Recently added articles from The Skeptical Inquirer:
A trio of questionable medical treatments.(Editor's Note)
Sep 01, 2008; Frazer, Kendrick ... The three articles under the theme "Questionable Medical Treatments" in this issue delve into problems with modern medicine and over-promotion of some of its products. It is interesting that only the third one would fall under the rubric of "alternative medicine." That is physician Harriet ...
The amazing Randi strikes again!(NEWS AND COMMENT)(James Randi)
Sep 01, 2008; Radford, Benjamin ... The Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was the site of the sixth Amazing Meeting, James Randi's more-or-less annual conference. About 900 people from all over the world attended this year. The keynote speech was given by Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of ...
Psychic final 2008: finally, Sylvia Browne's final tour.(NEWS AND COMMENT)
Sep 01, 2008; Stollznow, Karen ... Visitors to Salt Lake City usually make the pilgrimage to the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. On a recent trip there I not only visited Temple Square but also attended "Temples on the Other Side," a farewell lecture by "psychic" Sylvia Browne. The ...
Psychic's false sex abuse claim threatens family.(NEWS AND COMMENT)
Sep 01, 2008; Radford, Benjamin ... Psychics are wrong about things all the time; that's no news to our regular readers. But while many times the misinformation is inconsequential other times the psychics' false claims have real-world--even life-changing---consequences. Consider the case of Colleen Leduc, a single ...
The Eighth Gathering for (Martin) Gardner: who attends these gatherings? What takes place? How do they serve as a tribute to this remarkable man?(SPECIAL REPORTS)
Sep 01, 2008; Hyman, Ray ... The Eighth Gathering for Gardner (G4G8) took place at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, from March 26 through March 30, 2008. A Gathering for Gardner occurs in Atlanta every two years, celebrating the many facets of the polymath Martin Gardner. Martin, who rarely attends public ...
A special afterword from Martin Gardner.
Sep 01, 2008; Gardner, Martin ... First let me thank Tom Rodgers for having started the Gardner Gatherings and nurturing them into a unique meeting of persons interested in recreational mathematics, mechanical puzzles, and conjuring. I recently received a letter from the well-known IBM mathematician and writer Clifford ...
Lighthouse specters.(INVESTIGATIVE FILES)(Essay)
Sep 01, 2008; Nickell, Joe ... Remote sentinels on rocky shores, lighthouses have been called "America's castles" (Hermanson n.d.). Certainly, they are places of scenic beauty, romance, and legend. From the late eighteenth century until the last lighthouse tower was automated in the 1960s, lighthouse keepers and their ...
The brain on justice.(THINKING ABOUT SCIENCE)
Sep 01, 2008; Pigliucci, Massimo ... Justice, fairness, and the efficient distribution of resources do not seem at first the sort of topics that should interest a neurobiologist, at least not professionally. Philosophers have long discussed issues of justice and fairness, while economists compare strategies of distribution ...
Hunting for spooklights.(NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD)
Sep 01, 2008; Polidoro, Massimo ... The hot, still night was illuminated by a full moon. The two shadowy figures moving along the empty road wondered if this would interfere with their mission. "Are you sure you took everything?" asked the slender one. "Of course!" said the shorter one, who was ...
Alien peeping Tom--film at eleven.(PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS)
Sep 01, 2008; Sheaffer, Robert ... The world was startled on May 28 when a Denver man claimed he was going to show a video of a "living, breathing alien" at a news conference "In two days, as reported in the Rocky Mountain News (http://tinyurl.com/5jf6xb). Jeff Peckman was showing the video to build interest in his ballot ...
The truth about brain science.(THE SKEPTICAL PSYCHOLOGIST)
Sep 01, 2008; Epstein, Robert ... There's enormous excitement these days about brain science, and well there should be. More precise scanning technologies are now letting scientists monitor brain activity in real time while people are actually behaving and thinking; historically, that's something quite new. As exciting as ...
The sweet spirit sounds of Rosemary Brown.(SKEPTICAL INQUIREE)
Sep 01, 2008; Radford, Benjamin ... Q: Whatever happened to Rosemary Brown, the British woman who claimed to take down dictation from Liszt, Subert, and other dead composers? D. Draganski A: Rosemary Brown was a London housewife who, in a sort of reverse-plagiarism, created new musical compositions ...
Corporate self interest and Vagus Nerve Stimulation for depression: an American corporation has pressured the FDA and psychiatric organizations, researchers, clinicians, and patients to use its expensive arid unproven Vagus Nerve Stimulation device for serious depression. This advocacy compromises scientific and medical integrity.(Questionable Medical Treatments)
Sep 01, 2008; Barglow, Peter ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Corporate economic interests are exerting more and more influence on American psychiatric treatment and research. A prime example is the marketing to psychiatrists of an unusual medical device called the Vagus Nerve Stimulator for the treatment of severe ...
The bipolar bamboozle.(Questionable Medical Treatments)
Sep 01, 2008; Flora, Stephen Ray ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With the broadening and softening of the criteria needed to label someone with bipolar disorder and aggressive marketing campaigns by pharmaceutical companies, millions of people are being told they have a severe psychiatric disorder and are being ...
'We couldn't say it in print if it wasn't true': Akavar's version of truth in advertising: an ad for a weight-loss product falsifies its own slogan by printing outright lies. An attempt to find the advertised "published research" becomes a surreal odyssey.(Questionable Medical Treatments)
Sep 01, 2008; Hall, Harriet ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I like to read advertisements for quack remedies. I've come to suspect that "clinically proven" means "we gave it to three of our friends and got them to say it worked." When the ads cite published medical studies, I like to track down and read those ...
The myth of Nibiru and the end of the world in 2012: an astronomer tries to counter misinformation on the Internet about claims of a supposed rogue planet and an impending catastrophe, encountering troubling credulity, scientific illiteracy, and conspiracy thinking along the way.
Sep 01, 2008; Morrison, David ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SKEPTICAL INQUIRER readers may not be aware that a rogue planet on a 3,600year orbit is about to enter the inner solar system and visit a catastrophe upon Earth. This threatening planet was discovered by the ancient Mesopotamians, who named it Nibiru. It ...
Redoing the math on nuclear energy.(Nuclear Energy Now: Why the Time Has Come for the World's Most Misunderstood Energy Source)(Book review)
Sep 01, 2008; Krause, Kenneth W. ... Nuclear Energy Now: Why the Time Has Come for the World's Most Misunderstood Energy Source. By Alan M. Herbst and George W. Hopley. Totem Books: Cambridge, U.K., 2007. ISBN: 978-0-470-05136-8. 230 pp. Hardcover, $27.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The French learned ...
We're wrong more than we think.(On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not)(Book review)
Sep 01, 2008; Hall, Harriet ... On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. By Robert Burton, MD. St. Martin's Press: New York, 2008. ISBN: 978-0312359201. 272 pp. Hardcover, $24.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Neurologist Robert A. Burton has written a gem of a book, On Being ...
Exposing popular 'let's pretend' fantasies.(Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms)(Book review)
Sep 01, 2008; Harwood, William ... Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms. By Robert M. Price. Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59102-608-2. 370 pp. Hardcover, $24.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Immanuel Velikovsky tried to pass off religion as science by writing an ...
From weeping icons to crop circles: investigating with gusto.(Adventures in Paranormal Investigation)(Book review)
Sep 01, 2008; Smiljanich, Terry ... Adventures in Paranormal Investigation. By Joe Nickell. The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-8131-2467-4. 292 pp. Hardcover, $29.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Browsing through a bookstore, someone comes across a cover featuring an eerie ...