The Orca's Thumb

Word from New Zealand is that a religious sect — which believes in prayer over vaccinations – may be responsible for the deaths of over one hundred children from measles.
It has been proven over and again that prayer does nothing to heal disease over the placebo effect, while vaccinations have saved hundreds of millions of people.
That is simple math [...]

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The Ministers of Parliament in the UK have decided that homeopathy is a waste of the National Health Service’s money.
Homeopaths get taxpayer support in the UK to the tune of £4M per year (and probably more), money which goes to prescriptions and four homeopathic hospitals — hospitals which I assume are incredibly tiny, so that their [...]

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Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki has ordered that the (useless) magic wand dowsing rod bomb-sniffers should still be utilized.
The survey, ordered by Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, found the British device, known as ADE651, generally worked. However some of the gadgets, found to be ineff­ective, would be replaced.
A government spokesman later [...]

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Thai army chief General Anupong Paojinda is defending the use of what are essentially magic wands to detect bombs, even though the specific device they use has been tested repeatedly and failed to perform. This device is essentially the same as the ones used in Iraq and Afghanistan which have [...]

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Just the other day, my SO and I had a heated discussion about homeopathy and whether it works or not.
There is no mechanism for highly diluted substances to work as homeopaths claim, and the principle of treating like with like is simply medieval sympathetic magic.
It. Does. Not. Work.
There are no significant studies that show any [...]

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My opinion of Iowa has just gone up.
Not only have Iowa Democrats beaten back an attempt by Republicans to outlaw gay marriage, but the University of Northern Iowa Freethinkers and Inquirers has organized a whole Darwin week of talks.

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Holy Canoli. Imax has put out a trailer for their hi-res 3D movie about the Hubble repair mission from May 2009.
Need I say more?

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Instead of nagging on the US creationists, maybe it’s time to focus on the British creepazoids.
Although they seem much less unpleasant than Ken Ham.

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