Categories
Humor Pareidolia Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Papal pareidolia?

One of my favorite phenomena that represents better than perhaps any other how humans are wired to look for patterns, whether there is a pattern there or not, is the phenomenon known as pareidolia. As a Catholic-turned-sort-of-heathen, in particular I like Virgin Mary pareidolia, and have blogged about multiple such incidents. Of course, the Virgin […]

Categories
Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Why don’t you rant about what I think you should rant about?

I’ve written before about how one of the favorite tactics of those who do not like my insistence on applying skepticism, science, and critical thinking to the claims of alternative medicine or my refusal to accept a dichotomy between “alternative” and “conventional” medicine is to try so smear me as some sort of “pharma shill.” […]

Categories
Cancer Medicine Science

Carnival barking

I know, I’ve been a bad blogger about this lately, but better late than never. A couple of blog carnivals for you: surgeXperiences #106 Cancer Research Blog Carnival #2 Grand Rounds, vol. 4, no. 4

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Television

Is Bill Maher really that ignorant?

Work and a conference intervene to prevent a fresh dose of Respectful Insolence today. Fortunately, there’s still classic Insolence from the archives that hasn’t been moved over to the new blog. This one originally appeared on March 7, 2005. The short answer is: Yes. The long answer is below. When I first posted on this […]

Categories
Hitler Zombie Humor Intelligent design/creationism Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

What I did on my summer vacation: “Proof of “intelligent design” (and an old “friend”)

Work and a conference intervene to prevent a fresh dose of Respectful Insolence today. Fortunately, there’s still classic Insolence from the archives that hasn’t been moved over to the new blog. This amusing little trifle originally appeared on August 25, 2005. Well, I’m back. Yes, I know I blogged a fair amount while on vacation, […]