Is it worth taking Vitamins?

vitamins

There is a thriving and rapidly expanding industry that is selling the idea that taking vitamins is beneficial. This is a hugely profitable enterprise that by last year had grown to $36.1 billion a year. It thrives and flourishes because we buy into the idea that taking these supplements will make us healthier and perhaps … Read more

Are Scientists really hunting for the Loch Ness Monster?

loch ness

There is a story that has been picked up by the media regarding a group of scientists who have embarked upon a hunt for the Loch Ness Monster. For example we have this Reuters story … Scientists plan DNA hunt for Loch Ness monster next month LONDON (Reuters) – A global team of scientists plans … Read more

Listening to Flat Earth Believers

Flat Earth

I thought I was done with posts about the Flat earth conference that took place in the UK, but I find that I’m returned back to it for one more pass. Michael Marshall, who attended has an article in Gizmodo in which he expands upon much of what he saw while there. He also makes a … Read more

Notes from a Flat Earth conference

flat earth

Yes, you read that correctly, somebody actually ran a conference in the UK dedicated to the idea of a flat earth. For them I guess Terry Pratchett’s discworld is an encyclopaedia of facts. Michael Marchall, the project director of the Good Thinking Society, decided to take a hit for the team. He signed up and then went … Read more

Why do people believe in Conspiracy theories?

conspiracy

Whenever something dramatic happens, for example 9/11 or a school shooting, you are more or less guaranteed to find somebody popping up to explain that it is all part of some plot, and that behind this event there are puppet masters pulling the strings manipulating events. It’s supposedly a conspiracy of epic proportions. The Puppet … Read more

Homeopathy: Treating 4 year old with saliva of a rabid dog

homeopathy

This is a story about homeopathy, or to be a tad more precise, is a story about the deployment of homeopathy that illustrates how the embrace of the idea is not just bizarre but also absurd. Rabid Dogs and Homeopathy The Washington Post reports it as follows … A Canadian naturopath claims she treated a … Read more