Will Facebook destroy your brain?

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According to this story here in the UK’s Daily Mail, Facebook and Twitter have created a generation obsessed with themselves, who have short attention spans and a childlike desire for constant feedback on their lives. It then carries on to explain that

Baroness Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, believes the growth of internet ‘friendships’ – as well as greater use of computer games – could effectively ‘rewire’ the brain.”

This of course is not only not a new claim, but also has zero evidence. What we have here is an argument from authority, and not a journalistic write-up from some study … let me repeat, just to be sure you get it …

there is no evidence that supports this.

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Don’t go to Dubai as a tourist if you want to eat or drink?

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Dubai sells itself as a holiday destination. It sounds amazing, lots of fantastic beaches, water sports, glorious sunshine, air-conditioned modern shopping malls, trips into the desert, etc … What more could any tourist want? Well, how about being allowed to eat or drink without the fear of being arrested for doing so. The UK’s Guardian … Read more

Freethought blogs – up and running now

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Folks, the new Freethought blogs are now up and running, this includes the new Pharyngula. Confused? Well, PZ explains … You may be wondering why I had to change my address, why I’m cruelly forcing you to update your RSS feeds, … National Geographic will be taking a more active role in hosting the ScienceBlogs … Read more

UK Lottery Funding for spiritual healing on NHS

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In the UK there is a national Lottery that, for every £1 that the public spends on Lottery tickets, 28 pence goes to the Lottery good causes. How do they define “good causes”? Well, these are the arts, charities and voluntary groups, heritage, health, education, the environment and sports. OK, so far that sounds great.

OK yes, you can tell there is a WTF moment coming up because I’m blogging about this, and indeed yes there is, so brace yourselves.

The National Lottery has awarded a £205,000 grant for the two-year study to healing charity “Fresh Winds”. Basically NHS patients will be offered a treatment where a healer will pass their hands over the patient’s body to channel ‘healing energy’ to affected areas in 20-minute sessions to correct energy flow imbalances …WTF (Well I did warn you) … As for this being actual value for money, this is more or less akin to taking the entire pile of cash into the car park and setting fire to it. The evidence that this will be anything other than a placebo is zero.

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PZ has a new blog – but Pharyngula remains

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The news is out … PZ has a new blog … Don’t Panic, Pharyngula is not going away. You will get the full Pharyngula blog on freethoughtblogs.com along with other great blogs, it is the scienceblogs host that will get a subset and only have science and anti-creationism. He writes in Google+ … The news … Read more

Climate Change and Cloud Cover – the new report

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The climate change debate is heating up yet again. OK, so what has happened? Well, before I go there, lets first establish a few things so that you fully understand where I’m coming from. Man made climate change is real, the evidence is in, there is not really much real scientific controversy. In April 2010 a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that nearly 98% of working climate scientists accept the evidence for human-induced climate change, this latest study does not change that.

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