Recently added articles from Skeptic (Altadena, CA):
Double blind, Satan's UFO, failed prophecies.(Twas Brillig...)
Jan 01, 2009; ... How to Conduct a Double Blind Experiment At the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) we have had several requests from potential prize applicants who believe that they have the power to dowse, and who need general guidelines on how to conduct a double-blind test before they ...
What to eat: food, not too much, mostly plants.(The SkepDoc)
Jan 01, 2009; ... AS I WAS FEEDING THE DOG, IT occurred to me that dogs have a very straightforward relationship with food. Our Labrador's philosophy seems to be "eat everything you can get and as much of it as possible, whether it's food, ice cubes, pine cones, wood, or anything else you can chew or ...
Misleading by petition: just what is the consensus on global warming?
Jan 01, 2009; ... IS GLOBAL WARMING A REAL phenomenon, and if so, are humans causing or contributing to it by burning fossil fuels and will it lead to an increased frequency and/or severity of natural disasters? The American public looks to science or scientists to help answer these questions. A petition ...
A skeptic visits Noah's Ark: evolution and creationism in England.
Jan 01, 2009; ... DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF February, 2009, on the occasion of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday celebrations at various locals around England (including his birthplace city of Shrewsbury--see photo montage below), my hosts Andrew Kelly (a science writer who authored a gorgeous coffee-table ...
Adventures in math and marriage: or why gay does marriage does not decrease straight marriage.
Jan 01, 2009; ... DOES THE LEGALIZATION OF GAY marriage contribute to the decline of heterosexual marriage? A good portion of our fair republic's cultural conservatives seem to believe that it does. Evangelical radio personality James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, told a typically credulous Larry ...
The value of L is unknown.(FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2009; ... I just got a chance to read the last issue of SKEPTIC magazine (Vol. 14, No. 2) and enjoyed your article about necessity and contingency in the question of whether or not intelligent life would have evolved again here or on another planet, and I have no additional data to add to that basic ...
The magnetic Randi.(FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2009; ... I had to chuckle reading the column by James Randi in which he casts a skeptical eye at the notion that a single iron atom in a hemoglobin molecule somehow makes it "magnetic" and therefore results in the ability of magnets to improve blood flow. Without getting too technical, ...
Reply to the review of Darwinian Misadventures in the Humanities.(FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2009; ... I appreciate Massimo Pigliucci's invitation to sit down with him, share a glass of wine and in a friendly spirit iron out any differences that might exist between us. In his review of my book, Darwinian Misadventures in the Humanities, he says he is sympathetic that I take the extremes of ...
The meaning of the resurrection.(FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2009; ... At the risk of seeming to nitpick, in an otherwise informative and thoughtful review of Darwinian Misadventures in the Humanities by Eugene Goodheart (Vol. 14; Number 2, 2008), reviewer Massimo Pigliucci calls Goodheart "naive ...when he claims that 'the physical resurrection of Jesus may ...
NDEs the real deal.(FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2009; ... I was very disappointed with your article on NDEs and OBEs. Dr. Kenneth Ring, president of IANDS (the International Association of Near Death Studies), got the last word in on the NDE controversy. His short, highly readable, but scientifically rigorous book, Mindsight, NDEs and OBEs in the ...
A defective look at World War II.(The New Revisionism Forum)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2009; ... By Mark Weber, Institute for Historical Review In a key paragraph of his article on "The New Revisionism," in SKEPTIC Vol. 14, No.3, Michael Shermer writes that killings of innocents by the Allies in World War II "stopped the moment the Allies won," that the Allies "killed in ...
World War II moral equivalency.(The New Revisionism Forum)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2009; ... In Michael Shermer's article in SKEPTIC Vol. 14, No. 3, "The New Revisionism: What if Hitler Had Won the War," he writes: "The Axis killed in order to stop the killing by the Axis, and for no other reason. The Axis killed for geography, for political control, for economic power, for racial ...
Just war and unjust killing.(The New Revisionism Forum)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2009; ... I agree that the actions of the Allies and the Axis were not moral equivalents. However, your statement that "The Allies killed in order to stop the killing by the Axis, and for no other reason" has dangerous implications. Stopping the Axis from killing may be a moral objective but a moral ...
Don't knock constitutional monarchy.(The New Revisionism Forum)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2009; ... I enjoyed Michael Shermer's provocative article on the New Revisionism but was astonished by his description of what he terms the "Aristocratic Romance," which Shermer says might take the form of "a reversion to a constitutional monarchy." This sort of system, he says, could not work today ...
Fooled by Ponzi: how Bernard Madoff made off with my money, or why even an expert on gullibility can get gulled.(Cover story)
Jan 01, 2009; ... THERE ARE FEW AREAS OF FUNCTIONING where skepticism is more important than how one invests one's life savings. Yet intelligent and educated people, some of them naive about finance and others quite knowledgeable, have been mined by schemes that turned out to be highly dubious and quite ...
Gulf War Syndrome or Gulf lore mythology?
Jan 01, 2009; ... ONE-FOURTH OF THE VETERANS OF THE 1990-91 Gulf War complain of persistent memory and concentration problems, chronic headaches, widespread pain, gastrointestinal problems, and other chronic abnormalities not explained by well-established diagnoses. Treatments are ineffective and symptoms ...
Positively misguided: the myths and mistakes of the positive thinking movement.
Jan 01, 2009; ... MY COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH WAS THE kind of guy Stanley Kubrik must have had in mind when he conceived the over-the-top drill sergeant for his classic Vietnam film, Full Metal Jacket. During one game midway in my sophomore year, my offensive-line cohorts and I were having trouble opening ...
Prophets and losses: the Peter Popoff and Apostle Stewart guide to personal riches and spiritual fulfillment ... maybe.(Faith Healing)
Jan 01, 2009; ... YOU'RE WAITING FOR A BUS LATE AT NIGHT, when a shady character sidles up to you and whispers, "How'd you like to be catapulted into a brand new realm of supernatural power?" He's hustling drugs, right? Crystal-meth, perhaps. "No way man, no illegal substances," he ...
Behind Benny Hinn's healing crusades.(Faith Healing)
Jan 01, 2009; ... FAITH HEALER BENNY HINN FOLLOWS A PENTECOSTAL tradition established by Oral Roberts and Kathryn Kuhlman, which combines faith healing with wealth. Currently his ministry's yearly revenue is estimated at over $100 million and he travels the world in luxury conducting "healing crusades." His ...
When faith kills; Christian healing v. scientific medicine.(Faith Healing)
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. --Dennis and Lorie Nixon's dedication to their 16-year-old daughter, Shannon, on her headstone ACTUALLY, THE NIXONS OF ALTOONA, Pennsylvania lost two ...