Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
When faced with claims that Homeopathy works, then you might perhaps reply by citing a scientific study that demonstrates that it does not. If whoever you are conversing with is a practising homeopath, then this is not unfamiliar territory, and they in turn will have a similar scientific study that will soon be plucked out and waved … Read more
Elon Musk has outlined his plan to send one million people off to colonize Mars. Not only is he being sincere about this ambition, but he also has a viable plan to get there. The astronomer Phil Plait has written a response to Mr Musk’s plans in Slate, and as you read it, you can almost hear … Read more
We do all know that it is perhaps part of the human condition for many wacky ideas to float about, but sometimes even that knowledge does not insulate you from being surprised when something truly bizarre pops it. Perhaps the degree of surprise is in some respects source driven. Conservapedia is a well-known bastion of absurd nonsense and … Read more
Almost every Spring and Autumn for the past couple of years the UK’s Daily Express has run stories such as the above claiming that the season ahead is about to hit extremes. Instead of seeking guidance from a real meteorologist, their source is weather eccentric James Madden, forecaster for his one-man company Exacta Weather. Autumn is … Read more
It is perhaps inevitable that whenever something dramatic happens, up pops some nut with a truly weird explanation that attempts to explain it all as a conspiracy by “them”, where “them” is quite often some arm of government. Today’s example of that is the well-known grifter Jim Bakker who uses religion as a means of conning … Read more
Phil Plait writes about the “The Great Kersten Blunder”, the story of a probe to Venus that was lost because a programmer made a stupid mistake. OK, first the actual story. The great Kersten Blunder is about the error made by Kersten (programmer) on the Vigor space probe’s converting program. He made an error in the … Read more