John Horgan Expresses his skepticism of skeptics at NECSS, a skeptics conference

If you are plugged into the skeptical community then you might have become aware of the talk given by science journalist John Horgan at the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS) last weekend. It was (I’ll be polite) rather controversial. Others used different terms, for example Orac refers to is as a “self-congratulatory wank” After the … Read more

How do your persuade people who are immune to facts?

If you have ever spent more than  2 minutes on social media then you will have discovered that there are people out there who are not simply wrong, but also demonstrate a complete immunity to little things like facts. Absurd notions prevail that range from medical quackery being promoted as the best, and science (the … Read more

How can you spot a real psychic?

Over in New York the news is that a ring of fake psychics has been shutdown. As reported here … There is no future for a phony psychic network thanks to the federal prosecutors. A Long Island-based marketing group, its direct-mail accomplices, and two self-professed clairvoyants are now barred from using the U.S. mail to dupe … Read more

The needless death of a young Ezekiel Stephan

You might, or perhaps might not be aware that the trial of David Stephan and his wife Collet Stephan is now over and that they were found guilty of “failing to provide their ill son with the necessaries of life“. Ezekiel Stephan, pictured above, tragically contracted meningitis, and his parents then proceeded to try and treat him with remedies … Read more

The Homeopathy wars … believers vs skeptics

Professor Eduard Ernst, MD, PhD, FMedSci, FSB, FRCP, FRCPEd (yes he really is that qualified), has written a great article in the Spectator about his eventual shift over time from a believer to outspoken critic of Homeopathy. Well yes, I was blogging only yesterday about Homeopathy, and so it might be a surprise for you to see … Read more

Homeopathy effective for 0 out of 68 illnesses, study finds

The British Humanist Association has posted to Facebook a link from the Independent that was published last February … It is estimated that the NHS spends about £5 million of taxpayers’ money each year on homeopathy – a long-discredited ‘treatment’ involving water and sugar pills devoid of any medicinal properties – at the same time … Read more