s snake oil but it’s not, it’s water. £10 million to treat people with water.

Makes me mad. Anyway, here’s James Randi telling you why it’s so stupid.

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Fox News Invents New Maths

November 30, 2009 in Bad Science, Video | No comments

Interesting pie chart :)

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Meteor Over South Africa

November 30, 2009 in Astronomy, Science | No comments

CCTV footage of a meteor seen over South Africa on 21st November 2009.

I don’t think they’ve found where any of it landed yet and the Astronomical Society of South Africa has pointed out to any potential rock sellers that it is the property of the state not anyone who happens to have a new scenic crater in their garden.

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Low Swine Flu Vaccination Uptake

November 18, 2009 in Bad Science, Science | No comments

It’s being widely reported that more than half of patients in England being offered the swine flu vaccination are turning it down.

A poll of GPs found that generally uptake was around 46% with resistance from pregnant women being particularly high, one GP estimating as little as 1 in 20 pregnant women opting for the vaccine.

Sadly this is the now likely to be the outcome of any large vaccination programme on the back of the misinformation, fear and lies spread by the media and the growing number of anti-vaccination zealots. Swine Flu might not be the pandemic that was originally suggested but how long before something does come along that will cause tens of thousands of deaths?  We’ve already seen measles outbreaks on the back of all the MMR hysteria, it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to think of a situation where life saving vaccines are refused because of the misinformation spread by such people.

Vaccination caries a risk but as with all medication it is a risk weighed against the risk of the disease and the complications caused by that disease, particularly so in vulnerable patients.

What is needed is clear, accurate and open information and education not conspiracy obsessed experiments with herd immunity that give little help and leave blood on the hands of those peddling them.

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Baloney Detection Kit – Michael Shermer

November 17, 2009 in Bad Science, Science | No comments

Nice video, sums up the ways in which misinformation is spread quite neatly.

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Monthly Science Magazine – Eureka

November 16, 2009 in News, Science | No comments

The Times recently started publishing a monthly popular science magazine as part of their Thursday edition. I’ve browsed the first issue and it’s not bad, nice at least to see a major newspaper promoting science like this.

You can read the first issue online here, hopefully they will make all of them available online as they are published.

The Times has played a key role in covering science since 1785, from being the forum where Alfred Nobel, Charles Darwin and Einstein discussed ideas, to hiring our first Science Correspondent in 1911 and the first Ocean Correspondent in 2008. In launching Eureka, we recognise that many readers crave a better understanding of how science can transform our lives and our planet, which demands rigorous, engaging and inspirational reporting. No other newspaper has made the commitment to cover these subjects with as much depth and breadth as The Times. Eureka will cover a wide spectrum of topics ranging from life sciences to earth sciences and from green issues to oceanography. Its focus will be on the latest scientific developments, how and why they matter, the people behind them and solutions for the future. Each edition will carry great writing, beautiful photography and detailed graphics. Issue 1, free with The Times on October 8th, looks at the 15 ideas that may change our world in the future.

Police & Psychics Continued – Spiritualism Ruled a Religious Faith

November 12, 2009 in News, psychics | 1 comment

This story caught my skeptical, despairing-for-humanity eye today.

A police employee who claims to have been sacked for stating that psychics should be used to solve crimes has overturned an appeal by the police arguing that his views did not amount to a religious faith. Basically it has been ruled that his beliefs in psychics/ghosts/spiritualism/woo are a religious faith and should be respected and afforded the same protection as any other religious belief.

Personally I don’t think a belief in spiritualism or voicing that belief is a cause for dismissal unless it impacted his work directly but that’s not really the issue. The problem is as stated…

Mark Hill, QC, for the authority, said that the ruling could “open the floodgates” to a series of similar claims.

Yes no matter how insane, hateful, evil, stupid or intolerent your beliefs are, as long as you can call it a religion then suddenly you have an extra level of protection by law. OK spiritualism is just the thin, daft, Derek Acorah shaped end of the wedge (although it’s certainly is used to prey on some people) and the fella has every right to fight dismissal over it.

How long will it be though before someone brings a case of discrimination based upon someone questioning or ridiculing it? Protecting ideas from criticism is denying freedom of speech and people with crazy ideas love nothing better than denying freedom of speech in those opposing their ideas.

It’s certainly a worrying ruling.

I did particularly like the justification for his belief though.

Mr Power added that his beliefs stemmed back to his childhood when, he says, he saw ghosts. “I don’t need any other evidence,” he said.

Yeah because that nasty evidence is just for crazy people like skeptics, scientists and er… the police.

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Penn & Teller : Bullshit! – Signs from Heaven

November 11, 2009 in Atheism, Video | No comments

Penn and Teller investigate religious icons such as the Turin shroud, a toasted cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary, and a door with the eyes of Jesus.

[via atheistmedia]

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