Does abstinence-only sex education work?

The TL;DR; answer is no, it does not work. In 2007 the federal government commissioned a study to look into it all, and the results are here in a PDF. The executive summary lays it all out quite well, and basically reveals that the millions they spend promoting an abstinence education policy was completely wasted because … Read more

This week’s Insanity: Invitation to a Chickenpox party

One manifestation of the rising tide of the non-scientific anti-vaccine movement has been the arrival of the pox party. The idea is that when somebody has a kid who has chickenpox they hold a party and invite all their friends around so that their kids can catch it and thus get it all over and done with early. … Read more

Climate Change: Sucking the sun dry

We have a global agreement for dealing with Climate Change, and as I’m sure you are already aware, that agreement was (perhaps as expected) reached in Paris. As described in Mother Jones … officials from more than 190 countries swept aside monumental differences and agreed to an unprecedented global deal to tackle climate change. The … Read more

The Rising tide of Brutality and Intolerance

Yesterday, 10th December, was Human Rights Day and so it was appropriately the day that the fourth edition of the Freedom of Thought Report was published by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). OK, yes, first a few side notes … Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December. It commemorates the day on which, … Read more

The Goldsmiths Islamists (ISOC) & their LGBT & Feminist “Friends”

Since blogging about this rather bizarre confrontation a few days ago, things have become even weirder and far more bizarre, so much so, that it all warrants a return to take a closer look at ISOC (The Goldsmiths Islamic society). First The Backstory On 30 November 2015 Maryam Namazie gave a talk at Goldsmiths University. She had been … Read more

Saudi Arabia to murder Ashraf Fayadh … exactly like ISIS

Who is Ashraf Fayadh and what has happened? He is a 35-year-old Palestinian poet who has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. His “crime” is apostasy – renouncing one’s faith.  Human Rights watch has the details … A Saudi court sentenced a Palestinian man to death for apostasy on November 17, 2015, for alleged blasphemous statements … Read more