New baby

Well, this might slow down my blogging efforts for a while!

Eddie Thomas Hancock, born at 12:18 on January 21st 2009. Weighed in at 8lbs 12oz.

New Baby

The Dinosaurs Went in Two by Two

I must be a glutton for punishment. Last year we took the children to Noah's Ark Farm Zoo at Wraxall near Bristol. At the time, we thought it was just a standard play farm, but it turned out to be much more than that. The place is run by creationists, so the walls are full of creationist posters and there is a big exhibition of the story of Noah's Ark (which of course is literally true). Anyway, a few months ago we won a prize in a raffle. It was two tickets to Noah's Ark. We decided to go along yesterday for a day out as the children enjoyed themselves last time and I would be more prepared this time around.

Before we got to the main play area where the posters were, we saw a number of other notices pinned up, like:

Rhinos appear, like other mammal families, suddenly in the fossil records. Rhino fossils appear in the Eocene era, in the same geological period as camels, dogs, cats, shrews, moles, horses and many other mammals that we would recognise today. A few changes have taken place in each, but they are largely as they were then.

and a long list titled

33 reasons why humans did NOT come from Apes

This was taken from the book 'The Origin of Man' by Professor Stuart Burgess of Bristol University. This person is actually a real life professor in a good department in a good university. Surprisingly, given the subject matter of his books, he is not a biologist, but a mechanical engineer. When I googled him, I found this very unflattering description by the British Centre for Science Education.

In the Ark Exhibition room there was a curious diagram showing how all the animals would be arranged. It was interesting that the T-Rex was located between the Giraffe and the hay store (and underneath the fresh water tank). Doesn't look like good planning to me.

Of course, any logical consideration of the ark story obviously falls apart very quickly. What about all the insects, worms, birds, etc? How anyone can believe this is literally true is incomprehensible.

We managed to pick up a couple of good leaflets. One was entitled 'Can Life arise Spontaneously' and was produced by the Creation Science Movement and the other was 'Evolution - A Theory in Crisis' actually produced by the farm itself.

From reading around Noah's Ark and looking at the leaflets and websites they refer to (especially http://www.earthhistory.org.uk) it seems like the theory they subscribe to is a weird variation on creationism called Recolonisation Theory. Basically, it is a compromised half-baked idea that admits that standard creationism doesn't make sense, but, as they are committed to their religious view of history, they have to use the same tactics of twisting facts to fit their bizarre story.

The basic facts seem to be:

• After The Creation, all life on earth was destroyed by cataclysms from above in the form of asteroids and from below in the form of water rising up


• Did I say 'all life'? I forgot to say, a 600 year old man built a big boat and saved a pair of each living creature


• There is a fossil record showing a development of life over a number of years. However, they compress the timescale into thousands of years rather than millions (obviously you have to accept that all radio isotope dating and astronomy is wrong)


• To accept the above you need to accept that the speed of light used to be a lot faster than it is now (I liked this one!). Here's a couple of quotes

Rates of radioactive decay are proportional to c. Accordingly, these rates would also have been higher

and

It is currently unclear whether the value of c was highest at the time of the Creation or at the Cataclysm. It had declined to close to its present value by the second millennium BC.

• Certain creatures, such as mammals and birds appear suddenly in the fossil record with no predecessors

There's a section on the Earth History website called In-Depth Discussions which doesn't discuss anything, just gives their own view of the deal.

Anyway, Answers in Genesis don't like it, so it can't be all that bad!

Am I a bad parent?

I know Richard Dawkins has referred to the labelling of children as Christian or Muslim as a form of mental child abuse. I've just converted my children (4 and 7) to using Linux instead of Windows. Am I just as bad? I guess I'll have to do the same as I do when I talk to them about religion.

'Lots of people around the world use different operating systems. Just because Daddy using Linux, then don't feel you need to do the same. I'll love you just as much if you use Windows when you grow up. Just don't go all weird and start experimenting with a Mac'

From sauna to supernatural

After finishing in the gym tonight, I popped into the sauna. The gym supplies all the daily national and local newspapers, and someone had left a copy of the Western Daily Press in the sauna. It was a bit crinkly, but I thought I'd have a flick through as it was there.

There was a bizarre article about a local businessman who stood to win £1,000,000 from a £100 bet. The bet was that life after death would be proven by the end of this year. Unfortunately, the story didn't appear in the online version of the newspaper, but I made a note of his website, Now That's Weird, and looked it up later and did a few other searches on the guy in question, Ross Hemsworth (a "well known paranormal radio and TV presenter, scientific investigator of anomalous phenomena and an intriguing and entertaining speaker at events worldwide" according to his website). There was a story about the bet here (No, Paranormal Review isn't one of my regular reads). His website promotes Glastonbury Radio. Glastonbury is just down the road from me (and definitely is weird), so perhaps I ought to have a listen!

It looks like his bet is related to this piece of research at the University of Southampton. The title of the article mentions 'life after death', although the article itself actually talks about near-death and out-of-body experiences. I'm going to keep an eye on this, but I have a feeling that we are not going to hear much more.

When I did a search for Ross Hemsworth on Google, it came up with a entry from the great man himself, James Randi. I've included the text here.

Reader Barry Moyle informs me:

You may be aware of the website www.phantomorfraud.com. I sent an e-mail to these people questioning their statement: "Dowsing works, that has been proven time & again." "Dowsing" is listed as a topic on left hand side of their home page. I also suggested they should apply for your million dollar prize & forwarded a copy of your "The matter of Dowsing" from Swift, vol.2 no 3/4. January 1999.

I received a somewhat rude reply, addressed to "Mr. Eyes Closed", from a Mr. Ross Hemsworth. Amongst other things, he said "it's not our job to convince other skeptics, or indeed to chase money from other skeptics who require convincing" and "being a dowser myself, I KNOW it works"!

However, what interested me is his saying "I am in daily contact with James Randi, and he is very aware of the research we are doing." I know you are a busy man Mr. Randi but I would be very pleased to have your comment on that. He also asks that I do not waste his time by further contacting him because I do not have an open mind. I shall oblige him.

Barry, you must recognize that the million-dollar challenge is probably the single most-feared element in the belief system these people have constructed. They can't respond to it, because they know they can't perform as they fantasize they can. This delusion is so cherished, so important to them, that they will invent, distort, and lie in order to avoid facing the truth. Indeed, truth is their greatest enemy, and it is brought up to them by the JREF challenge, every day.

Ross Hemsworth has written me only once — on an entirely different matter — but I am certainly not "in daily contact" with him. He makes such claims because he is alarmed, but understandably so, because he sees the great threat that is offered to his self-delusion, if he is in any way called upon to face reality.

This dates back a bit, I wonder if the JREF has had any recent communication with Mr Hemsworth

Spot the logical fallacy

This week I've spotted a couple of daft articles and letters that demonstrate the general lack of critical thinking around today.

The first one was in the National Trust magazine. There were a couple of letters in response to a recent NT article on gardening by the phases of the moon. On the face of it, it sounds a bit weird, but should be testable.

I found a couple of interesting resources on moon-planting. One is a calendar that advises which things to plant according to the phase of the moon and other astrological signs.

Here's the letter

I was interested in the article on planting by the moon. This is something I've been doing for years - and have been teased because of it! But I swear by the method Ed Ikin described, and to prove it, this year I planted some runner beans before the end of April - although the new moon was to be later in May. Result: only two beans germinated. I planted a second batch on 5 May and within less than a fortnight had 90 per cent germination. The best method is to cut the inside of a kitchen roll into three, fill with soil and pop a bean into each. The whole lot can then be planted with little disturbance to the roots.

Apart from the obvious point that the second batch were planted at a later date (probably warmer condition, though it's hard to tell in this country), it's so typical that someone will try a particular technique, find it works and then prescribe the success to that technique without considering the other factors at play.

The other item was in my local paper, The Weston Mercury. It concerned the sad story of a couple who have both recently contracted cancer. She was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins lymphoma in November 2007 and he was diagnosed with leukaemia in February 2008. It's an awful thing to happen to anyone - my dad died of cancer, but the reason for the story being in the paper was that they claim that their illnesses result from being caught up in the Asian tsunami in 2004.

They say they can

trace their ill health back to the day when they were forced to shelter on an iron roof after the wave struck.

They

asked doctors if there could be a link - they told her it was possible but nothing could be proved

The wife says

I'm convinced it has something to do with it. Before the tsunami I was fit and healthy, but afterwards I was having five or six weeks off work at a time...It was like I had my immune system lowered. I would get ill all the time

 

The husband says

I'm a bit more scientific about it, but the tsunami is the only common factor. Everything has gone downhill since that date and we have not been able to pull ourselves out of it

It's a weird kind of non-story. They don't appear to be trying to gain anything from the story, just stating what they think is to blame for their illnesses.

Maybe cancer can be triggered by stress, maybe not. I'm not doctor (well, not that sort of doctor). The point in both these cases is that people seem to be happier if they can find some pattern or reason for what happens to them or around them. I'm there are more than one logical fallacy in each of these cases, but they definitely seem to come under post hoc ergo propter hoc, i.e. assuming that a temporal relationship between two event implies a causal relationship.

Name that tune

When I was watching the Olympic highlights on the BBC yesterday, I thought I recognized the music they were playing. I realised that it was Hong Kong Garden by Siouxie and the Banshees (incidentally, the first single I ever bought), but played in a plinky-plonky Chinese style. I wonder what they are planning for London 2012? Anarchy in the UK performed by the London Symphony Orchestra?

Liquid Engineering?

I've never quite understood advertising and sponsorship deals. I was looking at the Castrol website for work the other day and I found out that Castrol were the official suppliers of engine oil to the Euro 2008 Championships. Would you be more inclined to put certain oil in your car (or, in our particular case, aircraft landing gear) because they were connected with football? Anyway, at least we now know what Christiano Ronaldo puts on his hair...

No, No, No (Noe, Know...?)

Common spelling mistakes should be accepted into everyday use, not corrected, a lecturer has said. Ken Smith of Bucks New University says the most common mistakes should be accepted as "variant spellings".

I'll accept this when I accept that Bucks New University (formerly High Wycombe Discount Carpet Warehouse) is a genuine centre of learning.

Was school always like this?

I had my son's end of year school report yesterday (he is 7 1/2). While he was rated as above average in all subjects (of course!), the teachers were critical in one particular area - something that they had previously brought up with us. They said that he always wants to take time over his work, particularly writing and drawing, and likes to make sure it is correct and accurate before he finishes it. When they first mentioned this a few months ago we took it as a compliment! They felt it that wasn't a good trait and it was far more important to get something finished, however badly, in the little time available while they rushed from one subject to another, rather than spend time doing something properly.

Even at home he will spend hours drawing very detailed pictures or building complex models out of lego. If he gets something wrong, he will scrap it and start over again.

I always thought that attention to detail and the ability to concentrate on one task for a long period were good things. It's bad enough that today's internet culture is giving a generation of children with the attention span of a goldfish - it's another thing when this is reinforced by schools.

Machines Like Us I like

I recently stumbled across a website that brings together quite a few of my interests - science, technology, skepticism, articles on life (real and artificial) and evolution. Their people section links to some of the characters I got to know when I was working with Artificial Life. It also features a nice little app that is worth going back to just to check if anything has changed :-)

The weird thing is that Google Ads is obviously getting a bit carried away and missing the website's target audience. A couple of the automated ads that Google put on the site are:

"Atheism against the law? Scientific proof that atheism requires a belief in miracles. "

"2008: God's Final Witness Unprecedented destruction will come in 2008, leading to America's fall. "

I wonder how many hits these sites got from this site?

Machines Like Us is a nice looking site with some good content, but I don't know if it gets visited or updated very often and the forum is a bit sparse. Perhaps I'll have to start stirring them up a bit.

Some people are never grateful

I found this article on the BBC website a few weeks ago, but I haven't had a chance to blog for a while (computer problems and holidays). What caught my eye was that some students were complaining about the level of tuition they were receiving for their fees. Particularly, arts students thought they should pay less than science students because they received less tuition. Surely they can't be saying that their arts degrees are worth less than a science or engineering degree? That would certainly be the impression if science, engineering and medicine degrees were charged at a higher rate than arts subjects.

What has always been the case, even when I finished my first degree 20 years ago, is that arts students are always the ones who complain because they are the ones with all the time on their hands, while the science and engineering students are busy working! It was interesting to see the breakdown of the Bristol student jury, especially as they make a point of saying "In particular, efforts were made to ensure a reasonable diversity with regard to...subject matter"

The subjects studied by the students were English, Statistics and combined studies, Economics, Law, Classics , Med in TESOL (No, I don't know what this means either), Local governance, English, Psychology and criminology, English literature & cultural media studies, Sport management, Music composition, Business management, European law, Economics.

Hardly the most balanced set of students is it?

Green, but not green

We are keen on green issues, organic food, recycling, saving energy, etc. Somehow, in the green media, these issues get conflated with everything else alternative as if they all have equal merit. I was recently reading Green Parent magazine which is generally pretty good. However, there is a section on children's health. In the section, they were discussing croup. Croup is pretty unpleasant (I suffered from it when I was young).  The resident 'health adviser' gives the following advice for parents "Constitutional homeopathy is one of the most effective ways of preventing reoccuring croup so I would suggest seeing a local homeopath if possible".

Obviously, I needed to call them out on this, so I sent the following email

Hi,
I read your magazine regularly and generally I agree with the ideas and philosophies contained in it. The one area I've always been a bit concerned with is that of alternative therapies. In my reading of the subject, there have never been any conclusive well run scientific trials that show that any of these therapies actually work.

The Ask Auromina section of the Children's Health section normally starts well enough with general advice on improving diet, reducing stress levels, etc, but then often suggests a particular therapy for a given disorder. For example, in the most recent issue it states "Constitutional homeopathy is one of the most effective ways of preventing reoccuring croup so I would suggest seeing a local homeopath if possible". This is presented as a fact, but there are no references to back up this claim. Is it possible for you to provide any evidence of any clinical trials that show that homeopathy is effective for preventing croup?

I'm still waiting for an answer.

There's a sucker born every minute

I was forwarded an email by a friend today...

Hello All
The Ericsson Company is distributing free computer lap tops in an attempt to match what Nokia has already done. Ericsson hopes to increase its popularity this way. For this reason, they are giving away the WAP Laptops.
All you need to qualify is to send this email to 8 people you know. Within 2 weeks, you will receive Ericsson T18. But if you can send it to 20 people or more, you will receive Ericsson R320.There are people within our building who have received their laptops so I thought I would share this information with you in hopes that you get one before they give them all out.
Make sure you send a copy to anna.swelung@ericsson.com
Cheers and enjoy your laptop when it arrives.
 

My first thought was "That sounds unlikely". My second thought was 'Google'

I Googled 'Ericsson free laptop' and got a page of results like this one describing this old hoax. A sceptical frame of mind and a decent search engine can save you lots of wasted time and potential embarrassment. All the time you save can then be wasted blogging about how much time you have saved.

Podcasts

Since my car radio started playing up and I also started using my MP3 in the gym, I've been listening to lots of podcasts. Here's my top 10

1. Skeptics Guide to The Universe from the New England Skeptical Society
2. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from US National Public Radio
3. Answer Me This
4. Freethought Radio
5. Skeptoid
6. Guardian Science Weekly
7. Real Time With Bill Maher
8. Point of Inquiry
9. Golf Better @ Edwin Watts Golf
10. Fighting Talk

Probably the best podcasts I ever listened to were the Danny Baker shows that appeared last year. The All Day Breakfast Show and the Baker & Kelly football shows were amazing and I even managed to get some of my stories onto their shows. Unfotunately, there were some contractual problems with Wippit which resulted in the shows being pulled. There's always hope that he will be back one day.

More interesting than Plato

Another podcast pointed me in the direction of a fantastic website. It's huge, but I've only just found out about it...

http://icanhascheezburger.com

and it has genius pictures like this


see more crazy cat pics

Your Knicked

Here is something that always bugs me...

My son went to Beavers last week and the local police turned up give them some safety advice and help them get their Safety badges. Here's the certificate:



Maybe attention to detail isn't so important in the police these days

First post on my new blog

Well, well, well. Who would have thought that I would eventually get round to putting something on my website? Not only the start of some content, but something using PHP and MySQL. Just working out how to set the thing up is quite enough for one day.

I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon watching Wales try to win the Grand Slam and worry about Swansea throwing away even more of their lead at the top of League One.