Carnival of the Africans #15

The 15th edition of the Carnival of the Africans is out over at Bomoko and other nonsense words. There is plenty of interest - aliens, SETI, muti killings, WEIRD subjects, etc. - so go check it out!

Encephalon #80: The Twitter Edition

Welcome to the 80th edition of Encephalon (@encephalon_), the world's best mindy/brainy/behaviory blag carnival! Since I've finally joined the whole Twitter party properly (@michaelmeadon), I figured making this the Twitter Edition would be fun. It also features an entirely gratuitous picture of a hot bird (haha), right. So, here are some 'Tweets', all < 140 characters... (The @xxx's refer to the relevant person's Twitter account, if there is one, and the link at the end of each 'Tweet' goes to the blog entry).

• @edyong209 asks: can a sniff of oxytocin improve the social skills of autistic people? Apparently yes: http://bit.ly/dqVSIV
• @neurocritic on on alien hand syndrome and agency error http://bit.ly/d8D3kY & on neuropsychoanalysis: http://bit.ly/bU3LyD
• @vaughanbell wonders whether you really can be frightened to death: http://bit.ly/d0ehYL
• @podblack on facilitated communication and Belgian Rom Houben. Newsflash: it didn't really work: http://bit.ly/aTHvWy
• @sharpbrains head honcho @AlvaroF interviews Michael Merzenich on brain training, etc. http://bit.ly/5kfG7w
• @sharpbrains says working memory is a better predictor of academic success than IQ: http://bit.ly/5Q3ZJ5
• @somatosphere has a summary of an interdisciplinary UCLA conference on the Cultural and Biological Contexts of Psychiatric Disorder: http://bit.ly/d1J1tT
• @researchdigest says swanky cars enhance men's appeal to women, but not women's  to men: http://bit.ly/dr9krV
• @BrainBlogger on a BMJ article that concluded children with a high IQ have a reduced risk of mortality as adults: http://bit.ly/9T4Hhy
• @BrainBlogger argues the act of speaking in tongues as a verifiable language phenomenon: http://bit.ly/bOlKX2
• @jonahlehrer reveals sportspeople don't maximize gains like game theory predicts: http://bit.ly/bw769F. Von Neumann pissed.

That's it! There doesn't seem to be a host for the next Encephalon yet, so volunteer! 

Skeptics' Circle #130

I've not pointed to Skeptics' Circles in a while (naughty, I know). So here's the latest. the 130th edition of the Skeptics' Circle is up over at The Lay Scientist. Posts to check out: Martin on the 10:23 mass homeopathy overdose, Andrea's Buzzing About on the false distinction been 'natural' and 'artificial' chemicals, and Dubito Ergo Sum on Mike Adams' (of the quackery site Natural News) stupid views about skeptics. My contribution to this edition was "In Praise of Deference".

Carnival of the Africans #13: The Zombie Edition

The lovely Angela of The Skeptic Detective has brought the Carnival of the Africans back from the dead! (She prefers to call it "The Phoenix Edition". Zombies are cooler. Evidence at right). A couple of picks: James of Acinonyx Scepticus on why playing the lotto is a really bad idea, Bongi of other things amanzi on an amazing case of a sangoma's neglected breast cancer, and Angela herself on why canola oil is not dangerous.

Skeptics Circle #128

Welcome to the 128th edition of the venerable (yes Orac, it is venerable) Skeptics Circle, brought to you from the beautiful continent of Africa once again. (Oh, and, no signs of prawns yet, but I'll let you know)...

First up is the indefatigable David Colquhoun (who I just learned, courtesy of Wikipedia, is an FRS) with a fantastic post on what actually gets taught in a homeopathy course. Disturbing stuff, and admirable work by Colquhoun.

Greg Laden addresses an important and rather touchy subject: the meaning of the term "skeptic" (as opposed to "denialist" and so on). He argues, convincingly I think, that there is an important difference between skepticism as a process (i.e. accepting as true only those propositions for which good evidence is available) and skepticism as a position (e.g. "global warming skeptic").

Angela Butterworth of The Skeptic Detective (full disclosure: she's my fiancée) has another great piece debunking a chain-mail, this time one that claims canola oil is dangerous. In a surprise development, the chain-mail contains falsehoods...

In solidarity with the libel-troubled Simon Singh, the last time I hosted this carnival I dedicated it to chiropractic. Alas, yet another skeptic is being sued: this time it's Paul Offit, and the culprits are the deplorable anti-vaccinationists. David Gorski has the details over on Science-Based Medicine.

JDC325 of Stuff and Nonsense has a post on Shiv Chopra and Joseph Mercola's idiotic views on vaccines. Apparently, swine and avian flu are hoaxes. Yeah, like gravity and carrots.

True believers keep churning out nonsense acupuncture studies and the mainstream media keeps reporting on them in a lazy, irresponsible manner. Luckily, Red Stick Skeptic on the case.

Karen Stollznow, the Skepbitch herself, takes on one Frank Sumption who claims to have invented a "Ghost Box" that can be used to communicate with ghosts, aliens and whatnot. Karen concludes, appropriately and to no rational person's surprise, that Sumption is a nutjob.

The Skeptical Teacher has a trifecta of posts: winter is not proof of global cooling (for FSM's sake, deniers are stupid), two steps forward and one step back in US science education, and on Deepak Chopra's further decent into craziness. 

Traversing the Razor (lovely blog name, eh?) has chalked up a small victory against quackery, all in the name of a friend recently lost to cancer. Great work. 

Effort Sisyphus is "doing [his] little part to stop the spread of nonsense" (cheers to that), this time round on high fructose corn syrup. The stuff isn't nearly as bad as headline writers and lazy reporters would have you believe...

Andrew over at The Evolving Mind has two pieces in this edition of the carnival: bad psychological science on 'serious emotional disorders' and woo in a retailer's magazine. 

Last, and quite possibly least, a couple of (somewhat older) posts from yours truly... First, I report on the recent increased incidence of measles in South Africa, likely due to anti-vaccination bollocks. Second, I reveal that you - yes you! - have an immune system, which means, among other things, that medical anecdotes are useless.

The 129th edition of the carnival will the Skepvet's responsibility, and it'll arrive on January 28th... Until then, may your bullshit detectors be with you.

Encephalon #79

The 79th and year-end edition of Encephalon is out at The Mouse Trap. Posts to check out: Neuronarrative on further evidence that our memories are highly fallible, and The Neurocritic on the neurobiology of internet addiction...

Encephalon #78

The 78th edition of the mind/brain/psychology/etc. carnival Encephalon is out at Providentia. Posts to check out: Generally Thinking on the Buddhist brain, Brain Stimulant on neurorobotics, and The Neurocritic on unusual sexual changes due to various types of brain damage (including a kind of tumor-induced pedophilia).

My posts on estimating formidability from bodies and faces were featured.

Skeptics' Circle #123

The 123rd incarnation of the Skeptics' Circle is out at Blue Genes. Posts to check out: The SkepVet Blog on CAM and religiosity; The Evolving Mind on cognitive biases; and Skeptic North on the lack of evidence for the healing power of prayer.

Carnival of the Africans #12

Welcome to another (somewhat late) edition of Carnival of the Africans the best and only carnival for African scientists, rationalists and skeptics...

We start this month's edition with a few newcomers:

• The Academy of Science of South Africa launched a blog a while back and recently did a cool rundown of new papers in the South African Journal of Science. 
• Geekery has posts on the top 10 craziest geek quotes and Geek God: Mark Shuttleworth.
• Hello Universe, This is Nessie writes about discrimination against atheists on the South African bench. 
• Also new is Blaize (who is coming to UKZN next year, yay!) at Bomoko and other nonsense words with a post on how a contradiction leads to any and all conclusions.  
  
• Tauriq Moosa covers that potato faith dude Angus Buchan, and...
  
• Rounding off the newbies (well, bloggers new to me...) is Lenny on superstitious beliefs about Diwali and the weather...

On the the familiars...

Simon Halliday, bless his soul, actually submitted a post to this edition (so I didn't have to forage on his blog), so I'll give him pride of place. He has a fascinating piece on whether gender affects risk aversion (hear the evolutionary psychologists stir...)

Jacques Rousseau (who used to lecture me at UCT, btw) at Synapses has two posts in this edition: on how faith kills and Blasphemy Day.

The Skeptic Blacksheep (aka Michelle) reports that a psychic, amazingly, claims to have contacted Michael Jackson. Sigh.

Next up is Angela of The Skeptic Detective who blogged about a deeply boring psychic fair in Durban (I was there: yes, it was that boring). She also demolishes another idiotic chain mail doing the rounds, this time about snakes in kiddies' ball pits. (People really need to learn how to spot shopped pictures).

Tim at Reason Check does a great job of taking on Marietta Theunissen, a notorious and frankly dangerous 'psychic' who was interviewed on South Africa's 702 radio station recently. (I commented on Tim's post with a link to the mp3. Listen, if you dare).

Dr. Spurt (whose friend Dave is my supervisor...) continues his series of posts on Mad Ads (also: this) and takes on the weird claim that music not produced by a human brain is worthless.

Finally, my contributions: I attack ignorance about evolutionary psychology, explain that you have an immune system (yes!) and review a bunch of skeptical books.

We don't have a host for next month so email me if you're keen! Especially if you haven't hosted before. It'll be good for you...

Encephalon #77

The 77th edition of Encephalon (along with Grand Rounds) is out at Sharp Brains. Pieces to check out: Mind Hacks on the curious spike in brain activity at the moment of death (and how this may explain near death experiences), Neurophilosophy on how vision can alleviate pain, and The Neuroctitic on the same.

Skeptics' Circle #122

The 122nd edition of the Skeptics' Circle is out at Young Australian Skeptics. My picks: Effort Sisyphus on how skepticism has improved his health, J. R. Braden of The Gaytheists on debating a creationist cousin, and The Skeptical Teacher on that silly claim that the LHC will be sabotaged from the future...

Call for contributions!

So it's almost Carnival of the Africans time again - it'll be back on the 28th, and I'll be your host. Write something, check whether it fits our guidelines and then send it to me at ionian.enchantment@gmail.com. Or preferably, first check the guidelines and then write something. Anyway, DO send me entries!

Oh. And if you'd like to host the carnival, email me too...

Skeptics' Circle #120 and #121

The 120th edition of the Skeptics' Circle is out at Pro-Science; it also features a nice discussion of the history of the carnival. Anyway, posts to check out: The Bronze Blog on how to deal with trolls and other annoyances, and Unleashed (part of the ABC stable of blogs) on the silliness of homeopathy. My post "Fun with a local homeopath" was included.

The 121st edition of the Skeptics' Circle is out at The Mad Skeptic. Have a look at: Effort Sisyphus on the goings-on at the NECSS conference (which was hosted by the NESS and NY Skeptics), Podblack Cat on the process of skeptical blogging (and what skepfails to avoid), and The Examining Room of Dr. Charles account of visiting a Darwin exhibit.

Encephalon #76

The 76th edition of Encephalon is out over at Neuroskeptic. Posts to check out: The Neurocritic asks whether neuroscience tells us torture doesn't work, Neurophilosophy on how vegetative and minimally conscious pantiens can learn, and Crime and Consequences on the silliness of neurolaw.

Carnival of the Africans #11

The 11th edition of the Carnival of the Africans is out over at The Skeptic Detective. My picks: Simon of Amaneunsis with some fact checking on pregnancy and sushi, George Claassen at Prometheus Unbound on religion in South African state schools, and Richard at The Botswana Skeptic on fortune tellers and the law...

We need a host for next month, so email me if you're interested...

Carnival of the Africans -- call for submissions

Angela Butterworth, The Skeptic Detective, will host the next edition of the Carnival of the Africans on the 28th. Please check out the guidelines, and then submit your posts to skepticdetective@gmail.com.

Also, if you'd like to host an edition, email me at ionian.enchatnment@gmail.com....

Skeptics Circle #119

The 119th edition of the Skeptics Circle is out at Cubik's Rube. Posts to check out: The Skeptical Teacher's account of skeptrack at Dragon*Con, weird things on Kurzweil's bollocks live-forever stuff, Effort Sisyphus on how skeptics are (probably) immune to scams, and negative entropy on how foot detox machines are nonsense.

Encephalon #75

Welcome to the 75th edition of Encephalon, your bi-monthly round-up of the best neuroscience and psychology posts from around the intertoobies...

First up in this edition is Vaughn over at Mind Hacks, with two fantastic titbits: amazing brain scans of 500-year-old mummies and a case-study of a patient who had a nail hammered into her head by some quack in an attempt to treat persistent headaches.

The massive literature on how human cognition is affected by non-rational, largely sub-conscious and often unacknowledged biases continues to grow. Two contributors submitted posts in this general area: Dave of Cognitive Daily and Dave of Neuronarrative. Our first Dave covers some recent work on how mood affects memory: apparently being in a bad mood when trying to memorize a list of words nullifies some kind of category cross-talk and thus improves recall. Weird. Our second Dave submitted two posts: the first (c'mon, parse that...) covers further work on how memories can be manipulated (this time courtesy of video), and the second is on how temperate influences emotion.

While neither Mo at Neurophilosophy nor Ed at Not Exactly Rocket Science actually submitted to the carnival, they produced a gem of a post apiece so I thought it appropriate to include them: Mo on the 'fiber optics' of the vertebrate retina and Ed on the dance of the disembodied gecko tail.

Daniel and Greg at Neuroanthropology do some public service blogging with a three part take down of a bad study of Rule 34 ("if it exists, there's porn on it"). Part 1: Sex, lies and IRB Tape, Part II: SurveyFail redax, and Part III: Nature/Nurture: Slash to the rescue...

So how about some neuroscience? Andrew and Scicurious to the rescue... The latter discusses behavioral tagging as a mechanism for long-term memory formation, and the former has a post on how adult fear memories can be erased (well, in rats).

Brain Blogger submitted two pieces: Jared Tanner calls for ethical debate before we create an artificial brain and Meghan Meyer discusses how physical and social pain may share neural architecture.

Finally, the usual trifecta of posts from Sharp Brains: cognitive enhancement via both neuropsychology and pharmacology, working memory training vs. medication treatment for children with ADHD, and a retooled understanding of 'use it or lose it'.

The next edition of the carnival, as far as I can see, has not been scheduled, so email Alvaro to volunteer!

Skeptics Circle #118

The 118th edition of the Skeptics Circle is out at The Evolving Mind. Posts to check out: SkeptVet on nutritional nonsense about pet food, The Bronze Blog on how as citizens of "Middle World" our intuitions fool us into thinking quantum mechanics is magic, Cubik's Rube on alternative medicine, and The Mad Skeptic on woo in the bedroom.

Carnival of the Africans #10

The 10th edition of the Carnival of the Africans is out at Owen Swart's 01 and the Universe. My picks... The Skeptic Detective on the bullshit around organic food, other things amanzi with a depressing anecdote about muti, and The Skeptic Blacksheep on woo products for health.

The Skeptic Detective will host the next carnival on September 28th...