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Martin Rundkvist's blog. Archaeology, skepticism, Sweden. And books and music and stuff.
Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
Category: Skepticism
The Amazing Meeting London 1 was a top-quality event. The only way it could have been even better is if they'd included a few more interactive bits, workshops & stuff.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 6 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
I'm at The Amazing Meeting London, an Old World instance of the skeptical conferences organised by the James Randi Educational Foundation. (Or more correctly, I am waiting for breakfast at my threadbare Bayswater hotel, where I sleep in a...
Posted by Martin R at 3:00 AM • 4 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
"Molén didn't hijack the debate. The issues discussed were largely about a scientific basis for knowledge and spiritual belief and the boundaries between them."
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 13 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Regardless of the venue, you do not need to throw a senior archaeologist, a senior liberal theologian and a hot-shot Bible philologist at Mats Molén to win the debate.
Posted by Martin R at 9:50 AM • 23 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
The Nazis were no strangers to occultism. But Friedrich Marby was too much even for Himmler: he invented runic aerobics.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 13 Comments •
Category: NOIBN
If you look up an organisation on Wikipedia, then the article will be pretty useless if it's written by people with any sort of passionate relationship to that organisation. If they hate it, if they love it, they're not the right people to write about it.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 26 Comments •
Category: Politics
In the West we shake our heads, and very rightly so in my opinion, at sharia, Islamic law rooted in the culture of 7th century AD Arabia. This is the body of thought that leads to judicial stonings and mutilations...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 42 Comments •
Category: Health
Thanks to Felicia for the tip-off....
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 4 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
It may seem a little gratuitous in a country where few people are religious any more, but the ads make the point that there's a lot of quiet Christian influence still around in society.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 7 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
What newagers, health nuts and alties seem to be completely ignorant of is that both words originate in physics and that they refer to the same thing.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 15 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
We pursue lines of inquiry that we find fun or trendy or likely to get funded because someone with money deludes themself into seeing them as important.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 12 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Why are we here? Why do we live? What is the meaning of life? These questions are poorly phrased as neither "why" nor "meaning" has a distinct definition. To begin with "why", it can refer either to the cause of...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 24 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
One of the evaluation's main findings is that the Church of Sweden has too much influence over the universities, and that this influence has grown in recent years.
Posted by Martin R at 3:20 PM • 9 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Science is to use reason and observation when approaching factual matters pertaining to any aspect of the single real world we live in.
Posted by Martin R at 4:16 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
An issue that has followed me through my career is the fight against pretentious jargon and extreme epistemological relativism in the humanities. The latter is an old idea from the sociology of science which holds that scientific knowledge does...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 25 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Here's me and my skeptical homies outside the Vasa museum last Wednesday: Manuel Paz-y-Mino from Peru and Massimo Polidoro from Italy....
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 4 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Italian skeptical star Massimo Polidoro is on a lecture tour of northern Europe. He spoke in the Netherlands last Friday, and here's the remaining schedule:Mon 11 May. Gothenburg, Sweden. Tue 12 May. Stockholm, Sweden. Wed 13 May. Uppsala, Sweden. Fri...
Posted by Martin R at 8:25 AM • 5 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Skepticality, one of my favourite podcasts, just put its 100th show on-line! Swoopy and Derek have been going strong now for four whole years! Always good for in-depth science-friendly interviews....
Posted by Martin R at 3:40 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
I don't think curating, photographing and cataloguing things like this is a good use of public funding.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 27 Comments •
Category: Language
Essentially, they're the same guy: a storm god called "the Lord".
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 23 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
He explained that though he is definitely not a philosophical materialist, he hesitates to call himself a dualist, preferring to speak of a "oneness".
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 24 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
The flu costs a week of lost work during which you feel like one of the restless dead.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 9 Comments •
Category: NOIBN
My friend of twenty years, retired broadcaster Lars Erik Åström, died the other day of cancer at age 69. Too soon by far: he has young grandchildren and he was a very good man without whom the world is worse....
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Humour
I'm here to tell you there are lots of Christians who aren't anything like the preconceived notions you may have. We're not all into "turning the other cheek." We don't spend our days committing random acts of kindness for no...
Posted by Martin R at 4:24 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
German SciBling Florian Freistetter of Astrodicticum Simplex offers a report from von Däniken's recent lecture.
Posted by Martin R at 3:03 PM • 44 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
I ended up chatting briefly with two ladies whom I have criticised sharply in various media.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 9 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
A rare piece of irate e-mail.Hi Mr. Rundkvist, This is Gregory from the US. I was reading your thoughts on Dr. Moller and the Exodus Case. You criticize Moller for not trying to disprove his hypothesis. Tell me; do evolutionists...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 73 Comments •
Category: Humour
"When the fence is symbolic, the structural elements are often symbolic 'doorframes' made of wire."
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 11 Comments •
Category: Children
A memory. A lot of Swedish middle-class kids get sent to confirmation camp when they're 14. It's basically a crash course in Christianity and ends with first communion. My brother went through his course and then refused the wafer &...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 9 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
A recent unusual find is very likely a wry gift from an archaeologist.
Posted by Martin R at 3:15 AM • 12 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
"Nobody will doubt the existence of static electricity in the ancient times..."
Posted by Martin R at 11:59 AM • 13 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
"Professor Y subscribes to an earlier Kuhnian paradigm than myself."
Posted by Martin R at 10:16 AM • 12 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
One of Aard's regulars, Jeff the Blue Collar Astronomer, died yesterday. He was diagnosed out of the blue with spontaneous ("cryptogenic") liver cancer in early June. Jeff was 39. I learned the sad news from Wikipedia contributor Kwix this...
Posted by Martin R at 5:54 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
Bob has neither formal qualifications nor any excavation experience.
Posted by Martin R at 1:43 PM • 8 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
All enquiry that does not concern the life-ways of people in the past and/or does not study material remains is non-archaeology.
Posted by Martin R at 2:08 PM • 46 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
"You with your fine archaeological credentials will surely not find reason to complain."
Posted by Martin R at 9:48 AM • 8 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Reading up on some pseudoscientific ideas common among dowsing-rod enthusiasts, I happened upon a funny detail. Many Swedish dowsers believe in the "Curry grid", consisting of "power lines" across the surface of the Earth, detectable only by dowsing. They...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 5 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
On my desk is a copy of the 2009 Skepdude pinup calendar. It features lascivious images of many prominent skeptical gentlemen, including D.J. Grothe, Hemant Mehta and Brian Dunning. For March, there's even a picture of a skinny white dude...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 10 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
The European Council of Skeptical Organizations (ECSO) has set up an on-line forum. Explains ECSO chairman Amardeo Sarma,"The purpose of this forum is to promote discussion with ECSO and other Skeptics Organisations. So if you have some question or a...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Children
It was a good talk, ranging from abstruse physics to everyday practicalities of life in space.
Posted by Martin R at 3:10 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Tech
An elderly gentleman saw his grand-daughter answer her phone while holding her newborn baby...
Posted by Martin R at 3:52 PM • 13 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Akusai of Action Skeptics has done something pretty ostentatious and very cool: he's written the latest Skeptics' Circle blog carnival entirely as a collection of dirty limericks!"An Irishman living with Swedes Speaks about bodily needs Eat and drink well So...
Posted by Martin R at 3:56 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Getting up in the small hours on Thursday morning paid off: I'm on The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe #147!...
Posted by Martin R at 3:34 PM • 8 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
Yesterday I did 5.5 more man-hours of metal detecting at the "Hall of Odin" site in Västmanland with Per Vikstrand. No prehistoric finds: just a piece of a 15/16/17th century brass cooking pot. Bob Lind's craziness is once more repeated...
Posted by Martin R at 4:12 AM • 18 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
It's great to live in a country where run-of-the-mill Dominionist statements piss the right wing off most mightily.
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 31 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
The attacker struck during a break in the 10th International Conference on Science and Consciousness.
Posted by Martin R at 9:58 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Blogging
The thirty-eighth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at A Very Remote Period Indeed. Archaeology and anthropology, and all seen in relation to the the Rice Track/Soccer Stadium in Houston, Texas. The next open hosting slot is on...
Posted by Martin R at 4:32 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Poor kids. They should have corrected their failings and gained soul forces and this would never have happened.
Posted by Martin R at 5:48 AM • 10 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
The last time these enthusiastic gentlemen interfered with the site, they were reprimanded by the County Archaeologist.
Posted by Martin R at 12:27 PM • 9 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
A reader has pointed out that a propaganda website friendly with the Chinese government and hostile to Falun Gong is quoting a recent blog entry of mine. She suggests that this means that I am aiding the government in its...
Posted by Martin R at 4:06 AM • 5 Comments •
Highly Allochthonous 11.05.2009
Eruptions 11.05.2009
Not Exactly Rocket Science 11.05.2009
Corpus Callosum 11.05.2009
Starts With a Bang 11.04.2009
