Skeptical Foul

Ironic Juxtaposition!

2008-04-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lengthy delay in posts, but I'm currently laid up (as we say in KY) with a particularly bad middle ear infection. They SUCK! (sympathy to Ensign Crusher). I've just experienced what seems to be a common problem plaguing the skeptical community... Google ads promoting the very thing you are railing against. Here's a lovely screenshot of this event...

Ha ha ha ha ha! Too funny!

Please, for the love of whatever, do NOT click on that link. I'm not in this for money and Ben Stein can keep his money.

The Earth is Not a Balloon

2008-03-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

*bash head on keyboard*
*rinse*
*repeat*

Global Expansion Tectonics is the crackpot theory that the Earth is expanding in size and that this explains why all of the continents fit together so well. Some folks calling themselves Terrella Consultants are claiming that by "utilizing modern geological and geophysical data to globally constrain the spatial and temporal plate motion history of all crustal plates, an expanding Earth tectonic model can provide a viable alternative to conventional palaeomagnetic-based plate tectonics." Emphasis theirs. The first evidence of crackpottery I see here is that they have a geocities page, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe their grant funding didn't come through yet.

Oh geez, where do I start?

How about with the term paleomagnetic. Paleomagnetism is the study of the Earth's magnetic field throughout history. When rocks are formed, magnetic minerals in them become locked into a specific orientation. By looking at these, we can see how Earth's magnetic field has changed over time. A bonus of paleomagnetism is that it makes it possible to track the movement of tectonic plates. If you know that a rock is 40 million years old and its magnetic orientation points east instead of north, then you know that somehow that rock has been rotated 90 degrees. If that rock is a massive sheet of bedrock, then you know that the whole area has moved. Its quite a bit more complicated than what I've laid out here, buy you get the point. So, Terrella Consultants has poured over data that the scientific community has been observing for decades and they claim to have found something that everyone else missed. Sure, that's possible. I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt here.

Next, we get to the heart of their theory "prior to the Early Jurassic, modern deep ocean basins did not exist. All continental lithosphere was united to form a single Pangaean super continent enclosing the Earth at a much-reduced palaeoradius, with the volume of hydrosphere and atmosphere increasing with time in sympathy with the volume of oceanic lithosphere. " Let's try to grasp this in plain English, shall we? Before the Jurassic Period, the Earth was much smaller. There were no large oceans. The amount of water and air increased as the amount of land increased.

Alright, I've had enough. *tweet* SKEPTICAL FOUL!

What evidence is there to support this wonderful new theory? Luckily Right there on the website is my answer:
Where does the additional mass come from?
"...the Earth is expanding because of an exponential increase in mass with time, e.g. matter is the antithesis of energy, however the kinematics of an exponentially expanding Earth suggests that mass may possibly have been constant with time resulting in a reduction in density and surface gravity. The ultimate cause of Earth expansion must however be considered intimately related to a cosmological expansion of the Universe, i.e. where does the mass of the Universe come from? "

*tweet* SKEPTICAL FOUL! That's number two, buddy. One more and it's off to the locker room with you.

Firstly, matter and energy are not antitheses. Matter and antimatter are antitheses. Secondly, mass "may possibly" have been constant with time resulting in a reduction of density and gravity? Really? That sentence is so full of holes that I could write an entire blog entry about it alone. When something becomes less dense, it still has the same amount of gravity because there is still the same amount of mass in it. Isn't that what I'm trying to find in this paragraph, an increase in mass? Strangely, there's no further mention of mass here. What we get is a question as an answer to a question, "where does the mass of the Universe come from? " Apparently it comes from duct taping the Hubble Constant to a Higgs boson.

Just for shits and giggles, let's take some numbers from the site and see how they add up. "the Earth is undergoing an exponential expansion at the present rate of 21 mm/year" Really? Exponential expansion? Let's try a little math. I'll even simplify things by ignoring the fact that I see the word exponential in that sentence, for now. The Jurassic period began about 200 million years ago. If the earth is expanding 21mm/year and the original radius of the earth was 1700km....carry the one...non-exponentially... that's 4.2 billion mm plus 1.7 billion original mm equals 5.9 billion mm or a 5900 km radius of the earth. The actual mean radius of the earth is approximately 6372 km. Fairly close, but what about that word exponentially? Do they even know what an exponent is? Were all of the calculations done as x^1?
If the Earth were growing exponentially, it would be billions and billions of kilometers in diameter. Just think of it this way, If I give you a penny a day and double it every day for 30 days, on the last day I would hand you $5,368,709.12 just for that day's pay, not counting the millions I've already given you over the past month. That's what exponentially means.

*tweet* SKEPTICAL FOUL #3, PLAYER IS EJECTED.

Hit the showers pal, your game is finished.

Expelled Exposed

2008-03-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

While I have quite a few things I could say about the creationist propaganda piece Expelled, the folks over at Expelled Exposed have done a far better job than I ever could. This is the National Center for Science Education's "official response to the Ben Stein movie Expelled".

The National Center for Science Education is taking this on? Well, that's good enough for me. Have a look.

The logical fallacy of tax rebates... or... W thinks you're stupid.

2008-03-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

Uncle George and His Ragtime Band have found it in their hearts to "give" every taxpayer in America $300-$1200 to use as he or she pleases this summer to jump start the slumping economy. While most Americans would jump up and shout "woot!" at this, I'm afraid I'm going to have to give a solid "aw, man...not this shit again".

Let's flash back to 2002. 9/11 had become the scapegoat for all of the country's woes, and the economy was in the toilet. So someone up on high said, "giv'em some cash and they'll blow in on
ipods! That'll stimulate the economy!"
I was 20-something and single, and like most other Americans, I cashed my $300 check, pranced through the enchanted forest of $299.99 sales at Best Buy, CompUSA, and Sears, and exchanged my freebie-funds for a dose of instant gratification. I don't even remember what I bought, but it was probably either electronics or a tool of some kind. Regardless, I did my part as a faithful consumer and fed that money back into the cogs and sprockets of the struggling economy. The stimulus package seemed to have worked, though whether by correlation or causation is debatable. The government was happy, the retailers were happy, and the populace was happy; until tax season arrived.

In early February, there I was typing and clicking away at my copy of Turbo Tax and watching my estimated refund total climbing in the upper left corner of the screen with visions of what wonderful techno toys I would blow this money on in my head, when I spotted a markedly disturbing question on the screen:

DID YOU RECEIVE A TAX REBATE CHECK?

Um, huh? Wha? I could tell this was bad news. I checked the "yes" box, hit next, and watched in horror as my happy green refund in the corner morphed into the angry red demon of tax liability. I owed money to the IRS.

You see, that freebie cash that Unky-Dub sent me wasn't really free. It was a loan against my estimated tax refund for the current year. It was MY MONEY ALL ALONG. I had been tricked into blowing my hard earned cash on things I didn't need and probably wouldn't have bought otherwise, just to keep Wall Street in the black. W thought I was stupid, and he was right. Now he's trying to do it again.

Flash forward to 2008. I'm now six years older, a little wiser, and in debt. Manageably so, but in debt none the less. I have a wife, a mortgage, car payments, and student loans. The American dream, it seems. My wife and I will be receiving another $1200 from Dub in May, or $600 a piece if we had been single. This time around, the economy is in far worse shape than it was six years ago and the purchasing power of this $600 is not much better than the $300 was in 2002. The biggest difference in the economy now versus the economy then is the amount of debt. In the last six years Americans have been guzzling debt down like a frat boy doing a keg stand and it's coming back to bite us. And this time the rebate check won't help. Why? Let's look at what I believe most Americans' responses will be:

1: Lesson learned. Ha ha, very funny. You tricked me into spending my own money. Not again.

2: Paying down Debt. This $1200 might buy a nice plasma screen, but my old TV is still fine. I think I'll just pay off the credit card balance, since I've been paying for my old TV for 4 years now.

3: Saving. I'm okay right now, but the economy sucks and I might just need that money later, so I'll stick it in the bank and make some interest off of it.

And then of course there will always be the groups who go with #4:

4: WOOT! FREE MONEY LET'S BUY US A PLASMA TV!!!

Unky Dub is depending on #4.

If this tax rebate scheme doesn't work, the economy will worsen. I don't pretend to know exactly what will happen then, but rest assured that it will in some way involve you spending your money to make someone else rich, because W thinks you're stupid enough to do it.

You may be ready for DTV, but are your grandparents?

2008-03-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

By now, most everyone with some form of internet access is aware that on February 17, 2009 analog free-to-air television will cease and be replaced by digital broadcast. Those of us with cable or satellite TV won't have to make a change until 2012, but those who have rabbit ear communication may be stuck without TV come next year. Particularly, I'm concerned about the elderly and those on a low fixed income.

That's why I'm urging everyone to please go to dtv2009 and sign up your parents, grandparents, etc, for the converter box coupons. If you have cable or satellite, go ahead and sign yourself up so you have two extras to distribute when the day comes. Those extra coupons can go to anyone else you may encounter who is suddenly TV-less. Better yet, how about dropping the ten bucks for Grandma's converter box yourself?

Hooray! wait, wha?.. oh. OK.

2008-03-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

Supreme Court rules Bush exceeded his powers

When I read this headline I got excited. Really exited. But alas, the content is not exactly what I had hoped for. This is however a chink in W's armor. Maybe one day it will be the real thing.

The surprising thing here is the quote from Chief Justice John Roberts, long viewed ad W's mole in SCOTUS:

"The president's authority to act, as with the exercise of any governmental power, must stem either from an act of Congress or from the Constitution itself," Roberts said. "[G]iven the absence of congressional legislation . . . the non-self- executing treaties at issue here did not expressly or impliedly vest the president with the unilateral authority to make them self-executing."

Just replace the last sentence with "[G]iven the absence of congressional legislation . . . it does not expressly or impliedly vest the president with the unilateral authority to [insert illegal W action here]" and I will be ecstatic.

"Apparently they didn't have enough faith," the police chief said.

2008-03-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

From Faux News.
Madeline Neumann was 11 years old. When she became ill, her parents prayed and prayed and prayed, but she got worse. Then they called upon their friends to pray. And they prayed and prayed and prayed and still she became worse, and then she died. Or to quote the police chief, "She got sicker and sicker until she was dead." Brilliant police work there, Dan.

It's always a tragedy when a child dies, but when it is from diabetic ketoacidosis aka lack of insulin it's negligent homicide. The parents should be arrested, period. I don't care if you sympathize with them Chief Dan, I don't care if you're their best friend or second-cousin-once-removed. Do your job and bring them in. Let's go over a few more snippets from that article, shall we?

The parents told investigators their daughter last saw a doctor when she was 3 to get some shots

Incriminating evidence, they should have evoked the 5th.

The girl has three siblings, ranging in age from 13 to 16

Hello? Child services? I got 3 for ya. But no, Lieutenant Dan here replied "They are still in the home[...] There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see." No reason to move them?!? No signs of abuse?!? Well, none other than the sister that died from medical neglect, but they didn't much like her anyway, I guess. This girl's life could have been saved by about $1.00 worth of insulin.

Let's look at the effects of diabetic ketoacidosis, shall we?

Sluggish, extreme tiredness.
Extreme thirst, despite large fluid intake.
Constant urination
Fruity smell to breath, similar to nail polish remover or peardrops.
Hyperventilation, at first rapid and shallow, then progressively deeper and less rapid.
Extreme weight-loss.
Oral Thrush may be present, or/ yeast infections that fail to go away, this is because the normal fungal/flora present in oral cavity/cervix in women, the balance is upset and bacterial began to feast on the high sugar from urine output/ dry mouth from extreme thirst.
Muscle wasting.
Agitation / Irritation / Aggression / Confusion

I can see how maybe they just thought she was sick for the first few days. But she had been noticeably ill for 30 days. If your child is sick for a week, I bet you'd take her to the doctor. Of course you would; you're a rational person. Not these folks. Pray pray pray pray. Please god pray pray pray.

Negligent Homicide in the name of god.

Update: Here is a forum post by the mother only days before the girl died. It gives you a little insight into just how fucked up these people are.

This is how Florida got its own Fark tag.

2008-03-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

The Florida Senate has tossed out a doozy this time:

S2692    GENERAL BILL by Storms; (CO-INTRODUCERS) Wise  (Similar H 1483)
Teaching Chemical and Biological Evolution [SPCC]; Cites act as the
"Academic Freedom Act." Provides public school teachers with a right to
present scientific information relevant to the full range of views on
biological and chemical origins. Prohibits a teacher from being
discriminated against for presenting such information. Prohibits
students from being penalized for subscribing to a particular position
on evolution, etc.  EFFECTIVE DATE: 10/01/2008.

Basically, this procedural piece of garbage will give legal protection to teachers who want to lie to students about creationism. Who would have thought that in the "enlightened" 21st century we'd be hammering medieval nonsense into the brains of children. The full text is here.

Academic freedom? I think not. This is a state sanctioned crusade of stupidity and superstition. If you're a Floridian and are as outraged as I am by this, contact the Florida State Senate be email: leg.info@leg.state.fl.us
Or by Phone: (850) 488-4371 and express your disdain.

Update: The POS passed commitee, and now it's going to the full senate. Details on Pharyngula.

How's That Bracket Holding Up?

2008-03-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

Well, mine's fubar-ed so I'll be rooting for the (somewhat) local team and bracket buster Western Kentucky.
Seeing how UCLA has one player injured and another sick, the Toppers have a fighting chance to go to the eight and maybe more. Only time will tell how bad my bracket really was. Go big red blobby thing!

F1RST P0ST!!!11!!!

2008-03-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

OK, so there's nothing here yet, but I wanted to throw some links around. Here's a quick shout out to some of the sites that inspired me to start a blog:

Bad Astronomy
Pharyngula
The Friendly Atheist

More to come...