Zero predictive power

In case you ever thought that astrological sign signified anything about ones personality, interests or other tendencies (apart from the gullibility of the person announcing theirs), here is a nice example of large-number statistics.

How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating « OkTrends: "The Zodiac and Other Beliefs
Since he’s a Pisces and I’m a Virgo, Chris and I of course think the Zodiac is total bullshit, and it was very gratifying to have the data bear this out. Here are the grouped match percentages for a random pool of 500,000 users. Astrological sign has no effect whatsoever on how compatible two people are.



We’re showing you this table, as dull as it is, because the uniformity neatly illustrates how beefy our data set is. There are 144 pools considered above, and they all match the mean plus or minus 0.5%. ...   Red indicates mutual dislike and green, mutual like. For brevity, and because that’s where we have by far the most data, all the tables on this page display data for straight men and women only."

Carb Addiction!

If a brewing company introduced an extra-high alcohol content beer, there would undoubtedly be a certain amount of outcry over the dangers of abuse, at least in some populations.  But apparently carbohydrates and sugar are still held to a very different standard.  Maybe it is because so much of this type of creation emerges from the edgy foodie culture.
Some examples of products humans managed to live without for many thousands of years:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/07/this-week-at-serious-eats-world-headquarters-20110729-slideshow.html#show-176604

And there are artists who just do cakes and donuts etc...  is it meant to be ironic? Or is it a way of feeding the addiction, heightening the intensity in between snacks?

And then there is the cupcake proliferation:


View Larger Map

And from the Research Labs, the innovation continues around the clock...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811876373/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=cakespycom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399377&creativeASIN=0811876373

And whatever side of the culture wars -- Red State, Blue State or something else -- there is a place in the high carb universe for you:

It isn't enough to try to argue the medical science, and the statistics; this is a full-fledged society level addiction which needs to be confronted head-on.  There are significant economic forces at work here, just like on the pharmaceutical and agribusiness side of the battle .

Roadside attractions

There would seem to be a wide scope for amusing counterattacks in the form of roadside attractions that would lure the unsuspecting with re-enactments of biblical stories, etc.  For instance: Jonah and the whale viewed from the perspective of Cetacean digestive processes.  

Pharyngula: "Just another roadside attraction
Category: Creationism
I've received a couple of shocked emails from people lately, about something called Dinosaur World. It's a set of three theme parks, in Plant City, Florida, Cave City, Kentucky, and Glen Rose, Texas (that last one probably set off alarm bells already) which feature life-size fiberglass and concrete dinosaurs in a park-like setting. They also have a web site and blog which has some popular appeal: all of the entries in the blog are short descriptions of dinosaurs, with a photo, geared to the level a young child could understand."

New Statesman - Faith no more

Some good lines here:

New Statesman - Faith no more

I would have to agree, though, that God might exist but be in hiding (and I can understand why - with his record, so would I be). -- Phillip Pullman

And it is not God that gives meaning to our lives, but our relationships with fellow human beings and the goals and obligations that derive from them. God is at best redundant, at worst an obstruction. Why do I need him? -- Kenan Malik

I don't believe in leprechauns, pixies, werewolves, jujus, Thor, Poseidon, Yahweh, Allah or the Trinity. For the same reason in every case: there is not the tiniest shred of evidence for any of them, and the burden of proof rests with those who wish to believe. -- Richard Dawkins

The most common impediment to clear thinking that a non-believer must confront is the idea that the burden of proof can be fairly placed on his shoulders: "How do you know there is no God? Can you prove it? You atheists are just as dogmatic as the fundamentalists you criticise." This is nonsense: even the devout tacitly reject thousands of gods, along with the cherished doctrines of every religion but their own. Every Christian can confidently judge the God of Zoroaster to be a creature of fiction, without first scouring the universe for evidence of his absence. Absence of evidence is all one ever needs to banish false knowledge. And bad evidence, proffered in a swoon of wishful thinking, is just as damning. -- Sam Harris

Fortunately, in some parts of the world, religious belief has weakened enough so that people no longer kill each other over differences in this silliness. -- Stephen Weinberg

If you ask me about a belief in some more abstract notion of "God", I would, of course, have to know what you mean by such a term. -- Roger Penrose

...I just don't have any interest either way, but I wouldn't want to understate how uninterested I am. -- Ben Goldacre

New blog

We are launching a new blog that will be used as a repository (perhaps a generous term) for commentary that is either too obscure, skeptical, cynical, offensive or irrelevant to the main company mission to be included in the official company blog.  As an aside, cynicism has gotten a bad name; a cynical attitude actually leads to an optimistic outlook because most situations present so many opportunities to be pleasantly surprised.  On the other-hand, blind acceptance of explanations generally leads to disappointment...