Bullshit Detection – “Woo Words”

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Watch out for Woo words

There are specific words that should trigger your bullshit alarm whenever you hear them. I’d recommend that you build up and keep your own list, but to ensure that you get the idea I’ll start you off with an initial list and take you through a few examples.

“energy” – This is a word that is normally used to describe measurable well understood physical things such as sound, light, heat and electricity. Usage beyond that is an abuse of the word. Terms such as negative energy, chi energy, aura, psi or just a plain old energy-field do not describe anything real or measurable and have no meaning. Such usage is most commonly found within the context of the paranormal or alternative medicine, and when detected should set your bullshit meter buzzing, so keep an eye out for this one.

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Crises in Japan – Its not a numbers game

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It has not just been one disaster, but instead is disaster heaped upon disaster three times over. First the earthquake, then a Tsunami, and now the growing Nuclear crisis. Just one is a national catastrophe, but all three together is truly hard to grasp. This is not a story of anonymous numbers in a far away place, its about people, just like you are me.

It is times like this that brings out both the best in people and also the worst. The kooks quickly rush in spouting nonsense about super moons being the cause, or simply religious crap about the wrath of made-up gods, but I don’t propose to rant about them now. Instead I wish to simply focus upon the very human factor here.

This is not a numbers game, these are people we can all empathise with, for they are us and we are them, we are all related and have a common ancestor. There is a common belief in some minds that only the religious can empathise with others, but it is times such as this that such myths are washed away by the stark realities of this human tragedy.

In Today’s UK Telegraph, Julian Ryall writes from Ishinomaki …

The atmosphere in the room on the third floor, where 30 children whose parents simply disappeared when the tsunami swept through the town, is very different.

Viewed through the window, the children sit more still and are apparently engrossed in books or card games. They are watched over by other relatives or teachers and we are not allowed to enter or speak with them. Understandably, they do not want their charges to have more reminders of the disaster that has befallen them.

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Why teach evolution? – NCSE – YouTube – NatCen4ScienceEd

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With a hat tip to the Richard Dawkins net for this one …. if you are in any way involved in teaching science, then these folks can help you. At the recent NSTA conference, Steve Newton talked about the central role evolution must play in science education, why biology teachers are hesitant to teach evolution, … Read more

God and Disaster

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A C Grayling has written a few thoughts that are well worth pondering over, here is an extract.

One thinks with sorrow of the hundreds of thousands whose lives have been horrendously lost or affected by the great Japanese earthquake and tsunami, which will put a black mark against this year 2011 in the annals, coming so soon after the earthquake that hit Christchurch in New Zealand. The events are almost certainly linked tectonically, reminding us of the vast forces of nature that are normal for the planet itself but inimical to human life, especially when lived dangerously close to the jigsaw cracks of the earth’s surface.

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The Real Shit

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This is simply the real shit, no doubt about it, and I mean that quite literally. Jammie Nicholas is the chap who has apparently come up with the idea of manufacturing Perfume using his own shit, and so to inspire you full of confidence here is a photo of him. Ah yes indeed, every inch … Read more