Health class in freshman year was full of misinformation–especially about the two controversial, politically charged topics: drugs and sex. Though my health teacher got plenty of other things wrong, too, about anorexia and nutrition. But let’s just focus on one thing at a time.

We were mostly presented with information about the effects of various drugs: cocaine does this, and may cause your teeth to fall out, and meth does this, and may give you a heart attack, ecstasy does this, and may cause you to walk around Disneyland chewing on a pacifier and looking strung out. PCP makes you think you can fly. And bad trips on LSD will give you flashbacks for the rest of your life and permanently scar your mind.

I figured I would never be able to find illegal substances anyway, much less be brave enough to use them, so I never questioned what Mr. Health Teacher told us.

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Note: This is an article I originally wrote for the May of 2008 issue of Campus Inquirer, the newsletter for Center For Inquiry On Campus. I have since decided to repost it here for back-to-school in the hopes that somebody out there is going to try to start more groups on high school campuses despite the challenges. Oh, and all of you below the age of 16 who accept evolution can proudly say “When Richard Dawkins was my age he was a creationist” and tell all your friends that you’re better than him. [Read more →]

Cassie has recently done a post on good tips for doing well in school this year which I ought to follow but probably won’t even though I really ought to… So do as I say, not as I do.

There is one teeny-tiny Teen Skepchick tip I’d like to add about socializing in high school. [Read more →]

• Job or Home? Dennis Prager, a radio show host, asserts that “Women are preoccupied with making a home. Men are defined by their job.” He is usually reasonable, but I don’t know what to say to this one. Maybe ‘I wish he had some non-anecdotal data.’

• Smart=sexy. Jennifer at Cocktail Party Physics muses about the BA hubbub over the Nerd Girls, who were mentioned here last time.

• Gardasil’s rise. The next article in the meritable NYT series, “The Evidence Gap,” looks at how Merck marketed its drug as a ‘must-have’ for girls. Interesting after Cassie’s post on the same topic.

Apologies for the lack of posting this past week. I finally got to go on a much-needed vacation. It turned out to be somewhat of a bust, but oh well–I’m back!

You know that it’s a poor hoax when Bigfoot hunters have posted on the front page of their site that the alleged “Bigfoot body” that many news sources, including CNN (they’ve got Larry King interviewing Sylvia Browne and UFOlogists all the time after all), was in fact a rubber suit all along.

A few excerpts from the site “Searching for Bigfoot”: [Read more →]

School is coming up, like it or not. So here are a few Teenie Skepchick tips for school:

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It’s a topic that girls don’t talk about that openly in public, but unless you’re French, we all do it: removing body hair.

‘Tis not as hard as it once was. Roman women used to have their hairs plucked out one by one with tweezers and have special oils applied to their skin. Smooth, hairless legs were a symbol of class.

But this is a battle made in vain, no?

When I first entered puberty my mum gave me a book which talked about the changes I’d be going through and how I would have to change the way I cared for my body. It said that shaving would prevent B.O. and stuff, but that if I started to shave the hair would always grow back faster and thicker than before. Doesn’t it?

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Perhaps this is a reinforcement of what I wrote in “Nerdom is Sexy” or perhaps its merely a personal reflection… All I know is that these words should have been screaming to pour out of me a long time ago.

Through the wonders of wireless Internet I sit here, under a tree in my backyard, blogging of all things.

That’s not to say I’m not taking in my surroundings. The moist grass which I wiggle my toes in may not be a part of the natural dessert grassland environment of Colorado, nor the lush tree that sprouts clouds of white blossoms in late spring, and I do have my doubts about how native be the birds, currently chirping their songs, creating a natural symphony of clear music around me. Insects hover lazily above the grass, choosing me as a landing spot more often than I would like. Over my shoulder the sky is a soft rose colour as the sun drifts below the mountainous backdrop us Coloradoans take so much pride in.

It is here in this pseudo-natural environment, but lively all the same, where I come to write on science, anti-science, and how annoyed I am at Phil Plait, PZ Myers, and ARealGirl for continually rubbing in the fact that they got to go to the Galapagos Islands on Twitter (jk, that last part isn’t actually what this is about). [Read more →]

Did you know that green tea can help you lose weight? Well, if you didn’t then you haven’t been clicking on Facebook ads enough.

Top 5 Green Tea Diets Reviewed caught my eye in particular because it had an image of John Stossel from 20/20 on it. I consider John Stossel a credible journalist because he (gasp!) actually does scientific tests on these things. Surely this would link me to his results from testing these green tea diets.

Well, no. The tests were neither done by John Stossel nor scientific. What was given? Come on, you can probably guess… It’s what they use the most when trying to sell stuff that probably doesn’t work… [Read more →]

Not sure what to major in when you get to college? Well, MSN’s astrology department just published an article on which majors fits you best based on the time of the year you were born in.

I would quote the one which says which major would best suit me but I don’t want to make it too easy for somebody to find out what my sign is so that they can stereotype me. I’ll just quote a sample sign and reccommended major:

Aquarius
The innovative Aquarius is suited for any major that is new and unusual. Aquarians are the innovators of the Zodiac, and a major in science could spark your already creative mind. A way-out-there individual makes a great scientist and engineer and enjoys working for humanity. Specialties for this sign would be electronics, electrical engineering, or computer science. Other examples of a unique course of study to suit you would be holistic medicine, organic farming, or performance art.

I hate to say it but if you’re any sign and you’re checking astrology to decide to go into science you’re not getting off on the right foot. An unskeptical individual does not make a great scientist since science kinda, heh, asks for evidence to back up its claims.

Here’s a really wacko entirely radical way of deciding what to major in…

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