Confirmation bias

Who let the dogmas out?

Have you ever noticed how irrationalities (a) tend to cluster, (b) tend to offer hope to the desperate, and (c) tend to appeal to folks with strongly held dogmatic beliefs? No? Well here’s an interesting example of the genre: Get a load of Alive!, a FREE Catholic newspaper produced in […]

I’m not saying Greenfield’s a pseudoscientist. I point to her pseudoscientific reasoning. That is all

Like a good sharknado, Susan Greenfield is (a) ridiculous and (b) back for more. We all remember this defence of her claim that internet use causes autism, don’t we? I point to the increase in autism and I point to internet use. That is all. Well, whoopy do. On that basis, […]

So I got this email from Noam Chomsky today, looking for my opinion…

…as did 20,000 other recipients (making their target sample an interesting n = 20,001): Dear Colleague: You have received this survey along with 20,000 other academics globally. This survey is meant to assess the attitude of the scientific community on the issue of university military research. Kindly take a moment […]

Evidence for time travel on Twitter is not there, unsurprisingly

More news from the crazy world of time travelling: it’s still impossible. A team of intrepid researchers have trawled the Internet looking for references to Pope Francis that preceded his becoming a pope (i.e., the Catholic one; there are others) or to Comet ISON prior to its being named “Comet ISON.” Both […]

Favourites List (29.11.13)

The week in six bits: 1. Self-tickling is impossible even if you think someone else is doing it. Allowing me to break new ground by posting a picture of a cat on the internet. 2. Evolution Doesn’t Look Like You Think It Does. This has always annoyed me too. This, and […]