How to Change Minds – A Street Epistemology Inspired Video

Street Epistemology

I would argue that effective meaningful communication is itself both an art and a craft, so it is perhaps wholly appropriate for an artist to create something that does just that. What is the Story Here? Back in 2017, Artist Rebecca Fox and also Street Epistemologist Anthony Magnabosco had display tables at the QEDCon conference in Manchester … Read more

Priming: Hearing things that are not really there – Yanni or Laurel

Yanni or Laurel

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

An Open Access Story: What is the most cited source on Wikipedia

open access

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

Was Homeschooling the root problem in the House of Chains?

homeschooling

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

COSMOS

COSMOS

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

How do you persuade an Anti-Vaxer to change their mind?

vaccines

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