Overdosing on water

This from the NZ Skeptics:

A public mass overdose of homeopathic remedies has forced the New Zealand Council of Homeopaths to admit openly that their products do not contain any “material substances”. Council spokeswoman Mary Glaisyer admitted publicly that “there´s not one molecule of the original substance remaining” in the diluted remedies that form the basis of this multi-million-dollar industry.

The NZ Skeptics, in conjunction with 10:23, Skeptics in the Pub and other groups nationally and around the world, held the mass overdose in Christchurch on Saturday to highlight the fact that homeopathic products are simply very expensive water drops or sugar/lactose pills. A further aim was to question the ethical issues of pharmacies, in particular, stocking and promoting sham products and services.

“You´re paying $10 for a teaspoon of water that even the homeopaths say has no material substance in it,” says Skeptics Chair Vicki Hyde.
“Yet a recent survey showed that 94% of New Zealanders using homeopathic products aren´t aware of this basic fact – their homeopath or health professional hasn´t disclosed this. The customers believe they are paying for the substances listed on the box, but those were only in the water once upon a time before the massive dilution process began – along with everything else that the water once had in it — the chlorine, the beer, the urine….”

Ideological infections

Book Review: The God Virus: How religion infects our lives and culture by Darrel W. Ray

Price: US$12.91
Perfect Paperback: 241 pages
Publisher: IPC Press; First edition (December 5, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0970950519
ISBN-13: 978-0970950512

The virus metaphor has been extremely useful in computing. The parallel with biological viruses is close so the word provides an accurate but succinct description of the phenomena of, and problems created by, computer viruses. And this particular metaphor offends no one.

The idea of a “god virus”, which treats religious ideas in a similar way, also has some traction. Darrel Ray shows in “The God Virus” that this particular metaphor can be an accurate description of the problem. The metaphor is useful. But in this case some people do get offended.

Maybe they overreact? (Religious people often do). Ray does make clear the metaphor applies to other ideological viewpoints besides the religious ones. That it is more general. For instance, he includes communism and Marxism in some of the discussions. He also points out that, just as with ideologies, biological “viruses can be benign, even beneficial in some cases.” Although “parasite” may be a more suitable description of how ideas sometimes work – he wanted “to avoid the negative connotations” of that word.

Car pool, string theory and human genetic history

I have been enjoying a weekly internet TV show produced by Robert Llewellyn, the actor who portrays Kryten 2X4B-523P in the popular TV series Red Dwarf. Its called Car Pool. And the idea behind it is novel and very successful.

Basically it’s a half hour interview with a personality from the worlds of science, theatre, televisions and technology. The intriguing feature is that the interview takes place while Llewellyn drives the subject somewhere in his car. The produces a very informal, even laid back, and friendly interaction. And it’s surprising how much information can be conveyed in this format.

The videos are available for viewing or downloading at Llewtube and Llewtube on blip.tv. If you follow Llewellyn on twitter you can also suggest questions for upcoming interviews.

The video below, this is car pool, includes snippets from the series

CO2 emissions, birth & death rates by country, simulated real-time

Here’s an interesting graphic of CO2 emissions, birth & death rates by country, simulated real-time. Click on the image.

The birth and death rates are taken from the  CIA World Factbook and the CO2 emission rates from the United Nations Statistics Division. Just hover with your mouse to get data for specific countries.

Be aware it is only a simulation.

Thanks to Breathing Earth.

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I thought the award for mistakes was mine!

Glacier-gate – the current feeding frenzy for climate change deniers brought back memories.

Any publishing scientist will have experienced the problem of errors getting through the review and checking process. Of course you notice them immediately when you proudly read through you masterpiece in the print journal.

However, I burst out laughing when I read this  post by a local blogger - IPCC: Earning the award for greatest number of errors per page. Because I was convinced I won that award years ago!

One of my old papers has far more errors than the IPCC reports. These were all misspellings of my own name in the reference list.

Bloody spell checkers!

Atheists provoke a reaction

This one had to come, I guess.

For a while now there have been videos circulated of a scene from the 2004 film Downfall where Hilter “looses it.” They have been dubbed to produce parodies supporting different viewpoints – some I sympathise with (see Peer review – an emotional roller coaster), others I don’t.

But the silly reaction of many religious spokespeople to things like the atheist bus adverts was just asking to be ridiculed. In this video the subject is the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne this March. Aussies, in particular, will probably appreciate some of the references to their politicians.

A bit of useful back story: Carl Wieland from the Creation Ministries International has attempted to muscle in on the convention with plans for a debate with some of the international speakers. He has been told to go away and organise his own thing. Contact individuals himself. And has typically reacted badly.

I enjoyed the video. Then again I would as I am registered to attend the convention (which is now booked out) and am looking forward to it.

YouTube – Hitler reacts to the Global Atheist Convention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPgwdZuW4wI

Thanks to PZ Myers at Another reaction from Carl Wieland to the Global Atheist Convention.

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Climate change deniers’ tawdry manipulation of “hockey sticks”

Warning: This post abounds in “hockey sticks.”

Poneke’s recent blog post, 13 years of Climategate emails show tawdry manipulation of science by a powerful cabal at the heart of the global warming campaign, precipitated a lively discussion. Well, perhaps “discussion” is too kind because it was dominated by extreme deniers.

Now, I don’t want to label people unjustly. I respect those who are sceptical of the IPCC climate change conclusions, but are willing to stick with the science in discussing them. I reserve the term “deniers” for those irrational souls who grab at anything they can (cold days, snow, 1998 temperatures, IPCC mistake on Himalyan glaciers, etc., etc.). No interest in the science – just in using “sciencey” claims to advance their preconceived conclusions.

But my point in this post is to deal with one of Poneke’s claims which is demonstratively untrue.

Journeys to the Ice – New SciBlogsNZ blogger

Welcome to Matt Woods, who is now blogging at sciblogsNZ. Matt spent some time working in Antarctica on an ice coring reconnaissance expedition. His blog, Journeys to the Ice, will cover Antarctica and Antarctic science.

Matt has also started a podcast. So go to his blog and have a look. perhaps subscribe to the podcast.

SciblogsNZ must now have about 30 bloggers. Its launch a few months ago represented a big step in science communication in New Zealand. I have certainly noticed a large increase in the activity of local science bloggers – and this must be a good thing.

Inevitably it’s led to a few attacks on science blogging by local conspiracy theorists (eg. Poneke and Ian Wishart). Another sign of effective communication, I say.

And Sciblogs NZ is certainly getting attention from others on the internet. It is currently the 5th ranking blog on the NZ blog ranking survey based on sitemeter statistics (see NZ blogs sitemeter ranking – January ‘10).

Update: This post was interpreted by Poneke as another conspiracy (see Taxpayer-funded Science Media Centre gets a curious ratings boost from global warming). Interesting though there seems to be a bit of a battle between sciblogs and Poneke on the rankings. (At the moment Sciblogs is in 4th and Poneke 5th).

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Martin Luther King’s dream

Last Monday Martin Luther King Day was celebrated in the US.

TED.com marked the day by posting King’s world-changing “I have a dream” speech given back in 1963. It’s an inspiring speech – and still relevant today.

Only 17 min long I have reposted the video below.

YouTube – Martin Luther King “I have a dream”.

NZ blogs sitemeter ranking – January ‘10

There are about 145 NZ blogs with publicly accessible sitemeter stats on this list. Mind you I have found over 800  NZ blogs  and most of them just don’t make their statistics publicly accessible..

The blogs are listed in the table below, together with daily visits and page view numbers averaged over the previous 7 days. The data was that given by the NZ blog ranking tool on Monday January 18th.

This can be seen at NZ blogs average daily visits

Have a look at that tool. Its a way of comparing your own blog’s performance from day to day -  a roller coaster ride which can be quite exciting!

Just be aware that it relies on spreadsheets at Google Docs and data is not always available. If the data is missing or incomplete, wait a while and reload the page. It will eventually show up.

Meanwhile I am still keen to hear of any other blogs with publicly available sitemeter stats that I have missed. Contact me if you know of any.