Image Credit: NASA TV |
There can be only one place to
start and unless you’ve been participating in sensory deprivation tests in some
remote lab over the last week you’ve probably come across Elevatorgate. It
began with one woman, Rebecca Watson, based on her experience at a conference
(and undoubtedly at other points of her life) politely requesting that men
think about their thoughts and actions towards women and to not be creepy. Then
it got a whole lot bigger! At all stages of this there has been a lot of debate
with some surprise interventions and Rebecca provides a great round up and
explanation on her blog.
PZ Myers brought some brilliant
work by Biologist Phil Senter to our attention. Creation scientists (Oxymoron
Alert!) use methods and publishing practices that make what they do look like science.
Rather than dismissing them, Senter treats them seriously and goes on to hoist
them by their own petard.
The next one isn’t a blog but is a
lovely lovely site. The representation of data doesn’t have to be linear and
boring and with a bit of imagination and talent stunning effects can be
created. That’s how they work over at Information is Beautiful. Have a look at their
visualisation called Snake Oil? You may disagree with some of the conclusions,
but that’s fine, read down to the bottom and you’ll see it’s a wonderfully
fluid diagram that can adapt to change as new evidence presents itself. This one requires flash to view but there’s a
link on the page to other wonderful visualisations.
This post comes courtesy of the
excellent PodBlack. It’s a tragic tale involving a psychic that makes you want
to scream at the sheer stupidity of the situation and at the same time renders you
speechless. The post is suitably understated leaving you lots of room for
reflection.
It’s more than a week old but that’s
not going to stop us including Jourdemayne’s hugely entertaining and
interesting post on the Vampires of Rhode Island. I think we’re going to have
to try and tempt this talented person to Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub very
soon.
If you’re one of our regulars at
Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub you’ll have noticed how popular we’re becoming.
Last month’s talk by Ash Pryce was pretty full and there’s a good chance this
month’s by Jon Ronson will be even more so. We’ve given a bit of thought as to
how best manage this so if you’re planning on coming take a look here.
The space shuttle is on its last
mission and we bid it a sad and fond farewell. It’s been a long road and you
can look back over the history of the shuttle and follow the last days of the
current mission over at the NASA website.
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