People

Real Skeptics vs fake skeptics

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Today’s Uk Telegraph has what can be best described as a rant from James Delingpole. Just to give you an idea of what I’m on about, here are a few choice snippits from it …

The aspect of it which I have particularly enjoyed is the sanctimonious and hypocritical rage of a vociferous lobby group of self-styled “skeptics.” (See here, here and here.) Though mostly based in Britain, they spell themselves in the American style to distinguish themselves from “sceptics” like me. That’s because, unlike proper sceptics they – get this! – are card-carrying members of the Church of Climate Change.

Now least you wonder, buried in that rant among the Ad-Hominem is his delusional belief that a “true” skeptic is somebody who is a climate-change skeptic. Little things like reality and scientific fact don’t count. Note the use of the term “Church” in a vain attempt to label climate change as a religious belief.

If curious, and you are prepared to tolerate a considerable degree of utter stupidity, then you can read his full rant here.

His main theme is that these “fake” skeptics have committed the horrendous crime of not agreeing with him … gasp, what a shock.

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See James Randi in Norway – Live Online Video on Monday

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I’ve simply cut and pasted this from here where the original was (well) written by Sadie Crabtree. It hit my “Oh thats cool” button, and yes indeed, I’m a JREF fan and 100% support all that they do. If you are not familiar with the JREF you may be interested in checking them out, I do highly recommend you to do so.

James Randi is traveling throughout Norway for a public awareness campaign sponsored by the Norwegian Humanist Association. Friday night he gave a lecture to a packed theater in Oslo, where more than 2,500 lined up to get one of the 1,000 seats for his free presentation.

Randi’s next talk in Trondheim will be broadcast live online by the University student association Studentersamfundet, beginning at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (10:00 a.m. Pacific) on Monday. Bookmark this link and tune in on Monday to watch.

Randi has given nearly a dozen interviews to Norwegian TV, radio, podcasts and daily newspapers—about homeopathy, Uri Geller’s recent visit, and the strange beliefs of the Norwegian Princess Märtha Louise. We’ll put some of these online when they’re available in English, along with video of Randi’s lectures.

If you’re in Norway, you can find Randi’s tour schedule here.

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Crises in Japan – Its not a numbers game

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It has not just been one disaster, but instead is disaster heaped upon disaster three times over. First the earthquake, then a Tsunami, and now the growing Nuclear crisis. Just one is a national catastrophe, but all three together is truly hard to grasp. This is not a story of anonymous numbers in a far away place, its about people, just like you are me.

It is times like this that brings out both the best in people and also the worst. The kooks quickly rush in spouting nonsense about super moons being the cause, or simply religious crap about the wrath of made-up gods, but I don’t propose to rant about them now. Instead I wish to simply focus upon the very human factor here.

This is not a numbers game, these are people we can all empathise with, for they are us and we are them, we are all related and have a common ancestor. There is a common belief in some minds that only the religious can empathise with others, but it is times such as this that such myths are washed away by the stark realities of this human tragedy.

In Today’s UK Telegraph, Julian Ryall writes from Ishinomaki …

The atmosphere in the room on the third floor, where 30 children whose parents simply disappeared when the tsunami swept through the town, is very different.

Viewed through the window, the children sit more still and are apparently engrossed in books or card games. They are watched over by other relatives or teachers and we are not allowed to enter or speak with them. Understandably, they do not want their charges to have more reminders of the disaster that has befallen them.

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God and Disaster

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A C Grayling has written a few thoughts that are well worth pondering over, here is an extract.

One thinks with sorrow of the hundreds of thousands whose lives have been horrendously lost or affected by the great Japanese earthquake and tsunami, which will put a black mark against this year 2011 in the annals, coming so soon after the earthquake that hit Christchurch in New Zealand. The events are almost certainly linked tectonically, reminding us of the vast forces of nature that are normal for the planet itself but inimical to human life, especially when lived dangerously close to the jigsaw cracks of the earth’s surface.

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Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science

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LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS – PUBLISHED BY W.W. NORTON & COMPANY This is available for pre-order, click here It took a man who was willing to break all the rules to tame a theory that broke all the rules. Richard Feynman was one of the most beloved and important physicists of the 20th century, yet while … Read more