Weekly News and Blog Roundup: The BCA Ain’t Singhing Any More

This week the skeptic blogs have been dominated by talk of Dawkins’ and Hitchens’ plan to arrest the Pope, but there have been many other great stories including fantastic news regarding Simon Singh. Find out about all that and more in this week’s roundup.

BCA Drop Libel Case Against Simon Singh

After a two year battle the BCA have finally dropped their case against Simon Singh. This tremendous news follows the Court of Appeal’s recent ruling that Singh’s article was comment not fact. Congratulations Simon!

We should remember, of course, that this case did take two years and cost Simon over £200,000. This victory does not mean that UK libel laws work.

Read Sense About Science’s coverage of the story, where you will also find links to all its other coverage and a statement from Singh, here.

“Richard Dawkins: I Will Arrest Pope Benedict XVI”

The Times reported this week that Dawkins is planning to ambush and arrest Pope Benedict XVI during his September visit to the UK. This is incorrect. Actually Dawkins merely expressed that he was “whole-heartedly behind the initiative of [lawyers] Geoffery Robertson and Mark Stevens.”

Unrecognised by the UN as a head of state, the lawyers believe that the Pope should be unable to claim diplomatic immunity and so could be referred to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Failing that, Dawkins and Benedict have agreed to go one-on-one in a televised fight to the death. Dawkins has insisted there be no blows below the belt.

Read the Times’ news coverage (with a pinch of salt) here.

Watch Christopher Hitchens discuss the matter on MSNBC News here.

[Via Richard Dawkins]

An Interesting Admission

The Catholic Church is opposing Connecticut’s newly proposed legislature to remove the statute of limitations on child sex abuse. A letter explaining that the law would put “all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk” was signed by Connecticut’s three Roman Catholic bishops and Satan himself.

[Via Pharyngula]

Starsuckers: The BS of PR

I think I can safely presume that nobody reading this blog assumes there to absolute journalistic scrutiny within the tabloids, but exactly how bad are they? Starsuckers is a new documentary that set out to answer that question. By feeding a host of invented celeb stories to UK tabloids, the makers saw their fantasies turned into ‘fact’. Ever read the one about Girls Aloud member Sarah Harding being a closet astrophysics nut? Well guess where it stemmed from. I know, I know. I’m as disappointed as you are.

Watch the full documentary here. (Unfortunately this video is available to UK residents only.)

For those outside the UK, watch some snippets here.

[Via Skepchick]

ICP are no Clowns

Okay, so this post appeared on Skepchick’s website last week, and it’s hardly a new finding, but I couldn’t find time to write a roundup last week (sorry!), I don’t frequent ICP chatrooms as regularly as I perhaps should, and I love, love, love this, which makes it newsworthy.

Insane Clown Posse (ICP) are in fact a posse of evangelicals hoping to lead their fans to God. For those who don’t know, ICP are a hardcore ‘rage-rock’ group, and when you see them and hear their music you’ll know why this is amazing news.

I have to hand it to them though, they are cleverer than they look (see image below). Their impeccable marketing (including ‘beef’ with Eminem and appearing on WWF, as well as generally being the most shocking thing on the market) led them to a platform Jesus would have envied.

On a related note, I first came to hear of ICP through the excellent documentary Merchants of Cool, which examines MTV culture and marketing. Some of it is extremely clever, and I believe there is a lot that ‘The Skeptic Movement’, if there is such a thing, can learn from it. Watch it here.

Quackademia is Crumbling

It is amazing to learn how many, often otherwise respectable, UK universities run courses in pseudoscience. Worryingly they are usually in medical fields.

After persistently exposing their (suspiciously difficult to acquire) course material to ridicule, anti-woo groups have forced many such universities to discontinue these courses, and this week down went another. The Robert Gordon University has ended their homeopathy course.

Unfortunately, when the Chinese spirits close a door they open a window, and there are still UK universities willing to dish out diplomas in quackery. Check out the lecture slide below from a (Bachelors of Science!) acupuncture course run by Middlesex University.

[Via DC’s Improbable Science]

Penn and Teller in London

There’s nothing I could say to plug this event that wouldn’t sound better coming from Derren Brown, so here’s what his blog post said:

“They very rarely come to London, and they’re the best magic show in the world. Penn & Teller – the eternally cool bad-boys of magic – are rocking the Hammersmith Apollo from 14-17 July. Just a few nights, and it will pack right out. I saw it in Vegas a few years ago with Andy and Coops and we found ourselves gasping out loud and utterly mesmerised. It’s ingenious, funny, heartbreaking and provocative, and if there was ever a must-see in the world of magic, this is it.”

Tickets go on sale today. Get them here.