Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
I’m building up to an explanation for the “Yanni or Laurel” audio illusion. First, let’s talk about audio illusions in general. Pictured above is Ben Langley on Britains Got Talent last weekend. His act consisted of playing various very well-known songs, but he primed you to hear something distinctly different by holding up a series … Read more
Wikipedia articles contain references that enables fact checking. This is the backbone that makes Wikipedia a reliable source and not simply an authority telling you what is correct. Verifiability matters … In Wikipedia, verifiability means that other people using the encyclopedia can check that the information comes from a reliable source. Wikipedia does not publish … Read more
The horrific discovery that Californian parents David and Louise Turpin kept their 13 children imprisoned, chained, and malnourished inside their small home has shocked many. What has perhaps not been a surprise is that two words have popped up. These are “deeply religious” and also “homeschooled”. These are easy answers that are at times often … Read more
The news is out. It has been officially announced that COSMOS has a second season … Neil deGrasse Tyson is officially returning to the Cosmos. Seth MacFarlane, who co-produced 2014’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, teased over Reddit in September to “stay tuned” for a potential second season of the documentary series. “I can’t give a … Read more
From last August there is a great Canadian article that lays out a good way to effectively communicate to people who have serious doubts about vaccines. It is worth reading in full, but since they have proposed seven steps, I’d like to chime on and comment on each myself. There was and still is a … Read more
There is a new study that takes a rather serious look into the idea that you can psychologically inoculate people. Well yes, with my tongue firmly placed in my cheek I believe the term we use to describe that is the word “Education”. OK, so putting the teasing to one side, it is actually both … Read more