Skeptic: Promoting Science and Critical Thinking

2010 January–June

March 10th: Is Baked Alaska Half-Baked?

Massimo Pigliucci examines the alleged parallels that religious scholar, Huston Smith, draws between science and religion.

March 3rd: Is Baked Alaska Half-Baked?

David Naiditch looks at why Alaska’s High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is such an attractive target for conspiracy theorists.

February 24th: The Mythbusters of Psychology

Dr Harriet Hall, MD, (aka the Skepdoc) reviews 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio, and Barry L. Beyerstein.

February 17th: Superfreakonomics

P.J. Rooks reviews SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

February 10th: Animal Prognosticators

William D. Stansfield asks whether groundhogs and swallows are really able to predict the arrival of spring as accurately as reported in the popular press. Stansfield is Emeritus Professor in the Biological Sciences Department at the California Polytechnic State University.

February 3rd: Why Do Women Have Sex? Here’s Why.

Victoria Bekiempis reviews Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivations from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between) by Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss.

January 27th: The View from Nowhere or Somewhere?

Maia Caron reviews 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein.

January 20th: Announcing the New Season of Caltech Lectures

Mark your calendar! The Skeptics Society is pleased to announce its new season of the Skeptics Distinguished Lecture Series at Caltech with lectures by: Rebecca Goldstein, Jared Diamond, Deepak Chopra, Sam Harris, Jean Houston, Leonard Mlodinow, David Goodstein, Roger Farmer, Mark Moffett and John Long.

January 13th: Legends of the Dogon: Mystery Resurfaces

Could a remote African people have gained esoteric knowledge about the sky without having telescopes? Were aliens, lost technology or something else entirely involved? In this week’s eSkeptic, Liam McDaid examines these claims.

January 6th: Pseudoscience in Consumer Audio Engineering

Ethan Winer (an audio engineer, musician, and skeptic), reveals that the worlds of audio engineering and consumer electronics are filled with pseudoscience.