Science may be self-correcting but fraud wastes money and does harm.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Some Uncertainties More Uncertain Than Others
Jan 8th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The first duty is to rewrite the encyclopaedia every day – except the semiotics entry.… Read the rest
Punishment-from-Allah Theorists on the Job
Jan 8th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Corruption, sin, infidels, heresy, man-made laws, fornication, sexual perversion.… Read the rest
Conspiracy Theorists on the Job
Jan 8th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Maybe eco-weapons that cause earthquakes via electromagnetic waves were being tested. … Read the rest
Linked by Meaning in a Non-linear Fashion
Jan 7th, 2005 9:10 pm | By Ophelia BensonHere’s something to make you think, to shake your comfortable old positivist assumptions down to their roots, to alert you to the fact that there are deeper levels of reality that you’ve been forgetting to take into account…
… Read the restI am glad to see that this page is being read by the press. On 6th December, Catherine Bennett of the Guardian (UK national newspaper and dyed-in-the-wool astrological sceptic) writes: On the Astrology News website, there is already speculation that the tsunami “because it involves destruction originating from a submarine source … appears to fall in line with the mythological themes of Sedna”. Suggesting that the California Institute of Technology scientists whose decision it was, last year, to name the planet
The Fight Against Poverty Neglects Science
Jan 7th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
UN advisers: potential of science and technology against poverty much more than governments realise.… Read the rest
Were Astrologers Asleep or What?
Jan 7th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why didn’t they mention the tsunami? And why are they still making ‘predictions’?… Read the rest
Thomas DeGregori onTragedy as Teacher
Jan 7th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
How and how not to think about tsunamis; how and how not to help afterwards.… Read the rest
Anderson, Sowell, Crosby on Affirmative Action
Jan 7th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Affirmative action is recursive: whether it works depends on our interpretations of it. … Read the rest
Kicking and Spanking
Jan 6th, 2005 7:00 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is an odd piece – a mix of harsh but possibly true observations and macho unpleasantness. Of course the one so often does slop over into the other. I do that slopping often myself, at least so I’m told (and I’m sure it’s true). That’s what’s usually going on in disagreements over Richard Dawkins (and Christopher Hitchens, too: he attracts such Necker cube-like clashes of perception the way chocolate attracts, er, me). Many people think Dawkins is being rude, tactless, brutal, self-satisfied and the like, while others think he is being honest and fog-dispelling. I tend to the latter view, but then I’m an atheist myself, so what he says doesn’t get up my nose at the outset.
But … Read the rest
Appeasment
Jan 6th, 2005 6:26 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell said, Salman. In a sharp letter to the Guardian in reply to a silly comment of Ian Jack’s on Saturday (I saw the comment at the time, rolled my eyes and wanted to argue with it, but also wanted a rest from the sound of my own voice arguing), in which he mentions the ‘currently fashionable Blairite politics of religious appeasement at all costs.’
… Read the restShould we now censor ourselves because the current potentates of the Islamic faith are more repressive than their predecessors? Do we have no principles of our own? The continuing collapse of liberal, democratic, secular and humanist principles in the face of the increasingly strident demands of organised religions is perhaps the most worrying aspect of
A Culture of Conformity in the Humanities?
Jan 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Scholes, Appiah, Menand, Guillory and others discuss the problem.… Read the rest
Politics of Religious Appeasment at all Costs
Jan 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Salman Rushdie laments collapse of liberal principles before religions’ strident demands.… Read the rest
Unionists Around the World Condemn Murder
Jan 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Last month at ICFTU congress Salih spoke of hopes to build a democratic union.… Read the rest
Shock and Revulsion at Torture and Murder
Jan 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Attack on the right of Iraqi workers to trade union representation.… Read the rest
AFL-CIO Condemns Murder of Iraqi Trade Unionist
Jan 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Hadi Salih was shot by assassins who broke into his Baghdad home January 4.… Read the rest
Massimo Pigliucci on Nonsense on Stilts
Jan 5th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Rhetoric, mistaken claims, sweeping statements, unhelpful analogy taken for deep insight… … Read the rest
Steven Weinberg on Oppenheimer Biography
Jan 5th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He was wide open to new ideas and had the ability to understand anything.… Read the rest
Are You an Altie?
Jan 5th, 2005 | By an American Cancer SurgeonA while back on misc.health.alternative, a term was coined to describe people who are so militantly pro-alternative medicine and so distrustful of conventional medicine that they will never admit when conventional medicine is effective and refuse ever to concede that any alternative medical practitioner might, just might, possibly be a quack. (Certain regulars on misc.health.alternative inspired this term. One day perhaps I will discuss a couple of specific examples with actual posts by them to Usenet, so that you can see even more clearly what I mean.) I forgot which m.h.a. skeptical regular coined the term, but the term was “altie.” About a year ago, we even came up with a Jeff Foxworthy-like list of traits of alties (“You … Read the rest
A Televisual Feast
Jan 4th, 2005 11:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonIf you listen to the most recent Start the Week – well you have to listen to a good bit of Ann Widdicombe, which I think is fairly unpleasant – but you could always fast forward. The last ten minutes or so you get Kenan Malik talking about Islamophobia and the religious hatred law. It’s good stuff. He thinks the idea of ‘Islamophobia’ is badly overblown and works to silence criticism of Islam and that that’s a bad thing. As you will have surmised, he also thinks the religious hatred law is a bad thing for the same sort of reason. He asks exactly the question I’ve been bleating and whining and braying for several months – why is it … Read the rest