Holistic medicine jokes write themselves

Do any of you guys remember Fast Forward? Most of you are probably too young or were unfortunate enough to have been raised in the wrong country. Here is a spoof of the type of crap being sold on mid-morning television. What I found surprising was how little the writers actually had to make up about the subject. For those who cared to notice, the Chinese bloke is basically a rip-off of Benny Hill.

Get expelled because of your intelligence

There is a facebook group that just started, Australians Against the Swine Flu Vaccine, and I implore everyone to join and comment on their message boards. You will most likely be thrown off, but at least try and offer them some semblance of logic.

The worst way to return from a holiday...

I guess the title has a double meaning. I have just returned from another tour of regional Peru and I found this to be one the videos in my RSS reader today. The other meaning is that the little girl involved in this quack experiment will probably return to Australia in a casket. Worst holiday ever.

Why do vaccines arouse such passions?

The title of a BBC article forwarded from the Stop the Australian Vaccination Network facebook group. It's about time a journalist took the time to give some non-sensationalist press.

I personally attribute ignorance as a major reason why people are comfortable not vaccinating. Perhaps ignorance isn't the right word. Taken for granted might be better. We live in a society free of a lot of previously life-threatening diseases. Most of us are too young to remember horrible outbreaks of now preventable diseases like small pox and polio. Back in those days, the choice was simple; get vaccinated or subject yourself to the whims of the disease. We don't have such pressures today thanks to the luxury of herd immunity and perhaps take it for granted that we have such great public health. How different would it be if every day we saw examples of horrible diseases killing our loved ones and neighbours? Instead, we have to deal with this ill-informed reality:

The etymological origins of "fuck"

I would place a language warning here but the damage has already been done in the title. Nevertheless, I would like to write a little about the word "fuck". I was prompted to think about this in detail this afternoon when, not for the first time, it was asserted to me that "fuck" was an acronym created from Fornication Under Consent of the King. Several other versions are also popular, including For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

Why so many atheists suck

John Safran tackles the issue in less than one minute. Pull your f*cking heads in guys, because you often look as stupid as all the other fundies.

Chiropractor breaks world record...

...for the most logical fallacies in 50 words or less. The article to which I am referring was sent to me by my Mum via snail mail, so it might be old news (4/8/2009) for some.

Simply put, Marc Cohen has managed to fit 4 logical fallacies into such a small space. In order: poisoning the well, argument from antiquity, unstated major premise, non sequitur.