The Spanish government announces a plan to fight fake medicine like homeopathy and to get alt-med nonsense out of health centers and universities. El País reports:
“Public and private establishments that include pseudo-therapies will not be able to call themselves health centers,” explained Health Minister Maria Luisa Carcedo … “Their presence in these spaces gives the idea that they have a therapeutic use. The first thing we have to make clear is that they do not. And if they do not, it makes no sense for them to be there.”
In the journal Secularism & Nonreligion, Ann Taves offers a new method of taxonomy for nones, suggesting worldviews and responses to “big questions” (BQs) may make for a better framework.
Former naturopath and current naturopath-worst-nightmare Britt Hermes is awarded the John Maddox Prize for her advocacy of evidence-based medicine, from the organization Sense about Science and the journal Nature. NOICE.
Caleb Lack, at his “Separating Truths and Myths” column for CFI, notes that the American Psychological Association is not being terribly rigorous about upholding evidence-based practices (EBP):
…one could make the reasonable assumption that the APA would carefully screen potential [continuing education] providers to ensure that they are doing evidence-based trainings. However, in doing so, you would be falling prey to what my father has always told me happens when you assume: “You make an ass out of you and me.”
Guest-posting at Friendly Atheist, Andrew Seidel makes the case that climate change (and climate change denial) is a church-state separation issue:
Denying anthropogenic climate change is based on the rejection of facts and reality in favor of blind faith, wishful thinking, or willful denial. Many of the climate denialists in politics, such as Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), and has-beens such as Scott Pruitt, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Santorum deny climate change for explicitly religious reasons.
Alex Henderson at Alternet explains the alt-right’s conspiracy-theoretical obsession with soy and anything else that they decide has “estrogenic effects” and turns jocks into little sissy-nancies, such as juice boxes!
In 2013, Jones argued that juice boxes were feminizing male children, declaring, “After you’re done drinking your little juices, you’re ready to go out and have a baby. You’re ready to put makeup on. You’re ready to wear a short skirt….You’re ready to put lipstick on.”
The interstellar object ‘Oumuamua, which isn’t aliens, turns out to be too small for NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to even locate. Eric Berger at Ars Technica:
The smaller size supports the theory that outgassing from the object—frozen gases heating up as ‘Oumuamua neared the Sun—could have acted as thrusters to accelerate its movement (see short video, from NASA, above). In absence of other evidence, this natural theory seems more plausible than a visit from an alien probe.
Kentucky governor Matt Bevin thinks gun violence can be attributed to abortion (of course) and zombie shows. Not very selective about their chief executives in Kentucky, are they?
Research published in Applied Cognitive Psychology explores people’s unfounded beliefs and their propensity to propagate bullshit (their word!):
“We were … interested in the propensity to share bullshit statements, because social media also allows for the rapid spread of this kind of content,” [Vladimira] Cavojova explained. … Cavojova and her colleagues found that people who were more receptive to bullshit and more likely to say they would share it tended to be more prone to ontological confusions, more likely to believe conspiracy theories, and more likely to be religious.
The right-wing Liberty Counsel puts out its “naughty and nice” list to diss those companies that don’t slather themselves in frankincense, myrrh, and moistened Bethlehem soil every holiday season. Barnes & Noble, Rite Aid, Target, you are NAUGHTY.
Satanic Temple member David Rosenstein writes into the LA Times to defend his church’s lawsuit against Netflix for copying their statue:
[The Satanic Temple] is an important and serious organization involved in many critical issues, particularly the 1st Amendment’s separation of church and state. … Use of an icon that was developed and is used by our organization by Netflix seriously distorts its meaning in relation to our humanistic and constitutional goals.
Okay someone needs to get me a Saint Carl Sagan prayer candle, and throw in an irradiating Saint Marie Curie while you’re at it.
Quote of the Day
Important zoological information from the Brookfield Zoo:
Pro tip: The best way to tell alligators from crocodiles is by observing whether they see you later or after a while.
* * *
Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI. Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.