Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Bedales School, located in the town of Steep in southeast England, is one of the most prestigious “public schools” in the UK. As you know, those are the equivalent of what we in the US would call “private boarding schools,” catering to children (males and females in this case) between about 13 and 18 years … Continue reading Woomeister to give prestigious public-school lecture in UK
Over at HuffPo, Deepak Chopra is still kvetching about his Wikipedia page. The fact that PuffHo still lets the old quack continue complaining about his “misrepresentation” at great length shows that no matter how low you think PuffHo has fallen, there’s still a ways to the bottom. In a piece published yesterday, “Wikipedia, a new perspective on an old problem“, Deepakity … Continue reading Deepak beefs again about the skepticism on his Wikipedia page
I don’t usually post about internet drama, but this is an exception for two reasons. First, I’m cooling my heels at Midway Airport with a slightly delayed flight, and second, there’s a lesson here about how woomeisters respond when their pseudoscience is attacked, and how they distort data to pretend that many great advances have … Continue reading Deepak Chopra, still peeved, tweets about a comment on an ancient New Republic piece
About a month ago I received an email from Susan Gerbic—who helps run Guerrilla Skeptics on Wikipedia (GSoW)—telling me that they were revamping my Wikipedia page. I was surprised, as of course I hadn’t solicited this, and had no idea who started the page in the first place—nor who updates it. And I’d barely heard … Continue reading Guerrilla Skeptics create and update Wikipedia pages (including mine)
I have deeply affronted The Deepak with my recent piece in The New Republic criticizing him and Rupert Sheldrake. Chopra has written an outraged letter to the magazine, flaunting his impeccable scientific credentials, and I have replied. You can read the exchange at TNR‘s online piece, “Deepak Chopra responds to pseudoscience allegations. Jerry Coyne fires … Continue reading The Deepak, part I: Chopra goes after Professor Ceiling Cat
Well, not really, as, unlike the totally mercenary PuffHo, The New Republic actually pays some stipendiary emoluments to their writers. TNR wants to beef up its science-related online stuff, so I’ve agreed to allow them to cross-post some of my efforts from time to time. The first one, a slightly modified version of my piece … Continue reading I’ve sold out again
Whenever I think of the Deepakity, I’m immediately reminded of Maru the Cat, who, explaining his obsession with jumping into boxes of all sizes, said, “When I see a box, I cannot help but enter.” And so it is with Chopra. This is a metaphor of course, but think of Chopra as Maru and the New Atheists as … Continue reading Deepak Chopra: Quantum troll
Some of the nastiest emails and comments I get are from defenders of woomeisters like Rupert Sheldrake (who complained to my provost about me a few weeks ago) and Deepak Chopra. There’s a penchant for woo that runs deep in some people. From reader “Someone who knows,” commenting on a post about Tanzi and Deepak … Continue reading Wacko comments of the week
Yesterday I put up the video of an absolutely dreadful anti-scientific talk by woomeister Rupert Sheldrake, a talk that he gave it for TEDx Whitechapel. After I kvetched about it here, I sent an email complaint to Emily McManus, an editor at TED.com (her TED biography notes that she’s an atheist!), adding a link to … Continue reading TEDx has second thoughts about Rupert Sheldrake’s talk, asks viewers to weigh in
Well, TED has come down a long ways since it once presented a forum for quirky, advanced, and entertaining thinkers. In an effort to keep ahead of the intellectual tide, they’ve started incorporating substandard speakers, including woomeisters, and have spawned “TEDx,” local versions of TED talks. Those, too, reached their nadir with a TEDx talk … Continue reading TEDx talks completely discredited: Rupert Sheldrake speaks, argues that speed of light is dropping!
