Some of my fellow Skeptics have been discussing a homeopath who offers courses in 'homeopathic first-aid for the home'. Might work for dehydration, I suppose, given that a 30C dilution (that's a 1 in 100 dilution, repeated 30 times) will have nothing in it but water… But I rather think that homeopathic arnica – recommended […]
Continue readingMonth: February 2014
of whale poo, wolves, and spiny s*x
Whales – competing with us for food, or helping to sustain the phytoplankton production on which most life in the oceans depends? The story and video at this link make a good case for the latter. Then there's the wolves – their return to Yellowstone Park in the US has led to a whole cascade […]
Continue readingthoughts from a conference: scientists and science communication
I spent much of today at an international symposium on "Transforming Public Engagement on Controversial Science & Technology". It's been fascinating & I'm looking forward to day 2, having learned a lot from both the formal presentations and the round-table discussions. I also got to lead a discussion session after a keynote address by fellow […]
Continue readingpresenting on plants at WCeLfest
For the last few years our Centre for e-Learning has run WCeLfest – a day of presentations & discussion around using various technology tools to enhance teaching & learning. I always find these sessions very valuable as there are a lot of people doing some really interesting things in their classrooms, & there's always something […]
Continue readingmusings on moocs
I've had a few conversations lately around the topic of Massive Open On-line Courses (or MOOCs). These fully on-line courses, which typically have very high enrolments, have become widely available from overseas providers (my own institution recently developed and ran the first such course in New Zealand, which I see is available again this year). […]
Continue readingnot science as i know it
By accident, I came across the curriculum document for Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) which provides teaching & learning materials to parents who are homeschooling their children. New Zealand students who complete the program right to year 13 gain university entrance. Home Schooling NZ gives parents advice about the ACE program, but makes it clear that […]
Continue readingfluoridation in the news
I didn’t intend to write another post on this subject so soon after the last one, but a story on yahoo.com’s news feed has really annoyed me. I know journalists these days are seriously under pressure, but that doesn’t really justify taking a ‘press release’ from a known activist organisation and running it uncritically ie […]
Continue readingfluoride-cancer claims exaggerated? it looks that way
My friend & blog-buddy Grant drew my attention to a story about osteosarcoma at stuff.co.nz – and to the comments section, where one commenter raised the issue of a claimed link between this rare form of cancer and community water fluoridation (CWF). This particular claim has surfaced quite a lot lately, as anti-fluoride groups target […]
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