Jun 23, 2006

the 37th Skeptics' Circle

Autism Diva hosts the latest edition.

My favorite entry (since I'm an English teacher) is Rockstars' Ramblings' "Doggerel Index." Its purpose and function: to assemble and refute a list of common pseudoarguments used by quacks, trolls, conspiracy theorists, and woo-peddlers of all stripes.
1: The more cliché it is, the better. Net trolls like to use cookie-cutter "arguments." If linking to one of my entries saves you time and effort that would have been spent typing yet another refutation of a trivial point, I'd like to be able cover them all.

2: If the word is a commonly misused technical term, like "quantum," please try to point me to a good source for the word's actual meaning, as well as a few abuses. "Quantum" is currently on the prospective list, but I'd like to brush up on my quantum mechanics a little before I dive in.

3: No politics. I don't care to dissect politically-oriented doggerel yet. For now, I feel my efforts should be devoted to getting people to distinguish between the black-and-white issues of science versus pseudoscience, rather than the grays of politics. So, no requests for "terrorism," "amnesty," or whatever the hot button issue is at the time you read this. There will, of course, be some inherent crossover, since propaganda is propaganda, regardless of its subject.
Oh, and as an aside, I should point out that English teachers, by contract and moral duty, are required to retort when someone asks, "Can I go to the bathroom?"

With a blank expression, I always say, "I don't know. I'm not a doctor."

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