Apostate Bruce

Facts Won't Change You're Mind

2010-07-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting yet disturbing article about facts. As is easily seen on numerous FaceBook comment rants, facts don't necessarily change people's minds.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/

The Onion really nailed the idea with this article:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-passionate-defender-of-what-he-imagines-c,2849/

The Whitewashing of American History

2010-03-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a great editorial on the Texas state school board debacle.

Vaccine court finds no link to autism

2010-03-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

Although I feel for the parents looking for a reason for their child's autism, vaccination isn't it. Thimerosol IS NOT Mercury. Doctors and scientists know the difference between Mercury poisoning and Autism. Children are dying because their parents believe this bullshit. Hopefully, this ruling will help restore some rational thinking and start to undo some of the Oprahfication of our nation.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/12/vaccine.court.ruling.autism/index.html

More Texas State Board of Education Insanity

2010-03-12T12:11:00.000-08:00

At least a couple of these kooks will be gone soon. Maybe the new members can undo the damage.
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/politics-sex-religion-are-all-fair-game-at-344354.html

Texas' Own Taliban

2010-03-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

It seems the Texas chapter of the Taliban is fully functioning. More idiotic fundies.
http://www.texasobserver.org/dateline/he-who-casts-the-first-stone

Obama Aides to meet with Atheist/Humanist Groups

2010-02-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

Obama Aides will today meet with several members from various Atheist and Humanist groups to discuss child medical neglect, military proselytizing, and faith-based initiatives. It's great the the Obama administration is bending an ear to these non-theists, a group that has for too long been ignored by previous administrations.

Darwin Days

2010-02-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

I recently attended the Darwin Days Celebration at the Texas Natural Science Center at the University of Texas, Austin. It was a great event. Texas being a conservative strong hold of anti-science, I was pleasantly surprised to find a whole permanent exhibit titled Discover Evolution. Dr. David Cannatella gave a great talk on Darwin's Tree of Life, and Dr. Julia Clarke's presentation, Flying Dinosaurs and Giant Penguins: Evolution and the Fossil Record of Birds, reminded us to celebrate Dinosaur Dissection Day every November. It was a fun day, and I look forward to next year's celebration.

Will Jenny McCarthy Shut the F@!K Up now?

2010-02-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

It seems the much touted study she uses to see that children die from diseases long since controlled has been retracted.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/02/lancet.retraction.autism/index.html?iref=allsearch

Cool Cell Size by Scale Site

2009-11-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/

Another Big Foot siting?

2009-09-08T05:49:00.000-07:00

I'm going to go out on a limb and answer CNN's question: No.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/09/07/donatelli.ky.bigfoot.wave

Our Godless Constitution

2009-08-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Great article from a few years back on our constitution.

Telescopes to show universe soon after Big Bang

2009-08-19T05:47:00.000-07:00

This fascinates me. Much more so than an invisible being creating everything in 6 days.
http://bit.ly/19IGX8

Apophenia and Michael Jackson

2009-07-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Apophenia is seeing patterns that don't exist. The practice of Numerology is text book apophenia. This article about Psychics and their thoughts on Michael Jackson is a classic example.

I have a friend who is sometimes afflicted with Apophenia. She once told me about a period in her life when lots of bad stuff was happening to her, and every time a new bad event happened, she'd look up and see a raven. "The raven is a symbol of death," she told me. I challenged her to look for ravens any time ANY significant (or insignificant, for that matter) event happened and see if she could find one. Needless to say, she became aware of the abundance of ravens.

The psychics interviewed also use the technique of using jargon (His was "six life path," she said, meaning he was magnetic and drew people to him.) to try and gain credibility.

And who can spot the oxymoron in this quote from the article:

Rourke said he fully expects people to come forward claiming to have communicated with Jackson, but that any credible professional psychic or medium will not attempt to connect with Jackson for at least six months to a year and will only do so at the behest of a family member or an intimate friend of the singer.

Classic Flim-Flam artistry!