And I speak with all my authority as an occasional scientist and permanent science fan on this question.

However, I think that it’s possible to divide astrologers into two types. There is possibly an art of astrology as was practiced centruries ago with the birth charts of kings. There is another form which is retricted to twelve one-paragraph predictions, each for one-twelfth of the population, daily. Does one really need experiment to know that this is bogus? The predictions are so vaguely worded as to be untestable.

AFAIK, there has never been a ‘serious’ category of palmists. It’s always been a fairground sideshow kind of thing. In a Terry Pratchett book (I forget which) there’s a line like “If you’re the Great Mystero of Klatch, why are you performing card tricks in Slice, population seven?”

I posted earlier this evening on a Tim Worstall thread on the death penalty. I think it’s worthwhile for scientists and statisticians to be involved in public policy debates. Claims about the deterrent effect of judicial measures can be tested, and it’s public money well spent in doing so. Using a university budget investigating an obvious charlatan is fatuous. In short, I think you’re (probably not intentionally) misrepresenting what science is. It depends on what you call demonstrated evidence against. I can’t think of any studies actually debunking palmistry, true, but I do know that there have been studies debunking horses which can count, telepathy, spoon bending and so forth. There is also the James Randi $1M Challenge. There also isn’t any demonstrated evidence for palmistry, is there?

peter – am not sure whether palmistry even reaches that minimal level of perhaps-plausible sounding bogusness that would merit scientific investigation.

Good spy: “You’re crazy!”

Villain planning to destroy the world: “They said Einstein was crazy too!”

GS: “No one said Einstein was crazy.”

VPTDTW: “They would’ve if he’d acted like this.”

Busting on Muslims gives him that manly feeling again. Almost as good as the old days when… well, best not to dwell too deeply on it.

The thing that strikes me about him and Pamela is that they’re so gosh darn dumb. Maybe it’s rude to point that out, but whenever Chaz does something more than link to an article with a snide dig at Muslims, he displays an astounding lack of understanding and insight. With Pamela of course, it’s on display every single blog entry, along with a definite lack of facility with the English language.

They probably both come off better in the original German, as the saying goes.

we should make that “encomium”

Well, if anyone is an expert on ‘going down’ it’s Pajamaline Partygirl Pamela.

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