The 75th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle - the plain edition
Unlike many of the previous hosts, I am not as creative when it comes
to writing posts. Still, I had planned on making an attempt of
creative writing (I was thinking along the lines of presenting the
Skeptics' Circle as a classic show-and-tell session), but due to a
number of unforeseen things, I've been pressed for time lately.
So instead, let's note the remarkable fact that the Circle has reached
its 75th edition, here close to three years it started. I think we can
all agree that in that time we have been subjected to a number of
great posts, written by some of the leading skeptic bloggers. This
edition strives to continue the tradition, and I feel we have a number
of very good posts in it. So, without any more ado, let's go to the
contributions.
First, let me introduce one of the newer voices among the skeptic
bloggers. Podblack Cat writes a blog, which she describes as "a
repository of useful links and reflections on scientific and
education-related news and issues".
She explains why the year 2038 will not be another Y2K, even though
some people think it will: What Doesn't Add Up
A more veteran skeptic blogger, is Lord Runolfr, who deals with (yet
another) chain-letter scam - The Microsoft Lottery
We have a few submissions related to autism.
First Do'C teams up with Interverbal to tackle a new paper on autism
and mercury: A Tale Of Two Tails
Secondly, Prometheus gives us two posts on "the use (or is it abuse?)
of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the treatment of autism": HBOT: Is it
just a bunch of hot air? and HBOT: Under Pressure
For three good examples of debunking "news" stories, we have Sam
Wise's Googlediving, hybrid vehicles, and energy consumption, dealing
with the claims that the lifecycle energy consumption of a Prius is
greater than that of a Hummer. The Professor over at Evangelical
Realism, takes on a reported miracle: Anatomy of a "miracle". And
Flavin's look at the recent story of how Santa Claus cannot say 'ho ho
ho', Ho Ho Hustle!. Flavin, who posts over at St. Louis Skeptical
Society is another great new voice in the skeptic blogsphere.
For a more easily debunked, yet reoccurring, theme, Paddy takes on
Jesus Pancake Christ.
A different take than what we normally see, but still quite relevant
to the Circle, Michael Meadon explains why how he gained more respect
for skepticism: Hypnopompia, or, How I Learnt to Stop Belittling True
Believers and Love Skepticism
Most people have probably noticed that submissions to the Skeptics'
Circle seems somewhat themed, and one of the big themes this time was
homeopathy.
Over at the Bad Idea Blog, there is Detox and Re-Tox: Bad Medicine and
Even Worse Homeopathy at Alt-Med Mecca NewsTarget, Christian at Med
Journal Watch gives us Random reward may explain why homeopathy still
exists, and finally Sandy Szwarc writes How we know what will kill or
cure us. Maybe these attacks explains why homeopaths complain about
lack of profits?
Focusing more narrowly, Bing takes on Dale Sellers: Dale Sellers: Your
life is a lie... [warning: explicit language], and PalMD from
WhiteCoat Underground takes on Dr. Russell Blaylock: How much woo can
one doc do?
More technical in nature is Blake Stacey's post on Quantum: Yawn: More
Abuse of the Quantum
Rana explains how skepticism also is warranted when dealing with
marketing: Signals.
The Gadfly, from The Philosophy of the Socratic Gadfly, explains FBI
criminal profiling - little more than psychics' "cold reading"
Skeptico takes on the nonsense that is Larry King, and the psychics he
regularly invites on his show: From The Sublime to The Ridiculous
For an interesting look on traditional "psychology" in Western Africa,
go read Dr. Romeo Vitelli's Casting Out The Djinn
Last, but not least, Martin Rundkvist reports on the Swedish Skeptics
Society and its recent 25th anniversary celebration.
All in all, a great haul.
The next meeting of the Skeptics' Circle will be on December 20th at
Aardvarchaeology.
Labels: Skeptic's circle
posted by Kristjan Wager at 10:30 AM View blog reactions
11 Comments:
Blogger Bad said...
To be fair, my article is only tangentially about homeopathy:
it's more about the naturopath obsession with detoxing... and
then the loopy chemist who thinks that homeopathic water memory
means that water everywhere is having poisonous flashbacks. :)
December 06, 2007 4:04 PM
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Wonderful edition, Kristjan! I love the international flavor.
December 06, 2007 5:00 PM
Blogger Blake Stacey said...
Thanks for including my contribution! I keep hoping I can make
people more comfortable with mathematics, one equation at a
time. . . .
There's just one thing, one little nit I should pick: can I buy
a vowel?
December 06, 2007 7:02 PM
Blogger Kristjan Wager said...
Sorry Blake, should be fixed now. Don't know how that happened.
December 06, 2007 7:57 PM
Blogger Prup (aka Jim Benton) said...
Excellent collection, Kristjan, almost all the articles are
worth knowing -- and 'homeoptahs' is one of the truly inspired
typos. However -- for reasons that will be obvious as I go on
-- I have to use this space to get a message to "The Professor"
at EVANGELICAL REALISM.
You have a great blog -- or would have if it were possible to
comment on it. But I was unable to figure out how to do so, and
judging from the number of entries with 'no comments' so were
others.
I tried e-mailing you on this, first going through your
word-verification process to unlock the address, then sending
the mail off. It came back, almost instantly with the message:
"209.202.208.20 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 5.1.1 RUSR 68.142.206.196: No such user"
Can you please clear up this problem? We like to be able to
reach people who blog this well, and join in on the discussion.
December 06, 2007 8:18 PM
Blogger RNB said...
Cheers Kristjan.
My blog covers all the "usual" issues too, homeopathy,
religion, etc, but as I intend that "everything" there is
skeptical, and as my self-imposed limits don't allow in-depth
discussion, I thought I'd send in something a bit different.
Thanks for including.
Rana
December 06, 2007 10:22 PM
Blogger Flavin said...
Thanks for the compliment. I took pleasure in rubbbing that in
the face of the other posters on my site.
December 06, 2007 10:41 PM
Blogger Thursday said...
Okay, now I'm up to two things I like coming from Denmark: this
and Jannik Hansen, a hockey player in my favorite NHL team's
system.
Hmm... Maybe I should be paying more attention to this nation,
eh?
December 06, 2007 11:12 PM
Blogger Zoo Knudsen said...
Do rejected submissions not deserve a reason behind their
rejection or was the omission an oversight?
Was a satiracal jab at the pulling of advertisements from
magazines by a major tobacco company in an effort to please
anti-smoking groups, while still selling their deadly product
without remorse, not qualify as skeptical enough?
December 07, 2007 4:37 AM
Blogger Kristjan Wager said...
Zoo, I am unaware of having received any submission from you. I
might have overlooked it, either when I received it, or when I
wrote this post.
Did you get a mail from me when you submitted it? I sent a mail
to everyone whose submissions I received.
I'm sorry that your post didn't get included, and from your
description, it would have fitted in.
December 07, 2007 6:46 AM
Blogger Zoo Knudsen said...
I used the email off of your profile because I didn't see on in
the call for submissions. But no problem, I figured it was a
glitch and not a denial. Sorry if I came across as grumpy in
that last comment. What else would you expect from a paranoid
semi-literate octogenarian?
December 07, 2007 4:07 PM
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