Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
You might, or might not, remember that John Oliver did a segment on the property gospel fraudsters who basically use religious belief as their very own get-rick-quick scam and happily prey upon the desperate and the gullible (I pointed you at the clip on that a couple of weeks ago). His show is one when he … Read more
John Oliver takes aim at the prosperity gospel swindlers and nails them beautifully. This one is doing the rounds, and yet it is so good that it deserves to be highlighted and promoted, and so that is exactly what I’m doing. I confess that I loved this because these fraudsters are not simply harmless religious cranks, … Read more
In a darkened room group of people gather around a traditional Ouija board, everybody then puts their hands on a small heart-shaped piece of wood and ask a question. In response the spirits mysteriously make it move to give an answer …. oooh spooky, and obviously proof that something supernatural is going on. Oh wait a second, because … Read more
Michael Shermer, an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic, has a list of the top ten weirdest things that people truly believe, you can find it here. It is of course a topic he will be familiar with, because not only is he a well-know skeptic who … Read more
Now here is a nice way to start Monday, a nice one-line question that is a fabulous come back. So the context is this – a discussion on Financial Regulation. Discussing it is Barney Frank, a well-known Democrat who was elected to the US House of Representatives from 1981 until 2013 and also the co-sponsor of … Read more
OK, so I’m not going to say too much today, but will instead point you towards a rather nice little puzzle that has been presented by the New York Times. It is not hard and is in fact a rather easy puzzle. They explain it as follows … A short game sheds light on government policy, … Read more