- Darwin Day? Bah. Celebrate Academic Freedom Day - They’re holding a contest which, “seeks the best student-created videos and essays that communicate support for academic freedom to explore the evidence for and against Darwinian evolution.” Shannon sent this in and points out that currently, the only video up is Ben Stein’s.
- Son of a Psychic Healer – WNYC’s Leonard Lopate interviews Philip Smith. “Philip Smith grew up in 1960s Miami, with a psychic healer father who was into yogic diets, mystical vibrations, and reincarnation. Smith himself became a Scientologist at the age of 17. His new memoir about his youth is Walking Through Walls.” Thanks Brian.
- Cochineal: It’s a bug AND a feature – Couldn’t resist linking to Bug Girl’s post on cochineal as I’ve been in several discussions about, “Eeeeww, bugs are used to dye your food!” To which I say: Om nom nom.
- Couple defends claim of cures for herpes, bird flu, smallpox -Â A couple in New Zealand who claim to have homeopathic cures for many diseases are being prosecuted for making misleading claims.
I started receiving the Skepchick RSS Feed earlier this year.
I just caught today that the numbers in “Skepchick Quickies x.xx” represent the date!
homeopathic cures for many diseases
I’ve just discovered a homeopathic cure for idiocy. Simply ingest nothing but water for as long as it takes for you to drastically dilute your sodium levels. Once you slip into a coma and die, your problem will be solved.
I think the teen skepchicks should submit some videos in the style of Edward Current. See if anyone gets the joke.
@Steve: What would be cool would be videos that support teaching the contreversy about the “theory” of gravity, the germ “theory” of disease, the “theory” of aerodynamics, the “theory” of elctro-magnatism. I’m sure they could come up with some hilarious stuff.
@3saxx: Took me awhile also.
AHH! It’s the dreaded bird blu!!!
I’ve used cochineal to dye yarn. It’s cool. Kids like it because they get to crunch up the beetles. One friends daughter was disappointed though, because the beetles were dried and she thought she’d be getting to crunch up gooey bugs.
I remember reading the ingredients on a bag of colored pasta. I loved that it used squid ink for dye. It’s amazing how insular some people are.
LOL. I was also hoping that someone would do a Current-esque (yes, it’s a word) Academic Freedom vid. Too bad I am too old looking to pull it off.
Those toads in Kiwi land were going to get someone killed. Good to see some legal consequences for dangerous stupidity.
I didn’t see that NZ story, but here’s one from yesterday about a bottle water company being sued over mislead claims:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4817163a13.html
@writerdd: “Kids like it because they get to crunch up the beetles. ”
http://membracid.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/they-are-not-beetles/
*cough*
Good to see the Commerce Commission doing its thing, thanks for bringing the story to my attention, somehow I missed it when I checked Stuff this morning.
cochineal…squid ink
Who cares? :-D You eat some bugs/parts every day in your processed food and don’t even know it. Someday, you will return the favor. “It’s the Circle of Life…!”
Somehow I never got the message that I was supposed to not be grossed out eating cow muscles, but was supposed to be grossed out eating bugs. Dead bovine, dead NOT a beetle. Who cares. When I was like 9 I read Stan Lee’s Best of the Worst which gave the USDA guidelines for pounds of rat feces and weevils per ton of flour. It doesn’t bother me.
Now Eyelash mites? The little guys that live in your hair follicles and have no anuses (ani?)? Those weird me out a bit.