Skepticblog

Sai Baba and parrot

In response to a blogger to my last post on levitation who requested something “intellectual” with some “brain meat” on it and at the risk of possibly spoiling your appetite if you happen to be reading this before eating, allow me to ramble on another band of performers that might bear some looking into and who to my knowledge haven’t been given a scientific overview. These are the rare but powerful acts of regurgitators. Why? Read on and I promise that by the end of this post you will understand how it ties in with being skeptical. I will also address several hot issues that have been surfacing here of late and answer another comment with no, not everyone is aware that magic is trickery. Far from it! (continue reading…)

You know what? I’m tired.

I’m tired of people yelling at each other from opposite sides of the fence. Pick a side! Pick a side! I’m right! You’re wrong!

It doesn’t matter what the issue is these days. Everyone has an opinion whether or not it is well-informed, and that opinion is chained to the concrete slab in the ground that defines an issue. And, like dogs protecting a house, the barks are loud. Intimidating.

The chances of breaking that chain or moving the concrete are slim. So, how do you stop the barking? Drown it out with barking of your own? Adding to the noise just increases the din that drowns out reason.

Do you keep walking past the house until you can’t hear the noise, until the barking stops on its own? Just being there provokes the dog’s angry response.

So, what do you choose? And, why? (continue reading…)

A common question posed to skeptical outreach professionals like myself (bloggers, podcasters, speakers, magazine guys) is “In all the topics you’ve researched, what’s one that you found you couldn’t debunk?” (continue reading…)

This story is so sad, and what makes it worse is that it was preventable.

The Centers for Disease Control has put out an alert: in Minnesota in 2008, there were five confirmed cases of Haemophilus influenzae type b (or Hib) among children younger than five years old. Of these five cases, three of the children were unvaccinated, one had started the series of vaccines but did not complete the series due to shortages, and the fifth — who had been fully vaccinated — had an immune deficiency.

(continue reading…)

Back in December I blogged about my recollections during the scout of one of our locations: Mt. Wilson Observatory. today, and next week, I will share what it was like actually shooting at the location for the TV pilot of The Skeptologists.

Mt. Wilson Observatory is an amazing place. I liken it to going to a museum, where everything is still being used. Founded in 1904, this astronomical observatory has served as both a scientific research facility used to peer into the darkness of space, and as the years go by a site for historical preservation of some of our nations most important scientific tools.

The site sits atop the aptly-named Mt. Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena, CA. At over 5700 feet above sea level, even during a warm Southern California day, the summit can be a cold and dangerous place.

(continue reading…)

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson was first published in the Victorian era in 1886. In this classic novella the civilized Dr. Jekyll struggles with an inner demon he has released – Mr. Hyde. Hyde is described in the book as the natural inner beast that resides within us all, always barely kept in check by our civilized morals. While a work of clear fiction, the underlying assumption of the story is that it is humanity’s nature to be a cruel, brutal, selfish beast. Fiction can tell us a great deal about cultural beliefs and values.

As skeptics we are concerned with the promotion of science to the public and so we pay attention to the portrayal of science and scientists in mass media. Television and movies, and now the internet, are our modern forms of storytelling and they reflect and help create the collective consciousness of our culture. Even pure fiction, like Jeyll and Hyde, can tell us a great deal about the assumptions and icons of our society.

The scientist as Hollywood icon has gone through a limited number of permutations, and I believe a new icon has emerged in the last few years. Dr. Jekyll reflects the classic vision of a scientist as a lone mad genius, playing god and uncaring about the consequences (only realizing them when it is too late). Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Moreau, a few James Bond villains, and just about every comic book scientist fit that icon.

(continue reading…)

The following is a review of The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a film by David Grubin, airing on PBS January 26, 2009 for the American Experience series, in association with the BBC.

During the run-up to the 2004 presidential election between John Kerry and George W. Bush, I appeared as a guest on comedian and social commentator Dennis Miller’s television talk show on CNBC, during which he made the following comparison: John Kerry is like a wickedly smart chess player, capable of looking ahead many moves, anticipating what his opponent might do and carefully weighing all his options before arriving at a rational decision. By contrast, George W. Bush is more like a checkers player, moving by instinct and glancing around the board for an easy way to king his men. In this world of good and evil, Miller explained, simple black-and-white thinking based on unwavering principles of absolute right and wrong trumps the drawn-out consideration of the nuanced thinker. In other words, with evil empires and malevolent terrorists on the loose, Miller would prefer a checkers player over a chess master. (continue reading…)

Levitation can be defined as that phenomenon which a person lifts from earth and stays suspended in air. I never grow tired of the endless variations, drama and beauty of a good levitation. I could watch them for hours and still marvel at the purposefully straight faced composure of the standard magician as they float a basic anti-gravity concept as ancient as magic itself, but still performed sometimes three or four times a night at countless venues in Reno and Las Vegas. Meanwhile in other places not so glittery, people like Padre Pio are given credit for gliding above the ground on a regular basis by his adherents as he takes it all in stride as just another daily occurrence. One of his penitents once asked him: “Father Pio, How did you manage to walk above the heads of the people?” He jokingly responded: “I can assure you, my child, it’s just like walking on the floor… “

(continue reading…)

I ran across a press release on ScienceDaily.com this week that piqued my interest.

“Acupuncture Stops Headaches, But ‘Faked’ Treatments Work Almost As Well”

Really? Interesting headline, I thought to myself, and proceeded to ingest the release. I have a love-hate relationship with acupuncture, you see. I don’t believe that it actually works. The evidence certainly hasn’t piled up in acupuncture’s clinical favor.  Yet, I have a friend or two (who I love dearly) who attend acupuncture school, and plan to make the craft their careers. So, I had to read on… maybe there is proof to my friends’ claims. (continue reading…)

US Airways Flight 1549

As if it wasn’t enough to expect us to believe that the Twin Towers could collapse from plane impacts and fire alone, now “THEY” want us to believe that an aircraft could make a perfect landing in a river and everyone could just stroll right out like nothing’s wrong.

When I first heard that there were actually conspiracy theories and that this plane crash never actually happened, I thought it was a joke. Someone did write a great lampoon theory on Skeptalk — which admittedly took me a minute to realize it was a joke — but check out what one forum poster has actually claimed. (continue reading…)