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October 23rd, 2009
 | 12:05 pm
I finally got a good picture of Scipio.
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October 5th, 2009
| 12:57 pm
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October 4th, 2009
| 10:11 am
Do any of you know of something like hulu for non-American television?
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October 3rd, 2009
| 11:03 pm
Our daughter is making faces and rolling her eyes in her sleep, and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ninvampiress is giggling at her. I don't know which is more adorable. But then half the time she's saying "ew" and saying how creepy it is. That's even more adorable. :)
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September 30th, 2009
| 09:30 am - September 30th is International Blasphemy Day
The primary focus of the Blasphemy Day movement and indeed this website is not to debate the existence of any gods or deities (there is an abundance of fantastic websites which deal explicitly with that argument all over the internet, check the Web Links section).
The objective of International Blasphemy Day is to open up all religious beliefs to the same level of free inquiry, discussion and criticism to which all other areas of academic interest are subjected.
Why September 30? The last day in September is the anniversary of the original publication of Danish cartoons in 2005 depicting the prophet Muhammad's face. Any visual depiction of Muhammad is considered a grave offence under Islamic law.
The fury which arose within the Islamic community following this publication led to massive riots, attacks on foreign embassies and deaths.
The newspapers which chose to publish these cartoons were in many cases blamed for the outpouring of violence which followed. This unfortunate yet inevitable sequence of events clearly demonstrated a dangerous misconception that had piggy-backed into the 21st century on the shoulders of ignorance, fear and apathy, that all religious beliefs and ideas deserve respect and are beyond criticism or satire.
International Blasphemy Day is a movement, not just a day, to remind the world that religion should never again be beyond open and honest discussion or reproach. Our future depends on it.
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September 28th, 2009
| 11:58 am - Switzerland Sends Its First Satellite Into Space
ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2009) — The first Swiss satellite in history -- extremely small and 100 percent student designed and built -- has been successfully launched from the Sriharikota space station in India. Constructed by the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, with many institutional partners, the SwissCube has gone into orbit. Those who worked on it adhered to extremely precise requirements for space travel.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090923102333.htm
Let's hear it for the Helvetii!
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September 27th, 2009
| 12:43 pm
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September 24th, 2009
| 01:19 pm
Mary Jean Aurelia Crook
7lb 9oz, 20.5" (3.43kg, 52.07cm)
11:22pm Sept 23, 2009
10 fingers and 10 toes :)
I'll post more and better pictures later.
Other people born on September 23:
Euripides, Kublai Khan, John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen
Awesomeest of all was Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius Thurinus), first emperor of Rome. It's doubly awesome because had she been a boy, we were going to name him William Augustus.
Her birthstone is sapphire. So, give us sapphires. :)
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September 22nd, 2009
| 09:41 am
Take this science quiz and see if you're as smart as Phil Plait and I.
Also, we're having contractions. They're forever apart, so we're not in a rush yet. We're going to the hospital tonight. I'll let you know something tomorrow. It's a girl, in case anyone has forgotten.
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September 21st, 2009
 | 09:56 am
Can any of you suggest a way of using bananas that doesn't involve smoothies, waffles, bread, or dessert? I'm not necessarily trying to use up bananas. We usually put them in the freezer when they start going bad and make bread out of them when we accumulate enough. I just want an interesting way to use them. Are there any savory banana recipes? Thanks.
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September 14th, 2009
| 10:52 am
Here is a demonstration of homeopathy done by Crispian Jago, well known skeptic. He takes a cup of pee and adds 1 ml of it to 100 ml of water. (It's pointed out that he should have added it to 99 ml of water, but who's counting.) He then adds 1 ml of the new solution to another 100 ml cup of water. He does this 30 times to achieve a "C30" solution--1 part pee to 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 parts water (that's 60 zeros). According to one of the commentors, by the 12th cup there should be less than one "molecule" of urine in the cup. After another 18 cups, there are quite fewer than one molecule of pee in the cup. In fact, I believe I read somewhere else that a C30 solution would have to contain more molecules of water than there are atoms in the universe for it to also contain any of the original substance.
But that's OK! homeopathy is magic, remember?
Anyway, this is a good demonstration as to how homeopathy "works." If you ever need to explain it, this is a good video to watch or show.
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September 12th, 2009
| 11:10 am
it's a picture post!
ninvampiress and me at Rabbit Mountain yesterday
( Read more... )
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| 09:37 am
"Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow."
--Friedrich Nietzsche
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September 11th, 2009
| 01:45 pm
So, the kid's not here yet. She was due August 29th. My wife says this is fairly common, and she's really only a few days later than average. We have a good doctor, and ninvampiress is doing a spectacular job of doing research, so I'm not worried. I took my vacation too early, though. It's more than half over already. I wanted to start it just before the birth, and have lots of time afterwards, but that didn't work out. I have to cut it short anyway, because there isn't enough coverage at work. I guess this way I'll just take another week later.
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September 7th, 2009
| 08:37 pm
(All instances of "I" or "my" in the following article refer to the author, Harriet Hall.)
Why We Need Science: “I saw it with my own eyes” Is Not Enough -- Harriet Hall
I recently wrote an article for a community newspaper attempting to explain to scientifically naive readers why testimonial “evidence” is unreliable; unfortunately, they decided not to print it. I considered using it here, but I thought it was too elementary for this audience. I have changed my mind and I am offering it below (with apologies to the majority of our readers), because it seems a few of our readers still don’t “get” why we have to use rigorous science to evaluate claims. People can be fooled, folks. All people. That includes me and it includes you. Richard Feynman said
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself–and you are the easiest person to fool."
Science is the only way to correct for our errors of perception and of attribution. It is the only way to make sure we are not fooling ourselves. Either Science-Based Medicine has not done a good job of explaining these vital facts, or some of our readers are unable or unwilling to understand our explanations.
Our commenters still frequently offer testimonials about how some CAM method “really worked for me.” They fail to understand that they have no basis for claiming that it “worked.” All they can really claim is that they observed an improvement following the treatment. That could indicate a real effect or it could indicate an inaccurate observation or it could indicate a post hoc ergo propter hoc error, a false assumption that temporal correlation meant causation. Such observations are only a starting point: we need to do science to find out what the observations mean.
Last week one of our commenters wrote the worst testimonial yet:
"I have witnessed first hand the life that begins to flow through the body upon the removal of a subluxation. "
What does this even mean? Does he expect anyone to believe this just because he says it? Would he believe me if I said I had witnessed first hand the invisible dragon in Carl Sagan’s garage?
Another commenter wrote
"Those pro SBM commenters here seem to think that even if they see something with their own eyes that they can’t believe it if there are no double blinded officially published studies to prove that what they saw actually happened."
Well, yes, that’s pretty much what we do think; and we are appalled that you don’t understand it yet, since it’s the whole reason we have to do science. I would phrase it a bit differently: “Seeing something with my own eyes doesn’t prove it’s true and it doesn’t preclude the necessity for scientific testing.”
We can’t believe our own eyes. The very process of vision itself is an interpretive construct by the brain. There are two blind spots in our field of vision and we aren’t even aware of them. I saw a magician cut a woman in half on stage – that was an illusion, a false perception. I saw a patient get better after a treatment – my interpretation that the treatment caused the improvement may have been a mistake, a false attribution.
So for those who still don’t get it, here’s my simplistic article:
(read the article)
The following graphic is unrelated to the preceding article.
( Read more... )
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September 6th, 2009
| 03:31 pm
She's taking her own sweet time being born, that's for sure. Victoria is getting antsy. She's a week and two days overdue. I told her to go make an apple tart to take her mind off of things. mmmmm She's good.
We just watched G.I. Joe. I guess it was alright. It had lots of explosions at least.
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September 3rd, 2009
| 07:46 am
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August 28th, 2009
 | 07:46 am
We need owners for our fantasy football league. Six out of ten owners from last year have failed to respond to emails. It's on ESPN. Pretty normal stuff. Let me know if you might be interested.
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August 27th, 2009
| 12:13 pm
For anyone in or around Fargo, PZ Myers will be speaking at the Fargo Theatre on September 24. If you can't make that, he'll also be speaking at Minot State University in Minot, ND, on October 5.
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