It really sucks when a celebrity you like and admire screws up. Before social media, you might never have known whether stars were prone to bouts of excessive credulity when it comes to medicine, conspiracy theories, the paranormal, or whatever. Twenty years ago, for instance, few might ever have known that Jenny McCarthy was into “indigo child woo” or rabidly antivaccine, falling hard for the scientifically discredited concept that vaccines cause autism. That’s just one example. Of course, some people, celebrity or not, are just prone to conspiracy belief. Unfortunately, sometimes people who have a better track record also screw …
Category: Science fiction/fantasy
How “they” view “us,” Mike Adams and Kent Heckenlively edition
I came so close. Yes, when I read the latest target subject of this piece of Insolence to be bestowed upon you today, I came so close to resurrecting a certain undead Fuhrer who used to roam this blog on a regular basis chomping brains and inspiring horrible Nazi analogies. Indeed, it’s been at least four years since the Hitler Zombie made an appearance on this blog; so the temptation was there, although there was trepidation too because four years is a long time. There are, of course, hard core long time Orac readers who no doubt would have cheered …
While Orac is otherwise busy trying to keep his lab funded, meet Orac
Grant deadlines strike again, and there’s no new Insolence for you to peruse today. (The problem with doing real science, as opposed to blogging, is that you actually have to apply endlessly for grant money, and, believe it or not, that comes first, before even Insolence.) Fortunately, I’ve been made aware of an endless source of entertainment for you, my readers. I’ve explained before from where I chose the pseudonym “Orac.” It was from what was at the time a popular British science fiction series that ran for four years back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Unfortunately, the …
It works every time, doesn’t it?
Every so often I come across a news story relevant to the subject matter usually encompassed by this blog that makes me shake my head in disbelief at the sheer stupidity. OK, every day, if you count the antivaccine movement and its attacks on papers like the one I wrote about Monday and yesterday. True, the constant barrage of pseudoscience, quackery, and generalized scientific ignorance that the antivaccine movement floods me with constantly threatens to drown out everything else, even from other areas of medicine. This one, however, caught my attention. It was about a joke done by two Florida …
Eight years
As I mentioned yesterday, Orac is currently away at an undisclosed location that is someplace warm. He is there, taking a rare pre-solstice break, preparing for the Mayan apocalypse that is to come on the 21st of this month. (Actually, he’s recharging his Tarial cell, the better to be prepared for the utter nonsense that is to come in 2013, given that there is, at the very minimum, going to be another Stanislaw Burzynski hagiography released early in the year.) In the meantime, as I mentioned yesterday, most, if not all, of the posts this week will appear…familiar. At least, …
Pharma and vaccines turn you into a zombie?
When I saw the latest screed from that very living embodiment of crank magnetism, Mike Adams, I chuckled. I sent it around to some fellow skeptics, including, for instance, the crew at The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, as well as acquaintances and friends of mine because I couldn’t believe it. Adams, as loony as he is, had topped himself. In the meantime, I couldn’t decide whether or not to write about it, particularly after Steve Novella took a swipe at it. After all, there are things that are so loony, so out there, that one seriously has to worry …
Now there’s some “anti-science”…
I’m sometimes criticized for referring to various people who are “anti-science” as, well, “anti-science.” People, for whatever reason, have a hard time believing that anyone is anti-science; so when I point out how much, for example, antivaccinationists, alternative medicine believers, or creationists are anti-science, they have a had time believing it. This is particularly true because, just as antivaccinationists loudly protest that they are not “antivaccine,” those who are anti-science equally loudly protest that they are not “anti-science.” Such protestations are almost inevitably followed by statements that demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are in fact anti-science. …
On Daleks
After a near all-nighter working on a grant and another day and night to try to get a talk together that I have to give tomorrow, somehow Insolence, Respectful or not-so-Respectful, fell by the wayside, at least for today. Nothing like two hours’ sleep followed by a full day of work. It’s a good thing I don’t have clinic or the OR today. Of course, if I did, I wouldn’t have pushed myself the way I did last night. I do have to admit, however, that this video I came across over at Runolfr’s place cracked me up. We really …
Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith…
I just learned something that will sadden the heart of any Doctor Who fan. Elizabeth Sladen, who played longtime companion of the Doctor Sarah Jane Smith, has died of cancer: Doctor Who star Elisabeth Sladen, who was also in spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures, has died aged 63. Sladen appeared as Doctor Who assistant Sarah Jane Smith in the BBC television sci-fi series between 1973 and 1976, opposite Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. The Liverpool-born actress appeared in four series from 2007 of The Sarah Jane Adventures on children’s channel CBBC. Sladen had been battling cancer for some time …
One more reason why George Takei is still awesome after all these years…
…is simple. Not only was he the original Hikaru Sulu on Star Trek (which if full of WIN to any long time Star Trek geek like myself), but he taped this PSA for the 2010 census: This is so much better than that commercial for Sharp Electronics Quattron quad pixel technology that’s been on TV lately.