Skeptical Skepticism
Category archives for Skeptical Skepticism
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia [citation needed]
Posted by Greg Laden on October 19, 2010 I like Wikipedia, I really do. But there are also some serious, very serious problems with it. I just read the entries on the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, a few related historical entries, and the entry on the movie Zulu, which is about the Battle of Rorke’s drift. My interest here is in looking at…
James Randi EF supporting AGW denialism again?
Posted by Greg Laden on October 13, 2010 I was under the impression that “Reason” magazine was a libertarian neocon climate denialist rag. I could be wrong, but that’s what I thought. I was also under the impression that JREF was pro-science and at this point had gotten beyond the whole “let’s remain skeptical about global warming” thaing, especially since Randi stepped in…
Delusions of Gender
Posted by Greg Laden on October 12, 2010 This Friday’s Skeptically Speaking will feature … … academic psychologist Dr. Cordelia Fine. Her new book, Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference, challenges the assumption that gender roles are wired into our brains, and shows us how ubiquitous cultural stereotypes are mistaken for actual fact. That will be a life…
Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Posted by Greg Laden on September 30, 2010 Read this blog post ONLY IF YOU DARE!!!!
You can torture me all you want, I’m not revealing the details of the conspiracy.
Posted by Greg Laden on August 26, 2010 No, wait, wait, I didn’t mean that. I’LL TALK! Just don’t hurt me!
Be a smart dick
Posted by Greg Laden on August 24, 2010 Is PZ Myers over the top? Is Phil Plait too nice? Is Chris Mooney right about framing? If I meet a Creationist, should I throw a fossil over his head?
Does Cranberry Juice Help Repress or Reduce Urinary Tract Infections? A study in skeptical juice drinking.
Posted by Greg Laden on August 13, 2010 After I reported this recent and interesting research paper about urinary tract inflictions, a number of conversations broke out on that post, on my facebook page, and via email, and some of these conversations raised the question of cranberry juice and whether the idea that it prevents, reduces, or shortens the duration of UTIs is…
Skeptical Search Engine Updated
Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2010 I’ve significantly expanded the search domain (or is that range?) of the Evolution … not just a theory anymore Skeptical Search Engine. Click here to give it a try. Look up stuff like “ghost” and “vaccine” and “fluoride” and see what you get. Let me know if you think I’m missing any important sites.
Fear, Loathing and Sleep: Skeptically Speaking
Posted by Greg Laden on July 25, 2010 Did you know that it is a fallacy that poor people have more babies than other people? I’ll be discussing this topic next Friday at 6PM Mountain Time on Skeptically Speaking Talk Radio, with Desiree Schell, in the next installment of “Everything You Know is Sort of Wrong” (This is part of the Falsehoods discussion.)…
Are you are real skeptic, or are you just faithing it?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 30, 2010 And by faithing it, I mean using faith rather than critical analysis of the available information to make important decisions about what to regard as valid.
What to do with those pesky religious skeptics
Posted by Greg Laden on June 26, 2010 In which I provide my two cents regarding the current discussion between PZ Myers, Pamela Gay, and others.
Everything you know is sort of wrong
Posted by Greg Laden on May 28, 2010 Today is the big day! And not merely because it is TGIF* day.
Do humans and other mammals absorb ANY oxygen through the skin surface?
Posted by Greg Laden on May 17, 2010 This may not seem like a very important question to you. And you’d be right.
What if “Boob Quake” had been …
Posted by Greg Laden on May 3, 2010 “Dick Shake”
Boobquake: Valid science communication event or just a bunch of boobs … quaking?
Posted by Greg Laden on May 3, 2010 This is a somewhat stream of consciousness response to an interview of Michael McRae by Tokenskeptic followed by an interview with Desiree Schell of Skeptically Speaking. Please go listen to the podcast, it is quite good.
If you don’t understand that there is message in the medium, then you may not be helping
Posted by Greg Laden on April 25, 2010 Notice that I didn’t say that the medium IS the message. Just that some of the message is in there. In the medium. I am forever amazed at how easily compelled my fellow skeptics, and/or my fellow atheists, and/or my fellow feminists, and/or my fellow anti-racists are to tell each other that they are doing…
Reminder: Skepchicon in Minneapolis in July
Posted by Greg Laden on April 21, 2010 The venue, Minneapolis, is well chosen as it is very hard to get an earthquake going on this nice stable bit of crust. I know it is a bit early, but I’ll remind you of this now and then … as you are making your plans for the summer, consider attending the Skepchicon track at…
Maybe the Skepchicks should just call themselves the Sexchicks!?
Posted by Greg Laden on January 23, 2010 They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In a recent post, I relied on this principle but I think it did not work for a lot of readers. So I want to try this again but using additional words to augment the pictures. This is about the sex-appeal of the skepchicks.
Are the Skepchicks too sexy? (UPDATED)
Posted by Greg Laden on January 22, 2010 I recently posted an appeal to support the upcoming skeptical track at the Minneapolis CONvergence organized by The Skepchicks, a group of hip female skeptical activists and some guys. The first comment on that post was a stern admonition that one might not want to support “understanding of science and scepticism” by donating to this…
James Randi and Global Warming
Posted by Greg Laden on December 16, 2009 Yesterday, James Randi put up a blog post in which he questioned the validity of anthropogenic global warming. He has subsequently made the statement that he probably has more thinking to do about global warming, and he admits that he really knows nothing about it. So Randi’s blog post is, essentially, a non-starter as an…
Empowering the individual does not equal ensmartening the individual
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2009 Imagine the following scenario. Two guys are walking down the street, in different cities. Guy A has two PhDs, one in quantum physics with a focus on dimensionality dynamics, the other in astrophysics with a focus on relativistic aspects of gravity and black holes. She has published dozens of peer reviewed papers on both topics…
Are you a real skeptic? I doubt it.
Posted by Greg Laden on December 10, 2009 I mean, you might be, but I’m certainly not going to take your word for it….
Let’s get a few things straight this morning.
Posted by Greg Laden on November 6, 2009 First off, Major Hasan, the Fort Hood Shooter is not dead. He’s in custody, wounded. Interesting how he was dead for much of the day yesterday. You’d think they’d get that straight.
The podcast is available.
Posted by Greg Laden on October 19, 2009 In case you are interested, the conversation with Desiree Schell, Omar Mouallem, and me talking about “Getting Noticed” on Skeptically Speaking is in podcast form. Here.
Don’t forget to tune in tonight!
Posted by Greg Laden on October 16, 2009 Omar Mouallem, Desiree Schell and Greg Laden (that’s me) had a very interesting conversation Wednesday night about how skepticism gets noticed. Through comedy, music, blogging, scientific studies, and other outlets, how do we bring people on board? We decided blogging was irrelevant but that music was cool, we came down divided on what some call…
Why are women (slightly more) religious?
Posted by Greg Laden on September 24, 2009 Are women more likely to be stupid/gullible? That seems to be the assumption that the ungenerous of us might make when considering the 7% gap between men and women when it comes to religious affiliation…. … that was discussed recently in an ARIS poll. Earlier, I had pointed to Stephanie Zvan’s comments on this, and…
Gender Difference in Skepticism?
Posted by Greg Laden on September 23, 2009 Are women less skeptical than men? Follow that link to find Stephanie Zvan’s analysis of the recently reported study that is making its way around the Internet. Stephanie seems to buy into the study uncritically, you know, like chicks tend to do …… NOT!
, which is now available for the 
