Posts Tagged ‘skepticism’


Welcome Skepchicks and Readers

October 2nd, 2007 by Oskar Kennedy

  A long-belated thank you to Rebecca and the rest of the free-thinking females over at Skepchick for graciously linking in my direction. I first discovered the Skepchicks through The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, and I’ve been a fan ever since.

  I’m neither as prolific nor as entertaining as the Skepchicks, but I try to do my small part to popularize rational thinking and objective inquiry. I’d humbly suggest that you might enjoy these recent items. Enjoy, and please comment if something amuses/offends/nauseates you.

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Unidentified Not Alien

January 24th, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy

Dear Little Bald Bastard,
  Do you think those people down in Texas really saw a UFO?
- Scott Baio Gave Me Pinkeye

Dear Scott Baio Gave Me Pinkeye,
  I have absolutely no doubt that people in Stephenville, Texas did see several UFOs on the night of January 8th. I am, however, just as certain that they didn’t see a spaceship full of aliens out for a night of “probe the redneck.”

  The key is the U in “UFO.” To belabor the point just a bit, it stands for “unidentified.” I’ll spare you the dictionary definition, but it’s worth pointing out that any object or light in the sky that the viewer can’t place is a UFO. I’d bet that the nearly every person in the industrialized world has, at some point, seen something in the sky and not been quite clear as to what that something was. Yet there has never been any compelling evidence of extraterrestrial visitation.

  It’s a pet peeve of mine that “unidentified” has become popular shorthand for “alien.” Despite the squawking of true believers, nobody has ever produced evidence for alien origin of UFOs. Read up on any major UFO sighting, and you’ll find a perfectly rational, and entirely mundane, explanation. Lo and behold, the Air Force Reserve has confirmed that ten F-16 fighter jets from the 301st Fighter Wing at the Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve were conducting training flights over North Central Texas that night.

  It’s unfortunate that the Air Force Reserve initially disclaimed any military aircraft activity in the area. Doubtless the conspiracy theorists will seize on this revision as “evidence” that the government is covering up something it doesn’t want us to know about. This might seem odd to you, the rational reader, but I promise it will happen. It takes a special kind of crazy to believe in a government conspiracy to cover up the truth about alien visitors. National governments are large, unwieldy organizations. They employ multitudes of personnel who rate at all levels of incompetence. The idea that even the most ruthlessly efficient national government could successfully suppress such a sensational revelation is just silly. The idea that the same government which brought you Watergate, Filegate and countless other -gate suffixed scandals could keep a lid on such big news is unfathomably absurd.

  Supposed extraterrestrial hijinks always make a little sad, and a lot purple-faced with rage. I’m a sci-fi geeeeek. I want so hard for intelligent alien life to be real, and for interstellar travel to be practical. To my continued frustration, we’ve found no evidence to suggest that either of these things is true. Whenever I read about a kerfluffle involving odd lights in the sky, a small part of me dares to hope that this will be the time when it turns out to be something truly exciting. ‘Tis a small hope, repeatedly dashed. It’s annoying that credulous assbaskets can’t stop setting me up for disappointment. It’s infuriating that paranoid nutbags retreat to insane theories about covert shenanigans, rather than dealing with the woe like the rest of us. I can only hope that, if the aliens ever show up and start handing out anal probes, they start with this guy.

[x-posted from Ask The Little Bald Bastard]

EDIT: It turns out that I was right. Conspiracy theories are go.

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XKCD Nails It

January 25th, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy

XKCD.com

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No Cure For Teeny Weenies

February 1st, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy

  Here’s why it pays to be skeptical, guys. It turns out that the makers of the “male enhancement” pill Enzyte weren’t inflating anything but their claims. The government is prosecuting company officials for conspiring to defraud its customers out of 100 million desperate, small-wanged dollars. From Cincinnati.com:

James Teegarden Jr., the former vice president of operations at Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, explained Tuesday in U.S. District Court how he and others at the company made up much of the content that appeared in Enzyte ads.

He said employees of the Forest Park company created fictitious doctors to endorse the pills, fabricated a customer satisfaction survey and made up numbers to back up claims about Enzyte’s effectiveness.

  There are a few things about this situation that really stick out.

1) PAY ATTENTION. Slick marketing and customer satisfaction surveys are fine, but if a company can’t or won’t explain to you how its product works, DON’T GIVE THEM MONEY.

2) This is especially true when the company makes “health” claims that are so sensitive. The harder you want something to be true, the easier it is to let yourself believe dubious claims. If a pill claims to fix a heretofore unfixable problem, it’s time to be even more diligent.

3) The only thing classier than conspiring to sell millions of dollars of dubious dick drugs is cutting your mom in on the action. From the article:

Several other company employees, including [the founder's] mother, Harriet, also are charged with participating in the conspiracy.

  I also find it insane that, as of February 1st, 2008, the company’s website it still up and running, making the same claims and apparently still taking orders. Why hasn’t the District Court issued an temporary injunction to stop the company from making these (allegedly) fraudulent claims?

  Nobody needs an herbal penis pump so badly that they can’t wait a few months. If the Court rules in favor of the company, then let them go back to peddling their pills. In the meantime, why risk letting the company defraud more innocent men? They’re already upset about the size of their junk. The court shouldn’t allow their wallets to be deflated as well.

  On the plus side, I finally have a reason to use the “dick” tag non-euphemistically.

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If there were a just and loving god, Carl Sagan would have lived for 1,000 years.

If there were a just and loving god, Carl Sagan would have lived for 1,000 years.

July 16th, 2008

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