Holidays beckon

Good afternoon and welcome to another week of articles, etc.


I am sorry to say that next week there will be no updates as I will be in Belgium and whilst I could update, I would rather spend time on more pressing things, i.e. the girlfriend I will be with. Updates will hopefully resume as normal the week after.

I might also add, the article may be late this week as I am busy today. Fear not, because the news shall still be posted here.

Firstly, this reposted article on RD.net made me stop and think. It kinda makes you think how much creationism considered the lunatic fringe and really has no place in science. Unfortunately, with their tendency to shout and scream as well as throw their toys out of the pram, creationists are a serious threat. Simply because the doctrine is idiotic.

I managed to get my July edition of Current Archaeology today. One of the things I noticed was their feature on Alice Roberts. It seems that the general archaeological community is supporting her program as fairly good. There is a brief extract in the link, but the article does back up the claims Alice Roberts makes.

The free paper on British transport, The Metro, had this article on exorcisms done on homosexuals in Britain this week.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Homosexuals_left_traumatised_by_ceremonial_cure&in_article_id=692445&in_page_id=34 (please note, the link was problematic for me)

And a week ago I was complaining about practices in the Middle East!

On and on a lighter note, LucidFlight posted this on the RD.net

Science works

And hello again on this blog. My apologies for last week, however, I was busy and since I am starting to prepare for my big move to York to live with my girlfriend, there may be problems occasionally putting up posts.

As you can see, I've started a new post relating to hilarious pseudo-scientific methods of debate made by those wacky pseudoscientists. I made a draft of some points last night, however, I feel it is incomplete and as a result, each month I will update the post with new and funny posts I have found on the net. Let's just hope that "Dr" Davison (apparently he's very keen to have people refer to his title despite his retirement) whose blog wall I wrote on recently, comes over here to debate with me as he hinted. However, I think this may be an empty threat as I see a certain apathy when it comes to debating the problems with his objections to modern science.

Onto reviews. I've been able to watch a further 2 episodes of Dr Alice Robert's series: The Incredible Human Journey and I'm still fascinated. I've heard from people that the show is often too "poppy" and using non-peer reviewed material, but I'm not entirely certain. The show I watched on Europe fits into my archaeological knowledge (and what I know as standard archaeological ideas) and the series also has the excellent Chris Stringer helping research it. Trawling through the net I'm hard-pressed to find any negative reviews by the tv critics either. If anyone knows of any critical reviews, I would love to see them so that I can understand where I may have missed something. But so far, I'm glad series like this are present on the BBC.

The other day I also found this article on a friend's facebook account. Now this story really pissed me off. Now let me outline something Thomas Sam, I have eczema. Your point you made in your speech that:

"Conventional medicine would have prolonged her life ... with more misery. It's not going to cure her and that's what I strongly believe."

Is fucking stupid. Of course conventional medicine doesn't cure us, its a disorder which is genetic. What you could have done, is use conventional medicines to prevent her scratching. I use E45, a salve in Britain which helps moisturise. This child could have been living if you, her parent had kept her skin moist! Just taking care, ensuring this child had the right clothing/soaps/moisturisers/food, etc could have kept her alive and prevented your stupidity.

Conventional medicine would have indeed prolonged her life and as a sufferer I can say it can make it livable. I probably didn't have the same problems or the same severity of this child (my eczema is mild at this present time), however, I've had infected cuts from scratching in my sleep, which was treated thanks to a good doctor.

People like this just sicken me with their inability to comprehend that modern medicine works.

Article on Thomas Sam's daughter

Davison's blog article

The Ancestor’s Tale

And another week has passed. This week I managed to finally see the first episode of “The Incredible Human Journey with Dr Alice Roberts. I must confess, with the opening credits and the deluge of programmes on Evolution, I was initially sceptical of this program. Sure, it covered a different angle (looking at how we colonised the world), but it seemed rather “trendy” than serious science. Dr Alice Roberts, has a tendency to speak in book titles, with some occasions I was expecting her to quote some like “Bones, Stones and Molecules” and “The Ancestor’s Tale”. Despite this, I really enjoyed it. Once Alice Roberts started going into the details she provided clear demonstrations of modern anthropological views, making details such as the differences between our species and the other human species, incredibly clear, even to those without the training that I’ve received. Despite my study of the topic with some excellent lecturers at the University of York, Dr Alice Roberts managed to emphasis how brief my degree’s coverage of Human Evolution was. The difficulties getting through the Sahara Desert were brought to life in a way which I’ve never experienced in the seminars I’ve attended and the papers I’ve read. Despite the apparent over-dramatical start, Dr Alice Roberts has produced a programme I want to watch, if only to learn more.

Unfortunately, the programme won’t bring those who need to learn more about Evolution. Those that scoff it and insist on the literal truth of their religions will ignore it, which I find sad. We have these wonderful attempts by people passionate for their subjects, who are always attempting to learn more about who we are, what we’ve done and everything about a beautiful world and they get ignored by those who think God created the Earth in 6 days. There was an Ancient Greek school of philosophers who used to teach rhetoric and oratory, who used to think they were capable of arguing black was white. They were called Sophists and to be quite honest, they remind me more of those sophists that Socrates and Plato railed against, rather than the great philosophers of that time.

This week, I also introduce something close to my heart, Repatriation. I’m all for repatriation in some particular cases, I would gladly give back aboriginal remains to the Australian Aborigines and the Native American remains to their descendents. But we can’t take this too far. The study of human remains should be continued, otherwise we get the old practice of grave-robbing again. Those that object to the showing of mummies in museums should also remember that if we’re talking about respect, maybe we shouldn’t show their possessions too. Covering them with a modern white linen veil like the curators of Manchester Museum have done, will not afford them any more respect at all.