Science & Society

Though every politician and both U.S. parties claim to be pro-science, that isn't reflected in corporate media coverage. The New York Times will publish conspiracy theories drafted by US Right To Know, a corporate front group created by Organic Consumers Association. Washington Post will host a panel on food science and refuse to invite any scientists.  The public does not trust corporate media science journalism, that is why science journalism jobs in newspapers have disappeared even as science has become more important than ever. To get the facts right, the public now goes to targeted…

I thought I should do another debunking article, as there are lots of people who are getting really scared by this BS. The Daily Express particularly is promoting David Meade's book heavily with more than two articles a day on this totally non notable author for the last week. The other "red top tabloids" are joining in. These journalists seem to forget that vulnerable people, including young children read these stories. Parents report children as young as 12 or younger who are scared by this.    Why Nibiru is as Daft as an Extra Dry Continent in the Pacific as Large as…

For the last several weeks I’ve been getting messages from scared people nearly every day. They are worried that the world is going to end on 23rd September. We have had numerous such dates, about a dozen a year at present. The chap who has been promoting that date all summer has now changed it to October in an interview with a US conspiracy radio chat show. These people are trying to drag you back to a pre-scientific dark age where you go to prophets to learn about the future, and the prophets look into the stars for omens. Nowadays they write books or publish videos or go on radio chat…

The Voynich Wikiwars - Episode 2 This is a follow-on to my previous article about an opinion piece in the Times Literary Supplement which news media at first accepted uncritically as fact. It may well be said that there are no Voynich manuscript experts, because nobody has yet translated the VM into a modern language.  Or, rather, no such translation claim has so far been accepted by, shall we say, people versed in the scientific method.  That said, there are some who are notably well informed about the VM, and were so before I ever started my own researches. Nick Pelling, who is…

Gibbs, Voynich, Wikiwars and the Times Illiteracy Supplement Declaration of interest: I have been an independent researcher of the Voynich Manuscript since it was made available on the web by the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library.  This article contains no sour grapes whatsoever, but you may wish to check at the foot of this web page. The media has been all abuzz recently about how Nicholas Gibbs has solved the puzzle of the Voynich manuscript, according to the Times Literary Supplement. The big problem is, he hasn't.  Nobody, I stress: nobody has yet translated, or even…

Hurricane Information Updates A site which has been providing potentially life-saving updates about the hurricanes, Neven Curlin's Arctic Sea Ice Forum appears to have been hacked.  If so, it is an act of an evil mind.  The hack may cost lives. [edit] Neven's site is back up again.  For regular hurricane updates please go to - Hurricane Season 2017 Until the site is up and running again I am inviting the contributors to the hurricane thread to post comments here. For now, here are the latest graphics from The National Hurricane Center.  I can also recommend the Miami New…

The story that won't be told in the wake of Harvey's wrath is the incredible risk to the thousands upon thousands of items of physical evidence being stored in police departments and crime laboratories throughout Texas - especially in Houston.  Any damage to this evidence may derail the state's pursuit of justice.  In my experience, both police and forensic scientists barely have enough money to keep pace with the workloads they manage on a daily basis, so if you think this evidence is being stored in the best of facilities, you may be unpleasantly surprised.  And with…

Carvings in the stone of mountains are what a civilization does for it's more revered leaders and heroes.  This is because stone monuments, in particular carvings in rock faces can last for tens of thousands of years. Along with Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, Stone Mountain in Georgia is just such a carving.  Sign  this petition if you don't want to be defined forever by the face of traitors arguably worse than Benedict Arnold, who fought for a version of slavery which was more dehumanizing than even that practiced by George Washington.   Caption:  This massive…

You'll be able to the agriculture documentary called "Food Evolution" on Hulu soon enough but for obvious reasons the filmmakers went to Netflix first. Though the streaming service has thrown $20 billion at everything, they had no interest in a pro-science documentary. They may have a good reason. Their media buyers and audience don't want science. Like all documentaries, it is a passion project so when disappointments happen, lots of speculation occurs among the fans. Some believe it's a conspiracy against science, like that Netflix is politically aligned with the groups who make their…

This is another of my "Doomsday Debunking" articles, using science and astronomy to debunk some of the crazy modern myths about the end of the world.  This time it's the idea that the eclipse of the sun on 21st August in the US is a "sign" that the world is about to end. If you are an astronomer or scientists you will just LOL at this for sure. But for some people this fear is like a living nightmare for them. They contact me, extremely scared that the world is, literally, about to end because of this eclipse. They probably flunked maths and physics at school and just don't have the…