Senate Bill 893 — nicknamed, along with its counterpart House Bill 368, "the monkey bill" — is back. In April 2011, its sponsor Bo Watson (R-District 11), assigned the bill to the general subcommittee of the Senate Education Committee, in effect shelving it for the remainder of the year. But on March 7, 2012, it was revived and placed on the committee's calendar; on March 14, 2012, the committee voted 7-1 (with one member abstaining) to pass an amended version of the bill, although the exact wording of the amended version is not yet listed on the legislature's website. The bill now proceeds to the Senate Select [...]

From NCSE - National Center for Science Education
http://ncse.com/news/2012/03/monkey-bill-returns-tennessee-007251
3/16/2012 4:18:32 AM
Search rank: 453

As Skeptical Science readers are well aware, there is a scientific consensus that human greenhouse gas emissions are causing dangerous global warming.  The Australian Climate Commission recently concluded that we need to limit global human CO2 emissions to no more than 1 trillion tons between 2000 and 2050, which requires that we take immediate steps to significantly reduce our emissions.  Scientists generally don't offer advice as to how we should achieve the necessary carbon emissions reductions, but in its recent report, America's Climate Choices, the US National Academy of Sciences concluded that a price on carbon emissions would be the most effective way to achieve significant [...]

From Skeptical Science
http://www.skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=792
6/9/2011 6:43:41 PM
Search rank: 421

Opposing privilege is tantamount to oppression?In The Australian today an

From Thinking Doesn't Hurt
http://thinkingdoesnthurt.blogspot.com/2011/05/spiritual-guidance-christian.html
5/26/2011 4:15:00 PM
Search rank: 396

Stan Kurtz is a social commentator, adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute and Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, with a special interest in America's “culture wars” – and a name that seems to pop up frighteningly often. Kurtz is a staunch enemy of political correctness, which permeates his writings on the family, feminism, child rearing, religion, psychology, homosexuality, [...]

From Encyclopedia of American Loons
http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2011/05/222-stanley-kurtz.html
6/1/2011 5:02:00 AM
Search rank: 396

As an educator I always had to be on my toes, not only to prevent undesirable behavior, but also to be aware of something much more elusive. Teachers are always on the lookout for something called a "teachable moment". They are tricky because they don't appear in your lesson plans, you have no idea where they will come from or when, and they may not even be [...]

From JREF Swift Blog
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1050-putting-woo-to-a-good-use.html
7/30/2010 12:49:56 AM
Search rank: 390

This is quite possibly the most awesome biology photo ever taken. It is two blind-folded crayfish battling each other in clouds of fluorescent green urine. It's a good thing it's just a picture, because if it were a video, in 3D, with the Star Trek fight music playing in the background, every science nerd in the world would have to lie down and die in ecstasy. Don't click on the little arrow below it! I won't be responsible for the consequences! (Fortunately, I can't put it into 3D motion, so I won't be slaughtering my readership here.)

From Pharyngula
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/5i1dCwaw9LY/amok_time_for_crayfish.php
3/31/2010 6:08:25 AM
Search rank: 389

The schedule is packed, and has changed considerably since it's first incarnation. Speakers have been added, including comedian Paul Provenza, skeptic blogger Julia Galef, astronomical podcaster and skeptic Pamela Gay, and many others. We have a total of five panels this year, and Sunday's events have expanded to include more papers, a panel on the skeptical community's responsibility regarding global warming, and an afternoon Million Dollar Challenge presentation. And there are two workshops in the afternoon after the main event: Skepticism and Sexuality and Grassroots Skepticism.

The Committee for Scientific Investigation and the Skeptic Society are co-sponsoring TAM this year, which is an exciting development. They are joining the JREF to put on the Thursday night reception [...]

From JREF Swift Blog
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1015-news-on-tam-8-lots-of-changes.html
6/21/2010 10:02:50 PM
Search rank: 387

Thanks to huyzer for the article link.
Thanks to AtheistMediaBlog for the video link.

Original link

Appeal of ruling could delay gay weddings in CA

SAN FRANCISCO – A judge struck down California's same-sex marriage ban as an unconstitutional violation of gay couples' civil rights, but a pending appeal of the landmark ruling could prevent gay weddings from resuming in the state any time [...]

From RichardDawkins.net - All Aggregated News Content
http://richarddawkins.net/videos/496186-california-s-gay-marriage-ban-overturned
8/6/2010 12:31:12 AM
Search rank: 385

Assemblyman Allan Mansoor Despite being a mostly democratic state that is relatively pro-union, I [...]

From No 2 Religion - Just Say No!
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/No2Religion/~3/MhfOTlfphJM/watch-out-california-union-busters-are.html
2/23/2011 5:20:00 PM
Search rank: 384

Here's something for the more creative types out there at The Examining Room of Dr. Charles:

The first annual Charles Prize for Poetry will be awarded to the writer who submits for consideration the most outstanding poem within the context of health and medicine.

Open to everyone (patients, doctors, nurses, students, etc.).

Entries should be related to experiencing, practicing, or reflecting upon a medical, scientific, or health-related matter.

The winner will be selected by a panel of three judges, including me. These other judges may or may not be Nobel Laureates, you never know.

Is such an eponymous contest grandiose? Yes. Does the limited poetry I've written carry the gravitas needed to make me an authority on the subject? No.

But should your poem be selected as the winner, you shall receive an award of $500, along with a cherry tomato from [...]

From Respectful Insolence
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/insolence/~3/PAjPzsXzQNs/the_charles_prize_for_poetry.php
7/26/2010 3:00:04 PM
Search rank: 383

Bill Donohue is a curious case. He is the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a job he takes very seriously. Point is, Donohue cannot, as far as I am aware, reasonably be said to be a crackpot – in the sense that he seems relatively pro-science, not a creationist (well, it is a

From Encyclopedia of American Loons
http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2010/11/109-bill-william-donohue.html
11/29/2010 6:05:00 AM
Search rank: 382

Assemblyman Allan Mansoor Despite being a mostly democratic state that is relatively pro-union, I [...]

From No 2 Religion - Just Say No!
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/No2Religion/~3/4k_VGgB_mA0/watch-out-california-union-busters-are.html
2/23/2011 5:20:00 PM
Search rank: 381

Yesterday, UWA held a Faith Fair. You could argue that any fair where you don't know who assembled the Ferris wheel is a faith fair, but this was a real Faith Fair, and the UWA Atheist and Skeptic Society was invited. What's a university doing promoting faith, anyway? We're supposed to be helping people learn to think better, not worse. But we wanted to provide a balance, and I think it's cool that we were invited, even though we're not a religion and have no faith.

Our contribution was 'Ask an Atheist", which consisted of a bunch of us sitting at a table, waiting for questions. In the first few hours, one guy asked us about the Illuminati, and another couple asked us directions to some other building on campus. Pleasingly, another student signed up with us. That was about it.

Pretty soon, the UWA Christian Union set up their own table next to us, and together we all sat, not being asked questions, and being completely ignored by the studentry.

From Good Reason
http://goodreasonblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/faith-fair-at-uwa.html
5/19/2011 11:35:00 AM
Search rank: 379

That loon Terry Hurlbut is irate that I mocked his "Creationist Hall of Fame" in a post the other day, so he rails against me today. It's a typical collection of squirrely non-sequiturs, but I'll address the funniest of them.

But what PZ Myers of the Pharyngula blog fails to understand is that the CSHF does not intend to limit its honors to contemporary creation-oriented scientists. He probably believes that because he is under a common misapprehension: that creation science is a new movement, one going no further back than Henry Morris and John C. Whitcomb's The Genesis Flood.

As in all things, Terry Hurlbut is mistaken and ignorant. No, I do not fail to understand that; in fact, I expect that. It's one of [...]

From Pharyngula
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/IYI5VQTFYI0/creationist_kook_defends_his_c.php
1/21/2011 6:55:22 AM
Search rank: 378

Drunken Atheists

All you can eat and DRINK for $20? I'm there!!!! CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO and to get your advance tickets Tickets will be available at the door the night of the event....but the organizer would appreciate as much advance ticket sales as possible.

Bring Your Team to Compete or Watch the Games!

Event Details:
Beer Olympics 2010, Saturday, December 4th, 2010 at the Barley House from 7:00-10:00 PM.

The Location:
Barley House Cleveland, 1265 W 6th St
Cleveland, Ohio 44113

The Games:
Beer Pong, Flip Cup, Corn-hole, Beer Chug, Beer Straws, and More!

The Donation:
$20 for all you can Eat and DRINK (

From Skeptics upcoming events
http://www.meetup.com/Drunken-Atheists/calendar/15610669/
12/2/2010 6:43:31 AM
Search rank: 377

The field I study isn't a terribly popular one in the grand scheme of what people might think are cool sciences. Consequently, those of us who do study asbestos tend to try and stay in touch with one another through one means or another. One of those ways is to subscribe to an email newsletter of sorts put out by one particular individual. People will send him story ideas and he condenses them into a nice package based on the topic.

Imagine my surprise the other day when he sent this link (archived at Webcite) (restorationhealth, 2010)?! Go take a look. You'll be stunned by the stupid....

I've written before about woo and [...]

From The Mad Skeptic
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheMadSkeptic/~3/10bONzkm_yY/ebay-and-sale-of-homeopathy.html
11/25/2010 10:48:00 AM
Search rank: 377

I criticized the Zietsch and Santilla paper on the female orgasm. Now one of the authors has responded.

One response he makes is that some of the limitations to the study that I pointed out were also explicitly recognized in the paper. This is true; however, my purpose in mentioning them was to highlight the fact that they make it impossible to draw even the tentative conclusions the authors do…which obviously is not something that was done in the paper. Admitting that assessing orgasmic function with self-reports, for instance, is a limitation doesn't really change the fact that extremely weak evidence was published to support a particular hypothesis.

Another problem I raised is that the comparisons between male and female orgasmic response were [...]

From Pharyngula
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/6Pv3VVRsY78/zietsch_replies.php
9/14/2011 12:23:09 AM
Search rank: 375

"Prevention is better than cure", so they say. And in most branches of medicine, preventing diseases, or detecting early signs and treating them pre-emptively before the symptoms appear, is an important art.

Not in psychiatry. At least not yet. But the prospect of predicting the onset of psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia, and of "early intervention" to try to prevent them, is a hot topic at the moment.

Schizophrenia and similar [...]

From Neuroskeptic
http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2010/03/predicting-psychosis.html
4/1/2010 12:13:00 AM
Search rank: 372

I have no idea how this stuff gets published. I've been sent a new paper that tests the effect of prayer, and I was appalled: it's got such deep methodological problems that nothing can be concluded from it, but that doesn't stop the authors, who argue that they're seeing that Proximal Intercessory Prayer improves vision and hearing in people in Mozambique.Proximal Intercessory Prayer (PIP) is their very own term for what they do, to distinguish it from distant prayer. What is it, you may ask? Here is their protocol.

Western and Mozambican Iris and Global Awakening [two evangelical/missionary organizations that cooperated with the research] leaders and affiliates who administered PIP all used a similar protocol. [...]

From Pharyngula
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/c6vDJ_oUA2E/templeton_prayer_study_meets_e.php
8/5/2010 2:39:27 AM
Search rank: 371

The Wisconsin and Idaho legislatures have already passed laws that limit collective bargaining...

From JREF Forum
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=204841&goto=newpost
3/29/2011 10:40:18 PM
Search rank: 368

The Autism Science Foundation has announced a new round of fellowships for grad students, medical students and post-doctoral fellows who will pursue autism research.

(September 7, 2010—New York, NY) The Autism Science Foundation invites applications for its Pre and Post Doctoral Training Awards from graduate students, medical students and post-doctoral fellows interested in pursuing careers in basic and clinical research relevant to autism spectrum disorders.

The proposed training must be scientifically linked to autism. ASF will consider for training purposes all areas of related basic and clinical [...]

From Left Brain/Right Brain
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LeftBrain/rightBrain/~3/XTOrc9QGewg/
9/8/2010 8:02:15 AM
Search rank: 368

Created page with " Watching movies is usually enjoyable and watching it in the comfort of our house is always an added bonus. However, individuals usually whirl around websites to search for the a..."

New page

Watching movies is usually enjoyable and watching it in the comfort of our house is always an added bonus. However, individuals usually whirl around websites to search for the accurate portal which will enable them to watch films online.

[http://watchitonline.ch/ where can i watch free movies online]? 's what a lot of people ask themselves while searching online permanently websites which have lots of videos and links to movie films or tv shows.

Usually, common surfers don't have a clue about how you can watch movies online. Really, the process is fairly easy and anybody can access the online films if they have a Pc or laptop and a high speed web connection. Moreover, apart from movies, a film buff can even [...]

From SkeptiCamp - Recent changes [en]
http://skepticamp.com/w/index.php?title=Good_movies_to_watch_2011_for_kids&diff=3647&oldid=prev
12/25/2011 7:44:24 PM
Search rank: 367

Breast cancer is caused by sexual frustration. Women should ditch their unsexy husbands and find a real man to satisfy them if they want to reduce the risk of the disease.

That's according to An Essay on Sexual Frustration as the Cause of Breast Cancer in Women: How Correlations and Cultural Blind Spots Conceal Causal Effects, a piece that was published today in The Breast Journal.


Really -

From Neuroskeptic
http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2012/01/hot-sex-prevents-breast-cancer.html
1/5/2012 7:04:00 AM
Search rank: 366

The sudden enthusiasm for what was just a passing idea has led to me churning out more of this bilge, in a series I'm calling The Science Letters, for obvious reasons. First two are here and here, the latest are here.

And on we go...

From Science Digestive
http://sciencedigestive.blogspot.com/feeds/3497981096355411921/comments/default
1/25/2010 7:49:00 AM
Search rank: 365

The sudden enthusiasm for what was just a passing idea has led to me churning out more of this bilge, in a series I'm calling The Science Letters, for obvious reasons. First two are here and here, the latest are here.

And on we go...

From Science Digestive
http://sciencedigestive.blogspot.com/2010/01/dear-astrology-from-science-no-3.html
1/25/2010 7:49:00 AM
Search rank: 365