skeptics circle solstice edition

Skeptic's Circle the Solstice Edition

~ Carnie Folk, skeptical thinking

Welcome to the 63^rd edition of the Skeptics' Circle, celebrating

today's Solstice (June 21 2007 18:06 GMT).

Now if you are in the Northern hemisphere this will be the longest

edition of the skeptics' circle and conversely if you are in the

Southern hemisphere it will be the shortest.

And now you may want to know how I am going to do this... well the

answer is I'm not after all today is still 24 hours long regardless of

where you are on the planet and so this edition of the skeptics'

circle will be the same length for all.

That and the fact that my lack of ability to come up with anything

better leads us straight to the meat of this last fortnight's

skeptical round up in no particular order with the exception of the

first.

Infophile has a good post, explaining part of what it means to be a

skeptic, that really should be a must read for everyone (not just us

skeptics).

The Discovery Institutes latest and greatest Dr Egnor continues to

offer his ignorance on plate for the rest of us and his recent ideas

about dualism (mind/brain) have provided much fodder. PZ of

Pharyngula, Blake Stacey of Sunclipse and Orac of Respectful Insolence

all take him to task for this.

The Hoofnagle brothers at Denialism has a good couple of posts, on the

dangers of unrestricted advertising and how to be a crank

And now for a nice relaxing break a look at some good old fashioned

(or not so old fashioned as the case may be) quackery, thanks to Tara

of Aetiology, Andrea's Buzzing About, and Orac of Respectful

Insolence.

Away from the Bench has a brief look at what went on at DC's

Improbable science and DC himself tells how the saga has been some

what resolved.

We will follow this up with Aurora Walking Vacation's little

illustration of eggs and bad science, Infophile showing the absence of

evidence can be evidence of absense and Prof. Bleen tells of the Peer

review process at the IJCR

The old adage is that you are what you eat, however Junkfood science

explains just what food processing is before illustrating that the

point that if you are going to study what is in the food and what it

does to the body it might pay to put it in the body (or at least a

part of it). On a similar topic the Holford watch shares us the tale

of quack being put to the sword on live tv, heck you can even watch

the video.

And to finish up where would us loyal skeptics be with such classic

targets as UFOs, Creationism and the autism mercury link for us to

rant against.

I want to thank everyone who submitted posts for this, I just couldn't

include everyone but they were all great posts.

And for all of you who stopped by please do follow all the links, they

are great examples of what we want to see more of in this world.

Well that is all from me for this round of the skeptics' circle...

but never fear for it won't be long 'til we next appear...

In fact I hope to see you all at The Skeptical Alchemist in two weeks

time for the 64rd Skeptics' Circle on July 5.

Any and all feedback is welcome so that I at least know that you are

reading this. You never know, if you don't tell me how bad this is I