We’ve had a few new additions to Skeptical Robot, our merch shop, and my absolute favorite is this sweet set of more than 200 Word Magnets for Skeptics. You can make tons of classic skeptical phrases and even create your own freeform poems on topics like homeopathy, evolution, vaccination, Bigfoot, aliens, and nano-robots. And since the set comes courtesy of The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, there are even a few in-jokes you can make (plus the names of all the co-hosts)! Here are a few options: Continue reading Word Magnets for Skeptics from SGU!
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We have not one, but TWO delicious examples of pareidolia in the news this week. Pareidolia is the phenomena of seeing patterns in objects, such as a face in the clouds. The human mind has a natural disposition to try and make order out of chaos, and faces are the most common pattern discerned out of randomness. This is because some of the very first images burned in to our brains as infants are that of faces, primarily a mother’s face, for obvious reasons.
Speaking of which, the other image is that of Jesus on a tortilla (again). This is a more readily reported sighting – the face of Jesus “appears” (note the quotation marks) on all sorts of objects – glass windows, oil stains in parking lots, in the knots and stumps of trees, on all sorts of food items, and so on. Is it any co-incidence that the most “popular” (there are those quotation marks again) person in history (Jesus Christ) “appears” so frequently in all kinds of objects all over the world? But in the case of the chicken nugget, the nugget’s owner, Rebekah Speight, to her credit, raised the money on eBay for charity. Good for her! To Rebekah Speight’s discredit, she’s giving the money to children so they can attend a summer church camp where they will probably learn to be more inclined to see the face of Jesus in tortillas, wallpaper prints, and fecal matter. The irony is bitter. I would have much rather seen her donate the money for kids to go on a summer trip to Washington DC so they could learn more about the importance of historical figures in US history, such as George Washington.
Unless you are still using an abacus instead of a computer, then you know that February 29 is the Leap Day of The Gregorian Calendar. Since this irregular day will be upon us shortly, I thought I’d consolidate some interesting tidbits about February 29. So I did, and in no particular order, here are the tidbits that caught my attention: - We have it burned in our brains that Leap Day occurs every four years. This is mostly true, however there is an exception: there is no Leap Day on years ending in ’00, with the exception of ’00 years divisible by 400 (such as the year 2000.) - There are efforts occurring in US universities where researchers are trying to come up with alternative calendars to ultimately replace The Gregorian Calendar, thereby eliminating the need for Leap Day and Leap Years. Here is the recent SciAm article about this very subject. - In the early 1700′s in Sweden, they had their own calendar for about a dozen years, and their Leap Years also included February 30! - February 29 is also known (in some circles) as Saint Oswald Day. And so it is said … in the year of our Lord 992, “On Leap Year Day, February 29, he died after kissing the feet of the 12th man and giving a blessing.” (May The Lords and Saints Preserve Us!) - Superstitious Grecians (people from Greece) consider Leap Year an unlucky year to get married, and don’t even think about getting married on February 29th in Greece! - Legend has it that Christopher Columbus took advantage of a lunar eclipse on February 29 in 1504 to get himself out of a perilous situation. - It is reported that Leap Day has tripped up Google. Their ‘Blogger’ program will not allow existing users born on February 29 to update their profiles, an annoyance to leapers (people born on February 29) who use social media. The company plans to fix the glitch, but we shall see! - Here is a stupid astrology thing about people born on February 29. I know ‘stupid astrology’ is redundant, but I’m taking liberties today. And finally … on more of a personal note … - On February 29 in 1980, Gordie Howe of The Hartford Whalers scored his record-setting 800th career goal. I mention this because I am forever a Whaler’s fan, even though the team is 15 years gone. Happy February 29th everyone! Lets do this again in about 4 years!
There is SO MUCH bad information out there regarding vaccines, it’s very disheartening. Of course there’s good information, but the bad info is much easier to find. And it’s presented in a way that appeals to that person’s very basic instinct: to shield their child from possible harm. So as I think about it, it seems to me that most (if not all) of these people are doing it for what for them seems like a good reason The problem is that they not only compromise their child’s health based on faulty information, but they contribute to a loss in herd immunity. This leads to the cases we hear in the news about vaccine preventable diseases affecting communities with low vaccine compliance. These cases are almost entirely avoidable. Doctors have always taken the matter seriously, but recently, many pediatricians have been parting ways with patients of theirs who refuse to vaccinate. A story in The Wall Street Journal earlier this week reported on a rise in doctors refusing or “firing” patients who do not comply to the CDC and AAAP’s vaccine schedule.
I completely agree with the pediatricians’ decision not to see unvaccinated children. Having an unvaccinated child in a doctor’s waiting room full of other children, some sick, is downright dangerous. Both for the unvaccinated child and the other people present. There’s also an issue of trust. If parents don’t trust their doctor’s medical advice on one subject, why would they trust them on another? There should be a high level of trust there between doctor and patient. When and if I have children, this will absolutely be one of the factors in choosing a pediatrician. I want to be able to trust that my child’s health is in good hands, and what better hands than someone’s who is willing to give up a select group of patients for the safety of the majority of her or his other patients? I’ll be looking for a doctor who practices science-based medicine. So what do you guys think? Do you agree with the decision these doctors are making? There is certainly an argument to be made for both sides. photo by: UNICEF Sverige I’ve been working with the rogues behind the scenes for a few years now, and one of my tasks has (had) been to convert the raw audio tracks into SGU 5×5 episodes. During that time I took it upon myself to grab out some funny behind the scenes clips that never made it to the final podcast. Here’s a clip that happened during a recording of 5×5 in December of 2009. For those of you who are wondering, 5×5 isn’t gone. It’s actually going to make a comeback very, very soon. So stay tuned. I will be doing the edits so I’ll be posting some more clips on here as they come in. |
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