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Anti-Semitism Biology Clinical trials History Holocaust Medicine Physics Politics Science World War II

Was Nazi science good science?

I’ve long had an interest in World War II history. Ever since I was around 11 or 12 years old, a major portion of my reading diet has consisted of books and articles about World War II. Back when I was young, my interest was, as you might expect, primarily the battles. The military history […]

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Politics

Anti-blasphemy = anti-free speech

Chalk this up under “Yet another example of U.N. incompetence“: UNITED NATIONS – Islamic countries Monday won United Nations backing for an anti-blasphemy measure Canada and other Western critics say risks being used to limit freedom of speech. Combating Defamation of Religions passed 85-50 with 42 abstentions in a key UN General Assembly committee, and […]

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Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Denialism: Sometimes there’s no other way to describe it. Except maybe one.

Here we go again. Every so often, one of the–shall we say?–less popular members of our crew of science bloggers, someone who, despite being an academic whose area of expertise is ostensibly science communication, has stepped in it again. I’m referring, of course to Matt Nisbet. Only this time, it’s not him lecturing us just […]

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Politics

Hypocrisy and the Big Three bailout

Detroit’s my hometown. I was born in the city, spent the first ten years of my life within the city limits, at least until my parents moved to the suburbs. Given that, I’ve been watching events unfold with regard to the impending bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler (and, less likely but still possible, Ford) with […]

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Humor Medicine Politics

File under: “Thermonuclear, The Stupid, It Burns”

There are times when I see a quote by someone who is clearly extremely intelligent, but the quote is so utterly dumb, so devoid of any evidence that a single functioning neuron was behind it, that I can only shake my head in disbelief. Thanks to Dr. Val, Dr. Wes, and Walter Olson, I’ve found […]