Petition for you to Sign: Tobacco giant is attempting to dictate health policies in Uruguay

So here is the story (I’ve stolen the following text from the Wikipedia page all about this) … on 19 February 2010, when the multinational tobacco company Philip Morris International filed a complaint against Uruguay.[1] The company complains that Uruguay’s anti-smoking legislation devalues its cigarette trademarks and investments in the country and is suing Uruguay for compensation under the bilateral … Read more

Liverpool NHS to review £30k homeopathy bill

The Liverpool Echo reports the following bit of good news … Liverpool health bosses are spending £30,000 a year of taxpayers’ money on treatment the NHS admits does not work. The Good Thinking Society, a pro-science charity, threatened the Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) with legal action over its funding for homeopathy. The organisation has … Read more

“Pray for Gaza” activists unable to pray for Yemen

Over 600 have been killed in Yemen in a week — not by drones or Israel, but by Saudi bombs — and strangely enough, those that are very eager to pray for the folks in Gaza, are unable to pray for those in Yemen … … but have no problem at all in re-purposing the … Read more

Devoted Christian to Atheist… an unexpected journey

I have a couple of related links for you today that tell a story, and both concern people who made the leap from being a deeply devoted believer to atheist. I often find such stories interesting, because I am always curious to understand what makes people tick and why such transitions take place, and perhaps … Read more

Why do humans ignore facts and embrace myths as truth

We often find that conversations can play out as follows. Anti-Vaccine friend arguing that vaccines are bad: “There was a scientific study that showed vaccines cause autism.” You reply … “Actually, the researcher in that study lost his medical license, and overwhelming research since then has shown no link between vaccines and autism.” Their rebuttal to those … Read more

Weird God claims from Conrad Black

Much to my surprise, Conrad Black (yes ‘the’ Conrad Black), has written an article entitled “The shabby, shallow world of the militant atheist” within the National Post (a paper he once owned), and there he trots out a litany of rather weird claims in order to assert a god claim.  If it had been anybody else, I’d … Read more