Skepticblog

The Fact or Faked Team

The Syfy Channel now has their own paranormal fighters; “Fact or Faked” who look amazingly like a younger, hipper version of the Skeptoplogists - and this show has TWO women! Now that’s progress.

“Fact or Faked” looks to be a nice segue from fiction to fact, which is what has been needed in the midst of the paranormal glut we have all been suffering through. Such a breakthrough in critical programming is long overdue. The blurb I read says:

“So give Syfy credit for showing “Fact or Faked,” which takes a mildly skeptical approach to certain paranormal claims. The show even has a methodical and academic tone, in contrast to the exotic sexiness of the claims themselves.” (continue reading…)

I received this from a listener. She noted the following on the website “PreventDisease.com” (quite the ironically named website):

They Just Don’t Learn: CDC Votes To Poison Children Again With Two Doses of Vaccines

Parents of children over 6 months and under 9 years beware. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is once again choosing to adopt policies which poison your children with what is now two doses of seasonal flu vaccine this fall.

So she emailed the guy the following: (continue reading…)

I would like to thank all of you that participated in the logo submission.  We received many great entries in a variety of creative directions.  I can’t express enough appreciation of the hard work and time that everyone put towards this project.  This effort truly helps our projects and I am glad that there are those in the community that are able to reach out with their talents and lend a hand.

The votes are tallied, and the ballots are in, after much consideration, deliberation and libation, we have selected the graphic artist whose work will be featured on our newest television project promotional materials. (continue reading…)

The Amazing Meeting (TAM) conference in Las Vegas is always the center of the skeptical universe, and TAM8 was no exception. Bigger and more representative than any previous year (it was co-sponsored by all three national US skeptics groups), TAM8 was an unprecedented summit for North American skepticism.

A lot happened. For a detailed discussion of TAM8, check out my roundtable chat with Tim Farley (What’s the Harm?), Blake Smith (MonsterTalk), and Derek & Swoopy on Skepticality. There’s been a lot to talk about. (continue reading…)

Several months ago I was interviewed by 20/20 for a follow up news report on Desiree Jennings – the cheerleader who claims to have acquired severe dystonia from a flu shot – and that show just aired on Friday. I have been following this case as the core claim is neurological and has been grossly misrepresented in the media.

20/20 did a fair job, but it’s hard for me to tell what impression the average viewer will come away with. The first 2/3 of the story was presented from a credulous point of view – essentially just telling Jennings’ story without any hint of skepticism. But then the editorial tone flips, and they give the “other side.” They did a fair job in this section of the segment, and my point of view was reasonably represented. And then at the end they leave the audience with the question – real or fake? Not the best format from a scientific point of view, but it could have been worse.

To summarize the story, Jennings, who was 28 at the time, received a flu shot in August of 2009, after which she started to develop dramatic neurological symptoms including shaking and difficulty speaking. Her story was picked up by a local news station, and from their it was picked up by Inside Edition and became a national story. Jennings spread a considerable amount of unwarranted fear about the flu vaccine, aided by a credulous media who failed to do even basic vetting of her story. In an ideal world, the original reporters would have showed their video to an actual neurologist and the story would have been nipped in the bud right there. But that’s not he world we live in.

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This is the headline of an article in the August 2010 issue of Parents magazine, with the word TOXIC highlighted in red. As you might expect, the accompanying photographs are of a family enjoying daily activities in their home from the safety of yellow hazmat suits. Shocking! Do we really live in a “toxic” world?

There has never been a better or safer time to be a human being. We live in climate controlled houses that protect us from wind, weather, and predators; we eat food that is safety tested and heavily regulated; we wear fire retardant clothing that wicks away moisture to regulate our body temperature; we have emergency services standing by to protect us from criminals, to rescue or resuscitate us, or to whisk us to a hospital; we drive cars that are basically rolling safety cells; and we have regulatory bodies and watchdog groups that constantly, round the clock, comb over every imaginable substance in the environment trying to figure out how to make things even safer. Today’s world is the safest it has ever been. No previous generation of humans has ever had it so good.

How, then, did we ever get this far without wearing hazmat suits? (continue reading…)

The Center of Attention

No, I’m not mentioning any names.  No way I’m stepping into that mess again. I want to be absolutely clear that this blog is not about any individual person, rather it is about a set of circumstances that have led to a controversy that is whirling around like an endlessly running toilet on the Internet and for which many skeptics are in such a tizzy. Lots of people are curious to know what happened and why at TAM8′s Sunday night “demonstration.”  There are many questions and few answers. That’s fine for the most part and please believe me when I state that I personally understand why “radio silence” has been invoked by so many. It’s a sticky issue that defies any easy explanation. Unfortunately the Big Picture can’t be swept under the carpet forever. (continue reading…)

The conjunction of reading Christopher Hitchens’ new memoir, Hitch 22, and the news of his treatment for esophageal cancer, reminded me that I should share my (admittedly limited) experiences of dining (and drinking) with one of the greatest literary masters and creative thinkers of our age.

First, I’m half way through listening to the unabridged audio book of Hitch 22, which I wholeheartedly recommend because Christopher reads it himself in that inimitable classically-educated British accent with his style of flowing quiet narrative punctuated with occasional bursts of accented emphasis. In other words, Hitchens sort of mumbles modestly along, then suddenly his voice rises into crystal clarity when he wants you to get the point hard and fast. Hitch 22 is a literary masterpiece, an absolute joy to listen to. I’ll leave it to his literary/politico peers to critique the ideas within (see, for example, the latest issue of The New York Review of Books with Ian Buruma’s review, as well as David Horowitz’s insightful analysis of Hitchens’ evolving political beliefs. (continue reading…)

If you do a google search on “10% brain” every relevant hit on the first page will inform you that the notion that humans use only 10% of their brain (or some similarly low figure) is a complete myth. I think I was one of the first ones to get such a debunking article on the internet, posting this article back in 1998 (I’m not going to repeat that information here – just read the original article if you are interested). My subjective sense is that more people are aware today that this is a myth than in the past, but a surprising number of people still believe this.

I was reminded of how embedded this myth is in our culture when I heard that not one but two movies out this past week repeat the 10% brain myth. In The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Nicholas Cage informs his young apprentice that normal people only use about 10% of their brains, but sorcerers can use all of it and that is what enables them to do magic. In Inception Leonardo DiCaprio makes a similar argument about his ability to enter the dreams of other people

So maybe it’s primarily Hollywood that didn’t get the memo. The 10% brain myth seems to be the go to explanation for any fantastical mental ability. I also see it crop up in science fiction from time to time. I was very disappointed to read it repeated in one of the Dune prequels, for example.

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