Australian Skeptics
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The power of coincidence
In pseudoscience there are no coincidences. If two apparently unrelated things happen together, there must be a connection. Skeptics like to point out that coincidences happen all the time but people only remember some of them, and most of them mean...
Tue, February 2, 2010, 11:22 am EST -
Devastation in Haiti
The human tragedy following the earthquake in Haiti is almost unimaginable for those who aren't there and have never experienced a disaster like this.People around the world have been quick to offer money and other forms of aid, and it has been the top...
Tue, January 19, 2010, 11:31 am EST -
'Psychic' predictions for 2010
Like any good psychic, I have some predictions for the coming year. One of my predictions is that my predictions will be at least as accurate as those done by professional psychics in widely-circulated magazines.1. There will be talk of romance in the...
Wed, January 6, 2010, 12:50 pm EST -
A very profitable 'trick'
On July 31, 1665, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary about how an acquaintance had witnessed an unexplainable event. Four young girls had lifted a boy above their heads using only one finger each. A version of this trick was later used by spiritualists...
Wed, December 23, 2009, 12:06 pm EST -
Limited only by the laws of physics
A handful of people alive today were born before Felix Hoffmann invented aspirin, so almost the entire history of modern medicine has happened in their lifetimes. My parents were born before the discovery of penicillin and before anything was known...
Tue, December 8, 2009, 11:18 am EST -
150 years since the death of creationism
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species", arguably the most important book about science published in the last two centuries (or perhaps forever).By providing an explanation of how the...
Tue, November 24, 2009, 10:29 am EST -
Multiple Chemical Stupidity?
Almost as an article of faith, pseudomedicine supporters and believers reject the idea of psychological illness. Everything must have an external cause, which can be treated by appropriate magic. Nothing can come purely from within a person. This...
Tue, November 10, 2009, 2:38 pm EST -
The outer limits of woowoo
This week I want to look at some examples of alternative medicine that are out there on the fringe of the fringe.The first is Horse Iridology. I have spent a lot of time around racehorses. They are delicate animals, so delicate in fact that the merest...
Tue, October 27, 2009, 12:02 pm EST -
The real truth about vaccinations
I want you to imagine a medical product which can save and has saved many millions of lives, the majority of them children. Imagine that the procedure is safe (not 100%, absolutely safe, of course, because nothing is that) and has been used literally...
Tue, October 27, 2009, 11:58 am EST -
Can atheism be called a dangerous idea?
Christopher Hitchens will be speaking at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney next weekend - his topic is "Religion Poisons Everything", and, yes, I will be there to hear what he has to say.One question I have, though, is whether...
Tue, October 27, 2009, 11:57 am EST -
The 9/11 conspiracies
Every September there is a surge in nonsense about the events in the USA on September 11, 2001. This year was no exception and the mad conspiracists of the 911 Truth Movement were out in force. Even outside September a new theory about the events in New...
Tue, October 27, 2009, 11:57 am EST -
Homeopathy: How can it be sold?
If someone pointed a gun at you and demanded that you give them money, you could go to the police and have the thief charged with a criminal offence.If someone claimed that they could prevent or treat a life-threatening disease and charged you $200 per...
Tue, October 27, 2009, 11:56 am EST -
An introduction to scepticism
A good place to start this blog conversation would be to identify what it means to be called a "skeptic". Perhaps the best way to start would be to say what a skeptic is not.The first thing that many people assume is that scepticism is...
Tue, October 27, 2009, 11:55 am EST
