General Skepticism
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Skeptoid
Skeptoid is a weekly science podcast dedicated to furthering knowledge by blasting away the widespread pseudosciences that infect popular culture, and replacing them with way cooler reality.
inFact with Brian Dunning is the web video series that gives you the real facts behind popular myths, promoting high-quality information that helps people live better lives.
inFact with Brian Dunning
Doubtful News: Can you really believe this stuff?
First, it was an elephant seen on Mars, now anomaly hunters have spotted a 1.5 mile long, 1/2 mile wide and 750 feet tall parrot.
In my last post for this blog I discussed the fact that individual scientific studies are insufficient to establish a claim or phenomenon, and yet people often cite a single study as if it offers proof of their position. In order to really understand the status of a scientific claim, rather, you need to have some sense of the totality of relevant scientific research - the so-called scientific "literature." In this post, as promised, I will cover some basics as to how to interpret the published literature.
James Randi Educational Foundation
For the military project, see Project Alpha (military) . Project Alpha was an elaborate hoax in 1979, orchestrated by the stage magician and skeptic James Randi .
Project Alpha
Project Alpha
When it was announced in 1979 that noted engineer James S. McDonnell, board chairman of McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft and devotee of the paranormal, had awarded a $500,000 grant to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, for the establishment of the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research, it seemed a the ideal opportunity to initiate an experiment I had contemplated for some time.
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League of Reason
A study in New Zealand tested the tearing of knickers, and found that meaningful results are not easy to obtain if one examines only the fabric itself:
Improbable Research
CSI
It was like déjà-vu. In 2008, in a traveling exhibition called “Vatican Splendors,” I had seen the Holy Mandylion, also known as the Image of Edessa, which was once held to be the miraculous self-portrait of Christ.
My free Windows real-time astronomy software RTGUI recommends the "best" sky objects to observe, based on your location and time. It now can download positions for any asteroid or comet.
The Debunker's Domain
Homeopaths use Legal Thuggery Against Australian and Portuguese Bloggers In their toolbox homeopaths have sugar, water, and oodles of imagination.
Skeptic North
....The founding father of modern vibrational medicine was Dr. Albert Abrams (1863-1924), the "dean of twentieth century charlatans." * Abrams called his healing method radionics and claimed that he was able to detect distinct energies or vibrations (radiation) being emitted from healthy and diseased tissue in all living things.
The Skeptic's Dictionary
Skepticblog
Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies.Mystery surrounds a multi-million pound government grant to the charity behind one of Michael Gove’s flagship Academy schools . Last year, the Durand Education Trust was awarded £17.3 million to build what the Telegraph heralded as the “first fully free state-run boarding school” . Durand Primary School in Stockwell, South London, had earlier, said the Daily Mail, “used proceeds from a leisure and student accommodation business it runs” to buy St Cuthman’s, the site of a former special needs centre in Midhurst, West Sussex.