The Carnival of the Africans #11

Welcome to the 11th edition of the Carnival of the Africans, the Spring edition! September has been a very busy month for the Southern African scientific and skeptical blogging community and I have scoured the blogs to bring you a carnival bursting with newly-hatched goodness. Let’s get started;

One of the things I remember about pregnancy is how all of the old wives tales assail you. Everywhere you go people are only too willing to give you their own special hint. Strangers in shopping centers will even offer advice. This month Simon lands a strike for the sceptics in his post which takes a critical look at myths around eating sushi during pregnancy.

Dr Spurt has been collecting a bewildering number of pamphlets around Durban, handed out at traffic lights and advertising all manner of organ enlarging, fortune telling and protection from enemies and evil spirits. His series entitled “Mad Ads” is well worth reading.

Michael at Ionian Enchantment takes a careful look at chameleons, specifically whether or not their ability to change colour to camouflage themselves is a myth. Animals were clearly on Mike’s mind this month because he also features an article about the domestication of the adorable silver fox.

George Claassen has an excellent article about religious indoctrination in state schools, in which George exposes extensive contravention of the national policy on religion in education.

Richard, the Botswana Skeptic, has some excellent news regarding the legal standing of psychics in Botswana. If only our laws were as rational in South Africa!

When I first started writing the Skeptic Detective, I did so with the ambition that one day there would be a group of South African sceptics who could effect positive change when confronted by blatant pseudoscience in Southern Africa. September saw what is possibly (do correct me if I’m wrong) the first major ass-whipping handed out by the SA sceptics. Early this month I stumbled across a webpage entitled “answering the skeptics” written by one Dr. JP Prinsloo. Apart from being a shocking piece of nonsense, Dr Prinsloo saw fit to attack some of the SA sceptics in his article. I don’t think he ever expected the response that he got. Within a few days Owen had written a hilarious response, Michael had taken Prinsloo to task on his empirical claims, Michelle, the Skeptic Blacksheep, had put up a short post in support of the sceptics, and I gave my own reply. Dr Prinsloo’s response was first to change the wording of his article and then to take it off the internet all together. Sceptics 1, Quack 0!

Finally, the world said a fond goodbye to Dr Norman Borlaug this month and I’d like to finish off this month’s carnival by highlighting the South African farewell’s written in honor of this amazing man. Tim of Reason Check, Owen Swart and yours truly the Skeptic Detective, would like to say a big “Thank You” to the man who fed the world.

Carnival of the Africans #7

Great news! Martin at the Lay Scientist has posted the February edition of the Carnival of the Africans. This is a monthly blogging carnival which showcases high quality scientific, sceptical or critical thinking writing from, and dealing with, the continent of my birth; Africa.

The carnival has been growing in leaps and bounds over the past six months and I am very proud to be associated with all of the contributors.

Enjoy it!

Carnival of the Africans #6

Welcome to the sixth edition of the Carnival of the Africans. This month marks my turn to browse the buffet of African science, scepticism and academic blogging, and then to pile my plate high with the tastiest morsels. This blogging carnival was initiated by Michael Meadon of Ionian Enchantment in August 2008 and has grown steadily since then.

I would like to thank all of you who were kind enough to submit your work to me this month, you really made this process a lot easier! I will honor your diligence by covering the work in your blogs first (who said I wasn’t diplomatic?).

I have a lot of ground to cover with this edition of the Carnival, so lets get started, shall we?

First out of the blocks for this month is Dr Spurt from Effortless Incitement. The Doctor introduces us to a new form of “life energy” based pseudoscience as well as taking an in depth look at how a persons moral values can influence their perception of taste.

Owen Swart of 01 and the Universe tackles Homeopathy head on with two excellent posts. In Back to Basics: Homeopathy Owen takes a critical look at the principles behind the practice as well as highlighting the dangers therein, the second post touches on The activities of Jeremy Sherr, I shall come back to this guy later. Owen also highlights the reality behind a newspaper headline declaring the discovery of Life on Mars.

Next up is Ivan at Subtle Shift in Emphasis as he carefully examines the likelihood that Danie Krugel is using a dowsing rod in his quantum location device. This is a thoroughly researched and very entertaining look at the magic behind the man.  Ivan also takes us on a personal journey as he describes how he came to be an atheist.

Amanuensis completes our tour of the submissions for this month as Simon Halliday gives us his take on the neuroscience of love and then rounds out the month with an indepth look at the science which influences how rhesus monkeys make a choice between three kinds of juice.

Richard at Botswana Skeptic begins 2009 with a look forward at a few rational milestones he would like to see achieved during the year and posts a thought provoking article on the death of Christine Maggiore.

Michael kept us enchanted in January with a provocative response to a claim by Matthew Parris that Africa needs God. The comments thread of that post is well worth a read. Mike then gives us a glimpse of how easy it could be to form supernatural beliefs when he describes Richard Neuhaus’ encounter with hypnogogia.

I would like to highlight the response of the South African community to the activities of Jeremy Sherr as I believe that we have come out rather strongly in defense of evidence-based medicine in this case. Sherr came to our attention in mid-January and we were outraged by his peddling of sugar-pills to treat AIDS in Tanzania. Owen Swart, Michael Meadon, Ivan and even myself all wrote about this charlatan. I can only hope that our response helps to shed light on the dangerous and dishonest work which Sherr is doing.

Finally I would like to introduce you to a few new bloggers on the African science/scepticism landscape;

• Rolled I & Neuro-Sly combines highly ammusing commentary with thought provoking subject matter to make for a very promising blog.
• thinktoomuch.net takes a balanced look at our culture.
• andrewdotcoza provides an entertaining and sceptical look at South Africa.

There are a huge number of excellent posts which I have not been able to include in this month’s carnival. The African bloggosphere is teaming with scientific and critical thinking. I hope that having read this post you will click through some of the blogs in the blogroll and discover how deep our batting order goes.

That a wrap folks, if you enjoyed it please join us for February’s Carnival at the Lay Scientist.

Call for Submissions – Carnival of the Africans January 2009

I have been looking forward to this for months! January is finally my turn to host the Carnival of the Africans. If you are an African blogger who writes about science, scepticism or critical thinking and you would like to have your work highlighted in the carnival please forward me links for up to three posts you would like to  submit for moderation. my e-mail address is skepticdetective@gmail{dot}com

Guidelines for suitable content can be found at Ionian Enchantment, the blog of Micheal Meadon.

Carnival of the Africans #2 – September 2008

This weekend saw the second installment of the Carnival of the African’s hit the inter-tubes. Wil Louw of the little book of capoeira followed up on Micheal’s first installment with a feast, a FEAST I tell you!, of skeptical reading.

I was very happy to see my posts on the top of the list, although I think that’s just because I submitted so late in the month, not because my posts are the best. Clearly we are all highly gifted, beautiful, sexy, African bloggers.

Please click through to Wilhelm’s blog and enjoy this months fare.