Skeptic: Extraordinary Claims, Revolutionary Ideas, and the Promotion of Science

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2008 January–June

January 8th: The Mind of the Market: Michael Shermer announces his new website (www.MichaelShermer.com), his new book, The Mind of the Market, and his touring schedule for the book.
January 16th: Science versus Religion: Steve Fuller Responds to Norman Levitt’s review of his book entitled Science vs. Religion?: Intelligent Design and the Problem of Evolution.
January 23rd: Markets, Monkeys & Medicine: Michael Shermer explains Why People Believe Weird Things About Money in an LA Times op-ed; Norman Levitt responds to Steve Fuller’s response to Norman Levitt’s review of Science vs. Religion?: Intelligent Design and the Problem of Evolution; and Skeptic magazine’s resident medical expert, Dr. Harriet Hall starts blogging.
January 30th: What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Michael Shermer answers the Annual Edge.org Question “What Have You Changed Your Mind About?”.
February 6th: The Myth of the Mozart Effect: Will Dowd takes a look at what science really says about The Mozart Effect.
February 13th: How Broadcast Journalism is Flawed: Steve Salerno discusses the fundamental flaws of broadcast journalism as a tool for informing viewers.
February 20th: Ultrasound Screening, Fish Oil & Ear Candles: Harriet Hall, M.D. applies her usual skeptical lens to ultrasound screening, fish oil, and ear candles. Surprisingly there is something positive to be found in one of the subjects that may actually be good for you.
February 27th: Consciousness is Nothing but a Word: We present Henry D. Schlinger’s revised version of an invited talk presented at our annual conference, “Brain, Mind and Consciousness,” at Caltech in May 2005. This article is also available in Skeptic magazine Volume 13, Number 4.
March 5th: A Leap Beyond Faith: We present Michael Shermer’s Los Angeles Times opinion editorial on Scientology, followed by several Letters to the Editor that ran in response. And then, we present, in part, Jean E. Rosenfeld’s Los Angeles Times op-ed rebuttal to Michael’s piece.
March 12th: The Hydrogen Economy: Alice Friedemann examines the science and pseudoscience behind a hydrogen economy. Is it worth the energy?
March 19th: Snake Oil Science: Harriet Hall, M.D, a.k.a. “the SkepDoc”, reviews R. Barker Bausell’s book entitled Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
March 27th: Faith Healing: Michael Shermer reviews Pope Brock’s Charlatan. America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam.
April 2nd: The Doping Dilemma: Michael Shermer presents extensive research on doping in sports and discusses how game theory helps to explain the pervasive abuse of drugs in cycling, baseball and other sports.
April 17th: Expelled Exposed, Part 1: We present the first two of four articles debunking claims made in Ben Stein’s new documentary film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The first article is by Michael Shermer and the second article is by Ed Brayton.
April 23rd: Expelled Exposed, Part 2: We present the third and fourth of four articles debunking claims made in Ben Stein’s new documentary film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The first article is by Carrie Sager and Andrea Bottaro. The second article is by Lauri Lebo.
April 30th: new issue of Skeptic magazine: The Skeptic Society announces the new issue of Skeptic magazine, Volume 14, Number 1 on Global Warming.
May 7th: How We Know Global Warming is Real: We present two free articles from the current issue of Skeptic magazine on global warming: Patrick Frank’s A Climate of Belief and the other by Tapio Schneider’s How We Know Global Warming is Real.