Beware the Cup and Ball scam

cup and ball scam

Yet again the BBC has been publishing a warning to anybody who will listen about the Cup and Ball scam. It looks like a harmless bit of fun. Some guy has 3 cups on the ground and all you need to do is to bet on which one the ball is under after he has … Read more

Is Stiglers Law really true?

stiglers law

On this week’s episode of the “Skeptics Guide to the Universe” (Episode 730), they did a “Science or Fiction” quiz that was based upon Stiglers law. What is Stiglers law? University of Chicago statistics professor Stephen Stigler wrote a 1980 publication titled “Stigler’s law of eponymy“. Within this he states that no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. No … Read more

Priming: Hearing things that are not really there – Yanni or Laurel

Yanni or Laurel

I’m building up to an explanation for the “Yanni or Laurel” audio illusion. First, let’s talk about audio illusions in general. Pictured above is Ben Langley on Britains Got Talent last weekend. His act consisted of playing various very well-known songs, but he primed you to hear something distinctly different by holding up a series … Read more

John Oliver and #MarlonBundo goes viral

Marlon Bundo

So the story here is that Mike Pence, the vocally anti gay rights VP, is backing a children’s story written by his daughter about his pet rabbit Marlon Bundo. John Oliver’s team wrote and published a similar book with a similar look and feel, but in their case Marlon Bundo is a gay rabbit. Proceeds from … Read more

COSMOS

COSMOS

The news is out. It has been officially announced that COSMOS has a second season … Neil deGrasse Tyson is officially returning to the Cosmos. Seth MacFarlane, who co-produced 2014’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, teased over Reddit in September to “stay tuned” for a potential second season of the documentary series. “I can’t give a … Read more