A large German pharmaceutical company is threatening a Danish academic with libel over a paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine.… Read the rest
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Why homeopathy doesn’t work
Aug 12th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe 200C dilution would require 10^320 universes or so just to find one active
particle.… Read the rest
We get the good ones
Aug 12th, 2012 5:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonHere’s another comrade – Liberal Will. He’s over there, where Maureen and Alex and Rhys and Hayley and Amy and Melanie and many other swell people are. There are a lot of comrades. Don’t let the blowhards fool you about that. The anti-feminists aren’t taking over.
… Read the restEven if you’re in the friendliest safe space ever, you need to have a harassment policy. The world does not work on SimCity rules, where you don’t build a fire department until the first fire breaks out. It needs to be there. Harassment at any type of convention is common, and the skeptic community should know pretty damn well it’s a problem, especially after “Elevatorgate“. And women, sadly, are the target
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Olympic fervour
Aug 12th, 2012 3:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonUpdate: Monday: Once again I made the mistake of forgetting that not everyone reading would know what prompted this post. What prompted it was this comment on my post about a dopy BBC film clip about natural selection and slavery and fast runners.
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Oh, so it’s a thing. I didn’t know it was a thing – this “you have to be all ecstatic about the Olympics” bollix. Joan Smith says about it.
… Read the restSome things matter more than sport. But I’ve come back to my own country to discover Olympic fervour encouraging a species of emotional correctness, where anyone who doesn’t care for competitive games is regarded as a killjoy. It’s like being transported to a Victorian public school,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Chris Rodda has accepted the challenge
Aug 12th, 2012 2:43 pm | By Ophelia BensonChris Rodda wants it known far and wide that she accepted a challenge from David Barton’s radio co-host to show specifics of where David Barton tells untruths in his book The Jefferson Lies. You have your mission.
Chris knows what she’s talking about. She does the time-consuming work of following up Barton’s references.
Get the word out!… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Greater vigor of character
Aug 12th, 2012 11:31 am | By Ophelia BensonJames Fitzjames Stephen was a forthright kind of guy. Blunt, even. As such he offers a useful window into the most forthright kind of imperturbable contempt for women.
From chapter 5 of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, in which he disagrees with John Stuart Mill’s views on gender equality.
… Read the restNow, if society and government ought to recognize the inequality of age as the foundation of an inequality of rights of this importance, it appears to me at least equally clear that they ought to recognize the inequality of sex for the same purpose, if it is a real inequality. Is it one? There are some propositions which it is difficult to prove, because they are so plain, and this is one
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Au pied du chameau
Aug 12th, 2012 10:13 am | By Ophelia BensonI know a new thing now, a thing I didn’t know before. I know that there’s something – something bad – called “camel toe.” I know what it is. I know it via the tweets of Another Angry Woman @stavvers and this post that she linked to, The Miracle Bajingo Shoehorn.
… Read the restA staggering 55% of women, irrespective of age, size or weight, experience camel toe at some point.
Many women have even gone to extreme lengths to rectify the camel toe problem, resorting to expensive and risky surgery.
Now thanks to the Smooth Groove camel toe remedy, all women can get on with their lives without having to worry about how they look.
After all, being a
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The Gore Vidal interview that Variety didn’t publish
Aug 12th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“I’m very belligerent and I’ve not had it. I’m ready to lead a crusade against the Party of God.”… Read the rest
And who shall ‘scape whipping?
Aug 11th, 2012 4:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonA great post by Alyson Miers (whom I met at WiS in May) on bullying and imperfect victims.
There’s this meme -
See Alyson’s response to that.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Next year in Austin
Aug 11th, 2012 4:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is good. American Atheists announces that Anthony Grayling is the keynote speaker for their 2013 national convention.
Yay! I’m going to be there too, and Anthony’s a friend.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
What you think it means
Aug 11th, 2012 3:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonOk this is a good one. From a comment on Jen’s post on blunderfoot.
“Freethought” means you use reason and logic to come to a conclusion, and not believing everything anyone says — even a close friend — at face value.
Hahahahahahahahaha yes right that’s what freethought means. A close friend tells you she has a headache and you interrogate her for an hour trying to get her to demonstrate that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The BBC explains
Aug 11th, 2012 12:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonWow. Have some BBC pseudohistory and pseudogenetics about Y blak guize can runn fast.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
David Rakoff
Aug 11th, 2012 12:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m kind of crushed that David Rakoff went and died. Fresh Air played a couple of interviews with him yesterday. They’re good.
On whether or not he had a happy childhood.
I had a beautiful childhood and a lovely childhood. I just didn’t like being a child. I didn’t like the rank injustice of not being listened to. I didn’t like the lack of autonomy. I didn’t like my chubby little hands that couldn’t manipulate the world of objects in the way that I wanted them to. Being a child, for me, was an exercise in impotent powerlessness.
Oh yes. That’s why youth is wasted on the young, as Shaw pointed out. (Was it Shaw? I think so.) I hated… Read the rest
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David Rakoff interviews on Fresh Air
Aug 11th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“I had a beautiful childhood and a lovely childhood. I just didn’t like being a child. I didn’t like the rank injustice of not being listened to.”… Read the rest
Jon Wiener on David Rakoff
Aug 11th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe was funny and smart about many things, including politics in America.… Read the rest
Author Heidi Holland found dead at S. Africa home
Aug 11th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe chronicled the rise of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe from freedom fighter to power-obsessed leader.… Read the rest
Russian Orthodox church says it’s totally right
Aug 11th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChurch attendance is declining, therefore it’s ok to punish Pussy Riot.… Read the rest
Bullies, is it?
Aug 10th, 2012 5:38 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat about this then? From “Coffee Loving Skeptic” on Facebook.
Via Alex Gabriel.… Read the rest
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Collateral damage
Aug 10th, 2012 5:10 pm | By Ophelia BensonLots of crazed reactions to Thunderf00t’s misuse of the FTB mailing list, although they’re a minority. There are frank falsehoods saying we tried to get Michael Payton fired, and there is shock-horror that we reacted to his tweets dismissing all of FTB.
That’s just nuts. To repeat – there are about 40 people blogging at FTB. Not all of them are polemicists or controversialists, not all of them are irritable, not all of them agree about everything – in fact none of them agree about everything.
It’s not fair to shit on the innocent just because one dislikes a few of the Freethought bloggers. It’s not even fair to shit on the innocent just because one hates a few … Read the rest
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It’s OK, we’re on the 10th floor
Aug 10th, 2012 3:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonAlom Shaha notices an excess of timidity about discussing Islam.
… Read the rest“We can’t publish this, we’ll get firebombed.” Apparently this was the response from one of the staff at Biteback Publishing, the UK publishers of my book, The Young Atheist’s Handbook, when it was first presented to them. Thankfully, Iain Dale, the managing director, laughed at the idea, saying, “it’s OK, we’re on the 10th floor” and went on to publish the book anyway.
It’s not just staff at Biteback who may have been concerned about publishing my book — according to a senior editor at one of the largest international publishers, who claimed to be personally keen to give me a deal, she was unable to convince her colleagues
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)