By The Quixotic Man, on October 14, 2010, at 7:03 am  Author’s note: This topic is perhaps a month old. I just heard about it today, so my feeling was “to hell with it, I want to write about it anyway.” Enjoy.
There are a couple skeptical/atheist sites that I like out there who recently commented on Pastor Terry Jones (that charming Florida preacher who wanted to burn copies of the Koran on 9-11) and his supposed plan to burn copies of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. Though most people I saw discussing Jones’ plan had the right attitude about it (who cares?), there were a few who wanted to take some kind of retribution. Although I’m glad most people had their heads on right about the issue, there is one little problem to still be contended with: Pastor Terry Jones never said he was going to burn The God Delusion. Oops. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on September 20, 2010, at 7:03 am I recently wrote a short radio-play for a friend’s revisionist history ten-minute radio-play series. If you’d like to get a sneak peak at it before we record them for podcasts, there will be a live performance of them on October 6th at “The Red Room” on 85 E 4th Street at 7:30. Here’s a sneak peak at a scene from my play.
INT. PRESS CONFERENCE — DAY
SFX
Cameras flashing … continue reading this entry.
By Page, on September 10, 2010, at 7:03 am  Today New York prosecutors unveiled charges of wire fraud conspiracy against several men linked to swindling $2 million from people in a “Princess Diana Lottery” email scam. If convicted, these men could face up to 30 years in prison each.
This story is so new there are relatively few media sources reporting on it, but this will definitely be a trail to keep an eye on. On the one hand I am thrilled that these types of people who are ruthlessly taking advantage of people’s trust, are being brought to justice. On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder about the circumstances surrounding the victims that allowed them to get taken in by such a transparent (to me) ploys. Whether it is gullibility, desperation, or a lack of critical thinking skills, it seems like there could be some preventative medicine that the skeptical community might provide. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on August 23, 2010, at 7:03 am  "Which is the best citrus fruit? Some Americans said 'oranges' but others said 'apples.' Tonight, at eleven." This whole Islamic Center near the World Trade Center site thing has just gotten ridiculous. Actually, let’s revise that. This whole Islamic Center near the World Trade Center site thing started OUT ridiculous and has just gotten absurd. News sources all over the world, from LA to NY, from the Christian Science Monitor to CNN, just about every news source has gotten the story wrong. Either they’ve pussy-footed around the issue, presenting the stories of those still grieving in order to bolster their non-argument with emotional pleading, or they’ve just presented insanity. The fact of the matter is this: the Islamic religion as a whole was not responsible for the events of September 11th and acting as though a building for the study of one of the world’s largest religions should be a hot-button issue in any way is just ludicrous. And I’m not saying people don’t have a right to their emotions or something, I’m saying we shouldn’t let blind fear and hatred overwhelm our common sense. It’s about realizing that sometimes, two points of view do not carry the same weight. Just because someone out there believes something, that does not automatically make it a valid point of view, and the only group out there in the mainstream media that understands that is Comedy Central. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on August 16, 2010, at 7:03 am  Fun fact! Richard Nixon started referring to news sources as "The Media" because "The Press" sounded too trustworthy! Also, he apparently didn't like jews... The skeptical mindset seems to have two principle tasks it must perform on just about any issue. The first is to not take the information presented at face value. The second is to determine whether or not the source of the information is reliable.
There are various questions that have to be asked when vetting a source. Does the source have a bias? Does the source have an agenda? Does the source have reliable access to the information they are presenting? Is the source capable of presenting the information in an accurate way? By answering these questions, we can start to see whether or not we can (generally) trust the information coming in from a source.
The first two questions may appear to be similar, and they are. They are not, however, the same. … continue reading this entry.
By Page, on August 6, 2010, at 7:03 am  In the grand tradition that Americans have adopted in using “–gate” as a suffix on anything controversial, ScienceBlogs brought us “Pepsigate” last month. This issue is resolved at this point, or maybe just dead in the water, but I think there are lessons that the skeptical community might take from this.
To summarize what Pepsigate is: ScienceBlogs is a commune of scientists and various scientist-like experts who blog. It was created by the shiny popular science magazine Seed who saw that in the blog boom there was also a growing market of science blogs as well as a growing readership for that type of material. Seed gathered together many of the more successful nascent science bloggers, talked a few people into starting up a blog with them, and Voila! created a one-stop shopping site for personal opinions about science and academia and whatever, delivered in a conversational manner by experts. Instant cache. As Seed is a for-profit magazine, they also created advertising opportunities on the site, and it has been a successful branch of their company for several years. Then last month, ScienceBlogs had a new arrival: Food Frontiers, a blog whose focus would be “on innovations in science, nutrition and health policy.” But before you click that link and are confused by the result, trouble arose when readers and bloggers at ScienceBlogs read the fine print: … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on July 26, 2010, at 7:03 am  Would you look at this man and say he ISN'T monkey-like? I don’t know why, in spite of almost all evidence to the contrary, I continue to expect an educated press. I read an article this morning in USA Today highlighting an evangelical woman who’s recently published a book about her transformation from creationist to defender of evolution.
The majority of the article, written by Bob Smietana of the Nashville Tennessean, isn’t bad. The woman in question, Rachel Held Evans, is from Dayton, TN, home of the Scopes Monkey Trial. Her message is that one does not have to decide they believe their religion or science, and that she can love her deity while accepting that the world is older than 6000 years. Great. I’m always happy to have religious people accept science, because I’m of the opinion that it’s a more helpful way to examine the world and that the lens of scientific naturalism is the best one for understanding the world around us.
Where Smietana pisses me off is around the middle of his article where he drops this whopper.
Instead of choosing sides, some prefer the middle ground of intelligent design, which claims God designed how life evolved. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on July 15, 2010, at 7:03 am  "So this will help my crippling wallet problems? Believe it or not, a study has shown that acupuncture doesn’t help a woman get pregnant through in-vitro fertilization (IVF). I was shocked to. I was certain that, even if there was no prior plausibility for acupuncture working, since it’s based on a human life-force energy called “Qi” which has never been measured, or even defined, still there MUST be something to acupuncture, since it’s been used for thousands of years in China. I’m horribly shocked. If you could hear my voice, you’d hear just how shocked I am right now. … continue reading this entry.
By Michael Rosch, on July 6, 2010, at 7:03 am  There’s a reason I’ve been absent from the Gotham Skeptic for the last week or so and that’s because I’ve been busy finishing up a certificate program in Paralegal Studies. Although I’m still currently working in television at the moment, I am now officially a Certified Paralegal.
Technically, one doesn’t require certification to become a paralegal but it’s hugely beneficial to have a document proving some solid legal education from an American Bar Association-approved curriculum. Several times here over the past few months, I’ve tried to apply some of the legal knowledge I’d acquired to expose a few misuses of the law by pseudo-scientists, quacks, cranks, and all manner of denialists. … continue reading this entry.
By Page, on July 2, 2010, at 7:03 am  (From citypages.com) This week ABC aired an episode of a new documentary news show they call Mind Games detailing motivational speaker James Ray’s rise to fame and fall from glory. James Ray, you will remember, is the self proclaimed guru that has pled not guilty to three counts of manslaughter after the deaths of several of his followers during a sweat lodge ceremony last year. Given that this guy’s psychological manipulation, exorbitant fees and questionable philosophy has led to the death those who trusted him, ABC had no option but to report on this story in a purely skeptical way. While interviewing some of Ray’s devotees who participated in that fateful “Spirit Warrior” program, the ABC reporter frequently asked, “But didn’t you think that was crazy?” … continue reading this entry.
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Author’s note: This topic is perhaps a month old. I just heard about it today, so my feeling was “to hell with it, I want to write about it anyway.” Enjoy.