Not so good, I’m afraid.
If you feel like torturing yourself some more, read the comments on that youtube video. They are…typical youtube comments.
I’m not a woman, but I’m a nerd, and we aren’t looking so hot, either.
Luis Martinez stopped at the Subway sandwich shop and ordered this thing they call a Philly Cheesesteak…and he ordered it with ketchup. The Subway worker, Lawrence Ordone, objected.
"That’s when I flew off the handle," said Ordone.
"He shoved a chair to the side, like knocked it down to come at me, and I said, ‘This is going to be serious,’" said Martinez.
"I said, ‘Let’s go, fight me like a man,’" said Ordone.
"I was scared. Next thing, I’m thinking a gun’s going to come out," said Martinez.
Ordone said he blocked the customer so he couldn’t get out.
"He threatened to kill me in front of my wife," said Martinez.
These are important issues that a man should engage in battle over: everyone KNOWS that a true Philly cheesesteak is served with ketchup and fried onions. The abomination that the Subway serves lacks both. And now we have learned that Subway employees are willing to fight to the death to preserve their heresy.
Oh, and American cheese? Pffft. It’s supposed to be Cheez-Whiz.
By the way, Ordone was fired — Subway apparently objects to their employees assaulting customers. They still, however, refuse to serve ketchup.
We will have a Google+ podcast this evening, at 6pm Central time — I’ll start sending out invitations around 5:30. You do not need an invitation to watch it live, or to leave comments during.
The general topic is bad science and quackery. To get us started, here are a couple of links to some examples beyond the usual homeopathy/magic healing stuff that is so blatant — it’s subtler stuff that we often ignore.
Money interests promote bad science. Look at energy drinks: lies and hype.
Promoting a message beyond caffeine has enabled the beverage makers to charge premium prices. A 16-ounce energy drink that sells for $2.99 a can contains about the same amount of caffeine as a tablet of NoDoz that costs 30 cents. Even Starbucks coffee is cheap by comparison; a 12-ounce cup that costs $1.85 has even more caffeine.
The science media flops big-time and promotes bad science. One example: Sharon Begley oversells placebos.
But while anecdotes are not science, it is stories of the placebo response that drive home its awesome power—much more so than reports in dry research papers.
Jebus Christ. Enough said, maybe.
There are legitimate concerns to discuss about GMO foods, but usually we hear little but knee-jerk ideological rejection at the idea of tainting our precious food (this in a country where it’s almost impossible to buy food that isn’t genetically tweaked and processed). A critic rethinks his position on GMO foods.
I want to start with some apologies. For the record, here and upfront, I apologise for having spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonising an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment.
Bad science prospers when their topic is hidden behind shame and silence. Case in point: the abortion issue, which only has two voices, the strident shrieking about ‘baby-killers’ and muted, almost embarrassed silence.
When abortion providers do not disclose their work in everyday encounters, their silence perpetuates a stereotype that abortion work is unusual or deviant, or that legitimate, mainstream doctors do not perform abortions. This contributes to marginalization of abortion providers within medicine and the ongoing targeting of providers for harassment and violence. This reinforces the reluctance to disclose abortion work, and the cycle continues.
This is not an exclusive list, but merely something that will get us started. And of course, people can warm up to it by discussing it here in the comments.
At last, I’ve finally found it. The thing that will make the whole internet recoil and rethink this whole cat obsession. It’s Cats That Look Like Pinup Girls.
Warning: NSFW. Gratuitous nudity. Raging sexism. And cats. Lots of cats.
Well, my work is done.
I thought I’d break the news here first: I have incontrovertible evidence against human evolution. To wit: my lungs are persistently filling up with fluid over the last few days. Which, if I’m not mistaken, is pretty much the opposite of what they are allegedly evolved to do. I mean, what possible advantage could that have provided on the savanna? Aside from possibly repelling predators with weaker stomachs. Hear my mighty and productive coughs, o puny lion, and slink away revolted! Or something.
Why did we even bother to lose the gills, again?
This is becoming an annual tradition I’m not so sure I approve of: I was sick last year on my birthday as well. (Yes, today. 53. Thank you.) Last year Annette bought us a room in Tucson to celebrate, and we spent the day enjoying the city and eating lunch with friends, and then by the time we were halfway back to the Coachella Valley I was wracked with fever and hoping for truck stop soup.
I have to say, from the perspective of increasing age, that coughing fits aren’t nearly as fun as they used to be when I was a kid. And dextromethorphan is definitely becoming my least favorite recreational drug ever. Between this and PZ’s nosebleed, you all may want to cover your monitors with dental dams for the next few days. When do the Obamacare Death Panels kick in again? I’ll happily take my Socialist Suicide Pill if they cut it with some codeine.
Anyway, I do have a few interesting things to report that have accumulated over the last few days:
I think that last item means I’m gonna have to get over this goddamn cough the hard way.
How about tomorrow, at 6pm Central time?
This has been a nasty week for me — my ankle is a nest of flaming knives, which means I haven’t been getting a heck of a lot of sleep. Then on top of that, this morning my nose started bleeding — I’ll spare you the details, but I was browsing the web on my iPad this morning and marveling at this incredibly brilliant, detailed, glistening blood spatter effect appearing on a website before I realized it was me, drenching everything in my lap. Almost two years on blood thinners means that when the geyser blows, it’s a bad one. I’m afraid I’d be going on camera with yet another toilet paper plug in one nostril that would steadily turn crimson over the hour, and really, that’s not a good look for me.
(Yes, I did see a doctor about this a short while ago. It’s become a recurring phenomenon lately. I thought they were going to tell me to count my blessings, I was getting leechings every day for free.)
Now pardon me, I have to go stare at the ceilings some more and pack more wadding up my face while cussing as I hobble about the blood-flecked bathroom. It’s been one of those fun days.
The Pickens County School Board has been informed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation that their habit of opening public meetings of a secular institution is illegal. Their response? A pointless poll, of course!
Do you think prayer should be allowed at school board meetings?
Yes 20%
No 80%
If ever I’m arrested for jaywalking or littering or bank robbery, I’m going to put up a poll and ask, “Should my criminal activity be allowed in spite of the laws against it?”
You’ll probably all vote no just to spite me.
At last, the gene for poor science journalism has been discovered.
Last spring, the All England Squid Fishing Championships took place, in which hundreds of fishermen strove to catch the largest squid. Unfortunately, the weather was not conducive to good fishing, and they caught nothing. Well, except for one person who discovered this cute little guy cling to his jig.
The winner!
This gives me hope. I’m going to sign up for a beauty contest right away.
I said I was done with this guy, but his latest includes a bit that annoys me to no end. Keith Kloor interviews Daniel Sarewitz to get ammo for his claim that religion and science are compatible.
Based on your piece, I would presume that you think the two are compatible. However, some of the prominent New Atheists, such as PZ Myers and Jerry Coyne, insist that science and religion are incompatible. Why has this discussion become so binary? Why the either/or mindset exhibited by some atheists?
DS: There are lots of scientists who are also religious, so as an empirical matter science and religion are apparently not incompatible.
Gah. Dumb.
There are scientists who believe the earth is 6000 years old and that there was a global flood 4000 years ago. Therefore, science and creationism are perfectly compatible.
There are accountants who skim off profits and hide them in the books, therefore accounting is compatible with criminal larceny.
There are doctors who smoke, therefore smoking is compatible with healthy lungs.
Why has this discussion become so binary? Easy. Because some scientists have gigantic religious blindspots and want to pretend that their gullibility is part of their science.
