In my post on the bandwagon fallacy, I used the popularity of certain food fads as my example. One of those fads is the current gluten-free craze. This article from NPR by James S. Fell discusses how this fad has created difficulties for people who have actually been diagnosed with celiac disease. These folks, unlike those… Continue reading
Today’s Daily Read is actually a challenge. I ran across an article called The Case for Boredom from the New Tech City podcast this morning and read about an experiment they are running called Bored and Brilliant. After reading about it, I decided to join the project. Here’s the deal: according to the podcast and article, people… Continue reading
I haven’t written any posts specifically about this subject, but it should come as a surprise to no one that I am pro-vaccine. This is a great post by Jennifer Raff from her blog Violent Metaphors that covers the basic arguments for why vaccines are safe, effective, and important. The article is chock-full of links for… Continue reading
Linda Poon of NPR uses the word poop in her headline, so I guess I can too! This article about Bill Gates drinking a glass of water derived from sewage sludge makes me very happy. This process has derisively – and misleadingly – been called “toilet to tap” (a technology I mentioned in this post),… Continue reading
Here’s an interesting little article on the link between home cooking and health by NPR’s Melissa McEwen that illustrates how we have to be careful about the assumptions we make. There is a tendency with science reporting in the media to simplify complex ideas. This, of course, is necessary when you have to contend with word limits…. Continue reading
This is a thoughtful article by Sandip Roy of New American Media and FirstPost.com on why it is so important to defend freedom of speech and expression – even when we might vehemently disagree with what is being said. Roy points out that Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French publication that was the target of a… Continue reading