All posts by rabbitpirate

Culture, News, Reason

No, don’t ask Barry!

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I just want to give my quick two pence worth about this article on the Telegraph Website that is a great example of why taking the “balanced” approach to a story always results in credulous information, the illusion of controversy where none actually exists and just plain bad journalism reporting. These days it seems that no matter how one sided a topic may be reporters will do their damnest to find that one crackpot who holds an opposite point of view so that they can presents a “balanced” article that highlights the “controversy” raging between the “experts”. I think Dara Ó Briain put it best. When interviewing a NASA scientist about their plans for a new space station you don’t also have to interview a guy who thinks that the sky is a giant carpet painted by God in order to present a “balanced” view of the issue. Some times one side is really is right and the other side is just plain wrong. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you lot this but when it comes right down to it creationists really are on the same level as geocentrists, flat earthers and that guy who thinks the sky is a carpet. Plus if this article really contains the 5 best arguments for creation then I don’t think that those of us who live in a little place I like to call “reality” have anything to worry about. Anyway that’s all I have to say on the matter. I’d be interested to know your thoughts on this.

 

Oh and sorry about the excessive use of quote marks, I got kind of “carried away”.

Culture, Entertainment, Science

A refreshing change

12 Comments

So last night I was watching Private Practice on Living, yes I know please don’t judge me, and I have to say that I was very impressed with the way they handled the subject of vaccination, the central story in this weeks episode. Unlike some TV shows that I won’t mention, cough Eli Stone cough, Private Practice took an unashamedly pro vaccination approach to the subject with not a single one of the main characters voicing anything but 100% support for vaccines and the vaccination program. On top of that they pulled no punches when addressing the anti-vaccination movement and at various points in the episode described them as “idiots”, “scientifically illiterate” and “conspiracy theorists”. The message was clear and unambiguous. Vaccines are good, they save lives and the anti-vaccination movement doesn’t know what it is talking about.

 

I also liked the simple but effective way they told the story. The story focused on a mother with three boys, the oldest of which suffered from autism that she believed was a direct result of vaccination. Every time she brought this up she was politely, sympathetically but directly told that this was not the case, that all the evidence showed that there was no link between autism and vaccination. Each time this happened she would come back one of the typical anti-vaccination replies. A mother just knows these things. You can’t be sure that vaccination didn’t cause his autism. He was vaccinated and the light immediately went out in his eyes. All powerful arguments to be sure but all anecdotal and unsupported by any evidence.

 

Anyway the reason she is at the doctors is because her middle son is sick and it quickly becomes evident that he has measles. It is also revealed that neither the middle or the youngest son have been vaccinated due to the mothers conviction that vaccination is what caused her oldest son’s autism. The doctors pled with her to let them vaccinate the youngest son but she won’t let them. After all, she says, measles isn’t that bad, it’s a childhood disease that kids get to toughen up their immune system. Nothing to worry about. Well, as I am sure you can guess, this quickly proves not to be the case and the sick child is rushed to hospital, but still the mother will not let the doctors vaccinate her youngest son.

 

The middle son gets sicker and sicker and the mother begs the doctors to help him while still resolutely refusing to let them protect her youngest child. The middle son starts to convulse and almost stops breathing but the doctors bring him back and then, in desperation, one of the characters rushes out and vaccinates the youngest son. The mother goes crazy, screaming at the doctors, accusing them of assault, telling them that they are over-reacting and have given her son autism. She threatens to sue but before she can say anything more an alarm goes off and a code blue is sounded. He middle son’s heart has stopped beating. The doctors rush to save him but despite working on him for almost half an hour he dies.

 

There is a very powerful scene after this with the mother and the doctor sitting in the hallway outside the now dead son’s room. The mother, tears running down her face, announces that she can’t believe this happened, that she thought measles was just like getting a cold. The doctor says nothing; he doesn’t need to as the point is all too painfully clear. Measles is a killer and the very best weapon we have against it is vaccination. Yes there are reasons to be cautious, some people can react badly to vaccines, but they do not cause autism and your “mommy instinct” is no match for years of well-researched medical science.

 

Private Practice may be a little relationship focused and soap operary at times but I was very impressed with how they handled this episode. It is all too common on TV and in the news for them to take either the “balanced” approach of making it seem like both sides have equally valid arguments or to squarely side with the anti-vaccination movement. It is refreshing to see the topic handled in a way that is entertaining, educational and solidly based upon carefully researched scientific evidence. I just wish it were only a story.

Reason

I know exactly what you’re thinking

15 Comments

At the weekends I like to get out of the house and go for a long, leisurely walk around the village in which I live. I put on my ipod, call up the latest episode of The Skeptics Guide to the Universe and saunter down the road lost in my own little relaxing world. Only this weekend something strange happened, something that is almost beyond my ability to explain. There I was walking along when all of a sudden this irresistible urge to veer from my normal route overcame me. Forces beyond my control caused me to cross the road and head in a direction I normally would not travel. It was as though my actions were not my own, as if some cosmic force were guiding my every step, propelling me on an unalterable course to a destination known only to the fickle whims of fate. I felt a pull on my non-existent soul drawing me on, across another road and inextricably to the window of our local electronics store where, behind the glass like a gift from a higher power or an ancestral spirit, I found the subject of my next blog post. For before me I read these words:

 

Do You Need Love and Relationship Advice?

 

In this world one does not live without problems. Yet, why endure them when they can be solved. An ancient method known to few exists for solving all matters of concern to you whether it be Love, Marriage, Health, Business or other matters you wish to discuss.

 

I am a caring and gifted 3rd Generation psychic advisor that specializes in love relationship advice. I have helped many people from all walks of life and I can help you! I have been doing readings for over 22 years and with the help of the Tarot cards, Angel cards, Crystal Ball, Energy work, Chakra reading and Spiritual work I can assist you in making your dreams come true.

 

I provide “fast” and accurate readings. If you have questions, I have answers and guidance. Helping you to understand and work through the events in your life is my gifted purpose. Honest, accurate, and reliable readings.

 

I am available for telephone readings as well as 45, 60 and 90 minute private sessions (prices vary). I also offer email readings for just $4.99!£4.99!

 

WARNING!!

WHEN YOU CALL YOU WILL RECEIVE TRUTH FROM THE SPIRITS AND SOMETIMES ANSWERS YOU MAY NOT WANT TO HEAR!!

 

Oh goody, the perfect excuse to talk about cold reading.

 

Continue reading I know exactly what you’re thinking →

Reason, Religion, Science

Gleeful Public Evisceration

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So the other day my free copy of Creation or Evolution, Does It Really Matter What You Believe? arrived on my doormat. As those of you who read the Pharyngula blog (and if you don’t you really should) will no doubt remember PZ was recently complaining about some awful creationist ads that keep appearing along side his posts over at ScienceBlogs. Unable to do anything to get them removed the betenticalled one came up with a cunning plan. He asked that his readers simply take them up on their offer of a completely free 60 page glossy booklet on creation vs evolution, read it and then “all join in a gleeful public evisceration of their crappy little booklet.” If he is going to be forced to give them publicity then “it will be the harshest, nastiest, meanest publicity possible, we will do everything we can to make sure that when someone googles their organization or their booklet, all that comes back is a mountain of snarling contempt.” Well, I thought, sign me up for a bit of that. My copy has now arrived and seeing that there is a PDF version available online you can all read along at home. Let the gleeful public evisceration begin.

 

Continue reading Gleeful Public Evisceration →

Religion

How to do nothing and think you are helping

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You’ve got to love stories like this. If you have looked at the news or even had the most basic of human contact in the last few months then you will know about the swine flu. Well over in Israel, where the flu is simply called “H1N1” because pigs are seen as unclean, they have come up with a rather innovative way of combating the virus. See if you can see a flaw in this plan, you’ll have to really pay attention to spot it:

A group of rabbis and Jewish mystics have taken to the skies over Israel, praying and blowing ceremonial horns in a plane to ward off swine flu.

 

About 50 religious leaders circled over the country on Monday, chanting prayers and blowing horns, called shofars.

 

The flight’s aim was “to stop the pandemic so people will stop dying from it”, Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri was quoted as saying in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

 

Now obviously their mistake here is one of instrumentation. As you all no doubt know ceremonial horns are used for fighting bacterial infections while consecrated pan pipes are the musical instrument of choice when dealing with viruses. But despite this fundamental mistake it seems it may have been effective.

 

“We are certain that, thanks to the prayer, the danger is already behind us,” added Mr Batzri was quoted as saying.

 

Well you can’t argue with that.

Reason

Demons and witches and aliens…oh my

10 Comments

Ok firstly this is not the post I was intending to put up. That post, the post I spent most of the weekend researching, writing and re-writing until I was finally happy with it, well that post was deleted when my computer decided to inexplicitly eat my USB stick yesterday. Yes I know I should have had it saved somewhere more reliable, and I won’t make the same mistake again, but you really don’t expect your pc to erase several hundred files for no apparent reason, without any warning in just a fraction of a second. Ah well, we live and learn. I have yet to decide if I can be bothered to rewrite my lost post again, but either way I really should put something up and so I’ve picked a topic, somewhat at random, that every good rational thinker and skeptic should know about. Picture the scene.

 

It’s night and you’re alone in bed sound asleep. Suddenly you wake and quickly become aware that there is someone or something in the room with you that shouldn’t be there. You try to move but find that your body will not respond. The thing moves nearer. Fear grips you with an intensity that you can’t remember ever having experiencing before. You can hear strange noises coming at you from all directions, voices that somehow don’t seem human, unearthly lights flash all around you and now the thing is leaning over you, pressing down on your chest and making it hard to catch your breath. You try to scream out but your voice just won’t come. This is it. The aliens, demons, witches, goblins or even the devil himself has finally come for you.

 

Or maybe, just maybe, there is something else going on.

 

Continue reading Demons and witches and aliens…oh my →

Introductions

Compulsory self-conscious introductory post

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A few weeks ago the League sent out a call. They were seeking new bloggers to join them in their fight against the forces of injustice. This was the moment I had been waiting for, a chance to rise phoenix like from the ashes of obscurity, to take my own person style of vigilante skepticism to the forefront of the war against the credulous, nefarious, discriminatory horde. No longer would I have to fight alone, now the League would have my back. And so I answered that call, and yesterday the League invited me to join their ranks, my excitement was boundless.

 

My excitement ebbed some what when I discovered I had just joined the League of Reason rather than the Justice League of America or the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I guess it will do. I will however have to return the spandex bodysuit and red y-fronts that I purchased specially. I’m keeping the cowl however as it’s dead sexy.

 

Seriously I am unbelievably honoured to have been made a part of this blog. Honoured and incredibly intimidated at the same time. There are some seriously heavy hitters involved in this thing. I love the stuff that these guys, and gals, come up with and I am right now feeling rather out of my depth. I actually think Superman and his friends would be less disconcerting right now. Gulp.

 

Anyway my first task as a newbie League member is to introduce myself. I am RabbitPirate, so named because pirates are awesome and rabbits are, er, fluffy! Unlike many of the bloggers here I do not come to the League of Reason with a massive Youtube following. In fact if you were to visit my page you would discover I have no subscribers, no views and only one video…which is actually a repost of something someone else made. What I do instead is blog, and try to write books, but mainly blog. I have been blogging for a number of years now about anything and everything that peaks my interest. However recently I have turned my attention away from such important issues as what I did at the weekend and how much my job sucks on to stories relating to science, religion, skepticism and critical thinking. It is these areas where my passion lies.

 

I live in the UK just outside of the university city of Cambridge. Alas however that is about as close as I have ever come to higher education as I decided instead to jump straight into the fun filled world of IT support, a decision I regret more and more with every passing day. I spent most of the first twenty odd years of my life as a Christian and even considered going into fulltime ministry work. While I no longer hold the beliefs of my youth I would not describe myself as an atheist, partly because I don’t really like labels, after having the label “Christian” tell people everything about me for so long, and partly because I think it would make my Mum cry if I did. That said if I was forced to call myself anything I would probably go with “skeptic”.

 

When not blogging I like to spend my time reading, writing stories I never actually finish, watching stupidly large amounts of sci-fi on TV, going to the cinema (honestly could I be more of a geek) and arguing with Ray Comfort on his blog…and by arguing I mean he says something stupid, I correct him and he ignores me completely. Meh, it’s a hobby.

 

Well that’s me, hopefully by the time I get to my first real post I will have thought of something interesting to say as right now I’m drawing a complete blank.

 

Thanks for your time,

 

RabbitPirate