Categories
Biology Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Science Skepticism/critical thinking

An intelligent design advocate asks: What should life look like? (The argument from “completeness”)

I was half-tempted to e-mail this one to P. Z. or Larry Moran, but my inherently merciful nature got the better of me. Because it was so idiotic, I was afraid that, after P. Z. and his regular readers got through with it (or even worse for this poor ID advocate, Larry Moran), there wouldn’t […]

Categories
Entertainment/culture Medicine Popular culture Television

What cigarette do you smoke, Doctor?

These days, pretty much everyone, smokers included, knows that smoking is bad for you. It promotes lung cancer (and several other varieties of cancer as well), heart disease, emphysema, and a number of other health problems. If you ask most smokers, they will tell you that they’d like to quit but have found it very […]

Categories
Paranormal Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

I know Halloween is coming up soon and all, but…

…I am as appalled as my fellow ScienceBlogger Mark over this horrifically credulous article on ghosts on This Old House at CNN.com. Here’s a small taste, which comes after a long discussion of how to choose a “good” ghost inspector: If natural explanations cannot be found, and it’s determined that there is indeed a presence […]

Categories
Medicine News of the Weird Surgery

“I don’t know how it got there. No, really!”

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a favorite topic for amusement among general surgeons, rectal foreign bodies, particularly the strange things people like to stick up their bottoms for whatever reason. I pointed out at the time that sometimes the excuses such patients make when seeking medical attention are a bit–shall we say?–hard […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine Quackery

Two not-so-different things

As usual, Cectic nails it (click on comic for the full-size version): Although I find it odd that the “mark” in the above comic would be calling for his checkbook rather than his credit card, it never ceases to amaze me how skeptical some people can be when dealing with financial matters while at the […]