Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Not Dead Yet

August 29, 2010 in Evolution by askeptic | No comments

University of Bristol researchers appear more adept at self-promotion than science.

‘Calgary researcher’s room-to-roam proposal may be fittest theory‘ was the headline  of an article written by Jamie Komarnicki and published in the Wednesday, August 25, 2010 of the Calgary Herald.  It seems one way or another, news organizations across the world have picked up and reported that University of Bristol researchers Michael Benton, Sarda Sahney and Paul Ferry have developed a replacement for current evolutionary theory with which Charles Darwin is most closely associated. Read the rest of this entry »

Time for a Vacation

July 15, 2010 in Uncategorized by askeptic | No comments

Yep, even skeptics need a vacation. I’ll be off for about a month.

Thanks to all those that have written in. I really appreciate hearing from you.

See you all again in late August or early Spetember.

Some Good News: Catherine Ford defends modern medicine in the Herald

July 15, 2010 in Health & Medicine, Skeptic News by askeptic | 1 comment

I spend a good deal of my time criticizing the media and particularly The Calgary Herald in this blog.  However, every so often, The Herald throws me a curve ball and actually prints a responsible article. Such is the case with the Sunday, July 11, 2010 edition.

In Lessons from my brush with polio, former Calgary Herald writer Catherine Ford gets it right in describing the advances in modern medicine and the snake-oil salesman of the alternative medicine industry. Some highlights of note: Read the rest of this entry »

The Science Behind Valerie Berenyi’s Graphology (There Isn’t Any)

June 13, 2010 in New Age by askeptic | No comments

Just when you think things are over and done with, lost to the past of forgotten myths, the Calgary Herald finds a way to resurrect them. Is there anyone left that believes personality can be divined through an analysis of handwriting? Well apparently so. Valerie Berenyi tells us it’s a science in an article entitled The Science Behind Your John Hancock in the Sunday June 13, 2010 edition of the Calgary Herald.

The opening sentence gives some indication of the quality of thought involved: Every time you put your pen to paper, you open a window into your unconscious mind. Uh, no you don’t Valerie, but writing an article does provide a window into your conscious one. To quote Mark Twain: It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. Read the rest of this entry »

Cellphones Linked to Cancer. Well, Not Really.

May 26, 2010 in Health & Medicine by askeptic | No comments

My Monday, May 17 edition of the Calgary Herald had the following headline listed under TOP NEWS: Largest study suggests cellphone link to cancer risk.

That’s scary. Not true mind you, but scary.

The article written by Sarah Schmidt of Canwest News Service refers to the recently released INTERPHONE study. It plays fast and loose with the truth, but we can’t point fingers at the media alone in this case. The efforts of researchers to suck ever increasing amounts of money from agencies and organizations whose research grant evaluation standards are more about political correctness than scientific merit, can also be blamed here. Read the rest of this entry »

The Nature of Nonsense: Dr. David Suzuki has got a whole new show

May 15, 2010 in General Science, Health & Medicine by askeptic | No comments

In 1960, the CBC launched the Nature of Things as a half-hour science series. It was a good idea. People wanted to hear about science and the Nature of Things gave it to them. It is currently Canada’s longest running documentary television series.

Notice the word science is gone.

That’s because the Nature of Things is not about science anymore, or at least, not just about science. Now it is equally about the increasingly flaky, pseudo-scientific nonsense promoted by the program’s star, Dr. David Suzuki. I remember when Dr. Suzuki first joined the program 30 years ago. He shattered the image of scientist as nerd and presented science in a way that I thought was magic. Read the rest of this entry »

Insurance Fraud Investigated by the CBC

April 21, 2010 in Health & Medicine by askeptic | 1 comment

The Question Is, Who is Defrauding Whom?

CBC National News anchor Peter Mansbridge was filled with the appropriate level of indignation introducing the story of insurance fraud on the April 16, 2010 edition of the National. Unfortunately, the CBC’s pro alternative-medicine bias (examples of which are searchable on this site) placed the CBC in a position where they couldn’t quite get it straight as to who is defrauding whom.

The “investigative journalistic report” came complete with hidden cameras, disguised microphones and undercover journalists posing as customers. In reality, what we got was a public relations exercise posing as journalism. Read the rest of this entry »

Calgary Herald Still Pimping for the Fraser Institute

March 21, 2010 in Education by askeptic | No comments

Journalistic Integrity Sacrificed to Promote Statistical Nonsense

It’s back!

Once again the Calgary Herald has decided to sacrifice journalistic integrity  by dedicating a full section, 14 pages, to promoting a load of hokey statistical nonsense masquerading as sound research.  I am speaking of course of the annual Fraser Institute’s Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools. This means the equally trashy, Report Card  on Alberta’s Secondary Schools, is not far behind.

Too bad. Read the rest of this entry »

The Gathering of the Flakes in Calgary

March 4, 2010 in Uncategorized by askeptic | No comments

You too, can be at the centre of the universe – for $63.00

Can you imagine how lucky I am, living here in Calgary? My home town is a site of a great convergence, a gathering of two of the worlds greatest flakes – Deepak Chopra and Sylvia Browne. Actually three flakes, Sarah Palin is coming too, but she is somewhat off topic for this blog.

Deepak, evidently, has come and gone. I missed him. You’d think that would be hard to do, given that attendees were taught the 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re Back!

February 21, 2010 in Skeptic News, Uncategorized by askeptic | No comments

Okay, this may not be as big as news as Tiger’s apology (it was an apology, right?) but ASkepticRTN is back in operation.

Visitors to www.askepticrtn.com may have noticed a host of troubles with our little website over the past few weeks. It turns out we were the target of some  hackers that planted malicious code throughout our site. Visitors to ASkepticRTN were treated to all sorts of nastiness.

I’m not very techie and it took the help of some friends to track down and eliminate the code. The cost of openness I suppose. Evidently, the ease with which people can post comments etc. also makes it easy to hack the site. We are not going to change.

Anyway, we are back.

Just in time too, as things are beginning to get interesting. It turns out some of the world’s greatest flakes and hucksters are descending on my little home town of Calgary to peddle healing and spiritualism by thoroughly engaging people in new age gobbledygook. At upwards of $100 per seat.

Stay tuned.

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