Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths

This is also a pretty cool video about life expectancy, birth rates, per-capita income, and first world/third world comparisons. (Uh, it’s cooler than it sounds, and he’s an interesting speaker.) Hans Rosling: “Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you’ve ever seen” (20 minutes long): from www.ted.com

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David Gallo: Underwater astonishments

I’d like to be able to say that I scooped PZ Myers on this video, but I didn’t. But, it’s still cool. David Gallo shows Underwater Astonishments (5 minutes long): from www.ted.com

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Killing Albinos in Africa

This is a rather sad story: people have killed albinos in Tanzania because they believe albinos are the result of a curse, and that their bodies have magical properties. In the past, I’ve heard of magical thinking being the basis for killing all kinds of wild animals (gorillas, rhinos, and other endangered animals) based on [...]

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What happens when you trust Psychics

Leduc’s weird tale began on May 30, when she dropped young Victoria off for class at Terry Fox Elementary and headed in to work, only to receive a frantic phone call from the school telling her it was urgent she come back right away. The frightened mother rushed back to the campus and was stunned [...]

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Proof that Mutations can Create Information

A lot of creationists believe that mutations can’t “create information”, they can only destroy it. They like to imagine making random changes to a book – it always ends up making random gibberish – thus, random mutations must do the same thing to the genome, right? Wrong. This misconception is so widespread, I thought I’d [...]

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Movie: The Happening [with Spoilers]

I went and saw The Happening tonight. It was okay. There were a few parts where the writing was so bad, I couldn’t help but laugh. Early in the movie, Mark Walberg’s character (a science teacher named Elliot Moore) asks his students why bees are mysteriously disappearing. One student answers that plants are evolving against [...]

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Theist’s Guide to Converting Atheists

Part 2 available here. I would add that Christianity and Islam make many of these claims. Christians claim that Jesus fulfilled prophecies of the Old Testament. (I’ve dealt with these in the past, and find them unpersuasive.) I’ve also seen a number of Islamic claims that the Koran predicted scientific discoveries. For example, they claim [...]

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People’s Fair / Religion, Woo, and I got E-Metered

The People’s Fair is going on this weekend. It’s an annual fair in the middle of downtown where people come and setup booths to sell things – mostly artists selling jewelery or pictures. There were some religious/psychic/woo booths around as well. Some of the booths included: a Palm Reader, Reflexology, two 9/11 “truth” groups (who [...]

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Etymology of Scapegoat

While out hiking last weekend, I stopped to read a sign talking about the history of the area. A number of outlaws used to hide out in the area in the early 1900s. Then, in the 1940s a bishop went to the gravesite of one of the men and he cast the sins of the [...]

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Car Dealer Retracts Apology for Radio Ad

Apparently, the auto dealer who “apologized” for the ad telling non-believers to “sit down and shut up” retracted the apology. He was pressured into an apology by Ford Motors. Not really that surprised. Based on my last post, he did agree with the ideas expressed in the ad, and the apology was written ambiguously – [...]

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