http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7Cn_gjevik
What's going on? This is madness.
The JREF YouTube channel is an invaluable resource, a growing repository of sanity in today's woo-woo-obsessed world. If - like me - you want it reinstated forthwith, let YouTube know. (Full instructions are in the video's description where it appears on YouTube.)
UPDATE 2009-04-03:
It's back!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zngwTpkogeE
Monday, 30 March 2009
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Burnee links for Sunday
CFI Condemns United Nations Resolution on “Defamation of Religions” | Center for InquiryRay Comfort Has No Luck With Other Fruits… | Friendly Atheist by Hemant Mehta
Derren Brown Blog » Blog Archive » Bible Flood theory debunked
Pharyngula: Pope condemned by The Lancet
TAM London website now open! - JREF
Psychics given £4,500 government funding to teach people to communicate with the dead - Telegraph
(via Skeptico)
Texas on evolution: Needs further study | Salon
Harvard Aids expert says Pope 'correct' on condoms and spread of HIV -Times Online
The Pope's message is not the problem | William Rees-Mogg - Times Online
BBC investigates life-threatening teachings of nutritionist
The woo just goes on and on...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXaS_5AXJ0g
This is a clip from last Wednesday's Inside Out England TV programme* on BBC1; the segment is about Barbara Wren, who teaches courses on nutrition at her College of Natural Nutrition (the domain name for which is abbreviated with total lack of irony to "natnut.co.uk"). The BBC's investigation indicates that her teachings are not only unscientific but also life-threatening.
The clip is also available on the programme's web page, and the whole 30-minute programme is available for a limited time on the BBC iPlayer.
(*It turns out that this programme was a repeat, and was blogged by Professor David Colquhoun at DC’s Improbable Science.)
When I started writing this blog-post I considered making a point about how this kind of non-science might be about to fade away under the persistent scrutiny of investigations like this BBC TV programme. But after spending only a few minutes on Google I found that the amount of seriously misguided belief in such nonsense - as well as this nonsense in particular - remains large and widespread. It needs attention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXaS_5AXJ0g
This is a clip from last Wednesday's Inside Out England TV programme* on BBC1; the segment is about Barbara Wren, who teaches courses on nutrition at her College of Natural Nutrition (the domain name for which is abbreviated with total lack of irony to "natnut.co.uk"). The BBC's investigation indicates that her teachings are not only unscientific but also life-threatening.
The clip is also available on the programme's web page, and the whole 30-minute programme is available for a limited time on the BBC iPlayer.
(*It turns out that this programme was a repeat, and was blogged by Professor David Colquhoun at DC’s Improbable Science.)
When I started writing this blog-post I considered making a point about how this kind of non-science might be about to fade away under the persistent scrutiny of investigations like this BBC TV programme. But after spending only a few minutes on Google I found that the amount of seriously misguided belief in such nonsense - as well as this nonsense in particular - remains large and widespread. It needs attention.
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Burnee links for Saturday
NSS hits out at plan to introduce creationism into Hampshire schools - The FreethinkerNational Secular Society - Creationism to be taught in science lessons in Hampshire
Petition to: ensure that the UK Government uses all of its powers to reject and, if possible, veto any attempt at the United Nations to limit free speech
Science: And now for something completely different ... | Science | guardian.co.uk
The ‘Child Psychic’ - Dr Krissy Wilson Speaks Out On Today Tonight
It’s called “Evolution”? Urgh! : nullifidian
Scientology to get religious law protection in the UK
Darwin, the BBC and Liberal Fascism - Andrew Sibley - Creation Science Movement
TAM London: the clock is ticking! | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
Paper or Plastic? - JREF
National Secular Society - NSS raises alarm over new Islamist threat to free speech
Creationism 'should be taught in science lessons' - Telegraph
Who will rid us of this Islamic imbecile?- The Freethinker
New Humanist Blog: AC Grayling politely rebukes an attempt to reconcile religion and science
Excerpt, "The Unlikely Disciple," by Kevin Roose | Salon Life
Daylight Atheism > A World in Shadow VI
AC Grayling: Moves by the Islamic conference will destroy free speech | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Jon Holmes on the Atheist Bus
On Friday's Now Show on BBC Radio 4 Jon Holmes got to grips with Christian reaction to the Atheist Bus ads.
Full half-hour show available on BBC iPlayer here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j1f9k/The_Now_Show_Series_26_Episode_2/
Or as a podcast here:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/fricomedy/fricomedy_20090313-1855a.mp3
Relevant clip (5'06" 2.4 Mb) here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/341827122/NowShow_AtheistBus_BBBCR4i-20090313.mp3
Full half-hour show also available here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/341830591/fricomedy_20090313-1855a.mp3
Now Show website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/nowshow.shtml
Full half-hour show available on BBC iPlayer here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j1f9k/The_Now_Show_Series_26_Episode_2/
Or as a podcast here:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/fricomedy/fricomedy_20090313-1855a.mp3
Relevant clip (5'06" 2.4 Mb) here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/341827122/NowShow_AtheistBus_BBBCR4i-20090313.mp3
Full half-hour show also available here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/341830591/fricomedy_20090313-1855a.mp3
Now Show website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/nowshow.shtml
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Creationism and the velocity of light
As mentioned in a previous post, in contrast to the feeble exhibits at Genesis Expo, the pamphlets on sale in the shop give the superficial impression of earnest scholarship. One pamphlet that drew my attention was "Decrease in the Speed of Light" by Malcolm Bowden, published by the Creation Science Movement. It begins with a graph showing the results of historical experiments to determine the velocity of light. Why is this important to creationists? Well, if light travelled faster in the past, that would account for the light from distant stars apparently taking millions of years to reach Earth – which must be false if the universe is no older than 10,000 years. The pamphlet postulates that the speed of light was actually infinite a mere six or seven thousand years ago.
When I first glanced through the pamphlet, the proliferation of technical terms, and the graph on page one, gave such an impression of scholarly authority that I felt unqualified to assess it. I considered attempting to check the references and the scientific subjects mentioned, but decided instead to look at the pamphlet on its own terms and examine what I had in front of me, starting with that intimidating graph.
Presumably the graph is excerpted from the referenced materials – probably "The Velocity of Light and the Age of the Universe" by Barry Setterfield. It has no units, but I assume the x-axis is years and the y-axis is kilometres per second. (The phrase "Selected Results" looks suspicious – it could indicate cherry-picking of data.)
The graph appears to plot the results of historical measurements of c (the speed of light), and the general trend supports the notion that its value was much higher in the past. The pamphlet goes on to suggest that at one point it was infinitely high. This extraordinary suggestion – derived from extrapolation of a non-linear curve – will, in Carl Sagan's famous phrase, require extraordinary evidence. So let's look at the evidence here presented.
We'll start with the two measurements taken in the 18th century. The higher of the two is a quarter of a percent above the average of the highest and lowest of the post-18th century measurements – way below the accuracy I would expect from 18th century science when dealing with something this tricky to measure – by at least an order of magnitude. It's reasonable, therefore, to discount those two values.
Ignoring the two measurements from the 18th century, the remaining plots are from about 1842 to about 1979, and range from about 299,790 to 300,050 kilometres per second. The variation is 260 km/s, or plus or minus 130 km/s about the mean of highest and lowest (not counting the 18th century values). That's plus or minus 0.043 percent. (I'm not doing statistical analysis here – just some rough-and-ready arithmetic to get a feel for the numbers.)
Less than a twentieth of a percent variation isn't much – I would have thought it was less than the experimental accuracy of measurements carried out in the 19th century. 20th century measurements should be more accurate, and according to the graph they all agree to within about a hundredth of a percent. A constant value for c is within the expected accuracy of all these measurements; it's unwarranted, therefore, to claim that the speed of light has decreased. The claims in the rest of the pamphlet are therefore essentially unfounded, and can be ignored until some actual, real evidence is produced.
Later in the pamphlet Bowden mentions that the two 18th century values were indeed discounted in later analysis, and bemoans that this renders the rest of his data insignificant.
Bowden misses the point here. He notes Aardsma's reasonable dismissal of Setterfield's observations, then – because he doesn't like the results – describes them as meaningless, when it is Setterfield's observations that are rendered meaningless.
It's a perfect example of cherry-picking the data, but Bowden doesn't seem to appreciate this. Of course he wants to include the 18th century data, because without those figures his proposition makes no sense – never mind that the data is suspect. He's attempting to do science backwards – this is clear from the stated aims of the Creation Science Movement, laid out on the same page as the suspect graph:
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Creationism comes down to one thing: science contradicts scripture – therefore it must be wrong.
When I first glanced through the pamphlet, the proliferation of technical terms, and the graph on page one, gave such an impression of scholarly authority that I felt unqualified to assess it. I considered attempting to check the references and the scientific subjects mentioned, but decided instead to look at the pamphlet on its own terms and examine what I had in front of me, starting with that intimidating graph.
Presumably the graph is excerpted from the referenced materials – probably "The Velocity of Light and the Age of the Universe" by Barry Setterfield. It has no units, but I assume the x-axis is years and the y-axis is kilometres per second. (The phrase "Selected Results" looks suspicious – it could indicate cherry-picking of data.)
The graph appears to plot the results of historical measurements of c (the speed of light), and the general trend supports the notion that its value was much higher in the past. The pamphlet goes on to suggest that at one point it was infinitely high. This extraordinary suggestion – derived from extrapolation of a non-linear curve – will, in Carl Sagan's famous phrase, require extraordinary evidence. So let's look at the evidence here presented.
We'll start with the two measurements taken in the 18th century. The higher of the two is a quarter of a percent above the average of the highest and lowest of the post-18th century measurements – way below the accuracy I would expect from 18th century science when dealing with something this tricky to measure – by at least an order of magnitude. It's reasonable, therefore, to discount those two values.
Ignoring the two measurements from the 18th century, the remaining plots are from about 1842 to about 1979, and range from about 299,790 to 300,050 kilometres per second. The variation is 260 km/s, or plus or minus 130 km/s about the mean of highest and lowest (not counting the 18th century values). That's plus or minus 0.043 percent. (I'm not doing statistical analysis here – just some rough-and-ready arithmetic to get a feel for the numbers.)
Less than a twentieth of a percent variation isn't much – I would have thought it was less than the experimental accuracy of measurements carried out in the 19th century. 20th century measurements should be more accurate, and according to the graph they all agree to within about a hundredth of a percent. A constant value for c is within the expected accuracy of all these measurements; it's unwarranted, therefore, to claim that the speed of light has decreased. The claims in the rest of the pamphlet are therefore essentially unfounded, and can be ignored until some actual, real evidence is produced.
Later in the pamphlet Bowden mentions that the two 18th century values were indeed discounted in later analysis, and bemoans that this renders the rest of his data insignificant.
Bowden misses the point here. He notes Aardsma's reasonable dismissal of Setterfield's observations, then – because he doesn't like the results – describes them as meaningless, when it is Setterfield's observations that are rendered meaningless.
It's a perfect example of cherry-picking the data, but Bowden doesn't seem to appreciate this. Of course he wants to include the 18th century data, because without those figures his proposition makes no sense – never mind that the data is suspect. He's attempting to do science backwards – this is clear from the stated aims of the Creation Science Movement, laid out on the same page as the suspect graph:
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Creationism comes down to one thing: science contradicts scripture – therefore it must be wrong.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Genesis Expo, Portsmouth, UK (part 3)
This is the third and final part of my assessment of Genesis Expo, the creation museum I visited in Portsmouth on Saturday 28 February. (Click here for part 1, or here for part 2.)
Leaving the last of the exhibits you pass by a small room set up as a video theatre, showing a DVD (I think it was called "Life Story"), also available for purchase at £9.95. I spent a few minutes sitting and watching, but the volume was too low for me to hear the narration distinctly, so I picked up a free copy of "Creation" from a nearby chair, and proceeded into the shop.
In contrast to the exhibits the shop is more impressive, with rows of brightly coloured books, DVDs and pamphlets, well displayed. Anyone local who is considering online purchasing of creationist literature or media would be well advised to visit Genesis Expo to inspect the merchandise first-hand.
You can also buy fossils – prices to suit all pockets, right up to £1,250 for a fossil-encrusted table-top. Or how about this wall-hung plaque (below)?
It was in the shop that I picked up a selection of creationist pamphlets. According to the website of the Creation Science Movement - who are responsible for Genesis Expo - there are 125 of these pamphlets, on various subjects. I've already listed my choice, and I'll be looking at one (or possibly more) of them in a later post.
So that's it. Twelve unimpressive, simplistic and rather tatty display cases, a video that I couldn't hear, and a shop full of books, pamphlets, DVDs and gift-shop-type souvenirs. The arguments presented in the exhibits, such as they are, have long since been refuted, and I detected a tendency to appeal to emotions rather than reason. Selected displays are described in more detail at the Creation Science Movement website, where some of the merchandise, including the pamphlets, is available for purchase.
Incidentally, creationists are always going on about "teaching both sides" but I didn't see any of Richard Dawkins' books on sale in their shop (admittedly I didn't look very hard). I did, however, see the nest of eight fossil dinosaur eggs (below), located behind bars between the exhibits and the shop.
I don't think I'll be paying a second visit, unless I decide to examine some more of the pamphlets, so to conclude my assessment of Genesis Expo itself I'll leave you with the back-end of Boris, the Big Friendly Dinosaur:
UPDATE: Click here for more on one of the pamphlets.
UPDATE 2009-03-16: For another take on Genesis Expo, check out The Ranger's Blog.
UPDATE 2009-06-01: Another one at Choccy's blog.
UPDATE 2009-10-18: Genesis Expo in video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfWvniBYscQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Pq6yNW3oY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4ixGQKi0s
(Via Pharyngula)
Leaving the last of the exhibits you pass by a small room set up as a video theatre, showing a DVD (I think it was called "Life Story"), also available for purchase at £9.95. I spent a few minutes sitting and watching, but the volume was too low for me to hear the narration distinctly, so I picked up a free copy of "Creation" from a nearby chair, and proceeded into the shop.
In contrast to the exhibits the shop is more impressive, with rows of brightly coloured books, DVDs and pamphlets, well displayed. Anyone local who is considering online purchasing of creationist literature or media would be well advised to visit Genesis Expo to inspect the merchandise first-hand.
You can also buy fossils – prices to suit all pockets, right up to £1,250 for a fossil-encrusted table-top. Or how about this wall-hung plaque (below)?
It was in the shop that I picked up a selection of creationist pamphlets. According to the website of the Creation Science Movement - who are responsible for Genesis Expo - there are 125 of these pamphlets, on various subjects. I've already listed my choice, and I'll be looking at one (or possibly more) of them in a later post.
So that's it. Twelve unimpressive, simplistic and rather tatty display cases, a video that I couldn't hear, and a shop full of books, pamphlets, DVDs and gift-shop-type souvenirs. The arguments presented in the exhibits, such as they are, have long since been refuted, and I detected a tendency to appeal to emotions rather than reason. Selected displays are described in more detail at the Creation Science Movement website, where some of the merchandise, including the pamphlets, is available for purchase.
Incidentally, creationists are always going on about "teaching both sides" but I didn't see any of Richard Dawkins' books on sale in their shop (admittedly I didn't look very hard). I did, however, see the nest of eight fossil dinosaur eggs (below), located behind bars between the exhibits and the shop.
I don't think I'll be paying a second visit, unless I decide to examine some more of the pamphlets, so to conclude my assessment of Genesis Expo itself I'll leave you with the back-end of Boris, the Big Friendly Dinosaur:
UPDATE: Click here for more on one of the pamphlets.
UPDATE 2009-03-16: For another take on Genesis Expo, check out The Ranger's Blog.
UPDATE 2009-06-01: Another one at Choccy's blog.
UPDATE 2009-10-18: Genesis Expo in video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfWvniBYscQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Pq6yNW3oY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4ixGQKi0s
(Via Pharyngula)
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