12-20-17 Science Woo Woo

12/20/17

Rob Lerner - Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance & Sculpting Ecosystems Doug Wind - Spotting Science Woo-Woo

Introductions/News/SMA Science Book Club update

Rob Lerner: Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance. 25 min & Kevin Esvelt’s work on Sculpting Ecosystems. 20 min.

Two short Ed Yong “Microbiome” videos, 15 min.

Doug Wind: Out-takes of the coming presentation:

Carl Sagan was one of the first to bring to the mass public a toolkit for deciphering science from pseudoscience when he published Demon-Haunted World in 1996. His "baloney detection kit" was a set of guidelines to help lay people spot logical fallacies and other common flaws in popular pseudoscientific claims. Many other great minds have continued in this tradition, and today we're flush with similar lists. In an effort to increase the confusion, I've taken it upon myself to compile some of the best, mix them all up, pick and choose the best points, and distill them down into a single list. In compiling this list, I owe the biggest debts to Dr. Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch.org, Dr. Tom Perls of AntiAgingQuackery.com, Dr. Michael Shermer of the Skeptics Society, and of course Dr. Carl Sagan. All four of these guys have put in many years of hard work protecting the innocent public from harmful and untruthful pseudoscientific claims. It's no accident that common themes run through all of their work.

I've created a 15-point checklist that I call "How to Spot Pseudoscience." When you hear any claim about a new product, a new discovery, or some paranormal ability, run it through these fifteen questions and you'll get a pretty clear idea of whether or not it has any merit.

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory."

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Solstice Event!

Charco del Ingenio Botanic Garden

Celebration of the December Solstice

NOON, DECEMBER 21 at our SOLAR OBSERVATORY

(Next to the Plaza of Four Winds)

Demonstrations and experiments about the cycles of the sun

here in the tropics of San Miguel de Allende.

Why do we still have flowers and leaves even though it is winter?

What time is local noon? How low does the noon sun get here in the winter and how high in the summer?

How does the height of the sun affect plants?

How many hours of daylight do we have throughout the year?

Join us to discover these answers with

Phyllis Pitluga, Astronomer Emeritus, Chicago’s Adler

Planetarium.

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This Wednesday, December 20th, 2017 @ 11:00am to 1:00pm Community Room, Puente Viejo on Calzada de la Aurora #52

Puente Viejo is a gated community; sign in at the entrance.

Any problem, have them call David McClintock - 415-112-5202

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Last Week's links: Why Black Holes do not exist.

https://www.ihmc.us/stemtalk/episode-52/

http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h4962