Hubris is traditional defined as a man (or woman) acting as if they are the equal of the gods. This flavor of hubris has a tendency to piss off the gods, who know that humans are not the equals of the gods. The practitioner of the hubris also tends to come in for some serious smiting as a gentle reminder of their sub-god status. My favorite example is Bellerophon.

This was going to be a footnote, but the topic really gets my dander up; and dander is directly proportional to the number of words disgorged. Reflect for a moment on the terms "Western Medicine" and "Eastern Medicine". No matter how you parse your definitions they are racist and derogatory toward some ethnic group.

The anti-vaccination zealots have won this round. They had won before the fight really started. You may not have realized it. The victory came silently. No, the anti-vaxxers do not have any of the science on their side, but that hardly seems to matter.

Stated very simplistically, the goal of vaccine advocates is to get as many people as possible vaccinated, when the science supports use of that vaccine. The goal of the anti-vax* movement is to have as few people vaccinated at possible.

I imagine that, if you locked xkcd creator Randall Munroe and myself in a room with a bar, we would buy each other too many beers and then develop the definitive baseball euphemism lexicon*, firmly establishing the definition of the nebulous "third base".

Today is the 75th anniversary of Carl Sagan's existence. Unfortunately, Carl Sagan is no longer alive to celebrate with us. Carl is the paradigmatic advocate for science. Those trying to popularize science after Carl are all trying to be Carl. Sagan not only made science interesting, he never compromised on the facts. He trusted his audience to be intelligent and interested.

In a previous post, I published my letter to the Columbus Dispatch editor responding to their publication of an evidence-free, anti-vax screed by Dr. "Medical Licensing is Not Doing Its Job" DeMio. I also indicated that the lovely and talented Jennifer Grey had penned a response on behalf of the Central Ohioans for Rational Inquiry (CORI).

I like Ben Radford. Yes I do. Maybe I'm reading too much Green Eggs and Ham to The Frogger, but that was starting down a dangerous Seussian path. Ben is a maven of all things skeptical, writing the Bad Science column for LiveScience*, managing editoring (no idea what that means, but I hope it involves martinis) Skeptical Inquirer, and appearing on the Monster Talk podcast, which is great fun for those of us who like thinking about improbable creatures.

xkcd has made its contribution to the Quanta Sutra field, founded earlier this year in A Unified Quantum Theory of Sexual Interaction.

This New York Times article is making the rounds in the Skeptical Community. Apparently, a major tool in the arsenal of Iraqi security forces is a high-priced, bomb divining rod. Seriously. The article reads like a satire of AltMed woonackery, except we are not talking about herbal remedies for the grumbly in your tumbly. We are talking about keeping innocent people from getting blown up.

The American military does not use the devices. “I don’t believe
there’s a magic wand that can detect explosives,” said Maj. Gen.
Richard J. Rowe Jr., who oversees Iraqi police training for the

As you may or may not be aware, The Columbus Dispatch (the only major newspaper left in my hometown) recently got my dander up by publishing an anti-H1N1 vaccine screed by a Dr. Phillip DeMio that completely misrepresents the science surrounding vaccine safety without checking the accuracy of his claims or presenting an opposing viewpoint. As a medical doctor, DeMio was given a forum to advocate courses of action that are not supported by the evidence or leading public health authorities and encourage risky behavior is some of the most vulnerable groups.