Skeptical Skepticism
Category archives for Skeptical Skepticism
The Golden Eagle Video Is Fake, But Not For The Reasons Given
Posted by Greg Laden on December 19, 2012 Last night Julia sent me a link to a video of a Golden Eagle swooping down into a Montreal park, picking up an infant/toddler and lifting it several feet into the air before dropping it and flying off. Since then many on the Intertubes have declared the video to be a fake while others insist…
Mythbusters on Head-on Collisions
Posted by Greg Laden on October 1, 2012 I’m sure you all have cable and/or satellite setups and thus see the Mythbusters, which is clearly one of the best things on TV, as they produce them. But I am always a couple of years behind because I watch them on Netflix. Two more seasons were released on Netflix very recently, so I’ve been…
Which is more likely to be real, Ghosts or Martians?
Posted by Greg Laden on September 30, 2012 Do ghosts really exist? Is there life on Mars? Despite what one might think, what with large class sizes and the homogenization of culture caused by TV and Fast Food, the fact remains that clumps of high school students organized into classes can vary widely from one another. Each year has its own characteristics, and…
The Secular Coalition of America’s Big Goof
Posted by Greg Laden on September 29, 2012 The Secular Coalition of America is a lobbying group that represents several groups, including American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, Camp Quest, the Secular Student Alliance and so on. A few months ago the SCA made news, in a bad way, by appointing a former Bush White House Staffer, Edwina Rogers, as Executive Director. Many…
The Antiskeptics
Posted by Greg Laden on June 10, 2012 
Skeptics fight an up hill battle. This battle consists of deploying critical thinking across a range of cultural landscapes, implementing scientific thinking to solve problems, and the thoughtful evaluation of knowledge, while 90 percent of the world is out to stop you, or at least make it hard. Or so it seems. To be honest,…
There is no fruit in a BLT
Posted by Greg Laden on May 28, 2012 
First, I want to say that tomatoes are a fruit. Here is a scientific definition of fruit: Fruit noun, plural: fruits (1) (botany) The seed-bearing structure in angiosperms formed from the ovary after flowering. source See? Tomato is a fruit. Having said that, in common English parlance we do not call a tomato a fruit.…
Does the Internet need an HR Department?
Posted by Greg Laden on May 13, 2012 When a young girl put a picture of herself, holding a book she had just gotten as a present, on the social networking site reddit, she was immediately subjected to intense verbal sexual assault by reddit readers who aptly demonstrated how awful it can be when boys and young men are left to say and…
I reject your reality and I substitute my own
Posted by Greg Laden on April 30, 2012 I don’t know if this phrase … … originally from Adam Savage or if he’s quoting someone. I think it might be his. Today, I was in an internet argument with someone (can you believe how many people on the internet are WRONG???) and I used a phrase like that. Then I instantly lost the…
Skepticism is a cultural phenomenon
Posted by Greg Laden on April 25, 2012 Skepticism is a cultural phenomenon. I know that many self-declared skeptics prefer to … ah … believe otherwise, or as they would perhaps say, they have deduced from pure principles using sound logic that Skepticism is rational behavior and there is nothing cultural about it. But they are wrong, and that is trivially easy to…
Testing Out the Woo, and More.
Posted by Greg Laden on January 7, 2012 For a full year, A.J. Jacobs followed every piece of health advice he could — from applying sunscreen by the shot glass to wearing a bicycle helmet while shopping. Onstage at TEDMED, he shares the surprising things he learned.
Linking Elevators, Rebecca Watson, Richard Dawkins and of course, Hitler and the Nazis!!!11!!
Posted by Greg Laden on December 19, 2011 As you know, I’ve shifted some of the topics I have discussed on this blog over to The X Blog. However, some topics can very reasonably go on both. One of these is how we communicate, and argue, and sometimes make progress in this crazy, zany place we call The Blogsophere. Also, as an Anthropologist,…
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: What is it, and should we fund it?
Posted by Greg Laden on December 11, 2011 Skeptics love to hate CAM. And often, with good reason. Alternative medicines or medical treatments, as is often pointed out, become “mainstream” when the available science suggests that they work, so it is almost axiomatic that “alternative” means “unproven” and it is probably almost always true that the kinds of things that end up as…
Mythbusters Cannon Ball Firing Mishap Animated
Posted by Greg Laden on December 8, 2011 TV show Mythbusters has apologized after an experiment it conducted to measure the speed of a cannonball went wrong, leaving a trail of destruction across a California suburb. Instead of hitting its intended target, the cannon misfired, sending a six-inch ball of lead careening through one house, damaging another before ending up lodged in a…
How Badly did Rebecca Watson Abuse Stef McGraw and Humanity in General?
Posted by Greg Laden on July 31, 2011 Here’s the talk.
The Skeptical Movement as a Dysfunctional Corporation with a Nightmare HR Problem
Posted by Greg Laden on July 23, 2011 Just an idea … not entirely work safe … below the fold.
Updates on Rebeccapocalypse, and Otter Matters
Posted by Greg Laden on July 20, 2011 People are screaming at me over on ERV blog about not making a formal announcement that Richard Dawkins is god-like because he’s donated a bunch of foundation money to a child care project. That’s wonderful that he did that, but I’m not a member of JREF, was not at TAM, do not get newsletters from…
Driving The Patriarchy: Demonic Males, Feminism, and Genetic Determinism
Posted by Greg Laden on July 7, 2011 Behaviors are not caused by genes. There is not a gene that causes you to be good, or to be bad, or to be smart, or good at accounting, or to like bananas. There are, however, drives. “Drives” is a nicely vague term that we can all understand the meaning of. Thirst and hunger are…
Elevators and Privilege: A Letter to Dawkins and a Link Farm
Posted by Greg Laden on July 6, 2011 In case you have not heard we are having an internet-wide discussion of … well, just click on all of the links below and read everything then you’ll know. I’ve included all the current links that I know of. If I’ve left something out, please put it in the comments and I’ll add it. Meanwhile…
Women in Elevators: A Man To Man Talk For The Menz
Posted by Greg Laden on July 5, 2011 You may prefer this VERY updated version of this post: HERE. I am not afraid of dogs, and most women are probably not “afraid of men.” Except I’m actually afraid of dogs and most women are justifiably afraid of men. If you get what I’m saying so far, go away and do something useful because…
Ladies, Richard Dawkins knows how to protect you from being raped in an elevator
Posted by Greg Laden on July 4, 2011 Recently, Richard Dawkins said (full quote below) that a woman should not be concerned about her own safety if she finds herself in an elevator (under some sort of threat, presumably), because it is trivially easy to get out of an elevator if you are under attack. I’m sure Richard is a very smart guy…
Shut up about everything all the time unless what you have to say is HITLER!!!!
Posted by Greg Laden on July 3, 2011 And thus, structurally, Richard Dawkins, or his distant cousin Richard D. Poe (I am still not sure) has shut down the argument that the Elevator Guy acted inappropriately when he asked Rebecca Watson over for a cuppa joe at four O’clock in the AM, in an elevator, while she was on her way to bed.
Rebecca Watson, Barbara Drescher and the Elevator Guy
Posted by Greg Laden on July 2, 2011 Rebecca Watson did the right thing when she spoke about McGrew’s response too her (Watson’s) response to the Elevator Guy, and Barbara Drescher’s response to all of that is amazing. If you don’t know what I’m talking about here, it might be best to move on. Otherwise, here’s my two cents (and there are exactly…
Fear and Loathing in Minneapolis
Posted by Greg Laden on July 2, 2011 Good morning.
Why don’t we replace these ugly mugs with some pretty female faces?
Posted by Greg Laden on May 23, 2011 I have a theory as to why atheism and skeptcisim tend to be old-white-guy activities (even when they are not) which might explain this picture: But I’ll tell you this theory only if certain conditions pertain: 1) You are someone I trust and 2) I’m slightly drunk.
The Fukushima Disaster, Hyperbole, Credibility, Skepticism, and the Future of Nuclear Power
Posted by Greg Laden on March 15, 2011 I honestly think that it is too early to have this conversation, but alas, the conversation has been forced.
“God’s Lady Problem”
Posted by Greg Laden on March 8, 2011 Jen McCreight writes the blog Blag Hag and became famous last year for attempting unsuccessfully to prove that if a large number of women wore low cut shirts there would be a major earthquake. (It turns out that there was a 7-point-something earthquake on “Boob Quake” day, which requires that the experiment be repeated.) (It…
Stuff that can’t happen happens all the time.
Posted by Greg Laden on January 22, 2011 … or does it???
Getting it wrong every single time
Posted by Greg Laden on January 14, 2011 Sometimes, that is what I think news reporters do. There are occasions when you know the story and have the opportunity to watch them spew out incorrect information. Sometimes you do not know the story but you can watch them getting it wrong and see that happening while they appear to remain oblivious to their…
It would take a 747 over a thousand years to circle the largest star
Posted by Greg Laden on December 12, 2010 Of course, it would burn up in the process, but whatever. The following is one of those size and scale videos mainly showing the relative size of our planets and selected stars, then making quick reference to other larger scale structures. It is a good video (hat tip: Joe) but it does have a major…
The Fetish in relation to Skepticism
Posted by Greg Laden on November 26, 2010 I was just glancing through the blog of Katheryn Schulz, author of Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, a book about people who were wrong about stuff, often big stuff (for example, she talks about individuals who spent decades in jail owing to false convictions). Meantime, I’m working on posts related to the…
, which is now available for the 
