Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Is the legal banning of quackery a Freedom of Speech issue? It seems like a question with an obvious answer. It is also of interest because it was recently tested by a federal court. The specific case concerned Nutritionist Heather Del Castillo. The whisper was that she practising without a license and so the state … Read more
Sometimes when something that is so improbable and outlandish happens we might be tempted to conclude that a supernatural event has taken place. “It can be the only explanation” we might think, because the odds of it actually happening by chance are simply too great for it to have been a coincidence. I have a … Read more
The “Moon Landing was a Hoax” claim is a very old trope these days, so much so, that it is a popular bit of cultural mythology. Are there really people who seriously embrace such conspiracy thinking? Very much indeed yes. To grasp that you need to remember that we live in a world where some … Read more
On this week’s episode of the “Skeptics Guide to the Universe” (Episode 730), they did a “Science or Fiction” quiz that was based upon Stiglers law. What is Stiglers law? University of Chicago statistics professor Stephen Stigler wrote a 1980 publication titled “Stigler’s law of eponymy“. Within this he states that no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. No … Read more
The question is this – is all of reality, the earth, and the entire universe including you, part of a simulated universe? Elon Musk rather famously believes this to be true. To understand what he believes and why, permit me to quote from a Space article written about an interview with him that covered the … Read more
There is an online game that you can play called “Bad News”. This however is not just any game, it has been specifically designed to psychologically train and inoculate those that play against Fake News and disinformation. How can this possibly work? The thinking behind this is research into what is known to some as … Read more