Austin Skeptical Society

What happens when the spokesperson for a quack dietary supplement is nearly killed by that same supplement?
Why, he sues the manufacturer, of course.
Gary Null, a pusher of alternative medicine, supplements, and author of such fine literature as the “Joy of Juicing,” nearly died from an overdose of Vitamin D. The overdose was a result of [...]

In case any of you have been living under a rock (or for some reason don’t subscribe to Bad Astronomy, The Dawkins Foundation, Friendly Atheist, or Skepchick), you might have missed James Randi’s TED Talk here. It’s a wonderful talk where Randi takes a lethal dose of homeopathic sleeping pills on stage and lives to [...]

Two fun bits of skepticism today:
In an article from New Scientist, we have the [perhaps not so shocking] news that individuals undergoing faith healing have the “areas of the brain responsible for scepticism and vigilance become less active.”
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Schjødt and his colleagues scanned the brains of 20 Pentecostalists and 20 [...]

Sort of, at least.
The Austin Skeptics haven’t had a meeting for a while – something which I intend to fix – but in the meantime I’ve gotten married, gotten into UT Law school, and did a bunch of other fun stuff.
Now, for you we’ve got something fun: Adam Savage’s recent speech to the Harvard Humanist [...]

Last night’s Daily Show had Jon Stewart talking to Michael Specter about his new book, Denialism, and the two had a great conversation about vaccines.
The link below will take you to the clip on Hulu (available until January):
http://www.hulu.com/watch/112769/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-thu-dec-3-2009?c=817:1273

A quick blurb from the Austin American-Statesman had this little piece of prophecy regarding Texas’ students (the last blurb on the page):
PUBLIC EDUCATION
Early word: New tests are tough
As hundreds of Texas school districts get a jump on the end-of-course tests that will debut statewide in two years, preliminary results indicate a large number [...]

I didn’t cover this Mansfield, Texas woman’s DIY botox insanity in length when it first became news (though it it did find its way into one of my link-dumps), but there’s some great news: she’s been shut down.
WIRED magazine covered both stories, and did a good job of explaining why self-injecting a toxin is a [...]

Hi Everyone!
This is just a quick (and late!) announcement of the Austin Singers concert being held at 4pm today, Sunday November 22nd, at the University Presbyterian Church on San Antonio St (behind the Scientology building on the Drag). The concert program has an advertisement for the Austin Skeptical Society, so with any luck we’ll see [...]

One of the most basic arguments against evolution is that “something “this” complicated (as humans)” couldn’t just happen randomly.  While genetic mutation in and of itself is random, what is constantly ignored is the fact that animals (and humans) that experience counterproductive mutations tend to not survive long enough to reproduce!  Indeed, the computer science [...]

In lieu of something insightful and lengthy, here are a handful of links to feed the skeptic in you:
Feral Camels Plague Australia — (autoplay video, via National Geographic)
Calculating Justice: The Failure of Statistics in the Courtroom — (via New Scientist)
DIY Botox — (via Wired)
Laundry, Tires, and Climate Change — (via New Scientist)
The Virulence of Anti-Vaxxers [...]