Climate Change Cancelled?

by

Today we have an article in PhysOrg that reads …

New calculations suggest more than one in ten chance of colder UK winters.

As the Sun enters a period of low solar activity over the next 50 years, new research has calculated the probability of unusually cold winter temperatures occurring in the UK.

Last year, the same group of researchers, from the University of Reading, linked colder winters in Europe to low solar activity and predicted that the Sun is moving into a particularly low period of activity, meaning the UK will experience more cold winters in the future – potentially similar to those experienced in the Maunder minimum at the end of the 17th century.

The new research, published today in Environmental Research Letters, supports recent suggestions that sunspot activity is waning, and goes further, using the behaviour of the Sun over the last 9300 years to predict the probabilities of future solar changes.

Read more

Science is the only road to truth

by

Andrew Brown has written within his Guardian blog that it is simply absurd to claim that science is the only road to truth.

Basically he rips into a speech given by Nobel prize-winner Harry Kroto. I’ll not bore you with the details, but basically he claims that apart from science there are other ways for determining truth. Really!! … How about Astrology, voodoo, palm reading, crystal gazing, tea leaves,rituals , meditation, prayer, etc.

OK then lets think about it for a moment. Quite clearly Mr Kroto is using the word ‘science’ as a shorthand for what might better be termed ‘rational inquiry’. Now I will indeed grant Mr Brown one key point, there are indeed other forms of inquiry that lie outside the domain of rational inquiry, we have a special term to describe them – irrational inquiry, but is this what he is getting at? You bet it is.

What is indeed curious is that Mr Brown tends not to be explicit and actually explain what other ways he has for arriving at truth, but given all the shoe shuffling and hand waving going on, I’m sure you can guess, it is a rather familiar pattern. OK, here is a not so subtle clue, his blog on the Guardian falls into the context of “Comment is Free – Belief” context. “Ah ha” you say … yes exactly, now you get it, and can grok what he is implying about ‘other’ roads to ‘truth’.

Read more

Mobile Phones – Safe or not safe?

by

No doubt you heard about  the recent press release from the World Health Organization, saying there is a “possible” link between cell phones and brain cancer. Wow, the WHO and not just some crank, so it must be true … yes?

But wait, what about all the studies showing no link at all between cell phones and health issues … confused yet – perhaps some doubt lingers in your mind? Well, the latest news is that you are quite safe. The UK’s NHS (National Health Service) has a nice summary.

Here is a quick outline:

Read more

Lying for the Faith – Part II

by

I blogged a couple of days ago about folks who are quite happy to look you in the eye and lie for the sake of a belief. My point then was to ponder why they do this. I also illustrated it with the story of a London Mosque that affirmed they would never ever allow Homophobic preachers through their door again … then invited one to come a week later.

The journalist on the story, Andrew Gilligan, has since then been writing more about it. He notes …

Being lied about by liars is an occupational hazard of my job – but even by its own Olympian standards of untruthfulness, the East London Mosque’s latest justification for hosting its latest extremist and homophobic bigot is a classic.

Read more

Report From the Skeptics Society’s Science Symposium – James Randi

by

James Randi writes about his time at the Skeptics Society … Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending Michael Shermer’s Science Symposium and rubbing shoulders with a somewhat different crowd than what I’ll mix with at the upcoming TAM in Las Vegas. TAM-ers are very much skeptics, and though at the Shermer event I … Read more

Death Sentence for any who refuse to pray

by

Yes its yet another Islamic kook. With so many having their brains scrambled on a weekly basis by bizarre beliefs, it should be no surprise to find that one will pop up on a regular basis. This weeks crazy pronouncement … well, just see it for yourself, its another jaw dropper.

Here we have an audio of Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan, a member of the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars, in which he explains in this short fatwa that any Muslim who refuses to pray has become an infidel, and therefore must be killed. It was originally published in audio format on al-Fawzan’s website some time ago, but was recently published in a video on YouTube, and was later picked up by Arabic-language news sites, such as al-Arabiya.

Read more