Ninja Rants and Raves

With news that Bill Gates has bought the rights from the BBC for some 1964 lectures given by Richard Feynman, in the discussions over at RichardDawkins.net a video clip was posted of Feynman explaining science through an analogy of observing a game of chess.

I remember this interview well, and I’m pretty sure that it was from the 1980s from the once great BBC "Horizon" science programmes.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009

Say it ain’t so! DC’s Improbable Science provides another great article at http://www.dcscience.net/?p=1812 on what are obviously cash-cows for the University of Westminster. Cash-cows, yes, but also bullshit degrees. IMHO of course!

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009

Whilst cycling on Sarratt Road in the early afternoon of Saturday 20th June 2009 just outside the village centre of Sarratt, a car pulled up beside me and a young man or youth leaned out of the car’s side window and grabbed my backpack either pushing me or pulling me (I don’t recall which).

Anyway, they got close enough that they hit my Kona Wah Wah bicycle pedals, the result of which sent me sprawling into the middle of the road just missing the car’s rear tyre. Now, those Kona Wah Wah pedals are pretty tough and I reckon that those pedals left a pretty decent dent or scratch on the car

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009

Following the recent coverage on chiropractic, The Quackometer article http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2009/06/chiropractors-told-to-take-down-their.html reports on an astounding letter sent from the McTimoney Association to all its members. In a nutshell, it appears that chiropractors are running scared…running scared that the public are about to found out the truth that chiropractic is a pseudoscience.

There are several points in the letter that can be used as a window into the mindset of chiropractors and these are discussed at http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2009/06/chiropractors-told-to-take-down-their.html. Utterly amazing!

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009

The are numerous examples at http://whatstheharm.net/homeopathy.html showing why homeopathy is dangerous. And now two parents have been convicted in Australia for causing the death of their child through application of homeopathy. This is a sad story and I felt pain reading about the suffering that the child experienced. I am sure that the parents are suffering too.

Further details can be found at http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/05/homeopathy_kills_a_child.php

The parents obviously believed that homeopathy was real. And that is why I feel passionately that people need to be educated on the falsities and dangers of homeopathy and the other pseudosciences. We don’t need witch doctors.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009

My view on chiropractic is simple…it has been shown that chiropractic is based on non-scientific ideas, and various studies and trials reinforce that position. In other words, trials indicate that chiropractic is "bogus".

The recent situation with Simon Singh has rattled my cage, so to speak, and I have included some links here regarding the current situation…which I see very much as a fight of reason against superstition and nonsense. Much like homeopathy and other pseudosciences, we need to be on the guard against the new witch doctors.

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth – never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key. – Carl Sagan

Simon Singh: principled and brave
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/06/simon_singh_principled_and_bra.php

The Law Has No Place in Scientific Disputes
http://thinking-is-dangerous.blogspot.com/2009/06/law-has-no-place-in-scientific-disputes.html

Singh the blues
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/03/singh-the-blues/

Simon Singh to Appeal Bogus Decision
http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2009/06/simon-singh-to-appeal-bogus-decision.html

Simon Singh is appealing!
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/585-simon-singh-is-appealing.html

Simon Singh to appeal libel decision
http://gimpyblog.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/simon-singh-to-appeal-libel-decision/

Chiropractic – as modest today as in 1913?
http://gimpyblog.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/chiropractic-as-modest-today-as-in-1913/

Simon Singh will appeal! Keep the Libel Laws out of Science
http://www.dcscience.net/?p=1630

Silenced, the writer who dared to say chiropractice is bogus
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/silenced-the-writer-who-dared-to-say-chiropractice-is-bogus-1696408.html

Review of libel law called for by comedians
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article6426195.ece

Science writer will appeal libel case ruling
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090603/full/news.2009.542.html

Singh plans to appeal ruling in libel case
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=406872&c=1

Britain Chills Free Speech
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124406714025182743.html

Chiropractic: a bogus treatment for bedwetting?
http://apgaylard.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/chiropractic-a-bogus-treatment-for-bedwetting/

Simon Singh and the Bogus Chiropractic Association
http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/2009/05/19/simon-singh-and-the-bogus-chiropractic-association/

Simon Singh loses first round in chiropractic fight – May 08, 2009
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/05/simon_singh_loses_first_round.html

Singh Case Update: A Real Pain in the Neck!
http://godknowswhat.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/singh-case-update-a-real-pain-in-the-neck/

How I Really Feel About Chiropractors
http://www.rebuildyourback.com/chiropractic/myopinion.php

Chiropractic Health Care: Science or Religion?
http://www.geocities.com/forbidden_area/chiro.html

ChiroWatch
http://www.chirowatch.com/

After the demise of Pandora’s services here in the UK, it took me a long time to cotton-on that there was a home-grown alternative…Last.fm which, like Pandora, helps you to discover new music. The mechanisms that Pandora and Last.fm utilise for pattern-matching and discovering new music may differ but both are very useful services and I don’t doubt that there may be other services out there working on similar principles.

As soon as I discovered what Last.fm is and that they offered free services to the UK I was very interested indeed. And then I was very excited when I found out that Last.fm music streaming was available on Squeezebox and that audioscrobbling was available. So I immediately set up my Squeeze Center and SqueezeBox to make use of the Last.fm services.

In discussion with one of my friends who uses an Xbox running xbmc media centre software, we found that Last.fm was available within xbmc. And it worked fine too. I also use xbmc but running on a Windows Vista machine which I use as a media centre (I don’t actually use the built-in Vista Media Centre). I soon had my media centre PC running Last.fm as the HD TV display and user-interface are a bit more user-friendly than the displays on the SqueezeBox. Of course using the HD TV and the xbmc do consume a bit more electricity but it is useful to be able to switch between SqueezeBox and xbmc.

Whilst I was setting up Last.fm for the xbmc, I had a look at Spotify which is basically an online music-on-demand service with a huge catalogue. And in the UK, Spotify offer a free service supported by minimum advertising. You have to download the Spotify client (currently Windows and Mac) but there is discussion that it may become available on the SqueezeBox. The Spotify client can audioscrobble to Last.fm so that was pretty neat too. I actually run the Spotify client on the Vista-based media centre PC (which also has xbmc and SqueezeCenter) but I control it remotely using UltraVNC…I probably need to get a good wireless media centre keyboard to control the media centre. I previously had no need for a keyboard as my Logitech Harmony 885 universal remote control did it all…but now I need a keyboard and mouse to control the Spotify client. Looking forward to Spotify becoming available on the SqueezeBox platform and I also dream of xbmc integration too.

I’m now really enjoying my music again through Last.fm and Spotify. Highly recommended.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009

Spotted this over at http://richarddawkins.net/article,3770,n,n with the full article at http://www.slate.com/id/2216518/

The article(s) and comments certainly raise some important questions. Many years ago I was in support of Turkey becoming a full member of the EU. But Turkey has not made any significant progress in terms of basic human rights such as freedom of speech. In fact, Turkey would seem to have regressed in many of these important areas.

If Turkey became a full member of the EU today, would that help to improve the situation in Turkey? No I don’t think so. I believe Turkey will extract whatever it can to improve their economy but refuse to allow progress in freedom of speech and other human rights. And Turkey have already demonstrated that they will interfere and meddle in the affairs of other countries and attempt to curtail human rights in those countries.

It’s clear that Turkey’s government is itself easily influenced by internal factors. There is a weakness in that constitution and they have a lot of reforms to undertake to fully adopt and guarantee human rights. So I’m all up for refusing Turkey entry into the EU for the time being.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009

Nonsense from Uri Geller apologist Peter Fotis Kapnistos gets a beating from Randi’s incisive article. And Randi floors an idiot. Nice one.

Randi’s article is at http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/525-a-champion-grubbie-speaks-out.html

As Randi says, so much nonsense, lies, misinformation and misunderstandings. Go get them Randi. There’s too much Stupid out there.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009

The Quackometer has an article that describes William Alderson’s (ill-written) response to Ernst & Singh’s book "Trick or Treatment: Medicine on Trial".

The article is at http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2009/04/homeopaths-attempt-to-rubbish-ernst-and.html