Category Archive: Skepticism

Mar 27 2013

The mystery of the frozen pond

Mysterious pond circles appeared in an upstate New York pond.

Strange circular markings have appeared in a fozen pond in upstate New York. There are a couple of posisble explanations:

Mar 05 2013

Our precious bodily fluids

  We are made of lots of water. It’s sobering to think if we run just a quart or two low, madness, misery and eventually death awaits. I was reminded of this in gruesome detail starting Saturday. It was either a stomach bug masquerading as a migraine or vice-versa. By Sunday evening I was severely …

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Dec 20 2012

Michigan schools closing early to treasure end times

Just get used to R. E. M.’s hit song because it’s going to be ubiquitous and at least it doesn’t suck. The header is a little inflammatory, but not that much. School spokes people have said doomsday is a factor in letting students go home a day or two early for the winter break:

Nov 27 2012

Bigfoot DNA sequenced …

I hope the ellipsis conveys my skepticism adequately. If it doesn’t, my apologies. The article this came from features a scientist, errr of sorts, making that claim. Normally, I wouldn’t give it the time of day. But it’s instructive. It sounds almost serious at first, even to a quasi-informed science writer like me who knows just enough molecular bio …

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Sep 27 2012

Trepanning is good for you!

Crane-trepanation

Over the course of the week I was hit with several emails informing me of the mystical benefits of bleeding. I even started joking with my friends that all it might take is a touch of new age nonsense combined with ancient medicine and old men wearing robes, and there would be people who would …

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Sep 25 2012

Mittens thinks cold fusion is solved?

If we take this comment from Romney literally, he thinks not only is cold fusion a done deal, but U of U solved it:

Sep 21 2012

What if vaxxers had their own noise machine?

Imagine if anti-vaccination nuts had their own news network and associated media enablers. Well, No More Mr Nice Blog went there. I think he nailed it:

Aug 16 2012

Mars fakery in full swing

mars_fake_doublesunset

Michael Shermer once noted in the book Why People Believe Weird Things that science is not always kryptonite to pseudoscience, rather pseudoscience raises and falls in tandem with the real stuff. So it is with Mars fakery. The better images and data we get the more the alien conspiracy buffs and NASA cover-uppers come out of the wood …

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Jul 04 2012

Word is, no mermaids

John_Reinhard_Weguelin_%E2%80%93_Mermaid_%281911%29

While most of the nation was celebrating this week, NOAA released an official statement: there is no evidence for living aquatic humanoids:

:)