After the nightmare, the bright side.

 BlahBlah, Scepticism, Social  No Responses »
Mai 082015
 

I went to bed last night living the nightmare of David Cameron and the Conservatives being predicted to win the UK 2015 General Election. Woke up this morning to find that the nightmare will last another five years. I, like many others, thought that the exit polls must have been wrong based on a seemingly vanishingly small number of people asked (22,000 or about 35 per Seat) and the fact that the exit polls differed so dramatically to the pre-election polls.

But, let me look on the bright side. Those exit poll people have gotten fantastically good at the job. Predicting the outcome with such accuracy was unknown earlier. This is a testament to the science upon which the pollsters base their methods and predictions.

Never judge a book by its cover I always say.

 BlahBlah, Scepticism, Social  Kommentare deaktiviert für Never judge a book by its cover I always say.
Jan 142015
 

I was just talking to somebody and they told me they were on their way to Japan for two weeks.

„Have you ever been to Japan“ they asked?
„No“ I replied, „but I have a friend who is a real Japanophile and he even took part of his holiday while there to spend some time clearing up after The Tsunami and Fukushima“ I said proudly.
„I helped as well“ they said with even more pride because they had themselves done something.
„Oh?“ I asked
„Yes, I sent some crystals, they help with cleaning up as well“ …
Mental sound of my brain crashing gears, trying to engage reverse.
I look again, sometimes I’m wrong and you *can* tell a book by its cover..

Even as I write my mind is telling me it has been ambushed. I was made so unsure I had to check if I should write „its“ or „it’s“. I keep being presented images of Amethysts and Quartz Crystals dressed in overalls pushing a street cleaner’s cart or cleaning the air by inhaling „radiation“.

www.amazon.de

Get your debunking hats on…

 Sceptical, Scepticism  No Responses »
Nov 172014
 

And I’m not talking about a hat for getting out of bed (“Bunk Bed”… geddit?) There has been a lot of research into cognitive biases in the last years and some of the results can be used to avoid provoking those biases into the wrong conclusions and actions. Check out this little, free, booklet. But remember, like all techniques, they can be used for good and bad purposes.

http://www.skepticalscience.com/Debunking-Handbook-now-freely-available-download.html

Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law revisited.

 BlahBlah, Scepticism  No Responses »
Okt 202014
 

There are four “Clarke’s Laws” and the third of them is:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Now, I have been watching and reading various pro-and-contra postings about medicine with increasing concerns and I think I Arthur C. Clarke’s law can be updated as follows.

Any sufficiently advanced technocracy is indistinguishable from religion.

This is becoming increasingly relevant as we see more-and-more attacks on experts using the “that’s what you call a fact but really it’s only a belief” tactic. These people are effectively choosing one belief system over what they see as another belief system (for example, science based medicine.) These people are as far removed from the inner workings of science and its products as they are from the inner thoughts of whoever wrote the religious texts in the past. For them there is an unconcious choice between “faiths” and inevitably they choose a belief system which feels easier to understand and less threatening to their other belief systems.

Scepticism or nailing jelly to the ceiling, which is the greater waste of time?

 Humour Perhaps, Scepticism  No Responses »
Apr 092014
 

This is a line from Ian Rowland’s web site, specifically:

via Crassing Over With John Edward « IanRowland.com.

Wherein we also learn his „Golden Rules“ of which he says „These should be carved in stone, and that stone should be dropped on the head of anyone who thinks they can successfully campaign against the spread of pseudo-science and psychic fables.“