Entire communities throw untold sums of money at the slimmest hope that these patients will recover at the Burzynski Clinic, and the Observer finds this uplifting.… Read the rest
We never
Dec 4th, 2011 3:37 pm | By Ophelia BensonOne or two points about that first Observer article, because that blame-the-bloggers not-pology is so annoying.
One, Stephen Pritchard wrote yesterday, truculently,
that concern should have been in the article, but because it was absent doesn’t mean that the paper was promoting the treatment, as some have suggested (“pimping” it, as one science writer so crudely tweeted).
No, the fact that the concern was absent doesn’t mean that the paper was promoting the treatment, but all the same, the paper (via the article) was to some extent promoting the treatment. Bainbridge called it “a pioneering treatment” when it’s a trial rather than a treatment, and “pioneering” makes it sound new and potentially promising as opposed to more than 30 … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
A sustained attack on the paper
Dec 4th, 2011 12:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Observer has responded to bloggers’ responses to its uncritical story about a fundraising campaign to send a child to the Burzynski clinic. Stephen Pritchard writes:
Yet what was intended as a gripping, human-interest story quickly drew a sustained attack on the paper for apparently offering unquestioning support for a highly controversial cancer treatment, known at antineoplaston therapy.
That seems like an unnervingly irresponsible way to look at the matter. However gripping a human-interest story may be, surely it’s irresponsible (at least) to report a campaign to enable a very expensive very dubious “treatment” as if it were just a gripping story.
Pritchard then explains that desperate parents are desperate, and then rebukes critics for not getting that.
… Read the restAnd
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Quackometer: the Observer’s response is a disgrace 
Dec 4th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The response attempts to justify its coverage and blames bloggers for “aggression, sanctimony and a disregard for the facts.”… Read the rest
Dinosaur quiverfull
Dec 4th, 2011 11:12 am | By Ophelia BensonWhat an amazing find. That’s fifteen juvenile dinosaurs in one nest. They’re thought to be about a year old. Fifteen juveniles in one nest! I was already puzzling about that before I read the text – which confirms that it’s puzzling.
… Read the restScientists once believed that dinosaurs generally followed a crocodile-like model of child care—they would lay their eggs and leave their nests for good. This idea was replaced by the view that dinosaurs raised their young for a time after hatching, the way many birds do.
Now, Fastovsky explained, people understand that the ancient reptiles had parenting styles unlike those of any animals alive today.
Fifteen babies, as seen in the newfound fossil nest, is an unusually large number
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Nest full of dinosaur babies found in Mongolia
Dec 4th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Unlike other dinosaur nests found with fossil eggs, the babies in this nest appear to have been about a year old when they died. Parental care!… Read the rest
Observer complains of “vitriol” over Burzynski article
Dec 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Also “aggression, sanctimony and a disregard for the facts.”… Read the rest
Islamists win 65% of votes in Egypt
Dec 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The MB’s Freedom and Justice Party, about 40%, and the Salafist Nour Party, about 25%.… Read the rest
More whacked-out causation
Dec 3rd, 2011 3:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonThey seem to have a shaky grasp on what causes what, in Saudi Arabia.
A report in Saudi Arabia has warned that if Saudi women were given the right to drive, it would spell the end of virginity in the country.
See? That’s bizarre. If Saudi women drove, babies would be born non-virgins? How? How would that work?
Though there is no formal ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, if they get behind the wheel, they can be arrested.
That too is bizarre. If there’s no actual law against women driving, what can they be arrested for?
… Read the restAs part of his careful reform process, King Abdullah has allowed suggestions to surface that the ban might be reviewed.
This
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
UK police reveal numbers for “honour” violence
Dec 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ikwro director Diana Nammi said families often tried to deny the existence of honour
attacks and those who carried them out were “very much respected”.… Read the rest
What’s the big idea?
Dec 3rd, 2011 12:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonJust for the sake of argument, or exploration, let’s take seriously this claim that atheism is a little idea and god is a big one.
Atheism has become a very little idea, an idea that has to be shouted to seem important. And that is a shame, because God was a big idea, and the rejection of the existence of God was also a big idea, once upon a time.
Was god a big idea?
Perhaps I’m not taking it seriously after all, because I can’t honestly see that it was.
Really. I can’t. It seems to me that god was and is a very little idea, and a very boring one (which shows how little it was and … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Paper wasps have facial recognition
Dec 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
This is the first time that scientists have discovered this humanlike ability in an insect.… Read the rest
Kenan Malik on outrage
Dec 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Muslims, Christians, atheists, liberals, conservatives – for every group outrage has become an expression of self-definition.… Read the rest
Saudi academic claims that cars rape women
Dec 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A report in Saudi Arabia has warned that if Saudi women were given the right to drive, it would spell the end of virginity in the country.… Read the rest
Gay Marriage and African Politics
Dec 2nd, 2011 | By Leo IgweI am writing to condemn in no uncertain terms the recent passage by the Senate of the the anti gay marriage bill. The passage of this bill once again demonstrates how disconnected Nigerian politicians and lawmakers are from the realities of the 21st century. It has confirmed that our lawmakers indeed prefer to fiddle while our social, political and economic house, called Nigeria, burns. Otherwise how does one explain the relevance of this bill at a time when Nigeria has become almost a failed state due to terrorist attacks, sectarian violence, corruption, poverty, diseases, abuse of office, tribalism and nepotism, misguided politics and mistaken sense of statecraft?
The passage of this bill has shown clearly how misplaced our priorities are, … Read the rest
The milk of human kindness
Dec 2nd, 2011 2:52 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd then there’s Gulnare Freewill Baptist church, which told a parishioner - ever so politely, you understand – that her fiancé couldn’t come to the church again, on account of how he’s not a white person. Perfectly understandable. It’s because they (church members who voted on “the issue”) want to promote greater unity among the church body and the community. Obviously you can’t do that if there’s a not-white person at the church when all the other persons there are white. That would promote lesser unity. Everybody would look around uneasily and kind of split apart.
… Read the restMelvin Thompson, former pastor of Gulnare Freewill Baptist church, proposed the ban after Stella Harville brought her fiance, Ticha Chikuni, to services in
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Oh yes, go right ahead
Dec 2nd, 2011 11:32 am | By Ophelia BensonMemri reports a fatwa that says it’s fine for mujahideen to kidnap “the infidels’ women” and rape them, because once they’ve been kidnapped the infidel men don’t own them any more.
… Read the restThe inquiry in response to which Al-Athari issued the fatwa reads as
follows:[1] “Is it permissible for mujahideen in jihad fronts
to kidnap the infidels’ women and hold them as their captives? What is the
ruling regarding a captive in our times? How should they be divided [among the mujahideen]? Is it permissible to imprison [an infidel woman who has been taken captive] in an infidel land, or must she be brought to Dar Al-Islam[the abode of Islam]? How much time must one wait before having sexual
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Fatwa says mujahideen can kidnap and rape “infidel” women
Dec 2nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s perfectly all right, because once they’re kidnapped, the infidel men don’t own them any more.… Read the rest
Headline: “Fish could protect against Alzheimer’s”
Dec 2nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Body: “this research did not account for lifestyle factors such as other foods or exercise which could also have had an effect.”… Read the rest
Robert Talisse talks to Robert Audi
Dec 2nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In Democratic Authority and the Separation of Church and State, Audi proposes a novel and forceful account of the proper role of religious conviction in democratic politics.… Read the rest
