February 2012

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Open Letter to Minister of Service Alberta

February 23, 2012 in New Age by askeptic | No comments

Dear Honourable Manmeet Bhullar,
Minister of Service Alberta
 

You were advertised as a featured speaker at the  Calgary Seed Event held February 19. It was said you would be putting aside all political agendas and differences, speaking on, what unites us and on Truth, doing the right thing and service to all.

It’s an important topic and I am sincerely sorry I couldn’t make it.  In the interest of putting politics aside, and given the importance of the topic, I am wondering if there is  some possibility I could get a copy of your speech? I would like to post it on my blog and I commit to doing so without any editing or editorial comments whatsoever. Read the rest of this entry »

A Good Week for the Skeptical

February 19, 2012 in Skeptic News by askeptic | No comments

Did you ever have one of those days? Where everything was perfect? Well, I had one of those weeks. The universe, it appears, is unfolding as it should. So let’s see how the universe is doing.

Complimentary and Alternative (Quack) Medicine is Showing Signs  of Decline

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.  I’ve seen this attributed to P.T Barnum, Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln, not names normally tied together in the same sentence.  Nevertheless, it certainly describes the emerging situation with complimentary and alternative (CAM) medicine. Read the rest of this entry »

Another Resignation at Statistics Canada

February 12, 2012 in General Science by askeptic | 1 comment

On February 01, Philip Cross, Chief Economic Adviser at Statistics Canada announced his leaving the agency. He follows the head of the agency, Munir Sheikh, who resigned last year over Government plans to redesign the Census. Mr. Cross is leaving for much the same reason.

At issue is replacing a compulsory census questionnaire with a voluntary questionnaire. In essence, this means replacing a random sample with a discretionary sample. Discretionary samples have their applications, but making inferences about the population isn’t one of them. Unfortunately, making just these types of inferences is whole point of the Census. That’s why Mr. Sheikh wrote in an open letter to the Government:

“I want to take this opportunity to comment on a technical statistical issue which has become the subject of media discussion … the question of whether a voluntary survey can become a substitute for a mandatory census . . . It can not.” “Under the circumstances, I have tendered my resignation to the Prime Minister.” Read the rest of this entry »