Evidently, there was a glitch somewhere in ASkepticRTN. The post regarding my upcoming vacation never made it and seems to have been lost among various backups, transfers etc. Anyway, I am back after two months of running around Europe. Plenty of material across the pond for a skeptic to sink his teeth into but for the most part I satisfied myself with traveling, seeing the sites and sampling the local wine. Well, more than just sampling. In any case, for those that wrote and posted comments only to find no response, my apologies. I’ll do a better job next time.
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What the hell happened to The Calgary Herald?
I love Sunday mornings’. Sitting in my comfy chair or parking myself on the deck with a hot latte. The morning light over my shoulder allows me to settle into my newspaper. Newspapers actually, as I never seem to find the time to read the Saturday editions before Sunday morning. What’s that saying?, Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures. That describes my Sundays.
So on Sunday July 31, I started with the Saturday July 30, 2011 edition of the Calgary Herald and came across an editorial entitled: Silencing scientists: Modern governments are muzzling scientific free speech. It was without doubt the most positive editorial I have read in the Herald on a matter of science. Read the rest of this entry »
Whew, that’s a relief!
I am sometimes asked by friends if I really think the Calgary Herald is as bad as I make out in these pages. I have had the same question posed to me by a number of Calgary Herald Editors and Columnists.
My answer is always the same: I don’t know much about international affairs or the latest happenings in and around Calgary, but I do know something of science. This gives me a basis on which to judge the quality of reporting on stories that concern science or have a scientific angle. On matters of science, the answer is yes – the Calgary Herald is both hopelessly biased and utterly incompetent. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
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.
I feel great now that I am praying for Haiti
Thanks to all who wrote wondering where I was. I have been here, but taking a break over the holidays.
Outside of a piece concerning the Canadian Cancer Society’s recent endorsement and promotion of medical quackery, I haven’t written anything since mid December, despite having plenty to write about, courtesy of the Calgary Herald (Canada’s Largest Christian Daily). Fortunately, most of what the Calgary Herald had to say over the holidays of concern to skeptics came in the form of trivial remarks or minor pieces. Read the rest of this entry »
Even skeptics need to take a break every so often. I am taking mine now. Thanks for your comments and emails. I’ll be back at my post late July.
The scale of tsunami disaster in Asia is almost beyond comprehension. As I sit down and write this, estimates of the death toll are passing 100,000 and will go higher. Whole towns have disappeared from the face of the earth. Families have been destroyed, some friends will never be heard from again. Read the rest of this entry »