The Conspiracy Skeptic: HIV Denial

(http://www.yrad.com/cs/)

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Abbie Smith is a grad student at the University of Oklahoma studying HIV. She has a popular blog called ERV (ie endogenous retro virus). Smith takes on creationists, the Disco'tute's head honchos, the top HIV deniers, all the while trying to find a way to keep HIV from killing babies. All that from a person who doesn't own more than 3 small kitchen appliances. Naturally, she stops in to chat with the Conspiracy Skeptic about HIV denial.

• Abbie and PZ Myers
• Abbie should not be confused with Abbie Hoffman.
• Abbie's old blog
• Japanese scientist who thinks you can change the structure of water if you say nurturing things to it
• Oh Lenny
• Abbie will give you a cool blog for free, earning under 20K a year. Lenny will sell you $188 tuning forks or a $1300 water filter
• Abbie takes on Behe
• Abbie debates Lenny
• Lenny accuses Duesberg of all kinds of nasty stuff
• Lenny's entirely bizarre indictment of Duesberg
• Abbie vs Dembski I
• Abbie vs Dembski II
• Abbie vs Dembski III
• Abbie vs Dembski IV
• Abbie vs Dembski V
• Abbie vs Dembski VI
• One of those crazy HIV photos that aren't supposed to exist
• More HIV images that supposedly don't exist

The Conspiracy Skeptic: Moon Hoax and Stuart Robbins Revisited

(http://www.yrad.com/cs/)

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Stuart Robbins who talked about 2012 on Unplugged Episode 2 is back to talk about the Moon Landing Hoax in the run up to the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the current LRO mission. And yes I know I pronounce Hare Krishna wrong :)

• Exposing Pseudo Astronomy by Stuart Robbins
• Where Stuart explains anomaly hunting
• Stuart's coup
• Hare Krishna site with the WTF moment
• Hare Krishna site with the Krishnas who simply hand wave away evidence
• LRO Mission
• Franglais
• Karl in the BBC
• Fiske Planetarium
• Fisk on the Pegasus
• An imperfect Apollo shot
• Space Pen Urban Legend
• HIV Image
• Neal Adams and his hollow planet "theory"
• Texas monkeying with Astronomy in public education

Vaccinations: The Silent Killer?

I won't keep you in suspense for long -- the answer is an emphatic, unequivocal no! Vaccinations will not kill you. Vaccinations will not give your kid autism. Vaccinations are not harmful. It's hard because parents want what's best for their children, this is commendable. But don't listen to Alex Jones or Jenny McCarthy they're not going to raise your kids. Hell, don't even listen to me. Pay attention to the literature and listen to those who really know what's going on.

First of all there's no statistical link between the number of vaccinated children and the percentage of children who contract autism. 77% of kindergartners have been vaccinated while a mere 1% of that age group have autism. Also, one of the big concerns is the mercury content. This fear is completely unfounded. The mercury levels inside vaccinations are lower than your average plate of salmon or a cup of cold, refreshing water direct from the tap. What do you think about that Ms. McCarthy?





If you're wondering what makes this stuff poisonous, it's not the individual element which determines toxicity but the dosage. Quantity, folks, it is all about quantity. A good way of putting it is -- complaining that vaccines have polyethylene glycol in them is like complaining that "salt has chlorine in it." (source)

Unlike other conspiracy theories like the Moon landing hoax and 9-11 "Truthers" this isn't just annoying it is dangerous. How many frightened parents avoided vaccinating their children only to have it end tragically? The "research" to come out on the anti-vaccinations side is as unscientific as it comes. Show me a controlled, double blind, peer reviewed study or two and then we can talk.

This is just the beginning. For much, much more check out this episode of QuackCast: Let's kill the children or a defense of vaccines And if you have anymore time after that have a listen to the latest episode of the Conspiracy Skeptic: The Vaccine Conspiracy