Critical Thinking – Page 70 – Skeptical Science

Argument From Authority – Baroness Greenfield on Autism

April 10, 2023August 11, 2011 by Dave

She is at it again, making silly pronouncements, this time it is Autism. Least you missed it, in New Scientist, she has been casually linking internet use with autism. (So no not vaccines, just using the Internet). Now, since this is Baroness Greenfield, CBE, scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords, specializes in the physiology of the brain, and has worked to research and bring attention to Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease – we can just take her word for it … right?

Exactly, the old “I’m a doctor just trust me” line simply does not cut it when it comes to claims like this. So what do you need? How about some actual “Evidence”.

Antioxidants – The Evidence is: they don’t work

May 23, 2022August 10, 2011 by Dave

When it comes to antioxidant supplements I’ve been as guilty as most and have indeed in the past purchased and popped a few of these with the thought in the back of my mind that I was being health. Alas, I was simply fooling myself, the weight of evidence now available suggests that the antioxidant supplements on sale today either do nothing or might even cause harm to your long term health.

Debt and the downgrade – some claim it is all Obama’s fault

March 4, 2018August 7, 2011 by Dave

I’m reading a story in the UK’s Telegraph, that claims, “America’s debt downgrade is a damning indictment of President Obama’s Big Government disaster“.

According to this Torygraph story, it is all Obama’s fault; it is “a massive blow to the credibility of the Obama administration, and a damning indictment of its handling of the economy“, and has all been caused by an “unprecedented increase in government spending and borrowing“.

This is such a silly factually incorrect claim to make; is the author of this article, Nile Gardiner, really that moronically stupid? Well, I note that he appears frequently on Fox News, so I can only conclude that the answer to that is “Yes”.

Why do facts get distorted?

July 14, 2019August 7, 2011 by Dave

Understanding the dynamics and pressures can often help you to appreciate why you cannot trust statistical “facts” you find quoted in the papers.

As an example, consider the latest weather story about the appalling drought and heatwave that has engulfed the southern states of the US. Apparently it is the worst on record …

here claims that “Today and Friday are expected to be hotter than any time since 1950”
here claims “the worst in Texas history”

Nice quote from PZ at TAM9 during panel discussion

September 18, 2015August 4, 2011 by Dave

While at TAM9 in Vegas a couple of weeks ago, one of the many panels I listened to was one in which they discussed “communicating skepticism”. It included Phil Plait, Eugenie Scott, Jamy Ian Swiss, Sadie Crabtree, Carol Tavris, and of course PZ Myers. During this PZ came out with what I believe is a … Read more

Struggling to Leave Catholicism? – There can be Freedom From Fear

January 13, 2018August 3, 2011 by Dave

What faced with the revelation of case after case of abuse and cover up, how do sane logical individuals react? When looking in from the outside, you would expect that most would perhaps rapidly embrace it all as a wakeup call, reassess their stance and free themselves from the clutches of an organization that has proven itself to be both highly immoral and utterly corrupt. Some have indeed done exactly that, yet to my complete astonishment, many do not, so I’d like to address one of the reasons that might perhaps explain why this is the case.