pseudo-science

Not from me, but from Daniel Loxton of Skepticblog, who has been doing some thinking about what skeptics can learn from James Randi's missteps on climate science. His advice is bound to rankle the feathers of those who are innately distrustful of everyone and everything associated with "conventional wisdom," "expert consensus," or "recognized experts." But for the those who fancy themselves dragon-slayers of pseudoscience, it serves as a valuable reality check. To begin, Loxton reminds us that "If we're serious about our science-based epistemology, we must be prepared to consistently defer to…

The good news from the Bay of Fundy is that the world's largest tides may soon be generating electricity. The bad news is there's at least one Globe and Mail copy editor who doesn't know the difference between waves and tides. But that's not the most amusing news from the region. For that, we turn to Kings County, where the local authorities have decided to deny approval to install a WiFi tower because a garlic farmer is worried about the damage it will do to his crops. According to the CBC: Lenny Levine, who has been planting and harvesting garlic by hand on his Annapolis Valley land since…

For at least as long as I've been paying attention, Roger Pielke Sr. hasn't been all that popular among those are doing their best to convince the world to take the threat of climate change seriously. He's a genuine, and until recently, reputable scientist at a genuine and reputable institution of higher learning, Colorado State University. His hard-line skepticism has at times proven useful when it comes to keeping the rest of the climatology community on its toes. He accepts that humans are contributing to climate change, but is concerned that the general focus on carbon dioxide as the…

Which of these recent developments raises your eyebrows the highest? Russia is planning a fleet of floating and submersible nuclear power stations to exploit Arctic oil and gas reserves, causing widespread alarm among environmentalists. (The Guardian, May 3, 2009) Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska has decided to accept all federal stimulus money her state is eligible for, with one exception: the nearly $29 million for the state energy office. Ms. Palin has rejected the state energy office funds out of concern that it would obligate Alaska to enact more stringent building codes. "Alaska's vast…

Well, how do you explain it? Some strange lights observed at the time of the incident have been explained. But the physical damage remains an X-file.

Time magazine takes aim at yoga. And a lot of people ain't going to like what reporter Pamela Paul concludes: The truth is, yoga, regardless of the form, doesn't offer a comprehensive way to get fit. According to a study by the American Council on Exercise, a national nonprofit organization that certifies fitness instructors and promotes physical fitness, dedicated yoga practitioners show no improvement in cardiovascular health. It's not the best way to lose weight either. A typical 50-min. class of hatha yoga, one of the most popular styles of yoga in the U.S., burns off fewer calories than…

So Leonardo DiCaprio is picking up where Al Gore left off in the battle to keep Earth habitable. Is this a good thing? Set aside, for the purposes of this discussion, any misgivings you might have about DiCaprio's acting prowess or lack thereof. They guy has a certain ineffable quality that has propelled him to the top tiers of celebrity, and he has, to his credit, decided to spend some that charismatic capital on the climate change campaign. There are risks with embracing political and social movements, and not just to one's own career. Many would argue that one of the primary reason why…

A new study that shows people who say radio waves from cell phone towers are making them sick are exhibiting a purely pyschosomatic reaction won't be the last nail required to seal this particular coffin of pseudo-science. But as a double-blind randomized test of the alleged effect, it surely should. The British team, lead by Elaine Fox of the Department of Psychology at University of Essex, published "Does Short-Term Exposure to Mobile Phone Base Station Signals Increase Symptoms in Individuals who Report Sensitivity to Electromagnetic Fields? A Double-Blind Randomised Provocation Study"…

It's hard to believe that a dog can understand four languages, discuss the intricacies of Christian theology, and perform complex mathematical operations, including calculus and algebra, but it's even harder to believe that the editors of an until-now reputable newspaper would be so hard up for local news that they'd be able to find space for 1,500 words on the subject. But the Asheville Citizen-Times did just that. On the front page. I can't remember when they gave 1,500 words to anything. Never mind that the video accompanying the story gives away the trick -- the dog's clearly following…

From The Guardian's reliable and irreplaceable Ben Goldacre, who writes the "Bad Science" column, we learn the sad news that the ivory-tower types running University College London have no spines. Such a shame. It was such a good school. The offense? Asking one of their own to stop attacking alternative medicine. Prof. David Colquhoun, "one of the most eminent scientists in the UK" according to Goldacre, has been taking on the merchants of woo, whether they be posing as homeopathists, acupuncturists, or faith healers, for six years "in attempt to improve public understanding of science." The…

When CNN announces it has "what Loch Ness Monster watchers say is among the finest footage ever taken" it's hard not to bite. Never mind that what used to be the most famous photographic evidence turned out to be fake. Never mind that the very concept of megafauna surviving in a 24-square-mile lake without giving itself away long ago is absurd. But what a disappointment the video is. I've been to Loch Ness. It's a hauntingly beautiful place. The ruins of Urquart Castle that overlook its waters are a worthy visit. If tourism is your concern, there are more honest ways to draw visitors than…

I am so embarrassed to be a Canadian. A member of Canada's Parliament has given voice to an effort to add Bigfoot to the country's Species at Risk Act. Read it and weep: The debate over their (Bigfoot's) existence is moot in the circumstance of their tenuous hold on merely existing," reads a petition presented by Lake to parliament in March and due to be discussed next week. "Therefore, the petitioners request the House of Commons to establish immediate, comprehensive legislation to affect immediate protection of Bigfoot," says the petition signed by almost 500 of Lake's constituents in…

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and it was more that little appropriate that I might be reminded of that particular truism by a friend of mine who just happens to be a librarian. The lesson involves a variation on that most modern of phobias, the fear of radio waves, and it's a classic case of how paranoia can spring from a dilettante's familiarity with the science behind a technology. Just about everyone has heard about efforts to gauge the threat posed by cell-phone use. All that mysterious electromagnetic energy propagating through the ether -- and our brains -- what is it doing…

This past weekend in the New Age capital of the New South (Asheville, N.C.), members of the Appalachian chapter of the American Society of Dowsers were scheduled to hold a quarterly meeting. I know this because the alternative weekly in these parts, the Mountain X Press, decided to devote a few scarce column inches to the subject in its current edition. I have no idea how the meeting went or what goes on at such things, nor do I really care all that much. But I am a little curious as to what drives these "water witches" and adherents of other fields of non-expertise. According to the X Press…

After 28 years, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research institute is finally giving up the ghost, bringing an end to arguably the most respectable -- or the least embarrassing -- parapsychological research effort. Is this cause for celebration? I'm not sure, but I think Princeton is probably happy to see it go. Dr. Robert Jahn founded PEAR and ran it with private money as Princeton wasn't all that keen on the idea of spending its students and alumni's money on ESP, telekenesis and "the role of consciousness in the establishment of physical reality." According to the CBC, Jahn, a former…

"Fake Psychic Get's Girls." That's the subject line of my favorite piece of spam. Every now and then one slips by the email junk filters and I get a chuckle, and not just because of the punctuation error, either. So amused was I the first time I got this particular piece of spam that I actually clicked on the link: http://www.elohistic.com/fakepsychic. It takes you to a not particularly professional web page that attempts to sell you what I strongly suspect is a tutorial on cold reading -- that is, pretending to adduce facts about a total stranger's personal life through some kind of…

What with absurdly high levels of belief in astrology, sky fairies, homeopathy, and whatnot, it sometimes seems like the United States of America has the market cornered in superstitious nonsense. Far from it. The Chinese, for example, have their penchant for quack remedies concocted from rare species (the more endangered the better). Now we learn that the Japanese, not to be outdone by either of their geopolitical and economic rivals, appear to have recently acquired a bizarre belief in the power of blood types to determine one's destiny. Here's the essential bits of a story by the New York…

Anyone tried to watch the new USA Network series Psych? The one in which a sharp-eyed guy pretends to be psychic in order to get paid investigation gigs with the local police department? Well, don't bother. For one thing, the writers aren't having nearly as much fun making fun of psychics as they should. For another, it's already on hiatus until January. More importantly, however, the real Psych story is much more interesting. Down in Colombia, it as it happens: Colombia's chief prosecutor hired a psychic who hypnotized his staff and even performed an exorcism over a voodoo doll in exchange…

Today's time-waster while I wait for the first coat of sky blue to dry in what used to be the study is reader-baiting. The targets are citizens of the U.K. The subject is the paranormal. I ask you, what's with the enduring popularity of belief in ghosts, telepathy, and other such flaky beyond-belief stuff in Great Britain? To be fair, it's not as bad as creationism in America, not by a long shot. The British Isles are the birthplace of John Locke, David Hume and Bertrand Russell, after all, and the legacy of the Enlightenment continues to burn brightly in England, for most part. But still,…

Astrology is not usually at the top of my worry list. Sure, there are far too many gullible readers of daily horoscopes, and it did bother me a bit to learn Ronald Reagan was consulting an astrologer while sitting in the White House. The space those astrology columns waste in the newspapers could be put to better use, but most the time, it seems like harmless silliness. At best, one could argue that astrology represents a misguided, primitive form of scientific inquiry into the forces that govern the universe, and it is true that the first modern astronomers were also the last sincere…