The Event. How Racist Are You?

[BPSDB]This programme was a rerun of Jane Elliot’s famous experiment that demonstrated that “superiority” and “inferiority” of different groups is a social construct.

Show Me The Evidence, Please

[BPSDB]I previously wrote here on the Times OnLine’s slightly inaccurate description of the effect of ‘Health & Safety’ on school science practicals and illustrated my point with examples of supposedly banned experiments still performed at my school. One commenter pointed out that this was really just anecdotal evidence and countered with an anecdote of her own to the effect that practical work had decreased at the school attended by her daughters.

David Herzog – Miracleman?

[BPSDB]As far as I can tell, David Herzog is an independeant evangelist but his methods seem to be taken from the same book as those of the UCKG.

The Times Gets It Slightly Wrong About Science Education

[BPSDB]Sometimes I think that the Press and I live in parallel universes. What else can explain the fact that they publish stuff as news that I know to be false? They even claim that stuff I do on a regular basis as part of my job as a school lab technician never actually happens.

Lessons Learned? I Don’t Think So.

[BPSDB]
This post also appears on Lay Science.

Lord Drayson seems convinced that the media has learned the relevent lessons over the MMR debacle. At a conference of science journalists on 1 July he told delegates that lessons had been learned since MMR and repeats the assertion during a debate with Ben Goldacre here. Is he right to be so confident?

Daily Mail Continues Baseless Scaremongering

[BPSDB]I have previously covered the Daily Mail’s attempts to whip up fear over the HPV vaccine. When Natalie Morton tragically died shortly after receiving this vaccine, certain elements in the antivaxx movement must have thought Christmas had come early.

Water Woo

[BPSDB]We all know that homeopaths sell their marks patients sugar or water and claimm it contains the mystical memory of magical medicine. One Dr Batmanghelidj goes one step further and claims that water itself is a panacea. He is interviewed by Mike Adams, the self-styled “Health Ranger” here.

Greenpeace on Fusion

[BPSDB]In a debate about Greenpeace’s alleged predeliction for, shall we say, embellishing facts over on Bad Science, attention was drawn to this. Greenpeace oppose fusion research and think that the money being spent on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) would be better spent on renewable energy. That is their right but they do not help their case here.

Strontium Supplements

[BPSDB]The pill-pushers over at naturalnews are now telling us how wonderful strontium supplements are. This is a classical illustration of why you should not take health advice from supplement fans.

If Your Phone Doesn’t Get You, Your Microwave Will

[BPSDB]It is clearly time for scare stories about microwave radiation again. The “Body Matters” pages in the Monday 7 September issue (paper edition only. Not online for some reason) of the METRO carried a story by Yanar Alkayat headed “The hidden dangers in your pocket“. If that is not scary enough, alongside it is an X-ray photograph of someone using a mobile phone. The unspoken implication is that microwaves have similar effects to X rays, which is nonsense.