PolitiFact fact-checks Bob Marshall. (Hint: He does poorly.)

I’m amazed that they even bothered to fact-check Marshall’s claim that being gay “cuts your life by about 20 years,” since it’s obviously false. To their credit, they contacted the author of the study that constitutes Marshall’s evidence, who said that Marshall is guilty of a “gross misrepresentation” of his research, and that he is …

Peanut allergies are fantastically rare, even among people who ostensibly have peanut allergies.

It’s been known for some years now that very few people who believe that they have peanut allergies actually have peanut allergies, but the precise number hasn’t been known. The University of Manchester tested this by giving peanuts to a bunch of kids with peanut allergies (a bold move, to be sure) and found that …

It turns out that AIDS/HIV deniers still exist.

Back in the 1980s, it was hypothesized that HIV caused AIDS. That proved to be true. But there remain a small, vocal group of conspiracy theorists who are convinced that the HIV/AIDS connection is a huge scam. That group includes people with HIV. But as those people die of AIDS, that group keeps getting smaller, …

The USDA has mapped out food deserts.

Using public records of grocery store locations and vehicle ownership, the USDA has mapped the locations of “food deserts,” regions where people lack access to decent food. Such areas have been popular to talk about and speculate about, but this is the first effort that I’m aware of to actually locate and measure them. →

Links for November 11th

Double-Tongued Dictionary: hoghouse"Connotating legislation that has been stripped of its original provisions and amended to accomplish a different purpose." This is a useful word. Office of Government Ethics: Executive Agency Ethics Pledge WaiversThese are the presidential appointees who were given waivers to exempt them from one or more ethics regulations, along with copies of the …

Links for November 10th

Nieman Reports: A Local Newspaper Endures a Stormy BacklashThis is the story of how the tiny Idaho Falls Post Register bravely uncovered a series of cases of pedophiles acting as leaders in area Boy Scout troops, as told by the managing editor of the paper. In the face of an angry public very much in …

Links for October 14th

Science News: Columbus Blamed For Little Ice AgeHere's a fun theory of the origin of the Little Ice Age, lasting from around 1550–1850: that massive losses of New World population, as a result of disease spread by explorers, resulted in reforestation of huge swaths of the Americas, removing billions of tons of CO2 from the …

Links for June 2nd

TPM: ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Opens Fire On Store Because It Ran Out Of Crawfish42-year-old Larry Wayne Kelly—yes, middle name "Wayne"— opened fire on Pensacola's L&T Seafood Market with an AK-47 after they sold out of crawfish. When police tried to arrest them, he tried to run them down with his car. But it's OK, Kelly says, …

Links for April 15th

Jacques Mattheij: Living in the zoneThis is an instructive account of what it's like to be a programmer, for those who don't understand why we're working at 2 AM, or why a quick interruption can be so frustrating. I do my best skiing at the very edge of my abilities—it's trance-like, and a distraction would …

Links for April 6th

Guardian: Honeybees ‘entomb’ hives to protect against pesticides, say scientistsBees are awesome. New York Times: More Physicians Say No to Endless WorkdaysI'm glad to see that more doctors are ditching the habit of working endless hours. Though I appreciate that a small-town doctor or a specialist has an obligation to always be available, it's great …