Jenny McCarthy Bodycount

A special sort of scientific denialism is the antivaccination movement...

The Jenny McCarthy Bodycount website credits McCarthy's high profile "vaccinations cause autism" activism with the preventable illnesses and deaths that have occurred as parents chose not to protect their children. Be sure to visit History of the Anti-Vaccination Movement and Links pages there.

What's the Harm?

Some people will ask the skeptic "what's the harm" of disbelieving in vaccination, believing in supplements, complimentary and alternative medicine in particular, or Woo in general?  "Even if this stuff isn't provable aren't adults are free to believe whatever they like?"  "It's all in good fun, right?"

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Unfortunately, there is a substantial body count, a long list of serious injuries, and billions of dollars lost to poor thinking about important issues that no amount of misapplied postmodernism or moral relativism can make right.  At his What's the Harm website Tim Farley chronicles many examples of the downside experienced when we relax our critical processes with regard to pseudoscience, medical quackery, and the paranormal.  In addition to the case studies the Resources and Press pages are rich sources of additional information.

Do You Know Any Anti-Vaxers?

In that case you may need some science to make the case for vaccination...

Mark Crislip's Quackcast #45 has a nice summary of the current crop of anti-vaccination arguments and their refutations.  Be forewarned, Crislip is contemptuous of people who think children should suffer and die from preventable diseases.

A Nation of Cowards

"A Nation of Cowards" was published in the Fall, '93 issue of The Public Interest, a quarterly journal of opinion published by National Affairs, Inc.  While 9/11 changed some attitudes about the individual's responsibility to the community - for better and worse - I think much of Jeffrey R. Snyder's essay still holds up.  What do you think?

The World's Greatest Minds

Are only a mouse click away...

Image from Wikimedia Commons

As I mentioned earlier much of my iPod listening involves podcasts dealing with critical thinking, skepticism and religion. In addition to a professional interest in ethics, creativity, and leadership, I have a layperson's interest in astronomy, evolutionary science, neurology, anthropology, history, politics.  There are only so many hours in a lifetime so I look for ways to cram as much great content between my ears as possible.  Enter the Applie iPod (the Touch in my case), iTunes, and iTunes U.  There are a near endless supply of interesting lectures available on iTunes and iTunes U or at many host organizations' websites.  There is no excuse for going without a cool content fix as often as you like.

The Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University has many podcasts dealing professional and business ethics, culture and human rights.  Look for them at iTunes U.

Princeton University Podcasts features a wide variety of events and lectures in mp3 or mp4 formats.  You can also score them at iTunes U.

Also sponsored by Princeton is the UChannel where you'll find lectures put on by many universities.

Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA) and The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) can be found on both iTunes U and iTunes or at their websites.  I prefer the downloads from iTunes because I can listen to most of them at 2x speed.  They have video podcasts too but I don't time enough for screens.

The Stanford Technology Ventures Program has seminars, lectures, and events related to leadership in the engineering and high-tech manufacturing sectors.  You can access their podcasts at iTunes U or on their website; or you can stream their content directly to your PC.

ResearchChannel has a rich Health and Medicine Video section though much of the detail is above my head.

Ontario's public educational media organization produces a TVO Big Ideas podcast. 

The Commonwealth Club of California is a well known staple to public radio listeners but those of you too busy to listen on the lunch hour can subscribe via iTunes or download from the site.

Gresham College has been offering free public lectures for 400 years, podcasts not quite so long...

NPR's On the Media is a weekly analysis of how the news is reported.  Look for it at iTunes or stream or download the podcast from their site.

A person might be excused for mistaking a PopTech video podcast for an episode of TED as they address similar topics.  Available as an audio podcast too.

TED brings together brightest lights from the fields of technology, entertainment, and design.  TED has over 400 brief talks by some really brilliant people.  You can sign up direct with them or via iTunes.  Great stuff.

The thing I like best about all these resources is their generally optimistic tone.  Perhaps the doers, the movers, and the shakers are too busy making things happen to worry about whether or not they can.  There is a podcast for almost everyone. Find yours. Fill your brain.