Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Well I’m back from my travels in the wilderness, so let’s begin slowly with an easy question – Who is the one person that is most probably going to fool you? You can most probably guess the right answer, but let me illustrate it anyway. One evening I just happened to by in a town … Read more
The following picture of a hunter posing next to his latest kill was posted to Facebook. In it you can see that some poor animal has been slaughtered to the great delight of the hunter … Yes yes, I know, it is satire, what you can rapidly discern (I hope) is that this is photo of … Read more
I’m attempting to write a few notes on the JREF Million dollar paranormal challenge as it actually happens here at #TAM2014, and so right now I’m sitting here on the front row waiting for things to start. Every year at TAM (The Amazing Meeting) a live million dollar paranormal challenge is conducted and anybody who … Read more
Yea hey … its #TAM2014 time (hint the twitter hash tag is #TAM2014 … ah but that is how you found this perhaps). OK first point, this is not an official guide, just a few (hopefully brief) notes that will hopefully help you to not just survive, but thrive. What is happening where and when? Surf on … Read more
There are some individuals who, when confronted with facts that clearly conflict with a belief, will become even more entrenched within the belief, not less. The observation that this happens is known as the backfire effect. The “backfire effect” is a name that was first coined by Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler, for the finding that, given evidence against … Read more
Now here is a truly weird bit of news. There is a Christian group that is rather eager to promote the idea that masturbation is evil, so much so, that they give talks to kids on the topic. Basically they have a guy dressed up as a Dolphin called Fappy who will turn up at the school … Read more