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 [...]
Archive of entries posted on April 2009
Ankara Shows Its Hand
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. [...]
Randi does a take-down!
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
Homeopaths Attempt to Rubbish Ernst and Singh with Dismal Critique
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
Richard Dawkins at American Atheists 09
An entertaining talk by Richard Dawkins. What I got out of it was his descriptions of "quote mining". I was also most intrigued by what appears to be the misinformation and misleading actions of John Lennox and Melanie Phillips. Shame, shame, shame. And Dawkins take on the Tony Blair Foundation was funny and very much [...]
Atheism, by NonStampCollector
This video by NonStampCollector pretty much sums up my thoughts on the label "atheist". Atheism – How many gods do YOU not believe in? Nicely done, NonStampCollector, nicely done. Original here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGT25Oj-6rc Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009
Mbeki, South Africa’s Tragedy
Now that Matthias Rath has pulled out of his libel case against Ben Goldacre and The Guardian, further background information on the death and misery wrought on South Africa has now been made available by Ben Goldacre at the following links: http://www.badscience.net/2008/09/matthias-rath-pulls-out-forced-to-pay-the-guardians-costs-i-think-this-means-i-win/ http://www.badscience.net/2009/04/matthias-rath-steal-this-chapter/ What is well known, and needs repeating, is that former President Thabo [...]
Fraud In Chinese Medicine
The ever reliable fount of reason and quack-busting, The Quackometer has an interesting article on certain Chinese herbal medicines being dosed with pharmaceutical ingredients that are four times that found in legally prescribed medicines. Be aware. Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009
Stumpjumper Comp 2009
Recently bought the 2009 model of the Specialized "Stumpjumper Comp" hardtail mountain bike to replace my older and heavier full-suspension mountain bike. I don’t really do any jumping but cross-country and marathon activities are the norm. And the Stumpjumper Comp has been perfect for that…it’s been a lot of fun on the trails and I’ve [...]
Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman – disgraceful
If the chain of events described by Ting-Yi Oei are true, and it now seems pretty much certain that they are, then Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman is immoral and deceitful. It is Jim Plowman (and NOT Oei) who needs to admit guilt and take responsibility for his actions. Instead all we see is a [...]
