Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
It is distinctly possible that after Salman Rushdie published his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, back in 1988, you would normally have never heard of it. Can you for example name any other novel he has written? Everything changed when the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran at that time, issued a formal fatwā calling … Read more
A formal study entitled “Selective Exposure to Misinformation: Evidence from the consumption of fake news during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign” has been published this month. Just to be totally clear here, the term is a reference to misinformation – news that is presented as true, but is instead partially or wholly false, and so … Read more
Eduardo Porter has an interesting article within the New York Times. The title, which is crafted to provoke readers, is “Fighting Climate Change? We’re Not Even Landing a Punch”, and yet it is something that is also rather important to appreciate. Starting with 1988, he basically lays out the specific actions that have been taken to … Read more
If asked to defined the term “Fake News” then like many of you I would have suggested that this describes a story that is presented as “True” but is not. It turns out that this is wrong and that to me was a great surprise. A recent Gallop poll has revealed something I had not … Read more
For those wanting the quick answer – so far the actual evidence for this, and that includes the above claim, is no. So the above appeared within my Facebook feed and the context was a group that claims to debunk both evolution and atheism. The guy posting it is deeply religious and also posted it … Read more
Sky News is reporting the following, so it just must be true, they would not get something like this incorrect and would of course fact check … right? Scientists predict ‘mini ice age’ could hit UK by 2030 A model of the Sun’s magnetic activity suggests the River Thames may freeze over within two decades, … Read more