Critical Thinking

Why do atheists exist?

by

A question some often ask is “Why do rational sane people believe utterly irrational things?”. However, a far more interesting question to ask is to wonder why skeptics and non-believers exist. Think about it now, every culture we know has embraced some form of belief in the supernatural, so why do we have non-believers? There … Read more

Good Science Journalism – “The Tevatron goes bump” by Jon Butterworth

by

Jon Butterworth has written an article in today’s Guardian that is truly a fabulous piece. I applaud it, not simply because of the pure facts, but also because he has demonstrated scientific integrity at its very best. First, the core of the story itself is this … This week the CDF experiment at the Tevatron … Read more

We are not being told the truth about Libya

by

How much of the mainstream media do you believe to be credible? (I’m talking Time, Post, etc, I’m not thinking about the stuff that pretends to be factual such as Fox News, but never is). Personally, I’ve accepted much, but there is a question I’ve been challenged over, specifically:

  • What is the real reason for our involvement in Libya?

If you believe the media and popular opinion, then its  because we can’t tolerate the slaughter of innocent people by a tyrant. Up until now, I’ve foolishly accepted this without giving it too much thought. The problem is that if I had applied a bit of critical thinking, I’d have quickly realised that there was something wrong with that statement. What has enabled me to change my mind is an article written by Johann Hari. In it he quite rightly points out …

Read more

Power band Scam

by

Was just in a sports shop about 10 minutes ago … and guess what? There sitting next to the till, was a rack full of Power bands. Yes indeed, a piece of plastic with a hologram on it can be yours for just £30 This will apparently make your sports performance magically improve. Well, OK, … Read more

Who gets phished and why?

by

First, just to ensure we are all on the same page here, the word “phishing” is where some scam artist sends you an email that claims to be from a trustworthy entity such as your bank or a well recognized entity such as Amazon or eBay and manages to trick you into giving them your password or even your credit card number. For example, it might be an email that perhaps claims your account has expired and you need to enter a new password, so you clink on a link that takes you to a site that looks exactly like you bank’s … but it not … and so you are tricked into entering your password, thus giving them full access.

Read more