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Michael Simpson

Lifetime lover of science, especially biomedical research. Spent years in academics, business development, research, and traveling the world shilling for Big Pharma. I love sports, mostly college basketball and football, hockey, and baseball. I enjoy great food and intelligent conversation. And a delicious morning coffee!

Quoting intelligent design advocates–rampant cynicism

I had saved a website long ago that listed a bunch of quotes where Intelligent Design (ID) proponents deny any hidden creationist agendas, but rather claim they are only trying to promote good solid science in our public schools. Unfortunately, the blog is no longer online, so I couldn’t find it to link here, but you can read the saved pdf file and I can give full credit to Brian Poindexter.

Although it’s about 9 years old, I thought I would repost it to clear up any possible confusion about whether ID is really science or, as is clearly stated by ID proponents, it’s a cynical method to get creationism into US public schools.Read More »Quoting intelligent design advocates–rampant cynicism

20 Million Year Old Lake Beneath Antarctica Is About to Be Uncovered–Updated

This post is an update of my previous discussion about breaching this lake.

After 20 years of drilling, Russian scientists are about to break through 4km of Antarctic ice to reach 20 million year old Lake Vostok.  Who knows what they’ll find there, but I just hope they don’t contaminate this valuable and pristine ecosystem (if anything is alive down there).  And they don’t bring back something right out of a H.P. Lovecraft novel.

From a scientific standpoint, this could be fascinating.  The water will tell us a lot about the earth’s climate 20 million years ago.  It might have life forms that are either living fossils (that is, organisms once thought extinct, but have been found).  Or it might be boring and give us nothing but water.  In science, a negative result is still a result.Read More »20 Million Year Old Lake Beneath Antarctica Is About to Be Uncovered–Updated

How the placebo effect proves nothing and means nothing

Recently, there has been a large uptick in interest about the so-called placebo effect, mostly from the complementary and alternative junk medicine (CAM) crowd.  Evidently, they feel that being equivalent to doing nothing is good enough to be real.  A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Why Placebos Work Wonders, is indicative of this recent pro-placebo point-of-view.  I’ve got other bones to pick with WSJ on global warming, but I’ll save that for another day.

What exactly is the placebo effect?  The definition is often misused, implying some beneficial effect from a sugar pill or sham treatment.  But in medicine, a placebo is actually a failure.  If a new pharmaceutical, procedure or medical device shows no difference in efficacy compared to a placebo, then it is rejected.  But the CAM-pushing herd thinks that proves its a success when one of its potions and lotions is equivalent to a placebo.  What?  A failure of a modality in evidence-based medicine is somehow converted into a successful product in the CAM world?Read More »How the placebo effect proves nothing and means nothing

Indiana creationism bill passes Senate–Intelligent Democrats creatively amend it

This is part of a long multi-part series on the Republican state legislatures in the USA pushing religious teaching into public schools in clear violation of the US Constitution’s Establishment Clause. I’ve discussed Indiana here, here and here, so this is a small update with a bit of intelligent design (of the bill) by some Democrats. Indiana Democrats are a feisty group, and the science deniers must be annoyed by them.Read More »Indiana creationism bill passes Senate–Intelligent Democrats creatively amend it

Worldwide progress in measles control–vaccines get credit

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, commonly known as the CDC, this week published Progress in Global Measles Control, 2001-2010.  In 1980, there were over 2.6 million deaths worldwide from the measles virus.  Though measles is considered by many people as innocuous, it is, in fact, a relatively dangerous infection with a variable prognosis.  For vast majority of sufferers, there are few complications, but for some, even healthy individuals, it can be debilitating or even fatal.  Notwithstanding, I have always wondered why the anti-vaccination gang is willing to risk the possible death of their children by refusing to inoculate them, in light of very few risks or side effects of the vaccination itself.  I digress.

From the Vaccination Action Coalition.

[pullquote]The number of measles cases dropped to around 340,000 in 2010, a nearly 66% decline from 2001.[/pullquote]Read More »Worldwide progress in measles control–vaccines get credit

20 Million Year Old Lake Beneath Antarctica Is About to Be Uncovered

After 20 years of drilling, Russian scientists are about to break through 4km of Antarctic ice to reach 20 million year old Lake Vostok.  Who knows what they’ll find there, but I just hope they don’t contaminate this valuable and pristine ecosystem (if anything is alive down there).  And they don’t bring back something right out of a H.P. Lovecraft novel.Read More »20 Million Year Old Lake Beneath Antarctica Is About to Be Uncovered

Logical fallacies Part 1-Anti-vaccination gang’s naturalistic fallacy

In this blog, the term “logical fallacy” is used frequently to illustrate a logical or rational failure of a particular argument. There are several definitions of what constitutes a logical fallacy:

[pullquote]❝A logical fallacy is, roughly speaking, an error of reasoning. When someone adopts a position, or tries to persuade someone else to adopt a position, based on a bad piece of reasoning, they commit a fallacy.❞–Logical Fallacies[/pullquote]

[pullquote]❝An argument that sometimes fools human reasoning, but is not logically valid.❞–Fallacious Argument[/pullquote]

[pullquote]❝In logic and rhetoric, a fallacy is usually an improper argumentation in reasoning resulting in a misconception or presumption. By accident or design, fallacies may exploit emotional triggers in the listener or interlocutor (appeal to emotion), or take advantage of social relationships between people (e.g. argument from authority). Fallacious arguments are often structured using rhetorical patterns that obscure any logical argument.❞–Wikipedia[/pullquote]Read More »Logical fallacies Part 1-Anti-vaccination gang’s naturalistic fallacy

Siri lite? Siri maybe?

For the first time, I decided not to upgrade to the next version of the iPhone.  The only feature that really grabbed my interest was Siri, Apple’s new voice control system that’s quite a bit more advanced than anything out there.  Besides, I just wanted to say “Open the pod bay doors Hal.”  Apparently, some of the responses by Siri show a good sense of humor by Apple programmers.

[pullquote]Open the pod bay doors Hal[/pullquote]Read More »Siri lite? Siri maybe?

FDA approves Zostavax vaccine to prevent shingles in individuals 50 to 59 years of age

One of the consequences of contracting chicken pox (Varicella zoster) is that the virus is not destroyed by the body’s immune system.  Once the symptoms of chicken pox disappear, the virus hides itself in the basal root ganglion, unseen by the immune system.  Even though the body generated an immune response to the original zoster infection, after several decades, the response is either weakened or disappears.

Eventually, due to unknown factors (such as stress or other illnesses), the zoster virus “moves” along the nerve bundles, and causes a second infection with much more serious consequences to the patient.  This second infection is called herpes zoster (despite being the same exact virus, it was given a different name probably because it was originally thought to be two different viruses, but in this case, it’s not given a formal biological binomial name), or more commonly, shingles.  This infection usually happens when the patient is in their 50’s and older, though it can happen at any time.Read More »FDA approves Zostavax vaccine to prevent shingles in individuals 50 to 59 years of age

Joe Mercola: Proof positive that quackery sells

Orac, in his blog post, Joe Mercola: Proof positive that quackery sells : Respectful Insolence, hits the nail on the head about Mercola, one of the biggest quacks on the internet.  I don’t know if Mercola actually believes in his particular brand of science-denialism, but he uses it for one reason:  to have people with legitimate medical concerns send their money to him.  In case you don’t click on the outlink above, here are some precious quotes from Orac.

[pullquote]Putting the word “visionary” in the same title with the word “Dr. Mercola” is profoundly offensive to anyone who values reason, science, and science-based medicine.[/pullquote]Read More »Joe Mercola: Proof positive that quackery sells