Skepticism and Critical Thinking
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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.
Skeptoid: Critical Analysis Podcast
snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages
Welcome to snopes.com, the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation. Use the search box above to locate your item of interest, or click one of the icons below to browse the site by category.
....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. He invented devices that allegedly could measure this energy (vibration, radiation) and he created a system for evaluating vibrations as signs of health or disease.>> more sample the Skeptic's Dictionary for Kids
The Skeptic's Dictionary
One of the eternal questions for skeptics is – how can some people be so gullible? We have a standard answer which captures many of the factors: poor understanding of science, lack of an innate sense of probability, all the various mechanisms of self-deception, and the strong desire to believe in certain things. Further, some cons are just slick, and anyone can be fooled by a clever-enough deception.
NeuroLogica Blog » How To Sell Magic Beans
....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
One of the common refrains that professors hear every semester is, “Why are my textbooks so expensive?”
Skepticblog
Science-Based Medicine
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because I am at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Chicago, between the meetings, working on a policy statement, working on a manuscript, and various other miscellaneous tasks, I alas was unable to produce a post worthy of the quality normally expected by SBM readers. Fortunately, Lorne Trottier, who’s done a great job for us twice before , was able to step in again with this great post about “safe” cell phone cases. Speaking of the manufactroversy over whether cell phone radiation causes brain cancer, there’s a session at the AACR that I’ll have to try to attend entitled Do Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer? Who knows?
For once, there’s no need for the West Coast to envy the East Coast or vice versa. This weekend marks not only CFI’s Women in Secularism conference, where our very own Rebecca and Surly Amy are sure to kick some ass, but the Orange County Freethought Alliance Conference (held at my alma mater — go Anteaters!), where I will be making my skeptical public speaking debut with a talk entitled “Push and Pull: The Role of Religion in Social Justice.”
Skepchick -
Pharyngula
Vertebrates are modified segmented worms; that is, their body plan is made up of sequentially repeated units, most apparent in skeletal structures like the vertebrae. Arthropods are also modified segmented worms. Look at a larval fly, for instance, and you can see they are made up of rings stacked together.A while back, I told you all about this small piece of the biochemistry of the fly eye — the pathways that make the brown and red pigments that color the eye .
Pharyngula
James Randi Educational Foundation
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.Felix Baumgartner is attempting to break the world record for the highest skydive ever. He recently completed a test dive from 71,500ft (22km), putting him in the top three. The purpose of the dive was to test out all of his equipment before he attempts the record breaking dive of 120,000ft later in 2012. The current [...] From an e-mail I received: As a proponent of SBM, and a someone who places a high value on reason, logic and evidence, I would like to find a physician who shares this mindset. He went on to ask how he could go about finding one.