By Lisa Bauer, on April 9, 2010, at 7:03 am  I teach a course in experimental psychology and research methods. Being a skeptic as well as a psychological science enthusiast, I try to imbue my lessons with the importance of rational inquiry whenever or wherever possible. As my students are often interested in working in fields of social welfare and mental health they want me to emphasize practical applications. As such, there often arise examples where empirical knowledge does not seem to apply, or at least go far enough. To demonstrate this, and hopefully get the students thinking of ways to be logical and rational even where there are no directly testable hypotheses, I facilitate a discussion in each course examining the role and limits of science in the development of social policy. Last semester, the social policy we examined was the stance many hold regarding same sex marriage.
But, before I elaborate on this discussion, let me tell you a story about a cab driver I met a few weeks ago. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on January 14, 2010, at 7:03 am 
I was out at lunch today with Scott Stafiej of the CFI, ostensibly to discuss a new project of his, which I hope we’ll be able to tell you all about in the weeks to come. As tends to happen in conversation with fellow skeptics, our conversation sort of meandered to all manner of places, but for a little while we started talking about politics. … continue reading this entry.
By Page, on December 15, 2009, at 8:30 am The Office of Science & Technology Policy is a board that advises the President on the “effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs” (is that broad or what?). Last week, they launched a blog forum to solicit public input on the issue of access to publically-funded research. This is all part of the Open Government Directive dedicated to bringing more transparency to how our government works. The discussion of open access to publically funded research has three focal points:
- Implementation (Dec. 10 to 20): Which Federal agencies are good candidates to adopt Public Access policies? What variables (field of science, proportion of research funded by public or private entities, etc.) should affect how public access is implemented at various agencies, including the maximum length of time between publication and public release?p
- Features and Technology (Dec. 21 to Dec 31): In what format should the data be submitted in order to make it easy to search and retrieve information, and to make it easy for others to link to it? Are there existing digital standards for archiving and interoperability to maximize public benefit? How are these anticipated to change.
- Management (Jan. 1 to Jan. 7): What are the best mechanisms to ensure compliance? What would be the best metrics of success? What are the best examples of usability in the private sector (both domestic and international)? Should those who access papers be given the opportunity to comment or provide feedback? … continue reading this entry.
By Page, on November 13, 2009, at 7:03 am  I started looking into this topic on a whim, and after reading the growing amount of literature analyzing this issue, I find myself drawing some surprising conclusions. I find those direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads annoying and vacuous. What controlling your cholesterol with prescription medication has to do with picnics with your grandkids and hand-holding on the beach, I will never understand. And while men get to rejoice to the sounds of the ads selling the new impotency prevention drug, women are stuck learning about the same old birth control methods that have been around for 60 years.
When I learned about a new study examining the efficacy of DTC ads, and the current regulatory controversies associated with them, I decided to look deeper into this issue. DTC ads have only been around for about 10 years, and to my great surprise, are only legal in two countries, the US and New Zealand. I’ll get to the study in a moment, but first let’s look at the perceived pros and cons of direct-to-consumer advertising. … continue reading this entry.
By AJ Mell, on October 21, 2009, at 7:03 am  The pedant and the priest have always been the most expert of logicians – and the most diligent disseminators of nonsense and worse. The liberation of the human mind has never been furthered by such learned dunderheads; it has been furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went roistering down the highways of the world, proving to all men that doubt, after all, was safe – that the god in the sanctuary was finite in his power, and hence a fraud. One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.
–H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: Fourth Series
Henry Louis Mencken was the most famous public intellectual of his day—primarily the 1910s and ‘20s—and enjoyed an influence that no single person could ever hope to achieve in our media-saturated age. He is also the only writer who can make me laugh three times in one sentence.
Nowadays he is best known for the rather shallow caricature of him in the play and movie Inherit the Wind (where he is fictionalized as cynical reporter E.K. Hornbeck); for his famous definition of Puritanism (“the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy”); and for coining the term “Bible Belt.”
What particularly recommends him to skeptics is his relentless skewering of what would eventually be called the religious right, his devastating coverage of the Scopes trial, and his keen eye for humbug in all its forms. Mencken was also a relentless foe of what was not yet called alternative medicine; the mere mention of homeopathy or chiropractic could send him into gales of mirth. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on October 13, 2009, at 7:09 am While cruising around on a site all about the recent protests against mandatory H1N1 flu vaccination in Albany, I found their list of sponsors and saw a few crazy right-wing organizations (Albany 912 Org/Albany Tea Party Org) listed. “Wonderful!” I thought to myself. “Here’s an opportunity to really get Benny’s goat [that’s, of course, Benny Pollack, prominent NYC Skeptic] and write a screed about how right wingers don’t understand science!” But my brain started nagging at me.
“Hey! Jake!” my brain was tapping on my shoulder. “This whole ‘anti-vaccine’ thing?”
“Yes, Brain?”
“It’s a left-wing thing.”
Ouch. My brain had a point. The anti-vaccine movement is far more an artifact of the hysterical left than the government-hating right. Going against these vaccine protesters and trying to talk politics while just attacking right-wingers, that’d be completely and totally dishonest. But hold on a second, this was a rabid fringe movement on the right lending their support to a rabid fringe movement on the left. There should be no two groups that hate each other more. Was there something inherent about the H1N1 vaccine that made left wingers and right wingers both go crazy? Or was there something inherent about politics that make us all irrational? … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on September 24, 2009, at 7:09 am 
Won’t someone please think of the elephants? Not out in Africa, you bleeding heart ninnies! No, our LOCAL elephants. Their herding patterns are becoming more erratic and they seem to be flitting about with more and more strange wild fauna. I think you know as well as I, the Republican Party seems to be going mad.
The Republican party has had a long and storied history in this country. It began as the party of abolition. Lincoln was one of it’s first leaders, he as certainly the first Republican president. As time went on, the party re-centered itself around the values of smaller government and lower taxes. But this was before the civil rights movement. This was before the DixieCrats (Southern Democrats) felt that their own party had become too soft on black people and so they switched over, taking their beliefs with them. This was before Newt Gingrich’s brilliant plan of taking over the national lexicon, pushing towards value driven thinking over evidence-based intellectualism. This was before the Republican Party had been taken over by fringe “value voters” and they started having conventions together to celebrate that fact. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on August 31, 2009, at 7:09 am There’s an article in the LA Times from last week all about how the US Chamber of Commerce wants a trial about Global Warming. What’s really weird about it is that they’re calling it “The Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century,” and the thing about that is… the Scopes monkey trial is the perfect example for why this shouldn’t be in a courtroom.
 John T. Scopes, circa 1925, unpublished photograph donated to the Smithsonian Institute The first weird thing about the Scopes references is that they’re being made by the members of the Chamber of Commerce. They’re trying to imply that they are the Scopes of this trial, and that the EPA is in the role of William Jennings Bryan. Well… no. To begin with, Scopes was the defendant, and not the prosecution. By going after the EPA, the Chamber of Commerce has clearly placed itself in the role of aggressor. Secondly, and more importantly, like Bryan, it is the Chamber of Commerce who are going against established science. In fact, the metaphor sort of makes perfect sense when you realize that it’s the US Chamber of Commerce that’s playing Bryan in this third adaptation of “Inherit the Wind”. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on August 24, 2009, at 7:03 am George Hrab began his last episode of the Geologic Podcast with an approximately 9 minute long statement of frustration about the response he’d gotten to his previous week’s “Religious Moron of the Week.” What struck me as odd was the moment when George read one of the e-mails that said that because he wasn’t libertarian enough, that meant he wasn’t a good part of the skeptical movement. Now, first off, I’ve heard George do segments where he just talked for about 15 minutes over his amazement at the abilities of his local fire department, and actually ended the bit with pretty much telling free market people to suck it. So what podcast have those people been listening too? But what’s more than that, when the hell did skepticism become synonymous with libertarianism?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JyvkjSKMLw&hl=en&fs=1&]
… continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on July 23, 2009, at 9:17 am Note: At one point in time, this article was in fact topical.
Roger Friedman used to be a freelance entertainment writer for NewsCorp. That was before he got fired in April. Now, Friedman is claiming that his firing was due to the actions of The “Church” of Scientology, and is trying to make a case for that in court. … continue reading this entry.
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