Critical Thinking

Paranormal Investigator Joe Nickell Reveals the Truth Behind Modern Cryptozoological Myths

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IO9 has a great interview with, Paranormal investigator and cryptozoologist , Joe Nickell (picture here is mine, not theirs). Please do not allow words such as, Paranormal investigator,  fool you, for while indeed many practitioners of woo claim such titles, Joe is 100% solid skeptic. When I saw him myself a few weeks ago, he explained that he once worked for a well-known detective agency, but since he is not permitted to utilize their name for publicity purposes, lets just say that their name starts with ‘P’ and they went after Jessy James. The point is this, he now applies the rigor you would use  at a crime scene to paranormal and monster claims. In other words he is on a quest for the truth, and is not after evidence to prove his specific beliefs.

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Argument From Authority – Baroness Greenfield on Autism

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She is at it again, making silly pronouncements, this time it is Autism. Least you missed it, in New Scientist, she has been casually linking internet use with autism. (So no not vaccines, just using the Internet). Now, since this is Baroness Greenfield, CBE,  scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords, specializes in the physiology of the brain, and has worked to research and bring attention to Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease – we can just take her word for it … right?

Exactly, the old “I’m a doctor just trust me” line simply does not cut it when it comes to claims like this. So what do you need? How about some actual “Evidence”.

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Antioxidants – The Evidence is: they don’t work

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When it comes to  antioxidant supplements I’ve been as guilty as most and have indeed in the past purchased and popped a few of these with the thought in the back of my mind that I was being health. Alas, I was simply fooling myself, the weight of evidence now available suggests that the antioxidant supplements on sale today either do nothing or might even cause harm to your long term health.

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Debt and the downgrade – some claim it is all Obama’s fault

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I’m reading a story in the UK’s Telegraph, that claims, “America’s debt downgrade is a damning indictment of President Obama’s Big Government disaster“.

According to this Torygraph story, it is all Obama’s fault; it is “a massive blow to the credibility of the Obama administration, and a damning indictment of its handling of the economy“, and has all been caused by an “unprecedented increase in government spending and borrowing“.

This is such a silly factually incorrect claim to make; is the author of this article, Nile Gardiner, really that moronically stupid? Well, I note that he appears frequently on Fox News, so I can only conclude that the answer to that is “Yes”.

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Why do facts get distorted?

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Understanding the dynamics and pressures can often help you to appreciate why you cannot trust statistical “facts” you find quoted in the papers.

As an example, consider the latest weather story about the appalling drought and heatwave that has engulfed the southern states of the US. Apparently it is the worst on record …

  • here claims that “Today and Friday are expected to be hotter than any time since 1950”
  • here claims “the worst in Texas history”

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Nice quote from PZ at TAM9 during panel discussion

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While at TAM9 in Vegas a couple of weeks ago, one of the many panels I listened to was one in which they discussed  “communicating skepticism”. It included Phil Plait, Eugenie Scott, Jamy Ian Swiss, Sadie Crabtree, Carol Tavris, and of course PZ Myers. During this PZ came out with what I believe is a … Read more

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