Sci-fi-entifically illiterate

In which I take the foolish and reprehensible step of holding a slightly different opinion from that of David Mitchell. David Mitchell (the comedian, not the author, though he’s brilliant too (and there are apparently many others as well, many of whom I’m sure are also jolly good)) is brilliant. He’s been getting some play [...]

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Who am I?

Yeah, I haven’t posted in a little while. Which is fine. Partly I haven’t been feeling all that wordy, partly my creative energies have been somewhat diverted away from the skeptical realm, and towards some fiction projects I’ve had on the back burner for a while but am trying to re-ignite. At the moment, I’m [...]

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Why?

So, here’s an attempt to order some vague thoughts into a profound observation. (You’re probably used to that kind of approach from me by now.) Mystery and the unknown are important in science. They’re what drive the whole thing. It’s all about asking “Why?” to stuff. “Why does the Sun move across the sky like [...]

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The further legal adventures of Simon and the spine wizards

Today seemed to rather get away with me, so there’s just time for a quick round-up of important Simon Singh news. If you’re not familiar with the backstory, it shouldn’t be hard to catch up. He’s being sued and it’s all bollocks, basically. Several of the big names in skepticism were in the court with [...]

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Homeopathy < Reality. Again.

In a report published today, the Science and Technology Committee concludes that the NHS should cease funding homeopathy. It also concludes that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) should not allow homeopathic product labels to make medical claims without evidence of efficacy. As they are not medicines, homeopathic products should no longer be [...]

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Homeopathy – on the way out?

Firstly of all, the latest Humanist Symposium is up. Nextly, gimpy has a great summary of the forthcoming Evidence Check report on homeopathy from the House of Commons. This is a report due out tomorrow which is likely to call for an end to NHS homeopathy funding, which cost the taxpayer £4 million last year. [...]

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What made God?

A quick anecdote. Don’t worry, I won’t try to pluralise it and call it “data”. I don’t really have many early memories. I suppose there are vague impressions of schools I must have been at sometime before I was 7 that still linger in my head, but nothing very concrete, or particularly memorable. But a [...]

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Don’t be a dick, even if you’re right and they’re wrong

Christopher Maloney is a quack. That’s something we can all be clear on, right off the bat. Telling parents who are thinking of vaccinating their children that “elderberry… blocks the H1N1 virus”? Yeah, fuck you. But that’s not what I want to talk about. (For one thing, Steve Novella’s got it covered. Again. Doesn’t he [...]

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Freedom of homophobia and SCIENCE

A quick link to an Index on Censorship blog post in which Padraig Reidy is right. I was part of the Twitter crowd banging on in outrage about Jan Moir, after her hideously fuckwitted outpouring of shite (or “shitepouring”) about the death of Stephen Gately, and calling attention to the offensive levels of what the [...]

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Return of the Judge

Jack of Kent has scored a gig writing a regular column entitled Bad Law, which promises to be rather interesting. His first article addresses that thing I’ve mentioned a couple of times on here already, about Cherie Booth and the “religious man”. It’s worth a read, and it goes without saying that Jack (actually Allen [...]

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